October 30th, 2009, 4:10 pm by Larry Welborn
Child killers. Cop Killers. Serial killers.
Orange County has had them all during its 120 years in existence (The OC celebrated its 120th birthday, by the way, on Aug. 1).
And million dollar bank heists, public corruption scandals, and atrocious sex crimes too.
We are chronicling 50 of the most notorious crimes in the county’s history beginning Monday on ocregister.com/50cases, and then we will ask an expert panel and our readers for help in indentifying the top ten.
We’ll post one notorious case a day for 50 days, from the oldest (in 1892) to the most recent. If you think we missed a sensational case along the way, let us know and we will consider adding it to our list.
And then we will ask readers to vote on OC’’s Most Notorious case of all time.
Posted in: Courts • In the halls of justice • Miscellaneous • Murder • Top Court Stories | 2 Comments »
October 29th, 2009, 10:10 am by Salvador Hernandez, Staff Writer
UPDATE: Sheriff officials said an arrest has been made in connection to the double -homicide. A Garden Grove man was taken into custody today, hours after forensic investigators began going through the car, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the department. Story is developing.
 At 9 a.m. today, sheriff’s forensic investigators began searching a white Lexus GS 300, the first big break investigators have had in solving a February double-homicide, authorities said.
Forensic investigators will be searching for fingerprints, DNA evidence, anything that could provide more leads into who killed Mathew Scott, 42, of Costa Mesa, and Elizabeth Palmer, 49, of Fountain Valley, in the Stanton office of a manufactured-home company, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the sheriff’s department.
The process can take hours, he said.
Don Scott, co-owner of Golden Sun Homes, discovered the bodies of his son and long-time secretary in the sales office at 12331 Beach Blvd. in Stanton. (Read original story here.)
Investigators have had few leads in the case and have made repeated requests to the public for information, in particular, seeking to find Palmer’s Lexus, which was taken from the company’s parking lot the day she and Scott were shot.
The killing has perplexed authorities for eight months and no motive has been found, so far. Family members have made pleas to the public, including offering a $25,000 reward for information on the case.
Authorities said an officer with the Anaheim Police discovered the car about a week ago, prompting sheriff’s investigators to stake out the location. Deputies and investigators knocked on doors of the 300-unit complex where the car was found yesterday, but did not say if any witnesses have come forward.
 Elizabeth Palmer  Matthew Scott The car appeared to have been washed recently, and paper plates replaced those that were originally on the car.
Authorities verified it was Palmer’s vehicle by checking the vehicle identification number.
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Posted in: Crime • Miscellaneous • Murder | 12 Comments »
October 23rd, 2009, 11:34 am by Rachanee Srisavasdi
The former chief financial officer for Broadcom Corp. repeatedly lied and backdated millions of stock options that forced the chip manufacturer to restate its earnings by $2.2 billion, and also personally profited $77 million from the crimes, a federal prosecutor said today.
“We’re here because the defendant lied to the Securities and Exchange Commission, lied to Broadcom accountants, and most importantly, lied to Broadcom’s investors, and there were thousands of them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Stolper said during opening statements.
But an attorney for William J. Ruehle (shown right, entering the Ronald Reagan Courthouse) countered that his client was not a criminal, and was simply following what he believed were allowable accounting practices.
“Bill Ruehle today is 67 years old and for the first time in his life, he’s being referred to as a criminal,” attorney Richard Marmaro said.
“Bill Ruehle never intended to defraud Broadcom shareholders and never did,” Marmaro added.
Ruehle and Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, were indicted in June 2008 on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. Both have pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts of accounting and securities fraud stemming from allegations that they misreported $2.2 billion in Broadcom’s employee stock options. The restatement is the largest of any company criminally charged by the government.
Ruehle was already out of Broadcom when he was indicted. He became Broadcom’s CFO in 1997 and retired in September 2006 in connection with the company’s stock options probe.
The jury in his trial was picked by Thursday evening. The case is expected to last approximately nine weeks.
Nicholas goes to trial in February. He also faces separate drug charges.
Follow today’s trial developments on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rachanee333
Posted in: Miscellaneous • Broadcom • Henry Nicholas • Henry Samueli • William Ruehle | 2 Comments »
October 23rd, 2009, 6:00 am by Rachanee Srisavasdi
 A jury was picked Thursday for the federal trial of former Broadcom chief executive officer William Ruehle, who faces charges in an alleged $2.2-billion stock option backdating scheme.
So opening statements are scheduled to begin around 9 a.m. today.
The trial, in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, is expected to last nine weeks.
Ruehle, along with Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, was indicted last year on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. They allegedly engaged in a backdating scheme that resulted in Broadcom’s $2.- billion accounting restatement in 2007.
Nicholas goes to trial after Ruehle. He also faces separate drug charges.
Henry Samueli, Broadcom’s other co-founder, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“There’s a big question of how juries are going to react to this kind of case, especially here in Southern California and Orange County,” Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University School of Law, said of Ruehle’s trial.
“From the standpoint of the defense, they will do everything they can to characterize this as a highly technical offense without a real victim.”
Posted in: Courts | Post a Comment »
October 22nd, 2009, 4:23 pm by Larry Welborn
A dispute is simmering between the Orange County District Attorney’s office and Superior Court judges over the way certain criminal cases are being settled before trial.
Judge Thomas A. Goethals, the supervising judge of the criminal division, asked retired Judge Robert Fitzgerald to review most cases assigned to Department 5 – the master criminal calendar court — with an eye to resolving them before trial. Fitzgerald continues to serve on assignment as a Superior Court judge.
The idea was that Fitz would talk to attorneys on both sides and then make offers to defendants: plead guilty at an early stage and get a sentence lighter than they might have expected if convicted at trial, thus cutting a backlog of criminal cases.
Fitzgerald has a well-earned reputation as a tough-on-crime, tough-sentencing jurist who put several Orange County killers on Death Row. Several defense attorneys were reluctant at first to go before Fitz, worried that they would not get the kind of offers that would be advantageous for their clients.
But after two months, it was the D.A.’s Office that was complaining.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Courts • In the halls of justice • Judges • Miscellaneous | Post a Comment »
October 22nd, 2009, 10:33 am by Rachanee Srisavasdi
A First Amendment lawsuit brought by former sheriff’s Lt. Bill Hunt against ex-sheriff Mike Carona — a case that was under deliberations by a Los Angeles jury — was tossed out today by a federal judge who granted Carona’s motion to dismiss.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow ruled that in light of the jury’s findings on questions posed to them about Hunt’s role in the department, Hunt was deemed to be a department policymaker, according to Carona’s lawyer, Norman Watkins.
“The jury’s findings were consistent with the evidence,” Watkins said. “I think the court made the right call.”
Hunt, who is again running for sheriff next year, said he “strongly disagrees” with the judge’s decision. He does not yet know if he is able to appeal the judge’s ruling.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” he said. “I believed in the case. I need to take some time and sort things out and think about what the next step will be.”
The judge also decided that Carona is entitled to “qualified immunity,” which shields public officials from liability for the violation of an individual’s constitutional rights in some cases, Watkins said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Miscellaneous | 106 Comments »
October 14th, 2009, 8:59 am by Larry Welborn
 Jeffrey Rawitz, the bulldog of a lawyer who vigorously defended former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona in his headline-making public corruption trial, has stepped down from the prestigious Jones-Day law firm because of health concerns.
Rawitz, 45, has been plagued for months with the aftermath of a severe spinal cord injury that caused him to wear a neck brace and shuffle along court hallways when he didn’t have use of a wheelchair.
He was in obvious pain during Carona’s trial, and once, argued the case for nearly seven hours while sitting in a chair.
Some reporters felt the trial took its toll on Rawitz’s health.
His colleagues said he underwent one neck surgery before the trial, and has undergone two other procedures since then.
Despite the pain, Rawitz was a memoreable force in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford, arguing legal points on the fly, verbally sparring with prosecutors and aggressively cross-examining key prosecution witnesses (especially Don Haidl, the former assistant sheriff who secretly cooperated with the FBI in their probe of Carona).
A jury acquitted Carona of five public corruption charges in January, but convicted him of witness tampering. The former top cop of Orange County was sentenced to 66 months in prison, but his defense team filed its appeal of the conviction on Tuesday. He remains free on bond pending the outcome of that appeal.
Posted in: Courts • In the halls of justice • Mike Carona • Orange County Sheriff's Department | 8 Comments »
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