Sheriff's Lawyer Pal Going to the Slammer: Somehow defense attorney Joe Cavallo—indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona’s longtime drinking buddy—was able to operate a bail bonds scheme inside Carona’s jail. Hmmm. Wonder how that happened. Any ideas Mikey? Anyhow, yesterday Cavallo (pictured) became the latest in a series of Carona associates to win incarceration. Superior Court Judge Carla M. Singer ordered him to serve six months in jail, which—given his creativity—could prove profitable in the long run. But the 52-year-old won’t have to surrender until March.
Cavallo became famous in this publication because of his vicious performance defending the Haidl Three, which included Gregory Scott Haidl—the son of Carona’s dirty Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl. (The elder Haidl has acknowledged to federal prosecutors that he’s a crook too.) The three men filmed themselves raping an unconscious 16-year-old girl on a Newport Beach pool table. Before they finished, they laughed as they repeatedly plunged a Snapple bottle, lit cigarette, apple juice can and pool cue into the victim’s vagina and rectum. Cavallo argued in court that the girl was a “slut” and should have been charged with raping the Haidl Three.
Scorecard: Carona (pictured with a mob-tied contributor at a Newport Beach bar) indicted after an FBI investigation? Check. Carona’s wife indicted? Check. Carona’s top mistress indicted? Check. Carona pal nailed for illegal acts? Check. Carona’s two handpicked assistant sheriff’s convicted of public corruption? Check. Carona's Mafia-tied campaign contributor and party pal convicted? Check.
Wonder who in Calamity Mike’s clan could be next…
Rice in China? James Rice was born in Newport Beach, grew up in Costa Mesa, headed the Young Republicans at UCLA in the late 80s, graduated and with nothing but $100 moved to China to teach English. This weekend, the 42-year-old is featured by Don Lee in the LA Times. Why? Not because he speaks fluent Mandarin, commutes between China and California every few weeks and attends a “predominantly black West Angeles Church of God in Christ on Crenshaw Boulevard.” Tyson Foods Inc. uses Rice to sell $200 million worth of chicken annually to communist China. In recent Chinese product scandals, Rice played diplomat between Chinese leaders and the American government, according to Lee who writes from Shanghai.
Where the hell is Adolf when you need him? This is not a good time to be a white supremacist in OC. Two of their boys are facing one way trips to San Quentin’s death row. On Friday, prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh announced that he will seek the ultimate punishment against Billy Joe Johnson, the Costa Mesa product who has been featured in this publication. Earlier this year, Johnson—already a convicted killer for ambushing a young man in Huntington Beach with a hammer—claimed on the witness stand that he also executed a fellow member of Public Enemy Number One (PENI) Death Squad. It’s believed in prosecution circles that Johnson made the admission in hopes of blocking convictions against two of his PENI pals in the case. Didn’t work. Jacob Rump and Michael Lamb got roasted. Lamb faces a second DP trial after one jury deadlocked on the issue. Rump is a lifer.
— R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.