Law Office

A state appeals court has taken the unusual step of urging lawmakers to change laws that give police officers broad protections against liability in high-speed chases, saying cops should be held more accountable for their actions. The 4th District Court of Appeal issued its challenge in a stinging opinion involving a Westminster police officer who chased a stolen car through a high school campus in 1995.

Yahoo Inc.'s search of an accused child pornographer's e-mails without a police officer present did not violate the defendant's privacy rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a judge's decision that barred the use of e-mails as evidence against Dale Robert Bach, who is charged with manufacturing, possessing and transmitting child pornography. U.S.

With tensions high and security tight, thousands of motorcyclists thundered into the rural community of Hollister on Friday, swamping downtown and turning it into a throbbing carnival of chrome, wheels and leather. Grizzled bikers in chaps sat astride gleaming Harleys, gunning the engines, rattling windows and screeching tires. Merchants hawked such items as Harley-Davidson shot glasses and Louisiana alligator heads, while men lined up to be photographed with young women in sheer pink negligees.

Deep in the Sespe Wilderness north of Ojai, archeologist Steve Galbraith knelt on the scorched earth and wiped clean a cutting stone he'd plucked from the bush. As he examined the Chumash Indian artifact, several questions came to mind. Who fashioned this prehistoric cooking tool? Was it 2,000 or 3,000 years old? What other treasures lay hidden in the clay soil?

A month before the Sept. 11 attacks, senior CIA officials warned President Bush that members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack airplanes, prompting the White House to issue an alert to U.S. law enforcement agencies, officials said Wednesday. White House and CIA officials said the intelligence behind the warning was not specific, however, and that nothing then available hinted at Bin Laden's plot to seize four passenger jets and use them as weapons.

Ventura County law enforcement officers have fatally shot 32 suspects in the last decade, with more than half the cases involving a mentally ill person, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday. With the elimination of mental health facilities--including the 1997 closure of Camarillo State Hospital--incidents involving mentally ill suspects will continue to rise, the panel concluded.

His hostages gone and the Alhambra bank where he was holed up surrounded by more than 100 police, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents, a lone robbery suspect ended a seven-hour standoff Tuesday by surrendering. Police said Danny Kai Chao, 27, had walked into the Cathay Bank at Atlantic Boulevard and Alhambra Road about 9:30 a.m., claimed he had a gun and demanded $50,000. But a teller tripped a silent alarm and officers surrounded the place.

The government has called on law enforcement personnel across the nation to remain vigilant against domestic terrorism until March 11, extending a standing alert through the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The FBI informed 18,000 law enforcement agencies that it was extending the alert issued publicly Dec. 3 by homeland security chief Thomas J. Ridge, FBI and White House officials said. The new advisory came without a public announcement from the Bush administration.

An important element of police work involves being able to clearly hear speech even when there's lots of distracting noise all around, like screaming sirens, passing trucks and other chaotic sounds. The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, better known as POST, has approved a new guideline for screening the hearing of new police officers. The guideline was developed by the nonprofit House Ear Institute here in Los Angeles.

Peace officers may not sue citizens who file false complaints against them, a state appellate court has concluded in a decision that won praise from civil libertarians Thursday. The 4th District Court of Appeal in Orange County said a law giving police special rights to sue complaining civilians violates the 1st Amendment right to free speech. Critics of the law said the court's decision would encourage citizens to speak up if they witness police abuse.