Arraignment was delayed again Wednesday for a Ventura County man who allegedly stole a Los Angeles Police Department patrol SUV in Hollywood and led officers on a chase to the San Fernando Valley.
Ethan Rutland, 28, was charged Tuesday with one felony count each of driving or taking a law enforcement or fire department vehicle without consent and fleeing a pursuing peace officer’s motor vehicle while driving recklessly, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. His arraignment, originally planned Tuesday but delayed until Wednesday, was postponed again until Thursday.
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GARDENA (CNS) – A suspect was fatally wounded Wednesday in an officer-involved shooting in Gardena.
The shooting occurred just before 2:30 p.m. in the 13200 block of Van Ness Avenue, after officers responded to a shooting call in the area of Van Ness and El Segundo Boulevard, according to Gardena police.
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HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – Viewership for the second original episode of “Roseanne” since 1997 dropped 16.6 percent from the first to 15.397 million viewers, but was still last week’s most-watched prime-time television program.
CBS won six of seven nights between April 2 and Sunday and had five of the week’s eight programs to average more than 10 million viewers to be the most-watched network for the fifth consecutive week and 12th time in the 28-week-old prime-time television season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A pedestrian was struck and injured by a hit-and-run driver in South Los Angeles Wednesday while taking part in a vigil for a bicyclist who was killed at the same location a day earlier, also by a hit-and-run motorist.
The driver of a tan-colored Honda Accord drove through the vigil at the intersection of Manchester and Normandie avenues shortly after 1 p.m., Los Angeles police Officer Tony Im said.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing a potential criminal case against actor Kevin Spacey, a spokesman for the office confirmed Wednesday.
The potential case, which was presented April 5 by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, is being considered by a task force established by the District Attorney’s Office to review allegations of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A Russian citizen described as a big-game hunter and consultant to a Russian company that manufactures AK-47 assault rifles was sentenced Wednesday to time served — about 2 1/2 months — for trying to take a restricted rifle scope back to Moscow without a U.S. export license.
Evgeny Spiridonov, 40, was arrested in January at Los Angeles International Airport following his attendance at a gun show in Las Vegas. He had checked his luggage, containing the high-tech night vision scope, and was attempting to board an Aeroflot flight for Moscow, where he lives, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved a $4.9 billion contract for the design and construction of an Automated People Mover system at Los Angeles International Airport that will carry passengers among terminals and connect with nearby rail lines.
The 30-year contract, approved on a 14-0 vote, was awarded to a consortium of companies known as LAX Integrated Express Solutions, and also covers operation and maintenance of the 2.25-mile elevated guideway.
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NORTH HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – A man suffered burn injuries and a woman was hospitalized with smoke inhalation following a raging fire in a two-story North Hollywood apartment early Wednesday morning.
Residents and passersby ran through the 26-unit building at 7423 N. Lankershim Blvd., knocking on doors and alerting the occupants to the fire, which was reported at 1:13 a.m. and took 87 firefighters 38 minutes to knock down.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Wednesday praised a state bill that seeks to punish retailers who do business with trucking companies at the state’s ports with a history of labor abuses.
SB 1402, or the “Dignity in the Driver’s Seat” bill, was introduced Tuesday by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens. The bill is aimed at making retailers jointly liable for violations of state labor and employment laws when they hire port trucking companies with unsatisfied judgments for failure to pay wages, imposing unlawful expenses on employees, failure to remit payroll taxes or provide workers’ compensation insurance, misclassifying employees or other violations.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles City Council approved a $3.9 million payment Wednesday to the parents of a man who was shot to death by police in a hospital emergency room after officers said he lunged at them with a stool and tried to take one of their guns.
The City Council voted 12-1 to resolve the litigation brought by Graciela Herrera and Ruben Ordaz, who accused the Los Angeles Police Department of excessive use of force and negligence in the death of their son, who was shot and killed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance on Dec. 19, 2015.
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POMONA (CNS) – A man who crashed a car into an SUV in Industry, killing that vehicle’s driver, while fleeing with two accomplices after a residential break-in pleaded no contest Wednesday to first-degree murder and burglary charges and was immediately sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
Anthony Marcel Quisenberry, 37, entered his plea after jury selection had already begun in his trial in a Pomona courtroom, according to Sarah Ardalani of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Rite-Aid was ordered to pay $6 million to a Covina woman after a Los Angeles jury found that the pharmacy technician was wrongfully fired in 2007, after more than two decades with the company, after she complained about harassment by a supervisor, court papers obtained Wednesday show.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury reached its verdict March 27 in the wrongful termination lawsuit brought in November 2008 by Maria Martinez of Covina, who also said she was subjected to intentional infliction of emotional distress.
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WEST HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – Mitzi Shore, the mother of actor Pauly Shore and longtime operator of The Comedy Store — where many of the biggest names in comedy launched their careers — died Wednesday at age 87.
Shore died at 4:42 a.m., according to Pauly Shore.
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SUN VALLEY (CNS) – A man fled into a Sun Valley neighborhood Wednesday at the end of a vehicle pursuit in an allegedly stolen BMW that involved at least two crashes.
The chase began at 5:11 p.m. in the 10200 block of Arminta Street and ended six minutes later, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Drake Madison.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Mobile traffic applications such as Waze are causing a dangerous flood of traffic to be funneled onto tiny Los Angeles side streets, and the city should develop ways to curb the apps from diverting drivers off of major thoroughfares, a Los Angeles city councilman said Wednesday.
“Residents in my district and throughout the city have experienced a major surge in dangerous and disruptive cut-through traffic in recent years,” said Paul Krekorian, who represents parts of the San Fernando Valley, including Studio City and North Hollywood.
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CULVER CITY (CNS) – A 25-year-old man killed last week in a Culver City wreck had been fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run crash, police said Wednesday.
The driver’s Honda Civic had sideswiped a parked vehicle in the 4100 block of Higuera Avenue just prior to crashing at a high rate of speed into a tree on the median at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Caroline Avenue about 4:30 a.m. Thursday, according to Culver City police Lt. Troy Dunlap.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A Los Angeles Superior Court jury ordered Chevron USA Inc. to pay more than $1 million to a former contract worker at the company’s El Segundo refinery, who said she was wrongfully passed over at age 54 for an open permanent employee position in favor of two younger candidates in their 30s who were less qualified.
The panel deliberated for about two hours Monday before awarding Maria Hoffer $702,360 in compensatory damages. The same day the panel added an additional $300,000 in punitive damages.
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EAST LOS ANGELES (CNS) – County Supervisor Hilda Solis said Wednesday she will be offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the person who stabbed and critically injured a fellow passenger aboard a transit bus in East Los Angeles.
The attack took place about 10:15 a.m. Monday in the 5700 block of Whittier Boulevard aboard a Montebello Public Transit bus, according to Deputy Sara Rodriguez of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
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VAN NUYS (CNS) – A man who was allegedly armed with a knife and set his jacket on fire barricaded himself inside a Denny’s restaurant bathroom in Van Nuys for about six hours Wednesday before surrendering.
Officers responded around 4:20 a.m. to the area of the Airtel Hotel in Van Nuys on a report of a man with a knife, police said. According to reports from the scene, the man had set his jacket on fire and scrambled up a tree.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John David Lord has been publicly admonished for his conduct when presiding over a misdemeanor domestic violence case about three years ago, the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance announced Wednesday.
The commission found that the judge’s comments to a reporter that were subsequently published in a March 26, 2015, article in the Grunion Gazette newspaper — after the defendant was convicted but while he was still awaiting a hearing on his motion for a new trial — violated a canon barring public comment by jurists on pending cases.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joined mayors from California’s 10 other largest cities Wednesday in Sacramento to voice support for legislation that would allocate $1.5 billion from the state budget to combat homelessness.
“Cities are on the front lines in the fight against homelessness, and Los Angeles is already investing billions of dollars to get people off the streets,” Garcetti said. “But we can’t do it alone — AB 3171 would give us the state funding we need to get all of our unsheltered into homes as soon as possible.”
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A transient pleaded no contest to trespassing on a Beverly Hills residence owned by singer Taylor Swift and was ordered to stay away from the property, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Justin Christoph Lilly, 23, was also sentenced to three days in jail and three years probation in connection with his no contest plea Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of trespassing and refusing to leave private property, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles City Council approved a pair of ordinances Wednesday aimed at speeding the creation of housing for the homeless and encouraging the conversion of motels into supportive housing.
The ordinances are the latest in a series of moves designed to combat homelessness, which rose by 20 percent in the city last year to more than 34,000 people.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The prosecution announced Wednesday that it won’t seek the death penalty against a man charged with the stabbing deaths of two men last year at a private social club in Chinatown.
With capital punishment off the table, Vinh Dao would face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of the Jan. 26, 2017, killings of Tony Young and Kim Kong Yun, both 64, at the Hop Sing Tong Benevolent Association at 428 Gin Ling Way.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles City Council signaled Wednesday that it wants to take a more active role in the development of federal and state autonomous vehicle regulations, and supports an increase of local government access to AV data.
Autonomous vehicles were recently approved for road tests in California, and a series of fatal accidents involving the autos have raised questions about their reliability.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) -The Los Angeles City Council moved Wednesday to develop a plan to more closely monitor the conditions of streets and sidewalks as the city grapples with a significant increase in the level of lawsuit payouts over the state of its roadways.
The motion directs the Bureau of Street Services to develop a set of policies and procedures to more efficiently monitor known conditions in the city’s streets and sidewalks that could be potentially dangerous, identify the best method to fix them and a system to track progress.
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SANTA ANA (CNS) – A 26-year-old Santa Ana transient was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of breaking into a condominium and showing up at the same unit just over a day later.
Isaias Vargas-Martinez was taken into custody early Wednesday morning and booked on suspicion of burglary, according to Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case of a gang member sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting deaths of two men in a convenience store parking lot in Panorama City.
Angel Santana, now 33, was convicted in September 2016 of two counts of first-degree murder for the July 17, 2014, killings of 19-year-old Deshawn Miles and Maron States, 26, along with one count of attempted murder involving a third victim who was shot in the leg.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made it official Wednesday, announcing that Dodger Stadium will play host to the 2020 All-Star Game, the first time it has hosted the mid-season classic since 1980.
“There were really three important things that distinguished the Dodger bid,” Manfred said during a Dodger Stadium news conference. “First of all, we thought Los Angeles would be a great place to showcase the young stars in our game. Secondly is where we are today. Dodger Stadium is one of our iconic stadiums and it’s particularly appropriate that we bring an All-Star Game here.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department civilian employee reached a settlement in his lawsuit alleging he was retaliated against for exposing favorable treatment given to an inmate accused of stealing former Dodger catcher Jim Campanis’ 1988 World Series ring.
Papers filed by lawyers for ex-jailer Anthony Serena in Los Angeles Superior Court state the case he brought against Los Angeles County was resolved, but no terms were divulged.
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AGOURA HILLS (CNS) – Four young men who allegedly were part of a “knock-knock” burglary crew were arrested in Agoura Hills, authorities said Wednesday.
The suspects were taken into custody about 11 a.m. Tuesday after detectives assigned to a burglary task force saw a black Nissan Altima traveling slowly through an Agoura Hills neighborhood, according to the sheriff’s department. The car stopped in front of a residence, and three men got out and went into the side yard of a home, while the fourth remained in the sedan.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A former substitute special education teacher’s assistant was sentenced Wednesday to 364 days in county jail, ordered to register as a sex offender and complete a 52-week sex offender class for inappropriate interactions with a female middle school student.
Superior Court Judge Michael D. Abzug also ordered Joshua Jacob Estrada, 26, to serve five years on probation and not to contact the victim, whom authorities said he touched inappropriately during physical education classes in November 2016 at David Wark Griffith Middle School in Los Angeles.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A dancer who appeared on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” reached a settlement with her sister and brother-in-law in her lawsuit alleging they misappropriated and hid assets from her while acting as her manager.
Olivia “Chachi” Gonzales’ Los Angeles Superior Court suit was filed last June against Dominique Gonzales Ray and her husband, Clinton Ray, and Chachi Gonzales Brands LLC, alleging breach of contract and that the defendants put their interests ahead of hers. The suit also sought rescission of the plaintiff’s contracts with the Rays, restitution and punitive damages.
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POMONA (CNS) – An ex-convict was arrested Wednesday at his home in the San Bernardino County community of Montclair on suspicion of providing drugs and weapons to Pomona gang members, police said.
Tom McGhuey, 59, of Montclair was taken into custody after officers served a search warrant at his home in the 10600 block of Silicon Avenue about 12:05 a.m., the Pomona Police Department reported.
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VAN NUYS (CNS) – A SWAT team was sent Wednesday to arrest a knife-wielding man who was barricaded in the restroom of a Denny’s restaurant in Van Nuys.
Officers went to the 16400 block of Sherman Way about 4:20 a.m. on a report of a man with a knife, and when they contacted the suspect, he ran into the restaurant, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Strong winds capable of producing gusts of 60 and 70 miles per hour are expected from Wednesday evening through Thursday night along the Interstate 5 Corridor in the San Gabriel Mountains and in the Antelope Valley, forecasters said.
“The strongest winds will be from early Thursday morning through Thursday afternoon,” warned a National Weather Service statement.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose one-tenth of a cent Wednesday to $3.579 after being unchanged for three consecutive days.
The average price is at its highest amount since Aug. 29, 2015 and a half-cent more than one week ago, 13.2 cents higher than one month ago and 54.5 cents greater than one year ago. It has risen 42.9 cents since the start of the year.