March 19, 2012- According to reports, a Metrotrain and car collision occurred Saturday in Downtown Los Angeles injuring six people.
According to authorities the accident occurred at approximately 4:20 p.m. at the intersection of Flower Street and Venice Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles.
Authorities said the Blue Line train was traveling southbound in route to Long Beach, when the accident occurred.
According to witnesses a black sedan ran a red light, prior to the crash.
Firefighters responding to the scene of the crash extricated the driver of the vehicle that was trapped underneath the front of the train.
According to authorities there were five other people in the vehicle that suffered minor injuries and were transported to area hospitals for treatment.
Metro officials said that the operator of the train suffered minor abrasions in the crash. The said that commuters should expect delays through Saturday and Saturday night, but had the Blue line back on schedule at approximately 9:30 p.m.
March 15, 2012 – According to reports a man was struck and killed by a metrolink train in Van Nuys. According to the Los Angeles Police Department Valley Traffic Division Sgt. Mike Zaboski the accident occurred Thursday morning at approximately 9:00 a.m. in the 8100 block of Woodley Avenue in Los Angeles.
Sgt. Zaboski said the man that was struck by the Metrolink train was killed instantly. He said according to witnesses the man was sitting on the tracks at the time he was struck and killed by the Metrolink train 110. According to Los Angeles Police Department officials it was not clear if the death was a suicide.
Paramedics responded to the scene of the crash and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to Metrolink the train was carrying 60 passengers at the time of the crash. Metrolink 110 operates between Los Angeles and Ventura, Metrolink officials said. Sgt. Zaboski said that the man’s identity has not been released, but he was in his early 40’s.
March 12, 2012 – According to reports a recall has been issued for Gerber powdered baby formula that was reported to have a strange odor. According Gerber officials they are issuing a recall for certain packages of Gerber Good Start Gentle powdered formula. We are sure that lawyers personal injury are ready for this.
The voluntary recall is for the 23.2 ounce plastic packaged Gerber Good Start Gentle powdered formula. Gerber said the expiration date on the powdered formula they are recalling is March 5, 2013 and the batch number affected is GXP1684, after an odd odor was reported.
The company is asking retailers to remove the recalled baby formula from their shelves and added that product does not pose any health safety risks. Gerber officials said that there have been no hospitalizations, but there have been several reports of infants spitting up and gastrointestinal complaints.
February 20, 2012-According to reports a man standing on the tracks was struck and killed by a Metrolink train. According to Orange County Police Sgt. Dan Adams a Metrolink train traveling southbound struck and fatally injured a man standing on the tracks at approximately 6:40 a.m. at the intersection of Batavia Street and Collins Avenue in Orange.
Sgt. Adams said the conductor saw the man standing on the tracks north of Collins Avenue and could not stop in time. According to the conductor the man did not attempt to move off of the tracks upon seeing the train, leading Orange County Police officials to believe the man may have committed suicide. Sgt. Adams said that the 805 Metrolink train on the Empire-Orange County line was the train involved in the fatal accident and was terminated according to Metrolink officials. There were 108 passengers onboard the train at the time of the accident and no injuries were reported.
The man that was struck by the 805 Metrolink southbound train was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, according to Orange County Police Sgt. Adams. According to Orange County Transportation Authority buses were dispatched to pick up the passengers that were onboard the Metrolink train.
February 16, 2012 – According to reports a police chase of an SUV containing a woman that was believed to be kidnapped ended in a fatal crash, killing the woman.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department police received reports that a woman was grabbed off of the sidewalk at approximately 8:00 a.m. in the vicinity of 6th Street and Bexel Street. The vehicle was identified to the LAPD as a black GMC Yukon that was spotted by officers after the reported kidnapping.
According to Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Andrew Smith, the woman that had been kidnapped was seen by officers hanging out of the window at times and waving to the officers.
The police chase was approximately a mile, before the driver of the Yukon crashed head-on with a Volvo. The LAPD said that the suspect then took off on foot after the crash and was taken into custody a short time later.
The woman that had been allegedly kidnapped was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Cmdr. Smith said that the driver of the Volvo that was involved in the head-on crash suffered minor injuries in the collision. According to the LAPD the relationship between the woman that was kidnapped and the suspect has not been determined at this time.
February 8, 2012 – According to reports 200 more photos have been found in the sexual abuse bondage case. According to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Scott, investigators have found 200 more bondage photos in the computer at the Redondo Beach CVS store, where the first 40 photos were turned into authorities by an employee.
The new photos that have been recovered, allegedly taken by former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berdt, show approximately 25 victims that have not been identified.
One of the students involved in the sexual abuse case is identified as a ten year old female, who was not in Berndt’s class, but was borrowed from another classroom. According to the young girl Berndt would contact the girl’s teacher and ask to borrow a group of students and the teacher would deliver the students to his classroom.
Berndt, according to the girl would give them cookies, that she believed were for being helpful and as a reward. Police investigators have since discovered the cookies were covered with Berndt’s semen. The girl stated that she received a cookie almost every day.
According to attorney Brian Claypool, who represents six of the alleged victims, including the 10 year old female student, gave the name of the female teacher to authorities. According to Sgt. Scott the female teacher has been interviewed and is not a suspect, police do not believe she had any involvement. He went on to say he cannot tell what will happen in the future.
February 6, 2012 – According to reports a pedestrian was killed crossing Pacific Coast highway Sunday.
According to Seal Beach Police Sgt. Steve Bowles the accident was reported at approximately 8:50 p.m. that a woman was struck by an SUV while crossing Pacific Coast Highway in the vicinity north of Anderson Street.
The woman according to Orange County Deputy Coroner Mitchell Sigal was identified as Holly Barish-Sablich age 22.
Sgt. Bowles stated that witnesses said that the woman was not in a designated controlled intersection and was outside of the sidewalk. Alcohol is not considered to be a factor in the deadly crash and the driver of the SUV was interviewed by officers, Sgt. Bowles said.
Barish-Sablich was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash by paramedics and an autopsy is planned to determine the young woman’s cause of death.
According to Sgt. Bowles the accident is being investigated by a multi-agency Traffic Accident Response team that includes officers from Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress and La Palma.
February 1, 2011 – Some sick bastard if this is true. So freakin gross! According to reports a third grade teacher fed students that were blindfolded semen from a spoon and on cookies.
According to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office Mark Berndt age 61 of Torrance was arrested on Monday and charged Tuesday with 23 counts of lewd acts with a child. Sheriff’s Lt. Carlos Marquez said that Brandt a teacher at the Miramonte Elementary School, came under investigation when approximately 40 pictures were turned over by a CVS employee that was processing the film. The photos showed children that were blindfolded and had tape over their mouths.
Executing a search warrant at Berndt’s Torrance home investigators found over 100 pictures and at another photo processing location found approximately 250 photos. In total investigators found approximately 390 pictures that had similar tones to a sexual bondage film found at the former teacher’s house.
Lt. Marquez said that the 23 felony counts stem from twenty three boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 10 that have been identified as victims and the number is expected to rise.
Capt. Mike Parker of the sheriff’s department said that the children had contact with Brandt between 2008 and 2010. Photos that investigators found showed children that were bound and blindfolded with Madagascar cockroaches crawling on them.
According to Capt. Parker some girls were holding a blue spoon with a white substance in some of the photos near their mouths. The Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau detectives recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container in the trash in Berndt’s classroom. Testing of the container and spoon proved to be semen with a DNA match to Berndt, according to authorities.
Berndt was fired in March and after being arrested is being held in the Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $2.3 million. Miramonte Elementary School Principal, Martin Sandoval said that this is an unfortunate incident and said he would like to express his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims.
LAUSD Superintendant John Deasy said that anyone that would violate the trust of young people in his opinion is scum. Deasy went on to say that Berndt is in jail, where he should be an hope he remains there for life and longer.
January 16, 2012 – According to reports a sixth body has been found on the Italian cruise ship that sank off of the Tuscany Coast. The identity of the person that was found is unknown at this time according to Italian news outlet Ansa and only identified as a man that was a passenger on the ship.
It has been reported that two people were found aboard the ship on Sunday wearing life jackets, after the Friday evening accident when the Costa Concordia ran aground approximately 500 feet from the shore. The bodies were found at a gathering point in an area of the ship that was submerged.
Costa Cruises, whose parent company is Carnival Corporation said in a statement Saturday that they are investigating to know how the accident occurred. The Costa Cruises stated that the route the ship took was too close to the coast and the captain Francesco Schettino it appeared did not follow their standard procedures. Schettino is in custody and could face charges of manslaughter in the accident that occurred at approximately 12:30 a.m. that leaves 10 passengers and 6 crew members unaccounted for. According to the U.S. embassy in Rome they estimate there were approximately 118 American’s onboard the luxury liner and only 188 have been accounted for.
January 15, 2012 – According to reports passengers on the sinking Italian cruise ship, after running aground were told by crew members it was a small technical difficulty.
According to passengers on the Costa Concordia, Vivian Shafer and her friend traveling with her Ronda Rosenthal, they were watching the magic show aboard the ship, with the staff, enhancing the show by turning the lights off and on and using smoke. They felt the ship shutter and upon returning to their cabin were told by the cabin steward that the ship had a small technical difficulty.
The two women went to bed thinking that everything was alright and heard an announcement on behalf of the captain saying that there was an electrical problem that would be fixed shortly.
According to Shafer the next thing that they heard were announcements talking about muster stations and lifeboats. The two women dressed quickly and took their life jackets to go find out what the announcements were about, when they saw chaos, among passengers and crew members.
Shafer said, passengers were left on their own, without anyone to help and were lowering lifeboats themselves.
Costa Crociere said that the crew acted bravely in a statement Sunday, after the Friday night sinking of the cruise ship. But other reports indicate the captain was showing off, and he was trying to get close to shore, so he could blow the horn!
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