Critics of a Los Angeles Police Department program that identifies potential terrorist activities called for it to be dismantled Tuesday, complaining that people of some races and ethnicities are unfairly targeted. An audit from the Police Commission’s inspector general said the LAPD mostly followed…
As he was leaving office in December, former Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas secretly blocked five deputies who worked with jail informants from being formally designated as liars and having their names released, in theory, to defense attorneys. In a Dec.20 letter released Tuesday by new District Attorney Todd Spitzer, Rackauckas tells the Sheriff’s…
An Orange County sheriff’s deputy on Tuesday denied telling a drug-addled informant to shoot up with heroin a man accused of stabbing to death a bar patron in Laguna Niguel shortly before officers took the suspect into custody. During testimony at a hearing on a defense request to dismiss murder charges against Craig Matthew Tanber, Deputy…
Planet 13 in Las Vegas has attracted international attention since it opened perhaps the world’s biggest marijuana store last fall, with 3,000 people shopping each day for newly legal cannabis products while surrounded by light shows and interactive art displays that feel natural a few miles off The Strip. Now Planet 13 has announced that…
As summer-like heat baked Southern California this week, officials cautioned pet owners not to leave their furever friends in locked cars with windows even partially open — and don’t forget about children and elderly people, either. And though high temperatures are expected to decrease by 10 to 15 degrees by the end of the week…
Attorneys for Charles “Chase” Merritt said Tuesday they do not plan to call witnesses in the life-or-death penalty phase of Merritt’s trial that started the day after he was convicted of murdering the four-member McStay family of Fallbrook. The defense team said it instead planned to appeal to any possible lingering doubts held by the…
The county is ready to let go of its old courthouse property in Laguna Niguel, which city leaders hope will become the heart of the city’s downtown. The Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed last week to a lease deal that could result in a $210 million mixed-use development, with a big food hall, commercial…
A longtime Los Angeles police officer died after complications in surgery to repair an injury tied to a 2015 traffic collision while on duty, police said Tuesday. Officer Esmeralda Ramirez, 49, died Sunday, the department’s 210th officer to die from an injury received in the line of duty, the Los…
In a damning report on the excessive use of pepper spray in Los Angeles County’s juvenile detention facilities, an internal watchdog in March made numerous recommendations to improve the department’s use-of-force policies. One key idea: adding scores of closed-circuit video cameras to keep digital…
Two teenage girls were sexually assaulted in Santa Ana in incidents that happened 25 blocks apart and within hours of each other. But investigators have determined the assaults are not related. A suspect has been arrested in one of the assaults, which occurred Monday morning and caused the victim…
