As she prepared for bed on the final night of her life, 28-year-old Orange County resident Joan Virginia Anderson donned a blue nightgown and put her two kids—an infant girl and a 3-year-old boy—to bed. In the wee hours of that morning—March 8, 1979—Anderson found herself awakened in bed by an intruder while her husband […]
Moxley Confidential
Has Fletcher Jones, Mercedes Sales King, Finally Escaped Second Bad Marriage?
In late 1997—years before he’d reach superrich status by owning the world’s most successful Mercedes-Benz dealership in Newport Beach, Fletcher Jones became enthralled with girlfriend Kimberly, whose $88,000 net worth at the time mostly consisted of jewelry gifts from her paramour, a man who’d by then amassed an $18 million fortune. Jones—well-known in Southern California […]
Newport Beach Cops Lose Demand to End Lawsuit Over Taxi Fare Dispute
A private attorney representing the city of Newport Beach insists two police officers—who pummeled and jailed an unarmed 4-foot, 11-inch female over a pending $16.70 private taxi bill—were actually “trying to help a drunk woman pay her cab driver and avoid arrest.” That’s part of the argument Irvine-based lawyer Brian Wright-Bushman made in hopes of […]
Crime Lab Director Says Too Busy to Search for Forensic Science Errors
Bruce Houlihan enjoys puzzles, but the Orange County Crime Lab director is purposely failing to solve one of the biggest riddles of his career: Why did his office quietly give conflicting, pro-prosecution, expert testimony in two cold-case, rape/murder trials? Houlihan met that question—pending at least since 2016, when the Weekly revealed the controversy—with palpable silence […]
Accused Killer at Maryland Newspaper Engaged OC Weekly
The man police arrested on June 28 for the lethal mass shooting at a Maryland daily newspaper repeatedly engaged OC Weekly as he stalked a daily reporter who’d left the Capital Gazette and landed at the Orange County Register. Twitter records show Jarrod Ramos, the accused killer of five people in Annapolis, reached out to […]
OC Right-Wing Activist Files Lawsuit Over Dislikes of His YouTube Videos
Orange County conservative activist Kenneth Strawn—who uses his social media outlets to routinely rant against “retards,” “snowflake Jews,” “blacks,” “lesbian hobbits,” “senile idiots,” “illegal aliens,” “losers” and “intellectually lazy cowards” while championing Donald Trump—has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his constitutional rights have been trampled by people who “dislike” his YouTube videos. Strawn claims a […]
OC Weekly Earns Los Angeles Press Club Honors
At the Los Angeles Press Club’s 60th Southern California Journalism Awards last weekend, OC Weekly’s R. Scott Moxley won three honors, including Best Columnist. The judges wrote that Moxley Confidential represents “a classic example of good, old-fashioned muckraking and watchdog journalism.” Moxley also won honors for News Feature (Forensic Science Deception in SoCal Murder Trials) […]
California AG’s Protection of Dirty Cops Angers Murder Victim’s Husband
In his campaign to expose Orange County law enforcement corruption, Paul Wilson—who lost his wife in the area’s worse, senseless mass murder in 2011—published a recent editorial pressuring an oddly resistant California Attorney Xavier Becerra into holding dirty cops accountable. A superior court judge found that multiple Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputies repeatedly lied […]
Did SoCal Cop, Mystery Texas Lady, LA Mobsters & Drug Cartel Unite?
Orange County resident John Saro Balian worked as a cop with the Glendale Police Department and maintained an eyebrow-raising relationship with a Texas woman identified as “SS” in federal law-enforcement files. On multiple occasions, Balian flew to Brownsville and crossed the international border into Mexico with “SS.” One of Balian’s numerous “burner” phones was registered […]
Snitch for Scandal-Plagued OC Prosecutor’s Office Is a Shameless Fabulist
If he’d chosen acting as his profession instead of narcotics trafficking and stealing when not partying with Southern California white-supremacist gangsters, Bryan Jason Goldstein could have convincingly played a supporting role as a mob soldier on The Sopranos. Goldstein has the confident stride and husky physique; the 6-foot-2, 250-pounder tries to attract women by wearing […]
Taxpayers Subsidize Another Orange County Sheriff’s Bad Arrest Case
Where would local law enforcement officers twice torment the same innocent man and twice lose resulting California civil litigation with taxpayers footing the bill? Answer: Orange County, where folks like District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens routinely defend police shenanigans. The latest fiasco involves Merritt L. Sharp III. In 1997, Garden Grove police […]
BREAKING: FBI Accuses U.S. Marine of Molesting Japanese Student on American Airlines
The FBI is accusing an intoxicated U.S. Marine of sexually molesting a Japanese student during a 10-hour American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles. According to FBI Special Agent Dana Murphy, Zachary Kahl this month violated federal law by knowingly engaging “in sexual contact without permission” with a victim identified only as “Y.U.” in […]
Sheriff’s Orange County Crime Lab Murder Scandal Unfolds in Courts
It took nearly two decades for anyone outside of law enforcement to discover that an Orange County Crime Lab official aided one prosecutor in winning a murder trial with sworn forensic scientific testimony and a year later altered her opinion to help a second deputy DA prevail in a separate capital case without jurors knowing […]
Prominent Newport Beach Lawyer Accused of Dodging $10 Million Malpractice Debt
If you believe Phillip Greer, he could be California’s most poverty-stricken, veteran lawyer famous for representing embattled Orange County Republican politicians from Congressman Ed Royce to state Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen to Supervisor Shawn Nelson. Greer has lived for decades in an expansive $2.1 million Newport Coast home close to the Pacific Ocean but, after losing […]
FBI Seizes $3 Million From Owners of Orange County Nursing College in Fraud Probe
Accusing the owners of Pacific College, a private Orange County nursing school, of operating a brazen student financial aid scam, the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking legal ownership of more than $3 million FBI agents recently seized following a corruption probe. “Beginning in November 2012 and continuing through the present day, the FBI, the […]
SoCal Murder Victim’s Husband and Killer’s Attorney Form Unlikely Bond
CHAPTER ONE Having waited nearly four years to see punishment for the unhinged, heavily armed man who in 2011 murdered his wife and seven other people in Orange County’s worst mass shooting, Paul Wilson stood before Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals on March 20, 2015, incredulous that People v. Scott Dekraai would take more […]
Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas Mocks Court of Appeal’s Snitch Ruling
Before letting police officers answer questions on the witness stand about possible crimes, prosecutors usually establish credibility by eliciting their work experience. Most cops impressively recall the day, month and year of every promotion, even in multidecade careers. But recently inside a Little Saigon-area courtroom, Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputy Cyril Foster appeared […]
Bloody Orange County Cop v. Lawyer Fight Lands in Federal Court
A violent state courthouse encounter between an Orange County district attorney’s office (OCDA) investigator and a criminal defense attorney tied to the infamous jailhouse informant scandal officially landed inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse today with both sides using profanity-laced opening statements to portray their clients as the victim in a bloody 2016 ruckus. […]
Dominant Santa Ana Landlord Michael Harrah Trips in Original Mike’s Restaurant Lawsuit
Admirers and critics alike consider Michael Harrah, the Newport Beach real-estate developer who owns Original Mike’s Restaurant, one of Southern California’s most daring, colorful entrepreneurs. Harrah bought The Orange County Register headquarters in 2014 and this year attempted to lure Jeff Bezos’ $5 billion Amazon plant to Santa Ana. The 6-foot-6, thrill-seeking, white-bearded, Whittier native […]
ACLU Aims Lawsuit At Remorseless Orange County Law Enforcement Bosses in Snitch Scandal
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today announced a lawsuit against Orange County’s top two remorseless law enforcement officials for continuing to trample the constitutional rights of charged, pre-trial defendants with the illegal use of jailhouse informants. “The Orange County criminal justice system is in disrepair and disrepute,” the ACLU’s Peter Eliasberg and Brandan Hemme […]
OC Crime-Lab Boss Dodges Inquiry About Forensic-Science Flip-Flops in Murder Cases
Having come under fire for his Orange County Crime Lab rendering conflicting, pro-prosecution forensic-science testimony that separate murder trial juries unwittingly accepted, director Bruce Houlihan launched a two-prong strategy: deny any wrongdoing to a news reporter, then dodge questions from the attorney who discovered the scandal. But Houlihan’s unforced errors aren’t sitting well with Superior […]
