57 pounds?

A Little Saigon drug dealer caught selling approximately 57 pounds of cocaine in May 2011 has won a 31-month trip to federal prison.

U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna punished Tung Le this month for participating in a cocaine operation that distributed illegal narcotics throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.

After his 2012 federal indictment, Le signed a guilty plea before a trial in hopes of a more lenient sentence.

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An ex-doctor and minister who hawked a miracle cancer cure via a program on the Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison because her "brown sludge'' was actually made of suntan lotion and beef flavoring. Besides TBN, Christine Daniel, 58, of Santa Clarita, also sold the phony cure through her "wellness center" with ever-changing names in Mission Hills. In addition to the prison stretch, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin, who remanded Daniel into custody following the four-hour hearing in Los Angeles, ordered her to forfeit nearly $1.2 million. When the then-licensed physician and ordained Pentecostal minister was arrested in LA in October 2009, she'd by then taken $1.1 million from 55 families over three years for her herbal "C-Extract." At least six patients died over a six-month period.

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Mother and son tag-teamers Leticia and Noel Carrasco received life sentences today for robbing and murdering a man in a Buena Park motel room after momma picked the fellow up in a Stanton bar with promises of sex.

Leticia Carrasco, the stunner at right, can apply for parole from prison in 25 years when she is 78. Noel Carrasco, 27, must spend the rest of his life behind bars.

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Da Judge

A Newport Beach jewelry store owner, who withdrew her guilty plea in a family mortgage scam case just before sentencing only to be found guilty in Santa Ana federal court anyway, has learned her fate. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney sentenced 52-year-old Safieh Fard to 63 months in prison.

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A former Kaiser nurse is complaining in Orange County Superior Court that she was tasked with duties beyond her experience and training, and that when she complained and asked for more training, she was disciplined and fired. Amali Dissanayake, who is represented by Joel Baruch and Nikki Fermin of Irvine, is suing for wrongful termination.

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A 34-year-old Lake Forest man was convicted today of touching the vaginal areas of a 7-year-old visiting a family member at the Laguna Woods healthcare facility the creeper worked at and a 6-year-old attending movie night at an Aliso Viejo park. German Bravo DeJesus now faces a maximum sentence of 45 years to life in prison at his scheduled June 28 sentencing.

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See Update No. 2 at the end of this post on Angel Rojas Jr. being sentenced to 270 days in jail and the other punishment he received. See Update No. 1 on the next page on the Corona man being convicted of locking the doors of several elementary school restrooms to direct girls to use one where he had set up a small hidden camera so he could collect pornographic images.

ORIGINAL POST, MAY 7, 9:11 A.M.: A Santa Ana Unified School District janitor faces trial today for allegedly hiding a camera in the bathroom stall of a women's restroom at Glenn L. Martin Elementary School.

Baby-faced Angel Rojas Jr., 25, of Corona, could get more than a year in jail, a $6,000 fine and a lifetime of registering as a sex offender with a conviction.

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Kobe Bryant

A federal judge in New Jersey has ordered "an in-person settlement conference" for May 17 in the dispute between Kobe Bryant and an auction house planning to sell the Los Angeles Lakers' teenage memorabilia late next month for the superstar's mother, Pamela.

If the mediation doesn't work, U.S. District Court Judge Rene Marie Bumb set an "expedited" June 17 trial with hopes of resolving the conflict before the scheduled June 27 public auction of nearly 1,000 items such as Kobe Bryant's high school basketball jerseys and trophies.

Lawyers for the NBA player filed a lawsuit against Goldin Auctions LLC in Orange County last week with the hopes of having the dispute handled on Bryant's home turf in California.

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Jury names federal prosecutors victorious in DEA bribery case

Veteran Orange County criminal defense lawyer Lawrence Anthony Witsoe closed his eyes and remained motionless late this afternoon as a court clerk read a series of guilty verdicts against him in what could go down as one of the dumbest bribery convictions in California history.

FBI bribery probes usually capture greedy, selfish characters and yet more than a week of evidence and testimony inside Santa Ana's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse repeatedly underscored that the low-key Witsoe doesn't fit the mold.

In 2009, the Mission Viejo-based lawyer orchestrated a quid pro quo deal where Phoenix businessman Wayne Gillis, a client facing criminal assault charges, secretly paid $2,500 to get Aaron Scott Vigil, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force agent, to lobby local prosecutors for a dismissal by falsely claiming Gillis was a confidential informant deserving of special treatment. Vigil made three dishonest efforts to aid Gillis. Money changed hands. Gillis got his charges dropped.

Witsoe?

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DEA agent lies, payment is made and OC jury is befuddled

Federal prosecutor Rob Keenan possesses unquestionable evidence that a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force agent in Riverside repeatedly lied to Orange County prosecutors in hopes of tricking them into giving unwarranted, special treatment to an accused John Wayne Airport assault defendant.

Keenan collected undeniable proof that Mission Viejo defense lawyer Lawrence Witsoe convinced Wayne Gillis, his Phoenix businessman client charged in the assault case, that if he quietly paid $2,500 to DEA task force agent Aaron Vigil, he'd win special treatment from the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The veteran, assistant United States Attorney and his trial partner, Jennifer Waier, also have documentation that Witsoe ordered evidence of the conspiracy to be destroyed so that he, Gillis and Vigil wouldn't fall into "deep yogurt" if anyone honest in law enforcement discovered the ruse.

Indeed, Witsoe didn't know he was being recorded by the FBI when he told Gillis that he would route the $2,500 to the DEA agent through an intermediary.

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