Torture

postponed Deepa Bharath A pretrial hearing for Brian Dance, the 20-year-old UC Irvine sophomore accused of sexually assaulting and torturing a teenager he met on the Internet, was canceled Friday. A new preliminary hearing date was set for March 1. Investigators say Dance, of Newport Beach, met the victim in an Internet chat room and arranged to meet her at the Block at Orange on Dec. 20. Police said from there, he took her to an empty parking lot on the UC Irvine campus and assaulted her with his belt and other objects for more than two hours.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has made national news for remarks dismissing FBI complaints that interrogators used inappropriate, possibly illegal techniques on suspected terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay. The remarks at a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee also drew sharp words from his Democratic congressional challenger. Rohrabacher repeatedly cited a report of panties put on detainees’ heads as comparable to “hazing pranks,” arguing it didn’t come close to the definition of torture.

UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on Tuesday urged students at Orange Coast College to keep up with current events and make their voices heard to prevent abuses of power by our nation’s highest authorities in their War on Terror. In a 45-minute speech to hundreds of students, Chemerinsky, an acclaimed Constitutional law attorney, discussed some of the country’s biggest abuses of power in its history; many, he noted, occurred during times of national crisis.

Sgt. Charles "Cass" A. Spence The photo is of my platoon commander and machine gun section/squad leaders. We were walking our furthest post. It's about 200 meters from Highway 80 (also known as the Highway of Death). The tower behind us is what's left over from the old base here in Kuwait. This was where Iraq began its invasion of Kuwait. The base, now called Camp Commando, resides here. The history on Camp Commando is a disturbing one. In the early 1990s, it housed Kuwait's elite commando forces, but once overrun, it became a prison and a place of torture.

Deepa Bharath NEWPORT BEACH -- The Orange County district attorney on Wednesday charged a 20-year-old UC Irvine student with sexually assaulting and torturing a 15-year-old girl. Prosecutor Ed Flores called the act, which was allegedly committed by Brian Dance in a deserted parking lot on the UCI campus Thursday, "brutal." Investigators say Dance, a sophomore from Newport Beach, met the victim in an Internet chat room and arranged to meet her at the Block at Orange on Dec. 20. Police said from there, he took her to an empty parking lot on campus, assaulted her with his belt and other objects for more than two hours.

I am writing in response to your article pertaining to the discovery of dismembered animal parts on the beaches and in residential neighborhoods of Newport Beach (“Beheaded animals found,” April 8). Lt. Craig Fox’s statement that the matter was “not of great concern to [Newport Beach Police Department] from a law enforcement standpoint” evinces a lack of knowledge about the very law he is charged by the state to uphold and enforce. Apparently Fox is unfamiliar with Penal Code section 597(a)

I agree with your Sunday editorial (?Private donors could help bay project?) that private funding should be sought to help clean Newport Bay. Let the property owners surrounding the bay and the boat owners who use the bay pay the lion?s share because they directly benefit from a healthy serviceable bay. Newport Beach sure has hot pants to assess property owners for lowering utilities in their respective neighborhoods ?because these properties directly benefit,? even though funding is the city?

Deepa Bharath NEWPORT BEACH -- A 20-year-old UC Irvine student on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges of beating, sexually assaulting and carving swastikas on the face of a teenage girl he met in an Internet chat room. Prosecutors, who called the alleged act "brutal," have charged Brian Dance with one count of oral copulation, three counts of penetration by a foreign object and one count of torture. He also faces a charge of second-degree robbery and threatening to kill his alleged victim.

Just to show the faithful reader that this column is not necessarily made up of meaningless fluff, I shall embark on an educational venture. The subject: quicksand. Once upon a time, or in the beginning -- take your choice -- we had quicksand around here, particularly in our rivers. Because I haven't the foggiest idea of the origin or cause of quicksand, the educational part of this venture will be a bit short. You simply have to accept my word that quicksand existed.

Former UCI student faces 94 years to life A Superior Court Judge on Thursday found a former UC Irvine student guilty of sexually assaulting and torturing a 15-year-old girl he met on the Internet. Brian Dance, 21, of Newport Beach was convicted of three counts of forced penetration, one count of torture and one count each of robbery and criminal threat. He faces 94 years to life in prison. Prosecutors said he bound the victim with duct tape and carved a swastika on her cheek.

A former Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy was convicted Monday of torturing his wife and her lover. Robert McClain, 38, of Irvine forced his then-31-year-old wife and her then-23-year-old lover into the break room of the leasing office where she worked and made them undress at knifepoint, repeatedly punching and kicking both victims, according to prosecutors. McClain's public defender, Darren Thompson, told jurors his family oriented client was driven to madness after discovering his wife's infidelity and that McClain initially acted in self defense.

Editor's note: This story contains graphic material that some readers may find offensive. * SANTA ANA - A formerLos Angeles County Sheriff's Departmentdeputy tortured his then-wife and her lover in an Irvine office after learning of their affair, a prosecutor argued Monday. Robert Avery McClain, 38, of Irvine stands accused in Orange County Superior Court of eight felonies, including aggravated mayhem, torture, rape and sodomy in connection with the Sept.

COSTA MESA — Manila envelopes in hand, about 10 Costa Mesa employees walked out of the city maintenance offices Thursday with their heads hanging. "I'm let down," said Steve Bradford, 38, a city mechanic for almost 10 years. "You try and do a good job for a place … " Bradford and his coworkers were among more than 200 city employees notified Thursday that they would be laid off Sept. 17, or six months. But having the piece of paper in hand is different than just talking about it. "It makes it real," said Ruben Salas, a city mechanic for the last five years.

UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on Tuesday urged students at Orange Coast College to keep up with current events and make their voices heard to prevent abuses of power by our nation’s highest authorities in their War on Terror. In a 45-minute speech to hundreds of students, Chemerinsky, an acclaimed Constitutional law attorney, discussed some of the country’s biggest abuses of power in its history; many, he noted, occurred during times of national crisis.

I agree with your Sunday editorial (?Private donors could help bay project?) that private funding should be sought to help clean Newport Bay. Let the property owners surrounding the bay and the boat owners who use the bay pay the lion?s share because they directly benefit from a healthy serviceable bay. Newport Beach sure has hot pants to assess property owners for lowering utilities in their respective neighborhoods ?because these properties directly benefit,? even though funding is the city?

I am writing in response to your article pertaining to the discovery of dismembered animal parts on the beaches and in residential neighborhoods of Newport Beach (“Beheaded animals found,” April 8). Lt. Craig Fox’s statement that the matter was “not of great concern to [Newport Beach Police Department] from a law enforcement standpoint” evinces a lack of knowledge about the very law he is charged by the state to uphold and enforce. Apparently Fox is unfamiliar with Penal Code section 597(a)

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has made national news for remarks dismissing FBI complaints that interrogators used inappropriate, possibly illegal techniques on suspected terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay. The remarks at a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee also drew sharp words from his Democratic congressional challenger. Rohrabacher repeatedly cited a report of panties put on detainees’ heads as comparable to “hazing pranks,” arguing it didn’t come close to the definition of torture.

Athough it may have been intemperate if not mean-spirited for Rep. Dana Rohrbacher to suggest that the family members of those who disagree with him should suffer death or grievous injury at the hands of terrorists, I am more troubled by his position that it is OK for our government to capture and torture a few innocent people in its efforts to win the war on terror (The Political Landscape, "Local Rep. lambasted over comments," April 26). The first is nothing more than the type of thing you hear immature, junior high school kids mutter to one another fairly frequently.

First comes the devastation, then the dissection. Sometimes, the latter can be more excruciating than the former for high school football coaches, who seldom wait 24 hours to pick through the videotape remains of their latest loss. For Newport Harbor High Coach Jeff Brinkley, this meant scanning the images of Friday's 23-20 nonleague overtime setback to visiting Mira Costa. In the process, a handful of potentially game-changing plays emerged.

Former UCI student faces 94 years to life A Superior Court Judge on Thursday found a former UC Irvine student guilty of sexually assaulting and torturing a 15-year-old girl he met on the Internet. Brian Dance, 21, of Newport Beach was convicted of three counts of forced penetration, one count of torture and one count each of robbery and criminal threat. He faces 94 years to life in prison. Prosecutors said he bound the victim with duct tape and carved a swastika on her cheek.