Anaheim Police

A jury's decision to accept the word of a former Anaheim policeman rather than to believe police brass should prompt the department to review its practices and relationship with city residents. The Police Department argued strenuously that Steve Nolan had been fired from the force for insubordination and other disciplinary reasons. But a Superior Court jury last week sided with Nolan, who contended he was fired in 1993 in retaliation for breaking an unwritten "code of silence" among officers.

The fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old Anaheim boy near his junior high school was apparently motivated by a rivalry between graffiti crews, police said Tuesday. Juan Martinez died Monday after being stabbed multiple times in the parking lot of an apartment complex across the street from Sycamore Junior High School, where he was a seventh-grader. Anaheim police arrested Bryan Ocampo, 18, who lives in an apartment complex near the scene, on suspicion of murder Monday night. He was being held without bail Tuesday.

Four Anaheim police officers on a training exercise were injured Thursday when their motorcycles veered off a windy road in San Bernardino County, authorities said. None was seriously injured. The four were among 11 Anaheim officers traveling on California 138 just east of the Cajon Pass when the accident occurred shortly before noon, said Officer Kevin Haney of the California Highway Patrol.

A retired Huntington Park police chief charged with indecent exposure pleaded not guilty Monday in an Orange County courtroom. Anaheim police said Paul Lawrence Wadley, 56, had left sexually explicit photos in Anaheim parks and allegedly flashed a woman. He turned himself in Monday and was released on $15,000 bond in connection with the alleged misdemeanor. Detectives last week conducted a search of the former chief's home near Toyon Park, where many of the incidents occurred.

More than a dozen Anaheim police officers and detectives spent most of Monday combing the area around the 900 block of Roberts Street for a missing 10-year-old girl. Erica Hernandez was reported missing by her foster parents about 9:15 a.m., just 30 minutes after taking the trash out and failing to return, police said. "Any time somebody is that age or younger, we do tend to exert a lot of energy in locating them," said Sgt. Rick Martinez, a spokesman for the Anaheim Police Department.

A man shot to death by Anaheim police this week was engaged in unspecified "criminal activity" during which he tried to ram an officer with a pickup, a police spokesman said Wednesday. In the department's first detailed comments on the incident, Sgt. Rick Martinez said that Frank Carillo, 28, of Santa Ana died at Anaheim Memorial Medical Center on Monday shortly after being shot by Officer Edward Ruiz, an 11-year veteran of the department.

Two police officers shot an armed man during a confrontation in the courtyard of an apartment building a block from the Disneyland Hotel early Sunday, but the man, who was hit in the abdomen, side and back, was expected to survive, police and hospital officials said. The man was the 27th person to be shot or killed by Orange County police this year, and the sixth to be struck by Anaheim police bullets. Lt.

Anaheim police arrested 71 people in a two-day sting on Beach Boulevard aimed at prostitutes and their customers, authorities said Tuesday. Fourteen women were arrested for soliciting undercover vice officers for sex, and 55 men were arrested as part of a two-day "John Program" after they solicited undercover female officers, police said. Officers also arrested two men during the weekend sting, one for driving under the influence of alcohol and one for lewd conduct.

A 58-year-old man was arrested for firing at least eight shots into the laundry room of the apartment building where he lives, Anaheim police said Wednesday. Ned Perry surrendered without incident shortly before midnight Tuesday after officers evacuated 20 surrounding apartments in the building at 200 Wilshire Ave. No one was injured. Perry was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Anaheim police detectives and the mother of a woman found stabbed to death almost four months ago are asking for information to help them with the unsolved murder. Brigette LaMon, 19, disappeared from her home at 1909 Harriet Lane late Saturday night, May 25. Her body, which had several stab wounds, was found the next morning at a commercial park at 5409 E. La Palma Ave. Police have not found any suspects in the case.

A wounded 3-year-old boy and his 5-year-old brother were found hiding Monday at an Anaheim home where police say a day earlier the father shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself . The youngest of the children, who was wounded during the Sunday night violence, was found hiding near trash cans at the side of the house after his brother, who was not injured, called 911, Anaheim Police Sgt. Tim Schmidt said. Around the time that police believe the shooting happened, a passerby called police to report shots fired, but the bodies were not found until the next morning.

The beat-up station wagons and peeling RVs had been turning up outside the Coronado Street parole office in Anaheim for months, parked through the night. But in recent weeks it seemed they filled the whole block. In Orange County, where more than a third of the paroled sex offenders are homeless, police estimated that 30 or 40 had taken to camping on the streets in this industrial stretch. The situation appeared to stem from Jessica's Law, the 2006 statute that forbids sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or other places where children gather, severely limiting lodging options in densely populated cities.

State regulators are investigating a YMCA day-care center in Anaheim after two toddlers went missing during outdoor playtime and were found on nearby railroad tracks. Police received two calls about 4 p.m. Thursday from neighbors who reported two young boys on the tracks near the YMCA Children's Station at 100 S. Atchison St., Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez said . One of the callers took the 2-year-olds away from the tracks to safety, staying with them until officers arrived.

Police are searching for two men who may have been involved in a fight in the right-field bleachers at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on opening day that led to the death of a Buena Park man. About 8:45 p.m. Monday, as crowds were leaving the stadium after the Angels' opening-day game against the Oakland Athletics, witnesses saw 27-year-old Brian Powers fighting with another man near a stairwell in the right-field pavilion, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

One day after saying they would not file charges against an Anaheim police officer who shot and killed a man outside his home, Orange County prosecutors Tuesday said the officer's actions were justified because he believed Julian Alexander was threatening him with a stick. The officer, identified by prosecutors as Kevin Flanagan, a 10-year veteran of the Anaheim Police Department, was chasing burglary suspects when he shot Alexander.

A man suspected of robbing an Anaheim bank slashed his throat with a box cutter Monday afternoon after being stopped by police in Irvine, authorities said. Police received a call about a man in his 20s robbing the Washington Mutual branch at 555 N. Euclid St. at 12:36 p.m., said Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez. As officers responded, the man left the bank in a white beat-up sports car that was missing a front bumper.

Anaheim police arrested 18 people during a weekend drug raid on a motel, police said Sunday. Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said the raid Saturday at the Siesta 7 Motel, 1821 S. Manchester Ave., followed tips that narcotics sales were occurring there. Using undercover officers, police bought controlled substances from several people in the motel, Hedgpeth said. The Police Department also obtained search warrants for six rooms at the motel, he said. Hedgpeth said that at 8 p.m.

The uniforms that once outfitted the city's 330-member police force will soon be seen on the streets of Mexico. Anaheim police changed the color of their uniforms from tan to blue last year, leaving the department with about 2,500 unwanted sets of tan shirts and pants. As a gesture of good will, most of the uniforms will be donated to needy law enforcement agencies in Mexico, Capt. Randy Gaston said.

Days after Anaheim police shot and killed his son, he has a father's questions. Would his often troubled 43-year-old son pull a gun and fire first on police before being shot? Is there a way to prove that? What happened during the 12-minute period between the first radio report police made after his son was stopped about 12:15 a.m. Thursday and the second one indicating that shots had been fired?