Rape - LAPD Clearing Rape Kit Backlog

The Los Angeles Police Department reports that it has cleared nearly two-thirds of the backlogged rape test kits found in a 2008 city audit and expects to clear the remaining 4,500 by the summer of 2010. In a scandal that made the national news, a 2008 city audit of the LAPD discovered a backlog of […]

Murder - DNA Exposes Serial Killer

Los Angeles police recently charged a 72-year-old insurance claims adjuster with the murder of two women in the 1970s and say he may have committed at least 30 rape/murders since the 1970s. Los Angeles’ most prolific serial killer, Floyd Thomas, a twice-convicted sexual offender, was exposed when a sample of his DNA was taken as part of […]

Kidnapping - Reward Offered for Abducted Boy

Home invasion, robbery, kidnapping — the horrific story playing out in San Bernardino, California, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, has authorities asking the public for help. Between San Bernardino County and the FBI, a $50,000 reward is now being offered for information in the violent kidnapping of 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez.
Armed Hispanic gunmen kidnapped the boy […]

Identity Theft - Criminal Defense Against ID Theft in California

Identity theft is California’s fastest growing crime. Stealing another person’s identity or personal information and using it to commit fraud or access another person’s finances is a serious crime in California. A national wave of high-profile identity theft cases has prompted the Federal Trade Commission to tighten federal regulations governing the storage of online documents […]

Identity Theft - Feds Tighten Online Information Rules

The Federal Trade Commission this month started enforcing new rules geared to fight identity theft, the fastest growing crime in the U.S. Tightening regulations that govern how online documents are stored and requiring verification of identification, both online and off, is expected to trim the number of identity-theft complaints. Last year, 314,000 Americans filed identity-theft complaints with […]

Domestic Violence - What Happens to Abusers in California?

Since the tragic death of her sister, Nicole Brown Simpson, wife of former football star and actor O.J. Simpson, Denise Brown has devoted her career to fighting domestic violence (see our April 29 post). As in the case of her sister, Brown says that domestic violence usually happens behind closed doors. Victims ravaged by shame […]