Police Detectives

Investigators for both sides in an alleged rape at the Kennedy estate are roaming nightclubs trying to assemble a portrait of the woman who says she was attacked. Private investigators hired by the Kennedy family and police detectives have been talking with acquaintances of the woman, employees at her favorite nightclubs and those who were with her the night before the alleged assault. More than 100 people have been interviewed.

Re "34-year wait for justice is over," Nov. 8 What an outrageous and grotesque miscarriage of justice. Kash Delano Register languishes in prison for 34 years for a murder he didn't commit, while those who put him there - an eyewitness who evidently perjured herself and the police detectives and prosecutors who allegedly ignored or withheld exculpatory evidence - are not punished for their actions. There must be consequences for liars and cheats in the criminal justice system, and I'm not referring to the defendants.

In cool, crisp sentences, the police homicide detective offers a rapid analysis of the unsolved case. "I know who did it. I can't prove it. It just bothers me to no end because I don't have the physical evidence. But everything, as far as I am concerned, points to this one individual," Santa Ana Police Detective Irma Vasquez says of the murder committed earlier this year. Her job is somber, frustrating, unpredictable and filled with long days.

Police have released all four men detained for questioning and scaled back their manhunt for a gunman who ambushed two police detectives outside the Wilshire Division station early Tuesday. No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, which occurred about 4:30 a.m. just outside the LAPD Wilshire substation at 4861 W. Venice Blvd. The undercover burglary detectives were in an unmarked car waiting for the security gate to open at the station's parking lot. More than a dozen rounds were fired from behind and one detective suffered a minor head injury either from a bullet or shattered glass and the other detective suffered a minor injury to their hand, officials said.

Linebacker Mike Green's future with the Chargers was in doubt Thursday following his arrest on drug charges, which left coaches and teammates stunned and angry. "I'm mad . . . I'm very upset," said Coach Don Coryell after learning of Green's arrest Wednesday, when detectives found about a gram of cocaine in his car. "He has hurt himself and the team," Coryell said. "I believed he was a gung-ho player who thought more of himself." Veteran linebacker Linden King shared Coryell's wrath.

David Dionisio was in trouble and he knew it. He fidgeted, squirmed and tapped his feet, rolled his eyes and and swiveled his head to avoid looking at the dignified, bespectacled man across the table.

A 2-year-old girl who rode her tricycle into her grandmother's pool was well enough to leave the hospital Thursday, just 24 hours after the incident, hospital officials said. "She's a very lucky little girl," said Corrine Alkofer, spokeswoman for Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange. Thea Shannon toppled into the pool about 3 p.m. Wednesday. Her grandmother, Joan Skinner, had left Thea in the care of the toddler's uncle while she ran an errand, police said.

Officers throughout the Los Angeles Police Department grieved Tuesday as news spread that a veteran detective had killed herself in the lobby of an L.A. County Sheriff's Department station Monday night. Susan J. Clemmer, a well-regarded officer assigned to the LAPD's Gang and Narcotics Division, walked into the Santa Clarita sheriff's station about 9:15 p.m. and spoke to the sheriff's deputy at the front desk, according to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore and LAPD officials.

Louis Watson, Dwight Taylor and Gregory Davis Jr. were the first casualties of the L.A. riots, mortally wounded in a volley of gunfire early on the evening of April 29, 1992. Over the last 20 years, police detectives and family members have tried to imagine what exactly happened near Vernon and Vermont avenues. They know it was a chaotic moment. Police believe all three were innocent victims, but they were surrounded by a mob looting a large swap meet at the corner. They can replay so much of the scene -- but not who pulled the trigger.

Jim McIntyre winced, for he'd heard this song before. We've received some reports, his boss, the Multnomah County district attorney, was murmuring on his voice mail. Reports about two anonymous letters. The courthouse got one, the Oregonian another. Whoever wrote them is claiming credit for several murders. Whoever wrote them says he killed Taunja Bennett. McIntyre stared out his office window at a steady rain.

A man convicted of murder in the killing of an off-duty Huntington Beach police officer while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs was denied parole last week. The Board of Parole Hearings denied Richard Gonzales, 63, a three-year parole after recommending he continue receiving self-help, as he "poses a risk of returning to his drug and alcohol abuse and poses a risk of violence and danger to society," according to a release by the Orange County district attorney's office.

A 10-year-old girl who disappeared overnight from her Northridge home was apparently dropped off at an intersection in Woodland Hills, police said. Someone recognized her and alerted a nearby police officer, LAPD Cmdr. Sharon Papa said. No additional details were immediately available until detectives have had a chance to talk to Nicole Ryan, who was reported missing by her parents early Wednesday. Papa said police are reviewing surveillance video from businesses in the area of Oxnard Street and Canoga Avenue for clues.

As authorities scoured Southern California for an ex-Los Angeles police officer suspected of shooting three officers, killing one, officials broadened the alert to include the entire state Thursday morning, and authorities in Nevada were warned. The California Highway Patrol originally issued a "blue alert" for nine Southern California counties, warning that suspect Christoper Jordan Dorner, 33, was considered "armed and extremely dangerous," early Thursday. Shortly after 9 a.m. that alert was broadened to the include the entire state.

Los Angeles police detectives Tuesday arrested four people at a Las Vegas casino in connection with a quadruple homicide at a Northridge house over the weekend. The four people were taken into custody without incident at the Silverton Hotel and Casino, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced at a news conference. Beck declined to answer specific questions about the case, including any possible motive for the slayings. Photos: Four killed in Northridge shooting But law enforcement sources told The Times the killings appeared to stem from a dispute over personal property, although they would not say what kind of items were involved.

Anaheim police detectives didn't have to go far to find the latest victims of an apparent embezzlement scam. For five years, Cindy Ann Su'a sat in the Anaheim police union as officer manager, quietly stealing more than $360,000 from the organization's accounts, prosecutors charged Wednesday. She altered her paychecks, sometimes doubling her pay, and paid her bills from the Anaheim Police Assn.'s bank accounts, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Labreche said. "She was stealing our money and hiding the mail so we'd never find out … it was a shock," said Kerry Condon, the union president and a veteran homicide detective, who prosecutors credit with uncovering the alleged scheme.

The affair began unconventionally. Mitchell Graves, a veteran Santa Ana detective, was searching the home of a suspect in a street shooting, when he came across photos of the gang member's fiancee. The detective, the lead investigator on the case, began calling the woman, according to court records, even as he continued to investigate her fiance on suspicion of attempted murder. He flirted with her during interviews, told her that he had enjoyed going through her underwear drawer and repeatedly asked her to dinner.

One intersection. Seven unsolved homicides. That's the tally for the cross streets of San Pedro and 84th dating to the late 1980s. The spot is typical of many in South and Central Los Angeles where extraordinary numbers of people are murdered and the killers are never caught. Unsolved homicides -- killings for which no suspect is ever arrested -- are stacked up block by block, mile by mile, in this part of Los Angeles.

Police Sunday night found the body of a missing 8-year-old Woodland Hills girl in the apartment of a man who was arrested earlier in the day in connection with her disappearance and killing. Los Angeles Police Lt. George Rock said officers found Nicole Parker's body in Hooman Askahcapana's apartment, which is in the same Ventura Boulevard complex where the girl stayed with her father, about 11 p.m. Askahcapana, 22, was booked on suspicion of murder, police detectives said.

A former Westminster police detective may face life in prison after a San Bernardino County jury Tuesday rejected his defense that he was in an antidepressant-induced blackout, and legally insane, when he kidnapped and raped a waitress. Anthony Orban testified that he had no memory of the 2010 attack and blamed his psychotic break on a powerful dose of the popular antidepressant Zoloft, which he said had triggered hallucinations and suicidal and homicidal fantasies in the days before the abduction.

Louis Watson, Dwight Taylor and Gregory Davis Jr. were the first casualties of the L.A. riots, mortally wounded in a volley of gunfire early on the evening of April 29, 1992. Over the last 20 years, police detectives and family members have tried to imagine what exactly happened near Vernon and Vermont avenues. They know it was a chaotic moment. Police believe all three were innocent victims, but they were surrounded by a mob looting a large swap meet at the corner. They can replay so much of the scene -- but not who pulled the trigger.