After he pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of distributing methamphetamine, a federal judge sentenced Ahmed Binyamin Alasiri, 45, a.k.a. Kevin Lamar to 188 months in federal prison for selling the four pounds of methamphetamine while he was on supervised release after a 2009 terrorism c...

    The feds charged Jose Manuel Perez, a.k.a. “Julio Rodriguez,” 30 with one count of conspiracy, nine counts of smuggling goods into the United States and two counts of wildlife trafficking for allegedly importing into the United States more than 1,700 reptiles – including 60 reptiles found hid...

            U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry, 61, who served in Congress since 2005 and represented Nebraska's 1st Congressional District, was found guilty by a federal jury  of concealing information and making false statements to federal authorities who were investigating illegal contributi...

On October 5, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill No. 775, effective January 1, 2022, which amends Penal Code section 1170.95. The changes are significant. They are: Amendment to subdivision (a) expands eligibility to file a petition to vacate convictions to persons who were convict...

On October 5, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill No. 1228, effective January 1, 2022, which amends the court's authority over a person arrested for violation of probation. The new law requires the court to consider releasing the person pending a revocation hearing in accordance with...

William Sadleir, 67, the former chief executive of Aviron Pictures has agreed to plead guilty to bank fraud and money laundering. admitting that he applied for and received $1.7 million in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for Aviron entities when the entire operation was being sh...

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a grant of a death penalty habeas petition to determine if the prosecutor kicked a black prospective jurors on the basis of race. The Black juror served on a prior jury that acquitted the defendant in a sexual assault case. The ...

The feds arrested Michael Williams, 39,, a former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer on charges that he tried to smuggle methamphetamine through Los Angeles International Airport in exchange for a total of $8,000 in cash.  In 2020, authorities conducted undercover operations inv...

Maggie Fleming, Humboldt County District Attorney, told OC Watch that she has “notified DA Spitzer that I am withdrawing my endorsement.”  Ms. Fleming is the sixth California District Attorney to rescind an endorsement of Spitzer, and her decision comes on the heels of a recently surfaced video w...

          A federal judge sentenced Malik Lamont Powell, 21, and Khai McGhee, 18, a.k.a. “Cameron Smith,” to 144 months in federal prison for committing an armed robbery last year on the crowded patio of a Beverly Hills restaurant in which one customer had a gun held to his head while the robbers...

The Ninth Circuit held that trial  counsel's  investigation, preparation, and execution of their  chosen insanity  defense  fell  below  an  objective standard  of  reasonableness. The Ninth Circuit wrote that  (1)  trial counsel's most  significant  error  was failing  to  call  as a witness—or ...

   A federal judge sentenced Michael Joseph Pepe, 68, a retired Marine Corps captain who traveled to Cambodia in 2005 to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors to 210 years in federal prison.  He has been in federal custody since 2007. During a seven-day trial in August 2021, jurors heard t...

    A federal judge sentenced Sam Sarkis Solakyan, 40, the CEO of several Southern California-based medical imaging companies, to 60 months in federal prison for running a scheme that submitted more than $250 million in fraudulent claims through the California Workers' Compensation System for med...

             The feds arrested Richard Royden Chamberlin, 53, who allegedly fired BB guns at the Planned Parenthood facility in Pasadena several times. The feds charged him with being an ex-felon with the illegal possession of a .22-caliber handgun. Chamberlin allegedly shot at Planned Parent fac...

           Geoffrey Eldridge Hull, a Baldwin Hills man pleaded guilty to wire fraud.  He conned people all over the U.S. into giving him their high-end and exotic cars with bogus promises he would find other people to take over their car leases. From April 2016 to November 2019, Hull marketed him...

    Thomas H. Peters, 55, the former head of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Civil Litigation Branch from February 2014 to March 2019, will plead guilty to a federal charge for threatening to fire a plaintiffs' attorney from a lucrative special counsel job with the city unless the attorney paid a...

          Eduardo Moreno, 45,, a train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge for running a locomotive at full speed off the end of railroad tracks near a United States Navy hospital ship that was deployed to provide medical relief during the early months ...

          Michael Godfree, 80, pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 100 investors out of $8.3 million through a scheme that sold “ancient slag.” For those who don't know, “ancient slag is a mining waste byproduct that supposedly contained precious metals.          From 2011 to November 2017, Go...

           David F. Alexander, a former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) executive, will guilty to a federal criminal charge for lying to the FBI about a lucrative job offer he secretly solicited and agreed to accept in exchange for providing “guarantees” of additional LADWP cont...

          David H. Wright, 62, the former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) will plead guilty to a federal criminal charge for accepting bribes from a lawyer in exchange for his official action to secure a three-year, $30 million no-bid LADWP contract for th...

          Paul O. Paradis, 58, a New York City lawyer, who represented both the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and a ratepayer suing it will plead guilty to a bribery charge for accepting an illegal payment of $2.2 million for getting another attorney to supposedly represent hi...

A federal judge sentenced Adam Joiner, 43, of  Manhattan beach to 97 months in federal prison for defrauding Asian investment firms out of $14 million by falsely claiming the he would use the money to produce a feature film distributed by Netflix.  Then , while out on bond, he illegally sold the ...

          Albert Pinedo, 78, a former school teacher who served five years in federal prison in 2003 for distributing child pornography, got 120 months in federal prison for trying to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity over the internet. On July 23, 2021, a federal jury found Pinedo guil...

          A federal judge sentenced Dr. Amir Friedman, 56, a Calabasas physician to 14 months in federal prison for accepting about $800,000 in bribes and kickbacks as part of a conspiracy that unlawfully billed health insurers for compounded medication prescriptions.          Friedman pleaded gu...

Politician Allegedly Sought Generous Benefits for Close Relative in Exchange for His Support of County Contracts that Benefited University's Social Work School     See if you can follow this:           The feds indicted longtime politician Mark Ridley-Thomas and the former dean of the School of S...