Author: Shelby Grad

With the Newport Beach City Council set to consider the fate of its city attorney, a 911 call captured the moments after David Hunt allegedly struck his wife.

An unidentified woman’s voice can be heard saying “lock the door” at one point during the recording. The panicked 16-year-old son of Hunt told a 911 dispatcher that his father “just went crazy” and pushed his mother before his arrest on suspicion of felony spousal abuse last weekend, according to a recording of the call released by Santa Ana police.

“Hi, my dad just went crazy,” the 16-year-old said in the 911 recording obtained by the Daily Pilot. “He pushed my mom down and started going after my brother.”

Police claim Hunt, 52, was arguing with his 18-year-old son when his wife, 49, tried to intervene. He was arrested after police responded to a family disturbance at his Santa Ana home the night of March 14.

Hunt allegedly hit his wife, police said, causing her to fall and cut her arm on a table. She also hit her head on a tile floor, causing a large bump, police said. The woman was treated and released from an area hospital after the incident.



Hunt’s 16-year-old son called 911 from a separate building off of the family’s main residence the night of the scuffle.

Read the full story here.

— Brianna Bailey

Photo: Santa Ana Police Department

Los Angeles Police officers shot and killed a man in Koreatown early
Saturday morning after he reached into his waistband for what officers
believed was a weapon, authorities said.

Steven Eugene Washington, 27, died from a single gunshot wound to the head shortly after midnight.



Although
no weapon was found, officers said they feared for their lives because
Washington did not respond to their commands and appeared to be
reaching for his waistband.



Hours after the shooting,
Washington’s relatives criticized police and said the dead man had
suffered from learning disabilities and was generally afraid of
strangers. They insisted that he was not violent and that he probably
was walking home after visiting a friend.

Police identified the
gang enforcement officers involved as Allan Corrales and George Diego,
who have served nearly seven and eight years with the department,
respectively. Both have been reassigned until the probe is completed,
police said.

Read the full story here.

–Jason Song in Koreatown

A Newport Beach couple have opened what they describe as a marijuana school, and city officials say it’s legal as long as they don’t distribute pot there.

Chadd and Alysha McKeen don’t care that passersby can see the six
3-foot-tall marijuana plants growing inside their new storefront.

“I want to tell people to stop being afraid of it,” Chadd McKeen, co-founder of Otherside Farms, told the Daily Pilot. “We want to bring it
out into the open.”

The McKeens also put in new tile and ripped
the bars off the windows at the center, which sits between a
dog-grooming business and a therapeutic spa. It’s all part of an effort
to make the place appear open and inviting.

The shop at 2424
Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa bills itself as a “medical marijuana information center.”
It offers classes on everything from how to grow marijuana for
medicinal purposes to how to make pot brownies. The six plants growing
underneath special lights in one foil-padded room of the shop are
strictly for teaching purposes, the couple said.

Read the full story here.

–Brianna Bailey and Mona Shadia

A Los Angeles County judge ordered the Sheriff’s Department on Friday
to make public the names of deputies involved in three controversial
shootings, concluding that state law generally requires law enforcement
agencies to disclose the identities of officers who use deadly force.





Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant made the ruling in response to a
court filing by The Times that sought the names, ranks, assignments and
years of employment of the deputies in the three deadly confrontations
last year. In at least two of the shootings, suspects were unarmed when
they were fatally shot.

Advocates of open government hailed Friday’s decision as an important
ruling on a contentious issue that has pitted the privacy rights of
police officers against the public’s right to hold government
accountable.

"It is a very significant case," said Terry Francke, general counsel of
Californians Aware, a nonprofit group that seeks open access to
government meetings and records. "When someone shoots — or shoots at
— another person, the name of the shooter has to be available to the
public no matter who he or she is."

Read the full story here.

— Jack Leonard

Learn about more than 100 fatal officer-involved shootings in Los Angeles County since January 2007, including the three listed below for which The Times sued to get the names of the deputies, on The Times’ interactive Homicide Report.

Woodrow Player III, 20, was shot and killed July 10, 2009 in the 11200 block of Berendo Avenue in unincorporated Athens.

Darrick Collins, 36, was shot and killed Sept. 14, 2009 in the 1200 block of Poindexter Ave. in unincorporated Athens.

Avery Cody Jr., 16, died July 5, 2009 after he was shot at Alondra Boulevard and Poinsettia Avenue in Compton.

Top photo: Lee Baca. Credit: Los Angeles Times

• 

Riverside County authorities are investigating yet another threat received Friday against police officers in Hemet.

On Friday afternoon, someone called 911 saying a police car would be blown up in the next two days as revenge for a law-enforcement sweep earlier this week of a local motorcycle gang.

Authorities said they were trying to determine whether the threat was linked to a string of incidents targeting police officers.

The attacks have involved booby traps at the
headquarters of the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task Force or targeting officers
assigned to the unit, officials said.

In December, a utility
line was redirected to flood the offices with gas; any spark could have triggered an explosion. In February, a modified handgun was hidden by the
gate to the office and rigged to fire. When a gang officer opened the
gate, the weapon went off, narrowly missing him. And two weeks ago,
police said, a "dangerous" device was found near the unmarked car of a
task-force member.

Officials have put up a $200,000 reward for
information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation.

The gang task force, formed in 2006, is made up of local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies.

So far, there are no official suspects in the threats or potentially deadly incidents. But on Wednesday authorities
led raids on the Vagos outlaw motorcycle gang. The group has a significant
presence in Hemet. Thirty people were arrested on charges that included
possession of drugs and weapons.

With the latest threat, Hemet police Chief Richard Dana told the Press-Enterprise: "We are on heightened alert."

— Shelby Grad

Photo: Hemet gang unit. AP

The marital problems between Sandra Bullock and Jesse James have brought the paparazzi down from Los Angeles to the couple’s home in Sunset Beach, sparking complaints from some neighbors.

Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said his agency had received at least seven calls from residents on the street where Bullock lives complaining about members of the media parking illegally and loitering.

Amormino said deputies were patrolling the area on a regular basis, but had found no violations.

“No one has been arrested,” he said. “We respond to every call and do patrols through there to make sure everybody is behaving. But so far it’s been uneventful."

Most of the 20 to 30 members of the media — including paparazzi and print and broadcast reporters — were stationed in a public parking lot adjacent to Bullock’s home in the Orange County beach town. And the lot has no time limit for parking, Amormino said.

“They have every right to be there,” he said. “There is really nothing we can do.”

Amormino said the media so far had been “very cooperative.”

“I know it’s probably annoying to the residents there, but they’re within their rights," he said.

— Ann M. Simmons

Photo: Actress Sandra Bullock and Jesse James. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

Two of the tallest and most controversial supergraphics in Los Angeles, standing 11 stories in Hollywood, are being removed by the sign company after City Atty. Carmen Trutanich issued a cease-and-desist letter to the advertising company affiliated with the signs.

CBS Outdoor sent the city a letter confirming that it will take down the 11-story advertisements from 1025 N. Highland Ave., said Chief Deputy City Atty. William Carter. The letter arrived Wednesday, nearly a week after Trutanich sent a dozen letters regarding signs that his office has identified as illegal.

The CBS Outdoor signs have been viewed as a major safety hazard by city prosecutors and surrounding neighbors. One of the images broke free in a wind storm, split in two and fell to the ground in October, said Robert Eicholz, a Hollywood resident who works in a nearby office building.

[Updated at 3:21 p.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated the sign fell earlier this year.]

“The wind got up under that thing and ripped it into pieces,” said Eicholz, who said the tattered sign was an advertisement for the Apple iPod. “It ripped and it went crashing down onto Highland Avenue.”
Carter said the images, which covered dozens of windows on a public storage building, would make it difficult for firefighters to enter in case of a fire. 

He also said that removal of the signs may not be enough to correct a violation.
“There are past violations that have to be addressed, as well as potential penalties, as well as disgorgement of any unlawful proceeds” from the sign revenue, he said.

CBS Outdoor attorney Laura Brill did not immediately return a call seeking comment. But in the letter, she said her client did not agree with the premise of the cease-and-desist letter sent by the city. Brill also said her client is trying to negotiate a sign reduction and relocation agreement with the Community Redevelopment Agency that would provide “substantial benefits” to the city.

The correspondence represents the latest development in Trutanich’s campaign against nonpermitted supergraphics. Neighborhood groups contend that signs constitute blight, with companies making millions of dollars even as they ignore the city’s restrictions.

Last month, Trutanich secured the arrest of a businessman who spent three days in jail after an allegedly nonpermitted supergraphic went up on his building on Hollywood Boulevard.
Kayvan Setarah, 49, had the sign removed but did not admit wrongdoing.

Five other supergraphics were removed across the street after Trutanich secured arrest warrants for four individuals allegedly affiliated with those signs.
And two weeks ago, another advertising company, Fuel Outdoor, agreed to remove hundreds of considerably smaller poster-sized signs.
Carter said city inspectors concluded that Fuel Outdoor had installed between 400 and 500 illegal signs.

The company, previously known as Metro Lights, had argued in court that the city could not seek the removal of its signs while at the same time selling advertising space on city-owned bus benches and kiosks.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal sided with the city, saying the sign law did not violate the company’s 1st Amendment right to free speech. Michael Small, an attorney for Fuel Outdoor, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

–David Zahniser

Photo: A Google Street View image from 1025 N. Highland Ave.

Credit: Google Maps

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Two of the tallest and most controversial supergraphics in Los Angeles, standing 11 stories in Hollywood, are being removed by the sign company after City Atty. Carmen Trutanich issued a cease-and-desist letter to the advertising company affiliated with the signs.

CBS Outdoor sent the city a letter confirming that it will take down the 11-story advertisements from 1025 N. Highland Ave., said Chief Deputy City Atty. William Carter. The letter arrived Wednesday, nearly a week after Trutanich sent a dozen letters regarding signs that his office has identified as illegal.

The CBS Outdoor signs have been viewed as a major safety hazard by city prosecutors and surrounding neighbors. One of the images broke free in a wind storm, split in two and fell to the ground earlier this year, said Robert Eicholz, a Hollywood resident who works in a nearby office building.

“The wind got up under that thing and ripped it into pieces,” said Eicholz, who said the tattered sign was an advertisement for the Apple iPod. “It ripped and it went crashing down onto Highland Avenue.”
Carter said the images, which covered dozens of windows on a public storage building, would make it difficult for firefighters to enter in case of a fire. 

He also said that removal of the signs may not be enough to correct a violation.
“There are past violations that have to be addressed, as well as potential penalties, as well as disgorgement of any unlawful proceeds” from the sign revenue, he said.

CBS Outdoor attorney Laura Brill did not immediately return a call seeking comment. But in the letter, she said her client did not agree with the premise of the cease-and-desist letter sent by the city. Brill also said her client is trying to negotiate a sign reduction and relocation agreement with the Community Redevelopment Agency that would provide “substantial benefits” to the city.

The correspondence represents the latest development in Trutanich’s campaign against nonpermitted supergraphics. Neighborhood groups contend that signs constitute blight, with companies making millions of dollars even as they ignore the city’s restrictions.

Last month, Trutanich secured the arrest of a businessman who spent three days in jail after an allegedly nonpermitted supergraphic went up on his building on Hollywood Boulevard.
Kayvan Setarah, 49, had the sign removed but did not admit wrongdoing.

Five other supergraphics were removed across the street after Trutanich secured arrest warrants for four individuals allegedly affiliated with those signs.
And two weeks ago, another advertising company, Fuel Outdoor, agreed to remove hundreds of considerably smaller poster-sized signs.
Carter said city inspectors concluded that Fuel Outdoor had installed between 400 and 500 illegal signs.

The company, previously known as Metro Lights, had argued in court that the city could not seek the removal of its signs while at the same time selling advertising space on city-owned bus benches and kiosks.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal sided with the city, saying the sign law did not violate the company’s 1st Amendment right to free speech. Michael Small, an attorney for Fuel Outdoor, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

— David Zahniser

Photo: A Google Street View image from 1025 N. Highland Ave. Credit: Google Maps

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Anna Nicole Smith’s estate loses claim to
Texas oilman’s riches

Site of Venice West Cafe, Beat Generation
hangout, designated city landmark

L.A. County awarded $32 million to fight
chronic diseases

Video game re-creates classic L.A., O.C. bats
have rabies and Catholics converge on Anaheim

Bomb threat forces evacuation at Palmdale High
School

First Hebrew-language charter school gets
approval in Santa Clarita Valley

Downtown L.A. has attracted some hip clothing stores in recent years. But it’s losing one of its oldest.

Brooks Brothers, which has been selling suits in downtown since 1939, is closing, according to the Downtown News.

The closure is something of a blow to downtown, which has been struggling to draw high-end retailers. There has been a boom in high-end condo and loft construction over the last decade, but residents have complained about a lack of shopping opportunities.

Downtown boosters have hoped the Frank Gehry-designed Grand Avenue complex on Bunker Hill would draw more luxury retailers. But that development has been delayed because of the bad economy. Brooks Brothers tended to cater to the downtown office set.

The store will close next week. Customers will then have to go west to stores in Century City and Beverly Hills.

No reason was given, and sorry, there will be no close-out sale. 

— Shelby Grad

Photo: A Brooks Brothers clothing store in New York. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press

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approval in Santa Clarita Valley

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Octuplets mother Nadya Suleman, children could
be evicted from La Habra home

Serial killer’s photos of women could identify
more victims; police flooded with calls

It’s been fairly quiet at the La Habra home of octuplets mother Nadya Suleman.

But this week, the TV trucks and reporters have returned because of concerns that Suleman and her 14 children might be evicted.

Amer Haddadin said the Suleman family has fallen behind in their house payments. 

He said Suleman’s father purchased the home under a deal in which Haddadin would carry the $450,000 loan for a year until the family could gather enough money to provide a substantial down payment.

A year later, he says, Suleman’s father has not provided the money.

"What they are doing is not right, and I am going to take them to court," he told KABC-TV Channel 7. "They are not cooperating with me."

Haddadin said he feels betrayed. He said he stepped up to help Suleman when she needed a home after returning home from the hospital last year.

"I was the kids’ savior," he told KABC.

Suleman nor her father could be reached for comment. But her spokesman released a statement to the media Thursday saying that the financial dispute was between Haddadin and her father. "She may be the victim in all this," he said in the statement.

— Shelby Grad

Photo: Suleman leaving her home in La Habra last year. Associated Press

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Brooks Brothers is closing in downtown L.A.

Serial killer’s photos of women could identify more victims; police flooded with calls

Huntington Beach police detectives have been flooded with phone calls from people who believe they can identify one of the dozens of women in photos linked to convicted serial killer Rodney James Alcala.

Since the photos were released last week, the department assigned 10 investigators to look into tips based on the photos.

“Between the time we left late last night and the time we came in this morning we had 45 messages on the hot line,” Huntington Beach Police Capt. Chuck Thomas said Thursday.

In all, the department has gotten about 400 phone calls, Thomas said. Many can be easily eliminated because they are linked to people who went missing after Alcala was jailed for the 1979 killing of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach. He has been in prison ever since.

Others require more investigation. Six photos have potentially been linked to missing women who might be tied to Alcala, authorities said. None have been proved yet and it could be a long time before anything is positively confirmed, Thomas said.

Alcala, a onetime photographer and "Dating Game" contestant who briefly worked for The Times as a typesetter, was convicted in February of murdering Samsoe and four Los Angeles county women in the late 1970s.

Anyone with information about the photos is asked to contact Sgt. Aaron Smith at (714) 536-5947 or Det. Patrick Ellis at (714) 536-5947 of the Huntington Beach Police Department.

— Paloma Esquivel in Huntington Beach

Photo: Unknown women photographed by Rodney James Alcala. Credit: Huntington Beach Police Department. Click here to see the Times gallery of Alcala’s photos.

Los Angeles County prosecutors are examining whether county supervisors broke the law when they spent millions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects without a public vote or discussion.

The inquiry began in response to a complaint received last week when The Times detailed some of the $3.4 million each of the five supervisors is given to spend annually, said Head Deputy Dist. Atty. David Demerjian, who oversees the district attorney’s public integrity division.

Among the expenditures was $25,000 by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to buy a place in Who’s Who in Black Los Angeles. Supervisors Mike Antonovich, Don Knabe and Ridley-Thomas used some of
their money to pay for cars and chauffeurs. Knabe’s armed driver makes
$90,000 annually.

Demerjian, whose division typically prosecutes public corruption cases, said he assigned two prosecutors to handle the inquiry. One is reviewing whether supervisors violated the state’s open meetings law by spending the funds without a public vote.

The second is examining whether supervisors had the legal authority to spend the money.

“To expend public funds, you have to spend according to some resolution, some statute or some charter section and it has to serve a governmental purpose,” Demerjian said Thursday.

He said prosecutors have asked the county counsel’s office what authority the board of supervisors had for the so-called discretionary spending and expects a response next week. He declined to name the person who sent the complaint, which was made the same day The Times published its story.

The supervisors’ discretionary accounts are used to cover staff salaries, expenses, travel, special programs and donations to outside groups.

The Times found that supervisors gave a total of $4.8 million to outside groups in the last 28 months – sometimes raising their public profiles or benefiting friends and political supporters.

Other jurisdictions insist on greater accountability out of concern that such spending might otherwise be an illegal gift of public funds. Surrounding counties require public discussion of donations to outside groups, as well as a detailed accounting and a vote.

— Jack Leonard

Check out The Times’ database on supervisors spending and staff salaries.

Photo credits: Los Angeles Times

The South Los Angeles foster mother under investigation in the fatal
beating of a 2-year-old child had been the subject of five previous
child-abuse complaints, including one substantiated allegation that she
had severely neglected her own biological child in 2002, confidential
records show.





Kiana Barker’s troubled history, coming in the wake of disclosures about
her live-in boyfriend’s criminal record, has raised questions about how
she could have been approved last year as a foster parent by
child-welfare authorities. Under state rules, both adults should have
been disqualified from caring for or living with foster children.

Barker’s home was supposed to have been a refuge for Viola Vanclief,
born in 2007 to a schizophrenic mother who proved dangerously neglectful
when off her medications. Instead, confidential child-welfare records
reviewed by The Times show, Viola was moved from one high-risk home to
another.

After Viola’s March 4 death, Barker told investigators that the toddler
had been trapped in a bed frame and that she accidentally struck the
child with a hammer while trying to free her, according to coroner’s
records. Viola had multiple bruises on her body, the records say. The
death was deemed a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma.Read the full story here.

–Garrett Therolf

A long-anticipated public trolley along Brand Boulevard will start running next month, Caruso Affiliated officials announced this week.

The rubber-wheel trolley will run from the Nestle headquarters on North Brand to the Americana at Brand from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, Rick Lemmo, Caruso’s vice president of community relations, said Tuesday at a joint meeting of the City Council and Redevelopment Agency.

“Everything we do, as all of the council members know, is promises made, promises kept,” Lemmo told the Glendale News-Press.

The trolley will be “absolutely free” and have six stops as it makes its way down Brand so that all downtown retailers can benefit from its service, Lemmo added.

Local residents and merchants have for years pushed for a trolley or tram service in the downtown area to move people from parking lots and venues along the city’s main thoroughfare.

Read the full story here.

— Melaine Hicken

Photo: Los Angeles Times file

A day after a sweep of a local motorcycle gang, top law enforcement officials on Thursday will talk about new developments in a series of attacks on Riverside County officers.

Thirty members of the Vagos motorcycle gang were arrested Wednesday in Riverside County in an ongoing investigation against the group, which authorities described as "an extreme" threat to law enforcement officers.

Officials would not elaborate, but the arrests come after five apparent booby traps were found targeting gang enforcement officers in the Hemet area. No arrests have been made in that case.

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown will be in Riverside on Thursday to discuss the attacks. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday issued a $50,000 reward related to the cases, which took place over the last few months.

On Wednesday, about 400 officers took part in the multi-agency operation, targeting 73 locations and seizing weapons and illegal drugs, authorities said.

"They represent an extreme threat to law enforcement," Riverside County Dist. Atty. Rod Pacheco said in an interview. "The goal is to eliminate this threat."

Citing the ongoing probe, Pacheco declined to say whether any members of the gang had planned to target law enforcement personnel.

In Lake Elsinore, authorities found a methamphetamine lab at the home of one of the Vagos members.

The Vagos gang has at least 600 members in the Western U.S., half of them in California, authorities said. About 100 members are in Riverside County.

Pacheco said the group, which he described as the largest motorcycle gang in California, should expect continued law-enforcement actions.

"This is just the beginning," he said.

— Robert J. Lopez

Photo: L.A. Times file

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Portions of Sepulveda Boulevard on the Westside will be closed in connection with freeway construction, creating more traffic headaches for motorists trying to navigate the Sepulveda Pass.

According to Caltrans, the northbound boulevard will be closed periodically during the day and night for the next two months. The closures are needed as officials widen the 405 Freeway, adding carpool lanes.

The billion-dollar project is expected to cause some traffic delays throughout construction. Officials said the road needs to be closed so that overhead power lines can be buried. 

The widening is expected to somewhat improve traffic flow and complete an effort to fully develop carpool lanes on the 405 from Orange County to the San Fernando Valley.

Some MTA bus routes will be detoured.

According to Caltrans, the closures begin at Montana Avenue and "will be on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and again weeknights from 9 p.m. to 6 o’clock the next morning. On Saturdays the northbound lanes will remain closed until 6 a.m., and will close again between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m."

— Shelby Grad

Photo: L.A. Times file. Map: MTA

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State regulators are expected to vote Thursday on a petition asking them to require porn industry performers to use condoms and to take other safety measures. The six-member California Division of Occupational Safety and Health standards board appears likely to create an advisory committee to report back on whether the law should be changed and how it could be accomplished.

The board, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has up to six months to act on a Dec. 17, 2009 petition filed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation that seeks to change state law to require safe-sex protections for adult-film workers, including mandatory condom use and more stringent safety training and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

Earlier this month, staff members recommended that the board create an advisory committee to consider amending the law “in order to give greater protection to employees in the adult film industry.”

“It’s to study the issue more. If it merits it, they would formulate the language and bring it before the board,” to amend the law, said CAL/OSHA spokeswoman Erika Monterroza.

Monterroza said it is “extremely common” for the board to create such advisory committees.

Officials from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation said they support the creation of such a committee, which they hope would ultimately back new regulations for the adult film industry. The advocacy group has been pushing regulators and porn industry leaders to better safeguard the health of adult-film performers since an HIV outbreak among porn performers in the San Fernando Valley in 2004.

“Allowing the porn industry to flout the law on technicalities undermines the whole concept of worker safety in California,” said AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who is among those scheduled to address the board Thursday. “By making it more explicit it removes an excuse the industry has used that these regulations are not intended for their industry. At the end of the day, it’s about enforcement.”

Last summer, the foundation sued Los Angeles County after the disclosure that an adult-film performer had tested positive for HIV. In the suit, it alleged public health officials failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to enforce laws requiring employers to protect workers against exposure to bodily fluids.

The suit was dismissed by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge late last year, but Weinstein said the foundation appealed the decision last week.

Among those scheduled to speak Thursday is former porn actor Darren James, who tested HIV-positive during a 2004 outbreak.

“I know there’s a lot of actors that’s getting tired of STDs,” James said Wednesday in an interview with The Times. He said many actors feel they cannot speak out against the spread of STDs for fear of losing work. “They just need more options; if they can provide them with better care maybe we can slow it down.”

Also scheduled to speak at the meeting are half a dozen representatives of the adult film industry, including Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based trade association.

Duke said her group’s members have tried to comply with state health and safety regulations, but that they are overly vague and general. She supports forming an advisory committee as long as it includes adult-film workers, producers or other industry representatives.

“We have been trying to work within the regulations, but it’s almost impossible,” Duke said. “If we were going with the letter of the law, every film would have performers in latex gloves and goggles.”

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

Read more from the archives about safety and other issues related to the porn industry

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The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a suspect in the case of a moviegoer who was attacked with a meat thermometer during a screening of "Shutter Island" at a Lancaster theater last month.

The victim was stabbed  after complaining about someone nearby talking on a cellphone.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said the suspect, Landry Boullard, 39, was taken into custody at 2 p.m. Wednesday at a home in the 800 block of East Avenue H-6 in Lancaster.

Detectives got an anonymous tip that led them to the home where the suspect was staying, Whitmore said.

Boullard was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and is being held on $1-million bail. Boullard is studying to be an air conditioning and refrigeration specialist, Whitmore said.

The Cinemark 22 was packed for a 9 p.m. Saturday screening of the Martin Scorsese thriller when the victim complained about a woman near him who was using a cellphone during the show. She and two men with her left the movie theater. Two men returned a few minutes later and stabbed the victim, Whitmore said.

The victim, who was not identified, was hospitalized with serious injuries Two other moviegoers who came to the victim’s aid were also were hurt during the attack, officials said.

— Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Landry Boullard. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

The state attorney general’s office announced Wednesday that it has arrested a suspect in an alleged prescription drug ring that Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said provided illegal drugs to actor Corey Haim.

Haim was found unresponsive last week at his mother’s apartment. He later died at a hospital in what Los Angeles Police Department officials said appeared to be an accidental overdose. Then on Friday, Brown said his office was investigating a "massive" drug ring that provided prescriptions for Haim.

Spokeswoman Christine Gasparac would not identify the suspect, saying the case was ongoing. "I can confirm there has been an arrest, but I have no other details."

She added that investigation began well before Haim’s death and that the suspect might not directly have provided the drugs that caused the 1980s teen actor’s death.

Brown said an unauthorized prescription under Haim’s name was found
during an ongoing investigation of fraudulent prescription drug pads
ordered from a San Diego vendor.

The drug ring operates by using
stolen doctor identities to order prescription drug pads from authorized
sellers. The prescription forms are then sold on the street to addicts
or drug dealers who have them filled at pharmacies. Doctors whose names
are used on the prescriptions are usually unaware that their identities
have been stolen.

Detectives reportedly found prescription drugs
at Haim’s home.

“Corey
Haim’s death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of
prescription drug abuse,” Brown said Friday.

He said investigators so
far have uncovered about 5,000 fraudulent prescriptions linked to the
drug ring.

–Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Corey Haim. Credit: Getty Images