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California mayor fighting conviction for animal cruelty
The mayor of the Southern California city of Maywood convicted of criminal charges says the dog in the animal cruelty case against him was not his.
Mayor Ramon Medina says in a motion filed in Los Angeles Superior Court says that prosecutors had it out for him because of his ethnicity.
The motion says the Mexican-american mayor has faced a relentless harassment campaign by Los Angeles County authorities since he announced his candidacy in 2015.
The San Diego Uniontribune reported Wednesday that the motion asks for the dismissal of Medina's conviction.
Medina has had other animal-related trouble prior to the animal cruelty case.
In February, 40 roosters were removed from the mayor's automotive shop during an investigation.
Medina said the roosters belonged to his son.
Medina's Tuesday sentencing was postponed to Nov. 7.
Fontana residents arrested on suspicious of kidnapping man
Authorities say three Fontana residents were arrested in connection with an attempted murder, torture and kidnapping case.
The Sun reports deputies with the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department arrested three people leaving an abandoned residence where they found a nude male adult who was bound from his hands with rope.
The sheriff's department said in a Tuesday statement that the man was severely beaten and had traumatic head and facial injuries.
The man was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center for further examination and treatment of his injuries.
Officials say investigators from the sheriff's department determined that the man had been kidnapped, beaten and submerged into a tub of water.
Officials say two additional suspects have not been arrested.
The motive is under investigation.
LA County to stop collecting old juvenile detention fees
Los Angeles County supervisors have voted to stop collecting fees once charged to parents and guardians of juvenile delinquents for their incarceration — erasing nearly $90 million of families' debt.
The Los Angeles Times reports the vote Tuesday ends a practice decried by criminal justice advocates as an unfair tax on minorities and an ineffective means of rehabilitating young people who commit crimes.
The motion directs the county's Probation Department to stop accepting payment and cancel nearly $90 million in juvenile detention fees assessed before 2009. That's when the department suspended new fees but continued to collect payment of old ones.
The newspaper says the vote follows a statewide ban on a range of court costs and fees charged to parents and guardians of children in the juvenile justice system.
California deputies shoot man with knife after car crash
Authorities say deputies shot and killed a man who came at them with a knife at the scene of a single-car crash in Southern California.
Ventura County sheriff's Sgt. Eric Buschow says deputies responding to the crash early Wednesday in Thousand Oaks were met by the driver clutching the weapon.
Buschow says it appears the man had lost control of his car and slammed into a fence near a condo complex.
He says the man walked toward deputies and ignored their commands to drop the weapon. Despite being hit multiple times with beanbag rounds, Buschow says, the man kept coming at them.
He says that's when deputies opened fire. The man, a 26-year-old resident of Thousand Oaks, died at the scene.
The crash and the shooting are under investigation.