Author: Shelby Grad

At a time when some cities have found red-light cameras to be a source of revenue, one city is vowing never to allow the cameras. Ever.

The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday night expressed support for an city charter amendment that would ban the systems that photographer and ticket motorists for allegedly running red lights from being installed in the city.

Under the proposal, the ban on red-light cameras would require the approval of Anaheim voters, which could come as early as November.

Red-light camera programs are highly controversial. Backers argue they improve safety and allow authorities to punish those who run red lights. Critics say the cameras can be inaccurate and worry cities are installing them to generate more revenue.

In Los Angeles, a recent report found the city’s photo enforcement program, which catches tens of thousands of
violators annually, appears to be generating about $3.8 million a year
in traffic-ticket revenue. That
is millions less than some previous police department estimates and
roughly what the program costs, mostly for fees paid to a private
contractor that supplies and operates the camera systems.

Anaheim officials said they have no plans to follow other neighboring cities such as Santa Ana, which has red-light cameras.

"It’s very discouraging when government thinks its sole purpose is … to use public safety as a revenue-raising tool," Mayor Curt Pringle told the Orange County Register.

— Shelby Grad

Mexican authorities said they have completed interviews with hotel workers at a Cancun resort where the wife of TV producer Bruce Beresford-Redman was found slain last week.

Prosecutors in Cancun would not reveal to Mexican media representatives the details of the interviews but said that those interviewed generally agreed on most details. Authorities have also interviewed some guests who reported said they saw the couple arguing shortly before Monica Beresford-Redman was reported missing.

Prosecutors said the timeline the producer provided about his
wife’s disappearance appeared to clash with those of some witnesses.

Bruce Beresford-Redman, a producer on CBS’
"Survivor" and MTV’s "Pimp My Ride," is considered a "person of
interest" in his wife’s death but has not been arrested. Mexican
prosecutors said they were awaiting toxicology results before deciding
whether to arrest him.

Monica Beresford-Redman, a Westside nightclub owner, was strangled to death and sustained  several blows to the head, authorities said.
She died sometime on April 5, and her husband reported her missing the
next day. Her body was found Thursday, dumped in a sewer. Authorities
reportedly don’t believe she was killed there.

On Friday, Beresford-Redman, 38, was released by state police in
Mexico after being questioned. He is barred from leaving Mexico until
the investigation is completed. He has denied any role in the slaying of his wife.

Family members said the couple had gone to Mexico for a romantic getaway intended to revive a strained marriage. Guests
at the Moon Palace Hotel in Cancun reported hearing a loud fight coming
from the room the couple shared with their children.

Bruce Beresford-Redman’s father, David Beresford-Redman, said in a statement that
his son "loved [his wife] and would never have harmed her. He has our
full support as we try to do what’s best for him and our grandchildren
so they can be reunited soon."

The statement continued: "We urge Mexican law enforcement authorities to identify those responsible for this horrendous crime."

Monica Beresford-Redman, 41, a native of Brazil, owned the Zabumba Bar & Restaurant on Venice Boulevard near Overland Avenue.

–Shelby Grad

Photo: Promoter John Smith stands near a sidewalk memorial to Monica
Beresford-Redman, owner of Zabumba Bar & Restaurant on Venice
Boulevard. Credit: Reed Saxon / Associated Press

Three men delivered emotional testimony, describing how they were allegedly molested when they were children by the former director of a state hospital.

The three men claimed that Claude Edward Foulk Jr.  molested them  in Long Beach and used threats and intimidation to prevent them from telling authorities.

"I remember him telling me, ‘This is normal. This is part of what a grown man needs to do,’ " said one of the men during a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Long Beach court. "He had such a power over me that [I thought] nobody would ever believe me, and I had to do whatever he said."

Foulk pleaded not guilty to 35 felony counts involving his
son.

According to court
records, Foulk allegedly molested a foster child in his care from 1973
to 1985. In 1974, prosecutors allege, Foulk molested a friend of the
foster child, who as an adult went to police last September.

In 1977, Foulk allegedly
molested a friend of a second foster child living at his home in Long
Beach. Prosecutors allege that he masturbated in front of two children
in the early 1990s, asking the minors to participate.

All these cases fell before the statute of limitations, so prosecutors said they could not file charges.

Foulk is being prosecuted for alleged molestations of his son, which
began in 1992 and continued through 2003, according to charges. During these years, Foulk worked as a mental health professional at
several facilities in Southern California, eventually landing the top
job at Napa State Hospital.

According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the alleged victims portrayed Foulk as manipulative and controlling, using their vulnerabilities to his advantage.

"In the past five years, I knew that this day
would come, and I wasn’t the only victim," one of the men said in court.  "I
knew he needs to pay for what he’s done. …. I thought I was being taken out of the foster system and
being put in a good home … with a loving father. I’m here to close this chapter on my life. I want to move on."

— Shelby Grad

Photo: Long Beach Police Department

Shortly after her 17-month-old son drowned in the bathtub of her Westlake District home April 1, Nancy Jacinto told Los Angeles police investigators that she had only left the bathroom for seconds and returned to find the boy floating face down in the water.

Jacinto, a 19-year-old mother of three, said she had left to get a towel to dry off Jacob James Gaona and his 2-year-old brother. [Updated at 11:08 a.m.: In an earlier version of this post, Jacob Gaona’s last name was spelled incorrectly.]

But evidence at the home and the autopsy were inconsistent with the woman’s account, police detectives said.

Then, as investigators with the departments juvenile division were preparing to interview Jacinto, she made a startling admission, said LAPD Capt. Fabian Lizarraga

She said that while she was bathing the children, she had "needed to catch her breath. She was stressed out," Lizarraga said. "She dozed off a little bit, and when she woke up, she realized what was going on and went to check on the kids."

Rather than seconds, Jacinto was away from the bathroom for at least 12 minutes, police say.

Prosecutors have charged her with child endangerment and murder. Jacinto has pleaded not guilty.

The LAPD previously visited Jacinto’s home in January after her 3-year-old daughter came to school with a burn mark on her cheek, Lizzaraga said. The little girl initially indicated her mother had done it, and officers were sent to the home to interview the child.

Police prepared an injury report, Lizarraga said, but there was no evidence that pointed to abuse.

The explanation given to police was that the girl had grabbed a spoon used to stir eggs that were boiling. According to the interviews, the spoon was still hot when the girl grabbed the utensil and held it briefly against her face. According to the report, her face was burned, but the skin was not broken.

The case was reviewed, and on March 1, police notified the Los Angeles County of Department of Children and Family Services about the incident. An appointment to visit the residence was made, but police said it was not clear whether social workers visited the family before the death of 17-month-old Jacob.

— Andrew Blankstein

The series of major water main breaks that occurred around Los Angeles last year was caused by the city’s water conservation program, which put too much pressure on the city’s aging cast iron pipes, according to a city report released Tuesday.

The report is a step forward in solving a mystery that bedeviled city officials and engineers and enraged some residents who had to endure the flooding and road damage.

A team of scientists charged with looking at the pipe breaks concluded that the city should rework its conservation plan, which limited the use of sprinklers to Mondays and Thursdays.

One alternative would be to require homes with even-number addresses to conserve on even-numbered days and requiring homes with odd-numbered addresses to conserve on odd-numbered days, the team said.

“The bottom line is, you want to create a more even usage of water pressure so you don’t have a sudden drop of water pressure at a given time of the day,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, a USC engineering professor who headed the team.

The investigation team, which appeared before the council’s Energy and Environment Committee, found a connection between the city’s water-rationing program and the increase in pipe breaks last summer, particularly with cast iron pipes.

At various locations in the L.A. Department of Water and Power distribution system, water pressure fell significantly on Mondays and Thursdays after the beginning of the water-rationing program on June 1, 2009, the report said.

“Those water pressure drops on these days were caused by an increased water flow during the watering of lawns,” the report said. “As a result, the cyclic levels of water pressure increased and accelerated the metal fatigue failures of aged and corroded cast-iron pipes.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the council and the DWP agreed last year to restrict the use of sprinklers to 15 minutes a day on Mondays and Thursdays. No watering is allowed between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Hand-watering — using a hose with a nozzle — is allowed on a daily basis, although not between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The city had 101 breaks during summer 2009, compared to 42 in summer 2008 and 49 in summer 2007, according to the report. 

Last fall, The
Times reported that some experts believed the city’s recent
decision to allow sprinklers to run only on Mondays and Thursdays may
have played a role in the breaks.

They say that if more water
flows through the system on those two
days when people water
their lawns and then pressure suddenly
changes
on other days, it could put added stress on already aging pipes.

— David Zahniser and Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

Photo: Moses Guardado watches as a geyser from a broken water main towers over
local businesses at the corner of Sherman Way and Van Nuys Boulevard in Van
Nuys on Nov. 2, 2009. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Philip Marlowe is one of L.A.’s legendary fictional detectives.

In The Times’ magazine, screenwriter Carol Wolper writes about her efforts to create for television a 2010 Marlowe that Raymond Chandler would recognize.

"Many have tried to bring this character to the big and small screen, but success has been elusive," she wrote. "Yet the desire for another shot never goes away. Marlowe is like that person you keep trying to break up with because you know it won’t work out, but you can’t get her (or him) out of your mind."

She concluded: "Maybe a 2010 Marlowe isn’t Caucasian. Or if so, maybe he’s not a complete loner. Maybe he has a pal. Maybe that pal is even female. As blasphemous as that may sound to die-hard noirists, maybe we can worship at the altar of Chandler without being a slave to the past."

Check out her story here, which offers video samples of different actors portraying the private eye (Bogart, Gould, Mitchum, Garner). You can also vote on your favorite.

A somber memorial on Tuesday morning snaked its way through downtown Los Angeles, as thousands honored LAPD Officer Robert J. Cottle, killed March 24 in Afghanistan while on Marine Reserve duty.

[For the record: An earlier version of this post said the memorial was on Wednesday.]

During a private service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles, Cottle was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

Cottle’s casket, covered in an American flag, was carried in a wagon by horseback from Los Angeles Police Department headquarters to the cathedral, with a group of law enforcement officers walking alongside and to the back, including Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

Onlookers lined some street corners, watching as the procession passed by.

Cottle, 45, was traveling with three other Marines in the Marja region of the country, which has been the focus of an intense U.S.-led offensive against Taliban forces in recent weeks.

Their armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, killing Cottle and another Marine and seriously wounding the two others, said LAPD Capt. John Incontro, who oversees SWAT operations.

The procession significant jammed traffic in downtown Los Angeles, as several major streets, including Main, Spring and Temple, were closed.

Many bus lines were rerouted. The closure caused major backups into downtown L.A. Tuesday morning, with some commuters reporting delays of up to 50 minutes getting into the civic center area.

Some of the traffic closures will continue through 2 p.m.

Here are details about the memorial:

TRAFFIC

The funeral procession will start at the new LAPD headquarters and end at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Portions of 1st Street, Broadway, Spring Street, Temple Street, Hill Street, and Grand Avenue will be closed as early as 6 a.m., according to the LAPD.

TRANSPORTATION

Metro bus service in downtown Los Angeles will be affected. A funeral procession will begin at 8:45 a.m. at the Police Administration Building, located at 100 W. 1st St., and will proceed to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 555 W. Temple St. Numerous Metro bus lines in the Civic Center area will be detoured from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., at which time bus service will return to its regular schedules. Metro bus lines affected by the detours will include: 2, 4, 10, 14, 30, 31, 37, 40, 42, 42A, 45, 48, 55, 60, 68, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 302, 333, 355, 439, 445, 485, 487, 489, 714, 730, 740, 745, 770, 794 and Silver Line, according to the L.A. Department of Transportation.

— Shelby Grad

California’s War Dead database: Read more than 100 memories shared by Cottle’s friends and family on his memorial page. Share your own memories and learn more about his life and the lives of more than 580 other men and women from California who have died while supporting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Photos: Emily Cottle, wife of LAPD Officer Robert J. Cottle, carries their 9-month-old daughter, Kaila Jane, as she, family members and LAPD officers, pictured at top, walk behind his casket, pictured at right. Credits: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Seismologists said they are studying the uptick but cannot fully explain
it. Major earthquakes tend to occur in cycles, and experts have said
the region in recent years has been in a quiet cycle when it comes to
sizable temblors.

The string of quakes this year raises the possibility that Southern
California might again be entering a more active seismic period.
Scientists said the increase does not mean the Big One is any more
imminent, but it could mean more significant quakes are on the way.

Times Staff Writer Cara Mia DiMassa looks at the numbers in the video above. Here is her story.

Their armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, killing
Cottle and another Marine and seriously wounding the two others, said LAPD Capt. John Incontro, who oversees SWAT operations. 

Here are details about the memorial:

TRAFFIC

TRANSPORTATION

Metro bus service in downtown Los Angeles will be affected.
A funeral procession will begin at 8:45 a.m. at the Police
Administration Building, located at 100 W. 1st St., and will proceed to
the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 555 W. Temple St. Numerous
Metro bus lines in the Civic Center area will be detoured from 6 a.m.
to 2 p.m., at which time bus service will return to its regular
schedules. Metro bus lines affected by the detours will include:
2, 4, 10, 14, 30, 31, 37, 40, 42, 42A, 45, 48, 55, 60, 68, 70, 71, 76,
78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 302, 333, 355, 439, 445, 485,
487, 489, 714, 730, 740, 745, 770, 794 and Silver Line, according to
the L.A. Department of Transportation.

Photo: Funeral procession for Robert Cottle begins down 1st Street in downtown Los Angeles. Credit: Marc Martin / Los Angeles Times

LAPD Officer Robert J. Cottle. Credit: LAPD

L.A. County is expected to tell the owners of 20 unkempt properties to clean up their homes or face stiff penalties.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
will vote Tuesday on whether to order the owners to eliminate “unsightly,
unsafe and unhealthful conditions” on the properties, which were
declared public nuisances.

If the board approves the move,
owners or county crews must remove overgrown vegetation and any trash or
murky pool water, according to a Los Angeles County Department of
Public Works report.

Costs associated with the cleanup will be
billed to the owner, who could be slapped with a special assessment on
the property if the fee is not paid.

An abatement lien notice also could be placed against the property.

The
goal of code enforcers is to get compliance, Paul Novak, a deputy
for county Supervisor Mike Antonovich told the News-Press, but if the issue persists, “the
steps get elevated.”

Read the full story here.

— Veronica Rocha, of the Glendale News-Press

Photo: In a recent photo, a pipe sticks out of the ground by an empty swimming pool on a lot in
La Crescenta. The Building Rehabilitation Appeals Board has
declared the property a public nuisance. Credit: Roger Wilson / Glendale News-Press

In recent months, the attacks have involved booby traps set at the headquarters of the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task Force, officials said. In December, a gas utility line was redirected to fill the offices with gas. Officials said a spark could have triggered a devastating explosion.



In February, a modified handgun was hidden by the gate to the task force office and rigged to fire. When a gang officer opened the gate, the weapon went off, narrowly missing him.

In early March, police said, a "dangerous" device was found near the unmarked car of a task force member. That was followed by an arson attack on several city trucks on March 23.

Now authorities are investigating whether an early morning fire Monday at a Hemet police shooting range was another attack on the department.



The fire at the remote training facility off Warren Road broke out shortly after 2 a.m. Much of the building was destroyed in the blaze.



"In light [of] the incidents involving our department over the past three months, we are investigating the possibility that this is related, but we will not speculate at this point until the investigators are able to complete their work," Brown said.

— Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Investigators at the scene where several Hemet city trucks were set ablaze last month. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

The family of a Westside nightclub owner strangled to death in Cancun during a vacation with her TV producer husband met with L.A. prosecutors, seeking their counsel on the homicide probe.

Bruce Beresford-Redman, a producer on CBS’ "Survivor" and MTV’s "Pimp My Ride," is considered a "person of interest" in his wife’s death but has not been arrested. Mexican prosecutors said they were awaiting toxicology results before deciding whether to arrest him.

Monica Beresford-Redman, a Westside nightclub owner, died of
strangulation but also suffered several blows to the head, authorities
She died some time on April 5, and her husband reported her missing the
next day. Her body was found Thursday, dumped in a sewer. Authorities
reportedly don’t believe she was killed there.

On Friday, Beresford-Redman, 38, was released by state police in
Mexico after being questioned. He is barred from leaving Mexico until
the investigation is completed. He has denied any role in the slaying of his wife.

Prosecutors said the timeline the producer provided about his
wife’s disappearance appeared to clash with those of some witnesses.

Monica Beresford-Redman’s friends and family held a vigil for her at her nightclub on Sunday.

Two of her sisters have now sought help from the L.A. County district attorney, according to a statement from their attorney. "We have asked the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to assist in any way that they can in the ongoing investigation
into the murder of Monica Burgos," the statement read.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, told the Associated Press that an office representative met with the family on Monday.

The couple had gone to Mexico for a romantic getaway that
family members said was designed to revive a strained marriage. Guests
at the Moon Palace Hotel in Cancun reported hearing a loud fight coming
from the room the couple shared with their children.

His father, David Beresford-Redman, said in a statement that
his son "loved [his wife] and would never have harmed her. He has our
full support as we try to do what’s best for him and our grandchildren
so they can be reunited soon."

The statement continued: "We urge Mexican law enforcement authorities to identify those responsible for this horrendous crime."

Monica Beresford-Redman, a native of Brazil, owned the Zabumba Restaurant on Venice Boulevard near Overland Avenue.

— Shelby Grad

Adam Bereki calls his new book a true account about being a gay cop in Orange County.

Huntington Beach’s police chief calls it fiction.

Bereki, a former Huntington Beach police officer who in 2008 settled a harassment
lawsuit against the city, has released a book about his experiences as a
gay Surf City cop.

“Friendly Fire: The Illusion of Justice”  purports to tell  “what it felt like being a young gay man in a macho, homophobic
profession,” he wrote in his book.

“Though California is viewed
by much of the country as one of the more gay-friendly states in the
union, the Huntington Beach Police department seemingly occupies an
island of its own, pinned in a period of time that runs prior to
enlightenment,” Bereki wrote.

In the book, Bereki, who received a $150,000 settlement after he left the department, claims that taunts about his sexual orientation crippled his physical and emotional well-being.

Huntington Beach Police Chief Ken
Small, who was chief during Bereki’s time on the force, said he had
read excerpts of the book and that it has “no basis in fact.”



“I think it belongs in the fiction section,” Small told the Huntington Beach Independent.

Read the full story here.

–Britney Barnes

Photo: Adam Bereki. Credit: Special to the Huntington Beach Independent via Starlight Photography

Thousands are expected to converge on downtown Los Angeles early Tuesday to honor LAPD Officer Robert J. Cottle, killed March 24 in Afghanistan while on Marine Reserve duty.

Cottle, 45, was traveling with three other Marines
in the Marja region of the country, which has been the focus of an
intense U.S.-led offensive against Taliban forces in recent weeks.

Their armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, killing
Cottle and another Marine and seriously wounding the two others, said LAPD Capt. John Incontro, who oversees SWAT operations. 

Here are details about the memorial:

TRAFFIC

The funeral procession will start at the new LAPD headquarters and end at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Portions of 1st Street, Broadway, Spring Street, Temple Street, Hill Street, and Grand Avenue will be closed as early as 6 a.m., according to the LAPD.

TRANSPORTATION

Metro bus service in downtown Los Angeles will be affected.

A funeral procession will begin at 8:45 a.m. at the Police Administration Building, located at 100 W. 1st St., and will proceed to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 555 W. Temple St.

Numerous Metro bus lines in the Civic Center area will be detoured from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., at which time bus service will return to its regular schedules. Metro bus lines affected by the detours will include:

2, 4, 10, 14, 30, 31, 37, 40, 42, 42A, 45, 48, 55, 60, 68, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 302, 333, 355, 439, 445, 485, 487, 489, 714, 730, 740, 745, 770, 794 and Silver Line, according to the L.A. Department of Transportation.

Cottle, who joined the LAPD in 1990 and won a coveted SWAT position six years later, is the first active LAPD officer to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, police officials said.



A veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, Cottle had deployed to Afghanistan in August last year and was scheduled to return home this summer. Officers recalled a friend who stood out even in the rarefied air of SWAT for the intensity he brought to the LAPD’s most demanding assignment and the care he showed for other officers who had turned him into one of the unit’s leaders.

–Shelby Grad

Photo: LAPD

If you’ve been feeling more shaking this year, it’s not your imagination.
The number of quakes greater than magnitude 4.0 in Southern California and Baja California has increased significantly in 2010. There have been 70 such quakes so far this year, the most of any year in the last decade. And it’s only April.

There were 30 in 2009 and 29 in 2008.
Seismologists said they are studying the uptick but cannot fully explain it.

Major earthquakes tend to occur in cycles, and experts have said the region in recent years has been in a quiet cycle when it comes to sizable temblors.
The string of quakes this year raises the possibility that Southern California might once again be entering a more active seismic period.

Scientists said the uptick does not mean that the Big One is any more imminent, but it could mean that more significant quakes are on the way.

Egill Hauksson, a geophysicist at Caltech, said the rate of quakes in the region is “probably … picking up again” after a relative lull that lasted more than a decade.

“What it means is that we are going to have more earthquakes than in the average year,” said Hauksson. “With more earthquakes, we’re bound to have more bigger ones. But there are always fewer of those than the smaller ones.”

Scientists, however, have not been able to fully explain the increase.
“We would like to be able to explain it,” said Kate Hutton, a seismologist at Caltech. “But there’s no real correlation with any cause.”

Many of the quakes this year have been aftershocks to the magnitude 7.2 temblor that rattled the Mexicali area earlier this month. The border area had experienced a swarm of smaller quakes before that one.

And there have been more than 1,000 aftershocks, including more than a dozen that registered more than magnitude 5.0.
The Mexicali quake was the region’s largest in nearly two decades — since the 7.3 Landers quake in the Mojave Desert in 1992.

Despite their size, neither quake did catastrophic damage because they occurred in relatively remote areas far from major population centers.

The Landers quake occurred during a particularly active seismic period in the L.A. area. Between 1987 and 1994, the region experienced five major quakes. In addition to Landers, there were the Whittier Narrows quake, which killed eight people, quakes in Big Bear and Joshua Tree, and the Northridge quake, which killed 57 people, injured 4,500 and caused about $40 billion in damage.

Beginning in the late 1990s, however, the number of these big, memorable quakes subsided. Experts are not sure of the reason for the cycles.

Experts said one possibility is that the ups and downs are random. Another possibility is a “cascade effect” in which a quake on one fault changes the stresses on another.
“If that fault is ready to produce an earthquake anyway, it might do something. But it would have to be pretty close” for that to happen, Hutton said.

Earthquakes have been in the forefront of public consciousness this year after January’s devastating temblor in Haiti, which killed tens of thousands. It was followed weeks later by a destructive temblor in Chile.

And then came the Mexicali quake, which was stronger than Haiti’s although much less destructive.

Hauksson said it’s easy to read too much into this year’s quake uptick.

Although it comes after several relatively quiet years, he noted that it’s not uncommon for one large quake to produce months if not years of increased seismic activity. So in that sense, the quake pattern this year is fairly typical.

— Cara Mia DiMassa

Map: Intensity shaking map for Mexicali quake. USGS

A reality-TV producer is a "person of interest" in the slaying of his wife at a luxury Cancun resort but he has not been arrested, Mexican authorities said.

Prosecutors in Cancun said Monday that they were continuing to investigate the circumstances of the strangulation death of Monica Beresford-Redman, a Westside nightclub owner.

Mexican media reports quoted prosecutors as saying she died of strangulation but also suffered several blows to the head. She died sometime on April 5, and her husband reported her missing the following day. Her body was found Thursday, dumped in a sewer. Authorities reportedly don’t believe she was killed there.

On Friday, Bruce Beresford-Redman, 38, who produced CBS’ "Survivor" and MTV’s "Pimp My Ride," was released by state police in Mexico after being questioned. He is barred from leaving Mexico until the investigation is completed.

He has denied any role in the slaying of his wife.

Francisco Alor, attorney general for the Cancun area, told local media outlets that the timeline the producer provided about his wife’s disappearance appeared to clash with those of some witnesses.

The couple had gone to Mexico for a romantic getaway that family members said was designed to revive a strained marriage. Guests at the Moon Palace Hotel in Cancun reported hearing a loud fight coming from the room the couple shared with their children.

His father, David Beresford-Redman, said in a statement that his son "loved [his wife] and would never have harmed her. He has our full support as we try to do what’s best for him and our grandchildren so they can be reunited soon."

The statement continued: "We urge Mexican law enforcement authorities to identify those responsible for this horrendous crime."

Monica Beresford-Redman, a native of Brazil, owned the Zabumba Restaurant on Venice Boulevard near Overland Avenue.

— Shelby Grad

Photo: Bruce and Monica Beresford-Redman. Credit: family photo

They are calling it the "Monster of Lake Evans."

Authorities over the weekend tell the story this way: On Friday, Riverside County animal-control officials got a report of a "20-foot snake" roaming around Lake Evans. Authorities went out to investigate. They found a 60-pound, 15-foot-long python.

Officials believe the owner of the python dumped the animal at the lake. There had been earlier reports of people noticing a large snake in the area.

"There were no reports of it feeding off any of the lake’s fowl," Animal Services Department spokesman John Welsh told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "Clearly, Burmese pythons are not native to Lake Evans."

According to KTLA News, Burmese pythons, while very large, are considered docile and easy to handle. The python is being taken care of by animal-control employees. It could be sent to an exotic-pet rescue facility if the owner is not found.

— Shelby Grad

Photo credit: KTLA

A Southern California doctor who authorities charge needlessly prescribed drugs to addicted patients is expected to be sentenced Monday.

In court papers, Assistant U.S. Atty. David M. Herzog called Dr. Daniel J. Healy "nothing more than a drug dealer in a lab coat" who "created and nurtured an army of addicted customers." Some patients referred to him as "the Candyman," according to the documents.

Healy, 54, has pleaded guilty to one count of dispensing oxycodone without a legitimate medical purpose; other counts were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea. Prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Manuel Real to send him to federal prison for more than 17 years. Healy’s defense attorney has asked that his client be sentenced to less than five years.

Healy ordered more than 1 million tablets of hydrocodone in 2008 — 10 times more than the average American pharmacy, according to government records. The drug, better known by the brand names Vicodin and Norco, is an addictive painkiller for which there is a thriving black market, particularly among teenagers and young adults.

Healy allegedly hauled in so much cash that he kept an automatic money-counting machine in his office to quickly sort through the thousands of dollars that came in on a daily basis.

Read The Times’ full examination of the Healy case.

— Shelby Grad