Author: Amanda Covarrubias

Those spring-like conditions Southern Californians have been enjoying may be coming to an end as a new storm moves in Friday and Saturday with rain, snow and gusty winds, forecasters said.

The storm system is developing over San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and is expected to spread into Ventura and Los Angeles counties Friday night, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Rain is expected to continue until Saturday with rainfall totals of between 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch, accompanied by isolated thunderstorms.

About 1.5 inches of rain is expected in the foothills and mountains, where wildfire burn areas will need to be monitored for possible debris and mudslides, forecasters said.

A break in the rain is expected Saturday, but the storm will likely produce more rainfall Saturday night through Sunday, and rain is expected through the middle of next week, the weather service said.

— My-Thuan Tran

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Barstow authorities were trying Wednesday to determine the identity of the person whose severed head was found by a man collecting cans on a lonely desert road.

The gruesome discovery was made Feb. 10 when a man searching for cans on the shoulder of Lenwood Road near Interstate 15 and Highway 58 found a black backpack lying on the ground, said Sgt. Andy Espinoza of the Barstow Police Department.

Inside was the head of a possibly white or Latino woman with brown hair that had been wrapped in two plastic shopping bags.
Its condition made determining race or gender difficult, Espinoza said.

An autopsy was scheduled Wednesday at the San Bernardino County coroner’s office to determine how the head was severed. Authorities said it may have been dumped on the side of the road within 24 hours or less of its discovery.

— Amina Khan

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A woman was killed and her passenger injured Wednesday morning when her sports car crashed in Laguna Hills while she was driving it for a prospective buyer, officials said.

The Laguna Hills woman was driving her 2003 Chevrolet Corvette at high speed when she apparently lost control of the car while turning off Lake Forest Drive onto Mill Creek Drive, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

The car hit a curb, careened off a tree and broadsided another tree before coming to a stop, Amormino said.

“We don’t have an estimate of how fast [she was driving], but speed is definitely factor,” he said.

The driver, who was in her 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her identity was being withheld until her family was notified of her death. [Updated at 3:04 p.m.: Amormino identified her as Amy Thomas, 29, a mother of four from Laguna Hills.]

The prospective buyer, a woman in her late 20s, was taken to a nearby hospital with moderate injuries, Amormino said. [Updated, 9:06 p.m.: Orange County sheriff’s officials now say the injured passenger was a man.]

— Alexandra Zavis

Just a few hours before crashing his city-owned vehicle last week, former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach had been drinking at a strip club in Colton, according to a lawyer for the club and surveillance video.

Leach went into the topless Club 215 in Colton at 10:24 p.m. Feb. 7 and drank four Chivas Regal Scotch whiskeys, ate chicken wings and left at 1:48 a.m., said club attorney Roger Jon Diamond.

"He was very dignified and behaved himself," Diamond said. "He was eating and drinking by himself, but he did interact with other people."

Diamond said that Leach spent some time with one of the dancers and that investigators interviewed the woman, along with the bartender and manager.

"When he drove off, he did not appear to be driving erratically," he said.

The club turned over the video to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash that occurred about 3 a.m. near Central and Hillside avenues in Riverside.

According to the police report, Leach’s car went the wrong way down a street and struck a curb. The black Chrysler 300, its front tires shredded to the rims, went on to hit a light pole and a fire hydrant.

Leach drove three more miles before coming to a stop.

When Riverside police arrived, they said, Leach was unaware that he had been in an accident. Their report said he repeatedly talked of having a flat tire. They also noted that he had been drinking but made no mention about whether a sobriety test was given.

Leach, 61, later said he was on prescription drugs and "disoriented" at the time of the accident.

He resigned last week and the city has launched an investigation, overseen by City Manager Brad Hudson and former Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask, to determine whether police responded to the accident appropriately or whether Leach was given preferential treatment.

Leach could not immediately be reached for comment.

Diamond said CHP investigators had been to Club 215 several times in the last few days to interview anyone who might have interacted with Leach that night.

"I don’t know how they found out he had been there, but when they asked we cooperated with them," Diamond said.

Cameras inside the club and in the parking lot caught Leach coming and going. The bartender reported later that Leach did not appear drunk, and the fourth drink, Diamond said, was watered down.

Most of the time, Leach was alone at the club, which sits along the 215 Freeway.

"He had two separate bar tabs," Diamond said. "The first was for $30 and he left $40, and the second bill was $22 and he left a $20 tip."

Diamond would not comment on whether Leach was a club regular.

"We are caught in the middle," he said. "We want to cooperate with the CHP, but we don’t want to go out of our way to violate any patron’s privacy."

Investigators are still trying to fill in the gap between when Leach left Club 215 and when the accident occurred.

"We are not giving out any further information until we are done with the investigation," said Lt. Dave Lane, a spokesman for the CHP. "We are following up on every lead and every fact. It would not be fair to put out wrong information either for or against Mr. Leach. We owe him that and we owe the public the absolute truth."

The CHP is hoping to conclude its investigation in about a week.

— David Kelly and Alexandra Zavis

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Just hours before crashing his city-owned vehicle into a light pole and fire hydrant last week, former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach had been drinking at a strip club in Colton, according to a lawyer for the club and surveillance video.

Leach went into the topless Club 215 in Colton at 10:24 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday and drank four Scotches, ate some chicken wings and left at 1:48 a.m., said attorney Roger Jon Diamond, who represents the club.

“He was very dignified and behaved himself,” Diamond said. “He was eating and drinking by himself, but he did interact with other people.”

Diamond would not say whether the other people included any strippers.

“When he drove off, he did not appear to be driving erratically,” he said.

The club turned over the video to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash that occurred about 3 a.m. in Riverside. Police responding to the scene described Leach as confused and noted he had been drinking. They did not say whether they administered any field sobriety tests.

Leach, 61, resigned last week, and the city has launched an investigation into whether the police responded appropriately.
The former chief said he was on prescription pain medications and was “disoriented” after the accident.

According to Diamond, Leach paid two bar tabs. The first was $30 with a $10 tip and the second was $22 with a $20 tip.

The CHP hopes to have the investigation finished within a week.

— David Kelly

Photo: Former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Orange County park rangers, conservationists and volunteers will join forces Saturday to dismantle an illegal mountain bike course built in an off-limits forest area.

The elaborate network of wooden bridges, jumps, illegal trails and sandbag-reinforced switchbacks was built on about an acre of land in Limestone Canyon and Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, apparently by avid mountain bikers, officials said.

Mountain bikers have built illegal trails in many Orange County parks, said Senior Park Ranger Vicky Malton, who added she had never seen such structures built in this particular park before.

The course was discovered last fall when interns with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy were working to reintroduce prickly pear cacti to the forest after the 2007 Santiago fire and stumbled upon it.

The trail builders destroyed native plants and threatened the habitat of the nesting cactus wren, Malton said. Without enough plants to hold down hillsides, the barren trails raised the risk of erosion. Efforts to “re-brush” the area, or place natural debris and sometimes plant vegetation over the illegal trails, were being sabotaged, she said.

“They keep clearing the same trails or making new ones,” Malton said. “It’s a constant battle.”

Efforts to dismantle the course had to be put on hold during recent
rainstorms, said David Raetz, deputy director for the Irvine Ranch
Conservancy, adding that he hoped the larger mountain biking community would support the effort to keep certain areas of the park free of human intrusion.

“We live in such an urban area that it’s even more important to leave the natural areas the way they are so they can survive,” Raetz said. “They have to be in balance. … We don’t want to love it to death by continuing to overuse it.”

— Amina Khan

Crews worked Wednesday to repair a broken water main that left 30 customers without water in Studio City, officials said.

Flooding was reported at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after an eight-inch pipe broke near 7809 Torreyson Drive.

“We worked all night, fingers to the bone, and now they are back-filling the pipe,” said Terry Schneider, a spokeswoman for the L.A. Department of Water and Power.

The homes should have water service fully restored within the next couple of hours, Schneider said.

— Amina Khan

A small plane crashed Wednesday morning in East Palo Alto, causing a widespread power outage, officials said.

[Updated at 9:11 a.m.: A fire official told reporters at the scene that there were three fatalities, all people inside the Cessna 310. He said the plane’s wing struck a home day-care center in the residential neighborhood then ricocheted off multiple vehicles when it hit the ground.] 

It was unclear if anyone was injured, but witnesses reported that the crash caused several fires and that an electrical line was hit. KNX News reported that the plane was heading to Hawthorne. [Updated at 9:13 a.m.: An FAA official confirmed the plane was headed to Hawthorne Municipal Airport.]

The crash occurred near Beech Street and Pulgas Avenue, police said. They could not say whether there had been any damage or injuries. [Updated at 9:14 a.m.: An FAA official said the plane crashed about one mile northeast of Palo Alto Airport.]

A resident told Bay City News that part of the plane landed on a day-care center and that other parts hit two homes.

"It hit some power lines next to my house," said Art Jonas, who was evacuating his home in the 1200 block of Beech Street at about 8:20 a.m. "It’s pretty dismal."

The airport in San Jose is reporting that Southwest Airlines grounded 16 flights because of fog, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

— Alexandra Zavis

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New county health rankings for every state in the country were released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.

Los Angeles County ranked 26th for health outcomes and 44th for health factors of the 56 California counties surveyed (Alpine and Sierra counties were not surveyed). By contrast, Orange County ranked seventh for health outcomes and ninth for health factors. Health outcomes measure how healthy a county is based on mortality and morbidity, and health factors measure influences on the health of the county such as residents’ education, smoking and the environment.

According to the rankings, California’s 10 healthiest counties are, from first to 10th, Marin, San Benito, Colusa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Placer, Orange, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and El Dorado. The 10 counties in the poorest health are Del Norte, Siskiyou, Lake, Trinity, Yuba, Kern, Inyo, Tulare, Madera and Modoc.

“This report shows us that there are big differences in overall health across California’s counties, due to many factors, ranging from individual behavior to quality of healthcare, to education and jobs, to access to healthy foods, and to quality of the air,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

“For the first time, every person can compare the overall health of their county to the health of other counties in California, and also see where the state needs to improve,” Remington added.

Each county was ranked based on residents’ health, longevity and factors such as smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty.

Researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health: the rate of people dying before age 75; the percentage of people who reported being in fair or poor health; number of days people reported being in poor physical health; number of days in poor mental health; and the rate of low-birth-weight infants.

Researchers then looked at factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.
Nationwide, the study showed poorly ranked counties often had multiple health problems, including higher rates of premature death, often from preventable conditions; and high smoking rates that lead to cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema.

“These rankings demonstrate that health happens where we live, learn, work and play," said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "And much of what influences how healthy we are and how long we live happens outside the doctor’s office.”

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo: L.A. Times file

Former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who led the department for more than a decade, has been hospitalized with bladder cancer, sources said Tuesday.

Chief Charlie Beck informed the police commission during its Tuesday meeting that he had visited the former LAPD chief in the hospital over the weekend. Beck said Gates, 83, had a "very serious malady." He did not describe the nature of Gates’ illness.

"I ask everyone to keep him in their prayers," Beck said.

According to sources familiar with Gates’ medical condition, however, he has been hospitalized for several weeks with bladder cancer that has spread to his bone structure near his hip. Gates has been receiving radiation treatments to eradicate the cancer and his doctors want to then start chemotherapy for the tumor in the bladder.

"Los Angeles police officers are praying that Chief Gates will have a quick recovery and be able to get back to making frequent appearances to honor officers for their service — from retirements and funerals to ceremonies and charity events — as soon as possible," said Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the police union.

Gates, once a driver for former Chief William H. Parker, rose through the ranks to serve as department chief from 1978 to 1992. Throughout his career he made headlines, often verbally sparring with Mayor Tom Bradley and council members.
Known as the father of the modern SWAT team, he retired in 1992.

His retirement occurred after the riots following the Rodney G. King beating trial. But the pressure for Gates to retire came before the riots when the Christopher Commission issued a scathing report on the department under Gates. The commission findings signaled a new era of LAPD management.

Many police experts say Gates help developed many of the tactical responses used in modern policing. Gates, who attended Beck’s recent swearing-in as chief, remained a popular figure with rank-and-file officers in retirement. While in office, however, his relationship with the Los Angeles Police Protective League was often combative.

— Richard Winton

Photo: L.A. Times file

When taggers spray painted the windows of Rosa Bobbio’s tiny upholstery shop in Anaheim, she called the police, who told her it was the city’s responsibility.

But the city told her she owed them $466.66 in fines and fees for not replacing her defaced windows at Century Custom Upholstery. Bobbio’s experience is similar to that of other business owners in Southern California who find themselves caught between the zero-tolerance policies of municipal governments and the persistent destruction of taggers.

"I know the city needs money, but I cannot afford to pay all this,” said Bobbio, who has run the shop with her brother for decades. “Business is terrible right now.”

Graffiti is so prevalent in Anaheim that even the trees and light poles cannot escape taggers, Bobbio said. Vandals most recently hit her shop on South East Street on Sunday night, covering her windows in blue spray paint and her walls in black, gold and purple. That was just days after vandals scratched markings into her glass windows.

She usually cleans up the graffiti herself or a neighbor will grab a bucket of paint and cover the scrawls. But glass vandalism is another matter. Late last year, taggers etched crude scrawls into her windows, something a generous coat of paint could not fix. Bobbio balked at the $1,700 cost of replacing them, so the markings remained there for months until the city fined her for not repairing them.

Anaheim officials said the city had been working to solve the problem since October, when they first responded to reports of graffiti on Bobbio’s building.

“Graffiti is the responsibility of the business owners,” said Ruth Ruiz, a spokeswoman for the city of Anaheim. “If she continues to speak with the city or needs additional assistance, she can just contact our code enforcement, and we can work with them.”

Ruiz said the city often sends crews to remove graffiti or provides paint for small-business owners to do it themselves, and the city last year started the Anaheim Community Anti-Graffiti Effort, a coalition of residents, business owners, police and code-enforcement officers charged with tackling the graffiti problem.

"The surest way to deter graffiti is to eliminate graffiti,” she said

After Bobbio was fined, she contacted Mike Schuch of Xlnt Tint of Anaheim, who decided to test, for free, a new protection process he had been working on. He pasted a protective film on some of her windows late last week and had planned to return this week to finish the job.

But right after he treated the windows, vandals scraped into them again.

“I’m sitting here waiting for my shipment of new pads, so I can go finish this job.… it’s just disheartening,” Schuch said.

Still, he said, repairing the windows should be relatively quick. The only outstanding issue then would be the $466.66 fine. But Bobbio remains adamant.

“I’m not gonna pay no fine – I think I got my rights too,” Bobbio said. “Who’s going to control these people? If the city doesn’t control these people, what can I do?”

— Amina Khan

Former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who led the department for 14 years, has been hospitalized with a serious medical condition, the current chief said Tuesday.

Chief Charlie Beck informed the police commission during its Tuesday meeting that he had visited the former LAPD chief in the hospital over the weekend. Beck said Gates, 83, had a "very serious malady." He did not describe the nature of Gates’ illness.

"I ask everyone to keep him in their prayers," Beck said.

Gates began his career as the driver for former Chief William H. Parker. Throughout his career he made headlines, often verbally sparring with Mayor Tom Bradley and council members.

Known as the father of the modern SWAT team, he retired in the wake of the 1992 riots after the Rodney G. King beating trial. Prior to the riots, the Christopher Commission had issued a scathing report on the department under Gates.

Many police experts say Gates help developed many of the tactical responses used in modern policing. Gates, who attended Beck’s recent swearing-in as chief, remained a popular figure with rank-and-file officers.

[For the record, 1:40 p.m.: An earlier version of the post incorrectly listed Gates’ age as 82. It also said  he resigned following the 1992 riots. Gates’ retirement was actually prompted by the Christopher Commission report, which was critical of his leadership and came before the riots.]

Update on Gates’ condition

— Richard Winton

Photo: Los Angeles Times

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Four people, including two small children, were killed Saturday in a pileup on Interstate 15 in Ontario.

California Highway Patrol officer Jeff Briggs told the Associated Press the four dead were in a car that was sandwiched between two tractor-trailers and caught fire on the southbound freeway.
Three other people were injured, he said.

The freeway  was shut down for several hours for the investigation.
There was no word on what caused the crash, but Briggs said victims were killed at the end of a long chain-reaction of crashes. They were all declared dead at the scene.

An early morning fight in Stanton between two groups of men that left one man stabbed is being investigated as an act of road rage, authorities said.

Officials have not ruled out the possibility that the stabbing was a hate crime because the fight included men of more than one race.

“We’re still contacting witnesses,” said Lt. Jeff Passalaqua, chief of police services for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in Stanton. “It’s being investigated as a road-rage incident. We’re not going to say that it has been completely ruled out as a hate crime. It’s too early to say. If that’s the motivation for the assault, definitely we will pursue that.”

Passalaqua said the brawl started about 5 a.m. near Beach Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim and ended about three miles south on Beach Boulevard in Stanton. It involved a group of white men riding in a sport-utility vehicle and another group, including Caucasians and an African American, in a sedan.

“There were some words exchanged,” Passalaqua said.

One of the men in the sedan was stabbed in the arm through a window.  He underwent surgery at a hospital, Passalaqua said.
No further details were available.

–Ann M. Simmons

Philippe the Original is open for business again after being temporarily closed when health inspectors found cockroaches on the premises.

“We passed the health department inspection with flying colors,” said Richard Binder, general manager at the venerable downtown Los Angeles eatery, famous for its French dip sandwiches. “We passed 100%. We’ve never had anything but an A grade.”

The restaurant was shut down after inspectors discovered evidence of cockroaches during a Wednesday visit that officials said was prompted by at least one citizen complaint.
Binder maintained that just one roach had been found, and “it was a baby.”

“But anything more than one, with them having a zero tolerance, they will shut you down,” Binder said.

Angelo Bellomo, director of environmental health for the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, declined to haggle over the exact number of vermin detected. He stressed that “even a couple of roaches could indicate a greater problem.”

“The cockroaches you can see are supplemented by other evidence that others are there,” Bellomo said. “The word infestation is not too strong.”

Binder said workers at the restaurant had spent “the last 40 hours scrubbing, painting and repairing walls … and we’re back stronger than ever.”

Bellomo acknowledged the restaurant typically receives high health inspection scores and generally has “a good compliance history.” But problems can occur even in the most fastidious establishments, he said.

Inspectors had to close Philippe’s for 48 hours to allow the pests to be removed, he said.

The restaurant reopened at 11 a.m. Friday, and by 11:30 a.m., customers had started to return, according to Binder.

“The operators have done a good job of aggressively solving this problem over the last couple of days,” Bellomo said.

Still, Binder said, it would “take a while” for patrons to return as word spread that the century-old restaurant had reopened.

“Some people said they heard media reports that we had closed for good,” Binder said. “Customers are happy that we’re back.”

— Ann M. Simmons

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A Compton man who allegedly committed two carjackings was in custody Friday after a shootout with sheriff’s deputies and a foot chase ended with him being tackled by a law enforcement dog.

Deputies from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Compton station responded to a call of a carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon Wednesday about 10 p.m. in the parking lot of a market in the 1900 block of West Rosecrans Avenue in Compton.

Deputies said that while checking the area, they spotted 18-year-old Allen Gonzalez, who fit the description of the suspect being sought in the carjacking incident, according to information released by the department. When the deputies got out of their patrol car, Gonzalez fired several rounds from a handgun, officials said.

Gonzalez fled as the deputies returned fire, and he pointed his gun at two other deputies who arrived at the scene, sheriff’s officials said.

“In fear for his life, and the life of his partner,” one of the deputies shot at Gonzalez, Sgt. Diane Hecht wrote in one report.

But Gonzalez continued running north on Parmelee Avenue and disappeared from view. A dog from the department’s canine unit eventually caught him, Hecht said.

Gonzalez was found hiding under a boat in the backyard of a residence in the 1700 block of West 138th Street. What officials believe was his weapon, described by deputies as a “large caliber semi-automatic handgun,” was recovered in the backyard in the 1600 block of West 138th Street.

Gonzalez, who was treated for a dog bite, also was wanted for an armed carjacking in Long Beach earlier Wednesday, according to Hecht’s report.

Gonzalez was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, Hecht said.

Sheriff’s officials said no one was injured by the gunfire.

— Ann M. Simmons

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The L.A. Department of Public Works is seeking emergency funding that could top $600,000 to repair a portion of westbound Mulholland Drive in Studio City, where a large sinkhole developed during recent rainstorms.

The damaged stretch just east of Coldwater Canyon Avenue has
forced city transportation officials to close westbound Mulholland Drive between Laurel
Canyon Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. It is one of more than a dozen road closures from Malibu to Mt.
Baldy caused by storms.

The eastbound side of Mulholland has not been affected and concrete barriers, known as K-rails, and signs have been erected to warn motorists of the closure, said Cora Jackson-Fossett, a spokeswoman for the public works department.

Of all the roads in the city, Mulholland Drive was the most heavily damaged by the storms, she said.

Jackson-Fossett said $600,000 was a rough estimate that could change after a more in-depth assessment of the damage had been completed.

“A portion of the street had started to erode, due to the storms,” Jackson-Fossett said. “It created a gully, or a wash-out.”

–Ann M. Simmons

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Investigators have found the car belonging to a 19-year-old woman whose dismembered body was found earlier this week on Interstate 5 in Sun Valley, but they are still trying to determine how she was killed.

The body of Trisha Jane Robertson was found Wednesday night on the southbound freeway near the Laurel Canyon overpass. Callers initially reported the body as an animal on the freeway, but when authorities arrived, they determined the remains were those of a human.

Robertson had been struck several times, but it was unclear if her body fell from the overpass or from a vehicle or if she was hit as she walked on the freeway, authorities said.

Investigators discovered her car Thursday night a few blocks from Laurel Canyon Boulevard, said CHP Officer Ming Hsu.

“We’re still trying to determine why she was there and what exactly happened,” Hsu said.

A toxicology report was pending, said Ed Winter, assistant chief at the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

— Amina Khan

Police on horseback and in sport utility vehicles swept across Venice Beach in the darkness Friday morning, arresting nearly 50 people, many homeless, on warrants and felony violations, authorities said.

The sweep was part of an effort to address a recent spike in crime and a jump in the number of transients sleeping on the beach after it closes at midnight, LAPD officials said.

Friday’s action marked the first time the beach curfew task force had combined a sweep with outreach efforts, officials said. Teams of social workers, counselors and religious representatives, including priests, were asked by the Los Angeles Police Department to meet with those arrested and inform them about available social services, including drug recovery programs.

“They handed out pamphlets of information on where to try and get shelter, gave them medical attention, gave them information to try and help them with being homeless,” said Sgt. Kevin Lowe, day watch commander of the Pacific Division. “A lot of them don’t take our advice, but at least we offer it.”

Sgt. Jeff Merlo, who participated in the sweep, could not confirm reports that some of the homeless thanked officers for arresting them because they had not showered in days. But he did say those rounded up were  cooperative.

“They could go back to the beach, but we’re hoping they’ll take our offers for services,” he said.

— Amina Khan