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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: A Brooklyn Heights man arrested on charges of making pipe bombs has also confessed to scrawling swastikas and hate messages in the neighborhood, according to police, and they are trying to figure out if the suspect planned to target synagogues or other sites with the arsenal found in his apartment, sources said.

Investigators said Ivaylo Ivanov, 37, at first told them he needed the weapons - eight pipe bombs, including one stuffed in a foam football, handguns, a rifle, a shotgun, two silencers, a crossbow, gunpowder and machines to help build the bombs - for protection. He also told police he planned to use the bombs for fishing.

But police also believe he is responsible for a spate of hate graffiti in the neighborhood on Sept. 24, so they want to ensure Ivanov didn’t intend to use the weapons in an anti-Semitic campaign. “We want to make certain there were no plans to use them to attack a synagogue,” a high-ranking police official said last night.

Ivanov was arrested Sunday after he called 911 and told police someone had shot him in the finger, but he told police later he had accidentally shot himself. Police who responded to his apartment said they found the weapons cache. Investigators are examining Ivanov’s computer.

Signs of hate

Late Sunday, after more than 12 hours in custody on weapons charges, Ivanov told detectives he spray-painted swastikas or hate messages at two synagogues and four other buildings, on nine cars and on sidewalks.

The vandalism, mostly swastikas, included one four-foot-high symbol of hate inside an apartment building on Columbia Place, police said. The suspect also allegedly wrote “Kill all Jews” and “America hates Jews” on fliers left on two cars.

Ivanov appeared at his arraignment yesterday still dressed in pajama bottoms, his left hand and forearm bandaged. He was charged with 10 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of not having a weapons permit. Regarding the graffiti, he also was charged with five counts of second-degree aggravated harassment, including two counts as a hate crime, and four counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief, including two counts as a hate crime.

Ivanov is a Bulgarian national who has a green card, said Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Kerry J. Pukhaber.

Judge John Wilson ordered Ivanov held on $300,000 bond or $150,000 cash bail. Wilson ordered him to surrender his passport if he makes bail.

Ivanov’s lawyer, Adrian Lesher, said Ivanov is a linguist and is himself Jewish.

“The defendant basically led police to the apartment in a situation that was almost calculated,” Lesher said at the arraignment. “It makes it less likely that he is a threat. He is an educated person.”

Ivanov, as it turns out, was the prime suspect in the September spate of graffiti. Police interviewed him several times, obtained a handwriting sample and even visited his apartment, an official said.

But the sample was inconclusive and nothing in his apartment suggested Ivanov was collecting and assembling weapons and explosives, the official said. He has a 2003 conviction for petty larceny.

Led to the weapons

Early Sunday, Ivanov called 911 and said an attacker had shot him in the left index finger. Officers who responded to Ivanov’s Remsen Street apartment found the bullet lodged in a chair, then got a search warrant, finding the guns and crossbow on his mattress and the pipe bombs, complete with caps and fuses and believed to be fully functional, in a closet.

Ivanov lives in the apartment with Michael Clatts, an associate professor at Columbia University who specializes in studying the spread of infectious diseases.

Police said there is no evidence to suggest Ivanov is connected to a terrorist group or planned to carry out an attack and nothing found thus far suggests Clatts was involved with the weapons or graffiti, police said.

Yesterday, apprehension was replaced in some quarters by relief. Rabbi Aaron Raskin, whose synagogue, Congregation B’nai Avraham, was among those defaced, said he expected the suspect would be a teenager or someone with a mental illness - not a grown man with no documented psychiatric problems.

“Thank God the perpetrator was caught and justice will be served,” he said. “It is a relief, but on the other hand it is a disappointment knowing that this person was very dangerous.”

On Columbia Place, meanwhile, a resident of the building that had been defaced said building management had beefed up security.

Still, said Daya Kapupara, 28, a student, it was unnerving to learn the suspect lived so close - and was allegedly making pipe bombs.

“We had no idea who it could be,” Kapupara said. “This is really surprising.”

Pervaiz Shallwani contributed to this story.

This story was broke exclusively by FOX News’ Adam Housley.

Click here to read Adam Housely’s blog.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger alleges that in a November voice message, Simpson told his bail bondsman to contact co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart and express frustration about testimony given at the hearing where Simpson, Stewart and a third man were ordered to stand trial.

“I just want, want C.J. to know that … I’m tired of this (expletive),” Simpson is quoted as saying in a transcript that was included in Roger’s motion to revoke bail, filed Friday. “Fed up with (expletive) changing what they told me. All right?”

Simpson had been instructed by Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure in September not to have any contact with anyone involved in the case — not even by “carrier pigeon.”

Simpson’s lawyer denied the allegations.

“O.J. did not try to persuade anybody to contact a witness,” Yale Galanter told The Associated Press.

Simpson flew to Las Vegas on a commercial flight from Miami in the custody of his bail bondsman. The bail bond company revoked the former football great’s bond, said Officer Ramon Denby, a Las Vegas police spokesman.

Simpson was freed Sept. 19 on $125,000 bail following his arrest on allegations he and several friends burst into a Las Vegas hotel room and robbed two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint.

Simpson has maintained that he was retrieving items that belonged to him. He and the two other men are scheduled to stand trial April 7.

Simpson is set to appear for a court hearing Wednesday on Roger’s request to revoke Simpson’s bail and keep him jailed until trial.

The prosecutor alleges that Simpson left the voice message with bail bondsman Miguel Pereira for Stewart on Nov. 16, two days after Bonaventure ruled that Simpson, Stewart and Charles Ehrlich should stand trial on 12 charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery.

Roger’s three-page motion alleges Simpson “committed new crimes,” without providing details or elaboration. Dan Kulin, a spokesman for Roger, declined to say whether new charges would be filed against Simpson.

Galanter said he believed the “new crimes” referred to allegations of witness tampering. Galanter called Pereira a member of Simpson’s defense team, and said he was “totally miffed” by the effort to use a tape of a permissible phone call to try to revoke Simpson’s bail.

“He was clearly voicing frustration to a member of the defense team who had been providing security, transportation and investigation services,” he said.

Galanter said Simpson stayed at Pereira’s home during the preliminary hearing, but said he thought the bondsman apparently changed sides.

“He is clearly now a witness for the prosecution,” Galanter said of Pereira. He said he intended to question the bondsman under oath Wednesday regarding the telephone message and how the tape recording came to be turned over to prosecutors.

Pereira did not respond to messages seeking comment. A bail bondsman at his business, You Ring We Spring bail bonds in North Las Vegas, declined immediate comment.

Stewart’s lawyer, Jose Pallares, said Friday he had no knowledge that Simpson’s message ever got to Stewart.

Simpson, Stewart and Ehrlich each pleaded not guilty Nov. 28 to kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, coercion and conspiracy charges. A kidnapping conviction could bring a life sentence with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery conviction carries mandatory prison time.

Three other former co-defendants, Walter Alexander, Michael McClinton and Charles Cashmore, agreed to plea deals and testified against Simpson at the evidentiary hearing in Las Vegas.

Simpson has maintained that no guns were displayed during the confrontation, that he never asked anyone to bring guns and that he did not know anyone had guns. He has said he intended only to retrieve items that had been stolen from him by a former agent, including the suit he wore the day he was acquitted of murder in 1995 in the slayings of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

As SOHH previously reported, Wayne was arrested in Yuma County, Ariz. last night (Jan. 22) after a vehicle search uncovered 105 grams of marijuana, 29 grams of cocaine and an unspecified amount of ecstasy.

Weezy was taken to jail on three felony counts: possession of dangerous drugs, possession of narcotics and possession of drug paraphernalia, and as of 2:30 p.m. EST today (Jan. 23) was still in custody.

He appeared in court at 10 a.m. MST via video feed from the Yuma County Detention Center.

A court clerk at the Yuma County Justice Court who asked to remain anonymous told SOHH that the rapper is scheduled to appear back in court on Jan. 25 at 10 a.m. MST for a reading of a complaint, due to the fact that he has been booked on pending felony charges.

Update: According to TMZ, police also found a firearm on Weezy’s person during his arrest. Along with a .40 caliber pistol, which Wayne reportedly has a permit to carry in the state of Florida, they also found $22,000 in cash. Authorities are currently investigating if his permit to carry a concealed weapon carries over to Arizona.

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http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/13518

The Riverside County coroner’s office identified the man as Nino Joseph Garcia Jr. of Banning.

The gunfire erupted shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday and forced patrons and employees of the Spa Resort and Casino to duck for cover. A casino slot machine technician was hit in the leg by a stray bullet that shattered a glass door in a lounge area, officials said.

The incident began when Garcia left the building with a female companion and authorities tried to take him into custody.

State and local law enforcement officers had been waiting outside to apprehend him, said Palm Springs Police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

He said the pair ran, trying first to dart into a waiting taxicab. Garcia then struggled with a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy and dove into a nearby row of decorative hedges, Spike said.

With officers in pursuit, Garcia ran from the bushes and splashed through a fountain area. At that point, he allegedly turned on officers with a handgun, Spike said.

Five officers fired their weapons at Garcia, Spike said.

Authorities are still investigating whether Garcia also shot at officers, which officers’ gunfire struck him and where or how many times he was hit, Spike said. Garcia died at the scene. “The officers did what they had to do,” he said.

The woman with Garcia ran across the street but was quickly taken into custody without resisting, officials said. Spike said a Palm Springs police officer involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a department investigation into the officer- involved shooting.

Two deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s fugitive warrant team were involved in the shooting and placed on administrative leave, said Jerry Franchville, an investigator with the department.

The other two officials involved in the shooting were agents with the state Department of Justice, said spokesman Gareth Lacy. They have not been placed on leave, Lacy said.

Nancy Conrad, a spokeswoman for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which owns the casino, said the wounded employee was recovering and had asked to return to work today.

“It certainly was kind of a freak accident that this occurred,” Conrad said, describing how security guards pulled casino patrons to the floor and ordered everyone to duck for cover as the shots were fired.

The shooting occurred next to a lounge area where a band had just begun to play, Conrad said.

Officials from a Sheriff’s Department task force and the state Department of Justice alerted Palm Springs police about 4 p.m. that Garcia was at the casino, Spike said.

The area where the incident took place is an ornamental outdoor spot where people do not congregate. “Not a whole lot of people really saw what happened,” Spike said. “This kind of stuff can happen anywhere.”

He refused to say on what felony charges Garcia was wanted. But Lacy, the state Justice Department spokesman, said Garcia was known to have had previous weapons-related altercations with law enforcement officers.

And yes, on a few occasions during work meetings, he donned a skimpy garment that barely covered his genitals.

But those events, he said, have to be understood in the context of the fashion industry.

As early as next week, Charney may find out how his explanations play in court, when trial starts in a lawsuit brought by a former employee alleging sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

The case is the fourth against him alleging sexual harassment. One was dismissed. Two others were combined and settled. He has denied the charges in all of them.

Charney’s eccentric behavior in and out of the workplace has become legendary. Most notably, he masturbated in front of a magazine reporter interviewing him in 2004.

The case about to go to trial was brought by former sales employee Mary Nelson, who contends that Charney, 38, created “a hostile work environment” by using sexually explicit language and behaving in sexually inappropriate ways. During several meetings with her — including one at his home — he was dressed only in his underwear, the suit alleges. On another occasion, according to the suit, he appeared in a skimpier garment.

(The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets have been subpoenaed by Nelson’s attorneys, who are seeking access to unpublished material. The media organizations are fighting the subpoenas.)

Nelson, 36, who worked for American Apparel for a little more than a year, claims Charney also referred to women as “whores” and “sluts” and invited her to masturbate in front of him. Nelson’s suit alleges she was fired the day she consulted a lawyer.

The company contends that there was no harassment. Rather, “American Apparel is a sexually charged workplace where employees of both genders deal with sexual conduct, speech and images as part of their jobs,” Charney’s lawyers said in court documents.

Indeed, sexually suggestive marketing is part of what has propelled American Apparel’s rapid growth in the T-shirt and cotton fashion market.

The provocative photos Charney shoots of young men and women wearing American Apparel clothing are featured in the company’s ads and on its website.

And young shoppers have responded, snapping up the company’s close-fitting soft jersey T-shirts and other cotton staples, as American Apparel stores have opened around the world.

American Apparel, which runs the largest garment factory in the United States, also earns high marks for its treatment of workers who make its clothing in a sprawling pink building in downtown Los Angeles.

The company’s very success, Charney says, supports his contention that Nelson’s allegations are overblown. “I’m the CEO of a public company,” he said in a recent interview. “I manage 7,000 employees in 14 countries. . . . Could I have done all this where I’m inappropriate all the time? Where I’m running around in my underwear all the time?”

As creative director of the company, he appointed himself fit model, the person who tests the look and size of his men’s line. He has even appeared in the ads. “I weigh 155 pounds, I’m five-10. Am I not fit? Is there any job that is not appropriate for me to do?” he said. “All the big guys did exactly what I do. Versace — they all wore their own bathing suits.”

In a deposition, he said that during the time of Nelson’s employment he “frequently had been in my underpants . . . because I was designing an underwear line.”

“I’m very proud of the underwear,” he added.

In an interview, he also defended appearing in front of Nelson with just his genitals covered. “The demonstration of the” garment, Charney said, “was a product we were considering — and I was in fit condition for it.” He ultimately decided against putting it in the American Apparel line. “It wasn’t classy,” he said.

Charney’s court papers portray Nelson as a poor sales rep who was frequently emotional. By November 2004, according to the papers, Nelson had earned less in commissions than the company had advanced her against those commissions.

“She wasn’t performing well,” Charney said in an interview. “And we were moving away from commissioned sales people.”

Nelson alleges in her suit that she was fired in January 2005, but Charney says he offered to keep her on salary for three months while she looked for other work. “She disappears, never to come back,” Charney said. He denies that he ever invited her to masturbate in front of him.

In an interview, Nelson’s attorney, Keith Fink, disputed Charney’s assessment of Nelson’s performance. “If she was a bad sales manager, why did she get a raise? You won’t see a single piece of paper in any of her files saying she did anything bad. . . . She was on salary plus commission. She sold more than $3 million worth of merchandise.”

Charney casts the world of American Apparel in particular and fashion in general as a business where everyone casually dresses and undresses for creative reasons and uses foul language with abandon.

“You talk to any man who works in entertainment or fashion, and if he tells you he has not used the word ’slut’ . . . I think he’s lying.”

Fink rejects Charney’s argument. “It’s the height of absurdity that because it’s the garment industry, that allows him to call women” by particularly vile words, Fink said.

On a tour of American Apparel’s offices Monday, two employees said that language gets “salty” at the office.

A journalist for Jane magazine wrote that during a series of interviews she conducted with Charney, he masturbated in front of her “eight or so times.” Asked about the article, Charney said in an interview, “I didn’t think she would exploit our relationship.”

During the conversations, he says, he thought it was simply “two people having a private time. You could say, ‘You knew she was a reporter.’ I made a mistake.”

The journalist, Claudine Ko, acknowledged that the situation was “unconventional” but said she made clear she was doing a story. “At all times, my recorder and my note pad were there,” she said.

Charney met a Times reporter Monday in his loft-like office at the American Apparel factory looking like a rumpled preppy, which he once was. He graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. He wore an untucked blue button-down shirt and dark-blue cotton trousers on his skinny physique, his bearded face framed with oversized square eyeglasses.

On a wall covered with framed notes and pictures, a long string of calendar photos showed bare-breasted, smiling Polynesian women in tropical locales. “That’s just something personal,” he said. “Reporters always go to that,” he chided.

Although many clothiers have created an overtly sexual mystique to sell their wares, Charney has pushed things further than most. In the signature American Apparel photos, young women — never professional models — peer at the camera, sometimes in T-shirts and little else. The company’s skin-tight shorts and leggings are sometimes photographed on topless women contorted into porn magazine poses. But what makes the photos particularly edgy is their flat background and the lack of glamorous makeup, leaving the subjects looking vulnerable and raw. His fashion colleagues generally commend Charney’s ad campaigns. In 2005, he won an LA Fashion Award for marketing excellence.

“I think it’s no worse than the old Calvin Klein ads that looked like they were shot against a grainy wood paneling in someone’s basement,” said Los Angeles-based designer and retailer Trina Turk, recalling the uproar that the Klein ads caused more than a decade ago. “The people are sort of normal-looking. That’s kind of refreshing. They haven’t been retouched to within an inch of their lives.”

No one wanted to venture a comment on the sexual harassment case that Charney faces. “I think he’s built an amazing business,” said Turk, who burst into laughter when told of Charney’s reason for wearing his underwear in the office.

“That’s hilarious,” she said. “I guess I’m glad I don’t work there.”

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SHERIFF MIKE CARONA:
Articles, columns, documents, background and related information about the federal grand jury indictment of the Orange County sheriff.
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SANTA ANA – Sheriff Mike Carona, the county’s top law enforcement officer, sat handcuffed in a federal courtroom Wednesday and answered “yes, sir” to a judge’s question of whether he understood the public corruption charges he faces.

With his wife to his left and the woman prosecutors called his “longtime mistress” sitting behind him, Carona held his head high and kept his jaw square as a federal judge ordered him to post $20,000 bond, give up his passport, undergo a mental health review and reappear for another hearing Monday.

After surrendering in the early morning, Carona spent hours in a cell during a remarkable day of public disgrace for a man who is most comfortable being front and center, and lauded as a tough lawman. Even as he won the right to carry his firearm, he was wearing a suit coat with no necktie or belt, as all prisoners are stripped of any clothing that might be used as a weapon.

“He’s angry. He didn’t want to go through this,” said Dean Steward, Carona’s lawyer. “You’re correct, it was embarrassing to him.”

Carona, 52, was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges that he illegally used his elected office by taking bribes of cash and lavish gifts in exchange for favors. The indictment says he accepted $350,000, a Cartier watch, lavish vacations and tickets to big sporting events. In return, prosecutors allege, he offered his well-heeled friends concealed weapons permits, badges and, in one case, a “get out of jail free” card that gave the buddy free access to the department’s resources, according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Carona’s wife, Debbie, 56, seemed startled and stared back at the many people studying her. She spoke with a soft “yes, sir” to U.S. Judge Robert Block, who asked her to speak up, and her attorney had to place her glasses on her face because her hands were cuffed. She was also ordered to post $20,000 bond. She was ordered to surrender her passport, undergo a mental health review and to appear in court Monday.

Debra V. Hoffman, 41, identified in the federal indictment as Carona’s “longtime mistress,” chewed gum and grimaced while consulting her lawyer, a public defender. Her husband, Robert Schroff, sat at the end of the second row, holding several copies of the day’s newspapers that carried headlines about his wife. Hoffman was ordered to post $10,000 bond. Hoffman must also surrender her passport, undergo a mental health review and appear at an arraignment Monday.

Block refused a request by Brett Sagel, an assistant U.S. attorney, to force Carona to surrender his firearm. Carona can do his job without the weapon, Sagel said, but Steward countered that Carona’s been threatened while in office and he needs the protection.

But Block sided with Sagel when the prosecutor asked the judge to order Carona and his wife against intimidating witnesses. Carona already faces two counts of witness tampering, Sagel said, and a number of witnesses told investigators that they were scared of the sheriff.

Debbie Carona’s attorney, Dave Weichert, fought that condition and said that the couple often attend political events and fundraisers and run into many of the people mentioned as part of the case.

“They are not to talk to them,” Block said. “That’s just the way it is.”

After the brief hearing, attorneys for the Caronas blasted prosecutors for overzealously going after the sheriff and forcing the couple to wear what’s called “belly chains,” which wind around defendants’ waists and cuff their hands together.

“I think that it’s appropriate that on Halloween, this witch hunt has commenced,” Weichert said.

Steward was furious that Sagel tried to take Carona’s weapon, calling it “a bunch of baloney.”

“Quite frankly, the government’s overselling its case once again,” Steward said.

Sagel wouldn’t respond to the criticism and said only that the U.S. Marshals Service makes the decisions on security in the courtrooms.

While Hoffman sought the services of a public defender, the Caronas are paying for their own legal team. The county is not footing the bill, said Ben de Mayo, county counsel.

The three face another court appearance Monday when they will be arraigned and learn more about the charges against them.

Meanwhile, despite the many people calling for Carona’s resignation, Steward said the sheriff will “absolutely not” resign and is determined to prove he is innocent.

“He is so anxious to fight these charges we have to hold him back,” Steward said.

Register staff writer Brian Joseph contributed to this report.

A Watson murder is a case where prosecutors seek a second-degree murder conviction instead of a manslaughter conviction even though the alleged perpetrator had no intent to kill.

Judges and attorneys handling criminal cases call them Watson murders after the Supreme Court case that allowed the more serious charge (and the more serious penalty) in cases where the accused does something that is incredibly dangerous, even though he is aware of the risks.

The law is applied most often in drunk-driving cases where a death occurs, and where the defendant has a prior drunk-driving conviction where he has been put on notice that alcohol and driving can be a dangerous mixture.

Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue is presiding over such a case in C-43 on the 11th floor, where Kenneth Perez, 25, is accused of causing the Aug. 28, 2005 of Chun Kim, 62, in an alcohol-related, high-speed crash in Orange.

Deputy District Attorney Cameron Talley contends that Perez had two prior drunk-driving convictions, was driving on a suspended license, and had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his sytem when he crashed into Kim’s car.

On the 10th floor in C-40, Judge William R. Froeberg is presiding over a similar case, where Jon David Tafoya, 28, of Downey, is charged with leading sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed pursuit while drunk on April 5, 2005, and killing two people in a head-on collision.

Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy contends that Tafoya was warned about the risks of driving while intoxicated when he was convicted of drug possession in 2004 and drunk-driving in 2001.

It is a big difference for defendants. A conviction of second-degree murder could lead to a life term in prison. The penalty for vehicular manslaughter ranges from four to 10 years.

Blog Post by –Larry Welborn

NEWPORT BEACH – The after-school brawl, police say, only attracted a handful of young spectators to a neighborhood park. But once the videotaped fight was posted online, it didn’t take long for scores of students to gape at the scuffle.

By late Tuesday, when police arrested two teenage girls they say started the scrap, text messages and MySpace chatter had transformed the footage into a schoolhouse sensation.

“Only (a few) people saw it, but then, like, everyone knew about it the next day through MySpace,” said Vanessa Sezenol, a classmate of the 13-year-old girl police say was attacked. “And you’ve got cell phones – word gets around fast.”

Two 14-year-old Newport Harbor High School girls were booked on suspicion of conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon after investigators say they beat an Ensign Intermediate girl, then posted a video of the beating on YouTube and promoted the tape using MySpace.

Numerous students leaving the Ensign campus Wednesday reported having watched the video online, and described a fight in which the victim was kicked, punched, spit on and pulled along the ground by her hair – details police confirmed.

Jonathan Jiminez, a Harbor High freshman, said a classmate told him to check the tape out, and that the fight might have been provoked by insults the Ensign student and her alleged attackers traded on MySpace – also a detail officials were investigating.

“Many of us can recall experiencing or witnessing hateful remarks from our high-school days,” Harbor High principal Michael Vossen said in a statement Wednesday.

“Those remarks were usually spread either by word-of-mouth or in writing. … But today, with the instant and public availability offered by websites such as YouTube and MySpace, our kids are turning more and more to the use of these mediums to spread hateful comments and images resulting in a more-pronounced negative effect.”

Indeed, MySpace has been linked to several local confrontations. In 2006, police investigated allegations that a student at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa posted violent threats about a classmate on the social-networking site. In July, a student at Creekside High School in Irvine threw punches because of a MySpace comment about someone’s girlfriend, according to published reports.

Immortalizing familiar schoolyard fisticuffs on YouTube amounts to “a time-honored thing in a different form,” said UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Faye Crosby.

Sezenol said that while many students who watched the video cringed, others reveled in the violent scene.

Such appeal is more common when viewing a taped altercation, as opposed to seeing violence in person, Crosby said. “It’s like slasher films – it’s a way of psychologically distancing,” she said.

The Ensign student suffered cuts and bruises but didn’t require hospitalization, Sailor said. None of the girls was identified because they are minors. Two other students present at the fight – one who videotaped it and one who watched idly – could also be arrested, Sailor said.

Police at first reported the victim was developmentally disabled, but said Wednesday afternoon that that was not the case. Sgt. Evan Sailor said he couldn’t explain the initial discrepancy.

The two girls who have been arrested have been removed from school during the investigation, but have not yet been suspended, school district spokeswoman Laura Boss said.

SANTA ANA - The owner of Village Pets and his son pleaded guilty today to charges of animal neglect and sale of sick animals.

The 51-year-old pet store owner, Shahram Behafarin of Irvine and his 23-year-old son, Khosrow Behafarin of Irvine appeared in a second-floor courtroom at the Central Justice Center for a hearing.

The Behafarins stood in front of Superior Court Judge James M. Brooks and were ordered to close down Village Pets at 3396 S. Bristol St. by Feb. 7 and to give up ownership of all their existing animals, said Deputy District Attorney James A. Young.

“We tried weekly inspections from October to December to give them a chance and see how they might do on probation but the sickness problems started to return so closure became really the only option,” said Prosecutor James Young.

The Behafarins also were put on probation for three years, were ordered to perform 30 days of community service and to donate $500 to a local animal shelter or charity. In addition, the pair is also responsible for reimbursing the city nearly $100,000 for the seizure of animals and to reimburse known customers for all costs related to receiving sick pets.

The Behafarins are required to reimburse the city and the customers by April, Young said.
If the Behafarins violate any portion of their probation, they will serve 90 days in jail.

“The defendants are sorry that any sick animals were sold,” said Daniel M. Smith who represents the father. “They are sorry that the conditions did rise to the level of being unacceptable and now they wish to move on with their lives,” Smith said.

In August — 56 dogs, 22 rabbits, six cats and one guinea pig — were removed from the store by Santa Ana police Animal Services officers and taken to the Orange County Animal Services Center suffering from scabies, dehydration, respiratory infections and other health problems.

The Behafarins were charged in October with abusing, neglecting and failing to care for 85 animals in their unsanitary store. Two of the dogs were euthanized and the rest of the animals were later adopted, authorities said.

S. Harvey, a Santa Ana police animal services supervisor, said she was elated that the outcome was fair and their mission of saving the animals was completed.

“What we wanted we got and they won’t be selling animals again,” Harvey said.
The Behafarins declined to comment. Smith said they have been very emotional.

“It’s sad that people who love animals this much made this mistake,” Smith said. “They are hopeful that the public will forgive them. They are animal lovers,” he said.