Not everybody in Laguna was born filthy rich

A federal judge in Orange County ruled this month that a homeless man in Laguna Beach who complained about alleged police harassment and city-sponsored discrimination has lost all of his claims except for one: Have city officials imposed an unconstitutional residency requirement to sleep at a local government shelter?

U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter's decision to accept the 18-page recommendations of Magistrate Judge Marc L. Goldman is a victory for police chief Paul Workman and four officers--Jason Farris, Matt Gregg, Greg Hiler and Luke Gilbertson--all of whom Leonard J. Porto III accused of being professionally inadequate after repeatedly harassing him when he sleeps overnight in his car or on a public bench.

Carter, a longtime Laguna Beach resident, also determined that Porto--a self-described "non-drinking and drug-free person" who is "partially disabled" and without a criminal record--did not have legal standing to challenge the city's anti-camping rule because, while officers occasionally confronted him and gave him written warnings, they didn't give him tickets, confiscate his property or arrest him.

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Lisa Guerrero, the centerfold-worthy "hardest-working sports reporter" per the Los Angeles Times who now does ambush reporting for the syndicated Inside Edition program, recently confronted representatives John Campbell (R-Irvine) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

Each was asked to justify high office rents taxpayers shell out to their respective Orange County landlords, who are also big campaign contributors.

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Due to the sequestration cuts, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) office in Santa Ana will close next Friday, May 24, and unless funding relief comes it will be closed select Fridays through the end of August. The field office in the federal building at 34 Civic Center Plaza joins HUD offices nationwide undergoing furlough days.

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See Update No. 2 on page 2 about the Orange County Board of Supervisors deciding behind closed doors not to charge the rescued hikers for the $160,000 in various government costs.

See Update No. 1 on the next page with the county considering sticking the teens with the tab if a sheriff's department investigation concludes they were on drugs.

Nicolas Cendoya, the Costa Mesa 19-year-old who along with 18-year-old friend Kyndall Jack got lost and sparked a massive search in Trabuco Canyon last month, has been charged with felony possession of methamphetamine found in his car during the hike, according to authorities.

He is scheduled to be arraigned May 22 in Santa Ana.

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Poor Brian Fox.

Fox, who once lived in a $2.3 million house in the city of Orange, must have forgotten that we can't outrun death or the IRS.

From 2005 to 2007, the businessman earned approximately $2.5 million in the financial-services industry, but claimed he couldn't afford to pay about $335,000 in personal income tax.

According to court records, Fox viewed the failure to pay as merely a tardiness issue.

U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors had evidence, however, that he wasn't just mocking the system, but had intentionally taken steps to evade paying the federal treasury.

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To protect and serve . . . ourselves?

In February 2009, Newport Beach Police Department Sgt. John Hougan acted honorably by testifying truthfully in a civil lawsuit about how his bosses had discriminated against a fellow officer they erroneously assumed was gay and the abused officer, whose promotions had been sabotaged, won the $1.7 million case.

Police department brass didn't discipline any of the offending, high-ranking officers in the Neil Harvey lawsuit. But Hougan--an acclaimed, low-key, veteran cop with a blemish-free, two-decade record of superb public service--found himself called "traitor" and shunned by other cops eager to win favor from management. A punk in the department even taped a picture of a bomb to his desk.

Strange, unsettling things began happening as well to Hougan's wife, Christine, a veteran police dispatcher in the department. She claims chief Jay Johnson repeatedly violated socially acceptable normals by speaking to her within a few inches of her face, breathing on her neck while she was on duty, making sexually-loaded comments and ridiculing her husband in his absence. Johnson even told others that she harbored wife swapping desires.

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A U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor--who aggressively pursued a Los Angeles-based, Armenian organized-crime investigation with tentacles in Orange County but ran afoul of a federal magistrate--has been removed from the case.

Though exceptionally rare inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse, the personnel move wasn't exactly surprising.

Assistant United States Attorney Todd T. Tristan found his work called intolerantly sloppy and irresponsible by normally unflappable Judge Arthur Nakazato, who angrily told the prosecutor there would be a cost if he had wrongly smeared the reputation of Sam Solaykan.

The Glendale businessman has attempted to pay nearly $2 million in bail for Suren Gambaryan, the alleged mastermind in the massive identity-theft ring that filed nearly 3,000 fraudulent IRS income-tax-refund forms seeking to loot the treasury of $20 million.

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Four massage parlors and a private spa/spa rental business in Anaheim were rubbed the wrong way earlier this month by city police, who along with other agencies conducted inspections to see if prostitution, human trafficking or labor law violations were occurring.

California Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and Employment Development Department personnel issued fines totaling $54,176 to the establishments for state employment and labor law violations, according to Sgt. Bob Dunn, the Anaheim Police spokesman.

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Nick Cendoya, 19

Kyndall Jack and Nicholas Cendoya, the teens who went missing in Trabuco Canyon on Easter Sunday before being found in different spots in the middle of the week, will not be billed for the massive search, which utilized various nonprofit, private and governmental resources (as well as scores of volunteers).

The Orange County Sheriff's Department made the disclosure while also offering a final price tag for the effort has yet to be tabulated.

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For those disenchanted by reports of continued high unemployment, sequestration and the devaluation of your hard earned dollars, take heart, apparently it's not all doom and gloom. According to a study conducted by the California Public Policy Center (CPPC), we in the media haven't been entirely vigilant about telling the full story when it comes to some salaried workers--notably employees of the city of Irvine--who seem to be doing just fine. More »