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Swatting Celebrities Could Cost Pranksters $10,000 Under Proposed Law

Categories: Crime

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Sean John / Facebook
See also: SWATting, a Deadly Political Game.

Swatting has hit the homes of Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kutcher, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and others. And, while it probably is pretty funny to the braces-wearing little buttheads who dial 911 with app-enabled masked numbers to report that their favorite celeb is being kidnapped, it does end up costing taxpayers thousands of dollars for LAPD cops, Beverly Hills police and L.A. sheriff's deputies to swarm these mansions.

Torrance-based state Sen. Ted Lieu is proposing to put a stop to it all. And L.A. Councilman Paul Koretz has a similar anti-swatting rule headed for City Hall:

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Beverly Hills Burglars Sought Near Tom Cruise's Home

Categories: Crime

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Calle Vista via Google Maps
Beverly Hills cops nabbed a suspected burglar near Tom Cruise's home, but one or two others apparently got away, authorities said.

Police were called to the 1100 block of Calle Vista Drive about 5:10 last night after a neighbor saw alleged burglars "carrying duffle bags" at a nearby estate, according to a Beverly Hills Police Department statement:

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Alleged Northridge Kidnapper Tobias Summers Crossed Into Mexico; Search Is On There

Categories: Crime

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LAPD
Tobias Summers, the man wanted for the shocking abduction of a 10-year-old Northrdige girl, was seen crossing the border into Mexico, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told reporters today.

The search has focused on Mexico, authorities say, but so far Tobias remained elusive:


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LAPD Warns Real Estate Agents to Lock Up Vacant Homes in Wake of Northridge Abduction

Categories: Crime

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File photo by Eric Demarcq / L.A. Weekly Flickr pool
We know who the suspects are in the horrific abduction of a Northridge 10-year-old last week.

But one accomplice has gone unnamed: an empty home somewhere in the West Valley where atrocities against the girl allegedly occurred:

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Daniel Martinez Arrested In Abduction Of 10-Year-Old Northridge Girl

Categories: Crime

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Suspect Summers, via the LAPD, is still at-large.
One of two men alleged to have abducted a 10-year-old girl from her Northridge home was arrested over the weekend, cops announced.

The suspect wasn't the man named by police on Saturday, Tobias Dustin Summers, who cops say is still at-large.

Rather, the arrestee was ID'd as Daniel Martinez, 29:

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Tobias Dustin Summers Is Kidnapper of Northridge Girl, Remains At-Large, Cops Say

Categories: Crime

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Summers via LAPD.
A man cops say has a lengthy record, including allegations of kidnapping and robbery, was named today as the main suspect in the shocking abduction of a Northridge girl earlier this week.

Tobias Dustin Summers is a 30-year-old, 160-pound white man on the loose, police said. He is believed to have taken the 10-year-old from from her Northridge bedroom early Wednesday and then held her for 12 hours, during which she was attacked, cops said:

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Supercute Bulldog Pup Stolen From Home By SoCal DirecTV Installer, Cops Allege (PHOTOS)

Categories: Crime

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SBCS
Cops say a 38-year-old undocumented worker installing DirecTV systems took a $2,500 English bulldog puppy from a customer's home in Victorville.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department today announced the arrest of Eduardo Robles on suspicion of grand theft. He's also a felon who had previously been deported, deputies say:

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Bicyclist Sustains Major Injuries In Valley Village Hit-And-Run By Mercedes SUV

Categories: Crime

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Mikey Wally / LA Weekly Flickr pool

See also: Hit-and-Run Blowback on LAPD.

A series of hit-and-run crimes on bicyclists have L.A. bike activists fuming this spring. The community was buzzing about a near-death hit-and-run in Griffith Park last month. Now there's this:


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David Martinez Was Unarmed When Shot By LAPD In Echo Park, Family Says (VIDEO)

Categories: Crime

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File photo / LAPD
Relatives of an Echo Park man shot by cops last week say he was unarmed despite allegations by the LAPD that he appeared to have pointed a gun at officers pursuing him.

Family members plan to hold a vigil tomorrow for David Martinez, who is said to be on the edge of death at a hospital.

The confrontation was captured on video, but the suspect's actions are hard to decipher because the footage is dark:

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2 Sought In Abduction Of Northridge Girl; L.A. Parents Urged To Be Vigilant

Categories: Crime

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PVOG / Flickr
Cops were looking for two suspects in the shocking abduction of a Northridge 10-year-old early yesterday, a victim who was held for 12 hours and suffered "very traumatic ... indignities," LAPD Commander Andrew Smith told reporters in an afternoon news conference.

Smith seemed to downplay a report in the Los Angeles Times indicating that detectives were looking into a pair of brothers convicted of kidnapping their own children, one of whom was a relative of yesterday's female victim. The commander, however, ...

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Lotto Scam In San Fernando Valley Nets Thousands Of Dollars

Categories: Crime

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California Lottery / Facebook
What if someone came up to you and offered to split their winnings from a Lotto ticket?

All you'd have to do, in return, is cash it for them and put up money to show good faith that you're not going to run off with the whole thing. If it sounds like a scam, it is. But people are being taken right here in L.A:

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Peter Murphy Of Bauhaus Arrested For Alleged DUI, Meth Possession

Categories: Crime

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petermurphy.info
Updated at the bottom: He says he didn't do it. First posted at 7:01 a.m.

Peter Murphy, the "Godfather of Goth" and the vocalist for legendary group Bauhaus, was in jail this week after he was arrested based on an alleged felony in Glendale, according to L.A. County Sheriff's Department inmate data.

The musician, who was apparently set to launch "The Mr. Moonlight Tour Celebrating 35 Years of Bauhaus," allegedly rear-ended a vehicle in Glendale before being boxed in by a motorist and arrested on suspicion of causing injury while DUI, felony hit-and-run and possession of meth, reports the Glendale News-Press:

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John Farahi, Los Angeles KIRN-AM Radio Host, Sentenced to 10 Years for Ponzi Scheme

Categories: Crime

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MatM / Flickr
Los Angeles radio personality John Farahi won't be advising listeners on investment matters any time soon.

On Monday, Farahi, who hosted the popular financial talk show "Economy Today" on Persian-language KIRN-AM radio, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that targeted wealthy folks in L.A.'s Iranian-Jewish community.

United States District Judge Phillip S. Gutierrez sent Farahi to prison and ordered him to pay over $24 million in restitution to 59 victims. The Farahi scandal sent shockwaves through the Iranian-Jewish community.

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Panorama City Shootings, One Near Marijuana Shop, Rattle LAPD

Categories: Crime

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LAPD Communications / Facebook
Bad weekend for Panorama City.

Hours after cops announced the community's first homicide of 2013, another one was reported.

The first murder happened about 10:35 Saturday night, according to the LAPD. The yet-to-be identified victim was walking ...

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Gavin Smith's Disappearance Now A Homicide Case After His Mercedes Is Found

Categories: Crime

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Smith via LASD
Cops today say they found the Mercedes of missing Fox movie executive Gavin Smith. The discovery means that this is officially a homicide case, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department announced.

Smith, a 6 feet, 6 inch member of John Wooden's championship UCLA basketball team from 1975, worked at Fox for 18 years and was a film-distribution executive.

He went missing May 1 under strange circumstances:

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Beverly Hills Murder: Scott Barker Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Brutal Slaying

Categories: Crime

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masslive.com
Scott Barker
Read the L.A. Weekly story "Did Scott Barker Knife Rich Kid Tony Takazato to Save His Girlfriend From Prostitution?"

25-year-old Scott Barker will now die in prison.

That's what Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Elden Fox essentially told Barker on Monday when he sentenced the aspiring actor/screenwriter to life in prison without parole for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Tony Takazato in Beverly Hills' swanky Trousdale Estates area.

Takazato was the son of movie producer Fuminori Hayashida, who lived in Japan while Takazato was mostly raised by a housekeeper. The 21-year-old was part of a bizarre love triangle, with Barker convicted of stabbing Takazato 58 times with a steak knife and killing him.

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Richard Bradford, Murder Parolee, Ran Drug Rehab Center Endorsed By Mayor Villaraigosa

Categories: Crime

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Eaton Canyon Treatment Center
A murder convict on parole who's been off the radar since 1980 was arrested in Monrovia over the weekend, state officials announced today.

And what has Richard Bradford been up to? According to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), he's been running "a high-end drug rehabilitation center" that happens to boast of commendations from L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other city leaders.

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No More Jails Coalition Says New Women's Jail is Sheriff Lee Baca's Latest 'Boondoggle'

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Sheriff Lee Baca
The Los Angeles chapter of No More Jails Coalition is taking it to the streets today, telling L.A. County supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Gloria Molina, Don Knabe, and Mike Antonovich that the plan for embattled Sheriff Lee Baca to build a new women's jail is a crazy way to spend millions of tax dollars.

"We don't need these new jail cells, we don't want these new jail cells, we can't afford these new jail cells," says Mary Sutton of Critical Resistance, a member of the No More Jails coalition, in a press statement.

Sutton and other activists say the supervisors should instead spend money on programs such as drug treatment, housing, education, and job training. They're holding a mass protest in front of Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown today. But will the supervisors listen?

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Pez Abrahams: Valley Doctor Accused Of Sexual Attack On Patient

Categories: Crime

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Tom Hart / Flickr
A San Fernando Valley doctor was in scalding hot water today after state medical officials announced his arrest for allegedly sexually attacking a patient while he was performing work for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Pez Abrahams, whose family practice and plastic surgery office is listed in Winnekta, was arrested on suspicion of unlawful sexual penetration and sexual battery, the Medical Board of California stated today:

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Evan Ryan Baldwin Accused Of Breaking Into UCLA Student's Apartment For Rape

Categories: Crime

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Landfair Avenue via Google Maps
See also: Sexual Assault on UCLA Campus: Third One This School Year.

The latest in a string of sexual assaults on or near the UCLA campus in recent years was a case of a young man who broke into a student's apartment and attacked her, prosecutors said this week.

Evan Ryan Baldwin, 22, pleaded not guilty this week to assault with intent to commit rape, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's office.

He was being held in lieu of $1 million bail and ...


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