Orange County News Blog

A funny moment--not funny ha-ha but funny nonetheless--happened during CNN's live coverage of the Fort Hood slayings this afternoon.

For anyone who was in a cave, at Disneyland or on the road at the time, 12 people were shot dead and 31 others were wounded in a shooting rampage at the U.S. Army base in Texas, a prime point of deployment for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lone gunman, who was originally reported to be among the soldiers killed, was being treated for four gunshot wounds, according to Army brass.

After a CNN reporter had just mentioned on air how fears have been expressed that lower enlistment standards have allowed people with criminal records to join the armed forces, Situation Room anchorman Wolf Blitzer wondered aloud to CNN consultant and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark if the gunman could have been a young gang-banger plucked from the worst streets in America.

As Clark began to answer, Blitzer interrupted to inform that the gunman had just been identified. At least one viewer repeated to himself, "don't be a young gang-banger, don't be a young gang-banger . . ." Of course, he wasn't.

Billy Joe Johnson says drugs blocked his dreams

​On the day he didn't bother to spike his Mohawk (with jailhouse soap) or tuck in his white button down shirt, Costa Mesa serial killer Billy Joe Johnson received the death penalty recommendation from a somber jury of eight men and four women. Johnson accepted the outcome of the hearing, which took less than six minutes, with the same aplomb he's exhibited during the month-long proceedings. The white supremacist gang member of Public Enemy Number One Death Squad (PEN1) smiled at the verdict, which he lobbied for during a sensational witness stand appearance earlier this week.

"Billy Joe genuinely doesn't care," defense lawyer Michael Molfetta told reporters as his client was being shipped back to Theo Lacy Jail to await formal sentencing on November 20. "A lot of people say they don't care. It's truly genuine with him . . . Billy Joe's fine. He's at peace with it . . . He was the one telling me not to get misty."

Brenice Lee Smith: Welcome Home, Now go to Jail.

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Wow, that was fast.

Yesterday I blogged that a judge denied a request by Gerardo Gutierrez, the lawyer for Brenice Lee Smith, the onetime member of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love who has spent the past three decades living in a Nepalese monastery, to reduce his client's bail from $1.1 million to $50,000. Smith has now been behind bars for a month, apparently awaiting trial on 40-year-old charges that he conspired to smuggle a bunch of hashish from Afghanistan. In the post I mentioned that Gutierrez hadn't filed a motion to have the charges dismissed but that he planned to do so no later than Dec. 7. I also outlined some common-sense reasons why Smith should be set free immediately.

Today, Gutierrez emailed me a copy of that very motion, which essentially argues that the 1972 conspiracy indictment against Smith and more than two dozen other Brotherhood defendants failed to convincingly charge anybody with any specific crimes, instead simply stating that all of the defendants had conspired to form a church, live in Laguna Beach, deal acid and smuggle hash. (And yes, one of the charges in that indictment really was living in Laguna Beach, and yes, every single person charged in that indictment either pled guilty to lesser charges or had the charges dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can never be refiled).

No more birther crowds in the Santa Ana Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse for now. Judge David O. Carter passed down a ruling this morning dismissing Dr. Orly Taitz's Barnett v. Obama lawsuit. Judgement below, more to come.

Earlier today, Taitz posted on her blog that "IF THE COURT DOES NOT ADDRESS OBAMA ELIGIBILITY, THERE WILL BE CIVIL UNREST." Yuh oh.

Judge Carter Ruling on MTD

Nick Schou

Brenice Lee Smith at his first court hearing

​A man accused of of membership in the so-called "Hippie Mafia"--and who has spent the past three decades living a peaceful, possession-free life in a Nepalese monastery--has now been languishing in jail for more than a month.

Brenice Lee Smith was arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Sept. 26 after four decades on the run. A founding member of the Orange County-based Brotherhood of Eternal Love, which formed in 1966 with the intention of promoting peaceful transformation of self and society through consciousness expanding drug experimentation, Smith now stands charged with smuggling 100 pounds of hashish from Afghanistan to California in 1968. After returning from overseas with the intention of moving his Nepalese wife and daughter to the United States, he was extradited from the Bay Area to Orange County's Main Jail.

Many observers who commented on the Weekly's initial blog post, which was picked up by the OC Register, Associated Press and UPI, have expressed shock and amazement that authorities have the time and resources to punish a man who clearly returned to US soil voluntarily and who by all accounts has dedicated himself to peace. Part of the explanation may be that the prosecutor handling the case, Jim Hicks, is the son of DA Cecil Hicks, who presided over the 1972 conspiracy case against the Brotherhood, and who is said to be retiring next March, meaning this case could be his last hurrah.

In the latest developments, Smith had an October 23 hearing in front of Orange County Superior Court Judge William Froeberg, who happens to be married to the chief of the District Attorney's sex crimes unit. Froeberg denied a request by Gerardo Gutierrez, Smith's Chicago-based attorney, to reduce Smith's bail from $1.1 million to $50,000, thus ensuring that his client will remain behind bars for the time being. The next hearings in the case are set for November 7 and December 7. The latter date, Gutierrez said, represents his "drop-dead" deadline for filing a motion to have the case dismissed in the interest of justice.

​An Irvine, California-based property management company was forced last week to remind tenants in a Santa Ana housing complex about common rules of decency. In a letter mailed to each unit, the manager urged tenants to "please be considerate" by using trash cans for trash, keeping noise down at night and monitoring unruly, screaming children playing soccer in the building's concrete courtyard. But that was not what caught our attention. The manager's final request was, no joke, "And please do not defecate in the elevator." He went on to threaten that further elevator defecating would require installation of surveillance cameras to catch the public poopers.

​Talk about a party wrecker. This just came in from the DA:

A man was convicted today of murdering a family friend on Cinco de Mayo in 1991 by shooting him in the face. Jesus Guillermo Batiz Rosales, 69, Santa Ana, was convicted of one felony count of murder and the sentencing enhancement allegation for the personal use of a firearm was found true.  Rosales faces a maximum sentence of 30 years to life in state prison at his sentencing on Dec. 11, 2009, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-30, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.

Probolsky: Let's blame OC Weekly!

​Desiree Mouzoon, the Orange County Republican fundraiser salaciously tied to disgraced ex-state assemblyman Mike Duvall in a Wednesday KCBS-KCAL report, has finally spoken.

Well, not exactly.

Mouzoon apparently has hired Jones Day--the law firm that unsuccessfully defended dirty ex-Sheriff Mike Carona for his crimes in office--to threaten local news outlets which mention the report that the woman had been caught in a "compromising position" with Duvall.

In a letter to Art Pedroza, editor of Orange Juice blog, lawyer Thomas R. Malcolm asserted that the KCBS report is "absolutely false and [has] caused irreparable harm" to Mouzoon. Malcolm, a heavyweight in local political/legal circles, demanded that Pedroza "immediately" remove his blog post from the Internet or he would be "aggressively" attacked in future litigation.

Pedroza--a feisty blogger who attempts to keep officials with both major political parties honest--told me tonight that he removed his original blog entry and then wrote a new posting about Malcolm's threat.

A joint September KCBS/OC Weekly probe caught Duvall, the powerful vice chairman of a state utilities committee graphically bragging about having sex with a Sempra Energy lobbyist. An outraged Assembly Speaker Karen Bass immediately removed him from his committee assignments. Shortly thereafter, Duvall--a self-described Christian conservative who had strenuously claimed gay marriage would wreck family values--resigned his seat.

In an October 21 follow-up investigation that had nothing to do with the Weekly, KCBS reporter Dave Lopez, a hard-charging, award-winning veteran of 37 years, reported that he'd discovered that Duvall's indiscretions may have extended to Mouzoon. At a Tuesday political fundraiser in Fullerton, Lopez confronted her with the allegation because she is now working for Linda Ackerman, a candidate seeking to replace Duvall. (Ackerman has made sexual ethics an issue in the campaign.) Mouzoon refused to answer any questions.  

Despite the blatantly obvious source of the report, Mouzoon's allies--which include boyfriend and local Republican Party pollster Adam Probolsky, a longtime Carona apologist--spent today attacking me and the Weekly in an shamelessly deceitful and misguided effort to discredit Lopez's story.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Mike Duvall spread more than the word of God

​Until recently, Irvine-based Republican fundraiser Desiree Mouzoon prominently listed a testimonial on her business website from Mike Duvall. Why not? Until recently, Duvall had been an Orange County state assemblyman who served as vice chairman of a powerful legislative utilities committee and worked in the California GOP's leadership. 

​A Long Beach man and a Santa Ana street gang have been implicated in an alleged Medicare fraud schemes that resulted in approximately $25 million in fraudulent bills to the Medicare program, various federal authorities announced this morning.

In all, 18 defendants, most of whom reside in the Los Angeles area, have been charged in five indictments for allegedly participating in the fraud schemes, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California George S. Cardona and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).

Michael Martinez, 30, of Long Beach, and six other defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and for making false statements to the government.  Martinez, the alleged ring leader, is accused of recruiting relatives and individuals linked to the Santa Ana-based Brook Street Gang to act as straw owners for four fraudulent medical equipment companies.

If convicted, Martinez faces a maximum sentence of 75 years in federal prison.

​In a remarkable opinion issued today with potential Orange County implications, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blasted the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for committing "highly objectionable," "tainted," "reckless," "misleading" and "illegal" conduct in a 2005 attempt to seize more than $186,400 from a legally compliant Southern California medical marijuana distributorship.

Flickr user theskywatcher

​In a move that will likely increase President Obama's favorable rating even here in conservative Orange County, Attorney General Eric Holder ordered federal drug agents to stop prosecuting cases involving medical marijuana users and providers who obey state laws legalizing the drug for medical purposes. In other words, if you've got a doctor's license and a state medical marijuana ID card, you're not going to get fucked with by the feds.

It's about time: California voters overwhelmingly voted to pass Proposition 215, legalizing marijuana for medical purposes back in November 1996, but both the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton and the Republican usurpation of George Bush refused to acknowledge the new law.  (Local cops also refused to acknowledge it, especially here in OC, where the first patients and caregivers to try to establish cannabis collectives, as spelled out in Prop 215, were set up on bogus drug charges and thrown in prison.

Now, thanks to a series of court cases ordering police to return confiscated cannabis, as well as legislation ordering counties to create ID programs for legitimate pot smokers, local law enforcement authorities have no choice but to obey the law. And the feds? Well, let's just say  Obama and his handpicked attorney general apparently believe the DEA has bigger fish to fry, according to an AP story today.

Scroll down to just below this photo for the latest news...

Click to enlarge.

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First the bad news: Despite hopes that the Orange County District Attorney's Office would have come to its senses and drop the charges by now, the bizarre case of the People vs.  Brenice Lee Smith, continued to crawl forward today. In a hearing this morning before Judge Thomas M. Goethals, Smith pleaded not guilty to the 40 year old indictment that brought down the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and which is now responsible for Smith being in jail. Meanwhile, the DA's office asked for a week to review a defense motion to reduce bail from $1.1 million to $50,000, which might allow Smith to get out of jail sometime soon. The next hearing in the case will be on October 23, by which time Smith will have spent nearly a month behind bars. DA Hicks told the judge he expected the trial, which will be scheduled on the 23rd, to last "at least" a month.

Now the good news:  In a brief interview outside the courtroom following the hearing today, Hicks made a point of saying that his investigation into the charges against Smith is still continuing, and an important part of that investigation will be determining what Smith has been doing with his life for the past 40 years--see below for some answers on that--and "what his prospects are" after getting out of jail. Supposing that Smith really was living at a monastery as a Buddhist monk in Nepal and isn't really the Kingpin of Kathmandu, the DA seems to be saying that would work in Smith's favor. Although Hicks said that dropping the charges against Smith wasn't something he's considering, he did allow that, rather than being determined to see this case go to trial, he's just looking for a "fair resolution."

Check out next Thursday's OC Weekly for a print story about Smith and check Navel Gazing  next Friday for the latest courtroom drama.

Will Billy Joe's Suck Up to Prison Gang Work?

​In what may have been acclaimed homicide prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh's easiest conviction, a jury this afternoon found Billy Joe Johnson--the notorious, wide-eyed and lisping Costa Mesa white supremacist--guilty in the 2002 conspiracy to execute a fellow pro-Hitler gangster who committed an apparently unforgivable sin: talking to Fox News.

Today's relatively rapid decision likely was not a surprise to Johnson, who previously took sole credit for killing Scott Miller in Anaheim in a ridiculously obvious effort to score points with two other Public Enemy Number One (PEN1) thugs, Jacob Rump and Michael Lamb, who faced trial for Miller's killing. Johnson's taxpayer-funded defense lawyer, the ever-sweating Michael Molfetta, had no choice but to concede his client's guilt.

Baytieh--who in the past gained courthouse respect for his tireless pursuit of Vietnamese hoodlums--now has convicted Rump, Lamb and Johnson in Miller's brutal ambush murder. Rump, a dim-witted drug addict with a fondness for Nazi symbols, is serving a life in prison sentence. Lamb, once a promising baseball player from Dana Point and the man who pulled the trigger on Miller, lives on California's death row in San Quentin State Prison.

According to Baytieh, Johnson--already in prison for the next half century because of a gory Huntington Beach hammer murder--confessed to solely killing Miller in hopes of winning PEN1 prison protection from the Aryan Brotherhood (AB), who allegedly authorized his execution years ago for not following AB instructions in prison.

The current jury--which is heavily dominated by middle-aged white men--will next decide if Johnson, a 46-year-old former Nazi Low Rider, should join Lamb in the traffic-jam lineup for state-sponsored execution.

Count on Johnson, who openly drools at female jurors when they enter the courtroom, to continue to assist in his own demise.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Arthur Carmona R.I.P.

​When he died at the hands of a hit-and run driver early last year, Arthur Carmona was still hard at work trying to help people like him who had been convicted of crimes they didn't commit, and whose problems didn't end when, miracle of miracles, the justice system finally corrected itself and declared them innocent. Now, nearly two years after Carmona's tragic death and almost a decade after he walked out of prison a free man, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has finally signed a bill that will make it much easier for wrongfully convicted individuals to get justice.

Arnie had already vetoed previous versions of the bill, but last night he signed into law AB316, which was written by Jose Solorio, (D-Santa Ana), and which passed the legislature with a unanimous vote and only one abstention, OC's very own Mike Duvall (R-Drippy), who apparently had bigger problems to deal with at the time.

​On March 31, 2008, Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue won an unprecedented legal victory over the FBI in his years-old lawsuit to force the agency to hand over everything it has on the mysterious death of his brother, former Westminster resident Kenneth Trentadue. That day, the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled that Trentadue and other family members had suffered severe emotional distress as a result of Kenneth's bizarre death at the Federal Transfer Center near Oklahoma City, which prison officials claimed was a suicide by hanging--a claim rather at odds with the bruises, footprints and other obvious marks of a brutal jailhouse beating. 

No, not that kind of fish fry.

​Congratulations, Orange County! Some of your residents were among today's arrestees in the largest cyber crime case of its kind.

"Operation Phish Phry," the first joint cyber investigation between Egyptian law enforcement authorities and United States officials, netted the most defendants ever charged in a cyber crime case, turning up domestic suspects in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, elsewhere in California, Nevada, and North Carolina.

Who created Billy Joe Johnson?

​There was something comical about defense attorney Michael Molfetta's opening performance today in the trial of legendary Costa Mesa serial killer/white supremacist Billy Joe Johnson. Molfetta, a former prosecutor with legendary oratory skills, represents Johnson--a vicious, lisping specimen for California crime annals. If convicted, the Public Enemy Number One Death Squad (PEN1) and former Nazi Low Rider (NLR) killer faces a one-way trip to San Quentin State Prison's inhospitable death row.

Sure, Molfetta did something I can't recall seeing a defense lawyer do in court. He acknowledged that his client "did everything" veteran homicide prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh accuses him of doing. That means--without an iota of sensationalism on my part--that Johnson is a Nazi-loving monster without a pang of conscience or--so much for protecting the white race from decline--the ability to form a proper sentence.

"Everything [Baytieh] said [in his opening statement] is true," said Molfetta. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it."

For Molfetta, it wasn't so much sugarcoating as accepting a terrible set of facts and attempting to score points for honesty with jurors. Johnson has already admitted on numerous occasions that he's a killer. Indeed, he has described himself as proud of his crimes. In case anyone could forget his beliefs, he has even charmed a previous courtroom with a salute to Hitler.  

So here's what started to make me chuckle to myself today in Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel's (Triple F) ninth-floor Santa Ana courtroom: Molfetta's opening lines.

"Take a look at him," Molfetta said to the button down, middle-class-loaded jury as he pointed at Johnson. "Who is he? What makes him tick?"

These Real Housewives' are real!

​Fox News has just broken this jaw-dropping exclusive:

Gretchen Rossi will not get a boob job.

REPEAT: NO NEW BOOBS FOR GRETCHEN ROSSI!

Oh, the humanity!

Seriously, what happened to humanity?

Oppression didn't end in 1945

​Folks are always complaining that Congress and state legislatures should not be allowed to meet except for a couple of weeks a year. It's an idea to help curtail the nanny-state notions of politicians of both major political parties. Good enough. But what about city councils?

Irvine attorney Sandeep Baweja, the 39-year-old money man for that town's "progressive" political boss Larry Agran and a former official with Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, agreed in court papers to plead guilty to two felony charges related to a scheme where he ripped off nearly all of the $2.7 million he'd previously won for his clients, the FBI announced today.

In a plea agreement prosecutors filed late Thursday in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Baweja indicates he will plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice, which carry a statutory maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison.

As the sole proprietor of Baweja Law Group, which was based in Los Angeles until August 2008, when it relocated to Irvine, Baweja filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of current and former real estate agents of ZipRealty, Inc. in May 2007. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana alleged that ZipRealty denied about 800 employees certain sales commissions, refused to reimburse business expenses and made unlawful wage deductions.

UPDATED WITH SENTENCING CLARIFICATION . . .

A deputy driving a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Chevrolet sports utility vehicle (but not necessarily this one) was convicted of DUI today.

​The Orange County District Attorney's Office originally announced the sentence for Robert Andrew Moran--the 43-year-old Buena Park resident and veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who drove a department SUV while under the influence last year and plowed into another car, injuring two people--as six months in jail and three years of informal probation.

The Orange County Register's follow-up by veteran courts reporter Larry Welborn, who was in the courtroom where the sentence was read, reported that the judge ordered six months of home detention, much of which had already been served. That's also how Moran's attorney characterized the sentence in the Welborn piece.

A call to the DA's office for confirmation of the sentencing produced the same answer as the first one: six months in jail for Moran. A call to Welborn produced the same answer as his story: six months of home detention almost all previously served. Welborn even added the standard "I stand by my story" line you've heard in the movies.

Turns out, both versions are technically correct.

John Gilhooley

​ Remember that feature story from last year, "Party Crashers"? The one with the cover artwork showing a birthday cake with all these cops as candles and the headline that said "At this Garden Grove Family Barbecue, the Cops Brought the Pepper Spray and Handcuffs?"
The story concerned a lawsuit stemming from a Sept. 11, 2004 incident in which several members of the Santos family who were celebrating a birthday were arrested and charged with such crimes as resisting arrest and lynching after a Garden Grove cop got into an argument with the head of the family.

To the cop, Officer Omar Patel, Frank Santos might have looked like a gang member, since he's Latino and had tattoos and a closed-cropped haircut. Unfortunately for Patel, it turned out Santos was actually a former prison guard. When Patel pulled up to the birthday party after another family member, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, called police to report his car being stolen--it was actually being towed--he marched right up to Santos and the two got in an argument, during which Santos said "Get the fuck out of here." Patel allegedly went bat-shit crazy and chased Santos around a yard, at one point stumbling over a small brick wall and then pulling out a can of pepper spray, waving it in the air like a bottle of Lysol.

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS FROM THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING . . .

Photo by Keith May

County Supervisor Bill Campbell, whose district includes the Irvine Co. land in question, is amused by a speaker at Tuesday's board meeting in Santa Ana.

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He's got a gift. Donald Bren, the secretive, aging multi-billionaire who chairs The Irvine Co., has an undisputed gift for preservation. He sets aside, and preserves, and then preserves yet again the mostly steep, landslide prone, unbuildable portions of his sprawling ranch lands, which stretch from the Pacific Ocean more than 20 miles inland to the Riverside County border.

By Kathryn Hyatt

Don Bren: giver

​ Time and again, company press releases have trumpeted the dedication of thousands of acres of pristine open space by the chairman of the board. Limestone Canyon has repeatedly been dubbed Orange County's "Grand Canyon" and "crown jewel." And over nearly two decades, Bren has also used the open space set asides to cut development deals in endangered species habitat, win the largest conservation easement tax breaks in U.S. history, and wreathe himself and his legacy in laurels from federal and state parks officials.

Now, the Irvine Co. chairman really wants to give it to the people of Orange County. This time, the press releases proclaim that he is ready to turn over, once and for all, 20,000 acres of rugged wild lands at the county's eastern edge to the public.

Not so fast, says the county's conservation community. Like Bren, some are now in their late 70s, and they've been battling him as long as he's been bulldozing sage scrub for master planned tract homes. For them, any gift from The Irvine Co. is worth examining closely to see what strings might be hiding under the tidy bows and shiny wrappings.

​In the horror movie The Signal, a mysterious subliminal pulse is sent out via various forms of media, turning the people who receive it crazy, and usually homicidal.

As former Weekly staff writer (turned horror movie star!) Luke Y. Thompson blogged in February 2008, the fictional movie became fact at the AMC cinemas in Fullerton.

Now, the man who was arrested for stabbing two strangers watching The Signal has been found guilty by a jury of two felony counts of attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation, two felony counts of mayhem, and sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury.

Steven Walter Robinson Jr., 26, of Anaheim, now faces a maximum of life in prison at his December 11 sentencing hearing at the North Justice Center in Fullerton.

The crime was bizarre even by bizarre Orange County standards.

View Larger Map

UPDATE JUST IN FROM GARDEN GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT: "On Sept. 29, Johnathan Allen Kincaid, 20, of Anaheim, was arrested for the murder of Tayroh Stinson.  Kincaid was already in custody after he was arrested on Sept. 4 in Las Vegas, Nevada, by the U.S. Marshal's Office for an outstanding warrant. Kincaid was extradited back to Orange County where Garden Grove Police detectives were waiting to make the arrest for murder. The investigation remains ongoing and no details of the crime will be released at this time."

Stinson, 31, was stabbed to death after a fist fight in the middle of the afternoon July 29 near a commercial and high-density residential location he had gone to to sell marijuana. He died at a local hospital hours after being transported from the sidewalk he'd collapsed on some time after 2 p.m. in the 9000 block of Trask Avenue east of Magnolia Street.

Witnesses told police that Stinson's attacker ran north into the residential area around Magnolia and Mays Avenue. An intense police search failed to turn up a suspect at that time.

Not coming to Newport Beach.

​The Daily Voice, a website that covers Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, breaks the following news: a tsunami wreaking havoc on American Samoa and possibly Hawaii next will not hit Newport Beach.

Repeat: a tsunami thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean will not hit Newport Beach.

In other breaking news, Newport Beach will also not be terrorized tonight by chupacabras, flying monkeys or the Comet Kohoutek.

Daryn Peterson

Daryn Peterson must have been flying pretty high on June 10, when he opened the Orange County Register and read Courtney Perkes' feature story on him, "A Rejection of Western Medicine."

Today, the 37-year-old Las Vegas resident was arrested and charged with unauthorized practice of medicine, operating a health care service plan without a license, treating cancer without a license, offering an unapproved drug for cancer treatment, and misrepresenting himself as a licensed medical practitioner. 

Among the allegedly fake doctor's victims was the Orange County Register.

So much for all publicity is good publicity.

Goat Boy: I'm Ba-a-a-a-a-a-ack!

​ Apparently, your teabagging grandma isn't the only person who thinks the election of Barack Obama spells doom for America. In celebration of the eighth anniversary of 9/11, Al Qaeda has just released a video called "The West and the Dark Tunnel." In the video, Ayman al-Zawahri  predicts that the "Muslim nation" will bring down the Obama presidency, the AP reports today.

Just how the "Muslim nation" will do that isn't clear. Is he talking about the Nation of Islam? If so, let me be the first to predict that Al Qaeda's next attack on U.S. soil will involve a Louis Farrakhan/Sarah Palin candidacy.

What is clear, is that despite rumors that he'd been killed in a Predator drone attack in Pakistan earlier this year, Orange County's favorite terrorist traitor, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, is still alive and well--if by alive and well one really means temporarily not dead and well on his way to being so annoying Al Qaeda might off him if the CIA doesn't.

​About four months after the Weekly first highlighted the controversy surrounding a gang injunction filed against numerous Latino residents of the city of Orange, the ACLU of Southern California announces today that it is filing a class-action lawsuit in the matter. Details of the lawsuit are being announced at a press conference at 10 a.m. today--the same moment the press release they sent us yesterday becomes fit for public consumption--so we don't yet have the details.