See the update on page 2 with stats from Costa Mesa's DUI checkpoint.ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 26, 2:29 P.M.: While they may not pack as extreme a nightmare as, say, playing an Angel game at the Big A at the same time Rihanna is singing in the Honda Center and the last remnants of the evening rush hour a ... More >>
See Update No. 2 on page 2 about donations being sought for the family of the detective, who leaves behind four children. See Update No. 1 on the next page identifying the deceased officer and more career details.ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 6, 9:37 A.M.: Flags are flying at half-staff in front of the Costa ... More >>
See the update at the end of this post about sheriff's department roving patrols tonight.ORIGINAL POST, JAN. 18, 9:22 A.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department holds a DUI checkpoint from 8 tonight through 8 a.m. Saturday, which I believe is the longest such operation I've ever reported here.Guess Righ ... More >>
See the update at the end of this post about a commenter to our original post being correct about the checkpoint location being in a minority neighborhood and stats from the police department.ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 5, 6:09 A.M.: Sobriety checkpoints: they're not just for weekends and holidays any more. ... More >>
See the update at the end of this post on the charges and possible prison time the defendant faces and which church posted his original $100,000 bail.The Costa Mesa Police Department is dealing with a wild case involving a 58-year-old Laguna Hills man awaiting a Nov. 2 court appearance for allegedly ... More >>
The Costa Mesa Police Department says its running a sobriety checkpoint but--surprise, surprise--as is norm for that particular cop shop, they aren't saying where it will be.So maybe drive around until you find it?They are saying when it will be . . .
Strange transactions involving the funds of the Costa Mesa High School Band Booster Club led to a complaint to police, an investigation and Thursday arrest of the nonprofit's treasurer.Jennifer Border-Piatti was held on suspicion of embezzlement after a search warrant was served on the 50-year-old's ... More >>
A federal judge in Orange County has sentenced two members of Forming Kaos (FK), the Costa Mesa-based criminal street gang, to lengthy prison trips for participating in conspiracies that benefited the notorious Mexican Mafia.Douglas Joseph Jackovich and Kirk Ray Butterfas, both 30 years old, won't s ... More >>
See Update No. 3 at the end of this post on capture of suspect, alleged accessories and the charges they face.See Update Nos. 1 and 2 with more murder details, suspect mugshots, the rented getaway car and its recovery and the victim's I.D.ORIGINAL POST, SEPT. 4, 9:52 A.M.: A man was fatally stabbed ... More >>
See Update No. 2 at the end of this post on media reports the false DUI caller is a Costa Mesa police union stooge.See Update No. 1 on a new Costa Mesa Police Department statement claiming the agency is super serious about investigating the false DUI report.ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 24, 2:25 P.M.: Costa M ... More >>
See Update No. 2 at the end of this post with booking photos of the suspects and more details about the attack.See Update No. 1 where a man who claims to be an arrestee says police got the wrong men.ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 22, 7:10 A.M.: An 84-year-old woman didn't want to eat with Ciprian and Paul G. P ... More >>
Curtis Michael Regulus was sentenced in March to two years in state prison for rubbing his crotch up against a 14-year-old girl on a bus, kicked loose during the same month for time served and re-arrested eight days later for being a sex offender caught in a Costa Mesa park. A woman tells the Weekl ... More >>
See the end of this post for an update on the arrest of the suspected driver, Vincent Leon.ORIGINAL POST, JULY 5, 2:23 P.M.: It was a wild morning at the New Harbor Inn in Costa Mesa, as a police patrol car was "violently" rammed twice by a black Nissan pickup, the officer inside responded with seve ... More >>
See Update No. 4 at the end of this post detailing the charges against Thomas Michael Wilhelm, which include the allegation he stole the murder weapon from a neighbor.See Update No. 3 identifying the victim as Christian Marie Murray and providing her business profile.See Update No 2 providing more d ... More >>
A witness to a Costa Mesa arrest that occurred this afternoon on 17th Street between Newport and Orange avenues contacted the Weekly alleging a brutal confrontation between police and an unidentified man. The witness, who didn't want to be identified, said police roughed the man up around 3 p.m ... More >>
Despite it only being Monday, we're putting our faith in the notion that Moxley won't come up with a more worthy miscreant as the week marches on so it can be confidently declared that Andrea Quanita Simpson has won the Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week.The 18-year-old, who apparently has a history of ... More >>
UPDATE, MAY 23, 2:23 P.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department has released the booking photo of Andrew James Jurjaks, the 30-year-old local skinhead accused of trying to fatally stab a man early Tuesday.The full version of the shot at right follows on the next page . . .
UPDATE, APRIL 27, 11:58 A.M.: If you believe sobriety checkpoints cost cities too much for the inconvenience and scant arrests they generate, the Costa Mesa Police Department counters with this: you're wrong.Funded by grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway ... More >>
Prescription drug abuse by South County teens has been a hot topic lately thanks to the documentary Behind the Orange Curtain making its world premiere May 2 at the Newport Beach Film Festival and, due to a sell out, getting a second showing May 3 in the huge Big Newport theater.That makes a couple ... More >>
Hear the one about a man who walks into a bar . . .Well, an apparently intoxicated man with snot on his sweatshirt walks into a bar . . .This isn't a joke:An apparently intoxicated, masked man with snot on his sweatshirt and holding a revolver walked into a Costa Mesa bar early this morning and dema ... More >>
Like cops, soldiers and morticians, journalists use gallows humor to deal with the horrific human events they cover. So, when, say, there are a rash of newsworthy deaths, an ink-stained wretch will say of the no more, "They're dying to get into the paper." Homeless sex offender Curtis Michael Reg ... More >>
UPDATE, MARCH 28, 5:41 PM.: Missing from his Costa Mesa home since Sunday morning, 78-year-old Vo Van Nguyen was found by two mountain bikers this morning on a trail about a mile into Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon, authorities announced. "Nguyen had no shoes and was wearing only ... More >>
The Costa Mesa Police Department is running a DUI checkpoint Saturday night.As is agency policy, the location of the operation is not being released.Wherever it is, it's scheduled to run from 8 p.m. through 2 a.m. Sunday.
Miguel Vasconcellos/OC Weekly[UPDATE: 1/12/2010 2:50 PM] Sergent Phil Meyers, Costa Mesa Police Department's Public Information Officer, told the Weekly no burglaries have been reported at the LAB this month. Creme Tangerine, one of Orange County's quirkier (if not the quirkiest) record stor ... More >>
The U.S. Department of Justice in Los Angeles announced this afternoon that a federal grand jury has indicted six foreign nationals--including one in Costa Mesa--for operating an Internet-based sales scam that allegedly defrauded more than $4.2 million from unsuspecting shoppers since 2007.Accord ... More >>
Pity Robert Carl Hopkins Jr. The Costa Mesan may have simply posed for a bad photo. Or, perhaps the camera caught him at an unflattering angle. Or, the 19-year-old could just need to grow some more into his face (and out of that thing on his forehead).Certainly Costa Mesa's upscale Mesa Verde com ... More >>
Jeffrey Alec HendersonUPDATE, SEPT. 12, 8:39 A.M.: Costa Mesa Police investigators still are not releasing many details about a motive (or anything else) in the Aug. 30 stabbing death of 40-year-old Steven Craig DePhillips near Mesa Verde Country Club. However, it's been revealed that DePhillips ... More >>
The Costa Mesa Police Department no longer discloses the locations before holding DUI checkpoints, but at least the cop shop still informs us when they are happening.Such as the one tonight at 6.The stop in search of unlicensed drivers and those under the influence of drugs or alcohol will contin ... More >>
The Costa Mesa Police Department conducts a specialized "Motorcycle Safety Enforcement Operation" today that will have extra officers patrolling areas frequented by motorcyclists and motorcycle crashes.They'll be on the lookout for riders (and drivers for that matter) who are under the influence ... More >>
UPDATE, JUNE 23, 8:15 A.M.: As a car approached last night's DUI checkpoint at Bristol Street and Randolph Avenue in Costa Mesa, a beer can flew out of a passenger window.The driver was not only cited for allowing an open container in the vehicle, but a passenger was cited and also arrested for h ... More >>
UPDATE, JUNE 14, 3:03 P.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department reports that 1,467 vehicles passed through the checkpoint it set up at the undisclosed intersection of Bear and Baker streets Monday night, 858 vehicles were screened, three drivers were given field sobriety tests . . . . . . and only o ... More >>
Ryan RitchieLest anyone think the cops don't know what's happening on the streets, read this: Avalon Bar's anti-sobriety protest was slated to begin at 9 p.m. Friday. And it did. By 9:05, there were four people holding signs that read stuff like "There's a party in my pants" and "I'm drunk." Ther ... More >>
The Costa Mesa Police Department hopes one good sobriety checkpoint deserves another.From 6 tonight to midnight Thursday, officers will stop vehicles in the 2300 block of Placentia Avenue and check to ensure drivers are licensed and not under the influence of something.Another operation runs from ... More >>
UPDATE, APRIL 11, 8:39 A.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department has released the results of its DUI checkpoint at Newport Boulevard and 17th Street Saturday night:2,127 vehicles through the checkpoint; 611 vehicles screened; 9 drivers given field sobriety tests; 6 DUI suspects arrested; 12 driv ... More >>
After having waged war on the homeless, the undocumented, the undocumented homeless, its own cops and other public employees, Costa Mesa has found a new target.Coyotes.Trapping efforts begin today and continue through March 18, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department employee who had not be ... More >>
A teen girl's report about being bound with her shoelaces, threatened with a knife and choked by two Latinos with gang tattoos at a Costa Mesa city park Saturday night is false, police announced this morning. "Detectives will be requesting a petition filed through the juvenile court system ... More >>
A holiday brought to you by the notorious candy-costume-greeting card cartel presents the perfect opportunity for cops to hold DUI checkpoints and "saturation patrols" all across Orange County."The scariest part of Halloween isn't the spooky costumes and scary pranks," says Sheriff Sandra Hutchen ... More >>
Jim RigheimerOn Saturday, Costa Mesa City Councilman Eric Bever held a news conference to level allegations that on-duty Costa Mesa Police Department officers were intimidating supporters of council candidate Jim Righeimer on the streets.Today, the department that includes personnel belonging to ... More >>
CORRECTION: Goddamn Mayan calendar! Uh, the first of two DUI/Drivers License checkpoints over the next four days will be held from 6 to 11 tonight--as in TONIGHT, Sept. 16.The boys and girls in blue will be at Harbor Boulevard and--jeebus chrysanthemum--Gisler Avenue!?! That be waaaaay too close ... More >>
Courtesy of Costa Mesa Police Department Daniel Patrick Wozniak has been arrested for Juri Julie Kibuishi and Samuel Herr's murders. The horrific deaths of Orange County residents Samuel Herr and Julie Kibuishi three weeks ago made nationwide news in no small part to the grotesque fact tha ... More >>
UPDATE: They have found Sammy Herr's head (details after the jump) . . . Courtesy of Costa Mesa Police DepartmentDaniel Patrick Wozniak has been arrested for Juri Julie Kibuishi and Samuel Herr's murders.Samuel Eliezer Herr's father went to his 26-year-old son's apartment in Costa Mesa Saturday ... More >>
It's DUI checkpoint weekend again.YAY!* Costa Mesa Police Department conducts one, where they will also be doing drivers license checks, from 8 tonight to 2 a.m. Saturday at Bear and Baker streets.* Garden Grove Police Department will also be checking for drunks and unlicensed drivers from 9 p.m. ... More >>
I know you: knowing that the smokies will be out in force New Year's Eve, you'll get your drink on tonight, thinking you'll avoid the long arm of Johnny Law when you stupidly decide to get behind the wheel after hours of imbibing.Dumb move.The Costa Mesa Police Department is getting a jump on New ... More >>
Let me make this perfectly clear, Yáo Míng is not accused of stealing a really expensive watch from the South Coast Plaza Rolex store.Or, put another way, the Houston Rockets center, tallest player in the NBA and highest-paid celebrity for six years running in China is not Shiji Chen.But you wo ... More >>
Various Orange County communities are going to be crawling with extra cops this weekend as pre-Thanksgiving pushes are made to get drunks, druggies, the unlicensed and unsafe motorcyclists off the road and to ensure everyone is buckling up.R. Scott Moxley blogged earlier today about the Orange Co ... More >>
Greetings, racist psychobabble fans!Every Friday, we'll bring you this innovative and occasionally interactive web column featuring the five most racist comments by Register readers. Okay, so maybe there's some racist comments we'll miss, but with so much to choose from, who cares? (Feel free to ale ... More >>
Costa Mesa resident Lori McDonald's odd taste in holiday decorations may be getting her into trouble with the city and her neighbors, but after she described them to us we had to get a look. McDonald's huge 1971 Cadillac Hearse, painted "Plum Crazy" purple has raised the ire of some of her uppity ... More >>
Special MySpace Edition
Are OC's cops a little too excited about busting men for gay sex?
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
