Member of Avenues gang is sentenced in girl's murder

A member of one of Los Angeles' oldest and most notorious street gangs was sentenced today to 82 years to life in prison for the murder of a 14-year-old girl and the attempted murder of a second victim.

Eduardo Ruiz, 18, a member of the Avenues gang, was convicted in September of first-degree murder in the shooting of Cynthia Perez, who was struck by a stray bullet as she sat in a car at a Highland Park stoplight.

Ruiz, who was 16 at the time of the May 2008 shooting, was walking near the intersection of York Boulevard and Avenue 64 when he stared at his intended male victim, who was in a car. When the man looked back, Ruiz walked into the street and fired several shots, prosecutors said.

One of the shots missed, however, striking Perez — who was a passenger in an adjacent car — in the eye. 

Conviction in slaying of behavioral scientist on Highland Park street corner

A jury today convicted a man in the 2008 slaying of a well-known behavioral scientist with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, according to L.A. County prosecutors.

The shooting death of Christopher O’Leary, 34, as he was walking near his home shocked the community.

He was killed near the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Avenue 46. He was on his way to a store when a gunman approached and shot him. A passerby discovered the body and reported it to police. 

The suspect was 17 at the time of the shooting. According to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, the suspect, now 19, was convicted after the jury deliberated for less than 40 minutes.

O'Leary was an employee at the Department of Public Health in the sexually transmitted disease prevention program. Having a doctorate in medical anthropology, O'Leary assisted in launching two STD prevention campaigns. The first, "Check Yourself," was  aimed at preventing the spread of syphilis among gay men. The second, "I Know," attempted to prevent the spread of chlamydia and gonorrhea among  women of color. 

--Shelby Grad

Read the original Homicide Report post on O'Leary's slaying

Photo: O'Leary. Times File

Crowds applaud the inaugural ride of the Gold Line extension

Los Angeles County's latest light-rail line — the $898-million Gold Line extension through the Eastside — was dedicated Saturday morning at Union Station and a sparkling silver train full of dignitaries rolled out for the inaugural ride.

The six-mile extension of the line from downtown L.A. through Boyle Heights and into East Los Angeles opens to the public on Sunday, when passengers will be able to ride the entire length of the line to Pasadena for free. The Saturday event gave elected and transportation officials a chance to give speeches and laud the newest public transportation offering in the county.

At 9:30 a.m. sharp, the glimmering rail cars glided into the East L.A. Civic Center station, which sits in the middle of 3rd Street, where a crowd was assembled. As the train rolled into the station, it broke through a plastic black banner. Firecrackers rang and cannons blew out confetti.

"When I was on this train a few minutes ago, going through downtown and Boyle Heights, and here in East L.A., all the memories came back -- the memories of your boyhood, the memories as you go into manhood," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who grew up in Boyle Heights. "I'll tell you something: I couldn't be prouder of this community today."

Santino Hernandez, 28, who lives in Boyle Heights, was elated at the rail line, which has been under construction since 2004.

"We're happy it's finally here. We've been needing public transportation out here to connect us with Union Station," said Hernandez, a day laborer. "It's more dependable than the bus."

His wife, Celene, added that it would be easier to load their baby stroller carrying their 2-year-old son, Christopher, onto the rail line than the bus.

Mary Louise Sevilla, 67, a retiree who lives in East L.A., was worried about the safety of the Gold Line, as she eyed a child playing flag football across the street from the station at David Wark Griffith Middle School.

"Hopefully, the kids understand that they have to look both ways before they cross," she said. "You know how kids are."

There are eight stations along the route: Atlantic, East L.A. Civic Center, Maravilla, Indiana, Soto, Mariachi Plaza, Pico/Aliso and Little Tokyo Arts District. At Union Station, riders can continue onto the existing Gold Line, which winds its way toward Pasadena; transfer to the Red Line subway to Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley; ride the Purple Line, which ends in Koreatown; or connect to Metrolink trains that carry riders to neighboring counties.

On Sunday, the East L.A. Civic Center station will feature live music, a farmers market and activities for children. And, of course, mariachis will perform at the Mariachi Plaza station.

-- Baxter Holmes reporting from East Los Angeles

Related stories:

Gold Line extension: Your questions answered

Recalling the Yellow Cars while riding the Gold Line extension

Molina is critical of MTA Eastside extension's rollout

Map of the Gold Line Eastside extension

MTA information on the Gold Line extension

Man surrenders after standoff in Highland Park

A man in his 20s barricaded himself for hours inside a Highland Park apartment building tonight after being pursued by officers, Los Angeles police said.

As they surrounded the building, officers evacuated residents in neighboring apartments as well as patients in a nearby convalescent home, said LAPD Sgt. Douglas Bowler.

"He forced his way into someone else's apartment," Bowler said. "We didn't know if he was armed or not. We evacuated them because we didn't know what his situation was."

The incident began shortly after 5:30 pm at Figueroa Street and Avenue 40, where officers attempted to stop the driver of a minivan with stolen license plates. Three others jumped out of the minivan as police attempted to pull the vehicle over, Bowler said.

The driver then went into a building near Figueroa Street and Woodside Drive, Bowler said.

He surrendered about 11 p.m.

-- David Zahniser

Federal agents bust reputed smuggling ring with ties to L.A. gang

Federal authorities said this afternoon they have arrested eight people -- and are seeking a ninth -- with ties to the Drew Street clique of the Avenues gang on suspicion of drug trafficking and human smuggling.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement served search and arrest warrants Tuesday night and this morning at locations in the Imperial Valley and Los Angeles. 

One of the sites in the 2800 block of Avenue 34 in northeast L.A. was the base of operations for the alleged smuggling ring and served as a "drop house" before illegal immigrants were taken to their final locations, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a prepared statement.

The ring charged people up to $4,500, provided phony immigration papers and smuggled the human cargo into the United States from Mexico by concealing them in trucks and hidden compartments of vehicles.

Dueling manias -- for Dudamel and Dodgers -- take center stage in L.A. today

Traffic could get heavy in downtown Los Angeles later today as Dudamania and Dodgermania take over the city.

A gala L.A. Philharmonic concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel kicks off at 7 p.m. at Disney Concert Hall.

It will be broadcast live to an audience of 3,000, most of whom will be gathered in the Music Center Plaza, located between Grand Ave and Hope Street, and 1st and Temple streets. A smaller number will watch the simulcast from inside.

Earlier in the day, the Dodgers are scheduled to play the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium. The game starts at 3:07 p.m.

-- Alexandra Zavis

Photo: Walt Disney Concert Hall bathed in bright lights Wednesday. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times.

Mother of L.A. student slain in Ecuador seeks answers to daughter's death

The mother of a Cal State L.A. student slain in Ecuador is pushing for an investigation, claiming local police in the South American country and the U.S. Embassy are doing little about the case.

Gloria Daniela Lopez, 26, was stabbed and her throat slit Sept. 9 in Ambato, Ecuador, where she had been on vacation since late June, said her mother, Gloria Lema of Los Angeles. A family friend, Meghan Kendal, said Lopez also had been decapitated and was possibly raped. Lopez was studying sociology at Cal State L.A.

Lema, who immigrated to the United States from Ecuador 28 years ago, traveled to Ambato after the killing to identify her daughter’s body. There she contacted local police and the U.S. Embassy.

L.A. investigator pleads no contest to conspiracy in payoff of alleged rape victim

A private investigator who has worked for such high-profile criminal defendants as Michael Jackson and Winona Ryder pleaded no contest today to conspiracy to obstruct justice and bribery in connection with the payoff of an alleged rape victim, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office said.

Bradley G. Miller entered the open plea to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and three counts of bribing a witness in the courtroom of L.A. County Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, court spokeswoman Jane Robison said. The plea came during a pretrial hearing.

The charges stem from Miller's work for Alex Izquierdo, who was charged in 2006 with multiple counts of rape, torture, false imprisonment and other crimes for allegedly abusing his live-in girlfriend. She told police he had burned her with an iron, sodomized her and threatened to kill her.

Metrolink installs video cameras in locomotives as safety measure

Metrolink officials today announced that video cameras have been installed and activated inside and outside all of the rail system's locomotives, a safety measure enacted as a result of the deadly 2008 Chatsworth crash.

Video records will be stored in a unit similar to an airplane's black box, installed in all 52 locomotive cabs, and the information will be downloaded daily for random review. The purpose of the recorders is to ensure that engineers adhere to bans on cellphones, text messaging and unauthorized passengers in the cab, issues that arose after a Metrolink crash killed two dozen people a year ago and during subsequent National Transportation Safety Board hearings in Washington.

The announcement was made at news conference by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Metrolink board chairman Keith Millhouse at the Metrolink maintenance yard near Elysian Park. Officials said the price to install the cameras was $1 million.

6 people wounded in gang-related shooting in Highland Park, police say

Six people are in stable condition today after suffering gunshot wounds in a gang-related shooting in Highland Park, police said.

The victims were shot Saturday about 9:40 p.m. after two suspects in a car opened fire on a house party near Figueroa Street and Avenue 55, Los Angeles Police Officer Gregory Baek said. At least one of the victims was female.

Some of the victims are members of the Dogtown gang, and police believe the shooters may be connected to the Avenues gang, Baek said.

No arrests have been made.

-- Corina Knoll

Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang

Hundreds of police officers and federal law enforcement agents launched a major assault on the Avenues gang this morning, hoping to deal a blow to an elusive group they say is responsible for some of Los Angeles' most notorious street crime.

Under the cover of darkness around 3 a.m., roughly 1,200 heavily armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies dispersed from a command post near the LAPD’s training academy in Elysian Park.

Warrants in hand, they descended on dozens of homes in search of 53 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang wanted on an array of federal charges related to extensive drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.

Forty-three suspects already are in custody on unrelated charges. The operation was aimed to bring new charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members. 

Obama's Oxy professor reports: 'He still didn't agree about that grade'

Does your grade on a college term paper still tug at you years or decades later? Well, join the man in the White House.

Last week, President Obama had a warm reunion in the Oval Office with Occidental College politics professor Roger Boesche. The two hadn’t seen each other since 1981 when Obama, then known as Barry, was about to transfer from the Los Angeles college to Columbia University in New York.

Over the years, Obama has cited Boesche as one of his most influential teachers, but the two had had only sporadic contact via e-mail.

Thursday they met again at the president’s invitation. Boesche, back in his Eagle Rock home Saturday, said Obama jokingly recalled that pesky “B” Boesche had given him on a paper on European political thought. The president, Boesche said, also reminded him that he had turned down his appeal for an “A.”

“He still didn’t agree about that grade,” said Boesche, laughing.

Their discussion of 10 minutes or so touched on more serious topics such as healthcare. Boesche, 61, has struggled with rheumatoid arthritis and said he thanked the president for his reform efforts.
Boesche said he, his wife Mandy and their daughter Kelsey came away impressed by Obama’s charm and friendliness.

“It was a complete thrill,” he said.

(The White House press office did not respond to a request for the president’s response to the reunion.)

Asked if he had seen the makings of a president in his young student nearly 30 years ago, Boesche said he could not claim he had. He urged other professors and teachers to “realize that in any class you could have a child, a young man or woman, who could do incredibly great things in the world. So teach as well as you can.”

-- Larry Gordon

Top photo: Occidental College professor Roger Boesche pictured in his Eagle Rock home office in December. Credit: Jay Clendenin/Los Angeles Times. Bottom photo: Barack Obama, seen in the photo he submitted with his 1979 college application. Credit: Occidental College

2 killed in crash on 5 Freeway near Griffith Park

Two people were killed Thursday night when their car drove off the 5 Freeway near Griffith Park and smashed into a tree, authorities said.

The car was traveling south near Colorado Street when the accident occurred shortly after 9 p.m. The victims were not identified. No other vehicles were involved.

Rescue units from Los Angeles and Glendale responded, said Cecil Manresa of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The California Highway Patrol was investigating the cause of the accident, Manresa said.

—Robert J. Lopez

Boy stabbed to death in apparent murder-suicide [Updated]

[Updated at 1:16 p.m.:  Police at the scene of the apparent murder-suicide earlier said the victim was a 5-year-old girl.]

A young boy in Highland Park was apparently stabbed multiple times today by his mother, who then slit her own wrists, authorities said.

The mother and son were pronounced dead at the scene, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Rosario Herrera.

Herrera said the apparent stabbing and suicide occurred about 9:37 a.m. in the 300 block of Vista Place.

[Updated at 12:03 p.m.] Police had cordoned off Vista Place, a narrow alley across the street from Garvanza Park. The bodies were found in a white, two-story house. Some neighbors were standing in their driveways watching the police activity.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Photos: Top, Henry Lemus, 26, a neighbor, reacts to news of the apparent murder-suicide. Below, police investigate the crime scene. Credit: Christina House / For The Times

Drew Street residents welcome improved safety with a block party

A year after Los Angeles Police raided a Glassell Park neighborhood to wrest control from gang members who had ruled the area for generations, residents of Drew Street  today poured into the sidewalks to celebrate with a block party.

They descended from two blocks of apartment buildings for burgers, music and hat balloons, a never-before scene on a street where families have stayed indoors for years because of gang warfare and drug sales.

“Nobody wants it to go back to what it was before,” said Capt. Bill Murphy of the Northeast Division.

Maria Ramirez, 57, looked on from the shade of a tree with great relief. Just four years ago, she remembers a bullet plowed into her front door. Now, she said, she feels much safer.

“I’m not as worried that something bad is going to happen to us,”  said Ramirez, who has lived on the block for 39 years.

 

-- Esmeralda Bermudez

Property tax relief coming for more than 330,000 L.A. County homeowners

Help is in the mail for many Los Angeles County homeowners frustrated by the housing slump.

The Los Angeles County assessor’s office this morning announced that it has finished an automatic review of assessments for 473,000 homes purchased between July 1, 2003 and June 30, 2008 -- which account for about 28% of homes countywide.

County officials reduced assessments on about 70% of properties reviewed. Homeowners getting a break should soon get a letter in the mail. The average property tax savings is $1,400 for owners of single family homes and $1,100 for condominium owners, county officials said.

Those receiving reductions included owners of 256,000 single family homes and 77,000 condo owners. The average reduction in value was $126,000 for single family homes; $96,000 for condos.

The reduction in assessments means a loss of $440 million in tax revenue, a 1% drop county officials anticipated in last month’s proposed budget, said Assessor Rick Auerbach.

Smoking ban for L.A. county parks planned; actors exempted [Updated]

Smokers beware: In addition to being banned from bars, beaches, bus stops, restaurants and government buildings, you are about to get booted from county parks and golf courses.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky wants to ban smoking at the county’s 144 parks and 17 golf courses in “an effort to safeguard the public from potential exposure to secondhand smoke.”

On Tuesday, the supervisor plans to ask county officials to draft a law enacting the ban and return to the board for a vote within three months.

Public Health Director Dr. Jonathan Fielding and Parks and Recreation Director Russ Guiney endorsed the ban, with one exception sure to please the Hollywood crowd: Actors will still be allowed to smoke in the parks, as long as they are being filmed.

County officials estimate the ban will cost about $49,000, mostly to post signs in the parks advertising the new law.

L.A. schools disrupted by sit-ins, sick-ins and walkouts

Schools throughout Los Angeles were disrupted today as thousands of teachers called in sick and hundreds of high school students walked out of classrooms to protest possible teacher layoffs at the nation's second-largest school district.

Teachers said they planned to storm the Los Angeles Unified School District's headquarters in downtown Los Angeles today and "jump on some desks" as an act of civil disobedience, according to a memo circulated to district officials by school district Police Chief Lawrence Manion.

District police officials said they did not plan to make arrests. But if arrests became necessary, they would let Los Angeles Police Department officers step in to handle the situation.

About 700 more teachers than usual called in sick today in the Los Angeles Unified School District, days after a judge ordered the teachers union to call off a planned one-day strike.

Mother sentenced in Drew Street drug case

A matriarch of a family allegedly involved in the drug dealing and street violence of the notorious Drew Street branch of Glassell Park's Avenues gang was sentenced Thursday to 100 months in federal prison.

Maria “Chata” Leon, 45, an illegal immigrant and mother of 13, previously pleaded guilty to racketeering and drug conspiracy charges after her arrest last year in a crackdown led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the LAPD.

Dozens of defendants indicted along with Leon have also pleaded guilty, said Christopher Brunwin, the lead federal prosecutor in the case.

Operating from a Drew Street home, Leon, members of her family and associates for years controlled one of the most menacing drug bazaars in the city, despite law enforcement efforts to combat the gang, officials said. The so-called Satellite House, which drew its name from a huge black satellite dish that once stood in the driveway, was declared a public nuisance and demolished earlier this year.

The prosecutions “will give a lot of good people in that neighborhood an opportunity to live better,” Brunwin said. “Hopefully, a lot better.”

--Rich Connell
 

City College drops plans for campus at historic Van de Kamp bakery site

Los Angeles City College has abandoned plans to open a satellite campus at the renovated Van de Kamp's bakery site, the subject of a ferocious preservationist fight almost a decade ago.

The Los Angeles Community College District adapted the building and its 16th century Dutch town-house facade for the college's use.

Because of budget problems, however, the district will now turn the property over, most likely, to the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools for a charter high school, said Larry Eisenberg, the district's executive director for facilities planning and development.

The property will have a workforce development center and a community gym, Eisenberg said.

The district will review the arrangement in five years, at which point the satellite campus idea could be revived, he added.

To honor the bakery heritage, Eisenberg said he had investigated festooning a security fence with decorative cupcakes, rolls and other goodies, but it turned out to be expensive. Eisenberg said he hopes to come up with a reasonably priced alternative.

--Gale Holland

College district abandons plans for campus at bakery site

Los Angeles City College has abandoned plans to open a satellite campus at the renovated Van de Kamp’s bakery site in Glassell Park, the site of a ferocious preservationist fight almost a decade ago.

The Los Angeles Community College District adapted the building and its 16th century Dutch townhouse facade for the college’s use. Because of budget problems, however, the district will now turn the property over, most likely, to the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools for a charter high school, said Larry Eisenberg, the district’s executive director for facilities planning and development.

"We would have loved to offer a satellite campus, but the budget constraints -- nobody could have anticipated that," Eisenberg said Wednesday.

The property will have a workforce development center and a community gym, Eisenberg said. The district will review the arrangement in five years, at which point the idea for a satellite campus could be revived, he added.

To honor the bakery heritage, Eisenberg said he had investigated festooning a security fence with decorative cupcakes, rolls and other goodies, but it turned out to be expensive. Eisenberg said he hopes to come up with a reasonably priced alternative.

The high school is expected to open in September.

-- Gale Holland

Man arrested in Dodger Stadium stabbing

Authorities have arrested a man in connection with a stabbing last month in the Dodger Stadium parking lot after the club's home opener, Los Angeles police said today.

Arthur Alvarez, 32, was arrested Thursday night at a relative's home in Santa Clarita, said LAPD Capt. Bill Murphy. Alvarez, a reputed gang member, was booked on suspicion of attempted murder. He was being held in lieu of $550,000 bail and was expected to be charged today.

Two men injured in separate shootings at Los Angeles intersections

An argument between two male motorists stopped at a red light in Atwater Village escalated into gunfire early today, wounding one of the men, police said.

The two were stopped at a light near the intersection of Atwater Avenue and Carillon Street about 1 a.m. and got involved in an altercation, said Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department.

One of the men pulled out a weapon and fired multiple times, striking the other man once, Herrera said.

The shooting victim, who has not been identified, drove himself to the LAPD’s Northeast Station, where he was taken to a hospital and was expected to survive, Herrera said.

In a similar but unrelated incident today, an 18-year-old man riding in the back seat of a vehicle that was stopped at a red light in South Los Angeles was shot by someone who drove up next to the car, police said.

The teenager, who has not been identified, was struck once in the head and once in the buttocks during the incident, which occurred about 4:45 a.m. near the intersection of East 55th Street and Long Beach Avenue.

He was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition, Herrera said.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Videographer captures L.A.'s connections

For some time now, Times videographer Katy Newton has been offering latimes.com readers a decidedly offbeat way of looking at L.A. Newton has marched through the streets of the city talking to people about their missed connections in the big city. "ICU" has gained a cult following, and LAist talked to Newton about her brand of story telling (and how it started):

I had a friend that was sort of stalking a guy at Trader Joes. I mean she would try to time her Saturday shopping so she would see him. She had figured that he would be a perfect match by the vegetables he picked out (that cracked me up). Anyway, a bunch of us were discussing the situation when another friend suggested to her she post on Missed Connections. I hadn't heard of it and I went home that night and read them. I immediately fell in love and thought about a video series. Update on my friend: she is now in a long-term relationship with a guy. It was a guy at her work; they fell in love after a deep discussion about the best way to cook beets. True Story.

LAist also has a cool tour of a hidden public stairway in Hollywood Heights.

Shelby Grad

Third suspect arrested in L.A. deputy's murder

A third suspect has been arrested and charged with capital murder in the shooting of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Abel Escalante outside his parents' Cypress Park  home, and investigators are searching  for a fourth man wanted for the slaying.

Jose Renteria, 18, was arrested April 16 at the East Lake Juvenile Detention Center, where he was being held as a juvenile. He pleaded not guilty Monday in the killing of the deputy, who was shot in the back of the head as he reached into his car to adjust a child’s car seat last summer.

Prosecutors have already charged two alleged gang members, Javier Velasquez, 24, the man authorities say was the gunman, and Guillermo Hernandez, 20. They are charged with one count each of murder with the special circumstance that the Aug. 2  killing was carried out to further a criminal street gang, making it a potential death-penalty case.