U.S. District Court

Little Saigon Drug Dealer Caught With 57 Pounds of Cocaine Wins Prison Trip

A Little Saigon drug dealer caught selling approximately 57 pounds of cocaine in May 2011 has won a 31-month trip to federal prison. U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna punished Tung Le this month for participating in a cocaine operation that distributed illegal narcotics throughout Los Angele ... More >>

Kobe Bryant Lawyer: Mother-Son Dispute Over Memorabilia Auction Is Not A Marketing Ploy

An inquisitive federal judge in Orange County today left a temporary restraining order intact for at least two more days in the dispute over whether an auction house working for the mother of Kobe Bryant is legally entitled to sell nearly 1,000 pieces of personal memorabilia of the NBA superstar's y ... More >>

South Coast Plaza-Area Cocaine Dealer Wins Long Prison Trip

A federal law-enforcement investigation into a Canada-based narcotics-and-money-laundering network operating in Southern California has resulted in the loss of freedom for a 33-year-old man who participated in a South Coast Plaza-area deal for 37 kilograms of cocaine. Unbeknownst to Jun Jie Zhang, ... More >>

5 Reasons You Missed Navel Gazing, Starring Chris Dorner, Mike Carona and Meth Lovers

As Gustavo revealed, it was impossible for us Navel Gazers to gaze at our navels since Thursday afternoon . . .Gremlins Attack OC Weekly Website!But that did not stop the more hopeful among us from writing blog posts all day Friday in case we were suddenly online again. History shows we were not, s ... More >>

Remorseful OC Heroin Dealer Faces Federal Judge

Though 32 years old, Vince Gabriel Gaborno has compiled a 17-year criminal rap sheet that includes robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted burglary, repeated illegal gun and knife possessions, multiple parole and probation violations, drug dealing and membership in a Mexican Mafia tied stre ... More >>

LA-OC Unemployment Fraudster Thought He'd Get Sweetheart Punishment Until Judge Said Otherwise

In 2009, convicted felon Bobby Langley and Navesia Samuels thought they'd concocted a foolproof criminal plan in Los Angeles and Orange counties.The pair invented imaginary businesses, imaginary employees, imaginary payrolls, and then abused American Family Life Assurance Company (AFLAC) and governm ... More >>

Federal Judge Tosses Out Animal Cruelty-Related $25 Million Lawsuit

A complaint seeking at least $25 million from Orange County and numerous employees at the Orange County Heathcare Agency's Animal Care Services for illegally seizing hundreds of exotic animals from a Stanton specialty pet shop has been tossed out of federal court. Jerry L. Steering--the Newport ... More >>

Recidivist Human Smuggler Wants Mexican Resort Probation

You've probably heard a lousy American economy has reduced illegal immigration passions from Mexico into the United States, but that story isn't the reality in ongoing human smuggling cases in Orange County. Consider the case of Ensenada, Mexico resident Timothy John Sweeney, a native of Rockfo ... More >>

Violating Hello Kitty & Disney Mice Costs Anaheim Business Owners $80,000

Two people tied to an Anaheim business must pay nearly $80,000 for violating copyright protections on Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse products, OC Weekly has learned.A federal judge inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana this month determined that Carlos Rocca and Roxana ... More >>

Orange County Drug Dealers Win Lengthy Prison Trips in Federal Court

Two Orange County heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine drug dealers have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms this month inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna sentenced Michael Wayne Ward--a 36-year-old member of the Eastside cr ... More >>

Orange County Defense Contractor Punished For Repeatedly Cheating IRS

An Orange County businessman whose company has supplied small electronic airplane parts for C5 cargo planes and F18 Fighter jets has been punished for repeatedly cheating on this federal income taxes.According to court records inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, 69-year-old Sha ... More >>

Santa Ana Police Killing Of 18-Year-Old Man Prompts Pre-Jury Trial Settlement

The family of an 18-year-old man shot and killed by Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) officers under questionable circumstances in January 2011 has won a financial settlement claim, according to court records.Lawyers for the estate of Martin Ruiz asserted in a federal civil rights lawsuit that ... More >>

Hawaiian BBQ Legal Battle Over "Ono" Settles in Federal Court

A federal judge in Orange County last week approved of a consent judgment and permanent injunction against a businesswoman who violated a federal trademark belonging to S & S Hawaii BBQ.U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford declared that S & S clearly controls the rights to "Ono Hawai ... More >>

Dish Network Wants Accused Orange County Satellite Pirate To Pay $6.4 Million Penalty

Dish Network is asking a federal judge in Orange County to grant it summary judgment against a Little Saigon man who allegedly operated a satellite piracy website and order him to pay $6,376,600 in damages.Tan Nguyen, a single father of two young boys in Westminster, told the Weekly that he was ... More >>

Santa Ana Loses Ruling On Handicap Parking Spaces & Settles Federal Lawsuit

The Center For Disability Access has helped a handicapped woman win an undisclosed settlement from the City of Santa Ana after making vehicle parking spaces dangerous for the disabled in the downtown area near a series of federal, state and local government buildings. Roberta Rogers--who has mu ... More >>

Lawyer: Anaheim Residents Are More Afraid of Police Than Gangsters; Demands City Release Evidence in Cop Killing of Manuel Diaz

Worried the City of Anaheim and local prosecutors are acting in collusion to protect a cop who fatally shot an unarmed Latino man in the back of head in July, lawyers for the estate of Manuel Diaz are hoping a federal judge on Monday will order the government to stop delaying document discovery in a ... More >>

A Killer of Newport Beach Couple Tied To Yacht Anchor & Thrown Overboard Wins Legal Point

The Ninth Circuit federal appellate court today handed a legal victory of sorts to the lone woman involved in the gruesome 2004 murder at sea of Thomas and Jackie Hawks in hopes of stealing the couple's 55-foot, Newport Beach-based yacht.The panel ruled that U.S. District Court Judge Phili ... More >>

Orange County Woman Is Guilty Of Passport Photo Scheme For Vietnamese

Orange County's Kathleen Luong must have thought she'd outwitted federal immigration officials with a 2009 passport photo fraud scheme to help Vietnamese nationals illegally enter the United States.But she was mistaken.In late November, officials arrested Luong following a two-count, federal grand j ... More >>

Orange County Jail Deputies Cleared In Inmate Abuse Lawsuit

Four years ago, an inmate in the Orange County Jail filed a lawsuit alleging that from 2004 to 2006 a group of deputies denied him clean clothes, clean bedding, rooftop exercise, mail, messages, toilets, water, medical attention and access to a complaint system absent retaliation.But this month a fe ... More >>

Meet California's Luckiest IRS Tax Cheat: Dennis O. Brown

At least in two respects, Dennis O. Brown is a lucky Californian.Brown wanted to steal $492,142 from the federal treasury and has a younger brother, Edmund, who was dumb enough to file a fraudulent 2008 federal income tax return in his own name for that amount.The plot might have worked if it hadn't ... More >>

GHB Party Drug Sales Earns CA Chiropractor Tepid Federal Punishment

A California chiropractor caught in a Newport Beach Police Department (NBPD) sting operation involving illegal sales of the popular party drug GHB must be relieved today that a federal judge in Orange County gave him a huge break.Dr. Ronald French of Ventura County could have been sent to priso ... More >>

Lenny Dykstra, Former Pro Baseball Player Out of OC, Gets 6 1/2 More Months in Prison

Santa Ana-born pride of Garden Grove High, pro baseball warrior, Orange County car wash king, crony of CNBC Mad Moneyman Jim Cramer and convicted thief, druggie, conman and sex offender Lenny Dykstra has been sentenced to 6 1/2 months in lockup despite getting into fights with jailers. U.S. District ... More >>

Little Lupe Fuentes' Vaginal Likeness Lawsuit Moves From California Courts To Texas

We first reported in July that Southern California porn star Lupe "Little Lupe" Fuentes had filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against the Texas manufacturer of Fleshlight, a flesh-like masturbatory sleeve that claims to perform the role of "artificial vagina" with the "most realistic s ... More >>

Notorious Mongols Gangster Admits RICO Guilt in Federal Court

Federal prison will soon get a little bit heavier for many years.A 6-foot-4 and 380 pound, onetime gang leader of the Mongols Nation Motorcycle Club--a rival to the Hells Angels--has admitted he repeatedly violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) including during a ... More >>

Federal Lawsuit Challenges Sex Offender Bans in Parks of Four Orange County Cities

Just days after District Attorney Tony Rackauckas honored Fountain Valley for approving on first reading a ban on registered sex offenders in city parks--based on a county law he co-wrote--word came that a registered sex offender has sued two cities bordering Fountain Valley and two other Orange Cou ... More >>

What's The Price For Cocaine, Women, Guns and Expensive Cars?

Little Saigon construction worker Khoa Dang Pham enjoyed hanging around his drug dealing buddies and he didn't think about the potential consequences because the cocaine, women, guns and expensive vehicles proved too tantalizing. Pham's legitimate employer, girlfriend, little sister and cousin all s ... More >>

Grenades and Pipe Bombs Couldn't Save Orange County Meth, Pot Dealer From Federal Agents

A 47-year-old unemployed Orange County businessman--who ran a busy methamphetamine and marijuana operation from a Garden Grove house protected with grenades, pipe bombs, rifles, a shotgun and a massive cache of high-powered ammunition--learned his fate this month in federal court.Micky Apostolovic, ... More >>

Feds Sue Owners of 3 Anaheim Buildings with Pot Clinics, Warn Others They May Be Next

"As part of an ongoing initiative against the commercial marijuana industry in California"--a.k.a. two-faced Obama's war on patients for Big Pharma--the feds today filed three asset forfeiture lawsuits targeting Anaheim clinics. "While these marijuana stores purport to be 'medical marijuana dispen ... More >>

Irvine Investment Operator Penalized For Scam Claiming 1,000 Percent Returns

Omar Ali Rizvi graduated from law school in San Francisco and earned a Masters of Laws degree in securities and financial regulations at Georgetown University Law School in the nation's capital, but its obvious that the Irvine man never learned to obey the law.In the last decade, Rizvi has been conv ... More >>

OC Killer Capured After America's Most Wanted Broadcast Says He is Innocent

An Orange County killer captured in Arizona after featured on America's Most Wanted and convicted of a brutal murder has been begging officials to reopen his case.Cuong Viet Nguyen, 31, maintains that he killed Tri Bui in self defense following a ridiculously stupid 2005 spat outside the All Star Ca ... More >>

Little Saigon Ecstasy Dealer Prepares For Long Federal Prison Trip

A 36-year-old Little Saigon man who sold 10,000 Ecstasy tablets while unaware he was under FBI surveillance in an operation called "Candy Maker" had hoped to serve no more than one year in a federal prison.Hung Xuan Dong of Westminster claims that government undercover agents and confidential inform ... More >>

Anaheim Settles Police Brutality Lawsuit Filed By Ringling Brothers Circus Protester

An Orange County man who accused Anaheim cops of committing police brutality during a 2010 animal rights protest of Ringling Brothers Circus at the Honda Center has won a settlement from the city before a federal jury could consider the case.In his 2011 lawsuit, Bryan Monell claimed that he was vide ... More >>

How Much is a Dead Mexican Worth? According to the U.S. Government, Less Than a Used Hyundai

One night in July 2008, U.S. Border Patrol agents with the Department of Homeland Security found Tomas Sanchez Orzuna on a street in San Clemente, sprayed him in the face with toxic chemicals, handcuffed him, beat him, took him to a check point station and hosed him down so violently with water he d ... More >>

Little Saigon Cocaine Dealer Seeks Leniency After DEA Sting

A 30-year-old Vietnamese American woman seeking leniency for her involvement in an international cocaine distribution network and operating in Little Saigon, Beverly Hills and Santa Ana didn't get her way.U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Feess in Los Angeles this month sentenced Linda Pham to a ter ... More >>

Kevin Williams, Irvine College Student Studying in Florida, Swept Up in Underage Sex Sting

You know those Huntington Beach Police Department stings that have officers pose as underage girls on social networking sites to catch sexual predators? Guess Kevin Williams wasn't paying attention to those when he was back home in Irvine.The student at Eckerd College in Pinellas County, Florida, w ... More >>

OC's Triple Threat Bank Bandit Pleads Guilty

Serial bandit Joe Pettis III got into an August 19, 2011, dispute with his daughter and decided that the answer to his frustration was a bank robbery spree that ended after a televised car chase and him lying on the highway with a couple dozen CHP weapons pointed at his head.Armed only with a handwr ... More >>

Orange County "Wealth Coach" Sentenced To Federal Prison For Running $25 Million Scam

Thanks in part to licenses to practice law and mortgage brokering in California, Gerald Lawrence Wolfe once boasted that he and his wife enjoyed monthly income that topped $150,000.Wolfe, 42, bragged so much about his financial acumen that he confidently presented himself as a "Wealth Coach" with a ... More >>

Investors Sue Coldwell Banker for $50 Million for Alleged Fund Scheme

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford in Santa Ana has ruled that a $50 million lawsuit against Coldwell Banker on behalf of 1,300 investors in seven real estate investment funds can move forward.Five plaintiffs are named in the suit that alleges an investment scheme was perpetrated by Real E ... More >>

Leo James Zabala Jr. Accused of Posting Craigslist Personals Seeking Sex With High School Girls

​After a personal ad posted Sept. 6 in Craigslist's Orange County "Casual Encounters" section offered to pay high school girls $60 for intercourse and $40 for head, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investi ... More >>

[UPDATED with Mattel Getting Bitch-Slapped:] Chick Fight! Chick Fight! Barbie vs. Bratz

​UPDATE, APRIL 21, 12:31 P.M.: The sluttier, younger chick wins!A federal court jury in Santa Ana not only rejected claims that MGA Entertainment's popular line of Bratz dolls violates the copyright of Mattel's Barbie, but the panel awarded MGA $88.4 million for trade secrets misappropriated by M ... More >>

Decision Against Resuming Same-Sex Weddings Emboldens Prop. 8 Backers But Fails to Deter Foes

​Three federal judges ruled today that gay marriage cannot resume in California until state and federal appeals courts decide the fate of Proposition 8--something that may be more than a year away.Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Michael Daly Hawkins and N. Randy Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeal for t ... More >>

Barbara Coe Calls U.S. Federal Court Judge Vaughn Walker a 'Homo'

​California Coalition for Immigration Reform head witch Barbara Coe sends so many damn e-mails to her minions that some inevitably fall behind the radiator--like the one I just found that's dated Aug. 6, 2010. The occasion was the repealing of the anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 by U.S. District C ... More >>

Spanish in the Workplace, Part Ninety-Eleven

[¡Ask a Mexican!] What better way to learn Spanish than shutting your yap and watching 'Sábado Gigante'?

3 of Top 10 Most Wanted International Fugitives Hail From Orange County

​Long before the Interwebs were awash with lists like "Top 10 Squeaky Cat Toys" and "Top 25 Geeky Video Game Comic Book D&D Tie-Ins," the FBI was issuing its top 10 lists of most-wanted criminals.Perhaps you've even seen them at the post office.The long arm of the bureau extends beyond the 50 ... More >>

Closing Arguments in Prop. 8 Trial Begin Today

​Today marks the beginning of the closing arguments in the trial brought in San Francisco federal court against California's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8.A few developments from recent weeks in the Prop. 8-watching world if you haven't been following along:

Ahmad Noory Could Get 45 Years for Alleged Role in Insider Trader Scheme

​A Ladera Ranch man is expected to surrender to federal authorities this afternoon to face charges connected to an insider trading scheme in which he and four others allegedly used confidential information obtained from two investor relations firms to generate more than $1.7 million in illegal ... More >>

Bigger PR Nightmare: Henry Nicholas III or OC Register?

FishBowlLA.com connects the dots today between indicted Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas III, the Orange County Register's parent company and the "PR guy" for both of them: Sitrick & Co. does PR for Freedom Communications, Inc.Mike Sitrick is also the PR guy for Dr. Henry Nicholas III, the for ... More >>

Let justice roll down...

"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an overflowing stream." That passage from the Book of Amos (5:24) is the sort of thing lawyers working for nonprofit organizations repeat to themselves before marching off to court to fight the good fight. Of course, it may not be what the la ... More >>

Whose Online is it, Anyway?

Making Dornans Enemies List