In August 2006, two Orange County men—James McGuinn and Paul Tu—drove together in the carpool lane of the southbound Interstate 405 when a habitual criminal driving a Chevy Blazer rear-ended them at 35 mph. Though damage was minimal to McGuinn’s Ford Explorer, Jamar Wendell Rivers—the Chevy driver—fled, weaving through dense, morning traffic. McGuinn tailed Rivers from the scene while Tu, the passenger, called the California Highway Patrol. A shirtless, heavily tattooed Rivers eventually took the Magnolia Street exit, turned into a BJ’s Pizza parking lot, jumped out of his car, ran up to McGuinn’s window, yanked on the locked door, pounded his fist and yelled, “You motherfucking asshole. What the fuck are you doing? I’m going to fucking kill you.” A startled McGuinn turned to Tu and said, “We’ve got to get out of here!” He quickly backed his car away and Rivers made his second escape attempt. Cops immediately nabbed him. Rivers explained that he’d been in a hurry to get his nagging girlfriend to her work.

At trial, the 25-year-old Los Angeles County man admitted that he’d been upset because McGuinn tailed him but tried this argument: the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guaranteed his free speech rights to utter his words. He also said his threats were obviously empty because he hadn’t been carrying weapons. After a five-day trial, a jury convicted Rivers for making criminal threats, attempting to dissuade witnesses from reporting a crime, hit-and-run and driving on a suspended license. Unrepentant, he took his First Amendment argument to a California Court of Appeal in Santa Ana. Led by Acting Presiding Justice William W. Bedsworth, the court recently issued a terse rejection of the defense theory. Bedsworth determined that the two victims had indeed been terrorized. For a less than a minute of stupidity, Rivers won a free trip to a California prison. It’ll be his home for six years and four months.

(Wednesdays at OCWeekly.com discover the depths of human depravity in Orange County, California.)

-- R. Scott Moxley/ OC Weekly

California's Supreme Court yesterday reversed a lower court's finding that a Santa Barbara County prosecutor should have been disqualified in the sensational Jesse James Hollywood (pictured, upper left) murder trial after forming a partnership with a movie director.

Veteran deputy district attorney Ronald Zonen confided in and loaned his official files to Nick Cassavetes in 2003 so that the filmmaker could write what eventually became Alpha Dog starring Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis. The film made $15.1 million at the box office and was featured on cable networks. But Zonen's goal was not monetary—he had no financial interest in the film. He cooperated only to help publicize the crime and apprehend Hollywood, who'd fled the country after the bizarre kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas "Nick" Markowitz.

Two years later, authorities captured Hollywood in Brazil and returned him to California for trial, where he claimed Zonen's arrangement with the movie maker had been illegal and that the prosecutor should recuse himself. A superior court judge didn't agree with Hollywood, but an appellate court panel did—fretting that they didn't want to "embolden other prosecutors to assist the media in the public vilification of a defendant in a case which is yet to be tried . . . . Prosecutors should try their cases in courtrooms, not in the newspapers, television or in the movies. To say that Zonen went too far is an understatement."

Supreme Court justices agreed that Zonen's acts may have been "distasteful" but did not violate Hollywood's right to a fair trial. "The trial court concluded Zonen was only convening his honest assessments of a fugitive defendant to Cassavetes and others in the hope their subsequent portrayal would lead to the fugitive's capture," the justices wrote in an 18-page opinion. "This was not an abuse of discretion."

The ruling might have an impact Orange County prosecutors who have charged a group of people with the sensational 2004 murder of a retired couple at sea. Thomas and Jackie Hawks were bound, tied to an anchor and dropped into the Pacific Ocean somewhere off Southern California during an attempt to steal the expensive boat. Skylar Deleon, a former actor (pictured, lower left), awaits a trial that has garnered interest from local reporters, book authors, network news shows and Los Angeles filmmakers. In 2006, Deleon's wife, Jennifer, was found guilty on two counts of first degree murder for the crime after just four hours of jury deliberation.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Believing his girlfriend of five months engaged in affairs with other men, Rodney Lyn Oglesby worked himself into an October 2005 tizzy. It didn’t help that one night after Karen Corbin’s shift at Wal-Mart she refused to return to the couple’s home, a room at the Crest Motel on seedy West Lincoln in Anaheim. Corbin’s act of defiance was understandable. A calm Oglesby had called her at work to say that her gray and white striped, three-month-old kitten had hissed at him and, in retaliation, he’d broken the kitten’s neck.

(Later, the killing would lead to the following priceless exchange in court between a prosecutor and Anaheim police officer Cheryl Lynn Murphy: Prosecutor: Did you find the cat inside the Dumpster? Murphy: Yes. Prosecutor: Can you describe what the cat looked like? Murphy: It looked dead.)

When Corbin arrived home the next morning by bus, Oglesby decided he knew the reason for her absence. She’d stayed away to sleep with another man, he insisted. He also described how he’d shaken her kitten to death and left its corpse to grow cold on the floor before tossing it, and its toys, in the trash.

“He was angry,” Corbin testified. “He was mad. He tore up the room.”

A frightened Corbin went to the motel manager’s office hoping he’d call police. He said no. That’s when 5-foot-6, 181-pound Oglesby showed up, ordered her back to their room and began pulling her by the arm in the parking lot. She sat down on the ground. Oglesby pretended to walk away, spun around and kicked her in her left eye. The blow was so powerful it fractured her face bone and caused severe bleeding. He then dragged her by her hair, tearing out huge clumps, repeatedly punched her face and called her a bitch.

The lunchtime scene prompted several bystanders to call 911. One, a neighbor named Cisco, ran to Corbin’s rescue and said, “That’s enough!” Oglesby responded by accusing Cisco of sleeping with his girlfriend too, cursed more and attempted to flee responding police on a bicycle.

During court proceedings, Oglesby—sent to Alabama prisons twice in the 1990s for committing felonies, including burglary—employed the insanity defense. He has a “a significant and severe organic impairment in his brain,” declared his court-appointed lawyer. But after multiple psychiatric evaluations (at public expense), Judge Gary Paer ruled the 42-year-old competent enough to face charges. Oglesby accepted a plea deal. For multiple acts of stupidity including domestic violence and cruelty to an animal, he’s spending six years in a California prison.

(Every Wednesday at OCWeekly.com, discover the depths of human depravity in Orange County, California.)

-- R. Scott Moxley

What 5-foot-3, 180-pound Gustavo Palmas Reyes of Anaheim lacks in English-speaking skills he makes up for in nerve. The construction worker arrived home drunk one night in July 2005 and beat his live-in girlfriend. She had made the mistake of cooking him dinner when he wasn’t hungry. Annoyed, the 42-year-old then left to drink alcohol and eat fried chicken with friends. Later that night, he came home to the couple’s one-bedroom apartment near Disneyland, where he stripped, molested and raped his girlfriend’s mute, developmentally disabled 12-year-old daughter. Caught in the act by the little girl’s horrified uncle, Reyes declared he’d gotten “vengeance” against his girlfriend. When police arrived, Reyes tried to blame the consumption of 13 beers and, perhaps sensing he wasn’t winning sympathy, finally suggested that he'd mounted the girl only to save her from an alleged epileptic seizure. The tale might have had a slight chance if his DNA hadn’t been found in the girl’s vagina. “Well, I’ve touched her,” he told a police detective the next day. “I’m not saying that I haven’t. But she likes me like you wouldn’t believe, that’s why I regret this.” He also declared himself “a normal person,” cried, noted his otherwise-clean criminal record, begged for “forgiveness” and suggested counseling as punishment. Police and prosecutors weren’t impressed. Based on their work, an Orange County jury convicted Reyes, who has a wife and kids in Mexico, on three felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. For an hour's worth of stupidity, he won a free trip to a California prison. It’ll be his home for a decade.

(Every Wednesday at OCWeekly.com discover the depths of human depravity in Orange County, California.)

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

For Buena Park's James Ochoa, the indescribable agony of spending 16 months locked in the Orange County Jail and a California prison for crimes he did not commit is a bit less painful today.

This afternoon, a state board in Sacramento voted 3 to 0 to award Ochoa nearly $30,000 in compensation in one of the final chapters of a bizarre law enforcement case. (Witnesses at the scene say board member Rosario Marin, a member of the governor's cabinet, argued against the payment but must have recorded a favorable vote to join State Controller John Chiang and San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos. California law permits wrongfully imprisoned people to apply for a $100-per-day fee for time spent in prison. Time in county lockup doesn't count.

"It's like a miracle," Ochoa lawyer Scott Borthwick said immediately after the hearing. "Every step of the way James had been screwed by government authorities. Finally, this board stood up and did the right thing."

In 2005, police arrested and prosecutors charged Ochoa—then 20 years old—for a robbery/carjacking near a Buena Park nightclub. A pre-trial article in the Weekly demonstrated numerous gaping holes in the government's case, and yet law enforcement officers refused to drop it. Most significantly, DNA evidence left at the scene of the crime did not match Ochoa. There were also substantial questions surrounding the competence and integrity of a police dog handler. In the middle of the trial, Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald pressured Ochoa to accept a two-year prison deal by threatening to send him away for the rest of his life if a jury found him guilty. Over Borthwick's objections, Ochoa took the deal. Justice arrived 16 months after the ordeal began when crime lab officials matched the DNA from the crime to a prisoner sitting in the Los Angeles County Jail. Fitzgerald quickly released Ochoa from prison.

Earlier this year, the Weekly revealed that prior to trial prosecutors had asked the crime lab to alter its findings that Ochoa was excluded as a source of the DNA. You can read that story here.

The Innocence Project, by famed defense lawyers Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld, features the case on its website.

Ochoa's civil rights lawsuit is set for trial in federal court on May 20 in the Ronald Reagan Federal Court Building.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Clutching a package of velvet lace to his chest, Bootlicker elbowed by an elderly lady to get first in the checkout line at Michaels arts and crafts shop. Time was of the essence. Thirty minutes earlier, the Orange County District Attorney’s office had released its “Investigative Report” on the beating death of an inmate in November 2006. Bootlicker grabbed the first copy, raced to his pickup truck and, as if God himself granted a special wish, watched as the report fell open to pages 25-26. The Orange County Register columnist, who’d spent his career fetishizing a violence-prone police state under the nom de plume Gordon Dillow, gasped. His spine shot erect. His self-styled “country” brain focused not on sentences but words: “lifeless body,” “protocol,” “the size,” “large scale,” “joint investigation,” “command,” and--oh-my-golly!--“homicide unit.” In his mind’s eye, the word “unit” grew larger and larger and larger until it was the only word he saw. Could a single word engulf a body and pulsate in hot pink? It felt that way. An appreciative Bootlicker closed his eyes, dropped a hand to his loins and imagined buttons popping—exploding in rapid fire, really—from a male motorcycle cop’s uniform shirt. Underneath, a soiled white T-shirt barely masked the officer’s firm nipples. Bootlicker imagined that the angry cop had just used his Billy Club on the face of a disrespectful, young man of color. A part of the Reg columnist suddenly tingled and then he grunted twice. He opened his eyes, sighed and drove to Michaels. A report this special would have to be wrapped in velvet lace.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

'I Lit the Fire': Jared Petrovich claims he was just following orders when his words sparked a fatal jailhouse beating; April 3, 2008, By Nick Schou

An Open Letter to DA Tony Rackauckas Regarding the Jailhouse Murder of John Chamberlain; March 13, 2008, By Nick Schou

Tased and Not Confused: To lawyer in OC jailhouse-tasing incident, missing footage is no shocker; May 10, 2007, By Nick Schou

Thanks for the Work! An open letter to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, Sheriff Mike Carona, and the police chiefs and mayors of every Orange County city except Laguna Niguel; April 4, 2007, By Nick Schou

Blind Spot: For OC jail inmate John Chamberlain, jailhouse justice served as judge, jury—and executioner; March 29, 2007, By Nick Schou

The Trials of Billy Joe, White Supremacist: Gang leader and murder suspect says he was brutalized by jail deputies; February 16, 2006, By R. Scott Moxley

Carona Makeover: Another day, another jail beating in OC; October 6, 2005, By R. Scott Moxley

Justice Takes a Beating: OC court greenlights torture in local jails; August 11, 2005, By R. Scott Moxley

Sources tell OC Weekly that the Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy found dead in a car parked in Aliso Viejo yesterday had been the subject of a sex crimes investigation in the District Attorney's office and may have opted to kill himself rather than face arrest.

Susan Schroeder at the DA's office said she will release a statement today.

If ever a man looked like a sheriff, it’s Jack Anderson. The mustachioed man is tall and husky and, if he wore a cowboy hat, would cast an impressive shadow sitting on a horse.

Of course, the wild—ridiculously wild—west days at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) should be over. Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona and his evil sidekicks Jo Ann Galisky and Steven Bishop have found their rightful places in society. Carona teeters on the brink of prison if convicted later this year in a bribery/obstruction of justice scheme. Fired or forced out of their assistant sheriff jobs, Galisky and Bishop nowadays can soil only their plain clothes.

Sitting atop the OCSD is acting Sheriff Jack Anderson, a 47-year-old Illinois native who begs reporters not to tie him to . . . (in a Monday interview, he made a dismissive sweeping motion with his right hand, and then said) . . . “the previous sheriff and all of his problems.”

Anderson doesn’t have to be particularly wise to appreciate that Carona and his former inner circle at the department are politically radioactive. And yet—like Galisky, Bishop and ex-assistant sheriffs turned felons George Jaramillo and Don Haidl—Anderson can’t deny the truth: Carona put the stars on his uniform and welcomed him into an arrogant OCSD inner sanctum that prized deceit above all else.

But Jack doesn’t want to be in the Carona box. “I’m not part of all that,” he told me. “That’s the past. It’s unfair to tie me to it. I think I can take this department back to what it should be—a place where people are proud to work and the public can trust.”

What influence does Carona have today? I asked.

“None,” said Anderson. “That’s the way it should be. He is history.”

As evidence, he pointed to a wall near the sheriff’s inner office that once held photographs of a smiling Carona embracing Hollywood celebrities and fellow politicians. “It was all about him, you know?” said Anderson.

He replaced the photographs with a motto etched into the wall: “The men and women of the sheriff’s department are its heart and the institution is greater than any individual.”

Is Anderson merely telling outsiders what he thinks they want to hear? Skeptics say yes. They insist that the department needs a thorough break from Carona and his assistants. And they are none too keen on what they see as behind-the-scenes ties between Anderson and Carona adviser Mike Schroeder.

“Jack is a nice guy, but he’s not the independent leader we need,” said Bill Hunt, the high-ranking deputy whom a pre-indicted Carona fired because he’d challenged him in the 2006 elections. “Jack’s baggage is Carona and Schroeder. They wrecked the department. We’ve got to get beyond these people.”

Hunt, who scored the recent endorsement of the deputies’ union, is one of nearly two dozen applicants hoping to be selected June 3 by the county’s Board of Supervisors. The prize? Head California’s second largest sheriff’s department. Other local candidates include Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Commander Ralph Martin, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters and Craig Hunter, deputy chief of police in Anaheim.

From Schroeder's perspective, one candidate has zero chance of winning.

"Hunt claims that he is the corruption fighter but ignores the two 800-pound elephants in the room," Schroeder told the Weekly. "The first elephant is that the Attorney General determined that Hunt engaged in a cover-up relating to Don Haidl and George Jaramillo, including the altering of official reports. Mr. Hunt also claims that Anderson is tainted because he was promoted by Carona. This brings us to the second elephant in the room: Hunt was also promoted to all of his management positions by the former sheriff. Hunt may think he is a strong candidate, but with these elephants on his back, no one outside his inner circle seriously regards him as such."

Based on numerous interviews, it appears that Hunt's support is largely from the public. No surprise there. Hunt is the man who finished second against Carona in the last election. But views among members of the Board of Supervisors apparently differ. Depending on who you talk to, the top three local candidates appear to be Walters, Anderson and Martin.

A move by Supervisor Janet Nguyen to conduct a national interview process has had the effect of giving Anderson--once a dark horse, at best--a chance. He's effectively the incumbent now. On a daily basis, he's able to enhance his public image by speaking at crime scenes and issuing reforms. Perhaps more important, he’s got a powerful fan.

After pondering a posting tonight at theliberaloc.com by Gila Jones, I'm guessing that Orange County Republican pollsters have worrisome data that raises concerns about the safety of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's re-election chances in November.

An enigma wrapped in lies, a temper, quixotic brain functions, shameless self-promotion, questionable personal habits, margarita breath and a dress code likely suggested by a well-meaning but drunk Frank Mickadeit, Rohrabacher is, by any reasonable measure, the one GOPer county Democrats should be able to unseat.

Yet, Dem efforts to date have been pathetic. He's easily won election after election for nearly two decades. It didn't help that after the last U.S. Census Democrat Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez used her influence with Democrats in the state legislature to strengthen Rohrabacher's gerrymandered California coastal district in an behind the scenes game of incumbency protection.

Now, Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook is set to take on Rohrabacher and Michael J. Schroeder--Rohrabacher pal, GOP heavyweight and plotting political mastermind--is attempting to convince the court system that Cook can't call herself "mayor" on the ballot. His reasoning? Cook was elected to the position by the HB city council, not the public.

You don't say?

Perhaps Schroeder is just bored and waiting for the next USC football season. Then again, perhaps internal Republican pollings suggests local voters are finally tired of the pro-war, pro-status quo crew and Rohrabacher's campaign is looking for ways to put Cook on the defensive from the outset.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Parents of 7th, 8th and 9th grade boys can relax a wee bit more this afternoon. Jeffrey Ray Nielsen--a onetime congressional aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and a serial pedophile--is now in custody of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Superior Court Judge David Thompson sentenced the 37-year-old Nielsen, son of former Fountain Valley Mayor Ben Nielsen, to three years in an as-yet-to-be-named California prison. Read the full story of today's hearing in next week's edition of Moxley Confidential in the Weekly.

Click here for prior coverage of the Nielsen pedophile saga.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Holding a gun with both hands sent sensations racing down his spine to a semi-firm point between his legs. Gordon Dillow wanted to moan—purr, really—like he did in the privacy of his home. But he’d been warned twice before about fondling weapons inside Orange County Register headquarters. There was also the problem of his co-workers: in his mind, a bunch of unapologetic liberals, women, homosexuals, Jews and "gooks."** He knew they didn’t sympathize with the depths of his love for men in uniform, weapons, badges, boots, steel neck collars and cop domination techniques—particularly ones performed on young brown people who haven't yet learned to quickly salute state authority.

Dillow’s memory flashed to the time in the men’s room when he had reached out to another Register employee in hopes of finding an ideological soul mate. The man flushed, called him a “sick douche bag” and stormed out. Weeks later the Pentagon’s PR unit sent Dillow to Iraq under the ruse that he was an independent embedded journalist. Men. Uniforms. Weapons. Heat. Torture. Dead civilians. He felt so blessed he tried to stay indefinitely.

But that was several years ago. Dillow gripped the gun tightly, squeezed his eyelids and recalled his favorite photograph: a smirking, erect Heinrich Himmler, dressed spectacularly in a Nazi uniform and surrounded by shirtless males ready to obey. He sighed and let his mind wonder about the possibility of a master race.

A tingling returned. He rolled his chair over to his office door and quietly locked it shut. Deadline for his next column was 15 minutes away. What could he write about? Cops? Soldiers? Cop/soldiers? A coin flip wouldn’t help.

His eyes searched his office in hopes of sparking an idea. A Donna Summer song played softly in the background. There--partially hidden underneath his prized copy of a My Lai massacre movie (actual footage!) and a stack of photographs he’d secretly taken of men entering an Army recruiting station in Stanton on successive Saturdays--he found inspiration: a Register crime story. I’ll let him tell describe his excitement:

“It happened earlier this month in Irvine,” Dillow wrote for today’s column. “Police were looking for a man suspected of raping an 18-year-old woman in her home. As the cops searched, the fleeing suspect, a 27-year-old L.A. gang member, tried to hide by breaking into another home. Inside, the homeowner, a man who had recently undergone defensive firearms training, heard the commotion, grabbed a handgun and confronted the suspect.”

Men. Uniforms. Gun. Action.

Dillow swiveled repeatedly in his seat, purred and looked over his shoulder. Yes, the office door remained shut. In the distance he heard Tony Saavedra snoring, Frank Mickadeit bragging about his own popularity and Martin Wisckol slowly repeating a series of orders from GOP boss Mike Schroeder. Even for Dillow, those noises were troublesome. He re-focused his attention on the rapist article.

“Well, I don’t have enough space to go into all the Second Amendment arguments,” he wrote. “But to me it’s obvious that a homeowner in Irvine or any other law-abiding citizen has a constitutional right to have a firearm.”

Dillow finished typing and smiled. His left hand dropped to his lap region. Nobody—not a single person on the entire planet—had argued that this homeowner wasn’t legally entitled to possess a gun or use it in self-defense. The 57-year-old columnist marveled at his ability to produce imaginary dilemmas. And get paid! For the first time since the California Supreme Court strengthened police secrecy and lethal force laws, Dillow laughed out loud, packed up and went to CVS to buy more hand lotion.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

**In a column, Dillow once admitted "there was a time when I called [Vietnamese] gooks without so much as a second thought." Repentant? Nope. Later, in 1999, he defended--imagine this!--caucasian police officers in Orange County's Little Saigon calling Vietnamese Americans "gooks."

Fridays are always tough in Orange County's Central Courthouse at Santa Ana. That's when the majority of convicted defendants face sentencing. Of course, watching killers, rapists and robbers begin to pay for their crimes isn't tough. It's seeing the indescribable pain of victims and their families who attend the hearings.

Today, jail deputies brought Marvin V. Smith to court a final time. Last December 17, a jury convicted Smith—a wealthy businessman from Cypress—for brutally killing his wife Minnie, a retired Raytheon Corp. executive, and then staging a robbery in hopes of masking the killers' identity. It didn't help Smith's cause when a week after the crime, Cypress police detective Chris McShane discovered more than $200,000 of Minnie's allegedly stolen jewelry in the trunk of a car Smith kept in Los Angeles. Despite the efforts of veteran defense lawyer Jennifer Keller, Deputy District Attorney Michael F. Murray successfully argued that Smith had probably murdered his wife to get her half of the couples' $5.5 million fortune.

With two deputies at his side, Smith strutted into Superior Court Judge Daniel McNerney's packed courtroom wearing not only handcuffs, a nice sweater and slacks, but also a smile. It's incredibly bad manners for a convicted defendant to smile at his sentencing hearing. Then again, Smith's a 72-year-old cold blooded killer. And there's a history of bad manners here. On the night of Minnie's murder, Smith talked cheerfully to police about his affection for a woman later identified by law enforcement as one of Smith's numerous mistresses.

I've been covering courts off and on for 22 years, and today will be a day I'll always remember. Murray played a two-minute DVD created by Bennie Thomas, Minnie's son from a previous marriage. It contained dozens of family photos of what was obviously a happy, peaceful woman. In the background, a song played with lyrics that included, “Momma, you know I love you.'' There were tears and crying and sniffing in the public seating section. Judge McNerney and his bailiff, both red-faced, looked touched too.

Smith--represented in court by Kay Rackauckas, ex-wife to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas--showed no emotion. He rested his face on his right hand, looked away and closed his eyes. What thoughts go through a man's head when he's been convicted of killing his wife, leaving her bloody, beaten body nude for police to find? Denial? Twisted satisfaction?

Thomas, a 41-year-old Los Angeles County probation officer and former New Mexico State football star, addressed McNerney, confessed that he had had thoughts early in the case of getting revenge against his ex-stepfather, but said he eventually learned to leave fate in God's hands. “My mother was a giving, loving, considerate person,” he said. “Since this, I understand why some people commit suicide. They don't want to feel the pain.”

With his hands tightly gripping the podium and tears pouring down his face, Thomas concluded, “He deserves the death penalty.”

Bridgette Latham told McNerney that her aunt “epitomized beauty, grace, style and class.”

“Nobody could dislike her,” Latham said. “We won't ever hear that soft, delicate voice again. This [murder] is the ultimate deception and betrayal of our family.”

But Dr. Brenda C. Smith--a Pasadena-based physician specializing in Obstetrics & Gynecology and Smith's daughter—wasn't willing to concede that her father is a killer.

“I know that he is a victim,” said Smith. “My father is innocent. If I thought for one nanosecond that my father had anything to do with Minnie's death, I would not be beside him. But I told him to hold his head high today because he hasn't done anything wrong. We know that one day he will be vindicated of this.”

McNerney then sentenced Smith to a prison term of 25 years to life. The defense has 60 days to appeal. A restitution hearing was set for May 2.

Afterwards, a Smith trial juror who'd attended the hearing said she felt “some closure now.”

“It's just awful what happened to Minnie,” she said. “I'm so sorry for what the family has gone through.”

Click here to see "Lady Killer," the Weekly's December 2007 cover story on the trial.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

In February 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Orange County Republican Lynn Daucher as director of California's Department of Aging. At the time, Daucher--a 2006 campaign loser to Lou Correa for a state Senate seat--uttered a predictable line about the elation of public service.

“I am excited that Governor Schwarzenegger has chosen me to serve aging Californians,” she told reporters.

To be cynical—like we are about the 61-year-old Fullerton resident's credibility, there were $117,997 annual reasons for her joy.

But winning a cushy government post may not have been good enough for Daucher. Sources tell the Weekly that Daucher is embroiled in a behind-the-scenes controversy. The issue, we're told, pertains to Daucher's travel bills. Specifically, there are concerns that she's been improperly charging California taxpayers for personal travel and then attempting to mask the expenditures.

A Schwarzenegger administration official declined to address the issue on the record, but admits Daucher's days could be numbered in the Sacramento-based post.

Sarah Ludeman, spokeswoman at the Department of Aging, did not respond to two days' worth of phone calls.

In 2006, we named Daucher Worst Candidate in Orange County based on a campaign of shameful lies about Correa, a conservative Democrat, and an alleged unspecified plan by homosexuals to take over the world.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

In May 2006, OC Weekly broke the news that then-Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona had allowed fellow con man Joseph M. Medawar to film the county's top secret anti-terrorism training procedures three years earlier. (See "Department of Homeland Stupidity.") A native of Lebanon, Medawar used the footage and personal endorsements from Carona and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Skipped Vietnam combat duty, pictured), to bilk more than $5.5 million from unsuspecting Republicans and religious conservatives. Medawar claimed the money would fund a new television series called DHS, but the FBI discovered the cash had been diverted to personal use including a $40,000-a-month Beverly Hills mansion. (Rohrabacher grabbed $23,000 of the loot under the pretense that Medawar, 46, paid him for a decades old, worthless script.) Since then, Carona's been indicted in a separate bribery scam, Rohrabacher continues babbling about whatever and Medawar's gone to prison. But last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the con man's punishment. Federal sentencing guidelines called for Medawar to get 57 to 71 months in prison. Los Angeles-based U.S. Judge Manuel L. Real, an LBJ appointee of dubious ethics and temperament, had ignored the cries of 50 victims and—without explanation—given Medawar a light 366-day sentence. The appellate justices told Real to try again.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Late this afternoon, the District Attorney's press office notified reporters that Tony Rackauckas will publicly address the controversial John Chamberlain jail murder on Friday morning. Prosecutors and the grand jury investigated the killing, but the results have not yet been made public. Rackauckas is expected to announce multiple indictments. Last week, two high-ranking assistant sheriffs, Jo Ann Galisky and Steve Bishop, quit after officials confronted them with their related actions. Stay tuned.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

In an opinion issued today, a California Court of Appeal ruled that Orange County prosecutors overstepped their authority to seek tough penalties against hoodlums who violate court-imposed anti-gang injunctions.

In January 2007, Sixto Moreno and Anthony Lopez—two Santa Nita gang members—drank beer in a vehicle parked in a residential driveway after 10 p.m. and in an area of Santa Ana supposedly controlled by a court order that limits gang activity. Police arrested the men for violating the injunction.

Violation of a court order is commonly considered a misdemeanor, but District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' deputies convinced a grand jury to indict Moreno, 28, and Lopez, 42, on three felony counts for the conduct. The key to his logic? The public demands stiffer penalties against violent gang members. If found guilty, the pair could have faced years in prison.

The felony charges "voice the intent of the people that gang-related crimes receive enhanced punishment," Rackauckas' office argued in front of Presiding Justice David G. Sills and Justices William F. Rylaarsdam and Kathleen O'Leary.

But it was Orange County Assistant Public Defender Martin F. Schwarz who won the day. He got the court to issue a pretrial ruling that concludes the DA had "criminalized" what the justices said were "otherwise innocuous acts": sitting in a lawfully parked car while consuming alcoholic beverages. The impact of the opinion written by Sills? Prosecutors can only file misdemeanor charges against gang members accused of being in contempt of a court's injunction.

"This is a huge blow to law enforcement," one veteran cop told the Weekly. "It knocks the teeth out of our ability to keep gangsters from dominating certain high-crime-rate areas."

In July 2006, Rackauckas, area politicians and local police gang units celebrated the injunction, issued by Superior Court Judge Daniel Didier, as a necessary tool to restore order where Santa Nita ruled over residents with fear and violence. The order named 137 gangsters (many of them teenagers) and called for mandatory neighborhood curfews, prohibitions against gang associations or violent activities, and a ban on gang-related clothing. The injunction zone is Harbor Boulevard to the Santa Ana River, and from Trask Avenue in Garden Grove to West McFadden Street in Santa Ana.

At the time of Didier's order, Deputy Alternate Defender Tony Ufland predicted that "it enjoins people from doing things that are completely legal . . . things like wearing certain colors, drinking in places where it is legal to drink, associating with people of your choosing. They are looking for a brass ring and going well beyond what the law says is constitutional in this injunction."

Ufland: candidate for soothsayer of the year?

But happy gangsters, don't order that new tattoo or fire your Glocks into the sky yet. Rackauckas, a gangster as a teen, isn't accepting the decision as final. "We're definitely asking the Supreme Court to review this," he said.

(See Anthony Lopez v The Superior Court of Orange County, G03925.)

—R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

From its pompous East Coast perch on high, the New York Post this morning slammed Orange County's women as “brain dead.” Columnist Adam Buckman writes that Bravo channel's new “The Real Housewives of New York City” is an “obnoxious” show that “in no way represents the vast majority of women” in Manhattan. According to Buckman, folks around the nation will now believe wrongly that his city is on “breast implant and face- lift” par with Orange County.

“Thanks, Bravo, for bringing this great city, with its more than 8 million residents representing every known corner of the globe, down to the level of brain-dead Orange County, Calif.--the land of lookalike McMansions where the first ‘Real Housewives’ series was spawned,” Buckman huffs.

Dear Bucky: Okay, OC isn't the intellectual capital of the nation. Folks here would rather go to the movies than read a book. We've got too many McMansions stuffed onto tiny lots. Our government, though uniformly conservative, is just as wasteful as any in more liberal strongholds. Traffic sucks because everybody wants to drive alone. Some segment of people--just like in NYC--obsess about boob jobs and face lifts.

But we're not a place dominated by bimbos or, the other tired stereotype, dope-smoking surfers. For example, 30 percent of our population (same as Manhattan, by the way) is foreign-born. We have large, thriving Latino, Vietnamese, Japanese, Central American, Chinese, Korean, Middle Eastern and Cambodian communities. Don't tell television producers, but we also have just as many poor white neighborhoods as wealthy. (Thanks to Cops, Riverside gets all that equally unfavorable publicity.)

After nailing OC and its women, Buckman did what lazy journalists are prone to do: He gave himself an out.

“Were they [Bravo producers] fairly representative of Orange County's 'real' housewives?” he wrote. “I wouldn't know. I don't know Orange County from the Orange Bowl.”

Thanks for the informed insights, pal.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Over at the Orange County Register, ace reporter Peggy Lowe writes tonight on Orange County Sheriff's Department blog news that two of indicted ex-Sheriff Mike Carona's Yes Folks (YF) quit today: assistant sheriffs Jo Ann Galisky and Steve Bishop.

Somehow the third and final major YFer embarrassment, Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson, remains . . . sitting atop the massive police agency, repeatedly uttering four words: "I am the sheriff' and waiting, nervously, for guidance from Carona/GOP operative Mike Schroeder.

Can the public and the honest people at OCSD ever get decent leadership? I ask this to you, Janet Nguyen.

Today's developments prefaced an upcoming unflattering grand jury report on the brutal killing of a man in pre-trial custody in October 2006. The Carona-Galisky-Bishop lie, oops, line was that a deputy standing feet away from the lethal beating (that lasted, perhaps, 20 minutes) suffers from severe ADD. They proposed that he remained clueless to the gory killing because, drum roll, he was too busy watching TV.

According to the new public employee union contract, jail deputies are required to work only during regularly scheduled TV commercials and not at all during sporting events or the airing of porno.

There's good news though. Galisky--who recently hired a criminal defense lawyer (no, really!)--won't join the unemployment line. She's announced that she will head a new private detective firm with Carona and Bishop: Blatant Liar, Screw Em & Duh, LLP.

They'll specialize in sexual harassment, illegal eavesdropping, misuse of public property and unnecessary government employee travel abroad cases. Galisky's focus? Evidence elimination and grand jury preparation tactics.

The ultra-trustworthy Full Disclosure Network reports that other notables are set to participate in the firm too. Don Haidl will supply employee perks--free boats, cash and Bible-based pep talks, but only if he gets to wear a Blatant Liar, Screw Em & Duh badge. Thanks to a grant from a mysterious individual with mysterious interests, Brian Sun and something like nine other Jones Day lawyers will work as, uhhh, "free" employees. Incarcerated Las Vegas titty bar owner Rick Rizzolo and ex-federal prosecutor Wayne Gross, a Carona apologist, have already signed on as clients. Meanwhile, Reg columnist Frank Mickadeit--who lives with Gross!?!?!--is waiting for final instructions from Schroeder before he writes a flattering column on Galisky's new business.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

On a cool evening in the heart of Little Saigon loud firecrackers periodically exploded as Vietnamese Americans celebrated the coming of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) and something that should comfort Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle: the launching of the Year of the Rat.

Of course, I'm kidding. According to Wikipedia, “rats can be terribly obstinate and controlling." Pringle is just the opposite: controlling and obstinate.

I’d thought of Pringle because as I worked my way through a traffic jam in Westminster, I’d observed cocky, on-duty Anaheim officers harassing someone—wasting taxpayer’s dough as dirty cops are apt to do with smiles on their plump faces.

But this wasn’t a night to contemplate the petty machinations of petty police officers or the elected officials who protect them.

Or was it?

I’d come to see California state Assemblyman Van Tran without anticipating the hurdles. Beyond the disturbing wailings of an intoxicated middle-aged man attempting to sing Vietnamese karaoke, a malfunctioning escalator, an angry lost elderly woman and an oddly locked door stood a smiling Tran. He held a beer, warmly greeted guests (mostly young Republican operatives and one especially cute woman), conducted media interviews and studied election returns on a laptop computer.

Orange County's Republican Party is often monolithic, but Tran broke ranks to support Arizona Senator John McCain for president. This show of independence could cost him a finger or, at least, an illegal but highly profitable investment tip. The rest of his homeboys—Scott Baugh, Mike Schroeder (pictured above ordering dinner at Chat Noir), John Campbell, Dana Rohrabacher et al.—went with the Maytag repair man from Boston. Romney’s hopes of winning California hinged entirely on his OC GOP success. To borrow a line from UC Irvine professor Mark Petracca: Ha!

McCain kicked Romney’s ass in California.

My spies tell me that far away in another part of OC—behind a guarded gate and illegal-immigrant-manicured lawns—the Romney men huddled in some guy’s mansion. They eased the night’s sorrows with some sort of red grape concoction, ridiculously expensive for sure. Drink up boys! And then tell us why you Republicans back a man—your “true conservative”—who supported liberal Democrat Paul Tsongas in the 1992 presidential election.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Last year, I sat in a booth at Original Mike's in Santa Ana and listened to Assistant Sheriff Jo Ann Galisky explain--quite logically, in her mind--that jail deputies in Orange County have never used excessive force because jail deputies always behave. Why? Because, Galisky assured me, deputies are the good guys, and folks in custody are bad guys. The expression on her face revealed a frustration that I didn't buy from her cookie-cutter position. After all, I'd seen gory pictures of what groups of deputies had done to handcuffed inmates: punctured eyeballs, crushed testicles, shattered wrists and cracked skulls. Besides, my sources--including honest, emotionally mature guards--provided me information about how a few of their colleagues routinely craved violence. Galisky and I agreed to disagree about what was unacceptable violence.

So today brings important news that's hardly a shocker: Paul Pringle at the Los Angeles Times writes, "Videos show use of force at OC Jail." Here's the opening of the A1 article:

Orange County sheriff's deputies repeatedly shocked a handcuffed prisoner with a Taser, even after he had been strapped into a restraint chair, slammed him onto the floor with a 'knee drop' and appeared to hit him in the head while he sat passively on a bench, jail video show.

The grainy but graphic images from 2006 show Matthew Fleuret, 24, being put into a holding cell at Orange County Jail and held on the floor by at least five deputies, one of whom pulls Fleuret's arms back and sharply up toward his head while others repeatedly shock him with a Taser over a period of about 13 minutes. Fleuret's lawyer says he was hit 11 times with a stun gun during the incident.

Pringle obtained a copy of an internal sheriff's report on the incident. Are you seated? Deputies claimed they were forced to attack Fleuret because of their sadistic nature. Oh, Jo Ann, put that yellow highlighter down. Of course, I jest. Guards wouldn't necessarily confess the truth.

Meanwhile, Christine Hanley and Stuart Pfeifer at the Times write today that Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson, a stooge of indicted ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, is under investigation for trying to intimidate the San Clemente City Council last November. In the wake of Carona's indictment, the council had contemplated telling the Orange County Board of Supervisors that Carona-harassed former Lieutenant Bill Hunt would be a good replacement upon the sheriff's resignation.

The thought sent shudders though the Carona-Galisky-Anderson-Bishop Cesspool (CGABC). Anderson (pictured) appeared in uniform at the council and, speaking either naturally as if in the fifth grade or with peanut butter in his mouth, told the panel of elected officials that such a letter would jeopardize the relationship between the city and the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The logic was positively Galisky-esque.

The Orange County Register--whose current marketing campaign is, I believe, "Now with even less content!"--got scooped on both stories.

One last thing: Thanks to brave Deputies X and Y for the new info on the CGABC.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

In a meeting today of a local Airborne Law Enforcement Services (ABLE) group, Newport Beach Police Chief John Klein asked officials to explore ways to raise public awareness about the danger common laser devices pose to pilots.

Helicopter and airplane pilots across the nation have reported an increase in the number of laser strikes. Here in Orange County, authorities recently arrested at least three people for pointing lasers into the cockpits of police helicopters and commercial jets. If caught—and it's apparently easy for pilots to track the origins of a laser—culprits face prison time and a hefty fine administered by unamused FBI agents.

But Klein worries that the public isn't aware of the issue (many of the lasers are Christmas/birthday gifts for teenagers), and meanwhile, pilots remain at risk. ABLE Commander Tim Starn suggested designing public-service announcements after recounting the impact a laser beam had on a victimized pilot.

"About two years ago, I was hit," Starn told the gathering of police/city officials from Santa Ana, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa that comprise ABLE. "My cockpit turned red, and at first, I thought it was an equipment failure. But someone had pointed a laser in my helicopter. I lost vision in my right eye. It feels like sand in the eye."

According to Starn, the laser beams—which can travel more than a whopping seven miles—are particularly damaging after sunset, when police helicopter pilots often don night-vision goggles that amplify the intensity of the light.

"It's a big deal to pilots," he said. "We can lose control of the helicopter."

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Our former sheriff Mike Carona made the New York Times a couple of days ago, and the parachute dispatch was boring save for the last segment:

In recent years, however, local news outlets reported accusations of murky financial dealings and the misuse of public money and accusations of infidelity.

“Who knows?” Mr. Moorlach said. “At the end of the day, they might have been very accurate, and we may be coming to grips with that.”

Hey Moorlach and Times: it wasn't "local new outlets" that reported Carona's idiocies. It was the ORANGE COUNTY FREAKING WEEKLY. More specifically, it was our R. SCOTT FREAKING MOXLEY.

And Moorlach: we're ashamed of you. "They might have been very accurate"?! You of all people should appreciate Jeremiahs railing alone in the wilderness--for you to dismiss Scott's reports show how much of a hack you truly are.

While the rest of Orange County hit the beach today or watched the San Diego Chargers upset the Colts (Yes!), Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez showed one reason why she keeps winning elections and annoying the local Republican Party. A clipboard-toting Sanchez--and three accompanying aides--registered new voters in her district that's gerrymandered through Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove. Wearing black pants and a red and white striped rugby shirt not befitting the 80 degree SoCal heat, our county's lone congressional Democrat, knocked on doors and chatted with residents with the enthusiasm of a rookie candidate. We haven't always been fans but it was nice to see that Sanchez, who doesn't appear to have a primary challenger, remembers the folks who send her to DC. Can you believe it was more than a decade ago that she defeated fiery conservative Robert K. Dornan?

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona--indicted by federal prosecutors for public corruption--claims that surreptitious wires worn by co-conspirator Don Haidl, a former assistant sheriff, prove his innocence.

Indeed, the sheriff's lawyer says that Carona “is so anxious to fight these charges that we have to hold him back.”

If this is true and not just shameless spin, I challenge Carona to do something in his power: play the contents of the tapes in their entirety for the public now.

Show us that FBI agents are liars, as you claim. Show us that you didn't try to get Haidl to perjure himself about bribes you took for years. Show the Orange County Republican Party that your character is pure. Show the Orange County Sheriff's Department that I've been wrong about you all these years.

Or, as I suspect, are you afraid--no, terrified--of what those tapes reveal?

We're waiting. . . .

P.S. We're familiar with your PR playbook, sheriff. Playing select portions of the tapes for a friendly OC Register reporter/columnist won't meet the challenge.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

It’s the last week of 2007 inside Orange County’s Central Justice Center, and the place is dead except at each of the three public entrances. A half-dozen young bailiffs have forgotten security fears (Al-Qaeda!) but collect pay and perks while they chat happily about the electronic toys they received for Christmas. Moments later, a well-dressed, polite, non-English-speaking man stops me, displays a court document and asks me if I speak Spanish. Nope.

I scan the document he’s holding and direct him to the new DNA-collection office mentioned in his papers. He’s confused, and so, though I’m due elsewhere in the courthouse, I walk him to the second-floor DNA office, knock on the window, and watch a gray-haired man ignore us for 10 minutes. Hey, thanks, asshole.

(There’s nothing like watching a government employee exert no energy. I’m guessing a judge ordered my paper-toting Mexican to submit his gene sample, but--hey--you, pal, were too busy DOING SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN COLLECTING AN ALLEGED CRIMINAL’S DNA.)

Anyhow, there’s a cocaine-and-cop story in the courthouse. Haven’t you heard? A veteran California Highway Patrol officer in OC apparently was dreaming of an electrifying, white Christmas. At 4 in the morning a couple of days ago, he broke into a police evidence locker in Santa Ana and stole $1 million worth of confiscated cocaine, according to prosecutors.

Wasn’t it just last year that investigators nabbed another veteran OC CHP officer for allegedly trying to screw a 12-year-old girl in Laguna Beach?

Cop crime cases often lure me to the courthouse because they’re fascinating. Okay, I also anticipate that DA spokesperson Susan Kang Schroeder will bark official pronouncements, wear shiny new high heels and give cop-criminal lawyer John Barnett a run for his pretrial PR money.

(I wasn’t disappointed. But Frank Mickadeit of the Reg was absent--perhaps because he’d long ago choked on too many Schroeder juices. I hope not, though. OC without Frank would be like, well, Dorothy without Toto.)

So there I am on the third floor, cramming myself into C57 with seven television camera crews and reporters to see 32-year-old Joshua Blackburn (pictured without the coke), a six-year veteran of the CHP in OC. He’s a no-show. A court commissioner coldly tosses the media cameras from the courtroom (unlike what any other alleged hoodlum would experience) and allows the accused cop to appear via closed-circuit TV (unlike what any other alleged hoodlum would experience).

On the video screen, Blackburn appears wearing an orange Orange County Jail jumpsuit, his hands in his pockets (unlike what any other alleged hoodlum would be allowed to do). He looks as if he’s in line at McDonald’s. His head is cocked to the right, and he’s expressionless. The judge asks if he understands he faces three criminal charges: burglary, possession of drugs with the intent to sell and narcotics transportation. Blackburn nonchalantly says “yes,” as if simply confirming a burger order. Hold the onions.

The hearing takes just three minutes, but is sure to make the evening news.

In the back of the tiny courtroom, the cop’s wife looks miserable. Her eyes are swollen, and she looks ready to cry again. Perhaps, she is a victim. Her honey is locked away and unable to pay the $4 million bail. If convicted, he faces a potential 25-year prison sentence. My heart goes out to her.

But there’s good news, Mrs. Blackburn. Don’t sob too much. This is Orange County. Dirty cops always walk out of the courthouse with smiles. Heck, sometimes they get promoted and praised by lap dogs in my profession. Sometimes they even become sheriff.

Just make sure he wears his uniform during the trial.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly