A man convicted for the beating and strangling death of an escort in a Garden Grove hotel room has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 36-year-old Cesar Gomez of El Monte was convicted in the fall for murdering 24-year-old Ashley Lilly at the Crown Plaza Anaheim Resort, near Disneyland, according to City News Service. more ›

Catherine Kieu, the Garden Grove woman accused of taking a kitchen knife to her husband's penis and tossing the severed genitals in the garbage disposal, has entered a not guilty plea in court today. more ›

Police are looking for two teenagers who beat up a store clerk while they were stealing beer, reports KTLA. The two boys walked into a Circle K in Garden Grove at about 11 p.m. last night. more ›

The Garden Grove woman accused of chopping off her estranged husband's penis and tossing it into the garbage disposal in July was indicted Thursday of two felony counts. Catherine Kieu, also known as Catherine Kieu Becker, 48, was charged with torture and aggravated mayhem by the Orange County grand jury today. more ›

A 54-year-old man was hit by two cars on Wednesday while crossing a street in Garden Grove, according to City News Service. The first fled the scene, and the second dragged the man for 750 feet. The incident occurred at 6:30 p.m. Gregory Martin was crossing West street outside a crosswalk when he was struck by a Dodge Magnum, then a Ford Explorer. more ›

Marcos Gonzalez, 28, has been on the run since Wednesday morning after he ran over the legs of a motorcycle officer with his vehicle. The 35-year-old officer pulled Gonzalez over for not wearing his seat belt around 9:30am. The men came to a stop in the parking lot of a shopping center. more ›

A car crash on Sunday night leaves a Garden Grove police sergeant injured and a 23-year-old Los Angeles man accused of driving under the influence (DUI). The driver was traveling east on Trask Avenue around 9:35pm in a small four-door sedan and slammed into an unmarked police car heading south on Euclid Avenue, according to The OC Register. more ›

New details have surfaced in court papers in the case of the woman who severed her husband's penis and mangled the hacked off unit in a garbage disposal after allegedly poisoning his tofu dinner and tying him to a bed earlier this month, says L.A. Now. more ›

The woman who chopped off her husband's penis and then put it for a spin in the garbage disposal may have poisoned his tofu soup before the gnarly incident went down. Detectives working the case have sent a sample of the soup to the lab, says L.A. Now. more ›

Gentlemen, if your wife cut off your junk, tossed it in the garbage disposal, and flipped the switch, would you be "in good spirits"? Such is the take of detectives from the Garden Grove Police Department who interviewed the as-yet-unnamed victim in the now-infamous "penis chop" case, according to the NY Daily News. more ›

Well... a woman is under arrest in Garden Grove for allegedly drugging her husband's dinner, tying him to a bed, cutting off his penis and then throwing it in a garbage disposal (and turning it on) say police, according to KTLA. more ›

OC coffee drinkers who have a hankering for something spicy with their brew might soon have to find a new Peach Pit. The OC Register reports that the Garden Grove City Council is going to consider an ordinance that will crack down on Vietnamese cafes in Little Saigon where waitresses dress in lingerie or bikinis. The ordinance includes specifications on how revealing outfits can be -- for instance, no underboob. more ›

Wearing uniforms and falsely claiming to be with the water department, burglars in Garden Grove have been gaining access to homes, stealing cash, jewelry and other valuables from mostly elderly residents, reports KTLA. Authorities released a sketch of one of the thieves, "described as Hispanic man, about 5 feet 3 inches tall, with a heavyset build." more ›

What looked like a possibly just a few days ago became a reality today. "Crystal Cathedral Ministries, an Orange County landmark and megachurch founded by television evangelist Robert H. Schuller, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday morning," reports the OC Registar. more ›

Authorities in Garden Grove are looking for two suspects who pretended to be police officers while conducting a home-invasion robbery yesterday in Orange County. "Garden Grove police said the men gained access to the home on the 10500 block of Woodbury Road after claiming to be police at about 5 p.m." reports abc7. Once inside the residence, the posing pair tied up a man and an 11-year-old boy, then tore the home apart looking for goods to steal. "The men got away with an unknown amount of cash and jewelry." The victims were not hurt during the course of the robbery. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Garden Grove Police Department at (714) 741-5800. more ›

The thieves in this Grinchey Garden Grove heist are still at large, according to the Orange County Register: "In a highly orchestrated burglary, someone broke into the United Labor Agency of Orange County's underground storage facility over the holiday weekend and carted out loads of donated toys and an estimated 20,000 pounds of food, said Sgt. James Colgrove of the Garden Grove Police Department." The agency has 24 days before Christmas to recover its losses. more ›

78-year-old Mong Kim Tran does not like getting pulled over. Via the Daily Breeze, here's the craziness that took place last week: "When he was told he was getting a speeding ticket, Tran came within three inches of the officer's face and began screaming... When the officer told Tran to back off, Tran took a fighting stance, and struck the officer twice with a closed fist and then kicked the officer in the groin... The officer pushed Tran back to the ground and handcuffed him. Tran sat on the curb while paramedics responded. As more officers arrived, Tran again stood up and kicked the officer in the groin." more ›

Say you're a guy that likes attractive Vietnamese gals. You also have a passion for caffeine. You've no doubt been frustrated, and said to your friends time after time, "geez, when will Garden Grove get a Vietnamese coffee shop that offers more sex appeal than Starbucks' green aprons?" Time to get happy. Cafe Di Vang 2 is the spot. They're the "Asian Hooters for coffee," according to one of their bikini-wearing tea-pourers. more ›

A representative from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove has confirmed that a man in his 40s committed suicide inside the church this morning. The victim reportedly "shot himself in the head this morning at the altar," according to the Daily News. The church rep says the "unidentified man walked up three steps to the altar area, knelt before a gold cross and put the gun to his head." The man was not immediately familiar to anyone affiliated with the church. Some reports indicate he "handed a cathedral tour guide an envelope containing a note and his driver's license and mentioned that his vehicle was parked outside." This is the third suicide at the church, but the first at the altar. Rev. Robert Schuller, the Cathedral's founder, is currently in Hawaii and is taking some time off from his church duties. more ›

Is this a sign of the times? In most likely unrelated cases, two banks have been robbed by two elderly people estimated to be in their 60s or 70s. more ›

What once was considered maybe tacky is now considered smart and green, especially these days with a better more real looking product. Fountain Valley in Orange County is looking into lifting a ban on artificial turf in an effort to let residents save tens of thousands of gallons of water a year among other things. "Fountain Valley's decision follows discussion by Garden Grove officials about lifting a ban on artificial turf on residential properties," reported the OC Register. "The council last month postponed a vote on the matter, asking staff to get more information about the fake grass." There will be certain rules one color, fading and that plastic or nylon carpeting turf would still be prohibited. more ›

After confronting a tagger in Garden Grove, a man was shot four times in the upper body, according to police. The incident took place around 10 p.m. Sunday night at the corner of Robyn Court and Trask Avenue. more ›

Two incidents that took place yesterday in parts of Orange County turned deadly and claimed two lives and injured others. more ›

During the go-go, greed is good ‘80s, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and host Robin Leach became the symbol of American opulence. It was hard not to aspire for 'champagne wishes and caviar dreams.' Of course these days, there are countless shows featuring the upper crust flaunting their wealth. And like a car wreck, we wretch at the sight of such blatant materialism while secretly keeping our eyes glued to the TV set. So... more ›

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. Every week, we present you with a unique OC dining experience. Sometimes that means excellent food at an underappreciated local spot. Other times that means an interesting atmosphere or eating environment. And then there’s Claws Restaurant. A newly-opened pirate-themed, Vietnamese-run Cajun joint. In the... more ›

By week's end, LA is littered with dozens of free rags. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, let us know, or better yet drop it in the comments section below. LA Weekly reviewed the gaffe-filled Q & A between Democratic presidential hopefuls and Hollywood gays. While not one candidate came out clearly in support of gay marriage, Bill Richardson slipped so hard as to insinuate that... more ›

Chin up buddy, at least they're spelling your name right. Tan Nguyen's name has been in the press a lot the last few days. Earlier today, GOP Congressional hopeful Nguyen was asked by the OC Republican Party to stop running for Congress after reports came out that Spanish language letters had been mailed out to 14,000 Democrats claiming that they would go to jail if they voted and were found to be immigrants or... more ›

An 81-year-old Lake Forest woman shot and killed her ex-grandson in law as he tried to pick up his toddler son from her house. Technically, we suppose that makes her a pistol-packing great-granny. Reasons for the shooting remain a mystery. more ›

A Garden Grove High School student was arrested, CBS-2 reported yesterday, for planning to plant a bomb at school. Friends say he wasn't really going to plant a bomb. more ›

If you live in Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Artesia, Downey, Bellflower and Westminster anyway. Verizon has a glitch that is preventing all kinds of telephonic conversation in those parts of town and we're thinking that a rainy SoCal day is really not the day you want the phone lines to go down. First the power goes out, then the fires, now the mudslides, hail and the phones go down? more ›