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Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch
LA Police Protective League

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Los Angeles
Police Protective League
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the union that represents the
rank and file LAPD officers

  Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch

Daily News Digest
from LA Police Protective League

April 22, 2016

Law Enforcement

Police departments struggle to attract new recruits.
A hiring crunch is plaguing police departments all across Southland. The problem is so bad the Burbank Police Department recently submitted a new recruitment plan to the city to help bring in qualified applicants.  According to one source, new positions for law enforcement officers in California have jumped by 600 percent since 2010, compared with just 7 percent for firefighters during the same period.  An ever-improving economy and heightened scrutiny on the professor are factors. What can police departments do to bring in new and qualified people?  Lou Turriaga, a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department and a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for LAPD officers and Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City speak on the challenges law enforcement faces and discuss some potential solutions. 
Listen on KPCC 89.3

Join the effort to reform California's death penalty
Voters have the opportunity to reform California's death penalty, but it will take your action now. A broad coalition of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, crime victim advocates and community leaders have come together to fix our broken death penalty system. An initiative titled “California Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016” is currently being circulated for the November ballot; it needs your signature, and the campaign needs your financial support.  California's death penalty has become ineffective because of waste, delays and inefficiencies. Fixing it will save taxpayers millions of dollars every year, assure due process protections for those sentenced to death, and provide justice for murder victims and their families. In California, death row inmates have murdered over 1,000 victims, including 226 children and 43 police officers; 294 victims were raped and/or tortured prior to being murdered. It's time California reformed our death penalty process so it works.
Los Angeles Police Protective League

Police Hope Public Can Lead Them To Man Accused Of Killing His Girlfriend
The Los Angeles Police Department is hoping the public can lead it to a man it says killed his 32-year-old girlfriend on April 12.  Authorities said on that date, around 6 a.m., Rampart patrol officers responded to the 500 block of N. Virgil Avenue for a call about the victim of a gunshot wound. Officers found Lauren Olguin suffering from a gunshot wound.  The investigation revealed that Olguin was involved in an argument with her live-in boyfriend, Philip Policarpio.  During the argumentm the man punched the victim as he held a gun in his other hand then shot the victim and left the location, possibly in a vehicle, police said.
CBS 2

Man Killed In Chesterfield Square Hit-And-Run Crash
Authorities investigated the scene of a hit-and-run crash in Chesterfield Square early Friday morning.  The Los Angeles Police Department received a call about a traffic crash around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the area of Slauson and Ruthelen avenues.  When authorities arrived, they found a driver had struck and killed a pedestrian. Authorities said a car was traveling westbound on Slauson and struck a man in his 30s who was walking in the crosswalk.  The driver stopped their car, but then took off. Authorities found the car in Inglewood at Hyde Park Boulevard and Eucalyptus Avenue.
ABC 7

Arraignment postponed for social workers in death of 8-year-old Palmdale boy
Two former social workers and their supervisors were in court Thursday, but did not enter pleas to charges of child abuse and falsifying records involving the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy whose mother and her boyfriend are accused of torturing and murdering him.  Arraignment was rescheduled to June 2 for Los Angeles County social workers Stefanie Rodriguez, 31, and Patricia Clement, 65, and supervisors Kevin Bom, 36, and Gregory Merritt, 60, who were all charged March 28 with one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records.
FOX 11

Celebrity L.A. art dealer charged with ripping off Michael Ovitz, others
The high-profile unveiling of Perry Rubenstein's new art gallery in Hollywood four years ago heralded his status as a formidable dealer in the celebrity art world.  The glitterati who descended on his modernist space on Highland Avenue included musician Neil Young, producer Steven Tisch and artist Shepard Fairey.  But sales he made involving two of Los Angeles' most powerful art collectors, Eli Broad and Michael Ovitz, has led to a dramatic fall for the veteran art gallerist.  Rubenstein was hit with lawsuits. In 2014, his gallery declared bankruptcy. Now, he faces criminal charges.  Rubenstein, 62, was arrested late Thursday in Santa Monica, more than a month after prosecutors filed charges alleging three felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement. The complaint requested that he be held on $1-million bail.
Los Angeles Times

Deaf Man Accused of Swindling Other Deaf People Out of Nearly $500,000
A deaf man from Los Angeles is accused of orchestrating a "confidence scheme" to swindle three other deaf people out of nearly half a million dollars, leading to his arrest and a search for more possible victims, police said Thursday.  A victim came forward to police last week claiming Hussein Ibrahaim Dheini had borrowed money for a business venture but never paid it back, and pressured him for even more cash, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release.  Two additional victims came forward with similar stories about Dheini, though the sum of their losses was smaller than the first victim's, police said.
NBC 4

LA County Coroner's Office Suffering From 'Sobering' Backlog in Testing: Report
Significant under-staffing in the Los Angeles County coroner's office has led to a "sobering" backlog in toxicology and other testing that could threaten its accreditation by the end of the year, according to a civil grand jury report released today.  According to the report, problems in the county Department of the Medical Examiner-Coroner "can be attributed to too few budgeted positions, including direct and indirect support personnel, worker fatigue and burnout and to salary constraints that inhibit recruitment and retention of qualified professionals."  The report, which faults the Board of Supervisors for providing "inadequate resources to support" the office, echoes concerns raised by former county coroner Mark Fajardo, who announced his resignation in March to return to the coroner's job in Riverside County. Fajardo said under-staffing in the department left it unable to properly do its job.
NBC 4

Thousands Of Hoverboards Authorities Say Are Unsafe Confiscated In City Of Industry
Thousands of hoverboards have been confiscated by authorities who say they counterfeit and unsafe.  A team of deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department raided a warehouse in the City of Industry after obtaining a search warrant.  Once there, they found 4,000 counterfeit hoverboards with a retail valueof $1.5 million, according to the LASD.  Investigators say the boards aren't made according to safety standards though they are branded with the letters “UL”, which represents a company that tests and certifies the safety of products.
CBS 2

Man gets 3 years in prison for an attempt to smuggle drugs via drone
Brayan Valle was looking to buy some marijuana.  When he reached out to a business associate of his uncle's, a drug connection, Valle became involved in a much more serious offense. Rather than sell Valle the marijuana, the associate asked for his help to smuggle drugs over the U.S.-Mexico border — by drone.  The case signals the first drug-smuggling drone seizure along the Southwest border.  On Thursday, Valle, now 21, was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in operating the remote-controlled drone and collecting 30 pounds of heroin from a Calexico-area field in April 2015.  "Use of drones appears to be on the horizon," U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel said before announcing the sentence. "The court needs to be clear these cases present considerable danger to our community."
Los Angeles Times

FBI paid at least $1 million to hack into terrorist's iPhone, director says
The FBI paid more than $1 million to an unidentified third party to help agents unlock the iPhone of a terrorist involved in last year's San Bernardino attacks, the bureau's director, James B. Comey, said Thursday.  Speaking at a security forum in London, Comey elliptically referred to the cost of breaking into the iPhone as being more than the total he will earn in the remaining seven years of his 10-year term as the bureau's director. Comey earns $183,000 a year.   “We paid a lot,” Comey said. “But it was worth it.”  The FBI has not disclosed the identity of the party who helped it crack into the device. A law enforcement official has said that investigators found nothing of significance on the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who died in a gun battle with police on Dec. 2 after he and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 22 others.
Los Angeles Times

Mental Health: Sometimes Incarceration Is The Best Medicine
"This kid is gonna hurt himself and end up dead or hurt someone else. What am I gonna do?," says Joanna Jurgens, one of the guest speakers at training for Sacramento-area law enforcement. She talks about mental illness and her efforts to help her son, Jeffrey.  "You know, a lot of parents throw their arms up and I don't blame 'em. I mean you get to a point in your life where it's like, 'I can't help this person anymore.' But, luckily, I didn't go there. I felt like it a couple times. I gotta say," she says with a laugh.   She says Jeffrey's symptoms began before he started kindergarten. He had his first psychotic break in high school and was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Joanna says he believed he was under surveillance.
Capital Public Radio

City Government News

Hospital Near Downtown LA Settles Suit Over Allegation Of Leaving Patient On Street
A fourth Los Angeles-area hospital in less than three years has settled a lawsuit over a chronic problem in the nation's second-largest city — turning homeless patients out on the streets after they have been discharged, sometimes while still needing medical attention.  Without acknowledging fault, Good Samaritan Hospital near downtown Los Angeles settled for $450,000 and agreed to follow protocols to properly release homeless patients, City Attorney Mike Feuer said Thursday. That brings the amount of such settlements with area hospitals to $1.9 million since January 2014.  Hospitals aren't required to have specific discharge protocols for homeless patients, though a city law makes patient dumping illegal.
CBS 2

L.A. agrees to return tiny houses seized from homeless people
Los Angeles has agreed to return tiny houses that police and sanitation workers impounded from homeless people, but the mayor's office has not endorsed a suggestion to place a village of tiny houses on city land, a spokeswoman said.  Elvis Summers, who reportedly built and distributed 37 brightly colored structures to homeless people over the last year, said he had understood that Mayor Eric Garcetti was considering offering a surplus city lot as a site for the houses.  Connie Llanos, the mayor's spokeswoman, said that although the mayor appreciated citizen efforts to come up with creative solutions to the city's homelessness problem, he does not support the village concept.
Los Angeles Times
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About the LAPPL Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at:

www.LAPD.com


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