A pedestrian was fatally injured by a car Thursday in Tustin, and officers who subsequently went to the home of the driver to notify his family that he was hospitalized found a body inside the residence, police said.
The pedestrian was struck about 7:10 a.m. while walking on a sidewalk on Newport Avenue where the roadway crosses beneath the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, said Tustin police Sgt. Sean Whiteley.
******
SANTA ANA (CNS) – A disbarred attorney pleaded not guilty Thursday to stealing about $210,000 from a client and continuing to practice law even after he lost his license.
David Allen Hiersekorn was arrested Wednesday on charges filed March 12. The former Placentia-based attorney is charged with practicing law while suspended and grand theft, both felonies. He also faces sentencing enhancement allegations for property damage exceeding $200,000 and $65,000 as well as aggravated white collar crime between $100,000 to $500,000.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Police Thursday released a sketch of a suspect who attacked and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy who was left unconscious during a church event in Boyle Heights.
The victim and his family were attending an event about 3:30 p.m. on March 17 at a church near the 1700 block of Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A 40-year-old man who was struck by a vehicle Thursday morning on a freeway transition road in the Boyle Heights area may have been the victim of a homicide, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The victim was “situated prone within the roadway” about 4:55 a.m. when he was struck by a Lexus sedan on the transition road from the northbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway to the northbound Hollywood (101) Freeway north of Marietta Street, CHP Officer Roberto Gomez said.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The city and county of Los Angeles announced Thursday they have joined Alzheimer’s Greater Los Angeles on a campaign to spread awareness of dementia.
The campaign aims to change the way people think, talk and act about the illness, and to encourage county and city employees — along with members of the public — to become “Dementia Friends.”
******
UNIVERSAL CITY (CNS) – Investigators Thursday sought other possible victims of a 34-year-old man suspected of exposing himself to someone at Universal CityWalk on New Year’s Day and committing other sexual acts against minors.
Hershel Korngut, an audiologist at a hearing care facility in Tarzana, allegedly exposed himself to a woman at CityWalk on Jan. 1 and was arrested later the same week, according to Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – An Inglewood man was sentenced Thursday to six months under house arrest for smuggling five monitor lizards into the United States — two of which died while they were being shipped.
Gayle Simpson, 34, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real to serve three years of federal probation. Simpson pleaded guilty in September to a single federal count of smuggling monitor lizards that were shipped from the Philippines.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Jurors deadlocked Thursday in the trial of three of the four men charged in the killing of a 13-year-old Whittier girl who was taken to a remote area of Elysian Park, where she was raped and shot to death nearly 17 years ago.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler declared a mistrial after jurors reported that they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the murder charge against Santos Grimaldi, 35, Melvin Sandoval, 38, and Rogelio Contreras, 40, stemming from Jacqueline Piazza’s June 2001 killing.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Attorneys for a professional tennis referee who was accused — then cleared — of beating her husband to death with a coffee mug told a civil jury Thursday that she deserved $10 million for pain and suffering caused by a Los Angeles County coroner’s office doctor’s still-standing determination that the death was intentional.
Lois Goodman, 76, alleges that in her federal civil rights lawsuit that Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Yulai Wang intentionally or recklessly “falsified” her husband’s death certificate to classify it as a homicide instead of accidental death, without explanation.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Saying the request was premature, a federal judge in Los Angeles Thursday rejected a motion by adult-film actress Stormy Daniels’ attorney to depose President Donald Trump about allegations he had an affair with the performer a decade ago.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, said he plans to re-file his request once attorneys for Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, file their formal response to Daniels’ lawsuit trying to nullify a non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2016 about the alleged affair.
******
PASADENA (CNS) – Officials with NASA and Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Thursday they are planning two firsts for American space exploration — the first mission to study the center of Mars, coupled with the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast.
InSight — short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport — is a stationary lander scheduled to launch as early as May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt, long regarded as one of the nation’s most liberal appellate court jurists, died in Los Angeles Thursday of a heart attack at age 87.
According to a spokesman for the 9th Circuit, Reinhardt died during a visit to a dermatologist.
******
VAN NUYS (CNS) – A gang member was sentenced Thursday to 300 years to life behind bars for an October 2015 shooting in Canoga Park that killed an innocent bystander who was struck by a stray bullet.
Ariel Baker Paniagua Jr., 25, of Canoga Park, was convicted last September of second-degree murder for the Oct. 6, 2015, killing of Eduardo Rebolledo.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Your morning cup of coffee could soon come with a cancer warning.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge tentatively ruled this week that California coffee retailers such as Starbucks and Peet’s must warn consumers about a potentially cancer-causing chemical generated during the process of roasting coffee.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Two men were convicted Thursday of first-degree murder for the death of an Iraq War veteran whose body was discovered more than a decade ago in the trunk of his smoldering car in the concrete riverbed of the Los Angeles River in South Gate.
The downtown Los Angeles jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Anthony Silvas, 38, and Juan Vallejo, 43, guilty of the killing of Jesse Aguilar, 24, who had served in the U.S. Army.
******
HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – Police Thursday said a Hollywood family’s pit bull mix shot by an officer who responded to a nearby gang-related shooting continues to be aggressive to the treating veterinarian.
The dog was wounded around 2:30 a.m. Saturday when officers responded to a shooting that occurred in an alley near the 5800 block of Willoughby Street and left three men injured, according to Los Angeles police Officer Norma Eisenman.
******
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CNS) – Three people were killed Thursday in a fiery crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, and a motorist was arrested on suspicion of DUI, police said.
The two-vehicle crash was reported at 1:08 a.m. near Magnolia Street, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department.
******
LONG BEACH (CNS) – One of two Shih Tzus taken during a residential burglary in Long Beach was back with its owners Thursday.
A man arrived home about 6:40 p.m. Monday to discover his residence in the 5800 block of Monlaco Road ransacked and his dogs Wesley and Winston missing, along with unspecified personal property, according to the Long Beach Police Department.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS)- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced Thursday that philanthropists Gerard and Dora Cognie have donated their collection of global contemporary art, comprising just over 400 works, most of them Chinese ink paintings, to the museum.
“…The Gerard and Dora Cognie Collection will dramatically transform the museum’s contemporary art and Chinese art holdings,” according to a museum statement.
******
TORRANCE (CNS) – A man who allegedly attacked a Torrance resident during an attempted break-in and vehicle theft was taken into custody Thursday afternoon after a three-hour search involving patrol officers, a K-9 unit and drones.
The resident was injured during the confrontation, which took place about 10:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of 236th Street, near Western Avenue, according to Torrance police Sgt. Ronald Harris.
******
PALMDALE (CNS) – A man’s death Thursday in Palmdale was being investigated by sheriff’s homicide detectives.
The death was reported about 11:45 a.m. in the 5900 block of Avenue T, according to Deputy Trina Schrader Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin released a report Thursday that outlines $28 million in unspent public funds allocated for specific purposes that have remained unused for years.
Up to 90 percent of the city’s treasury is made up of 830 special purpose funds created with specific restrictions on how they can be spent, and the report found 123 funds totaling $28.2 million that have sat unused for a minimum of four years, with some funds untapped for more than 10 years.
******
HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – An investigation was continuing Thursday into the shooting of a Hollywood family’s dog by police who responded to the neighborhood in response to a nearby gang-related shooting that left three men injured.
The shooting occurred around 2:30 a.m. Saturday when officers responded to a shooting that occurred in an alley near the 5800 block of Willoughby Street, according to Los Angeles police Officer Norma Eisenman.
******
BEVERLY HILLS (CNS) – Beverly Hills police Thursday circulated a security photo of a man wanted as a suspect in a commercial burglary.
The crime occurred about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday in the 9400 block of Brighton Way, the Beverly Hills Police Department reported.
******
TUJUNGA (CNS) – A man was being sought for allegedly shooting his wife in the shoulder Thursday during an argument in Tujunga.
The shooting occurred about 5 a.m. in the 7500 block of Owens Street, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A pedestrian who was struck and killed by a vehicle in South Los Angeles last weekend was identified Thursday.
Diego Licea, 22, of Los Angeles was fatally injured about 3 a.m. Saturday at Gage and Central avenues, said coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter.
******
LONG BEACH (CNS) – Authorities Thursday identified a motorist who died after a crash in Long Beach that police say may have been caused by a medical emergency.
Walter Darocha, 63, of Signal Hill crashed his vehicle about 7:40 p.m. Monday on Outer Traffic Circle and died at a hospital, the coroner’s office reported. An autopsy was pending.
******
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose Thursday to its highest amount since Aug. 31, 2015, increasing six-tenths of a cent to $3.562.
The average price has risen 24 consecutive days, increasing 14 cents, including six-tenths of a cent on Wednesday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.