Author: Jill Jones

Los Angeles-based immigrant rights advocates announced Tuesday that they have filed formal complaints against a Santa Clarita councilman they say deserves to be censured for violating the city’s code of ethics and conduct by declaring himself “a proud racist.”

The Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition has sent letters to state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging that Councilman Bob Kellar “breached the public’s trust and has acted in an unethical, racist, xenophobic and biased manner by making public comments scapegoating so-called illegal immigrants.”

The group also alleges that Kellar violated at least eight provisions of Santa Clarita’s ethics and conduct policy, which requires that municipal leaders be “independent, impartial and accountable to the people they serve.”

The complaint further targets the remaining members of the Santa Clarita City Council, who the immigrant rights’ advocates charge violated their “fiduciary duties and responsibilities…by not speaking out and condemning” Kellar’s statements.

The legal complaint stems from a Jan. 16 anti-illegal-immigration rally in Santa Clarita, where Kellar, a veteran councilman and two-time mayor, spoke. In his comments, Kellar referred to a statement by former President Theodore Roosevelt that the United States has a place for only one flag and only one language.

Kellar, a former LAPD officer, said those remarks caused some people to accuse him of being racist, to which he replied that if believing in America causes people to think he’s a racist, "then I’m a proud racist."

The councilman has said that he stands by his remarks, which he said were personal and have been misconstrued. He insisted that he abhors racism, and he has received zealous support from many Santa Clarita residents.

But the immigrant rights advocates said that Kellar was introduced as a councilman during the anti-illegal immigration rally, and they quoted from a transcript of Kellar’s remarks in which he spoke about conducting business at City Hall the day before the gathering.

They also accuse Kellar of being a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Independent Minutemen group — a staunch anti-illegal immigration organization whose members sometimes patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to prevent illicit crossings. Kellar has denied being a member of the group, which helped organize the rally at which he spoke.

“He should have explained that he was speaking as an individual and not as a public figure,” said John Fernandez, a member of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition.

“When a duly elected leader promotes divisive speech, that is essentially hate speech,” said Robert Gittelson, another coalition member.

Supporters of Kellar jeered the immigrant rights advocates, chanted the councilman’s name and at one point physically tried to prevent the advocates from briefing the press in front of Santa Clarita City Hall before a scheduled council meeting Tuesday.

“A man voiced his personal opinion; that is not a violation,” shouted Randy Thompson, a Santa Clarita resident since 1967. “Bob Kellar stated that he is against illegals. He supports American laws.”

“Get of my town right now,” one woman screamed from her car. “Who do you think you are? Do you read the papers? Everyone here is behind Bob Kellar.”

Chris Hall, who has lived in Santa Clarita for four years, said he was saddened by the rowdy spectacle between the rival groups.
“This is painful for me to watch,” said Hall, who has worked in the city for 15 years. “It’s getting totally out of control. It affects our community.”

Speaking at the council meeting, Kellar said he had been bombarded with calls and e-mails, and had had several conversations with residents who expressed concerns about the affect illegal immigrants were having on the city. He suggested the council include the issue of illegal immigration on a future agenda. Other council members suggested organizing a study session on the matter.

— Ann M. Simmons in Santa Clarita

Remember that plucky chicken that had taken up residence near Glendale Community College? Well, thanks to the efforts of a couple of animal lovers, she’s flown the coop for better digs in Simi Valley.

As Veronica Rocha tells it in the Glendale News Press, the hen, now christened — what else? — Lucky was captured by Berna Arnold and her 8-year-old son, Nathan. Lucky may have eluded animal control officers and their traps, but she was no match for the Arnolds and their fishing nets.

According to the Arnolds, Lucky is fitting in just fine with their other pets, including a horse, a
bearded dragon, lizards and three other chickens: Dolly, Raven and
Granite.

You just know that given her adventurous nature, she’s going to try to rule the roost.

— Jill-Marie Jones

Most people are unhappy when cities take out trees lining their sidewalks and other public spaces. But in one Glendale neighborhood, the unhappiness stems from the city planting trees, often on what residents mistakenly thought was their private property.

According to Zain Shauk of the Glendale News Press, residents are mainly miffed about where the new the new trees are being planted: It seems the additions detract from the aesthetics of some homeowners’ landscaping.

The city acknowledges that there was a "a lack of communication" about the trees’ arrival, but say the plantings were in response to inquiries about why trees that had been removed because of disease had not been replaced.

And no, the city isn’t so generous that it’s taking to planting trees outside public right-of-ways: “We don’t put trees on private property," says one public works official. He said residents’ confusion was due to city-owned areas not being visibly separated from residential property lines.

Glad we got to the root of the problem.

— Jill-Marie Jones

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Monday against Anaheim in its pursuit of more than $21 million the city claimed it was owed by travel websites.

The city had argued that companies such as Expedia, Priceline and Orbitz owed the money because they were paying hotel occupancy taxes based on a wholesale price rather than the retail price paid by customers.

Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl wrote in her opinion that online companies are not liable under Anaheim’s hotel tax ordinance because they are not hotel operators, proprietors or managing agents.

As online hotel reservations have increased in popularity, cities including Anaheim that depend heavily on tourist dollars have been engaged in an increasingly hostile dispute over taxes owed by travel websites. Cities across the country have alleged that they are being deprived of funds, while companies have argued that they are just intermediaries and should not be taxed like hotel operators.

In a statement, Darrel Hieber, an attorney for the travel companies in the case, said they were “heartened by the court’s decision” and hoped it would lead other cities to work with the companies rather than “wasting time and energy on frivolous litigation.”

City officials did not return calls for comment.

[Updated, 6:10 p.m.: Late Monday, Anaheim released a statement saying city officials disagreed with the judge’s ruling and they "will explore our options to protect the city."]

— Paloma Esquivel in Orange County

A body found Wednesday floating on the shore of the Santa Ana River near Huntington Beach has been identified as that of a 20-year-old Santa Ana man, authorities said today.

Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said a pair of fishermen found the body of Johnny Sandoval at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday. An autopsy was conducted, but the cause of death has not been determined, Amormino said.

Sandoval’s body had no obvious signs of trauma and may have been in the water for several days, Amormino said. The victim was wearing only shorts and a thin T-shirt. Authorities suspect that he may have been swimming or rafting in the river during last week’s storms.

“The water’s cold,” Amormino said. “It’s been high and the water is cold, so it’s possible.”

—Michael Miller in Orange County

Photo: KTLA-TV Channel 5

Why did the chicken cross the road? To avoid animal control officers, of course!

At least that’s the story in Glendale, where the plucky fowl has set up nest-keeping behind Glendale Community College’s electronic billboard and so far has thwarted every attempt to catch it.

“We simply cannot catch the chicken,” Ricky Whitman, a spokeswoman for the
Pasadena Humane Society, which provides animal control services in Glendale, told Glendale News-Press reporter Veronica Rocha.
“The chicken will go into traffic and make it unsafe for our people.”

Insert your joke here. 

—Jill-Marie Jones

A man suspected of sexually assaulting three women in Southern California and then fleeing the country was arrested in Austria based on an international DNA search, authorities announced today.

Ali Achekzai, 32, formerly of Ladera Ranch, was one of the Orange County district attorney’s “10 most wanted” fugitives.

Authorities believe Achekzai fled to Canada around the time he was tied — by DNA evidence, witness accounts and a photo lineup — to two rapes in San Diego and Orange counties.

He is believed to have traveled to several countries — including Afghanistan, Germany, Canada, Austria and England — and to have used at least six aliases.

Late last year, when a young detective with the Tustin Police Department was asked to pick up the case, Achekzai’s DNA profile was sent to Interpol to see if it matched anything in that agency’s international database, which authorities said covered nearly two dozen countries.

The search was done in December "on a hunch" that the suspect might have committed similar crimes while abroad, said Tustin police Det. Ryan Coe.

Interpol matched Achekzai’s DNA to a sample taken when he was arrested in a rape under a different name in Austria in April 2009. The charges in that case had been dismissed.

Achekzai was arrested Jan. 26 at a hotel in the Austrian town of Neukirchen am Grossvenediger and was expected to be extradited to Orange County.

He is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman he followed home from a Laguna Beach night club in January 2004.

In May 2004, authorities said, Achekzai raped and beat a 21-year-old woman he met at a San Diego nightclub after they drove to a local park with a group of friends.

He is also accused of sexually assaulting a woman in October 2002 after she fell asleep in a limousine on the way home from a Laguna Beach nightclub.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of more than 53 years in prison.

— Paloma Esquivel in Orange County

Photo: April 2009 booking photo of Ali Achekzai formerly of Ladera Ranch.  Credit: Orange County district attorney’s office.

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Study accuses California’s higher education systems of poor coordination

Mexican national extradited to U.S. in death of Border Patrol agent

Indefinite prison for sexually violent predators may violate Constitution, California Supreme Court says

Reseda park to be renamed in honor of slain SWAT Officer Randal Simmons

L.A.-area beaches deal with sand erosion, damage from big storms

L.A. to study ways to protect bicyclists, considers ‘bill of rights’

San Bernardino County therapists allegedly fail to report bloody evidence found at home for mentally ill felons

Swedish rapper’s defense in road rage killing is ‘laughable,’ prosecutor says

If good fences make good neighbors, what about gates? Particularly one built without a proper permit and too close to a public right of way. 

One such wooden gate has sparked a spat in north Glendale.

According to Glendale News Press reporter Melanie Hicken, actress Eva La Rue, of “CSI: Miami” and “All My Children,” put up the gate to guard her and her daughter from an alleged stalker. After the gate was cited by code enforcement officers, La Rue was granted a variance.

That development didn’t sit well with neighbors and homeowners’ groups, who contend that the variance was an unfair exemption for
blatantly illegal construction.

We can’t help but wonder what Horatio would advise.

Anyway, La Rue’s variance was overturned by the Planning Commission, but she and her lawyers have appealed. So now the City Council is involved and the rhetoric is flying. Perhaps there’s a reality show in here someplace?

— Jill-Marie Jones

Five current and former Armenian officers have filed a joint lawsuit against the Glendale Police Department, alleging years of discrimination, derogatory comments and harassment because of their race.

Officers John Balian and Robert Parseghian; Sgts. Vahak Mardikian and Tigran Topadzhikyan; and former Officer Benny Simonzad filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court last week, alleging myriad incidents of on-the-job discrimination and harassment.

Today, City Atty. Scott Howard rebuffed the claims made in the lawsuit, but said officials were still reviewing the case in its entirety.

The Glendale News Press has the full story.

— Jill-Marie Jones

Last week’s storms may have dumped massive mounds of muck on Southland beaches, but in Newport Beach, those same storms swept something away: sand.

“The storms came in with a diagonal attack on the beach, with waves and high
tides,” Newport Lifeguard Battalion Chief Mitch White told Brianna Bailey of the Daily Pilot. “That cuts
away the sand and creates a longshore current that comes up and sweeps the
beach.”

About 50 feet of sand was lost. Work crews using front-end loaders moved about a dozen lifeguard towers farther up the beach to keep them from floating out to sea.

But the sand didn’t go far. “Every winter, we lose an area of beach, but by the following
fall, it builds back up again," said Tara Finnigan, a spokeswoman for the city of
Newport Beach. "That sand doesn’t go too far off shore.”

— Jill-Marie Jones in Orange County

Newport Beach businessman Don Haidl, a one-time assistant to convicted former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, probably will be given probation, a $40,000 fine and ordered to perform community service rather than go to prison for tax fraud under a preliminary opinion released today.

U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford said he wanted further details from the probation department about what types of community service Haidl would be eligible for before making the sentence final. Haidl is due back in court March 15.

Haidl was accused by federal prosecutors of filing a false income tax return in a scheme to help pay his son’s legal bills after Gregory Haidl was charged along with two others of sexually assaulting an apparently unconscious 16-year-old girl and videotaping the incident.

Don Haidl pleaded guilty to tax fraud and agreed to cooperate in the government corruption case against Carona in exchange for the prosecutor’s recommendation of leniency.

"Had you not cooperated so fully and thoroughly, you would be doing jail time," Guilford told Haidl.

"I apologize to this court, I apologize to the public, I apologize to
my family … I accept full responsibility for everything I’ve done,"
Haidl said today in court.

Haidl, who was appointed assistant sheriff by Carona, recorded the former sheriff in conversation and later testified during a well-publicized trial that he bribed Carona with cash and luxuries in exchange for access to the Sheriff’s Department.

Carona was acquitted last year of all but one charge, witness tampering. He is appealing that conviction.

Gregory Haidl was released from prison in 2008, after serving about three years of a six-year sentence on the sexual assault conviction.

— Paloma Esquivel in Orange County