jitero1 : SHERMAN OAKS -- Police were still searching Saturday for a thief who stole an estimated $2 million worth of jewelry and other belongings from the home of Paris Hilton during a burglary early Friday morning.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Richard French said a man in a hooded sweatshirt and gloves ransacked her bedroom around 4 a.m. Friday morning. Detectives from the LAPD's Van Nuys division responded to a call from a security guard.
Initial reports claimed the thief forced entry through Hilton's front door, but sources inside the investigation say the burglar may have entered the house by other means.
Hilton was not home at the time of the break-in, French said, but her home, located in the 3300 block of Clarendon street, in Mulholland Estates area, is equipped with security video equipment. Police said these facts lead them to believe that the thief was not a seasoned burglar.
"I expect we'll be able to apprehend the culprit here based on some of the information we have," said Deputy Charlie Beck, head of the LAPD's detective bureau.
Sources at the LAPD said detectives have not ruled out that the suspect may be familiar with the mansion and neighborhood.
Investigators said they do not believe this case is anyway connected to last year's series of serial burglaries that targeted celebrities in the Westside.
In those cases, the two –- and possibly three –- men, clad in black and wearing ski masks and gloves, hit more than 70 homes in areas such as Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills and the hills above Encino, usually at night and often on weekends.
Among the victims in those burglaries were former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing and her Oscar-winning director husband, William Friedkin, Clippers basketball star Cuttino Mobley, Duran Duran guitarist John Taylor and his wife, Juicy Couture president Gela Nash-Taylor and country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
Hilton recently told Esquire magazine about her home: "The best thing I've ever bought with money is my house. Having a nightclub in your house really helps for having a party."
In 2004, several thousand dollars worth of jewelry, money and other valuables were taken from a home Paris Hilton shared with her sister Nicky
December 20, 2008
RIVERSIDE -- Los Angeles County Assistant Fire Chief Glynn Johnson and his attorney, John Sweeney, will hold a news conference in Beverly Hills on Monday to discuss the charges he beat a puppy so badly it had to be euthanized.
Johnson has been charged with animal cruelty for the alleged beating, which occurred Nov. 3 in the unincorporated area of Woodcrest, just south of Riverside.
Johnson is said to have hit the puppy, named Karley, with his fist and a 12-pound rock. Karley was later euthanized because of the severity of his injuries.
Johnson says the dog nearly bit off his thumb and that he acted in self-defense. But a witness says the attack was the result of a violent outburst from Johnson.
The dog's owner Travis Staggs said in an interview that Johnson beat the puppy without provocation, tried to break the dog's jaws by prying them apart and hit the dog in the head with a rock.
In recent weeks, animal rights activists and the puppy's owners have launched a campaign seeking criminal charges against Johnson.
Last week, dozens of protesters rallied outside the Riverside County DA's office to demand charges be filed against Johnson.
Media attention has also helped publicize the case.
Some Southern California radio shows have broadcast the phone number to the district attorney's office and urged listeners to call and pressure officials to file charges.
Bail has not yet been set, and his arraignment has not been scheduled.
Watch Interview With Johnson After Attack
LOS ANGELES -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown changed course on the state's new same-sex marriage ban Friday and urged the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.
In a dramatic reversal, Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right.
Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters.
"The amendment-initiative process does not encompass a power to abrogate fundamental constitutional rights without a compelling justification," he wrote.
"Proposition 8 lacks such a justification."
Brown, who served as governor from 1975 to 1983, is considering seeking the office again in 2010.
After California voters passed Proposition 8 on Nov. 4, Brown said he personally voted against it but would fight to uphold it as the state's top lawyer.
He submitted his brief in one of the three legal challenges to Proposition 8 brought by same-sex marriage supporters.
The measure, a constitutional amendment that passed with 52 percent of the vote,
overruled the Supreme Court decision last spring that briefly legalized gay marriage in the nation's most populous state.
Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called the attorney general's change of strategy "a major development."
"The fact that after looking at this he shifted his position and is really bucking convention by not defending Prop. 8 signals very clearly that this proposition can not be defended," Minter said.
The sponsors of Proposition 8 on Friday revealed for the first time that they would fight to undo the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters banned gay marriage at the ballot box last month.
The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief telling the court that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions.
"Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions," reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr, dean of Pepperdine University's law school and the former independent counsel who
investigated President Bill Clinton.
Both Brown and gay rights groups maintain that the gay marriage ban may not be applied retroactively.
The Supreme Court could hear arguments in the litigation as soon as March. The measure's backers announced Friday that Starr, a former federal judge and U.S. solicitor general, had signed on as their lead counsel and would argue the cases.
The new brief provides a preview of how Proposition 8's supporters plan to defend the measure. It asserts that the Supreme Court lacks the authority or historical precedent to throw out Proposition 8.
"For this court to rule otherwise would be to tear asunder a lavish body of jurisprudence," the court papers state.
"That body of decisional law commands judges - as servants of the people - to bow to the will of those whom they serve - even if the substantive result of what people have wrought in constitution-amending is deemed unenlightened."
Starr declined to discuss the arguments he and co-counsel Andrew Pugno advanced Friday.
In an interview, Pugno said his clients' position on the same-sex marriages sanctioned in California between June 16 and Nov. 4 was not initiated by the Proposition 8 backers.
Rather, Pugno said the brief was a response to a question the court's seven justices posed to lawyers on both sides when they agreed to take up the challenge to Proposition 8 brought by gay rights advocates.
"The people passed Prop. 8," he said. "We are defending that."
Jennifer Pizer, a lawyer with the gay rights firm Lambda Legal who is helping represent gay and lesbian couples in the effort to undo the ballot measure, said Friday that vacating a marriage carries a host of legal repercussions and can not be accomplished
so easily.
"This purported change exists in a landscape of a legal system that has rules, and those rules include the idea that changes in law affect people moving forward and do not apply looking backward to take away the vested rights people have," said Pizer, who
recently married her longtime female partner.
The cases are Strauss v. Horton, S168047; City and County of San Francisco v. Horton, S168078; and Tyler v. State of California, S168066.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Moments after investigators shut down the crime scene where a meter reader discovered Caylee Marie Anthony's remains 10 days ago, they served a search warrant at the nearby home of the toddler's grandparents Saturday afternoon.
The case's lead investigators and crime scene technicians stayed inside George and Cindy Anthony's house for nearly two hours before emerging with two large boxes and two bags. Orange County Sheriff's Capt. Angelo Nieves would not identify what was removed, but said that "items of evidentiary value were found."
George and Cindy Anthony were home when investigators arrived with the warrant, and a visibly upset George Anthony could be seen as they made their way inside.
"It's never a good time for anyone who's lost a granddaughter -- obviously we're going to treat them with respect," Nieves said. "But we have an investigation to conduct."
Nieves said a judge signed the warrant Saturday afternoon, based on evidence that investigators gathered at the crime scene in the last several days. He would not say what that evidence was.
Caylee was 2 when she was last seen in June. Her mother, Casey Anthony, 22, has been charged with murder in her daughter's death and is in the Orange County jail. Her attorneys say a baby-sitter kidnapped the child.
On Friday, investigators said that a DNA sample taken from bones found at the crime scene matched a sample of Caylee's DNA.
A steady stream of people continued to visit a makeshift memorial for the toddler on Saturday. Mourners left balloons, notes, pictures and hundreds of stuffed animals.
Kitty Bowersock of Winter Park, Fla., placed three roses at the memorial Saturday morning. She has a 3-year-old granddaughter, Cate, and said Caylee's story affected her because she can't understand how someone could hurt a child.
"I can't comprehend it with Caylee, or with any child," she said. "I'm shaking right now."
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Colts' former home is now a pile of rubble.
Crews imploded the RCA Dome this morning. They set off 800 charges to bring down the facility's upper floors in about 25 seconds.
The stadium was originally named the Hoosier Dome and had stood in the city's skyline since the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984. Since then, it had become the NFL's smallest stadium.
The Colts moved into the new Lucas Oil Stadium this season. The old dome is making way for an expanded convention center.
SEOUL, South Korea -- Brawling South Korean lawmakers tried to sledgehammer their way into a parliamentary meeting room barricaded by the ruling party as the National Assembly descended into chaos Thursday over a free trade agreement with the United States.
Opposition parties were incensed by the ruling Grand National Party's move to submit the agreement to a committee on trade, setting in motion the process for the accord to win approval in the legislature.
Security staff and aides from the ruling party stood guard outside the room to keep opposition lawmakers away after the committee's GNP-affiliated chairman invoked his right to use force to "keep order" in parliamentary proceedings.
Scuffles broke out as dozens of opposition members and their aides attempted to push their way into the office. TV footage showed people from both sides shoving, pushing and shouting in a crowded hall at the National Assembly building amid a barrage of flashing cameras.
Opponents later used a sledgehammer and other construction tools to tear open the room's wooden doors, only to find barricades of furniture set up inside as a second line of defense.
Cable news channel YTN reported that an electric saw was used to open the door. YTN footage showed security guards spraying fire extinguishers at those trying to force their way inside and one man with blood trickling down his face.
The opposition attempt failed, and 10 GNP legislators introduced the bill to the committee.
"This is a clear violation of law," the main opposition Democratic Party said in a statement, accusing the GNP of illegally occupying the parliamentary chamber and unilaterally introducing the bill. "This is a declaration of war against the opposition and the people."
Clashes between lawmakers are not unusual in the National Assembly. Such violence has long been cited as one of the worst ills of South Korean politics.
South Korea and the United States signed the accord that calls for slashing tariffs and other barriers to trade in April last year after 10 months of tough negotiations, though neither side's legislature has yet ratified it - the key step needed for it to take effect.
The pact is the largest for the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and the biggest ever for South Korea. NAFTA, signed in 1993, took effect the following year.
Proponents in both countries say it would not only expand trade but further cement ties between Washington and Seoul - key security allies who have cooperated on issues such as North Korea for decades.
Opponents counter that it will cause pain to key sectors in both nations - agriculture in South Korea and automobiles in the United States.
GNP legislators had locked themselves in the committee room earlier in the day to head off any opposition attempts to occupy the chamber - the only place where the bill can be introduced.
After a subcommittee review, the bill would be put to a vote at the committee before reaching the full parliamentary session for a final vote.
The GNP says it aims to pass the bill by year's end. The party has a majority in both the committee and in the entire parliament, with 172 seats in the 298-member unicameral National Assembly. But the process is expected to be tough going because opposition parties say they will do whatever possible to stop it.
The Democratic Party says the trade deal should not be approved until the government comes up with better measures to protect farmers and others expected to suffer from increased U.S. imports.
The ruling GNP says the trade pact should be approved as early as possible because South Korea - a major exporting nation - stands to gain much from the deal.
Amid concern the administration of President-elect Barack Obama might ask to renegotiate the agreement, supporters of the pact believe early ratification by Seoul could also put pressure on the U.S. Congress to do the same.
LAGUNA NIGUEL -- Former Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting competitor Justin Levens, 28, and his wife, Sarah McLean-Levens, 25, were found shot to death in their Laguna Niguel condominium Wednesday.
The bodies were reportedly found by Sarah Levens' mother who was concerned she hadn't heard from her daughter. It's believed the couple had been dead for days.
According to authorities, the couple were scheduled to appear earlier that day in court, where they faced charges of aggravated assault.
The couple had pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor aggravated assault charge on Aug. 27, in Orange County Superior Court.
The misdemeanor charge stems from a Dec. 13, 2007, incident in which the couple is accused of picking up a 27-year-old man identified in a criminal complaint as Matthew David G. from a friend’s house in South Orange County.
According to Farrah Emami, a District Attorney spokeswoman, Sara McLean-Levens asked the man for $200 he owed her and he gave her $80.
When she asked for the rest of the money, he said he didn’t have it and at that point she pulled over, nodding to her husband, Emami said.
Justin Levens then got the victim out of the back seat and throwing him to the ground, punched and kicked him until his wife told him it was enough and the couple drove off, Emami said.
The man was treated for cuts and bruises on his face and later filed a police report, she said.
In 2003, Levens pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of corporal injury in a domestic violence case, according to court records.
The fighter was also under suspension from MMA fighting because he had misused powerful painkiller, officials say.
According to mmaweekly.com, Levens tested positive for oxymorphone, a painkiller given by injection, when he underwent drug testing for a July 2008 fight that was eventually scrapped.
He was subsequently fined and suspended for six months, which would have run through Jan. 15.
Additional information from OC Register |
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