From the Los Angeles Times

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Objections raised to caging inmates during therapy

Prisoners with psychiatric problems must be treated, and the therapists must be protected, but many question the state's approach.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

December 28, 2010

Before group therapy begins for mentally ill maximum-security inmates at California prisons, five patients are led in handcuffs to individual metal cages about the size of a phone booth. Steel mesh and a plastic spit shield separate the patients from the therapist, who sits in front of the enclosures wearing a shank-proof vest.

When the lock clanks shut on the final cage — prison officials prefer to call them "therapeutic modules" — the therapist tries to build the foundation of any successful group: trust.

During a recent session at a prison in Vacaville, psychologist Daniel Tennenbaum, wearing a herringbone sports coat over his body armor, sat just out of urination range of the cages with an acoustic guitar, trying to engage the inmates with a sing-along of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay."

About a decade ago, a federal judge ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment to leave mentally ill prisoners in their cells without treatment. Since then, state prisons have spent more than a billion dollars delivering care to an ever-growing population of inmates diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric problems.

State officials say they have not tried to estimate how much of that cost is attributable to the caged therapy. The value of the sessions, however, is the subject of heated debate among mental health professionals today.

"Those cages are an abomination. They train people that they're not human, that they're animals," said Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist in Berkeley who served as an expert witness on treatment of mentally ill prisoners in the case that forced California prisons to provide psychiatric care.

"It's bizarre, it has a Hannibal Lecter quality to it," said H. Steven Moffic, likening California's procedures to the measures used to contain an incarcerated serial killer in "The Silence of the Lambs."

Moffic, a psychiatry professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has written about treating patients in prisons under less imposing restraints. "I'm not quite sure what the clinicians think they are going to get out of it," he said of California's method.

Prison officials say they're doing their best to comply with the court order, which requires them to offer treatment to all mentally ill inmates, no matter how dangerous.

Overall, that care in 2006 cost the state $166 million to treat about 32,000 inmates, department records show. By 2009 the number of inmates had risen modestly to 36,000 but the cost of treatment had more than doubled more than $358 million.

About 3,500 of those prisoners stepped into a cage for group therapy after being sent to a segregation unit for offenses committed inside prison walls, including receiving smuggled drugs, organizing gangs or assaulting prison employees.

Jeffrey Metzner, a Colorado psychiatrist who has advised the court-appointed special master overseeing mental healthcare in California prisons, said the enclosures offer better security and more freedom of movement than alternatives used in most states, which include handcuffing patients to their chairs or shackling an ankle to the floor. Once the inmates are inside the cage, their handcuffs are removed.

Metzner also advised prison officials to refer to the enclosures as therapeutic modules, not cages. "The name is important, because if you call them cages, people inside might feel like animals and respond accordingly," he said.

That's precisely why some critics object so strongly to the enclosures.

"You're not fooling anybody with some ridiculous euphemism," said Pablo Stewart, a San Francisco psychiatrist and outspoken critic of the enclosures. "This is one of the more horrendous examples of what goes on in the California Department of Corrections."

Among Stewart's concerns is the fact that some mentally ill inmates remain in disciplinary segregation units, receiving therapy in cages, until their parole dates arrive.

"So one day you're so dangerous that you have to be in a cage and the person talking to you is sitting at a distance wearing a flak jacket, the next day you're sitting on a bus," said Stewart. "That's scary."

A few mentally ill inmates are involuntarily committed to hospitals after release from prison, officials said, but most get a supply of medication and instructions to continue therapy when they're back on the street.

At institutions where space is tight, the therapy modules have been arranged in the middle of inmate living quarters with multistory cell blocks towering overhead; their bored occupants are looking down, taunting.

"You go down for therapy and there are guys screaming and yelling at you from every floor," said Jane Kahn, an attorney who represents inmates in the ongoing litigation. Aside from making the sessions difficult, exposure to other inmates obliterates the sense of confidentiality essential for worthwhile therapy, Kahn said.

Prison officials recognize the problem but say they don't have much choice. "That's a function of not having the space for clinicians to do their jobs," said Terri McDonald, chief deputy secretary of the California prisons. "If you were to ask us if that's the preferred way to do business, the answer is no."

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether tens of thousands of inmates should be released so the prisons would have enough room and an adequate staff to deliver medical and mental healthcare that meets constitutional standards.

Although some California prison psychologists insist the individual therapy enclosures are ultimately a good thing, even they can be taken aback the first time they see them.

"To come in here and realize that was how they do group therapy, it was super-hard to get used to," said Angela Gross, a prison psychologist who started working with the modules in 2006.

Tennenbaum, the music therapist, says the work is useful despite the circumstances. "We talk, we write songs, we do stuff like that all week. It's really helpful," he said.

Despite the votes of confidence from prison staff, there are indications that the state might be moving away from the enclosures.

Sharon Aungst, California prisons' chief deputy secretary for healthcare, noted that other states have found less restrictive ways to handle security in group therapy sessions. Prisons in New York, she said, have begun using chairs with desks that come down over inmates' legs, locking them in but leaving them free to move their arms and giving them a writing surface.

"We are looking at another option to these therapeutic modules," Aungst said. "They're not my favorite either."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prison-20101228,0,2185479.story

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Families worry mental health cuts will send kids spiraling

Services for 20,000 California students may be in jeopardy because of a Schwarzenegger veto of funding. A class-action suit seeks to keep the services as they are.

By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times

December 28, 2010

A week before Christmas, Judy Powelson was awaiting her son's first visit home in nine months with a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Earlier in the year, the 17-year-old's mental illness had spiraled out of control to the point that he attacked her, kicked a teacher in the groin and was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment. But since he entered residential treatment funded in part by the state, she'd seen him go through marked improvements — getting a 3.11 GPA and being voted MVP in soccer.

Now Powelson's son, identified in court papers as T.G., is one of 20,000 students across California whose mental health services may be in jeopardy in the new year because of a line-item veto by the governor. In October, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slashed $133 million in funding for what are known as AB 3632 services, a 25-year-old program that requires state and local education and mental health agencies to jointly provide education-related mental health services.

Families with children who suffer from mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia and who depend on these services have been thrown into chaos, parents and advocates say. Several counties, including Orange and Alameda, have sent out notices indicating that the services will be discontinued in January, attorneys representing the parents said.

"If my son loses this treatment, I will lose my son," Powelson said, her voice quivering. "I will lose him to mental illness, I will lose him to the criminal justice system, to drug abuse, to suicide."

She has filed a declaration about her son's situation as part of a federal class-action lawsuit seeking to block cutbacks to or discontinuation of the services. This month, a federal judge in Los Angeles heard arguments from attorneys representing the families and various state and local agencies but said he would wait until the new year before considering whether to issue an injunction.

U.S. District Judge George Wu said it wasn't immediately clear what would happen come Jan. 14, when a temporary order restoring the funding for the services is due to expire. He said he also wanted to wait for the outcome of a separate state court case in Sacramento challenging the governor's veto, which is scheduled to be heard in early January.

"I understand that the state agencies are pointing the finger and saying, 'It's your problem, it's your problem, it's your problem,' " Wu said at the hearing, adding that each agency was "waiting for somebody to blink." But he said it wasn't the right time for him to issue an order because "it's a complicated situation.... Bad things have not happened, but may happen in the future based on how these agencies act."

Attorneys representing various state and county agencies said they were trying to determine where the funds would come from, not dodging their responsibilities. They also said the four named plaintiffs in the case were currently receiving the necessary treatment and had not been notified that it would be taken away.

"They're here prematurely," said Supervising Deputy Atty. Gen. Jennifer M. Kim, representing the governor's office and the California Department of Mental Health.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs contended that a statewide court order was immediately necessary because vulnerable children were at risk of being harmed while the case was being litigated.

"Every day, a new county is saying they can't provide the services," said Laura Faer, an attorney for Public Counsel, which filed the class-action lawsuit along with Disability Rights California and the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

David Campos, whose son is the lead plaintiff, said he felt his child was being left behind while government agencies passed the blame.

"Everybody's waiting for somebody else to take the first step," said Campos, whose son, identified as A.C. in court papers, has been receiving counseling since kindergarten. Campos and his wife, Gail, have been trying to get help for their son ever since they adopted him at age 4 knowing he suffered the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and had been neglected and abused.

This summer, their son twice attempted suicide — swallowing half a bottle of Tylenol and trying to hang himself — and landed in juvenile hall. Through AB 3632 funding, he is receiving residential treatment for oppositional defiant disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder in Texas.

"When I heard the news [of the cut], I felt like I had been punched in the stomach," Gail Campos wrote in a declaration submitted with the court. "My son so desperately needs these services to get better, and I don't want him to end up in the criminal system or homeless."

Powelson said the treatment for her son, who has been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, had been like the "light at the end of the tunnel" for her family.

"The bad days before turned into bad weeks and bad months. My husband used to say it was like a piano falling from a tall building," she said. "Now, in treatment, he has a safe place to fall."

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-mental-health-20101224,0,680760,print.story

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Fugitive in UC Irvine fertility scandal arrested in Mexico City; U.S. hopes to extradite him

A physician who rocked a UC Irvine fertility clinic 15 years ago when he and a partner switched the frozen embryos of dozens of unsuspecting women, has been taken into custody by Mexican authorities, officials said Monday.

Ricardo Asch, one of two fertility doctors who fled prosecution as the scandal unfolded, was arrested in Mexico City on Nov. 3, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. He remains in custody as U.S. prosecutors seek to extradite him to Southern California to face federal mail fraud and tax evasion charges.

It's not clear how and precisely where Mexican authorities caught up with the doctor, who has been living and practicing medicine in Buenos Aires. U.S. officials have for years listed him as a wanted fugitive in postings shared with the international law enforcement community, he said.

Federal prosecutors have until Jan. 3 to forward an extradition petition and are expected to meet the deadline by filing papers later this week, Mrozek said.

If the extradition request is approved, Asch could be returned to United States soil sometime next year, he said. “It's our goal to see that justice is done,'' he said.

The Orange County Register broke news of the scandal in 1995, reporting that Asch and Jose Balmaceda, his partner at UC Irvine's Center for Reproductive Health, had stolen eggs and embryos for years and given them to other women.

The news rocked the university and roiled the lives of dozens of families unwittingly caught up in the deceit. Weeks of revelations sparked international news coverage, investigations and state hearings and tainted the university, which whistle-blowers said had ignored early warnings and tried to cover up problems.

Both fled as they awaited prosecution, Asch to Argentina and Balmaceda to Chile. A third physician, Sergio Stone, was convicted in 1997 of fraudulently billing insurance companies. He was fined $50,000 and ordered to serve a year of home detention. No evidence linked Stone to the egg thefts.

At least 15 births resulted from the improper egg transfers. Those babies would now be young adults and teenagers, but it's unknown whether any of them have attempted to contact their genetic parents.

A San Diego couple, Steve and Shirel Crawford, told CNN in 2006 that they believe they have a son that they have never met. He would be in his early 20s now.

Shirel Crawford, now 51, last year told the Times that her hopes of giving birth to a child faded long ago. Asch and Balmaceda made three failed in-vitro attempts with her, she said. Nine years ago, the couple suffered another heartbreak when the daughter they were attempting to adopt was reclaimed by the birth mother.

Eight years ago they adopted a daughter, Shelby, who Crawford said brings them great happiness. Crawford couldn't be reached for comment on Asch's arrest.

A federal court in Argentina allegedly tried Asch on similar fraud charges and he was acquitted, according to hiss lawyer, Eliel Chemerinski.

To return him to the United States to face the same charge would constitute “double jeopardy,'' Chemerinski argues in a court filing opposing extradition.

UC Irvine has paid out more than $27 million to settle at least 140 lawsuits filed as a result of the fertility clinic scandal.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/12/uci-fertility-scandal-ricardo-asch-arrest-mexico-city-extradition.html

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U.S. must provide incapacitated immigrants with lawyers, judge rules

Two mentally disabled immigrants must be given lawyers as they fight deportation, a U.S. district court judge has ruled.

Jose Franco-Gonzalez, 29, of Costa Mesa, and Guillermo Gomez-Sanchez, 48, of San Bernardino, are at the center of a case that marks one of the first instances in which a judge ordered representation for an individual in immigration proceedings, according to a coalition of advocacy lawyers arguing the men's cases.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee came last week just before Christmas. Both men have been free pending a bail hearing also ordered by Gee.

In a March lawsuit, the ACLU of Southern California and other advocates argued that the men's diminished mental capacities made them unable to voice their own interests. 

Franco, who is moderately retarded, was convicted and served a year in jail on an assault with a deadly weapon charge for throwing a rock during a fight between rival gangs, his attorneys have said. He doesn't know his birth date or how to tell time, and has an IQ no higher than 55, according to his attorney. 

Gomez is a paranoid schizophrenic who served one year of a two-year sentence for a 2004 assault conviction stemming from a scuffle over tomatoes he picked without permission. He has previous convictions, including for battery against a police officer, which his attorneys have attributed to his mental illness.

The lawsuit initially was filed only on behalf of Gomez and Franco. But the plaintiff's lawyers successfully petitioned the court to transform it into a class-action case on behalf of all detainees with mental disabilities, attorneys said

"Judge Gee's thorough opinion is a first step in ensuring that the rights of those who are rendered helpless by their mental illnesses are not ignored,'' said Michael Steinberg, a partner with Sullivan & Cromwell who is assisting in the litigation.

Both men are still facing possible deportation. Gomez is a legal resident and Franco has petitioned for a green card. Until they were freed in April, both had languished in detention centers and psychiatric hospitals for years because authorities considered them mentally incompetent, the plaintiffs' attorneys say.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/12/us-must-provide-disabled-illegal-immigrants-with-lawyers-judge-rules.html

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A true city of angels?

For the first time since the late 1960s, Los Angeles appears on course to finish the year with fewer than 300 murders. And the crime statistics suggest further progress is possible.

December 28, 2010

The decline in violent crime in Los Angeles has been among this region's most gratifying and encouraging trends in recent years. But some have worried that the decline must inevitably level off and give way to stasis. Happily, year-end data from the Los Angeles Police Department suggest there is still progress to be made.

Sociologists and criminologists once doubted that police could do much about violent crime. Violence, the theory went, was attributable to any number of social phenomena — deprivation, demographics, drugs, bad parenting — that were beyond the reach of police. The best that could be hoped for in terms of law enforcement were marginal gains and maintenance of public order. Those notions were challenged intellectually by the work of James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, and later others, and were upheld by a new generation of policing strategists, most notably former LAPD Chief William J. Bratton.

Social factors, of course, affect crime, but today no sensible student of policing denies the effectiveness of smart, data-driven law enforcement. And the results of that work are apparent yet again in Los Angeles' crime numbers for 2010: For the first time since the late 1960s, the city appears on course to finish the year with fewer than 300 murders. That is a stunning drop from the early 1990s, when more than 1,000 Angelenos were killed by others in 1991, 1992 and 1993.

What may be even more encouraging, however, is that the city's crime statistics suggest further progress is possible. That's because a significant number of the murders and other violent crimes — assaults, rapes, robberies — being committed in Los Angeles are of the sort that traditionally have been considered "repressible," crimes that could be deterred by more or better policing. Repressible crimes are distinct from the type of violence that presumably no amount of law enforcement can prevent, either because of the nature of the offense or because it occurs behind closed doors. Domestic violence probably would be with us even if a cop stood on every street corner at all hours of the day and night; a certain amount of reckless driving or fighting in bars is inescapable regardless of police deployment. But crimes committed in public by people barely known to each other are less likely to happen if the culprit fears apprehension and prosecution.

Of the murders in Los Angeles this year, police estimate that half were gang crimes, and most of those are considered repressible. Smart intervention, focused community programs and thoughtful policing already have produced significant declines in gang crime, and can continue to protect this city from its cost. Gangs may be a permanent fixture of urban American life, but endemic gang violence need not be. Los Angeles is proving it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-crime-20101228,0,5192476,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Arkansas: Prison Population Grows

Arkansas' prison population increased in 2009 despite a decline for the first time in decades in the national average, according to recently released federal data. And the state's inmate number has continued its steady rise in 2010.

The state prison system has grown by an average of 114 people a month through November, said Dina Tyler, a state prisons spokeswoman.

State prison populations in the United States declined 0.2 percent in 2009, the first drop in the number of state prisoners since 1977, according to Justice Department figures released this month. Arkansas' state and federal prison population grew from 14,716 on Dec. 31, 2008, to 15,208 the same day a year later — a 3.3 percent increase, the data show.

The state prison system's population on Dec. 21 was 16,268 inmates, which was 1,715 people over capacity, said Ray Hobbs, director of the Department of Correction. Ninety-three percent of the inmates are men.

The federal figures showed that 24 states reported declines in prison populations during 2009, including California, Michigan and Texas. States with the highest increases were Pennsylvania, Florida, Louisiana and Alabama. Arkansas had the seventh-highest prison population growth in the nation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/us/28brfs-PRISONPOPULA_BRF.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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Inside a Chicago murder

By FRANK MAIN

“I think we have a fresh one, guys.”

Sgt. Sam Cirone had barely spoken the words, and he was out the door of Area 5 Homicide at Grand and Central.

Detectives Tony Noradin and Don Falk were right behind. They grabbed their bulletproof vests off brass hooks on a wall and headed to their unmarked cruiser.

Noradin was tapping the steering wheel when the first details crackled over the police radio:

The victim: Loreto Miguel . . . Shot in the head at 22:07 hours — 10:07 p.m. . . . Happened at 2936 W. Palmer on the Northwest Side . . . Transported to Norwegian American Hospital . . . Pronounced dead there at 22:27 hours.

Noradin hit the gas.

“Told you it was gonna be tonight,” he said to Falk as the blue flashing lights on their Ford Crown Vic lit up the balmy summer night of July 15, 2009.

Windows down, the A.C. off, tie flapping in the wind, Noradin steered to the address where a crime scene — and another of the mysteries that fill their working lives — awaited.

Each of the detectives was clad in crisp button-down shirt and tie. Each had two pens clipped to a shirt pocket. And there was a handgun and silver star on their belts. It all screamed: homicide detective. On the street, everyone knows that look. When the detectives ride into a crime-ridden neighborhood, shouts of “yo, homicide!” greet them.

Their attire is a sign of respect for the grieving families — and also of their status as members of the most elite of the Chicago Police Department's detective ranks.

Partners since 2007, Noradin and Falk together have investigated more than 30 murders. They've solved about half. It's not enough for them, or their victims' families. But it's good: Last year, fewer than a third of the city's 461 murders were closed.

For four months, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter and photographer shadowed the partners and got a glimpse of what they're up against in a city where nobody sees anything and the murder rate, though declining over the past decade, still outpaces New York and Los Angeles.

‘Two eyeballs'

Sgt. Cirone beat his detectives to the murder scene — a sidewalk on Palmer Street east of Humboldt Boulevard near Logan Square. A church, St. Sylvester's, stood across the street, and Palmer Square, a leafy park, was just to the west.

From their apartment windows, neighbors gawked.

Waist-high yellow police tape kept the curious away.

A smaller triangle of red tape stretched from a wrought-iron fence to a Toyota Corolla and back, encircling a pool of blood on the sidewalk where Loreto Miguel's head rested on the pavement until the ambulance whisked him away.

The red tape told even the beat cops: Stay out. To keep any evidence from getting trampled, only the forensic investigators and homicide detectives could step inside here.

Cirone walked up to Noradin and Falk and head-nodded to the back seats of two squad cars.

“You have two ‘eyeballs,' ” Cirone said. “They look like yuppies, legit.”

Noradin approached one of the cars and Falk the other. The witnesses were shaken. One was crying. But both talked. They'd heard shots. One saw the killer pull the trigger but didn't know him, had never seen him before.

Noradin and Falk stepped away to talk with another detective who tallied up what they had so far:

Loreto Miguel, a known gang member, was coming back to his neighborhood from the lakefront. He and another known gang member walked north on Humboldt Boulevard, past the church, and crossed Palmer Street. A dark-skinned man on a bicycle shouted something at Loreto, then fired a single shot into the back of his skull from just a few feet away. Loreto, a cell phone in his hand, crumpled onto the sidewalk, his blood and his life quickly ebbing.

Noradin nodded at the dry recital of the facts. He jotted notes on one of the “general progress report” forms he carries around in a blue-vinyl folder emblazoned with the star of the Chicago Police Department logo.

A patrol officer said there were two surveillance cameras in the area. Noradin and Falk, as the lead detectives on the case, would check later with the building owners to see if the cameras had captured the killing.

Other detectives joined them to fan out and ask neighbors if they'd seen or heard anything. Nobody had.

The forensic investigators — just like the ones you see on TV — snapped photos to capture the scene.

As soon as they shot their last picture, somebody radioed the fire department for a “wash down” of the blood.

One of the witnesses turned to Noradin and asked, quietly, “Could someone make sure I get home safely?”

“Of course,” the detective said, and he escorted the witness through the police tape.

Falk, always upbeat, offered his take of things so far: “We're ahead of the game. Usually at this point, we're trying to get someone to say anything. Most people don't stick around. We already have two good witnesses.”

‘At home . . . I'm Sherlock Holmes'

When it comes to remembering faces, Noradin is better than his partner. Falk is better at names.

When they're heading to a crime scene, Falk scans for cars before they go through the red lights. When he says “clear,” Noradin goes.

Noradin is better with a computer than a lot of the detectives. When a less-experienced detective wants to know how to search for a suspect's prior addresses, Noradin is the go-to guy.

Falk is the joker. Like a lot of cops, he makes cracks at crime scenes to ease the tension. One time, the partners got a call: body parts in an alley. Inside a garbage can, they found a heart, lungs, stomach and intestines. It stank like five-day-old fish. Neighbors who came over to check it out got sick. Some of the detectives there smoked cigars to try to mask the stench. It turned out to be from an animal.

“If it's a deer, we should call it ‘Jane Doe,' ” Falk joked.

Noradin, 48, is a tournament-level bowler who once rolled a perfect game — 300. He worked at a car dealer before joining the department at the ripe old age of 31. “I brought some maturity to the job,” he said.

Falk, 42, joined the department soon after college. He's married, with four young kids — and likes telling Noradin about the hobby he shares with them: raising geckos. When his kids act up, he employs his interrogation skills on them, putting them in separate rooms and interviewing them until he gets the truth.

“At home,” Falk said, “they think I'm Sherlock Holmes.”

Noradin and Falk are both alums of city high schools — Taft and Lane Tech — and Falk went on to graduate from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in criminal justice.

But they got their real schooling working as street cops on the West Side. Noradin was a patrolman in the Austin District and Falk in the Grand-Central District. They learned the language of the gang-bangers they'd lock up:

These days, they spend a lot of time on the street but also a lot of time back at Area 5 Homicide. In the office, they spend hours on reports — and fixing each other's writing.

“This says, ‘The gun was in his hand,' ” Noradin told his partner one day. “Which one? Do we know?” And later: “This sentence is a little choppy.”

“We're careful,” Falk said. “People say we write pretty good reports.”

As homicide detectives, the partners have become accustomed to dealing with death. But even as patrol officers, they'd haul dead bodies to the morgue.

“It sounds cold-hearted,” said Falk, “but death is just part of the job — like driving a car.”

These same detectives also will say “God bless you” when someone sneezes and hold doors for people who come in to the police station. And they'll leave their squad car gassed-up and clean for the next detectives — unlike the car that was left for them with a half-smoked cigar in the ashtray on the day Loreto Miguel was killed.

Victim No. 42

The partners finished up at the scene just after midnight. Then, it was time to go to the hospital to identify their victim.

“I'm running out of gas,” said Noradin, who'd gotten only a few hours of sleep because he'd had to be in court early that morning.

While other detectives interviewed Loreto's friends back at Area 5 Homicide, Noradin and Falk crowded into a stuffy room in Norwegian American Hospital on North Francisco with the two forensic investigators on the case.

Loreto's body, covered in white, blood-specked sheets, lay on a wheeled, stainless-steel bed.

Noradin snapped on a pair of latex gloves.

He started his inspection at Loreto's feet, and worked his way up to his head.

He lifted the sheet to expose an “Orchestra Albany” gang tattoo on Loreto's left ankle. “Crazy Life” was tattooed on his right ankle.

Noradin held up Loreto's limp left arm, which was tattooed with “Sacramento.” “Lyndale” was inked on his right arm.

Sacramento and Lyndale — an intersection two blocks from where he was killed in the Palmer Square neighborhood. “Their turf,” said Noradin.

Loreto's face remained covered as the forensics guys took his hands into theirs to fingerprint him. Then, they took wipes to his hands to clean away the black ink.

Noradin walked to the other side of the bed and uncovered the 5-foot-2 teenager's baby face. He gently took Loreto's head into his hands and tilted it to examine the entry wound — a gory hole at the back of his head, behind the right ear.

Blood was still leaking from a hole in his left eyebrow where the skin had been ripped outward by the bullet.

“Looks like he was shot in the back of the head,” Noradin said. “Exited above his eye.”

The forensic guys photographed Loreto's head and his tattoos. Then, they lifted Loreto into a black body bag. Noradin zipped it up.

Falk itemized the clothes that Loreto wore on the last day of his life: Ecko Unlimited blue jeans; white T-shirt; red-black-and-gray Nikes.

The detectives stepped out and closed the door. Noradin waved over a nurse.

“Could you have him cleaned up a little bit before the family views the body?” he asked.

Minutes later, Loreto's relatives got there. Outside the room where his body lay, they hugged each other and wailed in grief.

In the next room over, a woman had just given birth. Her newborn cried.

The detectives left.

“I need some fresh air,” Noradin said, leaving other detectives to talk with the family.

He and Falk stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts for coffee at 2:30 a.m. and headed back to Area 5 Homicide. Back at the office, Falk ripped off his tie as soon as they walked in; Noradin, as usual, kept his on. They worked until 8 a.m. typing their initial reports.

After they left for home, a sergeant went up to the erasable-marker board on the wall behind Noradin's desk that listed every murder on the Northwest Side so far in 2009. He added Loreto's name to the list.

He was victim No. 42.

Next to the number, the sergeant printed Loreto's name in red, all in capital letters.

Red: unsolved.

Soon, Loreto's parents would show up at the station to demand: Why didn't the police have their son's killer yet?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/3004853-418/noradin-loreto-falk-homicide-chicago.html?print=true

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From Google News

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'Blue Alert' bill to catch cop killers becomes law on the 1st of the New Year

When officers need it most, a new legislative bill will allow them to tap into the amber alert system to get the public's help using Caltrans signs and emergency alert services.

The "Blue Alert" as it is called will be used to find suspects who have taken the life of an officer or assaulted an officer with a gun.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims says the system will arm the public with information about suspects who are desperate and dangerous.

Sheriff Mims said, "But where they escape from a situation, and they are on the run, they are not gonna hesitate to hurt the public, because they've already hurt or killed a deputy sheriff or police officer."

Senate bill 839 was signed into law three months ago by Governor Schwarzenegger.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says the Blue Alert can be a great tool as long as the information given to the public is discretionary and the system is used sparingly.

Chief Dyer said, "One of the things we've learned with the Amber Alert system is that if information is put out too often citizens become numb to it and that's why we want to reserve those types of cases for the most important. Well the same holds true for when an officer is seriously hurt or killed."

The new option is cost effective too, since the emergency system is already in place and will not be an additional cost to the public or the state.

A Blue Alert website will also be launched so anyone can log on to find out about a suspect or vehicle description.

Local police leaders agree the resource will allow the community to play a valuable role in making sure dangerous suspects end up in jail.

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=7867392&pt=print

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From the FBI

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The Year in Review

A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1

12/27/10

The FBI worked thousands of investigations during 2010, involving everything from extremists bent on terror to cyber thieves, financial fraudsters, violent gang leaders, drug dealers, and child predators. As the year comes to a close, we take our annual look back at some of the Bureau's most significant cases.

Part 1 focuses on our top investigative priority: protecting the nation from terrorist attack. Working with local, state, federal, and international partners—usually through our Joint Terrorism Task Forces—we thwarted a number of potential attacks on U.S. soil by lone offenders as well as organized groups.

Here are some of the top terror cases of 2010, in reverse chronological order:

Attempted bombing of Armed Forces recruiting center: A 21-year-old U.S. citizen earlier this month parked what he thought was an explosives-filled vehicle in front of a military recruiting center near Baltimore and tried to detonate it remotely. The bomb was fake, thanks to our undercover agents working the case. Details

Attempted bombing in Oregon: A naturalized U.S. citizen was arrested the day after Thanksgiving when he attempted to set off what he thought was a car bomb at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland. The 19-year-old had been the subject of a long-term undercover operation by the Bureau. Details

D.C. Metro bomb plot: In October, a 34-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen believed he was joining members of al Qaeda to plan multiple bombings of Metrorail stations in the Washington area. Instead, it was a sting. Farooque Ahmed researched peak rider periods so the attacks could cause mass casualties. Details

Al Shabaab indictments: In August—in Minnesota, Alabama, and California—two Americans were arrested and 12 others, including five U.S. citizens, were charged with terrorism offenses and providing material support to the Somali-based terrorist organization al Shabaab. Details

Northern Virginia man indicted: In July, 20-year-old Zachary Chesser—also known as Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee—told agents he twice attempted to travel to Somalia to join al Shabaab as a foreign fighter. On one of those occasions he tried to board a plane with his infant son as part of his “cover.” Details

Al Qaeda plotters indicted: In July, five senior members of al Qaeda were indicted for their roles in the 2009 plot against the New York subway system. Details

Missouri man guilty of supporting al Qaeda: In May, a 32-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen pled guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda and to bank fraud and money laundering. Details

Attempted bombing at Times Square: After a three-day nationwide manhunt, a naturalized U.S. citizen was arrested in May for an attempted bombing at New York City's famous tourist area. Details

Michigan militia group indicted: In March, nine members of a militia group called the Hutaree were charged with attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and related offenses. Details

Jihad Jane indicted: Also in March, U.S. citizen Colleen LaRose—also known as Jihad Jane—was indicted in Philadelphia for her role in recruiting jihadist fighters to commit murder overseas. A month later, a Colorado woman and colleague of LaRose's was indicted on similar charges. Details

Next: Fraud, espionage, corruption, and more

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/december/cases-122710/cases_122710

Jonathan Foster

Amber Alert Issued For 12-Year-Old Boy Missing Since Christmas Eve by: John Pape Dec 27, 2010 More than three days after 12-year-old Jonathan Foster went missing on Houston’s near north side, authorities have issued an Amber Alert. Foster was last seen near North Shepherd and 43rd Street in Houston just before 2 p.m. last Friday. The Amber Alert was issued shortly after 6 p.m. today.

The Amber Alert also included information that Foster may be in the company of “an adult female with a raspy voice.” No addition information on the female or a vehicle was released.

When last seen, Foster was wearing a tan-colored T-shirt with the images of a guitar and musical notes on it, blue jeans and black and white tennis shoes with a red stripe. He also had a gray zip-up hoodie style jacket.

Foster is a Caucasian male, 4-feet 8-inches tall, weighing about 100 pounds. He has light brown hair and blue eyes. He was also described as having a noticeable overbite and a scar on his left foot.

The boy sometimes goes by the nickname “JP.”

On Monday afternoon, Texas Equusearch conducted search for the boy using volunteers on foot and on ATVs to comb the area where Foster was last seen.

Anyone having information on Foster’s disappearance or possible whereabouts is asked to contact the Houston Police Department at 713-731-5223

http://www.fortbendnow.com/2010/12/27/49630

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Silas Rodriquez

Amber Alert issued for boy taken from Port Townsend home Officials said 8-year-old Silas Rodriquez was taken by his mother, but she does not have legal custody and is allowed to see him only during supervised visits. Port Townsend police are asking for the public's help locating a boy taken from a home on Sunday. Officials said 8-year-old Silas Rodriquez was taken by his mother, but she does not have legal custody and is allowed to see him only during supervised visits. Tiffany Rondeau, 31, allegedly took Silas during a visit with at her parents' house and is now refusing to bring the boy home or tell police where she is.

Silas was last seen wearing a blue and white football jersey with "Peyton Manning" printed on it, blue jeans and black Nike shoes with white socks.

Rondeau is white with brown hair and blue eyes, is about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds. She has a tattoos on her neck and left leg.

Police say Rondeau may be driving a white 1987 Honda Accord with Washington license 208-XNE or a 1992 maroon Dodge Caravan with license 169-PVW.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at 360-385-3831

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/112546744.html

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