Photo by Daniella Zalcman via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Maybe actor Dennis Farina was taking his former role as an L&O detective too seriously when he packed his suitcase and headed to LAX this morning. Authorities arrested Farina on charges of carrying a concealed weapon when a .22 caliber handgun was found in his carryon. Homicide detectives are working on the case of an infant found dead inside a Lancaster home......

A man suspected of a DUI (influence of heroin that is) was driving on the 100 block of Washington Blvd. last night where officers on patrol witnessed him hit up to ten parked cars near the intersection of Strongs Drive. When officers approached the vehicle, the man resisted attempts by the officers to take him out of the van by allegedly poking them both with a syringe, according to KCBS. The officers then subdued the......

Deputy district attorney Damon Mosler, chief of the narcotics division points out guns and drugs seized during at a news conference held in San Diego today.(AP Photo/Denis Poroy) SDSU may as well stand for Sold Drugs to Some Undercover after 18 students were arrested today on drug charges. Nearly 100 people -- including 75 students -- have been stung in Operation Sudden Fall, a five-month DEA investigation on the San Diego campus.Agents were involved......

Photo from the Getty by Rick O! via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Students, faculty, staff, and parents associated with Lincoln Elementary school in Santa Monica are trying to come to grips today with the weekend arrest of Thomas Beltran, who taught ESL at the school. Beltran, 60, has been charged with molesting four young girls who were his students. An auto fire turned into a brush fire late this afternoon near......

Photo by _ROXANNE_ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr After heisting a rental car that was just about to be rented out, a woman led police on a wild three-county tour of SoCal which ended with her being put out by a spike strip. The chase began in Anaheim and ended near Camp Pendleton. A pot bust took place late last night in a gated community in El Monte, netting cops 1,000......

A 30-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of Samantha Padilla, the 19-year-old LAX employee who was gunned down last week on the West Slauson off-ramp of the northbound 110 Freeway late at night. Jessica Ortega faces arraignment this afternoon for one count of murder. According to the press release issued from the District Attorney's office, the "count carries two special allegations that the principal intentionally discharged a firearm causing death and that the......

Photo by _ gianni's_ photography _ AKA *Prime Imagery* via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr In part to honor the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and in part to "increase the peace" a 40-hour moratorium on violence goes into effect for the City of Los Angeles starting at 6:01 p.m. tonight. Do your part! Because "You can't fire me...I QUIT!" lacks that certain je-ne-sais-quoi, perhaps? An employee in......

Officials still haven't determined whether or not the Orange County Sheriff's deputy found dead in an unmarked car yesterday shot himself or was a homicide victim. BUT...Just hours before he was found, [41-year-old Gerald] Stenger was charged Wednesday morning with molesting a 12-year-old boy for two years after meeting him through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County. Stenger was charged with one felony count of lewd acts on a child younger than 14 and......

Frequent LAist Featured Photos contributor discarted submits this photo and tells us what's happening. These cops harassed me the entire time i photographed them during this arrest. The only way I could get them to back off (especially the bald guy; he was the most aggressive) was to ask him if he wanted to talk to my lawyer. The bald cop then said, "Oh I bet you would do that. you're out for the......

It was a tense Good Friday for those in the vicinity of the 4300 block of Club Vista Drive yesterday in Palmdale when the attempt to serve an arrest warrant on a man wanted for a 2004 North Hollywood murder barricaded himself inside a home for several hours and the neighborhood went into lockdown mode. The Daily News explains yesterday's events and how they impacted area residents: Several blocks around the Club Vista Drive home......

Police arrested Pedro Espinoza on Friday, but the announcement of charges came late this morning, just as the funeral began for 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr. who was shot dead a few steps from his home earlier this month. KCBS reports that 19-year-old Espinoza is 'an active participant in a criminal street gang and the murder was carried out to further the activities of the criminal street gang." He is being arraigned today downtown on a......

Photo by Plankton 4:20 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr More on the arrest of Kazuyoshi Miura, who is accused of killing his wife in LA in 1981 and is being extradited from Japan: Turns out it was his blogging that got the authorities' attention. Bad blogger! Bad! Another one from the Cold Case Files solved: 47-year-old Wayne Osbourne of Virginia has been charged in the 1988 murder of Diana Michael, who......

There are many ways to handle a tough break-up with a girlfriend, but torturing and injuring a little puppy isn't one of them. The Daily News reports that a 22-year old Encino man, Steven William Butcher, was arrested yesterday in the 6400 block of Bertrand Avenue for animal cruelty. After a break-up with his girlfriend, Butcher was reportedly distraught and had threatened aloud to harm his small puppy. Worried about the man's mental state, a......

It sounds a little like something you might see on COPS: What was just going to be a routine traffic stop in Glendale turned out to be a major nab for the FBI. Police pulled over Sarkis "Sako" Militonyan on January 27th because his white Chevy Tahoe had no plates and was positioned in two lanes. According to the Daily News, the cops "discovered he was a fugitive and a search of his SUV turned......

USC students might be trying to claim victory in an unspoken hardest-partying contest among local college students--or they're just doing what college kids tend to do: PARTY!!!! In today's wee morning hours, bragging rights may well have been earned by a handful of revelers, according to ABC7: Police broke up a gathering of about 1,000 students early Saturday, arresting nine of them on suspicion of public drunkenness. LAPD began receiving complaints about the party near......

Probably the worst place to do a crime spree within a short period of time is Burbank. There are police everywhere and they are total squares, which makes for police who don't fuck around. Add in dumb teenager arsonists suspected of setting a fire at Michael's Bar and Grill in Burbank and four or five other small fires within a 15-minute time span early this morning. A perimeter was set up by Burbank police and......

Last night, 20 year old Ricardo Hernandez was killed by gunfire in a gang-related shooting in Pacoima. The incident took place in the 11800 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The Daily News is reporting the arrest of 30 year old Pablo Serrano who is "veteran documented gang member possibly trying to make a name for himself." The incident and subsequent arrest occured when during a routing air patrol the police "began following a speeding car......

Even Flat Stanley pays his Orange Line fare. The Daily News has an idea. We're not so much into it, but here is how it goes. While Metro contracts with LA County Sheriff's, the LAPD has a man who knows something about enforcing ticketless travelers on transit systems and he happens to be top cop Chief William Bratton. Some will remember that he became famous for his "broken windows" theory that enforced smaller crimes......

A cyclist westbound on Hollywood Boulevard hears a loud horn behind him as he rides in the right side of the #2 lane, alongside a row of parked cars and dangerously close to the door zone. The motorist with the heavy horn hand turns out to be Metro Bus Driver #XXXXX and she passes the cyclist so closely that his left hand touches the side of the bus as it speeds past him. The number......

Nearly 12 years after his infamous acquittal in the criminal trial in which he was charged with murdering his ex-wife and her beau, OJ Simpson is locked up on multiple felony charges. View Simpson's in-custody status / charges (.pdf). This time there was no Brentwood stakeout, no Ford Bronco, and somewhere in heaven Johnnie Cochran isn't the least bit surprised. Friday he was questioned, earlier today he was booked, and tonight, ordered "held without......

In a stunning jailhouse interview, the Newport Beach Daily Pilot spoke with incarcerated former USC star quarterback Todd Marinovich who hinted that the OC is to blame for his recent relapse that lead to his arrest for possession of needles and meth. His path to this arrest started roughly a month ago, when Marinovich said he first relapsed after nearly a year of sobriety. “Sometimes it just happens. I’ll get into a situation where......

At 4:30 p.m. today, there will be a press conference over Lindsay Lohan's 5:30 a.m. drunk driving crash that happened this morning on Sunset Blvd. She crashed her black Mercedes Convertible after hitting a curb and going into the bushes.Lohan, 20, and two other people were in her 2005 Mercedes SL-65 when it crashed on Sunset Boulevard around 5:30 a.m., Sgt. Mike Foxen said. "She was cited and released because she has been admitted to......

Renán Almendárez Coello, a/k/a Maximo Almendares, a/k/a El Cucuy, a/k/a El Cucuy de la Manana (The Boogeyman of the Morning) is having one heckuva New Years hangover. He surrendered himself to police today and was charged with making criminal threats to his wife and on the phone to a police officer. Almendares is best known as the popular morning host of La Raza 97.9 (KLAX-FM) in Los Angeles. His picture (like you see to......