Investigations

The number of Los Angeles County Probation Department employees investigated for serious crimes last year remained roughly the same as in 2011 despite efforts to weed out misconduct through improved training, according to a report released Wednesday. In 2012, 64 employees were either arrested or questioned in crimes ranging from burglary to attempted murder, according to a report by the county's Office of Independent Review. In 2011, 69 probation employees were arrested. "The frequency of off-duty employee misconduct continues to plague the department," according to the report.

KAUFMAN, Texas - Officials investigating the deaths of two prosecutors in this rural community east of Dallas have turned their attention to a former local official who threatened the two victims after losing his job in a corruption investigation, according to federal law enforcement officials briefed about the case. The federal officials said the man who emerged as a person of interest this week was convicted and placed on probation for stealing public property in Kaufman County two years ago. After his arrest, investigators found he had numerous guns, including an assault rifle and survivalist equipment, one of the federal officials said.

KAUFMAN, Texas -- Courthouse staff reported to work flanked by sheriff's deputies days after the local district attorney and his wife were gunned down at home, just two months after another local prosecutor was shot on his way to work. "We're doing the best we can," County Judge David Lewis said as he climbed out of his car and was escorted into the building by deputies. "All of the law enforcement people have my confidence," Lewis said as he entered the courthouse about 35 miles east of Dallas.

The private investigator whose video recordings ignited a kosher meat controversy across Los Angeles denied being paid by other distributors, saying his probe of Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market “felt like the right thing to do.” A video shot by investigator Eric Agaki aired on KTLA-TV in March, purporting to show workers at Doheny bringing in boxes of meat late at night without the required supervision of the mashgiach -- the kosher supervisor...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched an investigation into the Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market as controversy brews over the integrity of products sold there. The owner of Doheny, Michael Engelman, faces accusations of selling meat that was not properly certified under kosher rules. Last week, a council of rabbis pulled Doheny's kosher certification and, in a statement Friday, raised the possibility of "legal action," a recourse to secular courts that would be rare. Tuesday, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service confirmed that the Doheny market is under investigation.

The can of spray paint sat on the ledge of a downtown Sacramento office tower. A tool for etching glass lay below. The body of Craig Fugate was tangled in some ropes about nine stories up the tower. Authorities on Tuesday were trying to piece together the bizarre death. They believe Fugate was somehow killed Monday while trying to vandalize the office building. "They found the spray paint where he climbed down" but no actual tags, Officer Doug Morse said. The Sacramento coroner's office is still trying to determine a cause of death.

KAUFMAN, Texas - The fatal shooting of a north Texas district attorney and his wife, just two months after an assistant district attorney was gunned down near the local courthouse, could have a chilling effect on recruiting future prosecutors, officials said. "I've always reassured them you really don't have to fear retaliation," Heath Harris, first assistant district attorney in Dallas, said of new recruits. But now, he said, "I definitely think people will think twice about becoming a prosecutor.

The U.S. has “concerns that freedom of expression is being stifled” in Egypt after the questioning of an irreverent television satirist frequently compared to American comedian Jon Stewart, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday. Comedian Bassem Youssef appeared Sunday for questioning before a government prosecutor on charges of defiling Islam and defaming President Mohamed Morsi. He was released the same day on bail. “This, coupled with recent arrest warrants issued for other political activists, is evidence of a disturbing trend of growing restrictions on the freedom of expression,” Nuland said at a news briefing.

When a Texas prosecutor was gunned down in the courthouse parking lot last January, Kaufman County Dist. Atty. Mike McLelland stood in front of reporters and vowed to carry on. "We'll still make the walk, and we'll still show up," McLelland said after one of his assistant district attorneys, Mark Hasse, was shot to death by an unidentified assailant Jan. 31. "And we'll still send bad guys out of Kaufman County every chance we get. We're not stopping....

An Orange County Superior Court judge is being investigated by the Sheriff's Department on suspicion of improper sexual conduct - allegedly in his courtroom chambers - authorities said. Deputies are completing a monthlong investigation into Scott Steiner, a former high-ranking prosecutor and the son of former Orange County Supervisor William Steiner, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman with the Sheriff's Department. Amormino said that Steiner's chambers were searched and potential evidence was taken for DNA testing.