Lying

Former Orange County Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo will report to Montebello City Jail -- perhaps as early as next week -- to rent a cell and serve a one-year sentence for a corruption conviction, but he will not be allowed to bring a cellular phone or a laptop computer. Jaramillo's choice of jails was approved by Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel on Friday after Dist. Atty.

An 11-year-old Aliso Viejo girl who told authorities that a man tried to abduct her at knifepoint made up the story because she was running late for school, officials said Saturday. The girl, who was not identified, had told Orange County sheriff's investigators last week that a man with spiky brown hair got out of a banged-up white pickup with blue stripes and held a large kitchen knife to her neck, but she was able to break away.

An elderly nun, under questioning by a lawyer, recently said she could remember almost nothing about his client, a child who had been sexually molested by a Roman Catholic priest. Lawyer Irwin Zalkin was puzzled because church records showed she had heard several complaints about the San Diego priest, and the file noted that she had reported them to higher authority.

Regarding "Former HP chairwoman cleared in 'pretext' case" (March 15): In the headlines in the Business section, The Times used the word "pretext" and "pretexting," both in quotes. The story itself states that new laws are proposed to punish pretexting. From my understanding, this word was conjured up to describe the practice of pretending to be someone else. Um, isn't that just "lying"? Do we not have laws against that already? Wasn't the whole basis of this scandal the fact that some private investigators lied about who they were?

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.

Allegations that the Santa Ana Unified School District falsified documents to retain state funding for small classes mushroomed Monday, with teachers from more than half a dozen elementary schools saying they were asked to sign inaccurate rosters to make their classes appear smaller. Meanwhile, documents emerged showing that district officials, including Supt.

The music and movie industries are lobbying state legislators for permission to deceive when pursuing suspected pirates. The California Senate is considering a bill that would strengthen state privacy laws by banning the use of false statements and other misleading practices to get personal information. The tactic, known as pretexting, created a firestorm of criticism when detectives hired by Hewlett-Packard Co. used it last year to obtain phone records of board members, journalists and critics.

After all the hype, after all the politicos weighed in, after the composite sketch of the alleged baby buyer was passed around, it turned out to be the case of a nanny who didn't want to go to the park. It was a fib that snowballed into police searching for an imaginary criminal. It ended Thursday when the nanny finally decided to 'fess up after what police described as sleepless nights brought on by a guilty conscience.

Marilee Jones, a prominent crusader against the pressure on students to build their resumes for elite colleges, resigned Thursday as dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after acknowledging she had misrepresented her academic credentials. Jones has been a popular speaker on the college admissions circuit, where she urged parents not to press their kids too hard and told students there were more important things than getting into the most prestigious colleges.

Chinese officials who have mistresses, fail to financially support their parents or abuse and abandon their families could be out of a job, according to a new set of ethics rules released by the central government. The regulations, set to take effect June 1, cover a variety of other misdeeds, including corruption, beating up or illegally detaining citizens, using drugs, having sex with a prostitute and organizing "superstitious gatherings."