Land fraud

Here's a fascinating article on a scheme to defraud people of their real estate. Deeds were fraudulently notarized allowing people's property to be sold to innocent and ignorant third party buyers. Can you guess who loses in this situation? The original owner or the innocent third party?

Lest anyone think the judge shortage is over

The PE reports that two felony cases were dismissed for lack of a judge to hear them.

One of my own in trouble with the law and the bar

Prominent Hemet attorney Kevin Speir is being charged with embezzlement of his client's money. He is also being investigated by the state bar relating to 22 charges. See here for the PE's report. I hate to see this type of thing. If the charges prove true, it's a disaster for the client and gives all attorneys a bit of a black eye.

Great Balls of Fire

Go here for more on:

Moreno Valley raises city manager's salary 7 percent to $257,275

Moreno Valley's "City Council unanimously approved a 7 percent increase Tuesday for City Manager Bob Gutierrez, raising his base salary from $240,444 to $257,275." He also gets a car allowance of $9,360.

Does anyone know how many private sector employees get this kind of money? Or if he also gets 15 paid holidays and 3-5 weeks of vacation like most government employees?

What kind of people is Kaiser hiring?

The PE reports that "A nurse at Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center is being accused by authorities of abusing her position to defraud a cancer patient." The nurse passed along private information about a 72 year old patient to allow her buddies to apply for a loan in the patient's name. Here's the interesting part:

"The woman's family found out about the scheme while the loan was being processed, when she received mail about the financial transaction, he said.

The district attorney's office arranged a sting operation, telling a realty company to have one of the suspects come to its San Bernardino office to sign a grant deed, Landrum said. Kayla Stewart, 43, of San Bernardino, who went to the office posing as the victim, was arrested on conspiracy charges, he said.

Six others, including two women who claimed to be relatives of the victim and a notary public accused of notarizing a fraudulent document, have been charged in the case, Landrum said."

I wonder how many readers think these folks ought to get some time in the big house?

Lots of prison sentences in the news

This must be sentencing week at the IELB. This is probably the most interesting of the sentencing updates. Most will remember the Dateline NBC stings regarding the perverts who showed up at a house to engage in child molestation. NBC chose the right county for one of the stings in fair ole RivCo. One of the attempted child molesters was sentenced to 8 years in the state pen.

In an interesting twist though another one of the fellows only got 120 days. Apparently 48 cases arose from the sting, and 24 have been resolved. I wonder what the gamut of sentences ranged from? See here for the PE's report.

Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark.

The LA Times reports that Wesley Snipes received a prison sentence of three years for failing to file tax returns.

Breaking news: Foreclosures up.

The PE reports that in the first quarter of this year "In Riverside County, 6,519 homes went to foreclosure, up almost 347 percent from a year earlier and setting a record for the fourth consecutive quarter."

Wow. That's severe.

As many conscious locals know, back in June 2007, UCR student Audley Yung sent several threatening notes and let off a molotov cocktail in order to scare the university into canceling commencement ceremonies. The PE reports that Mr. Yung agreed to a plea bargain where he gets 3 years in prison. Is this over the top?

Future planning news

As reported earlier, the IE is expected to gain 1 million new residents by 2015. How're they all going to get to Orange County, you ask? Perhaps through a 10 mile tunnel which is currently being studied by engineers. See the PE report here.

A third criminal trial for accused

As most readers know from high school civics class, the consitution forbids double jeopardy. In other words the government only gets one trial to take away a criminal defendant's liberty. The government gets one bite at the apple... unless the original trial ended in a mistrial. The PE reports that a Corona woman is starting her third trial. The first two ended in mistrials. The first one resulted in the jury being unable to conclude guilty or not guilty. The second occurred when the judge decided that the jurors could not be unbiased! So two prior trials, neither of which were concluded.

DA Pacheco in the news

The PE reports that DA Pacheco is lobbying for death penalty bills. The PE also reports in a neutral manner that all of the bills have Republican authors.

Tremors is gone

Following up on the story of Riverside's city attorneys attempt to reign in the unruly customers frequenting Tremors, (a story you heard here second or third), the PE reports that Tremors closed its doors. It's defunct. In other words, the blood, sweat, tears, toil, money, and industry invested by the owners has been dashed. The employees have lost their jobs. The community has lost a place of entertainment. Just because some jokers couldn't control their testosterone. I wonder if the police could have caned the unruly customers if that would have made a difference? Imagine that if some malcontent, cynically commenting on the hair, dress, posture, looks or whatever of another patron, who starts a fight, was summarily caned in front of his buddies? There would be a lot less cynicism out there and a lot more fun ... and those employees would still have jobs. Anyone disagree?

New reservoir near the Mexican border

Fascinating article here about a new reservoir proposed for collecting "water from the Colorado River, which flows into Mexico above that country's entitlement." It is your humble correspondent's understanding that no water flows into the Gulf of California anymore. If that's the case then how is it that there's any water above that "country's entitlement?"

Bad news for the Sand loving flies, kangaroo rats, etc

The PE reports that the inland empire is going to gain 1 million new residents by 2015. Those folks gotta be housed somewhere. It seems inevitable that our once wide open spaces are going to continue to get smaller. I'm curious what my legion of readers think: keep open spaces for the sand loving flies and kangaroo rats or house families or some combination of the two?

Update on Jehovah's witness issue

The PE reports that the court of appeal declined to hear a defense petition which sought to have the appellate court stay the enforcement of the trial court's ruling allowing church elders to be examined under oath. In English, this matter revolves around a criminal trial of a Jehovah's witness member accused of molestation. Several church elders conducted an investigation. The DA wants to examine the elders on their findings. The defendant wanted to keep the evidence out claiming as his basis for his request the priest-penitent exclusion. This exclusion to evidence allows people to confess their sins to their religious confessor. Well, the trial court deemed the elder's investigation not a confession and allowed the testimony. The defendant then went to the court of appeal. The court declined to hear it which does not really decide the issue. Instead, if the defendant is found guilty he will be allowed to appeal then and have the court of appeal decide the matter then.