Criminal Investigation

The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification. The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan's Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held - and others squatted beside - the corpse's severed legs.

A retired LAPD homicide detective was arrested this week in the fatal beating of his wife in Hawaii six years ago. He had been a suspect since her death. Dan DeJarnette, 59, was taken into custody without incident Monday night at his home on the Big Island in connection with the slaying of his wife, Yu Dejarnette. He appeared in a Hawaii courtroom Tuesday to face formal charges. He said at the time of her November 2006 death that he had awakened and found her lying on a lava embankment about 20 feet from the couple's home in Ka'u on the southern end of the island.

A retired LAPD homicide detective was arrested this week in the fatal beating of his wife in Hawaii six years ago. He had been a suspect since her death. Dan DeJarnette, 59, was taken into custody without incident Monday night at his home on the Big Island in connection with the slaying of his wife, Yu Dejarnette. He appeared in a Hawaii courtroom Tuesday to face formal charges. He said at the time of her November 2006 death that he had awakened and found her lying on a lava embankment about 20 feet from the couple's home in Ka'u on the southern end of the island.

The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification. The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan's Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held - and others squatted beside - the corpse's severed legs.

It was just minutes into his workday when Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Moffett saw a gun aimed straight at his head. The man gripping the gun, he told investigators, was a fellow sergeant staring at him from a glass office inside the Compton sheriff's station. "I'm gonna kill you," Moffett said his colleague mouthed at him. "I'm gonna kill you. " Moffett said the threat was one of many that Sgt. Timothy Cooper directed at him over the years, a vendetta he alleges was motivated by Cooper's ties to a secret deputy clique.

The U.S. attorney's office in New York is conducting a criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs & Co. over mortgage securities deals the big Wall Street firm arranged, according to the Associated Press, citing an unnamed person knowledgeable of the investigation. The person said the inquiry stems from a criminal referral by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The source spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in a preliminary phase. News of the action came a day after a group of 62 House lawmakers, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.

Federal prosecutors disclosed Friday that they were conducting a criminal investigation of Beverly Hills money manager Stanley Chais, who is accused of serving as the Southern California link to a Ponzi scheme operated by disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff. Assistant U.S. Atty. William J. Stellmach revealed the criminal investigation in a motion that sought to postpone for six months a civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Chais in June. Stellmach said that proceedings in the SEC lawsuit, if not suspended, could interfere with an "ongoing, parallel criminal investigation" of Chais.

After weekend raids on the headquarters of Royal Ahold, the Dutch public prosecutor's office said it had begun a criminal investigation into the global grocery retailer for allegedly falsifying documents and publishing incorrect information in its annual reports. Ahold said it had "given its full cooperation" to investigators. The Dutch offices of Ahold's accountant, Deloitte & Touche, also were raided.

An administrative law judge has referred a U.S. insurance company for criminal investigation after the firm failed to pay benefits to survivors of nine Iraqi translators killed while working for the American government. Under a federally funded program, Chicago-based CNA Financial Corp. provides insurance coverage to contractors killed or injured while working overseas for the U.S. The slain translators were helping to train Iraqi police recruits. CNA withheld information from the federal government and avoided making payments to the families who lost relatives in a 2006 attack, according to court files and interviews.

A special investigator said Friday that he has asked the attorney general's office to launch a criminal investigation of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for possible corruption. Jose Ugaz--whom Fujimori appointed to investigate former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos--said he filed the request Thursday with Atty. Gen. Nelly Calderon.

On Friday, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad signed into law a bill designed to thwart activists who go undercover to report animal abuse. This makes Iowa the first state in the country to pass such a law; Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Utah are considering them. Undercover investigations, including videos and photographs, are a principal tool used by activists of all stripes to document abuse cases and have led to legislative reforms, prosecutions and even facility closures around the country.

And you thought the “birther” movement was dead. Not in Arizona, where Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio held a news  conference Thursday to reveal the preliminary results of an investigation into the authenticity of President Obama's birth certificate. Obama released the long-form certificate last year in an attempt to quiet critics -- including Donald Trump - who claimed he was born outside the United States and was therefore ineligible to become president. The White House considers the matter settled.

The FBI is probing an Internet breach in which hackers publicly posted private information belonging to more than 100 local law enforcement officers who are part of the Los Angeles County Police Canine Assn. Tony Vairo, a San Fernando police officer and president of the group, told The Times that they were contacted by the FBI Tuesday morning informing them that information belonging to its members, who include LAPD officers the and Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies, had been compromised.

The investigation into the death of Whitney Houston is shifting to a new phase, with officials focusing on the prescription drugs found in her hotel room and who prescribed them to her. Investigators are expected in the next few days to serve subpoenas on the doctors, as well as the pharmacies where Houston obtained the prescriptions, as they try to determine her cause of death, according to a source with knowledge of the case. Authorities collected several bottles of drugs from Houston's suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was found dead Saturday.

It was just minutes into his workday when Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Moffett saw a gun aimed straight at his head. The man gripping the gun, he told investigators, was a fellow sergeant staring at him from a glass office inside the Compton sheriff's station. "I'm gonna kill you," Moffett said his colleague mouthed at him. "I'm gonna kill you. " Moffett said the threat was one of many that Sgt. Timothy Cooper directed at him over the years, a vendetta he alleges was motivated by Cooper's ties to a secret deputy clique.

Whitney Houston was found underwater in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel suite, authorities said Monday as they continued to investigate her death, including examining prescription drugs found in her room. Authorities have collected several bottles of drugs from Houston's suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, law enforcement sources told The Times. But the sources stressed that the amount of drugs did not seem unusually large, and it remained unclear whether the drugs had anything to do with her death.

A commission investigating allegations of deputy brutality inside Los Angeles County jails cannot guarantee confidentiality for deputies who want to testify, dealing a blow to efforts to combat what has been described as a code of silence among some jail guards. Members of the special commission created by the county Board of Supervisors had raised the possibility of allowing deputies and others to provide anonymous testimony as they attempt to determine the scope of any brutality against inmates.

Month after month, the financial forecasts for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum seemed as sunny as could be. General Manager Patrick Lynch would tell his bosses on the Coliseum Commission that the box office from rave concerts was brisk and a lucrative deal for naming rights to the stadium could be just around the corner, records show. For the most part, the nine-member commission took the affable Lynch at his word. And why not? As L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, who sits on the panel, said: "We were making money.