From left: Sheriff Lee Baca, U.S. Attorney André Birotte via LASD.

The department says there have been 350 "illegal raves" featuring nitrous and advertised via social media in its jurisdiction since Sept, 1. About 30 percent of these parties ...

EDC ravers / Colin Young-Wolff

The L.A. promoter Insomniac argued that the paper's description of "deaths ... linked to Ecstasy or similar designer drugs ... tightly bound with raves" was part of a "mission to twist facts to suit their sensational story."

Extolling its EDM fans who "don't need drugs to have a wonderful, spiritual experience," Insomniac posted its response at ...

Timothy Norris

EDC ravers.

Most of the deceased were teenagers or twentysomethings attending events that often had the approval of local officials eager to see the economic benefits of thousands of concert-goers coming to town.

That according to the Los Angeles Times over the weekend, which came to some of the same conclusions LA Weekly did a couple years ago:

Timothy Norris for LA Weekly

Hard kids in L.A.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors yesterday voted 3-2 to approve four-times-a-year electronic concerts at San Manuel Amphitheater, which is in the Devore park.

The events will be put on by ...

Timothy Norris

EDC ravers.

The L.A. organizers of the annual Electric Daisy Carnival this week said the economic impact of their last event on the Las Vegas area was worth $207 million.

Why are they telling us this? Well, such parties were shut out of the L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena complex following the ecstasy-overdose death of a 15-year-old raver in 2010 and a subsequent scandal alleging side-payments at the public venues.

And so, the organizer wants to ...

Emily McCaughan / Facebook

The official cause of 22-year-old Emily McCaughan's death was "multiple blunt-force injuries," the office told the Weekly.

But other significant conditions included multiple drugs in her system, the office said:

Timothy Norris

HARD hipsters.

There were 105 arrests at the HARD Summer festival downtown over the weekend, officials told the Weekly. Authorities listed those as "arrests" but it would appear that most involved citations in which suspects were released on the spot.

The police stops included 9 for felonies, mostly involving possession of drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine, according to Patrick Deasy of the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control which, along with the CHP and the LAPD, patrolled the event.

One of the arrests included ...

Christopher Victorio

EDC Vegas 2012.

Death and destruction seem to follow Electric Daisy Carnival almost wherever it goes, through no fault of its own: L.A. organizers did a nice job of putting on America's biggest festival stage in Las Vegas last month.

And sometimes adversity makes us stronger and brings us life, sweet life -- right?

Like a spring flower sprouting from the Mojave, an EDC attendee is claiming that someone got her pregnant at the show in June and is responsible for her little bud:

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Christopher Victorio

The promoter of Electric Daisy Carnival, the controversial mega-rave that moved from L.A. to Las Vegas last year, has not been fully vetted by Sin City authorities as part of the event's business licensing, the Las Vegas Sun reported today.

Earlier this month the second-annual installment of the three-day party happened at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The promoter has a five-year deal in place to hold the event at that venue.

However, the Sun says a key aspect of the business license for the festival has never been completed:

ahorasilhouettes

But doctors at Los Angeles emergency rooms have told us that pure ecstasy can kill, including causing vital oxygen deprivation to organs. It's a hot topic: Two people who attended Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas earlier this month died after leaving the festival. At least one of them had taken ecstasy.

There have surely been more than 10 raver deaths in the last 5 years, and an EMT who worked raves at the L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena in recent years told us he knew of at least two other deaths that have gone unreported in the media. But here are 10 of the most high-profile losses since 2007, most of which were blamed on ecstasy:

@ParisHilton

Paris Hilton at EDC 2012

Since then, organizers have had to come to terms with with the behavior of ravers, including off-site deaths of EDC party-goers in Dallas.

This year's three-day EDC in Vegas (June 8-10) was massive -- about 100,000 people attended each day -- and successful. But once again a few party goers in town for the event died off-campus after apparently imbibing:

ahorasilhouettes

While many still debate the safety of MDMA, the jury is still out -- and there's plenty of anecdotal evidence, including deaths in Los Angeles, the rave capital of the nation, to promote caution.

Dr. Perry Kendall says that it's the adulterated ecstasy that's giving us the problems:

Sasha Rodriguez.

The 15-year-old girl whose family sued and settled with the L.A. Coliseum and the promoter of Electric Daisy Carnival after she died of an ecstasy overdose following her attendance of the rave actually snuck into the party and indeed took a "pill" willfully, LA Weekly has learned.

Those facts about Sasha Rodriguez, we were told, led to the settlement and softened the case for a $5 million suit against the parties following the controversial, 2010 event that drew more than 140,000 over two days and sparked a major scandal at the venue.

However:

Sasha Rodriguez / Facebook

See also:
Sasha Rodriguez, Late Teen Whose Family Sued Rave, Sneaked Into Electric Daisy Carnival.

The parents of Sasha Rodriguez, a 15-year-old girl who died of an ecstasy overdose after attending 2010's Electric Daisy Carnival rave at the L.A. Coliseum, have come to a settlement with the venue and the promoter after they filed suit alleging negligence.

A notice of the settlement was filed this week, but formal paperwork still has to be signed and submitted to court by the end of June, plaintiff's attorney Steven Archer told the Weekly.

The terms or possible cash amount were not revealed. Archer would only say that ...

Caesar Sebastian

Raver.

Last week we reported than an email described by the prosecution as a "smoking gun" had a questionable time stamp and arguably raised other issues with the criminal case against Insomniac Events' Pasquale Rotella and Go Ventures' Reza Gerami.

Now comes word that a judge has dismissed part of the Coliseum's civil suit against the pair:

Caesar Sebastian

One of those emails, which a main prosecutor told us is a "smoking gun," has a 1999 time stamp on it. But the case against the two only alleges improprieties since 2008.

What gives?

Colin Young-Wolff

Electric Daisy Carnival fans in Vegas.

Rave promoters at the publicly run L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena paid decreasing rents as they raked in millions in ticket revenues at their events, an audit released today by L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel states.

In one case the promoter of 2010's Love Festival paid no rent, and the controversial Electric Daisy Carnival in 2010 paid $20,000 rent and took in nearly $13 million in ticket sales, according to Greuel.

What she called the Coliseum's "lax oversight" also led to ...

Reza Gerami.

Some of the assets of Pasquale Rotella and Reza Gerami, rival promoters who held electronic dance music parties at the Coliseum and L.A. Sports Arena next door, were frozen after they were charged with embezzlement in a case that essentially accuses the duo of paying a Coliseum manager venue fees on the side.

Today a judge said that ...

Leah Lee / Insomniac

Rotella, right, with his criminal attorney.

In fact the potential sentence for Reza Gerami of Go Ventures is 15 years, 8 months, according to D.A.'s spokeswoman Jane Robison. Pasquale Rotella of Insomniac Events, which has received more focus because a 15-year-old died of an ecstasy overdose after attending one of his Coliseum events, could see 13 years, 8 months behind bars:

Caesar Sebastian

When you first heard about the indictments against a pair of rave promoters and some of the L.A. Coliseum's top managers, you probably thought, Woh, this is serious.

After all, words like conspiracy, embezzlement and bribery are heavy, not to mention the fact that the prosecution sought to freeze more than a million dollars worth of defendants' assets.

But it turns out that so-called white collar crime isn't has heavy as, say, having some drugs in your pocket: