Law Enforcement

Police on Monday were searching for a man who they say flashed a badge to gain entry into a Corona del Mar home before he ransacked it. Police are also looking for his two female accomplices. Officers received a residential burglary report in the 200 block of Iris Avenue at about 3:15 p.m. Friday, said Newport police spokeswoman Kathy Lowe. According to a police account of the events, a man wearing a star-shaped badge claimed to be part of a law enforcement organization and went to the home of an elderly woman.

COSTA MESA — The city's law firm has broken long-standing professional ties with former interim Police Chief Steve Staveley, whose allegations of "unethical" and "immoral" conduct at City Hall stunned the community. Richard D. Jones, a partner with the Fullerton-based Jones & Mayer law firm, criticized Staveley for lambasting city officials when he resigned in protest Monday as interim police chief, according to a letter obtained Thursday by the Daily Pilot. The firm provides legal counsel to the city, which does not have an in-house attorney.

SANTA ANA - Wednesday's countywide gang sweep - a three-year effort dubbed Operation Black Flag - began with a lead in Costa Mesa, law enforcement officials said. Following the initial tip, the investigative trail led Santa Ana police investigators to Cesar "Roach" Munguia, 31. The high-ranking member of Forming Kaos, a Costa Mesa street gang, is accused of dealing guns, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin, said Costa Mesa Police Capt. Les Gogerty. Costa Mesa was "basically where it started," Gogerty said.

Greg Risling "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." This famous quote handed down through time from famed author Charles Dickens best described how Newport-Mesa handled the last decade of the 20th century. Newport-Mesa residents, along with millions of others, coped with an economic recession at the beginning of the 1990s. It seemed everyone cut back a little, or a lot, during those times as a new president was ushered in with the election of Bill Clinton.

NEWPORT BEACH — Orange County Sheriff's Department Lt. Tom Slayton said that if you look back at video from his swearing-in ceremony in 1986, you'll hear the emcee say Slayton's career goal was to work in the Harbor Patrol. It's a unique agency within the Sheriff's Department, employees there say. You have to be well-versed in firefighting, boating and regular law enforcement, among other things. But being a jack-of-all-trades wasn't what Slayton, 49, was drawn to. "The Harbor Patrol's mission is unique among law enforcement organizations in Orange County," Slayton wrote in an e-mail.

They came with a serious purpose. And they came in numbers. Some 200 Orange County residents were invited to dinner at the Newport Beach residence of Antonio Cagnolo, celebrity owner of Antonello's Ristorante at South Coast Plaza Village. It was a dinner event designed to raise money for Project 999, a support and financial assistance program that goes to bat for injured and fallen Orange County police officers and their families. The name Project 999 takes its meaning from the police distress call when an officer is hurt in the line of duty.

A man and woman federal officials claim acted as runners in an international, online bank fraud scheme based in Romania that bilked $3 million from thousands of victims were arrested at a Costa Mesa hotel Sunday night. FBI agents, with the help of the Costa Mesa police, arrested Hiep Thanh Tran, a permanent legal resident from Vietnam, and his girlfriend, Caroline Tath, a permanent legal resident from Cambodia, Sunday evening in Costa Mesa after the pair were accused in a federal indictment of Internet-based fraud, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

Legalizing marijuana would put a big dent in drug cartels and free up police, prosecutors and judges to go after violent crimes, a law enforcement group said this week in endorsing Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure. Proposition 19's passage in November would decriminalize an estimated 60,000 drug arrests made in California each year, said former Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray, a Newport Beach resident who writes a weekly column for the Daily Pilot.

Orange County authorities are warning once again that it is illegal to celebrate New Year’s Day by firing a gun. “There is no place in Orange County where it is safe or legal,” a news release from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department stated. Law enforcement agencies throughout the state traditionally release a warning about the practice right before New Year’s Eve. Penalties for firing a bullet into the air can include jail for up to year, or even murder charges if the bullet kills someone.

Lolita Harper Comments about the alleged rape of an unconscious 16-year-old made by one of the defendants will not be introduced during trial, according to an agreement between the prosecutors and defense attorneys on Thursday. Peter J. Morreale, the defense attorney for Keith Spann, 19, alleged that statements made by his client on July 8, 2002, about an alleged rape were gathered illegally by law enforcement officials, who did not read Spann his rights before gathering information.

It takes one to know one. That playground taunt is, like so many cliches, grounded in truth. It really does take one to know one, which goes a long way toward explaining the perversely effective law enforcement personnel in the novels of Mo Hayder, the British author whose works now regularly appear in hardcover in the United States as well. Her novels cast spells as no other novels quite do. They detail the darkest, coldest, most forbidding aspects of human nature — aspects that are spread democratically among the heroes and the villains.

A federal grand jury has indicted six foreign nationals, alleging they ran an elaborate money-laundering operation that scammed hundreds of customers out of more than $4 million in fake Internet car sales on reputable websites. Several state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Costa Mesa Police Department, provided substantial assistance during the investigation, according to a Department of Justice news release. The 24-count indictment accuses the four men and two women of offering vehicles for sale on eBay Motors, Auto Trader, Yahoo!

There are many things for which I'm thankful, as we approach Thanksgiving Day this year. As always, my wonderful and patient wife of more than 44 years is right at the top of my list. She makes my life special with her love and support in all that we do. Of course, I'm very thankful for my family and our cadre of dear friends who stay in touch with us and offer encouragement when we most need it. And, I'm thankful for the opportunity to present my views of the world around us to the readers of my blog.

A small number of inmates who will be tracked by probation instead of parole agencies will soon be released in Costa Mesa, authorities said, adding that some of the tracking will fall on local police. Under the newly enacted public safety realignment plan, the non-serious offenders are being released into probation rather than parole. Parolees who violate conditions of their parole are being sent to jails instead, which helps ease state prison overcrowding. Responsibility for the so-called "three nons" — nonviolent, nonserious and nonserious sex offenders — on Oct. 1 shifted to local agencies like the Orange County Probation Department.

Police on Monday were searching for a man who they say flashed a badge to gain entry into a Corona del Mar home before he ransacked it. Police are also looking for his two female accomplices. Officers received a residential burglary report in the 200 block of Iris Avenue at about 3:15 p.m. Friday, said Newport police spokeswoman Kathy Lowe. According to a police account of the events, a man wearing a star-shaped badge claimed to be part of a law enforcement organization and went to the home of an elderly woman.

NEWPORT BEACH — A group of diners got more than soup and a sandwich Friday; they got a lunchtime taste of the law at the Coco's Bakery Restaurant at Fashion Island. About 40 women and men wearing blue-trimmed name tags gathered to listen to Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens give a talk about the effects of budget cuts on law enforcement. Members of the League of Women Voters – Orange Coast and other community members gathered into the diner's den-like area to hear how Hutchens cut about $53 million from the Sheriff's Department in the two years after her initial appointment.

NEWPORT BEACH – Tom Gazsi won't be making much of a move next month when he takes over as Costa Mesa's new police chief. The 51-year-old law enforcement veteran will become the top cop in his hometown, yet he's worn the uniform of a police officer for neighboring Newport Beach for the past 32 years. Gazsi has deep roots in Costa Mesa. He grew up on Paloma Drive, near the intersection of 20 t h Street and Irvine Avenue, and has lived his entire life in the Newport-Mesa area.

SANTA ANA - Wednesday's countywide gang sweep - a three-year effort dubbed Operation Black Flag - began with a lead in Costa Mesa, law enforcement officials said. Following the initial tip, the investigative trail led Santa Ana police investigators to Cesar "Roach" Munguia, 31. The high-ranking member of Forming Kaos, a Costa Mesa street gang, is accused of dealing guns, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin, said Costa Mesa Police Capt. Les Gogerty. Costa Mesa was "basically where it started," Gogerty said.

COSTA MESA — The city's law firm has broken long-standing professional ties with former interim Police Chief Steve Staveley, whose allegations of "unethical" and "immoral" conduct at City Hall stunned the community. Richard D. Jones, a partner with the Fullerton-based Jones & Mayer law firm, criticized Staveley for lambasting city officials when he resigned in protest Monday as interim police chief, according to a letter obtained Thursday by the Daily Pilot. The firm provides legal counsel to the city, which does not have an in-house attorney.

COSTA MESA — Twelve sworn police officer positions and one non-sworn position face elimination under a proposed Police Department restructuring plan released Friday. City Chief Executive Tom Hatch's proposal to save an estimated $1.35 million a year would reduce the number of active-duty police officers from 139 to 131. The plan would add 10 sworn reserve positions, two K-9 units to patrol, two park rangers, a crime scene specialist and four support jobs, as well as transfer four helicopter pilots to ground-based duties, city spokesman Bill Lobdell said in a news release.