Author: City News Service

BOYLE HEIGHTS, Calif. – A woman was fatally stabbed  Friday evening in Boyle Heights. Deputies were called at approximately 7:55 p.m. to the 100 block of South Townsend Avenue, where they found the victim, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. The woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. There was no further information immediately available. Anyone with information about this stabbing was asked to call the Sheriff’s  Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submitted online at lacrimestoppers.org.

LOS ANGELES – A man was stabbed to death in an unincorporated area near South Gate and detectives Saturday are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death. Deputies responded at approximately 9:15 p.m. Friday to 1200 99th St. north of Century Boulevard where they found the victim, the Sheriff’s Information Bureau reported. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. There was no further information available. Anyone with information about this stabbing was asked to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submitted online at lacrimestoppers.org.

INDUSTRY, Calif. – A person was killed in a fiery single-vehicle collision near the Industry-Pomona border, the California Highway Patrol said Saturday. CHP officers responded at 10:25 p.m. Friday to the transition road from the northbound San Gabriel River (605) Freeway to the eastbound Pomona (60) Freeway where they learned the victim crashed into a tree and the vehicle burst into flames. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, Brandt said. The crash closed the freeway transition road for several hours.

LOS ANGELES – The State Bar is asking a judge to order a “confidential witness” to testify and produce documents in connection with an internal investigation into whether its own employees may have assisted troubled former attorney Thomas Girardi escape discipline over the years. Girardi was disbarred earlier this year by the state Supreme Court and ordered to pay $2.28 million, plus 10% interest, for funds allegedly stolen from clients. The State Bar on Jan. 10 had recommended that Girardi’s law license be taken away, in large part for allegedly misappropriating nearly $2 million that belonged to the minor children…

LOS ANGELES – USC will conduct its annual Zero Waste Game Saturday evening when the Trojans football team faces Arizona State at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, competing with the other Pac-12 Conference universities to divert waste from landfills to recycling or composting. The game is part of the Pac-12’s Zero Waste Challenge, a competition at a selected football and men’s basketball game. The diversion counts toward 50% of determining the winner. Developing partnerships counts for 25%. The remaining 25% is based on “innovation credit,” how the university identifies the impacts of the competition through engagement with the campus, tailgates,…

LOS ANGELES – A man riding a bicycle who was killed in a hit-and- run crash in the south Los Angeles area was identified Saturday. The coroner’s office identified James Ledford, 72, as the victim. Ledford died at the scene of his injuries. The crash occurred about 11 p.m. Thursday at 61st and Wall streets, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. The vehicle was described as a possible white 1996 to 2022 GMC Savana or Chevrolet Express commercial panel van with a roof rack and a storage tube or box on its roof,…

LOS ANGELES – A person was killed in a freeway collision involving a minivan early Saturday in downtown Los Angeles, authorities said. Officers from the California Highway Patrol were called at 3 a.m. to the southbound Hollywood (101) Freeway and Spring Street where they found the crash, said the CHP. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash closed three lanes of the freeway for several hours.

LOS ANGELES – A man was shot to death in a drive -by shooting in an unincorporated area near South Gate and detectives Saturday are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death. Deputies from the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station responded at approximately 9:30 p.m. Friday to 1200 99th St. north of Century Boulevard where they found the victim lying in the street suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, the Sheriff’s Information Bureau reported. During the investigation detectives learned the victim was standing near a parked car at the location where he was shot when a light colored mid- sized sport utility…

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty to throwing rocks through the windows of two Santa Ana churches and was sentenced to 208 days in jail and freed from custody because he had already served that much time behind bars awaiting trial, according to court records obtained Friday. Omar Rico Olivares pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of vandalism and two counts of vandalism of religious property, all felonies. Olivares accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Cheri Pham, who ordered him to stay away from the churches as well as the Gospel Church of…

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A woman in custody on charges of grand theft died while hospitalized, Orange County sheriff’s officials said Friday. Margarita Luna, who was 44, was taken to a hospital on Wednesday and was pronounced dead Thursday, sheriff’s officials said. She was booked into jail on Sept. 11 by Costa Mesa police for grand theft, deputies said. A cause of death is awaiting toxicology tests.

By BILL HETHERMAN LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles Police Department captain who complained that management ignored her requests for the entire department to be informed that a widely distributed photo of a topless woman resembling her was in fact not her image was awarded $4 million Friday by a jury. The amount awarded to Capt. Lillian Carranza was half of what her attorney, Gregory W. Smith, had recommended during final arguments to the Los Angeles Superior Court panel on Thursday. Carranza maintained in her harassment suit that her emotional fallout from the photo caused her cardiologist to double her…

LOS ANGELES – An international hacking syndicate claiming responsibility for a cyberattack that forced a shutdown of Los Angeles Unified School District computer systems has set a Monday deadline for the district pay a ransom or the organization will publish undisclosed information it claims it obtained in the hack. In a dark web post detected and reprinted by Brett Callow of the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, the hacking syndicate Vice Society listed the LAUSD as one of “our partners,” and stated, “The papers will be published by London time on October 4, 2022 at 12:00 a.m.” The post did not give…

LOS ANGELES – A measure that would raise the minimum wage of some healthcare workers in Los Angeles to $25 an hour will go before voters in 2024, with the City Council opting Friday to place a referendum petition on the ballot. The ordinance raising the health care minimum wage was the result of an initiative petition drive presented to the council in June. The council adopted the ordinance rather than submit the issue to voters, and it was signed into law by Mayor Eric Garcetti. But the “No on the Los Angeles Unequal Pay Measure” group subsequently collected enough…

PASADENA – A recent drug investigation in Pasadena resulted in the seizure of more than 300,000 fentanyl pills, including a number of candy- colored tablets dubbed “rainbow fentanyl,” authorities said Friday. The seizure on Saturday included 328,000 fentanyl pills, two kilos of cocaine, a “ghost gun,” and several packages of brightly colored fentanyl pills, the Pasadena Police Department reported. “Rainbow fentanyl — pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” said Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration.…

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH A man who was convicted of murdering three men and wounding four other people in a shooting at a bowling alley in Torrance while he was on parole was sentenced Friday to three consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. Jurors found Reginald Leander Wallace, now 51, of Los Angeles, guilty June 24 of three counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Michael Radford, 20, and Robert Meekins and Astin Edwards, both 28, just before midnight Jan. 4, 2019 at Gable House Bowl at 22501 Hawthorne Blvd. The panel also convicted Wallace…