"Inmate breaks out of jail through ventilation duct" Associated Press December 27, 2014
SALINAS, Calif. — A Northern California inmate broke out of jail by climbing up a ventilation duct and punching out a window, authorities said Friday.
Freddy Swanson, 23, made the escape Christmas Day and remains at large.
Police said Swanson scaled a ventilation duct at a Monterey County jail in Salinas, broke a small window, and climbed onto the roof. He then jumped to escape the medium-security facility.
Officials said Swanson may have been injured during the escape.
Swanson was arrested earlier this month after a hit-and-run car crash and high-speed chase. He later was charged with multiple narcotics and firearms violations and was awaiting sentencing.
A statewide bulletin has been issued for his arrest and return to custody.
Earlier this year, a federal lawsuit was filed against Monterey County on behalf of sick and disabled prisoners at the jail, contending that the prisoners have been denied adequate care and access to needed programs.
Turning them into terrorists, they are.
--more--"
"Study: Alcatraz inmates could have survived escape" AP December 18, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO — The three prisoners who escaped from Alcatraz in one of the most famous and elaborate prison breaks in US history could have survived and made it to land, scientists concluded in a recent study.
I always took the Clint Eastwood version as an accurate portrayal of what happened.
The three Dutch scientists, using the latest hydraulic software and information about tides on the night of the 1962 escape, said the three men could have made it to land north of the Golden Gate Bridge if they left between 11 p.m. and midnight. If they left before 11 p.m., the strong currents of San Francisco Bay would have carried them to the Pacific Ocean and death, the scientists said.
Prison officials and US agents insisted at the time of the escape that brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris perished, but their bodies were never found.
‘‘Of course, this doesn’t prove that’’ they survived, one of the scientists, Rolf Hut, a researcher at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, said in a news release about the study. ‘‘But the latest and best hydraulic modeling information indicates that it was certainly possible.’’
The three men were serving sentences for bank robbery when they pulled off the escape with stolen spoons, dummy heads, and a raincoat raft.
The Dutch scientists simulated scores of boat launches from different points on Alcatraz Island every 30 minutes between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on the night of the escape. They also factored in the possibility that the inmates paddled.
--more--"
How did they get away once they hit land?
"Woman reunited with car stolen nearly 30 years ago" Associated Press December 24, 2014
SALINAS, Calif. — A California woman was reunited with her classic Ford Mustang nearly 30 years after it was stolen, when a man tried to register the muscle car at a Department of Motor Vehicles office.
Lynda Alsip said she could not ask for a better Christmas present than the return of her forest-green 1967 Mustang, the Monterey County Herald reported Monday
‘‘It’s like winning the lottery,’’ she told the Herald, standing in a Salinas tow yard next to her car.
She bought it for $800 in 1985 when she was 17. About a year later, the car was stolen outside her Salinas apartment complex.
Police said the vehicle was found at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Salinas in September when a man tried to register the car, which he had in his possession for 23 years. Authorities were investigating whether the man knew it was stolen.
--more--"
Just be careful getting away:
"Driver charged in four Calif. church fatalities" Associated Pres December 20, 2014
TORRANCE, Calif. — A woman was charged Friday with five felony counts for allegedly driving into a crowd outside a California church and killing four people, including a 6-year-old boy.
Margo Bronstein, 56, was charged with four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of driving under the influence of a drug causing injury.
Five children and eight adults, including the suspect and the driver of another car, suffered injuries such as broken bones, abrasions, and head trauma in the crash Wednesday night.
Authorities are investigating what led up to the woman driving through a red light and into nearly a dozen people as they left a church Christmas event in Redondo Beach. She also hit another vehicle head-on, authorities say.
Samuel Gaza, 6, died late Thursday at a hospital, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s Lieutenant David Smith.
Three adults died earlier: the boy’s mother, Martha Gaza, 36; Mary Anne Wilson, 81; and Saeko Matsumura, 87, all of Torrance.
I suppose Jews killing Gazans is nothing new.
Bronstein was arrested at the scene. Authorities said they believed she had taken a prescription drug but were awaiting the results of a toxicology test.
Officials said they do not have information linking her to any prior arrests or DUI-related incidents.
She had a perfect driving record but was restricted to driving a vehicle with hand-controlled brakes, an additional right-side mirror and adequate signaling device, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records. The DMV had no record listing her as handicapped, however.
That's strange.
--more--"
Still waiting to see the results on the toxicology report.
Time to call for a tow:
"Los Angeles cracks down on tow truck bandits" by Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press December 24, 2014
LOS ANGELES — Residents of Los Angeles and some other major cities have another headache to add to their commuting woes: tow truck ‘‘bandits’’ who arrive unsolicited at an accident scene, tow away cars, and hold them for ransom for big bucks.
Related: Parking It For the Night
Not just illegals getting ripped off.
Police say the bandits monitor police scanners and show up unsolicited at accident scenes — often before police or paramedics — and falsely tell the driver they were alerted either by an onboard safety device, deployed air bag, or an insurance company.
They assure frazzled drivers that the tow will be covered by insurance and present paperwork to sign that gives them control of the vehicle.
The car is then towed to a body shop where the owner is later charged exorbitant repair rates or forced to pay a hiked-up tow fee.
Bills for some victims have reached as high as $4,000, and the Los Angeles Police Department is fielding up to five calls a day about the scam on its towing complaint hotline, Detective Benjamin Jones said.
The cluster of cases led the city and the National Insurance Crime Bureau to launch a public awareness campaign. Doreen Sanchez of the bureau said similar scams exist in Houston, Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco.
--more--"
Things are moving slowly through the ports, too.
They should have just waited for a pardon:
"California’s governor issues 105 pardons, but retracts one" Associated Press December 26, 2014
SACRAMENTO — Continuing a Christmas Eve tradition, Governor Jerry Brown issued pardons to 105 people Wed-nesday, before retracting one to a man hours later after learning he had not disclosed recent discipline by financial regulators, a spokesman said.
Brown retracted the pardon issued to Glen William Carnes, which the governor’s spokesman Evan Westrup said was based on a court-issued certificate of rehabilitation. The pardon for a drug-related conviction committed by Carnes as a teenager in 1998 had not yet been signed by the secretary of state and was withdrawn after an inquiry by the Los Angeles Times.
Federal records show that Carnes was disciplined by investment regulators in May 2013 for allegations including false and misleading statements.
Carnes did not admit guilt or request a review, but he signed a consent settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority agreeing to be barred from financial investments. He was accused of violating his former company’s policy by participating in ‘‘an unapproved private securities transaction’’ and of providing investigators with ‘‘false and misleading statements that minimized and mischaracterized his involvement.’’
Carnes was reached Wednesday evening as he was sitting down with his children, wife, and family from out of town for Christmas tamales. He had not heard about the retraction, and they had been celebrating all week.
‘‘Oh my God. You’ve got to be kidding me,’’ Carnes said in a phone interview. ‘‘I was told by attorneys that it didn’t need to be disclosed’’ because it wasn’t a conviction, which is what the paperwork requests. He said the sanction was for a technicality — not filing a form letter with his company to get authorization to do volunteer consulting on the side.
--more--"
I'm not retracting this post.
