Forgery

Former Compton Dominguez High basketball coach Russell Otis paid thousands of dollars in cash to cover his team's expenses to travel and play in tournaments, witnesses testified during a hearing Thursday. The testimony came during the third day of a preliminary hearing for the highly successful former coach, who is accused of stealing $15,000 intended for his team and of the attempted molestation of a player, now 17.

An Irvine lawyer convicted last year of conspiracy and securities fraud in a scheme that bilked investors out of tens of millions of dollars pleaded not guilty Monday to new charges of credit card fraud and forgery. Jeanne M. Rowzee is accused of fraudulently applying for credit cards in her children's names and adding herself to the accounts as a second cardholder.

The Bush administration and former top CIA officials denounced a new book's assertion that the White House ordered the forgery of Iraqi documents to suggest a link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Los Angeles Fire Department probe into the forging of signatures on investigative reports involving two racial discrimination claims has uncovered 16 other cases in which employees signed others' names. Battalion Chief Mike Arguelles told a City Council committee Monday that he had ordered a halt to the practice. "The conclusion I arrived at is that for investigatory reports that was just a non-acceptable practice," Arguelles told the council's Public Safety Committee.

Two documents used by George Jaramillo to defend himself from corruption charges appear to be forgeries, said prosecutors, who say they used them as leverage to get the former Orange County assistant sheriff to agree to spend a year in jail as part of a plea bargain.

State prosecutors on Wednesday charged a San Joaquin, Calif., private investigator with forging and falsifying documents to help four death row inmates in what authorities called one of the largest frauds on the justice system in California history.

A La Canada Flintridge couple who ran televised art and jewelry auctions have admitted to running a scam that bilked buyers out of more than $20 million by selling bogus artworks and forging the signatures of such notables as Picasso, Chagall and Dali. In documents filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court, Kristine Eubanks, 49, and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, 51, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property.

A retired nurse entrusted by judges and federal officials to manage the affairs of disabled veterans pleaded guilty Monday to forging documents and lying to the court in order to steal from one of her clients, a veteran suffering from psychosis and seizures. As part of the deal prosecutors struck Monday with Anne Chavis, 73, charges involving seven other clients will be dismissed, but Chavis will have to reimburse all victims named in the 15-count complaint.

An Orange County sheriff's deputy has been arrested on suspicion of trying to obtain medication with a forged prescription, Newport Beach police said Thursday. Gerald Edward Williams, 48, of Newport Beach was arrested Tuesday, Sgt. Evan Sailor said. Williams' work assignment was at Theo Lacy Branch Jail. He has been placed on administrative leave pending a personnel investigation by the department, spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Administrators at Touro College took money to change grades and fabricate degrees -- including degrees for physician assistants -- prosecutors charged Monday.