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From LA Times

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Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang

Hundreds of police officers and federal law enforcement agents launched a major assault on the Avenues gang this morning, hoping to deal a blow to an elusive group they say is responsible for some of Los Angeles' most notorious street crime.

Under the cover of darkness around 3 a.m., roughly 1,200 heavily armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies dispersed from a command post near the LAPD's training academy in Elysian Park.

Warrants in hand, they descended on dozens of homes in search of 53 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang wanted on an array of federal charges related to extensive drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.

With 43 suspects already in custody on unrelated charges, the operation aimed to bring new charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members. 

Some suspects were sought elsewhere in the city, but the sweep focused on Glassell Park and other neighborhoods in the northeastern reaches of Los Angeles -- the center of Avenues territory since the gang first surfaced in the 1950s.

There were no reports of officers encountering armed resistance. San Bernardino sheriff's officers shot two aggressive dogs they encountered at one location.

It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects had been found at their homes and taken into custody. The names of the suspects and the crimes they were accused of also were not immediately known, pending the unsealing of the indictments.

The arrests culminated a yearlong investigation of the gang run by a unit of LAPD detectives who specialize in gang-related homicides and a DEA task force.

The Avenues came under scrutiny in the wake of the August 2008 slaying of Juan Abel Escalante, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy. Escalante, 27, was gunned down outside of his parents' Cypress Park home early in the morning as he headed to work as a guard at the Men's Central Jail.

LAPD detectives led the murder investigation into the killing because it occurred within city boundaries. Within days of the shooting, agents from the DEA task force, which had previously investigated the Avenues, came to the LAPD with information they had gathered that indicated members from the gang may have been responsible.

That tip led to the arrest in December of two Avenues members in connection with the murder. Months later a third member was taken into custody and charges were brought against a fourth, who remains a fugitive. In the course of investigating the Escalante killing, however, the LAPD detectives and DEA agents delved into the inner workings of the Avenues and began compiling evidence related to a host of other alleged crimes.

Some of the information was collected during interrogations of Avenues members and others from the neighborhood who had been arrested by a specially-formed team of 54 uniformed gang officers deployed in the area. Much of the incriminating information, however, came from the suspects themselves as DEA agents secured approval from federal judges for an array of wire taps that allowed them to listen in on gang members' phone conversations.

“They could have just stuck with Escalante,” said LAPD Capt. Kevin McClure, who oversees the detective unit. “They could have said, ‘We got what we came for,' packed it up and moved on to something that would have been easier. This operation was not a result of me telling them they have to do this. It is a result of this unit saying, ‘There is more here, let's keep going.' ”

Over the course of the investigation, cases were built against Avenues members for their alleged roles in six other unsolved murders and four attempted murders, said a top LAPD gang detective involved in the operation who requested that his name not be used because of concerns over retaliation by Avenues members.

The bulk of the charges are for extortion and other crimes that Avenues members and associates allegedly committed as part of the gang's extensive drug trafficking in the area, police say. Most of the Avenues members included in the indictment are being charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows prosecutors to pursue more serious prison sentences. At a planning briefing last week with representatives from the agencies involved, there was little question as to what had kept the group motivated.

With the auditorium at LAPD headquarters filled with a few hundred officers, a recording was played of the phone call Escalante's hysterical wife made to a 911 dispatcher after discovering him in the street. “If anyone has any doubt about the rationale or reason behind this operation, it was this,” a detective said.

At the meeting, officers reviewed the complicated logistics involved in a gang sweep of such a large magnitude. With more than a dozen targets located on one street alone, the routes each team of officers would take and the order of their deployment had to be painstakingly planned.

Officers were instructed to bring suspects back to the command post for processing wearing only clothes and a pair of shoes. Any jewelry, cellphones or other belongings would clog up what promised to be an already hectic assembly line of alleged criminals.  Staff from the state's Child Protective Services department would be on hand to handle children found in any of the homes, officers were told.

Named for the avenues that cross Figueroa Street, the gang has a long, ugly history dating back at least to the 1950s, when it was linked to many shootouts and killings. It is thought by some that the group's origins can be traced back to hundreds of Mexican families displaced from Chavez Ravine, now home to Dodger Stadium, and the Rose Hill areas.

The group's insignia, which many members have tattooed on their bodies, is a skull with a bullet hole, wearing a fedora. Various cliques of the Avenues claim Highland Park and parts of Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock as their territory. It is linked closely to the Mexican Mafia prison gang, which demands that the Avenues and other Eastside gangs send up a share of the taxes they collect from low-level drug dealers and others selling goods on their turf.

Today's sweep is hardly the first time law enforcement has taken on the Avenues. In 2002, the city attorney won an injunction against the gang, making it illegal for members to congregate throughout much of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Cypress Park and Eagle Rock. A few years later, federal prosecutors won hate-crime convictions against Avenues members for the killings of three black men between 1995 and 2000.

Government attorneys argued that the Avenues launched a campaign of violence to force black people out of the Highland Park area in the 1990s and targeted the men simply because of their race. In 2007, the city used a narcotics abatement lawsuit to shut down the home of a family at the center of the Avenues Drew Street Clique.

At the time, then-City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo called the house the gang's “mother ship.” In February of last year, the gang re-erupted into the city's public consciousness when Drew Street members gunned down a man as he stood on a curb holding his 2-year-old granddaughter's hand.

They brazenly took on police in a running gun battle, firing at officers with an AK-47 assault rifle in broad daylight. Most recently, in June 2008, the DEA task force that came to LAPD detectives with information on the Escalante killing conducted a similar, but smaller, operation to the one carried out today. That investigation named 70 defendants.

At the time, LAPD officials assured residents of the area that they would work to keep the gang from reclaiming control of the neighborhoods. Drug activity in the area has slowed considerably in recent months, the detective said, but considering the size of today's operation, the gang has clearly maintained a commanding presence in the area.

“They've owned that community for a long, long time. Only time will tell for sure, but I think this will be a blow that will finally make a lasting impact,” the detective said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/huge-la-police-raid-targets-notorious-avenues-gang--2.html

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After Schwarzenegger's help, Monrovia oasis for disabled is saved

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Friday that eviction notices sent to about 20 developmentally and physically disabled residents of a Monrovia apartment complex were “terminated,” some tenants and advocates were cautiously optimistic.

But today a letter from the attorney representing both the owners and property management of Regency Court has made believers of those notified last month that the complex was always meant to be a senior apartment community and anyone under age 62 would have to leave.

Michelle Uzeta, litigation director for the Housing Rights Center, which filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging discrimination based on age and disability, received a fax this morning from Craig Diamond on behalf of Star-Holdings, the Illinois-based owner of Regency Court.

The letter resolved that all disabled tenants' leases will be renewed and will not be terminated in the future based on age. It also said disabled applicants whose names had been purged from the complex's waiting list would be reinstated.

“Housing discrimination is so pervasive still in California,” Uzeta said. “It would be great if we had someone like the governor get involved in every one of our cases. We're really glad that he chose to step in.”

Schwarzenegger visited Regency Court on Friday and said he had been inspired to reach out to Star-Holdings after reading The Times' story about the plight of the complex's disabled tenants that was published a day earlier.

He also said he heard the voice of his late mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, in his head. Shriver, who died in August, founded the Special Olympics and was an advocate for people with disabilities.

The discrimination complaint challenging the complex's senior status will continue to be pursued so that people with disabilities may be allowed there in the future, Uzeta said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Former Villaraigosa aide joins law firm to handle renewable energy business

One of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's recently departed advisers has secured a job handling renewable energy business for an international law firm.

The mayor's former deputy chief of staff Dan Grunfeld stepped down from his post Friday. Today, the law firm of Kaye Scholer announced that Grunfeld, 49, will work in its Los Angeles office representing clients in such fields as green technology, alternative energy and compliance with environmental laws.

Villaraigosa has promised to make Los Angeles “the greenest big city in America” by pushing the Department of Water and Power toward more solar, wind and geothermal energy. Grunfeld, who spent two years as the mayor's No. 2 policy adviser, said he is excited to work on alternative energy matters but does not expect that the firm's work will intersect with the city of Los Angeles.

“They have an international practice when it comes to green technology and green development,” he said.

Kaye Scholer boasts on its website that it is one of the nation's leading practices devoted to wind power and renewable energy transactions. Grunfeld, who will co-chair the firm's litigation department, will also focus on healthcare and venture capital, the announcement said.

The DWP has been purchasing renewable power from various sources and has completed one wind farm, known as Pine Tree. The utility also has been considering a lawsuit against the city of Vernon to obtain property in Kern County that is considered a prime spot for a wind farm.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Griffith Park users outraged by shooting of 7 coyotes

he howls echoing through Griffith Park today are coming from joggers, parents and nannies -- not coyotes. Park visitors are angry with wildlife officials' decision to trap and shoot coyotes in the 4,210-acre mountain park.

Trackers were called in to trap and shoot the animals after two people reported being bitten by coyotes in the park within the last month. Seven coyotes have been killed so far.

“I feel it's a bit extreme,” said Julie Dusevoir of Valley Village, who was near the park's merry-go-round with her son Max, 2.

In fact, most humans at the park today are on the coyotes' side.

“I'm strictly opposed to killing them,” said Dimitrios Gatsiounis, a Los Feliz resident who regularly brings his three children -- all under 5 -- to the park to play.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Gang members suspected in MacArthur Park shooting

Los Angeles police are searching for two suspects, believed to be gang members, involved in a shooting at MacArthur Park this morning that left one man dead and a second in critical condition.

The victims, believed to be in their mid- to late 20s, were sitting on the grass in the northwest corner of the park about 10:30 a.m. when they were approached by two men who began exchanging words with them, LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz said.

One of the suspects opened fire, killing one of the men. The same gunman fired multiple times at the second man, who was in critical condition at a local hospital, Diaz said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Long Beach man arrested in rape of 83-year-old woman

A Long Beach man has been arrested on suspicion of raping an 83-year-old legally blind woman in her home after a DNA sample taken following a domestic violence arrest tied him to the crime, authorities said.

Antonio D. Freeman was arrested by sheriff's detectives Friday after authorities learned that his DNA matched that of the suspect in a prowler rape earlier this year in Norwalk, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.

The prowler broke into the woman's home about 5:30 a.m. May 1 at the Benton Bay condominiums in Norwalk.

"The victim was awakened by the sound of glass breaking," Baca said. "She was confronted by the suspect, who then forcefully pulled her upstairs and sexually assaulted her."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Despite bad economy, L.A. sheriff's department reports big drops in crime

Despite the hard economic times, both violent crime and property crime are down significantly in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, according to statistics released today.

The biggest drop came in homicides, which are down 23.5% through Sept. 18 this year compared with the same period in 2008, according to Sheriff Lee Baca.

The crime drop comes despite an economic downturn that has been particularly hard felt in some poorer neighborhoods patrols by the Sheriff such as Compton and unincorporated southern L.A.

Baca predicted more than a year ago that the ailing economy would might result in crime increases -- but that has so far not materialized. Unemployment in the county now stands at 12.3%.

Overall, violent crime dropped 10% in the dozens of communities patrolled by the sheriff's department -- a coverage area that stretches from Antelope Valley to the south end of the county.

Property crimes also declined 11% so far in 2009 compared with 2008. There have been 153 homicides so far in 2009, 48 fewer than last year. The sheriff's Lancaster and Avalon stations reported the biggest drops in major crimes, 22.3% and 28.6% respectively. East L.A. Station saw homicides drop 46.4% with eight homicides, compared to 15 in same peroid in 2008.

Despite the crime drop, the number of deputy-involved fatal shootings rose. The number of fatal shootings involving sheriff's deputies has risen from five in all of 2008 to 13 so far this year, including three in the last weekend alone.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/sheriffs-crime.html#more

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Doctor, 90, kills wife, tries to commit suicide

James and Phyllis Fish had lived at Laguna Woods Village in Orange County since the early '90s. She was terminally ill.

By Paloma Esquivel

September 22, 2009

In Laguna Woods Village, where thousands retire in leisure and comfort, there is mostly sympathy for Phyllis and James Fish. He is a kind man, neighbors say. Even at 90, he took care of his wife. She had been ill for years and was getting worse, they say.

The small white house the Fishes shared betrays nothing of what happened Sunday afternoon. The driveway is empty, the grass neatly cut and the pink hibiscus bush in full bloom.

But the home where husband and wife came to live out their lives is empty now. Authorities say Dr. James Fish shot his terminally ill wife in the head. He then turned the gun on himself and fired but survived. He is recovering and will be charged with manslaughter.

"She was under hospice care," said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino. "That is the motive."

The Fishes moved into the retirement community in the early 1990s, when it was known as Leisure World, according to public records.

Phyllis Fish, one neighbor said, was "a 5-foot-tall little fireball." She was elected to the local governing board and served on it until she suffered a stroke a few years ago, from which she never fully recovered. James Fish, who graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1943, cared for his wife with the help of a caregiver.

For years, every day at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., the caregiver would put Phyllis, 88, in her wheelchair and take her around the neighborhood, residents said. But in recent months, the walks stopped. About one week ago, Phyllis Fish learned that she also had cancer, said neighbor and friend Joseph Tuso.

On Sunday the caregiver, who normally had the day off, heard gunshots in the home.

Before he shot her, James Fish gave his wife morphine to ease the pain, said prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh. He then shot himself in the head.

On Monday, the sheriff's cars were gone and the police tape was taken down. Officials at the complex reassured the community that services were available for those with terminal illnesses.

Laguna Woods Village has its own social services department, which provides counseling, support groups, crisis intervention and other services precisely because so many people in the community are coping with similar issues, said Marcia Wilson, manager of the department. Every month, the department opens between 75 and 100 cases of people asking for some kind of help, Wilson said. But, she said, there is a generational difference, with the oldest residents seemingly more reluctant to reach out.

"There's no charge for our services," she said, "but some people are very private."

Coping with the end of life is a part of living here, people say.

"You see a lot of it," Tuso said, "a lot of people beyond their time."

Tuso and others said they had nothing but sympathy for Fish, who, if convicted, faces a maximum of more than 20 years in prison.

Baytieh, the prosecutor, agreed.

"This is a man who lived to be 90 years old without violating the law, without committing a crime," he said. "It's a horribly sad case, but he has to be, to some degree, held accountable for what he did."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-elderly-killing22-2009sep22,0,5897321,print.story

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Terror probe widens in U.S.

As many as a dozen people are suspected to have ties to what authorities say is an Al Qaeda-linked plot.

By Josh Meyer and Tina Susman

September 22, 2009

Reporting from Washington and New York

Federal authorities have tied as many as a dozen people to a suspected Al Qaeda-linked bomb plot on U.S. soil as they continue to gather evidence to indict on terrorism charges the young Afghan immigrant at the center of the case, law enforcement officials said Monday.

Authorities said that they did not know the exact number of potential suspects or many of their identities, but that they had been connected through electronic intercepts, surveillance, seized evidence and interviews.

A federal law enforcement official and others, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the high level of secrecy surrounding the investigation, said the suspects appeared concentrated in the New York area, with possibly others in the suspect's home state of Colorado and elsewhere.

Of particular interest are several individuals that Najibullah Zazi, 24, had met or communicated with on a trip to New York two weeks ago.

In interviews and court filings, federal law enforcement officials said they feared that Zazi was meeting in New York with co-conspirators in a possible plot to bomb subway stations or other crowded civilian targets.

The disclosures came as Zazi, of Aurora, Colo., and two other men arrested Saturday night made their first court appearances Monday on charges of making false statements to federal authorities.

Zazi, his father Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, and Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of Queens, N.Y., were held in custody on orders by judges in Colorado and New York.

Several of the officials said it was likely that Najibullah Zazi will be charged with providing material support to a known terrorist organization based on his admission that he trained in weapons and explosives at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan last year. That admission was cited in an FBI affidavit unsealed over the weekend.

The affidavit also alleges that authorities found images on Najibullah Zazi's laptop of nine pages of notes on making explosives and fuses, apparently in his own handwriting. In addition, the affidavit alleges that authorities have found other information linking Zazi to the suspected plot, including his fingerprints on a small electronic scale and double-A batteries, which are often used in making bombs.

One federal law enforcement official said more serious charges were being considered for Zazi as leverage to get him to cooperate in the investigation and provide information on others who may be involved.

Zazi, who had been monitored by authorities for some time after returning from a trip to Pakistan, was stopped on a New York bridge on Sept. 10 after driving from Colorado on what he said was a trip to settle a business deal that had gone sour.

New York police checked his car and allowed him to leave, according to court documents. Soon after, police showed pictures of Zazi and several others to Afzali, the imam of a Queens mosque who had worked as a police informant in the past.

Zazi and his father later talked by phone with Afzali, who told them of his contact with New York City police detectives.

Zazi flew back to Colorado and agreed to be questioned by FBI agents, who interviewed him for three days. Zazi abruptly stopped cooperating with authorities on Saturday, prompting his arrest.

The false statement charges against the three men result from their conversations with authorities about what they knew about the alleged plot or had told one another about the investigation.

In announcing the charges on Sunday, Assistant Atty. Gen. David Kris emphasized that authorities had "no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack."

The three Afghan-born men, all legal residents of the U.S., have maintained their innocence. They face up to eight years in prison if convicted on the false statement charges.

Zazi and his father, both shuttle drivers at Denver International Airport, were handcuffed for their court appearances Monday afternoon, wearing the same casual street clothes in which they were arrested.

Zazi told Judge Craig Shaffer he didn't wish to exercise his right to have diplomatic officials from his home country intervene but might do so in the future. It wasn't clear whether those officials would be from Afghanistan, where he was born, or Pakistan, where he lived as a child.

Zazi will remain in federal custody at least until Thursday, when a detention and preliminary hearing is scheduled.

His father, who was given a public defender, also will remain in custody until arrangements are made for electronic monitoring in his Aurora apartment.

Afzali also appeared in court Monday, neither handcuffed nor shackled. Clad in traditional Islamic garb, he spoke only to briefly answer a magistrate's questions on whether he understood the charges against him. He blew kisses to relatives, and they waved back.

Outside the court, defense attorney Ronald Kuby portrayed Afzali as a scapegoat in a "bootstrap case created by the government to cover up their own failings."

Kuby said federal agents had failed to hide their surveillance of Zazi, allowing the case to become public and prompting the searches of apartments in Queens early last week.

He said authorities needed someone to blame and charged Afzali with tipping Zazi off to investigators' interest in him and some other men.

The charges against Afzali allege that during his phone conversation with Zazi, he warned that authorities had been asking about him and some of his acquaintances. In the same conversation, Afzali noted that the phone call was being monitored, according to the FBI affidavit.

Six days later, the FBI alleges that Afzali denied telling Zazi about his conversations with investigators.

Kuby said it made no sense that Afzali would have lied about a phone conversation that he already had acknowledged was being monitored.

"Why on earth is the imam going to lie to the FBI about the contents of a conversation that he knows they recorded?" Kuby said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-arrests22-2009sep22,0,7882893,print.story

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Standing face to face with her thief

Salesclerk Michelle McCambridge was the victim of identity theft. Shortly after she became aware of the situation, the woman who had claimed to be the 23-year-old was at her cash register.

By Kim Murphy

September 22, 2009

Reporting from Tukwila, Wash.

Was it fate that brought the thief directly to her that day? Hubris? Malice, perhaps?

It was impossible to know. Yet there was Michelle McCambridge, a 23-year-old JCPenney salesclerk, looking at the woman who not long before had stolen thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, video game consoles and other merchandise by claiming to be Michelle McCambridge.

As their eyes locked, McCambridge felt herself go numb, a mix of adrenaline and anger. The woman in front of her stood impassively.

"Oh my god, I can't believe it's her, I can't believe she's there," McCambridge recalled thinking. "I remember wanting to go and knock her out myself."

The odds of an identity thief trying to pull a scam that involves one of her own victims must be a million to one, federal authorities said. In this case, McCambridge not only clued into the doppelganger, but her quick response helped topple an identity theft ring that had targeted more than 40 victims around Washington state.

"These are some of the most difficult cases to work because they're so . . . time-consuming. But when Michelle recognized her and pulled the [store surveillance] video, it gave us a fighting chance," said Joseph Velling, the special agent for the Social Security Administration who led the investigation.

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing frauds. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received 313,982 complaints. But law enforcement authorities said that an estimated 65% of identity theft victims, probably mindful of the dismal odds of catching the culprit, never even call police.

McCambridge's ordeal started in January when the sociology student got a call from her mother asking about several credit card bills that had arrived in the mail. McCambridge didn't know what her mother was talking about. The charges came from stores at which McCambridge had never opened an account.

"She said, 'You have a bill from Sears here.' She opened it and it was for several thousand dollars' worth of jewelry.

"Then she called me back a few minutes later. 'What about Kohl's?' And then there was JCPenney, Toys R Us, Babies R Us. Those were all on the same day. I didn't get a statement from them. It was like, 'Congratulations, here's your new card.' "

Someone who produced a driver's license with McCambridge's name on it and who knew her Social Security number had taken out lines of credit at all the stores within just a day or two in December.

There were four $500 gift cards purchased at JCPenney and others from Home Depot -- about $13,000 worth of gift cards and merchandise in all.

McCambridge immediately called the retailers to report the fraud. She asked the JCPenney security department to pull the surveillance recordings for the date that the identity thief had come in to apply for credit. She made similar requests to the other stores the next day.

When Velling, a friend of her father, took a look at the videos, he noticed they had one person in common: a young black woman with distinctive, heavy-framed rectangular eyeglasses, a high forehead, a small waist and large hips.

McCambridge studied the still photographs Velling had compiled. Who could it be? Did she know her? How could this woman have gotten her name, Social Security number and address?

Before the advent of digital video, stores routinely taped over their surveillance footage every 30 days. Even now, victims rarely call retailers to request the images; neither do police, who often must try to trace a single case of credit fraud that is rooted in a large ring operating in several cities.

That task has become even more difficult as identity thieves become more sophisticated. When banks and department stores began requiring home phone numbers to activate cards, for example, crooks started tapping into victims' phone lines to make the calls.

"The credit card companies have eliminated a lot of the ways that [security] can be compromised," Velling said. "But there's a huge problem now, and that's instant credit. You get in-store credit and you've defeated all the . . . security. But it means you've got to move fast, because the credit card's going to get mailed to the victim, and they're going to know about it in three or four days."

The woman standing at McCambridge's cash register a few weeks after the surveillance photos had been obtained was applying for instant credit to purchase several garments under a different name.

"She said, 'I want to apply for one of your JCPenney cards. How does that work, and what do you need?' " McCambridge recalled.

And that struck her as strange. Most of the time it's the clerk pushing instant credit on the customer, not the other way around.

"I said, 'We just need your ID and for you to fill out the application.' I went to grab it and, at that point, I really looked at her. I was thinking, 'You have exactly the kind of black-frame glasses as the woman in the picture . . . the exact same high forehead.'

"I started getting this fishy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then I looked over the counter, and she had the exact same body shape as the woman in the picture."

McCambridge raised her hand to cover her badge so the woman wouldn't see her name, and then excused herself to go to another cash register, where she called security. The woman, appearing antsy, made a phone call, and a manager was sent out to take her credit application while store surveillance cameras zeroed in on her.

The suspect produced a fake driver's license bearing the name of a woman whose purse had been stolen from her car a few days earlier. She also had the woman's checkbook. The JCPenney manager kept her talking for a while, but she left before police arrived.

While scanning surveillance videos from parking lots of the stores where McCambridge's identity was used, Velling and his partner, Special Agent Matt Lavelle, had noticed that many showed the same black Cadillac Escalade -- prompting them to suspect the work of a single ring. They started comparing those incidents with other identity fraud cases moving through the courts. Lavelle was looking over one of them -- involving a man who had tried to open a fraudulent instant credit account at a Kohl's store in February -- when he recognized the name of a woman from a previous case in which he'd been involved.

Going back to that identity theft, the agents started tracing all the suspects connected to the case.

"Buried within one of those old police reports was the name of a woman, Stephanie Locke, and we requested her booking photo. It matched the video we had from the identity theft of Michelle McCambridge," Velling said.

Finally, the mysterious woman in the rectangular glasses had a name and an address.

In the end, Locke and four others were indicted by a federal grand jury. Locke pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Seattle to bank fraud and Social Security number misuse. She faces up to 35 years in prison when she is sentenced Friday.

Two other defendants also have entered guilty pleas.

Federal agents still haven't answered the question of how the ring got McCambridge's identity to begin with, and who produced the high-quality documents that managed to fool so many retailers. That investigation is ongoing, they said.

Velling said identity theft victims must do more than report the fraud to the banks or department stores and put an alert on their credit report. As McCambridge did, they need to ask stores to hold video surveillance of the transactions for police.

"I'm still trying to figure out how they did it. I mean, I understand how they got the other woman's Social Security number -- they stole her purse. But how did they get mine?" McCambridge said.

"And then she walks in the store like that? The whole thing is just completely unbelievable," she said. "I feel like I should go buy a Lotto ticket or something. Really, what are the chances that something like that's going to happen?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-identity-theft22-2009sep22,0,7512653,print.story

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Editorial

Making forensic science scientific

Establishing national forensic science standards is crucial when evidence determines life or death.

September 21, 2009

With the busiest death chamber in the nation, it was only a matter of time before Texas positioned itself to become the first state to admit that it executed a person who was wrongfully convicted. And now that day is at hand.

According to a nationally respected fire engineer, the so-called scientific evidence used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham of setting a blaze that killed his three daughters in 1995 was not scientific at all. In his scathing report to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Craig Beyler found that the arson investigators on the case had a poor understanding of fire dynamics and based their conclusions on erroneous assumptions, sloppy research and a dash of mysticism. For example, one investigator determined that, because the house fire burned "hot and fast," an accelerant such as gasoline had been used to set it. But that theory -- still given credence in some investigatory circles -- is not factual. Gasoline fires are not significantly hotter than those started with wood, Beyler reported.

Willingham's case is heartbreaking: He lost his children to fire and his wife to divorce, spent 12 years in prison and died still protesting his innocence. But his is not an isolated case. There are thousands of Willinghams in prisons across the country. If not on death row, they are nonetheless serving decades-long or even life sentences after having been convicted on the basis of erroneous scientific conclusions made by poorly trained "experts."

In 2006, Congress charged the National Academy of Sciences with studying the application of forensic science in the U.S. judicial system. Its findings, released last year, are grim. Almost every branch of forensics but DNA testing -- hair and fiber analysis, arson investigations, comparisons of bite marks -- lacks the extensive scientific research and established standards to be used in court conclusively.

Consider: Last year, the Innocence Project, a New York-based public policy and litigation organization, helped exonerate Kennedy Brewer, a Mississippi man who had been convicted in 1992 of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl. DNA testing was not available at the time, and the primary evidence against him was that bite marks on the child's body matched his teeth. Examination of the marks by national forensics experts determined that they were not even made by a human mouth: Her body had been dumped in a pond and insects had attacked it. Subsequent DNA testing also excluded Brewer as the rapist.

In February, the science academy issued a report calling for Congress to create a national institute of forensic science, and there is more than enough evidence that one is desperately needed. As an independent agency, not part of the Justice Department, it would be charged with conducting research, setting national standards for forensic disciplines and enforcing those standards. Right now, standards vary wildly. An expert in San Diego, for example, might testify that a fiber is similar to one found at a crime scene, while an expert in San Bernardino might testify that a match is impossible to determine.

Advances in forensics have revolutionized the judicial system, aiding both prosecutors and defense attorneys, exonerating the innocent and confirming the guilty in ways that were impossible just a generation ago. The patchwork state of forensic science should not become an excuse to shy away from its use; rather, the nation should invest in the rigorous research required to standardize techniques and application.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the science academy's recommendations this month, and it is to be hoped that the end result is a national forensics institute. The fate of thousands hangs on the correct analysis of a thread, a hair, the fibers of a rug. We can do better by them, even if it's too late for Willingham.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-forensics21-2009sep21,0,5127035,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Two killed, another wounded in Pacoima shooting

PACOIMA — A brazen daylight shooting this weekend claimed two young lives, left a teenage boy in the hospital and shattered the relatively peaceful summer of a community that was left distraught and fearful Monday.

A 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were killed, and a 15-year-old boy was wounded inside the San Fernando Gardens housing project in Pacoima Sunday. The shooting occurred at 5:33 p.m., just as services at a nearby church were ending, residents said.

None of the victims were being identified, either by police or the coroner's office, but friends of victims said the 20-year-old was Javier Zamora.

Police said two to three Latino males approached a group of friends within the 440-unit housing project in the 13000 block of Carl Street in Pacoima, and began firing into the group.

Each victim was shot multiple times, police said.

"It was pretty bold," said Los Angeles Police Detective Pat Barron of the Foothill division. "We're pretty certain it's gang related, but I don't know the motive."

Barron said he believed one of the three victims was the intended target of the armed group.

The area had enjoyed a quiet summer, with little violent gang activity. The last gang-related homicide within the LAPD's Foothill division was three months ago. Before that, a fatal shooting hadn't occurred since January, he said.

Dozens of teenagers and children who live within the massive San Fernando Gardens housing community stood around two memorials on Sunday, where religious pillar candles had been lit and rose pedals spelled out each victim's nickname. Zamora was known as Pimps. Near the doorway where he died, bullet holes could still be seen. His friends spray painted "RIP Pimps" along the wall.

Zamora used to live in the San Fernando Gardens, but was visiting his baby son on Sunday, his friends said.

"He was just so well-mannered, so friendly," said a tearful 19-year-old who would only give her name as Maria. "He was so excited too, because he just got a new job, and he was asking me about college, since I'm a college student, and he was thinking of going back."

Just a couple of units away, teens sat in silence where the 16-year-old had been gunned down. Known in the area by his nickname "Purple," the boy, whose name was not available, was new to the area, some said.

All around them, mothers held their children close and spoke in whispers about the safety of the community.

"It's the projects," one young woman said with a shrug. "It happens here."

Across the street from where the shooting occurred, at the San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center, gang interventionists and officials with the Los Angeles Housing Authority gathered to discuss the shooting, safety issues, and how best to console the residents.

"It was very brazen," said Steve Martinez, a case manager for the New Directions for Youth.

He said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's anti-gang program, Summer Night Lights program, appeared to work well in the area. The program keeps parks open after dark and includes organized athletic leagues, art projects, family programs, and free food and drinks.

That program ended two weeks ago, maybe too soon, Martinez said.

"It hurts me to know this was gang related," he said.

In the meantime, social workers will be brought in to talk to the residents of San Fernando Gardens to calm their fears and ease any trauma.

"We don't want the next generation of adults to think this is normal," Martinez said.

Meanwhile, detectives are looking for the suspects, said to be in their late teens or early 20s. No vehicle was seen at the scene and no weapons were recovered, Barron said.

Anyone with information is urged to call Foothill detectives at 818-834-3115.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13390587

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New LAPD recruits on standby as budget discussed

A city panel split on Monday over whether to recommend going ahead with plans to hire a new class of police recruits as the city grapples with a $405 million shortfall and tough union talks.

The Budget and Finance Committee voted 2-2 on whether to allow the 37-cadet class to begin training in three weeks as part of a plan to hire new officers to replace the 300 expected to leave this year.

Council members Bill Rosendahl and Jose Huizar voted to continue the class as Council members Bernard Parks and Greig Smith voted to delay it.

Councilman Paul Koretz was absent. It will now go before the full City Council.

The debate came as the panel began to juggle the city's $7.01 billion budget and cover a $405 million shortfall following the agreement Friday with the Coalition of City Unions. That agreement included a controversial early retirement plan for city workers and a pledge by unions to try to save the city about $80 million.

"I strongly believe we should continue hiring through attrition," Rosendahl said, adding he also did not want to see line officers involved in a furlough program to make up more of the city's shortfall.

But the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which is in contract talks with the city, argued it makes no sense to train and hire new officers while forcing experienced officers to take furloughs.

"If you continue to hire, you will be forced to furlough 1,600 officers each day," Protective League Director Peter Repovich said. "That makes absolutely no sense."

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has stood by the continued hiring plan, saying the city has a pledge with residents to keep the department at close to 10,000 officers -- paid for by an increase in the trash fee.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13390145

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Panel calls for more graffiti enforcemen

With some taggers now using glass-etching tools in addition to spray paint to create graffiti, a city panel called Monday for stepped-up enforcement and new regulations to fight the vandalism.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee noted Los Angeles already has some of the toughest anti-graffiti laws in the nation, but said they may not be enough. City law requires retailers to store spray paint in locked cabinets or behind the counter in order to control sales. In addition, spray paint cannot be sold to anyone under 18.

Councilman Dennis Zine asked for a report on a proposal that would require retailers to keep a log of those who buy spray paint to ensure laws are being enforced. He also asked that officials look at raising the minimum age for purchases to 21.

Councilwoman Jan Perry said she wanted the city to look at imposing the same requirements on the sale of the etching acids that are the new tool of taggers.

"This is the new graffiti," Perry said. "Instead of spray paint, they etch their gang symbols into windows and there is no real way to clean it off. We are seeing it on street fronts at laundromats and stores. What really bothers me is when you see it in windows of buildings under construction."

Also, she said she is not convinced the age of taggers is the issue.

"I've seen taggers in action and they look a lot older to me than 18 or 21," Perry said.

Zine, a retired police sergeant, said he believes the city is not enforcing anti-tagging regulations.

"I think we've lost the battle," Zine said. "I drive down the Santa Monica Freeway and I see tagging everywhere. It's almost like it's taunting the police."

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13390186

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Should I stay or should I go? And other concerns during Southland's fire season

THE burning question of the 21st century for residents of fire-prone zones in Southern California may very well be whether to evacuate or stay when brush fires threaten their homes.

Fire season usually begins in the fall with the return of the Santa Ana winds. But it seems fire season stretches year-round now, as exemplified by the Station Fire that killed two Los Angeles County firefighters, consumed more than 250 square miles, leveled 80 homes and cost millions of dollars to fight.

Almost from the get-go, fire officials began issuing mandatory evacuation orders. Temporary shelters were set up for people, their pets and livestock.

The problem is that "mandatory" apparently does not mean "you must leave." It's more of a very strong suggestion. Fire officials and police don't physically force people to leave, and many chose to stay in an effort to save their homes using garden hoses, an ineffective tool against a raging inferno.

Those who chose to stay, yet had their cars packed and readied for a last minute escape, had tons of criticism heaped upon them. It came mostly from the disembodied voices on talk radio, who accused them of "endangering your lives as well as the firefighters who might have to rescue you."

The answer to that, as five people holed up on Gold Creek Road found out, is for the fire department to say, "Tough! We warned you to leave; now it's too dangerous for us to come back and rescue you." Fortunately, they survived.

"Tough!" is also used by authorities in hurricane-prone zones. They order evacuations and tell people that if they don't leave, they will not be rescued until the hurricane passes and it safe to do so.

While there are people who rely on a better-safe-than-sorry philosophy and get out of the way, there are many who don't.

People are loath to entrust their homes to others in times of danger; we have a primordial instinct to protect our safe havens, our homes.

I live in the fire buffer zone that surrounds the San Fernando Valley, and I'm of the "stay until the last second" persuasion. Although it's been a couple of decades since helicopters flew overhead telling us to leave, numerous fires have encroached on the neighborhood as they traverse the hills to the north, follow the canyons, jump the Ventura Freeway, and head toward Malibu and out to the sea.

Being evacuated is not like taking a vacation where one deliberately uproots oneself; it's being yanked from one's security. It's being forced to hole up in a hotel room, impose on friends, or confine oneself in a shelter with strangers where rumors abound and fear feeds upon itself, and there's nothing to do but worry and speculate on what's happening.

It's being thrown into the realm of the unknown, and we don't deal well with the unknown; it's paralyzing. We can deal with the worst once we know what the worst is. Many are also aware that if they evacuate, there's no going back quickly. It can be days or even a week or two before they'll be allowed in to assess their property.

Just as the residents of the Station Fire stood by and watched the encroaching flames, when I was a reporter I stood in an empty lot on the edge of a steep hill that leads from Bell Canyon to homes in West Hills.

Standing with firefighters, hoses at the ready, we saw the fire creating its own wind and weather and felt the unbelievable heat as it began to crest the hill, driving us back.

With the perfect timing of an expert chef who knows exactly when to douse the flambe, the hoses were turned on and the fire was stopped just before reaching backyards.

Even with that experience and living in a fire buffer zone, I would still stay until flames were lapping at my backdoor. Also, like many residents near the Station Fire, I live in a housing tract with normal width streets, not in a narrow canyon. That makes all the difference in the world in deciding whether to stay or to.

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_13379060

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From the LAPD

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Publics Help Needed to Find Missing Man

Los Angeles:   The Los Angeles Police Department and the family of a missing man are asking for the publics help to find him.

Todd Clapp, a 48-year-old resident of Sylmar, was last seen by his roommate on September 5, 2009, at around 9 a.m. at their residence in the 13700 block of Glenoaks Boulevard.  Family and friends have growing concerns for the welfare of Clapp, who has been missing for 13 days.

Several witnesses reported seeing Clapp late in the afternoon on the day he was reported missing.  He was seen in the Tapo Canyon Park area located in the 4600 block of Tapo Canyon Road in Simi Valley.  Clapp's vehicle was subsequently found in the parking lot of the park.

Clapp was wearing a light-colored T-shirt and khaki pants.  He is a white man with shoulder- length grey hair and brown eyes.  He's six feet one inch tall and weighs 220-225 pounds.

Anyone with information related to Clapp's whereabouts is asked to call LAPD Missing Persons Unit Detective Marla Ciuffetelli at 213-485-5381.  After-hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247).  Callers may also text “crimes” with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on web tips.  When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with “LAPD.”  Tipsters may remain anonymous.

September 21, 2009

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Los Angeles Police Department Seeks Help in Finding a 24-Year-Old College Graduate

Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police Detectives and family members are asking for the public's help in finding a missing person.

Miltrice Richardson was last seen on September 17th, 2009, at approximately 1:25 .a.m., leaving the 27000 block of Agoura Road in Malibu (Lost Hills area) with no known destination.  Her last contact with family members was on September 16, 2009, at her home in the Southeast Area of Los Angeles.  Richardson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton.   

Miltrice Richardson is described as a 24-year-old female African American with brown hair and hazel eyes.  She is five feet five to five feet six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds.  She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.

Richardson's family is very concerned about her welfare and wants her to return home safely.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Miltrice Richardson is asked to call the LAPD Missing Persons Unit, Detective Kristin Merrill at 213-485-5381.  After-hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247).  Callers may also text “crimes” with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on web tips.  When using a cell phone all messages should begin with “LAPD.”  Tipsters may remain anonymous.

September 21, 2009

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