Forgery

The former chief fund-raiser for Retinitis Pigmentosa International was arrested Friday on suspicion of forgery after an investigation into the loss of up to $50,000 from the Woodland Hills-based charity's bank accounts, Los Angeles police reported. Detective Anthony DiRuscio said Daniel J.

In one of its biggest seizures involving counterfeit identification, Los Angeles police have arrested three suspects in what they described as a statewide forgery ring that may have stolen more than $2 million from Los Angeles-area banks. Police had made earlier arrests in the case, but Wednesday was the first time they were able to locate so many of the bogus documents allegedly used in the scam and the equipment used to produce them, officials said.

A forgery suspect and a Glendale police officer were cut over the weekend when the suspect attempted to flee from a Glendale bank by crashing through a locked glass door. Jorj Tahmaseyan, 24, of Glendale was taken to Thompson Memorial Hospital in Burbank after the incident, where he received six stitches on the forehead, said police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian. Tahmaseyan's head was cut after shards of glass crashed around him when he attempted to break down the door, police said.

Robert E. Lowenberg, who already faces a possible prison term for setting a fire that burned 5,000 acres in Cleveland National Forest, has now been charged with credit card forgery, police said Thursday. The latest troubles for Lowenberg, the 19-year-old son of Cypress Police Chief Ronald Lowenberg, involve a $317 stereo receiver that was purchased from an electronics store where Lowenberg used to work and was charged to an Anaheim woman's credit card.

The bank that uses the image of a stagecoach to reach its customers is turning to another symbol of the Old West to catch a suspected forger. "Wanted" posters are being issued by Wells Fargo Bank for the first time in the San Fernando Valley, offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a man suspected of impersonating bank customers and cashing $9,463 in forged checks.

Independent art broker Frank de Marigny pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday to multiple counts of art forgery, including a charge that he tried to sell a fake Renoir to an undercover police officer posing as a Japanese businessman. The 38-year-old Manhattan Beach resident entered pleas to two counts of grand theft, five counts of forgery and one count of perjury. De Marigny faces up to seven years and eight months in prison.

A Van Nuys man who told police he ran up huge telephone bills by dialing 976 numbers for "phone sex" messages has been charged with stealing more than $37,000 from his employer to pay the bills. Jonathan A. Margolis, 25, an employee of a North Hollywood insurance agency, admitted to detectives that he forged his boss' signature on 13 company checks between April 3, 1986, and April 14, 1987, to pay his monthly bills from Pacific Bell, court records show.

An Orange County attorney who admitted falsifying evidence in a Ventura County court case was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in jail. Robert Blair Kennedy Jr., 52, of Orange admitted forging telephone records submitted in a civil case between his former client, Hardric Labs of Massachusetts, and a Ventura optical company. Kennedy missed a court hearing last May, and his absence prompted a default judgment against his client.

A Superior Court judge ordered the release of the grand jury transcript Tuesday in the case of Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange), who was indicted for his role in forging Ronald Reagan's name on campaign letters mailed to voters in 1986. But the judge delayed the effect of his ruling until Friday to allow Lewis to appeal.

A retired Los Angeles police detective has pleaded not guilty to six felony counts stemming from allegations that he forged the names of two judges on warrants. Raymond L. Doyle, a 25-year LAPD veteran, entered the pleas Friday in Los Angeles Municipal Court after an indictment was unsealed. He was released on his own recognizance pending an Oct. 31 pretrial hearing. Doyle, who worked at the Hollenbeck Division on the Eastside, allegedly committed the forgeries in 1992 and 1993.