Law Enforcement

Reward offered in Encino mansion murder of banker Harvey Cohen
Los Angeles city and police officials are expected to announce a reward next week for information leading to an arrest in connection with the mysterious murder of an elderly man in his Encino mansion. Eighty-year-old investment banker Harvey Cohen was found by his wife in the early-morning hours of Sept. 19, lying on the floor of their kitchen at the home in the 5300 block of Andasol Avenue.
Los Angeles Daily News

Brothers plead not guilty in Reseda schoolyard stabbing death
Two alleged gang members ordered to stand trial on charges that they stabbed an 18-year-old student to death on a school playground in Reseda pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Anthony Carpio, 17, and Michael Steven Carpio, 19, allegedly attacked Kevin Orellana as he was playing handball at Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda last April. Orellana was punched and then eventually stabbed with a knife by the younger Carpio brother, according to a prosecutor.
Los Angeles Times

'Revenge porn' conspiracy leads to Studio City arrest
A Studio City man was arrested by federal agents Thursday, charged with hacking hundreds of personal email accounts, stealing nude photos of the victims and then selling the images to a so-called "revenge porn" website. Charles Evens, 25, was allegedly paid thousands of dollars to locate potential victims on Facebook and other social media sites and then hack their Google or Yahoo email accounts, steal the personal pictures and hand them over to Hunter Moore, the operator of now-defunct website isanyoneup.com.
Los Angeles Daily News

LAPD Harbor station evacuated, bomb squad called
The Los Angeles Police Harbor Division station was evacuated as a precaution after someone brought in a "military ordnance or replica," police said late Thursday. "Officers didn't know if it was real or fake so they called the bomb squad," said Officer Bruce Borihanh. "It's easier to move people" than to risk a possible explosion, he said. Borihanh did not know the specific nature of the ordnance or its origins. Traffic was snarled for miles around the station at 2175 John S. Gibson Blvd. while the ordnance was tested.
Los Angeles Daily News

LAPD asks for help with Boyle Heights shooting
Los Angeles police asked for the public's help Wednesday in solving the shooting death of a 25-year-old man in Boyle Heights. Oscar Alberto Felix was fatally shot in the 600 block of North Fickett Street about 5:20 p.m. Friday and found on the porch of a home, police said. It was unclear if the shooter was on foot or in a car, and detectives were stumped as to a motive. Anyone with more information about the homicide was asked to call detectives at the Hollenbeck Station at (323) 342-8900.
City News Service

Ex-Universal exec's excessive force case headed to the jury
Former Universal co-chairman Brian Mulligan's federal civil case against two Los Angeles police officers and the city of Los Angeles will go to the jury first thing Friday. Both sides rested their cases on Thursday and the lawyers gave final summaries to the eight person jury at the end of the four-day trial. Judge Gary Klausner said he will give final instructions to the jury of five women and three men early Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, after which they will begin deliberations in the case.
Hollywood Reporter

Immigration

Shackles to come off immigrants during deportation hearings
Federal immigration authorities settled a lawsuit Thursday, agreeing to stop routinely shackling immigrants at the wrists, ankles and waist during deportation hearings in San Francisco. The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2011 on behalf of detainees in Northern California who have been denied bail while being held for possible deportation, either as illegal entrants or as legal immigrants convicted of felonies.
San Francisco Chronicle

Guns

Smith & Wesson to halt California sales of new semi-auto pistols
Firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson will no longer ship new semi-automatic pistols to California, preferring to turn away from the nation's most populous market rather than comply with a controversial new gun law. The publicly-traded company posted the announcement on its website in reaction to the state implementing Assembly Bill 1471, which requires new or redesigned semi-automatic pistols have a "microstamping" feature that indelibly marks bullet casings with a unique code when a gun is fired.
Sacramento Bee

Prisons & Jails

Brown asks federal judges for more time to reduce prison crowding
Gov. Jerry Brown is again asking federal judges for more time to reduce crowding in California's prisons, this time proposing to release prisoners early if the state misses future deadlines. In papers filed in U.S. District Court late Thursday, Brown asked that an April 2014 deadline to lower crowding to safe levels be pushed back two years.
Los Angeles Times

Cameras bolster jailhouse force investigations
Cameras installed inside Los Angeles County jails have been a powerful tool in vetting allegations of deputies abusing inmates, according to a watchdog report released Thursday. For years, critics of the Sheriff's Department's jails pushed the department to install cameras in the lockups since independent witnesses are rarely present when deputies use force. In 2011, following an onslaught of inmate abuse allegations, the department began installing hundreds of cameras.
Los Angeles Times