Email Author MATT COKER

Awards

• 2011 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club, published February 4, 2010

  "Douchebag Does Sundance"

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2010 Stories by MATT COKER

• Tooraj Aghmiyouni Nakhei, Online Dater-Turned-Rapist and Stalker, Gets 16 Years

  published Mar 15, 2010

  An Oregon man was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison for forcibly raping, orally copulating, stalking and harassing a woman he met through an online dating service. Tooraj Aghmiyouni Nakhei, 54, o... More >>

• Shane Garrett Horning, Pervy Youth Pastor, and Luis Antonio Mejia, School Janitor Sicko, Meet Their Fates

  published Mar 12, 2010

  Shane Garrett Horning, the 29-year-old former youth pastor at Santa Margarita Methodist Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, was sentenced today to a year in jail--essentially time served--for having an ... More >>

• James Dalton Bratcher, Accused of Groping Breasts on OC-Bound Plane

  published Mar 10, 2010

  James Dalton Bratcher of New Jersey was charged Tuesday with groping the breasts of sleeping female passengers on a night flight from Newark to Orange County.Bratcher allegedly wandered the aisles of ... More >>

• Police Chase That Began in Tustin Ends at LAX

  published Mar 04, 2010

  A police chase that began with a residential burglary report out of the Peppertree Homes subdivision in Tustin seems to have just ended in the Sepulveda Avenue tunnel under the overpass that jetliners... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  USA-Canada Gold Medal Hockey Game as Viewed From a Central OC Barstool

  published Mar 01, 2010

  rRandom notes scribbled onto a soggy napkin from the "Norm stool" at a working-class, Central Orange County watering hole during Sunday's USA-Canada Olympics gold medal hockey game . . .12:22 p.... More >>

• Who Is This Veterinarian Taking on Yelpr

  published Feb 25, 2010

  The Foodiegeddon 2010: Look Out, Yelper Skelter News Desk--which earlier whipped out hard-hitting posts on allegations in a Long Beach animal hospital's federal class action complaint against online-r... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Chuck DeVore Comes Out Against Rights to Free Speech and Assembly

  published Feb 24, 2010

  Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) likes to pander to teabaggers, those ultra-conservative cranks who wrap themselves in the flag, the U.S. Constitution and the Founding Fathers' precious bodily flui... More >>

• GM Puts the Brakes on the Hummer

  published Feb 24, 2010

  Anyone disgusted by the sight of a Hummer taking up the last two spaces marked "Compact" in a parking lot will rejoice in this breaking news:GM is discontinuing the Hummer.The decision was made after ... More >>

• Jason Wayne Scofield Can't Use Army to Beat Rap of Sex With a 16-Year-Old Girl

  published Feb 24, 2010

  Men join the Army to escape a lot of things: boredom, crushing poverty, chorus lines.But answering the call to serve is not enough to beat a rap of sex with a 16-year-old girl.At least, it wasn't for ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The "Irvine 11" Fights the Power

  published Feb 23, 2010

  As they fill out their AARP membership cards, '60s burnouts can rejoice that a group of campus agitators has at last come along to rival the infamous Chicago Seven.Mamas and papas, introducing the "Ir... More >>

• [UPDATED:] Mechanic Arraigned for Allegedly Setting Homeless Man Ablaze

  published Feb 22, 2010

  UPDATE: Details of five-year sentence handed down today below. rMechanic Hector Manuel Medina previously shooed a homeless man away from the alley behind Medina's Santa Ana auto shop. When the 32-year... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  [UPDATED:] Julie Palasco, OC Homicide No. 5: Found in Ransacked Home

  published Feb 16, 2010

  UPDATE: Orange County District Attorney levels charges; suspect's telling MySpace page . . . rThe Orange County District Attorney today charged the man arrested in Las Vegas in the shooting and killin... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Michael Vincent Petronella and Wife to Be Trading "Their Pradas for Prison Garb"

  published Feb 11, 2010

  A Laguna Hills roofing contractor was convicted today of lavishly spending illegal profits on luxury goods by cheating the Workers' Compensation Insurance system in what the Orange County District Att... More >>

• OC Phenomeon Blamed for Ritz-Carlton Las Vegas Closure

  published Feb 10, 2010

  The 338-room Ritz-Carlton Las Vegas opened in 2003 in then-fast-growing South Nevada community of Lake Las Vegas, 17 miles from the Strip. The AAA Five Diamond, Mediterranean-styled, $170 million hot... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Drake Doremus' 'Douchebag' at Sundance

  published February 4, 2010

  THE RACQUET CLUB. PARK CITY, UTAH. FRIDAY, JAN. 22, 9:30 P.M.Dressed in a suit he picked up the week before at a Los... More >>

• [UPDATED:] Cheryl Rose Wynn, OC Homicide No. 4: Stabbed at Home

  published Feb 01, 2010

  CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED POST. View Larger Map A man called authorities to say he returned to his home in the 1200 block of North Palo Loma Place, near Elsinore Avenue, in Orange Sunday evening to find ... More >>

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  An Anaheim All-Star Influenced Guitar Legend Duane Eddy

  published Jan 14, 2010

  My story on Duane Eddy coming to play at the annual Guitar Geek Festival within walking distance of NAMM in Anaheim Saturday mentions some of the legendary rock pickers and strummers the 71-year-old g... More >>

• 2010 Namm Show At-a-Glance

  published January 14, 2010

  WHAT: The NAMM Show, a music-product-trade convention rivaled in size only by the Musikmesse in Frankfurt, is held every... More >>

• Guitar Hero Duane Eddy Returns to OC for Rare Appearance in Anaheim

  published January 14, 2010

  A Real Guitar HeroDuane Eddy has twangy guitar, will travel to Anaheim You know Duane Eddy. Even if your parents... More >>

• What's With Cypress and Illegal Sex With Girlsr

  published Jan 07, 2010

  A 42-year-old male teacher at what's been dubbed one of Orange County's best high schools pleaded innocent Wednesday to banging a 17-year-old female student in his classroom and car. Christopher John ... More >>