Professional Misconduct

Erik and Lyle Menendez's Beverly Hills therapist, who heard them confess to killing their parents and then became a key witness in the first of the brothers' two murder trials, was stripped of his psychology license Friday. L. Jerome Oziel, who had been accused by a state panel of breaking confidentiality rules and having sex with female patients, surrendered his license to the state Department of Consumer Affairs' Board of Psychology. In a deal that was agreed to Sept.

GEORGETOWN, Texas - In emotional testimony Monday, a Texas man told a judge how it felt spending 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. “Brutal,” Michael Morton said. “But after a couple decades, I got used to it.” Morton, 58, who grew up in Los Angeles, was convicted in the 1986 beating death of his wife, Christine, at their home. He was exonerated and released almost a year and a half ago after DNA tests confirmed his innocence. Another man has since been charged in connection with the killing.

She was a popular teacher, known for working past midnight on school projects and being a compassionate ally to her students. He was one of the special ones: a sixth-grader with whom she had recognized a kindred spirit when he entered her class, talented and intense.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon inspector general has cleared the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan of allegations that he sent inappropriate emails to a Florida woman who was also involved in the scandal that led to CIA Director David H. Petraeus' resignation. The inspector general determined that Marine Gen. John R. Allen's emails to Jill Kelley, a married Tampa socialite with close ties to several senior military officers, did not constitute professional misconduct, a spokeswoman for the office said.

A sprinter who became one of Finland's most revered sports heroes on Tuesday resigned her post on the International Olympic Committee, the first IOC member toppled by the bribery scandal roiling the Olympic movement. Pirjo Haggman, 47, one of the first women to become an IOC member and a track champion so beloved in Finland that she has been depicted on a postage stamp, delivered her resignation to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in Lausanne, Switzerland.

A Navy psychiatrist who formerly directed the drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit at Camp Pendleton faces a general court-martial today on a range of charges, including larceny, attempted sodomy and sexual harassment of clients and co-workers. The controversy swirling around Cmdr. William J.

Fountain Valley plans to become the first city to use a new state law aimed at cracking down on prostitution rings that operate out of chiropractic offices. The law was inspired by a string of cases in Orange County. It gives cities the power to require licensing and training for massage therapists who work for chiropractors.

Five top editors and a veteran columnist have resigned from the Santa Barbara News-Press, saying Thursday that the newspaper's billionaire owner had been meddling improperly in the editorial content of the 151-year-old publication. Editor Jerry Roberts was escorted from the newspaper's headquarters before noon as several staff members cried and others hurled obscenities at the new publisher, Travis K.

To proponents of affirmative action, Patrick Chavis was viewed six years ago as a hero. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) called the personable black doctor the perfect example of how the controversial college admissions program could help minorities and disadvantaged communities. To opponents of the program, Chavis was seen four years ago as one of its failures.

The state attorney general's office pushed ahead Friday with an accusation of gross negligence and sexual misconduct against prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Renato Calabria, asking an administrative body to set a hearing on the matter. The Italian-born Calabria has offices in Rome and Milan as well as Westlake Village, Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills.

A high-profile perjury and voter fraud case against Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife could be in trouble based on a judge's warning at a court hearing last month, transcripts show. In the March 2 hearing, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy sharply criticized the prosecution's case and scolded Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Lentz Snyder for being "very dismissive" of defense evidence submitted to a grand jury in 2010. Those jurors returned a 24-count felony indictment against the Alarcons, who have pleaded not guilty.

Hope of finding survivors on the half-submerged Costa Concordia waned Monday after rescuers found a sixth victim, three days after the giant luxury liner ran aground off the Italian coast in an accident that increasingly appeared to have been avoidable. Both judicial and media attention was concentrated Monday on ascertaining what led to the tragedy that one prosecutor said was due to an "inexcusable" maneuver by the ship's captain, who remained in custody. The sixth victim was a still-unidentified male passenger who was found on the second bridge of the ship wearing a life jacket.

There seems to be a misconception among some of Chris Matthews' guests. Because they have been invited on "Hardball" and put in front of a microphone, they think they will not only be asked questions, but also get a chance to answer them. If they had been paying much attention, they would know that MSNBC's fantastically frenetic host often uses questions like a tennis player uses a backboard. Once he gets the ball back in his own court, he spins it, slices it, pounds it, to his heart's content.

A veteran CBS News producer -- whose actions prompted late-night host David Letterman to admit he had had sexual liaisons with members of his staff -- pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted grand larceny and will go to jail for six months. The deal accepted by Robert Joel Halderman brought to a close an embarrassing chapter for Letterman, whose on-air confession in the fall triggered scrutiny of his behavior behind the scenes. Halderman, whose former girlfriend was a longtime assistant to the late-night comedian, was accused of demanding $2 million in exchange for a screenplay treatment he wrote about affairs Letterman had had with female employees.

For the first time in its history, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has banned a nominee from attending the Oscars. The group said Tuesday that Nicolas Chartier, a producer on best picture candidate "The Hurt Locker," will not be allowed into the Kodak Theatre for Sunday's ceremony. Chartier's tickets have been revoked, and he will not be granted entry as a guest of any other attendee, an academy spokeswoman told The Times. The decision comes on the heels of Chartier sending an e-mail message to a group of colleagues that included academy members asking them to choose the Summit Entertainment-distributed "The Hurt Locker" for best picture and "not the $500-million film" -- a clear reference to "Avatar."

An internal Justice Department report released Friday has concluded that although two former Bush administration lawyers used "poor judgment" in issuing legal memos authorizing waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics on terrorism suspects, they did not commit any professional misconduct. The report by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility noted that the lawyers did not purposely give bad legal advice to CIA interrogators and others dealing with suspects captured after the Sept.

A nationally acclaimed Fountain Valley veterinarian has been disciplined by a state administrative judge for allowing an unregistered technician to perform medical procedures on animals and misrepresenting staff veterinarians as specialists. Dr. Robert L. Rooks, whose All-Care Animal Referral Center treats about 30,000 pets a year, was placed on three years' probation and ordered to pay $83,000 in court costs, but he was allowed to maintain his practice. Judge Alan S.

Thomas Kinkade is famous for his luminous landscapes and street scenes, those dreamy, deliberately inspirational images he says have brought "God's light" into people's lives, even as they have made him one of America's most collected artists. A devout Christian who calls himself the "Painter of Light," Kinkade trades heavily on his beliefs and says God has guided his brush -- and his life -- for the last 20 years.

During a visit to the Tehran military courthouse one day last fall, Hossein and Hamid spotted the doctor. Memories from their five days at Kahrizak prison came flooding back. Prisoners seeking help were handed a few aspirin and told to go away. When they asked for bandages, the doctor struck some lightly with a club. One inmate had been beaten so badly on his feet that his toes were swollen and infected and he couldn't walk properly. He arranged for an appointment with the doctor, who told him, "Get lost before I beat you up," according to Hossein, who said he didn't even bother asking for help for his own injuries.

The British doctor whose suggestion of a link between the MMR shot and autism helped cause vaccination rates to plunge conducted his now-discredited research in a dishonest and irresponsible manner, medical authorities here concluded Thursday. It was the latest development in a long-running health controversy that has seen measles make a comeback among British children after being all but wiped out. The General Medical Council, Britain's medical regulator, found that Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in the way he collected blood samples from children and in his failure to disclose payments from lawyers representing parents who believed the vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella -- given as a single shot, referred to as the MMR vaccine -- had hurt their kids.