Subject: California Highway Patrol

• Cognitive Overload as a Motorsport

  There's good news if you're one of those people infuriated by the sight of some idiot behind the steering wheel with a cell phone pressed to his head talking and not paying attention while driving-- that idiot's days are numbered. Come Summer 2008, that idiot will be replace by the new and improved idiot behind the steering wheel with a cell phone headset welded to his head talking and not paying attention while driving. Governor Schwarzenegger is scheduled to sign SB1613 into law today. The

  September 15, 2006

• Gentlemen, Start Your SUV Engines...

  IT TURNS OUT THE FOLLOWING ITEM IS BASED ON A HOAX THAT BEGAN IN NEW JERSEY. SEE THIS. SO SPEED AWAY, SOUTH COUNTY DRIVERS! This just made the rounds in the OC Weekly e-mail-ery, not that all of us have lead foots here. Just most of us. Consider yourselves warned: California Highway Patrol will launch a 30-day speeding ticket frenzy in South Orange County starting January 25, 2006. The state estimates that 22 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets. 3 million will go to pay Calif

  January 17, 2006

• Sunday's Headlines & Surprises

  John Wayne and the Grey, er, Wild Goose: Greg Aragon reports that John Wayne's 1942 yacht, Wild Goose, remains a work horse tour boat for Hornblower Cruises & Events in the area and that the long dead actor's spiritual presence is aboard. (If dying doesn't change bad habits, I presume he's still inhaling cigarettes and liquor while coughing up pro-Nixon platitudes.) Aragon writes that “soon after [Wayne] died [in 1979], his ghostly image was reportedly seen numerous times aboard the vessel.â€

  July 15, 2007

• Officer, is that dandruff under your nostril?

  It’s the last week of 2007 inside Orange County’s Central Justice Center, and the place is dead except at each of the three public entrances. A half-dozen young bailiffs have forgotten security fears (Al-Qaeda!) but collect pay and perks while they chat happily about the electronic toys they received for Christmas. Moments later, a well-dressed, polite, non-English-speaking man stops me, displays a court document and asks me if I speak Spanish. Nope. I scan the document he’s holding and d

  December 26, 2007

• Citizen of the Week!

  In August 2006, two Orange County men—James McGuinn and Paul Tu—drove together in the carpool lane of the southbound Interstate 405 when a habitual criminal driving a Chevy Blazer rear-ended them at 35 mph. Though damage was minimal to McGuinn’s Ford Explorer, Jamar Wendell Rivers—the Chevy driver—fled, weaving through dense, morning traffic. McGuinn tailed Rivers from the scene while Tu, the passenger, called the California Highway Patrol. A shirtless, heavily tattooed Rivers eventua

  May 14, 2008

• Lawsuit Alleges OC Hospital Framed Doctor on Gun Charges

  A lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court two days ago includes stunning allegations about a bizarre incident first reported by the Weekly two years ago. On June 28, 2006, Santa Ana police arrested Dr. Michael Fitzgibbons, an infectious diseases specialist at Western Medical Center, when they found a weapon and gloves in his car after he allegedly brandished a handgun while driving near his office. They acted on a tip from an anonymous caller using a pay phone. Police found no evidence l

  July 17, 2008

• Babies, Porn Stars and Mixed-Martial Artists

  New York Post Page 6 columnist Richard Johnson reports today that retired porn star Jenna Jameson is having “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz's love child. Well, at least we think it's Tito's. Pity the fool who is the father if it is not. By the by, our image of Ortiz was shot by former Weekly staffer Luke Y. Thompson, who covered the North American Mixed Martial Arts Association Expo back in December on this very site. It's unclear whether the amazing LYT will be invited into the la

  August 6, 2008

• This Week in the OC Weekly

  August 8, 2008

• Citizen of the Week!

  Robyn Renne Devereaux, a onetime Latham & Watkins paralegal, met Melissa Jo Rodriguez, a retired California Highway Patrol dispatcher, on ObesityHelp.com in 2005. The two Orange County women quickly bonded, sharing secrets and fun during nine months. But by early 2006, their friendship had collapsed into a nearly impossible-to-decipher war. Now, each claims in court filings the other is a dangerous cyber-stalker. Devereaux calls Rodriguez a "self-serving bitch . . . a bisexual . . . a drama q

  September 3, 2008

• Insert Latest California GOP Racist Comment Here

  February 6, 2003

• December 2008: The Month of Stinking Badges

  You might not have noticed, but just before Christmas, two Orange County cops confessed to bizarre crimes. On Dec. 16, Joshua Wendall Blackburn, a six-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol (CHP), admitted that he broke into a CHP evidence locker in Santa Ana and stole 64 kilograms of cocaine, worth more than $1 million on the street, according to prosecutors. Blackburn hid 62 kilograms in his father's shed in Riverside and the other 2 kilograms in the attic of his Murrieta home. He'll be

  December 31, 2008

• MADD Has Become "a Tastless Joke," According to Study Author

  You were told here about a study published in the Californian Journal of Health Promotion that argues California should lower its drinking age for beer and wine to 18 and set up a system of low-alcohol bars. Mike Males, the study's author and senior researcher at the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, based that finding on statistical analysis that suggests such a move would reduce violent deaths among 18-20 year-olds by 9 percent. As ind

  January 9, 2009

• Citizen of the Week!

  The sadomasochistic onetime X-Files actor (1), who shoved a hot crack cocaine pipe inside a south Orange County woman's vagina because he believed she worked for the devil, recently placed an ad in LA Weekly:"Busy businessman/producer needs immediate project assistance . . . Experience not necessary but helpful; will train. Industry knowledge a plus. Send resume to: Prince Maryland, F86550, Calipatria, CA, 92233."Reply at your own risk. Here's even better advice: Run like hell if Prince Edward

  February 25, 2009

• DA Drops Charges Against Frank Santos, Who Was Accused of Pushing a Garden Grove Cop

  November 27, 2008

• [Moxley Confidential] Chris Cox Says He's a Tough Wall Street Regulator, SEC Record Proves Otherwise

  October 2, 2008

• [Moxley Confidential] We Don't Need No Stinking Badges

  August 7, 2008

• Just How Did Those Gloves and That Gun End Up in Whistleblower Dr. Michael Fitzgibbons' Car?

  July 31, 2008

• At Frank Santos' Garden Grove Family Barbecue, the Police Brought the Pepper Spray and Handcuffs

  June 5, 2008

• Dude, There's My Car!

  Crook relaxed too soon after stealing Cadillac Escalade from mall

  August 30, 2007

• Andy Get Your Gun

  OC arms dealer with AK-47s, rocket launchers escapes prosecution

  March 15, 2007

• The New Crips

  October 12, 2006

• Car Trouble

  August 24, 2006

• 'We've Ridden Every Mile'

  August 3, 2006

• Gunkist Oranges

  June 8, 2006

• Apples and Oranges

  Pringle to convention protesters: Bring it on

  September 23, 2004

• Elmer Bustos R.I.P.

  July 17, 2003

• A Clockwork Orange

  July 11, 2002

• Traffic

  November 29, 2001

• Rave Off

  August 23, 2001

• Tim the Soldier and Nixons Coming

  May 24, 2001

• Poo Fighters

  December 2, 1999

• Road to Ruin

  May 22, 1997

• Miracle on the 73: TBN Personality Turns Wine into a Double DUI

  It's telling about the sad state of religion reporting in Orange County, one of the founts of American Christianity, that no one has yet to report this: a major Trinity Broadcasting Company personality has pleaded guilty to two felony DUIs that put a 70-year-old man in the hospital with serious injuries.On April 26, around 10 p.m., one Stephen Eugene Galiher was speeding at least over 85 miles per hour in his company-owned BMW on the 73 Freeway near the 55 Freeway interchange when he smashed int

  June 21, 2009

• Crime Time: Hey, Mister in the Miniskirt Looking at Porn!

  Very early Tuesday in Tustin. Not the real crime but an amazing facsimile. Once again, it's the Weekly's weekly round-up of Orange County police calls...MONDAY, JUNE 22Breaking Up the Boredom of a Bank Line: Shortly after noon, a man clutching a backpack threatened to blow up the Bank of America branch near Westcliff Drive and Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach, tossed a bag inside and walked away. Employees and customers evacuated the building and the Orange County Sheriff Department's bomb squad k

  June 30, 2009

• Crime Time: Fight Clubs, Stray Bullets, Car Bashings, Cop Gun Theft, 4 Jewelry Heists

    Jewelry heist fever spreads across Orange CountyIt's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--now with more street fights, bullets flying, dudes getting jumped, cops losing service revolvers and jewelry heists in towns with "Laguna" in the name across the county.   The FBI says this man--Robin Lam, 28, of Rancho Santa Margarita--sent several sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl and arranged to meet her at a Mission Viejo parking lot. They

  September 1, 2009

• Sounds Like Orange County Could Use a "Red Asphalt" Screening

  It sounds as if Orange County drivers could use a Red Asphalt refresher. The District Attorney's Office is going hard after two drivers accused of causing separate crashes that killed a man and a toddler and injured another man and an infant. Wilma Harriet Moerke, 72, of Mission Viejo, has been charged with killing a pedestrian on the morning of April 18 after crashing her car into a light pole, knocking it over onto the victim. Moerke faces arraignment Tuesday in Santa Ana on one misdemeanor co

  October 5, 2009

• Crime Time: An Especially San Clemente/ Huntington Beach Edition

  It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--with an especially heavy emphasis on San Clemente and Huntington Beach. MONDAY, OCT. 5 He died for your remote. Who's the Patron Saint of Stupidity Again? A 50-inch Viso plasma TV was stolen out of the beer tent erected for the weekend Fall Festival at Sts. Simon & Jude Catholic Church, 20444 Magnolia St., Huntington Beach, some time before 3:30 a.m. What's more disturbing: the crime, leaving a plasma unattended in a tent overnig

  October 13, 2009

• Garden Grove Pays Half a Million to Settle Brutality Suit With Santos Family

  John Gilhooley​ Remember that feature story from last year, "Party Crashers"? The one with the cover artwork showing a birthday cake with all these cops as candles and the headline that said "At this Garden Grove Family Barbecue, the Cops Brought the Pepper Spray and Handcuffs?"The story concerned a lawsuit stemming from a Sept. 11, 2004 incident in which several members of the Santos family who were celebrating a birthday were arrested and charged with such crimes as resisting arrest and lync

  September 30, 2009

• Crime Time: Rapers! Robbers! Wife Killer! Bad Cops! And a Real Bozo!

  It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--a day late and many dollars short of paying off the creditors who won't stop calling! Top photos courtesy of Huntington Beach Police Department A BOZO NO-NO: Here's the original suspect description Crime Time received for the Oct. 5 robbery of the US Bank inside the Ralphs supermarket at Adams and Brookhurst streets in Huntington Beach: white, in his 30s, weighing 200 pounds with a stocky build and wearing a blue shirt and jea

  October 21, 2009

• Crime Time: Creepy Toys, Slick Bank Robbers, Egged On Victims, Dog-Beating Dipshits and At Least [Alleged] Criminals Still Read Newspapers

  It's the Weekly's weekly roundup of local police calls and assorted mayhem.MONDAY, NOV. 2". . . and I don't like you!" ​"I'm Talking Tina . . . and Things Are Going to Be Different Around Here" A woman called 9-1-1 around 3:45 in the morning to say she heard a baby toy go off downstairs in her home in the 26800 block of Moore Oaks Road in Laguna Hills even though no one else was supposed to be down there. She wanted deputies to come by and make sure everything was safe. Set your tasers to stun

  November 10, 2009

• Western Medical Center's Owners Sued Their Doctors to Muzzle Them, But One Wouldn't Shut Up

  November 12, 2009

• Authorities Trumpet Largest Orange County Curfew Sweep

  ​About 300 officers from 20 law enforcement agencies made sweeps through various Orange County communities last night and early today and swooped up 67 kids in violation of city curfew laws, the District Attorney's office announced. Curfews begin at 10 or 11 p.m., depending on the city, and last until 5 a.m. the following day. During those hours, minors can't be out in public unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian, working or taking part in an 

  November 13, 2009