Police Monday searched for a driver involved in a hit-and-run collision that left a 58-year-old woman dead and her husband badly injured. Morena Dell Carmen Alvarado-Lopez and her 71-year-old husband were crossing Sunset Boulevard east of White Knoll Drive around 12:50 a.m. when they were struck by a car, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. The couple was said to have been dragged by the vehicle approximately 50 feet, according to police. The driver fled the scene in the dark-colored vehicle. Alvarado-Lopez and her husband were taken to a local hospital with severe injuries where she later died. Anyone with information regarding the vehicle and the driver is asked to contact Det. Juan Campos at (213)833-3713.

Police surrounded an apartment complex in search of an attempted murder suspect who led them on a pursuit before fleeing into a Panorama City neighborhood Monday night, authorities said. The incident began with a short vehicle pursuit about 8:35 p.m., which lasted about a minute before the suspect ran from the car at Chase Street and Willis Avenue, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Rosario Cervantes said. Footage from Sky5 showed heavily armed officers searching the area on the ground as a helicopter spotlight illuminated rooftops. Video from the scene later showed a person taken into custody sitting in the back of a police car. Authorities initially identified the the pursuit driver as a possible murder suspect. An official later stated the person was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder following an incident in Mission Hills.

A 51-year-old North Hollywood man accused of sexually assaulting the young daughters of friends and neighbors pleaded not guilty Monday to 13 felony counts. Simon Ruiz Hernandez faces up to life in prison if convicted of sex-related counts involving four girls who were 9 to 14 years old at the time of the alleged assaults, which date back as far as 17 years ago, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. On Feb. 10, a judge found sufficient evidence to proceed to trial on eight felony counts: one count each of aggravated sodomy of a child, sodomy by use of force on a victim under 14 and forcible rape of a child under 14, two counts of lewd acts and three counts of continuous sexual abuse. Since that hearing, the criminal complaint was amended to add five more felony counts: two counts of aggravated rape and one count each of aggravated oral copulation, aggravated sexual penetration and aggravated sodomy — all against a child.

A man involved in gathering signatures for ballot initiatives admitted Wednesday to his role in a large-scale scheme to bribe homeless people on Skid Row to forge registered voters’ signatures, prosecutors said. Norman Hall, 62, pleaded guilty to circulating a petition with false names and was immediately sentenced to one year in county jail, three years’ formal probation and 100 hours of community service, the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He and eight others were charged in the ploy, in which they would allegedly give the homeless $1 each and cigarettes in exchange for forgery. The group amassed hundreds of false signatures to help initiatives qualify in the 2016 and 2018 election cycles, the DA’s office said. The LAPD and FBI investigated the fraud. “They paid individuals to sign the names,” LAPD Officer Deon Joseph previously told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s an assault on our democracy.”

A L.A. man pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge for targeting Latina grandmothers throughout the Southland in a scam involving a fake winning lottery ticket. Tito Lozada, 50, faces sentencing May 11 on a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years behind bars. Two of three additional defendants previously pleaded guilty to the same charge and are awaiting sentencing in L.A. federal court. Lozada and the others were initially charged in state court with trying to scam a 66-year-old Long Beach woman, but federal prosecutors who took the case contend all four defendants are linked to about a dozen incidents since 2017 in which older women were targeted and robbed of cash and valuables in a scheme known as the “Latin Lotto Scam.” The November federal complaint references crimes in Maywood, Long Beach, Baldwin Park, Hawaiian Gardens, Fontana, Lakewood, San Pedro and Chula Vista.

A California appeals court on Monday blocked the release of a man dubbed the “Bolder Than Most” rapist who was charged with a string of bizarre and brutal attacks in the San Diego area in the 1980s. The 4th District Court of Appeals reversed the decision of a judge to grant the conditional release of Alvin Quarles, 57, who was charged with committing more than 50 rapes, robberies and burglaries in the 1980s. Prosecutors said some of the assaults occurred at knifepoint, and sometimes the victims’ husbands or boyfriends were forced to watch or take part in sex acts that Quarles watched. Some couples were confronted as they slept in motel rooms, and during or after some of the assaults, Quarles talked with victims, bargained for the kind of sex act he wanted and apologized or tried to give money to some of the women, prosecutors said.

California will consider legislation that would wipe the low-level criminal records of about 2 million people going back decades, part of a lawmaker’s second attempt to remove barriers to finding work or housing. The measure is part of a provision that was removed from a bill approved last year that would expunge records of certain arrests and crimes starting in 2021. Its author, Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, proposed the new bill on Monday with the backing of district attorneys from San Francisco and San Joaquin County. Officials said records like being arrested for domestic violence or impaired driving where charges weren’t filed could be automatically cleared. In California, arrest and conviction records of lower-level felonies and misdemeanors eligible for probation can be expunged. Sex offenders and any offender who served time in prison are ineligible. The bill would not change which records are eligible to be expunged

The state’s top law enforcement agency has gained the ability to fully sequence mitochondrial DNA, an advancement that justice officials hope will better enable investigators to identify the bodies of missing persons. “Anything we can do to help families find closure is critical,” California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said in a statement Monday. “We’re proud of the work our scientists and technicians do every day at our Bureau of Forensic Services to help protect Californians, including our work with local law enforcement to help families locate their missing loved ones.” Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA, the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus, where it is called nuclear DNA. But a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria, structures within cells that convert energy from food into a form that cells can use, according to the library. This is called mitochondrial DNA.

Local Government News 

Local Government NewsLA City Council To Vote On Regulating Tour Bus Operations On Certain Streets
A final vote is expected Tuesday night from the Los Angeles City Council on prohibiting tour buses from driving down certain streets deemed unsafe by the city's Department of Transportation. The vote could change the tour bus industry in the city, known for the double-decker buses that flock to popular tourist destinations. The ordinance would restrict where tour buses can travel in Hollywood and surrounding areas as the city council and DOT officials say the buses are unsafe and block traffic, causing backups in already heavily congested areas with narrow streets. The legislation, dubbed the "Unsafe Route Restrictions" ordinance, would allow cities to regulate tour bus operations. Regulatory efforts originally started in 2017, during former Gov. Jerry Brown's fourth term, when the city council created a law that allowed local governments to restrict vehicles to certain roads. L.A. City Councilmember David Ryu - who represents the 4th District, which includes Hollywood - is spearheading the effort.

A Los Angeles lawmaker wants California to allow for human composting, an eco-friendly alternative to traditional burial or cremation in which the dead are turned into soil. The state of Washington became the first state to allow human composting when Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law last year permitting the practice. “I would love to be a tree one day,” said Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), who introduced Assembly Bill 2592 to allow for human composting, or “natural organic reduction” as the upstart industry calls the process. “I think this is about giving people another option.” Washington’s law goes into effect on May 1, with a Seattle business called Recompose preparing to open a funeral home that offers the service in early 2021. Recompose’s process involves placing a body into a vessel with wood chips, alfalfa and straw, allowing it to be decomposed by microbes and reduced to a nutrient-dense soil in about a month.