LOS ANGELES ( Substance-abuse counselor charged with MURDER ) Drunk Driving

The substance-abuse counselor accused of killing a Torrance man while driving drunk was charged with murder and faces life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
Sherri Wilkins, 51, appeared in court Tuesday but postponed her arraignment until next month on felony charges of murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury, drunken driving while causing injury and leaving the scene of an accident, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Wilkins has two prior burglary convictions and is a third-striker, prosecutors said. She is being held on $2.25-million bail.

Police said Wilkins' car hit Phillip Moreno, 31, as he tried to cross Torrance Boulevard on Saturday night and kept driving more than two miles with the man embedded in her car's windshield. Other motorists managed to stop her at 182nd Street and Crenshaw Boulevard and grab her keys, Torrance police Sgt. Robert Watt said.

Moreno had a pulse when officers arrived but was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Watt said Wilkins had a blood-alcohol level more than double the 0.08 legal limit.

Wilkins had a certification in drug and alcohol counseling and worked at a Torrance treatment center, where she led small group classes six evenings a week. She wrote in an undated Myspace profile that she "used to be into drugs very heavy" and "with that came terrible choices," but that she had been sober for 11 years.

NATIONAL CITY ( MAN steals identity of other man- on the RUN ) San Diego

Police say this man is living under the stolen identity of Brandon McClarnon.

NATIONAL CITY — Investigators are working to find a man suspected of slowly taking over someone else’s identity, working two jobs and buying everything from a pickup to diamonds under the person’s name.

The suspect assumed the identity of Brandon McClarnon, getting jobs at Wheels for Rent in National City and Cox Cable in San Diego under the name, according to Crime Stoppers.

He was also able to obtain a driver’s license as McClarnon.

Recently, he used his girlfriend’s 6-year-old and 10-year-old children to steal merchandise from a store while he waited in the car, authorities said. The children were caught, but the suspect drove off, leaving the kids behind.

He is wanted on identity theft and child endangerment charges.

He is described as Latino, 6 feet tall, 250 to 290 pounds, with a shaved head/black hair, brown eyes and an earring in the right ear. He may have a goatee.

Anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of the suspect can call National City police Investigator Tom Di Zinno at (619) 336-4473 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Tipsters may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

TUCSON Az ( Fund Raiser for Gun shot Victim ) Andrew Liska

3rd Base Bar & Grill

 

6255 E Golf Links Rd, Tucson, AZ 85711 520-571-8384

 

There will be a car wash and fund raiser on Saturday , December 1., at noon at the 3rd base bar and grill . The Fund Rasier is for "Andrew Liska " who was shot and died days later of his injuries .

OHIO ( Man does 30 days in jail- For taunting 10 yr old disabled girl ) William Bailey

An Ohio man faces one month of jail time for teasing and taunting a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy after a video of the incident went viral.

On Nov. 27, Judge John A. Poulos of the Canton Municipal Court sentenced 43-year-old William Bailey to 29 days in jail.

The taunting occurred on Sept. 26, when Tricia Knight and her mother-in-law were waiting for her children's bus to return from school. Knight's three children, including 10-year-old Hope, attend Walker Elementary with Bailey's 9-year-old son, Joseph.

What happened next was caught on an iPod camera by Knight's mother-in-law, Marie Prince.

William Bailey "was dragging his leg and patting his arm across his chest to pick his son Joseph up," said Knight. "I asked him to please stop doing this. 'My daughter can see you.' He then told his son to walk like the R-word."

The next day Knight posted the video on her Facebook page while Prince uploaded the video they called "Bus Stop Ignorance" to YouTube. Within days, the video went viral.

The Knight family has lived next door to the Baileys for the past two years, and the incident at the bus stop, according to Knight, is the culmination of rising tensions and intimidation against her kids.

In the days that followed the taunting at the bus stop, the Knight family filed a complaint with Canton City prosecutors.

Jennifer Fitzsimmons, the chief assistant city prosecutor for this case, says in the three years she's been in this role, she's never seen anything like this.

"I think when we look at cases, there's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But when there's nothing out there regarding disabilities, it took me a little bit longer to come to a decision."

After Fitzsimmons reviewed the Knight family's complaint, a police report based on a phone call from the Knight family, and the video captured by Prince, she decided to press charges.

"It was settled without Hope having to relive what she saw and how it impacted her," said Fitzsimmons. "I think the trial could have been just as traumatic as the event itself."

Bailey, who works as a truck driver, was charged twice. He was originally charged for aggravated menacing, a misdemeanor of the first degree. In this charge, the victim was Knight, an incident she says took place the same day as the bus stop scene.

Bailey, she said, "was swinging a tow chain on his porch, saying he was going to choke me until I stopped twitching. I sent my kids with my mother-in-law to leave with them. My husband called the sheriff."

California ( Family swept into the SEA looking for DOG ) Sad ending

Search ends for teen after family swept into sea looking for dog

November 26, 2012 | 10:58am

 

 

 

Crews called off a search for the last of three family members swept out to sea in powerful surf while looking for their dog.

Despite heavy fog, the Coast Guard had searched through the weekend for a 16-year-old boy swept out to sea along with his parents, according to the Associated Press.
Waves reaching 10 feet in height pulled the dog into the ocean as it ran to retrieve a stick at Big Lagoon, a beach north of Eureka on Saturday, according to Dana Jones, a state Parks and Recreation district superintendent, in the Times-Standard.
Jones said the boy went after the dog, prompting his father to go after them. She said the teenager was able to get out, but when he didn't see his father, he and his mother went into the water looking for him.
“Both were dragged into the ocean,” Jones said of Saturday's tragedy.
The Times-Standard reports that the couple's daughter called police. Jones said a park ranger had to run a half mile to get to the beach because his car wasn't made to handle the terrain. When he arrived, he wasn't able to get to them because of the high surf, she said.

Rescuers eventually retrieved the mother's body, and the father's body washed up. The dog got out of the water on its own, Jones said.

TUCSON Az ( Man and Woman face charges for pretending to be FAKE Cops pulling over Cars ) 5 felonies

A Tucson couple may be able to avoid felony convictions after pleading guilty Wednesday to one count each of impersonating a peace officer.
Alan Eugene Wilson, 41, and Kristine Wilson, 47, were indicted last month on five felony counts each of impersonating a peace officer.
On Wednesday, Alan Wilson admitted he was dressed similarly to a police officer when he pulled over a car near North Stone Avenue and East Fort Lowell Road on Dec. 7, 2011, using blue and red lights that had been installed on his vehicle. After realizing the driver was a teacher at his son’s school, he sent her on her way.

Kristine Wilson admitted she was with her husband on June 10 when he pulled over two people in a car about midnight. She acknowledged they went up to the car, asked the driver who the registered owner of the car was and spoke to her on the phone. Kristine Wilson further admitted they were wearing clothing similar to that worn by officers and they told the women in the car they could’ve been cited.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Scott Rash could designate Kristine Wilson’s crime a misdemeanor at the time of her sentencing and place her on probation or give her up to six months in jail. If he chooses to designate it a felony, Kristine Wilson is facing a term of probation or up to two years in prison.
Rash can place Alan Wilson on probation or give him up to two years in prison. If Alan Wilson is placed on probation and successfully completes it, Rash could designate the crime a misdemeanor.
At the time of the Wilsons’ arrest, Tucson police said the impersonators conducted traffic stops several times and gave verbal warnings. In one incident, they intervened in an altercation while impersonating officers.
Police impounded the couple’s vehicle in June, and seized law enforcement uniforms and gear.
Rash will sentence the pair Jan. 16.

LOS ANGELES ( Chef tells Police he accidentally KILLED wife and Cooked her body to dispose of it ).

The chef who told authorities that he accidentally killed his wife and cooked her body to dispose of it fired his attorney Tuesday and will represent himself when he is sentenced in February.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rand S. Rubin warned David Viens that "there is a danger to representing yourself" and he'd get "no special indulgence" from the court. Viens, who was convicted earlier this year of second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, said he understood.
Viens dismissed his attorney, Fred McCurry, with a soft "thank you, Fred." He had tried to get rid of McCurry during his trial, a request Rubin denied because it was made too late in the proceedings.
"Thank you for letting me go pro-per. I appreciate that," said Viens, who appeared in court Tuesday in a wheelchair wearing gray jail garb and glasses that dangled from a string around his neck. The sister and father of his wife, Dawn, looked visibly pained that the proceedings would drag on.
Viens was polite, addressing the judge as "your honor," and had arrived in court with several handwritten motions, which were not immediately available to reporters. Rubin gave him a January deadline to file any other requests and allotted him $60 to make phone calls from jail before his Feb. 1 sentencing.
Dawn Viens was 39 when she vanished in October 2009. After her husband learned in February 2011 that investigators suspected he'd played a role in her disappearance, he leaped off an 80-foot cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes.
From his hospital bed, David Viens described to sheriff's investigators why authorities never found his wife's body. He said he packed it into a large drum of boiling water, held it down with weights and simmered it over four days. Then, he said, he poured much of what remained into the grease pit at his Lomita restaurant, Thyme Contemporary Café.