Cops upset with court coverage

Janet Pope Givens called Tuesday to complain about our court coverage.
Seems that cops were upset by Caroline An's story about a preliminary hearing in a Pasadena gang homicide.

The story begins simply enough:

PASADENA - A police cadet testified Monday he overheard a phone conversation
in which a man admitted to shooting Tommie James Evans Jr.

Later on it continues:

The police cadet testified during a preliminary hearing Monday for Harvey and Aujulius Bailey of Pasadena. Both men are charged with murder. The Pasadena Superior Court hearing, to determine whether authorities have enough evidence to try the pair, was scheduled to resume today.

Pope-Given's problem was that An's story named the police cadet, who testified in open court.
"Now his name is in the newspaper on 80 million driveways," she said.

The deal, as far as Pope-Givens is concerned is that we should have kept the cadet's name out of the paper.

Why?

He comes from a large family and they may be at risk because he appeared in court and gave crucial testimony, she said.

As soon as Pope-Givens hung up, an uncle called to raise the same issue with the Star-News.

The boy's mother sent an email to the reporter today raising he same complaint.

Here was (and is) my defense of naming the cadet.

1) He spoke in open court and identified himself.

2) Officers of the court and Pasadena police knew there was a reporter in
court, they could have asked that the name not be reported at that time. They
didn't

3) The young man who took the noble step of testifying against gang
members in a homicide case is an employee of the Pasadena police
department...will the next step be askign us not to name fully sworn officers in
similar proceedings.

There are several other interesting angles in this case. One of the defendants, Aujulius Bailey is a member of the P-9 set of the PDL blood gang.

Aurelius Bailey, another member of that gang was one of several defendants in the Halloween Homicide case.

Pope Givens didn't know if the two are related.

I did find this little tidbit on the net from a Pasadena area church that mentions Aujulius.
And this which mentions Aurelius Bailey.

She's 90 and allegedly mean

p>Here's the big talker of the day around the newsrooms. It's a story that will appear in Thursday's Whittier Daily News. Kinda sick. ..Sandra Molina is writing it and filling in the blanks. The jist comes from Sandra's budget note to editors here this a.m.:

Officials are investigating a fatal animal cruelty charge. SEEACA received a call Monday night from the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station about animal cruelty. The Chihuahua mix was 25 pounds and the incident happened at 12139 Bayla Street in Norwalk. Son brought the dog into SEEACA. An animal control officer noticed the dog covered in blood and an eye popped out. The 90-year-old woman alledgedly threw parts of a block at the dog and beat the tied-up animal with a shovel. Officials say she’s a danger to children in the neighborhood and should be arrested and put in a home.

Area photo archives

Here's a few historical Los Angeles photo websites on the net:

UCLA Library here.

Los Angeles Public Library photo search here.

Additionally, I received this email, and thought I would clarify:

Frank,

This may be a dumb question........you were talking about the Tamale restaurant and used (sic) between hispanic and foods. I've seen this before and it's been quite a long time since english class.........please enlighten.

My Answer:

The caption didn't capitalize Hispanic like I would have, had I written it. So I used the Latin word for thus -- sic-- which indicates an unusual spelling exists in a quote.

Hope that helps.

Tuesday's Column

An archive of old LAPD photographs recently found its way online. The black and whites add to a rich photographic history of our region that is slowly finding its way on to the Internet.
For example, last year UCLA put up nearly 3 million old newspaper photos. The Los Angeles Public Library has a pretty extensive collection of old newspaper shots as well as private photos. It's been online since at least 2004 and continues to grow.
What's interesting about browsing these collections is the first-hand look at the rich history they offer.
For example, in the Los Angeles Public Library archive there is a shot from about the 1920s labeled "The Tamale." I found it by searching for Whittier. Here's a description:
"Exterior view of The Tamale, a restaurant specializing in hispanic (sic) foods. Building was built in the shape of a tamale. Located at 6421 Whittier Boulevard."
In the picture, it appears as if there are no other buildings in the neighborhood. The Tamale stands alone against a background of dirt lots and shade trees.
Here's where the fun part comes in. When you search Google for the address, you can actually see a "Street View" of the location.
And, guess what? The Tamale, which was a lunch counter way back when, is still there.
It's called Charley's. It's now a beauty salon.
In the UCLA archive there's a photo taken in 1921 of a funeral procession outside the San Gabriel Mission. The photo strikes me for several reasons. First of all the Mission is completely unrestored, so it's probably the original construction we see.
Here's the caption: "Funeral cortege of Santo Juncio, leaving San Gabriel Mission yesterday. Chief Youngturtle of the Chickasaw tribe (in the headdress) is leading the native pallbearers carrying the coffin of the 106-year-old man."
The photo amazes me. Catholic priests in full regalia lead a procession of sandal wearing Native Americans outside the unrestored mission.
Just think, in 1921 Santo Juncio, at 106, would have been born in 1815; before California was a state; before the Civil War; before autos or planes.
As if highlighting the dichotomy of that amazing life, a group of Model-A Fords are parked right up alongside a dirt path that separates the primitive adobe mission from a parking lot.
Hoping for some of the same Google magic I had with the Tamale, I was a little disappointed by the "Street View" of the mission.
The 1921 newspaper photo shows several eucalyptus trees surrounding the church. I couldn't find them looking through Google. It seems as if they've all been replaced with palm trees.
Obviously, the extensive restoration of the 1980s and 1990s probably obliterated much of the historical sense of the place where Los Angeles was born.
I could go on and on about some of the interesting photographs I've found and the stories they tell, but I don't have the time - or the space. I will post links to the galleries and some of the photos from today's column on the Crime Scene blog.
Until then if you want to see a sample of the LAPD photos, which cover a period from the mid-1920s until the 1960s, they can be found at http://www.fototeka.com

Girl pleas guilty to manslaughter, evading and street racing

A 17-year-old girl pled guilty Monday to several charges stemming from a collision that killed Angela Chung, 19, of Temple City.
Here's an excerpt from Dan Abendschein's online piece:

PASADENA - A 17-year-old girl pleaded guilty on Monday to four felony counts in a street racing case that killed a 19-year-old student from Temple City.
The girl, whose name was not released because of her age, was convicted in juvenile court. She will serve three months in a county probation department camp, and will have to pay restitution to the victim's family.
The prosecutor in the case, Jennifer Gowen, declined to comment on the case. Sandi Gibbons, a spokesperson for the county District Attorney's office, said she was not sure who made the decision to try her in juvenile court, rather than as an adult.
She added that the maximum sentence that the defendant could have received as a minor would have been placing her in a juvenile facility until she turned 25.

El Monte homicide update

The victim lived in a trailer (not apparently visible on Google Earth). Left no fingerprint of his existence as far as public records and was apparently arrested three times in recent months by El Monte and Baldwin Park police, according to the Los Angeles County's Sheriff's Inmate Locator.

The guy also has a lengthy rap sheet for drug possession, car thievery and spousal abuse. Motive anyone?

Here's our story for tomorrow's paper:

EL MONTE — Detectives are continuing to investigate the death of a 33-year-old man found shot inside a trailer late Saturday.

Jack Edward Hicks’ body was discovered shortly before midnight in the 5200 block of Cogswell Road, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Denise Fuchs.

The body was found inside a trailer next to a back house where Hicks had been staying, said Detective Gil Carrillo of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.

Several candles sat in front of the trailer Monday.

He suffered a single gunshot wound to the head, police said.

“Friends just went down to visit and found him,” Carrillo said. Investigators have found no witnesses who reported hearing any shots, he said.

No gun was found at the scene, and the case is being investigated as a homicide, Carrillo said. A motive or suspect description was not known, he said.

The exact time of the shooting was unknown, Carrillo said, however he estimated it occurred some time Saturday.

Carrillo declined to release any further details about the circumstances of the shooting.

My mirror site

Crime Scene (and the family of LANG blogs) is moving to a new server. The address will be the same, and in fact, if it goes without a hitch, you probably won't even notice a thing.
As a precaution, and until the move is complete, I'm putting up a mirror site here: http://sgvcrime.blogspot.com, I'll be posting there until the move is complete.
Thanks for you patience.
Frank

Dead Man found in El Monte

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Not much information available on this one. Appears to have happened late Saturday night. Sheriff's and El Monte PD just got around to reporting it Monday. Here's the details from our website:

EL MONTE - Authorities today identified a man found shot to death in an El Monte home during the weekend.

Jack Edward Hicks, 35, was found dead about 11:50 p.m. Saturday in the 5200 block of Cogswell road, said Deputy Ed Hernandez of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

Sheriff's homicide detectives were assisting El Monte police in the investigation