Results tagged “LAPD” from Crime Scene

LOS ANGELES - Three Los Angeles Police Department officers who allegedly lied under oath about during a drug possession trial last year were charged today with conspiracy and perjury.

Deputy District Attorney Sean Hassett with the Justice System Integrity Division said former LAPD Officer Evan Samuel, and Officers Richard Amio and Manuel Ortiz are scheduled to surrender on Thursday for arraignment.

Hassett filed a felony complaint for arrest warrant on Monday charging 37-year-old Samuel, 30-year-old Amio, and 36-year-old Ortiz with one count each of conspiracy. In addition, Samuel is charged with three counts of perjury. Amio is charged with two counts of perjury and Ortiz is charged with one count of perjury. All are felonies.

During a preliminary hearing and later during the June 2008 trial for Guillermo Alarcon, the three allegedly falsely testified about seeing the defendant Alarcon throw away a black object near a trash bin that turned out to be cocaine base. Ortiz allegedly denied under oath that he was in fact the officer who found a package containing cocaine powder near a dumpster while the other officers were searching a laundry room for drugs.

Samuel and Amio also signed under penalty of perjury a police report that was allegedly false.

Alarcon's drug possession case was dismissed in June 2008 at the request of prosecutors after footage from the apartment building's security camera contradicted the sworn testimony of the officers.

All three are scheduled for arraignment after 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Criminal Justice Center, Department 30. Hassett is asking that bail be set at $120,000 for Samuel, $70,000 for Amio and $45,000 for Ortiz.

Friday morning August 8, 1969.

The sun is fully visible at 6:10 a.m.

At 7:50 a.m. Steven Earl Parent, 18, leaves his parents' El Monte home on Bryant Road for work at Valley City Plumbing in Rosemead.

A recent graduate of Arroyo High School, Parent works two jobs. He plans on attending Citrus College in the fall semester.

Parent's co-workers say he is "clean-cut" and "intelligent." "A good worker."

He splits work at 5:15 p.m. and heads to the second job, at Jonas Miller Stereo on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

At 7:48 p.m. sunset envelopes Southern California.

Sometime after 11 p.m., Parent gets off work. He's driving his dad's 1966 AMC Rambler.

Parent heads up Beverly to Sunset, then jogs north again on Benedict Canyon Road.

A waning crescent moon barely lights the night sky. Oleanders and scrub oak line the unlit road. He turns again on Cielo Drive.

At 11:45 p.m., Parent demonstrates an AM/FM Sony Digimatic clock radio. He hopes to sell it to Bill Garretson, his 19-year-old friend.

The two met several weeks earlier, when Parent picked up Garretson hitchhiking and drove him home.

Garretson lives in the back house at the estate on Cielo Drive. He takes care of the owner's dogs.

Garretson declines to buy the radio. Parent drinks a can of beer. He calls a friend.

It's now Saturday morning August 9 - 12:15 a.m. Parent leaves.

In the dark, he walks back to his dad's white Rambler. He starts his car and heads toward the gate.

He rolls down the window to use a push button gate opener.

A figure approaches.

"Halt," a man calls out. The man's got a buck knife in one hand and a .22 in the other.

Parent pleads with the man, "Please don't hurt me. I won't tell anyone."

The man slashes at Parent with the knife, slicing the teen's wrist. Then, he opens fire with the revolver. Shots strike the El Monte teen in the head and chest. By 12:30 a.m. Parent is dead.

He would become the first victim in a two-night killing frenzy led by Charles Manson and carried out by members of his LSD-crazed "family."

Within minutes, Parent's murderer, Charles "Tex" Watson, and three women would enter the main house at Cielo Drive and kill actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, film producer Wojciech Frykowski and hair dresser Jay Sebring.

In hopes of inciting a race war that Manson called "Helter Skelter," the killers struck the next night at the Los Feliz home of and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Parent's body was discovered about 24 hours after he left his parent's El Monte home for work. His mom and dad were disturbed that LAPD officials didn't notify them of their son's death for several hours.

His dad wondered what Steven was up to.

"I just can't understand what he was doing up there in the first place," Wilfred Parent said. "Hell, Steve wasn't a poshy kind of kid. I didn't even know he knew any of those people."

After Sherri Rae Rasmussen was beaten and shot to death in 1986, her father urged Los Angeles police to investigate a fellow officer who had had confrontations with his daughter in the months leading up to her death, according to attorneys for the victim's family.

But Nel Rasmussen's pleas, which he said he made during several interviews with police and in a letter to then-Chief Daryl F. Gates, apparently were ignored by detectives as they pursued a different theory of how his daughter had been killed.

This from LAObserved via the LA Times:

Stephanie Ilene Lazarus, 49, was arrested this morning at Parker Center. Cold case investigation into the 1986 beating death of the wife of her ex-boyfriend led to Lazarus, and her DNA was secretly gathered last week to help make the case.

In a City News story, the head of the Police Protective League is also quoted responding to the news:

Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Lazarus'
arrest "is deeply disturbing to LAPD officers and the people of Los Angeles."
"If convicted, the actions of one police officer should not tarnish the trust and
respect the public has for the more than 9,800 dedicated police officers who serve and
protect the community and its residents every day," he said.

Here's the LATimes story archive on the case.

Until his April 2 arrest, John Floyd Thomas Jr was a Los Angeles insurance adjuster. Police now call him the "Southland Strangler" -- named for the geographical section of Los Angeles County where they suspect he killed at least 30 women and raped many more. Thomas is also in the frame for a spate of crimes police say were committed by the "Westside Rapist".

On first glance this suspect doesn't fit the profile of the Grim Sleeper. Reports suggest he targets much older females who live alone and are white. This is a direct opposite of the Grim Sleeper's known victims - young and black. However there are some striking similarities that are worth mentioning.

Many of Thomas' victims were strangled and beaten and at least one victim was killed in a location other than her home which suggests Thomas' MO is markedly varied. The LA times is quoted as saying "On the 17 who were killed, he placed pillows or blankets over their faces." This is also a signature of the Grim Sleeper who is known to have placed items over the faces of some of his victims.

.Perhaps one of the most startling similarities is the time span and 'gaps' that separate Thomas' crimes. The first wave of slayings took place in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. There followed a decade of 'Sleep?' until 1983 when Thomas was released from prison. He committed rape and murder over the next 6 years until 1989.

"the Grim Sleeper attacks women within one mile from his home, and works to blend into the neighborhood."

The Pasadena PD is examining the possibility that John Floyd Thomas, Jr. may be responsible for homicides there in the late 1970s, officials said Thursday.

Thomas, a onetime resident of Pasadena, was arrested there in the late 70s, officials said.

Thomas, the suspected "Westside Rapist" may be responsible for the deaths of as many as 25 elderly women in Los Angeles County in the 70s and 80s. An LAPD homicide detective dubbed him "prolific."

We'll have a story up later today. We're also looking at Thomas' connections in Pomona and Chino where he worked and lived, and his connection to at least on homicide in Claremont in 1986.

Here's our database. And here's a sample of what you will find:

Full Name	Sex	Race	Wanted For
Aghajanyan, Ana	Female	White	Grand theft
Akopyan, Vahagan	Male	White	Murder
Alvarado, Jeronimo	Male	Hispanic	Murder
Alvarez, Jaime	Male	Hispanic	Murder
Araiza, Gustavo	Male	Hispanic	Murder
Araujo, Fernando	Male	Hispanic	Attempted murder

Ervin Lupoe, 40, killed his wife, two sets of twins and another child before turning a gun on himself in the tiny town near the port.

Prior to the massacre, Lupoe sent a fax to KABC detailing his misery. Apparently, Lupoe and his wife had been fired from Kaiser for some sort of impropriety.

Here's the closing paragraph of his letter:

"So after a horrendous ordeal my wife felt it better to end our lives and why leave our children in someone's else's hands, in addition it seems Kiaser Permanente want's us to kill ourselves and take our family with us. They did nothing to the manager who stated such, and did not attempt to assist us in the matter, knowing we have no job and 5 children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are.

"Ervin Lupoe

"(Handwritten:) Oh Lord my God is there no hope for a widow's son!"

Lupoe placed calls to the news desk at KABC Channel 7 and the LAPD's 911 center just before shooting himself at the family's home in the 1000 block of North McFarland Avenue, police said.

All of the victims were shot in the head, as was Lupoe, police said. Some of the family members were shot more than once.

Lupoe, an X-ray technician at the medical center, wrote in his letter that a supervisor rebuffed him when he tried to talk about his job status, suggesting,

"You should have blown your brains out."

LAPD is handling the investigation. Covina police, who handled a similar case on Christmas Eve, have not been contacted for assistance or advice, officials said Tuesday.

A Wilmington man, despondent over work issues, killed his wife, three daughters and two sons before committing suicide in his home this morning, police believe.

Though officials have not released the man's identity, he is believed to be Ervin Antonio Lupoe, 40. His wife is believed to be Ana Elizabeth Lupoe.

Los Angeles police officers found the bodies of Lupoe and his family about 8:30 a.m. in various rooms of the home in the 1000 block of North McFarland Avenue

Police went to the home within minutes after Lupoe faxed a two-page typed letter to KABC Channel 7 and placed a phone call to the station to tell them he was going to kill his family, said Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner.

Somebody at the station called the Harbor Division to report the incident. While they were talking, Lupoe called 911 and told them he had just gotten home and found that his whole family had been killed.

When police arrived, they could detect the scent of recent gunshots.

Police found the bodies of Lupoe and his wife, his 8-year-old daughter, twin 5-year-old daughters and twin 2-year-old sons.

Or perhaps it was a member of the security detail. I'm definitely ruling out Professor Plum in pantry with a briefcase.

In any event, police now believe that a jewelry heist at Paris Hilton's Mullholland Estates homes was an inside job. Here's what the LA Times is reporting:

LAPD investigators believe the $2-million jewelry heist at Paris Hilton's Mulholland Estates mansion last month was probably done by someone familiar with the home's layout and who knew how to access the socialite's collection of rings, watches and necklaces.

Detectives are investigating a number of potential suspects based on information gathered from the scene and interviews with Hilton, who is cooperating with police.

Hilton's bedroom was ransacked during the overnight burglary, but police sources said security video showed a thief who knew the home and was able to quickly find Hilton's jewelry collection, which includes several family heirlooms. The jewelry was in a place that was not accessible to someone simply searching the home, police said.

This story turned up in the Los Angeles Times and on the AP wire over the weekend apparently this guy has ties to the Hells Angels in Denmark.

LOS ANGELES - A Danish executive wanted in his home country in connection with an $85 million corporate-fraud scandal surrendered to police and was awaiting return to Denmark, authorities said.

Stein Bagger, chief executive of Copenhagen-based software company IT Factory, walked into a downtown Los Angeles police station Saturday and told officers he was an international fugitive.