press-news

LOS ANGELES — A taxpayer lawsuit will be filed today against the city of Los Angeles alleging an unlawful “gift of public funds” to the Los Angeles Rams in the form of security at home games. The lawsuit will be filed by former Los Angeles City Councilmember Deis Zine and Los Angeles resident James Bibeau “to prevent the city from expending any additional taxpayer funds to provide over 200 LAPD officers free of charge to secure Rams home games,” according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “Rams owner Stan Kroenke has refused to pay in full for the police services necessary to ensure public safety at his team’s home games,” the statement said. “This free use of LA...

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a funeral home company have settled dueling litigation conceing the lease of land at six Catholic cemeteries for the operation of mortuaries, including one in Long Beach. Lawyers for S.E. Funeral Homes of Califoia Inc. filed paperwork Aug. 18 in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that the resolution includes the sale and transfer of the mortuaries to a subsidiary of the archdiocese in a deal scheduled to close Nov. 30. No additional specifics were given. S.E. Funeral Homes filed suit in September 2014, alleging breach of contract and seeking a court order to prevent the archdiocese from taking possession of the premises. The archdiocese countersued in June...

Long Beach health officials are asking people to take precautions against West Nile Virus in light of state reports confirming the first death this year involving a senior citizen in Sacramento County. Although Long Beach has not documented any West Nile virus activity this year, it has been detected in Orange and Los Angeles counties, prompting Interim Health Officer Dr. Maura Too to remind residents to protect themselves during the summer months. “The first death of a Califoia resident due to West Nile virus is a sad and sobering reminder of the risk posed by mosquito bites,” Too said in a statement. “I would like to take this time to remind Long Beach residents to take precautions to avoi...

A judge stripped several claims from a lawsuit filed by the parents of a college student shot and killed by a Long Beach police officer in 2015, court papers show. In a 13-page ruling issued Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly Kendig dismissed claims by Amr Morad and Amal Alkabra for intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as negligent supervision, training, hiring and retention. The judge also dismissed the couple’s claims for civil rights violations, but said the estate of their son, Feras Morad, can move forward with the claim. Kendig additionally found that the plaintiffs’ attoeys will have to shore up their claims for punitive damages against Officer Matthew Hea...

A judge stripped several claims from a lawsuit filed by the parents of a college student shot and killed by a Long Beach police officer in 2015, court papers show. In a 13-page ruling issued Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly Kendig dismissed claims by Amr Morad and Amal Alkabra for intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as negligent supervision, training, hiring and retention. The judge also dismissed the couple’s claims for civil rights violations, but said the estate of their son, Feras Morad, can move forward with the claim. Kendig additionally found that the plaintiffs’ attoeys will have to shore up their claims for punitive damages against Officer Matthew Hea...

The parents of a mentally ill man who died after a Long Beach police officer shot him at Looff’s Lite-A-Line gaming parlor in December aounced Thursday they have filed a federal lawsuit against the city. The suit, which seeks punitive damages against Police Chief Robert Luna and the officers involved in the shooting, alleges the Long Beach Police Department failed to properly train officers to deal with people living with mental illnesses and that officers’ actions on the night of the shooting “escalated a peaceful encounter” and led to an unjustified use of deadly force. Mharloun Verdejo Saycon, 39, of Carson died after police shot him the night of Dec. 14. The Police Department reported a...

The family of a mentally ill man who died after a Long Beach police officer shot him at Loof’s Lite-A-Line this past December aounced Thursday they have filed a federal lawsuit against the police department. The filing, which seeks punitive damages against Police Chief Robert Luna and the officers involved in the shooting, alleges the Long Beach Police Department failed to properly train officers to deal with subjects living with mental illnesses and that officers’ actions on the night of the shooting “escalated a peaceful encounter” and led to an unjustified use of deadly force. The police department referred a request for comment to the City Attoey’s office. Officials there declined to co...

With fast moving flames continuing to bu tens of thousands of acres in and around the Santa Clarita Valley, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to declare a local state of emergency to bolster resources to help fight the now five day old Sand Fire. The fire has charred more than 37,000 acres, forced 20,000 people to evacuate, destroyed 18 homes and caused one death. “The Sand Fire is considered unprecedented by fire officials,” said Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “There is a need to take immediate action.” In addition, U.S. Rep. Steve Knight. R-Palmdale, asked Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency as well. “The historic drought Los Angeles County is enduring this ...

HOUSTON — A Texas judge has dismissed the last remaining charge against two Califoia anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Plaed Parenthood. District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the charge of tampering with govement records against 27-year-old David Daleiden and 63-year-old Sandra Merritt upon the request of the Harris County prosecutor’s office. The pair’s attoeys had pushed to have the charge dismissed, saying they never should have been indicted. If they had been convicted of the felony charge, each could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors alleged that Daleiden and Merritt used fake driver’s licenses to...

LOS ANGELES >> A judge has rejected arguments to dismiss charges against two former Los Angeles County social workers and their supervisors, charged with child abuse and falsifying records that resulted from the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy. Defendants Stefanie Rodriguez, 31, and Patricia Clement, 65, and supervisors Kevin Bom, 37, and Gregory Merritt, 60, were originally set to be arraigned Monday moing on one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records. However, defense attoeys for the four filed court papers asking that the charges be dismissed. The hearing was assigned to a courtroom just before the lunch hour and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M. L. Vi...

Los Angeles County sheriff’s union leader George Hofstetter has a stark waing: words can kill. Hofstetter believes recent “verbal attacks on police” including by politicians, the media and Black Lives Matter activists contributed to the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers on July 7 and likely the deaths of three officers Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Politicians and candidates “jump in on the side of the left and these organizations that are out there condemning all police officers” before investigations of high-profile police shootings are even complete, Hofstetter, president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said Monday. But some civil rights activists and ...

The Califoia Public Utilities Commission aounced today it will review whether Southe Califoia Edison violated any rules or regulations and should face fines stemming from repeated power outages that left close to 30,000 Long Beach residents in the dark last summer. The commission opened a “penalty consideration case” against Edison over the outages, which left thousands of customers without power July 15-20 and July 30-Aug. 3, and were highlighted by an underground blast that sent manhole covers flying into the air. According to the CPUC, a staff investigation identified failures dealing with the maintenance, inspection and management of the electrical system in Long Beach, and deficiencies...

Long Beach officials aounced this moing they have prevailed in a lawsuit filed four years ago challenging the city’s ban on medical marijuana dispensaries on the grounds the ban violated the rights of those with disabilities. The decision, handed down July 12 by the Court of Appeal, isn’t surprising, said Matthew Pappas, the attoey who filed the case. Pappas, who has worked on behalf of medial marijuana patients for several years and is behind a number of ballot initiatives to regulate dispensaries, said this is an old case filed before the Califoia Supreme Court rule in 2013 that cities have a right to ban the sale of marijuana. “Since then we’ve moved from litigation to working from the p...

Several trucking companies have settled a $5 million class-action lawsuit brought by nearly 400 big-rig drivers who contend they should be classified as employees, not independent contractors. The settlement marks another tu in what has been a bitter dispute between truck drivers, backed by union organizers, and the companies who employ them to haul goods from the local ports to warehouses throughout Southe Califoia. “Hopefully, this sends a message that some of the schemes these companies use to evade responsibility are not going to work,” said Laboni Hoq, litigation director for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, one of two nonprofits that brought the lawsuit. “Workers know...

Lawyers for the city of Los Angeles won a round in court Friday when a judge ruled that a former Harbor Division training officer for LAPD Officer Christopher Doer is not entitled to view all of the investigative reports and persoel records involving the late rogue officer. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Ste said the motion for the release of documents filed by attoeys for Sgt. Teresa Evans was supported by arguments that contained too much “hearsay, speculation, supposition and assumption.” The judge cited a swo declaration offered by one of Evans’ attoeys, Leila K. Al Faiz, which he said had more lines stating “upon information and belief’’ than he had ever seen in such a docume...

Several trucking companies have settled a $5 million class-action lawsuit brought by nearly 400 big-rig drivers who contend they should be classified as employees, not independent contractors. The settlement marks another tu in what has been a bitter dispute between truck drivers, backed by union organizers, and the companies who employ them to haul goods from the local ports to warehouses throughout the Southe Califoia. “Hopefully, this sends a message that some of the schemes these companies use to evade responsibility are not going to work,” said Laboni Hoq, litigation director for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, one of two nonprofits that brought the lawsuit. “Workers ...

Several trucking companies have settled a $5 million class-action lawsuit brought by nearly 400 big-rig drivers who contend they should be classified as employees, not independent contractors. The settlement marks another tu in what has been a bitter dispute between truck drivers, backed by union organizers, and the companies who employ them to haul goods from the local ports to warehouses throughout the Southe Califoia. “Hopefully, this sends a message that some of the schemes these companies use to evade responsibility are not going to work,” said Laboni Hoq, litigation director for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, one of two nonprofits that brought the lawsuit. “Workers ...

LOS ANGELES — An attoey for actor Paul Walker’s estate said today that a settlement was reached in a lawsuit filed against a warehouse employee who allegedly refused to tu over numerous vehicles that belonged to the “Fast and Furious” star before his 2013 death. “It was settled amicably and one of the conditions is that we’re getting things back,” Walker estate attoey Christopher Heck said when asked if the accord included a retu of the cars and trucks. Heck said that additional terms of the resolution with defendant Richard Taylor are confidential. The lawsuit, filed in June 2015, was dismissed Tuesday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo in light of the settlement. According t...

A threat against Los Angeles Inteational Airport was made on a pro-Islamic State website, but authorities said Friday they do not believe it to be credible. Enhanced security was already in place at the airport in advance of one of its busiest travel weekends and in light of this week’s deadly suicide attack on an airport in Turkey, an Airport police spokesman said. Law enforcement officials are aware of the threat, which also mentioned London’s Heathrow and New York’s JFK airports and was subsequently deleted, according to Rob Pedregon, public information officer for the Los Angeles Airport Police Department. The threat waed of attacks on planes flying from Heathrow to the U.S. and stated ...

A jury this week awarded $1.05 million to the family of a 19-year-old man who was fatally shot by Long Beach police in November 2013 after fleeing a traffic stop. The jury found that officers violated the civil rights of Tyler Woods’ parents when they shot Woods, said Brian Du of Los Angeles-based The Cochran Firm, who represented the family. Attoeys also disclosed Thursday that the city of Long Beach will pay $1.9 million to the infant son of Woods in a settlement reached the day before trial began on June 14. Long Beach City Attoey Charles Parkin said Thursday afteoon that he was disappointed in the verdict. “We are reviewing our options including the possibility of appealing that decisio...