The Sheriff's Blogger

HUSBAND CHARGED WITH SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES MURDER OF WIFE OF 39 YEARS BY HITTING HER OVER HEAD WITH SMALL STATUE

August 31, 2010

Orange County District Attorney's Office

SANTA ANA - A husband has been charged with murdering his long-time wife by hitting her repeatedly over the head with a small statue after an argument in their Rancho Santa Margarita home. Richard Gustav Forsberg, 61, is charged with one felony count of special circumstances murder by lying in wait and faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. Forsberg is being held without bail and is expected to be arraigned tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in Department CJ-1, Central Jail, Santa Ana.

On Feb. 9, 2010, the defendant is accused of getting into a verbal argument with his wife Marcia Ann Forsberg, whom he had been married to for 39 years. Forsberg is accused of surprising the victim by grabbing a small statue and hitting her multiple times in the head, murdering her. He is accused of keeping her body in their home over the next few days until he rented a recreational vehicle (RV). He is accused of using the RV to drive the victim's body to a campground, Lake Piru Recreation Area in Ventura County, where he disposed of the body.

When questioned by friends about the whereabouts of his wife, Forsberg is accused of claiming that they were having some marital problems and that she had left town to be on her own. On Aug. 24, 2010, concerned friends of the victim reported her missing. The Orange County Sheriff's Department began investigating the case.

Forsberg was arrested yesterday, Aug. 30, 2010, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. The defendant had been admitted to the hospital and a citizen contacted the police after recognizing him from media coverage requesting public assistance locating the defendant and his wife.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.

Brown Announces Arrests of Violent Gang Members Who Took Orders from Imprisoned Gang Leaders, and Calls for Action to End Cell Phone Communication from Prison

California State Attorney General's Office OAKLAND - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced today a major takedown of key members of the Nuestra Familia gang who commit murders and other violent crimes "orchestrated in prison" by gang leaders using cell phones.

As part of an operation code-named "Street Sweeper," a joint task force of 250 state and local law enforcement agents led by Brown's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement concluded a year-long series of arrests attacking the hierarchy of prison gangs. Today in Visalia and surrounding areas, agents arrested 34 gang members, including four local gang leaders. Five other Nuestra Familia leaders were incarcerated in earlier operations.

"Operation Street Sweeper represents a big step forward in reducing vicious street crimes orchestrated in prison by the Nuestra Familia hierarchy," Brown said. "Today's operation has stripped the dangerous Nuestra Familia gang of key managers who carry out orders from its imprisoned leaders."

Launched in Folsom Prison in 1968, Nuestra Familia is one of seven prison gangs in the state. Through top-down leadership, Nuestra Familia controls illegal activities inside several prisons, as well as most of the Nortenos gangs who operate in central California from Yuba City to Bakersfield and from Salinas to the Sierra foothills.

With a sombrero resting on a dagger as its symbol, Nuestra Familia is believed to have hundreds of members inside state prisons, tens of thousands in communities and many more associates, according to gang investigators.

Three gang leaders serving life sentences direct Nuestra Familia activities from inside Pelican Bay's Secure Housing Unit, also known as the "Shu," which isolates prisoners 24 hours a day. While such confinement places some limits on the gang's ability to communicate, gang leaders are still able to direct gang members on the streets through cell phones smuggled into the prison.

"In addition to arresting street gang leaders through efforts like Operation Street Sweeper," Brown said, "we must cut imprisoned gang leaders' ability to communicate with cell phones by blocking that communication through an electronic net over Pelican Bay."

Sophisticated technology exists to jam cell phones, even selectively, within prisons, but federal law must be changed to allow that to happen. The "Safe Prisons Communications Act" has passed the Senate, and a companion bill by Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas is in committee in the House. Brown called on members of the House to approve this legislation, which is essential to cracking down on one of California's most feared prison gangs.

Gang violence has recently spiked in Central Valley communities. So far this year, Visalia's serious gang-related murders, assaults and drive-by shootings have doubled compared to the same period last year.

"History was made today in Visalia," said Colleen Mestas, chief of the Visalia Police Department. She thanked the 300 officers from 20 law enforcement agencies that took part in the operation. "With their help, our police department has been able to make an impact on our local gang crime."

Other law enforcement agencies that assisted with today's operation are the Central Valley Regional SWAT team, Delano Police Department, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fresno Methamphetamine Task Force, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas - Central Valley and Southern Tri County, Kings County Sheriff's Department, Madera County Gang Enforcement Task Force, Madera County Narcotic Enforcement Team, Porterville Police Department, Salinas Police Department, Tulare Police Department, Tulare County Sheriff's Department and Visalia Police Department.

Torrance jury convicts man of trying to kill Gardena police officer

LA County District Attorney's Office

TORRANCE – A Carson man was convicted by a Superior Court jury today of trying to kill a police officer 2-1/2 years ago outside a pizza restaurant in Gardena.

Deputy District Attorney Lowell Anger of the Crimes Against Police Officers Section (CAPOS) said the jury deliberated less than a day before returning the guilty verdict against 23-year-old Trevon Willis.

Besides attempted first-degree murder, the jury convicted Willis of assaulting the officer with a semiautomatic firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury also found true allegations that Willis personally used and discharged a handgun against the officer -- causing great bodily injury -- and that the shooting was a gang crime.

Anger said Willis faces multiple life prison terms when he returns on Oct. 22 to the Torrance court of trial Judge Steven R. Van Sicklen for sentencing and setting of a trial date in an unrelated murder.

Officer Eric Hyde was shot twice in the leg on Jan. 9, 2008, during an exchange of gunfire outside the pizza restaurant in the 1300 block of West Rosecrans Avenue in Gardena. Willis was arrested after the shooting and has remained in custody on $2 million bail.

The attempted murder case was filed by CAPOS on Jan. 25, 2008. Later, the complaint was amended to include murder and attempted murder charges in connection with an unrelated May 2006 driveby shooting in which a man was killed. The two cases were severed.

Man sentenced to more than 400 years in Long Beach area attacks

LA District Attorney's Office

LONG BEACH – A violent felon convicted of attacking Long Beach area women – including slashing the throats of two – was sentenced today to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Long Beach Superior Court Judge Gary Ferrari sentenced Charles Juan Proctor, 45, to 433 years, plus 11 life sentences. The defendant was additionally ordered to pay restitution to two victims, totaling $57,790, for their medical expenses and $10,000 to the state victims’ restitution fund.

Proctor was convicted on Aug. 13 of 22 counts involving six victims. Deputy District Attorney Carol Rose of the Long Beach Branch Office prosecuted the case.

Following a five-day trial, jurors deliberated two and a half hours before convicting Proctor of five counts of robbery; three counts each of kidnap for robbery, false imprisonment, and burglary; two counts each of attempted murder and mayhem; and one count each of attempted robbery, attempted kidnap for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and assault.

The majority of Proctor's victims were shop owners attacked at their places of business. The remaining victims were shop employees. The defendant preyed on women who were alone. His attacks began on Feb. 18, 2008, with the robbery, kidnap for robbery and burglary of a woman at a hair salon.

Rose said his violent spree resumed daily, with five more brutal assaults from April 26 through May 2, 2008. Four of the attacks were in downtown Long Beach. One occurred in Hawaiian Gardens. One of the most brutal of the attacks was the slashing of a woman who sustained a four-inch wound to the neck, plus stab wounds to her face and head. Proctor went on to slit the throat of a second victim the next day, causing a quarter-inch-wide wound to her neck. Both women survived.

Proctor’s crimes in Los Angeles County concluded on May 2, when he robbed and attempted to kidnap a woman in downtown Long Beach.

Two days later, he was arrested for trespassing in Las Vegas. DNA linked him to a December 2007 attempt to kidnap a woman from a Las Vegas parking lot. During the attack, he cut her throat with a box cutter. In 2008, Proctor was convicted of his Las Vegas crimes and extradited to Los Angeles County. The defendant also has a 1988 attempted sexual assault conviction out of Nevada.

Rose said Proctor was linked to the crimes in Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens by DNA evidence, fingerprints, eyewitness identification and surveillance video footage. The defendant is currently serving a prison term in Nevada for similar crimes.

TUSTIN-BASED PONZI SCHEMER, ARRESTED WHILE ATTEMPTING TO LEAVE COUNTRY, SENTENCED TO 70 MONTHS IN PRISON

US Departmente of Justice

SANTA ANA, California – A Tustin man was sentenced today to 70 months in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that caused dozens of members of the Indian community in Orange County and across the United States to suffer losses of approximately $9 million.

    Tarakeswar Chaudhary, 49, was sentenced by United States District Judge James V. Selna.

    During the second half of 2009, Chaudhary operated a Ponzi scheme in which he promised investors substantial returns through his special access to initial public offerings and secondary offerings by various Fortune 500 companies, including Google, Rio Tinto and Mastercard. While Chaudhary claimed to have access to these offerings as a result of relationships with individuals at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, neither the relationships nor the stock offerings actually existed.

    Victims of Chaudhary’s fraud brought the scheme to the attention of the FBI after they confronted Chaudhary during the last week of November and on December 4, 2009. After the final confrontation by his victims on December 4, Chaudhary made airline reservations for himself and children to fly to India the following day. Chaudhary was arrested at San Francisco International airport on December 5 after he boarded an Emirates flight bound for Dubai and then India.

    During today’s sentencing hearing, victims filled Judge Selna’s courtroom and recounted how Chaudhary’s fraudulent scheme had caused them to lose retirement funds, college funds, and nest eggs that had been saved over the course of many years. Several victims said they had known Chaudhary for decades, one said that Chaudhary was asking him to perform religious services on Chaudhary’s behalf while he was collecting funds for the bogus investment, and another said Chaudhary encouraged him to draw against a home equity line to raise cash to invest in the Ponzi scheme.

    Judge Selna set a November 1 hearing date to calculate the precise amount Chaudhary owes to various victims.

    The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Youth charged in Rancho Palos Verdes traffic fatality

LA District Attorney's Office

TORRANCE – A 17-year-old Rancho Palos Verdes youth who allegedly lost control of his vehicle, ricocheted off a wall and plowed into a pedestrian, killing the man, was charged as an adult today, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

Ho Jai Lee, 17 (dob 9/5/92), was charged with one count of gross vehicular manslaughter, a felony, for the Dec. 20, 2009, death of Jammel Abdelhamid Kammoun, 49.

The defendant pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing at Torrance Superior Court. Lee, who was originally charged as a juvenile, was found unfit for juvenile court on Aug. 27. He is charged in case No. YA078952.

The victim, a professor of mathematics and physics, was out for a morning walk on the day of the fatal collision. He is survived by a wife and three children ages five and under, prosecutors said.

Lee faces a maximum prison term of six years, if convicted as charged.

FORMER LABOR UNION OFFICIAL SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR STEALING UNION FUNDS AND FILING FALSE TAX RETURN

US Department of Justice RIVERSIDE, California – A Barstow man who formerly served as the financial secretary and the treasurer of an electrical workers union was sentenced today to one year in federal prison for his theft of more than $90,000 in union funds.

    Jimmie Leo Miles, 70, who used to work for the AFL-CIO International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Union, Local 1023, was sentenced this morning by United States District Judge Virginia A. Phillips.

    During the sentencing hearing, Judge Phillips said Miles stole the union funds for nothing “other than a desire for money” and that his actions “besmirched the union.”

    In addition to the prison term, Judge Phillips ordered Miles to pay a total of $107,749.90 in restitution. Miles was ordered to pay $93,283 to repay the union and $14,466 to pay taxes due to the Internal Revenue Service.

    Miles pleaded guilty in June to one count of embezzling union funds and one count of filing a false income tax return that failed to report the embezzled income to the IRS. As part of his guilty pleas, Miles admitted that he embezzled more than $90,000 in union funds from the beginning of 2003 through June 2007. Miles issued and signed more than 350 checks from the union’s bank account without obtaining authorization from the union’s membership or the union’s executive board. Miles wrote checks to himself and used other checks to pay for his personal expenditures, including his mortgage, homeowner’s insurance, AAA membership, automotive repairs, DirecTV, vehicle registrations, mortgage, gas and electric utilities, state and federal income tax,   IBEW Local 1023, which represents approximately 180 members who work for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, is based in Barstow.

    The case against Miles was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and IRS - Criminal Investigation. OLMS enforces federal labor laws that impose financial responsibilities on union officers and employees requiring that they properly account for the receipt and disbursement of membership funds.

OFF-DUTY LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY ON DUI PROBATION CHARGED WITH SHOOTING FIREARM INSIDE HOME AND FILING FALSE REPORT AGAINST EX-HUSBAND

August 30, 2010

Orange County District Attorney's Office

WESTMINSTER - An off-duty deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been charged with filing a false police report against her ex-husband and firing a firearm in her Westminster home, endangering children playing nearby. Patricia Margaret Bojorquez, 43, Westminster, was charged Aug. 26, 2010, with one felony count of discharging a firearm with gross negligence which could have resulted in injury or death to a person and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison. Bojorquez is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 24, 2010, in Department W-2, West Justice Center, Westminster.

On Nov. 18, 2009, Bojorquez is accused of calling the Huntington Beach Police Department (HBPD) Dispatch and falsely reporting that her ex-husband was sexually assaulting a 13-year-old female relative. The defendant is accused of lying about the sexual assault because she was upset over child custody issues. Responding HBPD officers investigated the report and determined that the 13-year-old girl had not been molested and had made no such representation to the defendant.

At approximately 11:50 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2010, Bojorquez is accused of firing a firearm inside her Westminster home. She is accused of shooting a bullet that pierced a bedroom window and exited the home toward a residential street where children were playing in the front yards of their homes. Bojorquez is accused of showing a disregard for the safety of the children outside, who were directly in the line of fire. The defendant's brother and fiancé were in the house at the time and called the police. The Westminster Police Department investigated this case.

The defendant is currently on probation for two driving under the influence (DUI) convictions in Orange County.

On Aug. 10, 2009, Bojorquez pleaded guilty (Case #09CM05054) to a court offer to one misdemeanor count each of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood alcohol of .08 percent or more. She pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of child endangerment by a caretaker. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and ordered to complete a 6-month first-offender alcohol program, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Victim's Impact Panel, and Child Abuser's Treatment Program. In this case, the defendant was driving her two children on April 12, 2009, to the parking lot at the Block at Orange to drop them off with their father. Bojorquez was under the influence of alcohol while driving and had a .19 blood alcohol level. Upon arriving in the parking lot, one of the defendant's children reported her drunken driving to a police officer, who happened to also be in the parking lot. The officer observed Bojorquez speed away through the parking lot before stopping her for DUI.

On April 15, 2010, Bojorquez pleaded guilty (Case #09WM10174) to a court offer to one misdemeanor count each of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood alcohol of .08 percent or more with a prior conviction. She was sentenced to 55 days in jail, 30 days residential program, 60-day outpatient treatment program, five years probation, and ordered to complete an 18-month multiple offender alcohol awareness program and MADD Victim's Impact Panel. In this case, the defendant was leaving a strip mall in Huntington Beach at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 19, 2009. Bojorquez was driving under the influence of alcohol and had a blood alcohol level of .27 percent. The defendant backed into a parked car and then began to slowly drive through the parking lot. A witness knocked on the window of Bojorquez's slowly moving car and asked her to get out. The defendant was naked from the waist down and had an open bottle of wine in the center console cup holder in her car.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Olivieri with the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.

SAINT JOHN’S HEALTH CENTER AGREES TO PAY $5.25 MILLION TO UNITED STATES TO SETTLE CIVIL FRAUD INVESTIGATION

Department of Justice

LOS ANGELES – Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica has agreed to pay the United States $5.25 million to resolve allegations that the hospital submitted false inflated claims to the Medicare program for “outlier payments” that are designed to compensate hospitals for providing extraordinarily costly care to patients, United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. announced today.

    The United States alleged that Saint John’s engaged in “turbocharging,” meaning that it dramatically increased the charges billed to Medicare for care provided to hospital inpatients far in excess of any increase in the costs associated with that care. By allegedly turbocharging from 1996 through 2003, Saint John’s was able to obtain significant amounts of Medicare outlier payments that it was not entitled to receive.

    In the settlement agreement finalized today, Saint John’s agreed to resolve the allegations without an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Saint John’s has agreed to pay the $5.25 million settlement by August 30.

    This matter was handled by the Civil Fraud Section of the United States Attorney’s Office, which received assistance from the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Brown Files Charges Against Sham Electronic Waste Recyclers

State Attorney General's Office

SAN JOSE - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced criminal charges against the owner and two managers of San Jose-based electronic waste recycler Tung Tai Group, after the company submitted $1 million in "fraudulent and fictitious" reimbursement claims for more than 2 million pounds of electronic waste that they never recycled.

"Tung Tai Group attempted to collect $1 million in fraudulent and fictitious state reimbursements for millions of pounds of electronic waste that didn't exist," Brown said. "This brazen scheme is a violation of state law and the public trust."

Two managers, John Chen, 38, of Hillsborough, and Jason Huang, 65, of Foster City, were arrested last week and posted bail, set at $1 million each. The owner, Joseph Chen, 69, of Hillsborough, is in China and arrangements are being made for him to return to the U.S. to be arraigned on the charges.

Together, the men face 17 criminal counts for submitting false documents, attempting to defraud the state, forgery and hazardous waste storage and handling violations. If convicted, the men face a maximum of nine years in prison.

"These arrests show that this department is committed to keeping e-waste out of our landfills and to rooting out those who would defraud our system for private financial gain," said Maziar Movassaghi, acting director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Electronic waste recyclers break down televisions, computer monitors, laptop computers and other waste collected from California businesses and households. Recyclers break the waste into various recyclable parts and submit a claim for reimbursement to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). On average, CalRecycle pays 43 cents per pound of material recycled.

In late 2008, CalRecycle auditors contacted investigators at the Department of Toxic Substances Control after noticing discrepancies in the claims submitted by Tung Tai and the records kept by Golden State Records and Recycling, a company that collected and transferred materials to Tung Tai.

In July 2009, agents searched the Tung Tai facility and discovered two separate sets of records, which provided evidence that the company submitted claims to CalRecycle between January and September 2008 that grossly inflated the amount of pounds of recycled material eligible for reimbursement.

For example, one set of records showed that a collector delivered 62,000 pounds of material to Tung Tai, but forms submitted to CalRecycle for reimbursement listed nearly 555,000 pounds. This deception increased the amount Tung Tai sought from the state by more than $235,000.

In addition, Tung Tai submitted records to CalRecycle listing items that were never delivered to Tung Tai by any approved collector of electronic waste.

The state did not make payments on the falsified and inflated requests for reimbursement, which totaled $1 million.

These charges underscore Brown's commitment to prosecuting fraud against state agencies. In May, Brown shut down three recycling fraud rings that smuggled cans and bottles worth more than $3.5 million in recycling fees into California.

John Chen and Huang are being arraigned at the San Jose Courthouse on September 9.

A copy of the complaint, which was filed in Santa Clara Superior Court, is attached.