Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor REGION - The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority will be performing signal testing along the freight line in Azusa, Glendora and San Dimas April 28, officials said. The construction authority plans to run either a Metrolink or Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight engine six times through the cities from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the following crossings:
The signal testing is being done as part of the Gold Line Foothill Extension work from Azusa to Montclair. The Construction Authority has moved overhead signal communication equipment for the freight line and has installed it underground.
The engine will run at 40 miles per hour through each crossing to test signal and gate activation. Railroad workers known as flaggers will be stationed at each crossing, the Construction Authority said. Six successful runs will complete the testing, the Construction Authority said. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor ARCADIA - The county coroner released details on the cause of death for a 76-year-old woman found dead in the rear yard of her Arcadia home. Chyong Tsai died from the combined effects of multiple sharp force injuries, multiple blunt trauma and asphyxia, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. Tsai was found unresponsive in the rear yard of her home in the 300 block of East Forest Avenue just before 7 a.m. April 9.
The woman’s white 2005 Lexus RX 300 is missing from the location, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau. The Lexus sports license plate number 5LOG473. No suspect description or motive is known at this time. Anyone with information on the stolen vehicle’s whereabouts or on the death is urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Information can be provided anonymously by calling L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor MOUNTAINS - A motorcycle crash involving at least one other vehicle left a patient in full cardiac arrest, firefighters said Saturday. The collision occurred around 12:01 p.m. April 13 on Highway 39 at East Fork Road near the Off-Highway Vehicle area. The patient was airlifted by a Sheriff’s rescue helicopter to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, according to Dispatch Supervisor Art Marrujo of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The collision possibly resulted in a fatality, according to Officer Elizabeth Kravig of the California Highway Patrol.
Officers have listed the call as a fatality, but confirmation is difficult, because communication deep in the mountains is problematic, Kravig said. It is unclear if the rider or an occupant from the second vehicle is listed as the fatality. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor LOS ANGELES - A 28-year-old Los Angeles man killed in a rollover crash on the 210 freeway in Glendora Friday was identified. Bryan Trujillo was identified by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. The official cause of death was not listed, but the California Highway Patrol listed in a press release that he suffered blunt force trauma. The crash occurred on the westbound 210 freeway west of Grand Avenue around 3:50 p.m. April 12. The driver of a 1999 silver Isuzu SUV was driving at high speed in and out of multiple lanes. The driver was in the HOV lane when he steered across the No 1 lane, into the No,. 2 lane and went partially into the No. 3 lane, the California Highway Patrol said.
The driver steered to the left to avoid crashing into a vehicle in the No. 3 lane. The driver rolled the SUV several times. He suffered major trauma and died at the scene, the CHP said. Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities announced Tuesday the arrest of 24 people indicted in a massive health care fraud scheme involving telemedicine and durable medical equipment marketing executives. The FBI and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General investigated the scheme, which involved the payment of illegal kickbacks and bribes by durable medical equipment companies in exchange for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries by medical professionals working with fraudulent telemedicine companies for back, shoulder, wrist and knee braces that are medically unnecessary, according to the Department of Justice, which is prosecuting the case. Glendora men Najib Jabbour, 47, and Darin Flashberg, 41, were both arrested Tuesday morning by FBI agents. Jabbour and Flashberg own seven durable medical equipment companies and have been indicted for alleged participation in a $34 million scheme related to their payment of kickbacks and bribes in exchange for medically unnecessary orders, the Justice Department said. Flashberg has an office in San Dimas: Flash Medical, which operates across a business complex driveway from Jabbour’s EZ Fit Medical Group, Inc. More than 80 search warrants were served in 17 federal districts. Administrative action was taken against 130 durable medical equipment companies, which submitted more than $1.7 billion in insurance claims and received more than $900 million, the Department of Justice said.
“Some of the defendants allegedly controlled an international telemarketing network that lured over hundreds of thousands of elderly and/or disabled patients into a criminal scheme that crossed borders, involving call centers in the Philippines and throughout Latin America,” the Department of Justice said. Doctors were allegedly paid to prescribe the medical equipment based on nothing more than a brief phone conversation with patients they never met, or without any patient interaction at all. The money was then laundered through international shell corporations and was then used to purchase yachts, exotic automobiles and luxury real estate in the U.S. and abroad, the Department of Justice said. An international call center was used to advertise to Medicare beneficiaries to garner patients who were “up-sold” to coerce them into accepting numerous “free or low-cost” durable medical equipment braces, despite a lack of necessity, the Justice Department said. The international call center paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to telemedicine companies to obtain the orders. The equipment was then sold to the durable medical equipment companies and Medicare was fraudulently billed, the Department of Justice said. Doctors or medical professionals who may have been involved with alleged fraudulent telemedicine and DME marketing schemes – including Video Doctor USA, AffordADoc, Web Doctors Plus, Integrated Support Plus and First Care MD – should call to report this conduct to the FBI hotline at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor LOS ANGELES - Police continue to search for the suspect who stabbed two people -- both ended up in the San Gabriel Valley Sunday night. The victims were apparently stabbed in Boyle Heights at Soto Street and Wabash Avenue around 8:15 p.m. April 7 by a Hispanic man. Both victims are in stable condition, according to Sal Ramirez, Los Angeles Police Department public information officer. The victims both ended up near Hellman Avenue and New Avenue on the Rosemead/Monterey Park border where they called 9-1-1 around 9:16 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Temple Station.
It is unclear how the victims ended up in the San Gabriel Valley. Anyone with information on the stabbing is urged to call the LAPD Hollenbeck Community Police Station at 323-342-4100. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor POMONA - Three men arrested in the 2016 shooting death of another man in a Covina parking lot are scheduled for a pretrial hearing Tuesday. Adam Hernandez, Christopher Avila and Andrew Lengson, the latter considered an accessory to the shooting, are scheduled to appear in Pomona Superior Court April 9. Hernandez and Avila met their victim, 20-year-old Isaac Urena in the parking lot of Clearman’s North Woods Inn, 540 N. Azusa Ave., before Noon August 13, 2016. Urena posted jewelry online for sale and agreed to meet a buyer to complete the transaction, Covina Police said. Hernandez and Avila allegedly met Urena to rob him.
Urena was driven to Clearman’s by a friend. As the sale went sour, Urena was shot while he sat in his friend’s Honda Civic. The friend drove away from the scene, eventually stopping in the parking lot of Faith Church, 1211 E. Badillo St., in West Covina. Paramedics declared Urena dead at Faith Church. His friend was uninjured. Urena died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. Hernandez and Avila were arrested soon after the shooting. Avila was eventually released from custody without charges due to insufficient evidence, but new evidence led to his rearrest. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor LOS ANGELES - A judge sentenced an Azusa man for the 2016 attempted murder of his then girlfriend after he convinced her to meet him to talk about their relationship. Jason Scott Gustin, 21, will spend 22 years to life in state prison for the slashing the girl three years ago. Gustin was convicted by a jury October 9, 2018 and found guilty of attempted murder and mayhem. Gustin was also found guilty of personally inflicting great bodily injury under circumstances of domestic abuse. He also used a knife during the attack, according to Ricardo Santiago of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The attack occurred August 22, 2016, five days after the breakup, near Arcadia as Gustin convinced his former girlfriend, who was 16 at the time, to meet to talk about the end of their relationship.
As Gustin and the girl sat in his car, he slashed the girl’s throat and attempted to choke her. As she attempted an escape, Gustin slashed the back of her neck, slashed an arm and produced a deep cut the entire length of her right thigh. The girl escaped and ran one-quarter mile to a nearby convalescent home where she took refuge. Gustin chased the girl and attempted to enter the building, but was locked out by a nurse, according to witness testimony. Gustin was arrested after fleeing to his mother’s workplace. Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor WHITTIER - A man was found dead by officers responding to a call of victim appearing passed out behind the wheel, police said Thursday. The man, found in the 10100 block of Whittwood Drive around 5:20 a.m., appeared to have died from natural causes inside the parked vehicle, Whittier Police said in a written statement. The man was immediately pronounced dead at the scene. There were no obvious signs of trauma to the body.
The exact cause of death will be determined by coroner investigators. Anyone with information on this incident is urged to call Whittier Police at 562-244-0045.
Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor
HUNTINGTON BEACH - A Glendora man and Covina man were arrested Tuesday after an altercation led to the stabbing of a woman.
23-year-old Brandon Lebrun of Glendora and 19-year-old Dominic Piraino of Covina were taken into custody near the scene of the stabbing April 2. Witness accounts and suspect descriptions led to the finding and arrest of the suspects, Huntington Beach Police said. The stabbing occurred around 10:30 p.m. in the Downtown Huntington Beach area. A brief video recording posted by a witness to social media shows a woman arguing with the suspects as they sat in a silver four-door car. The woman kicked the front passenger door.
VIDEO/Lio Talavou.
The men yelled at the woman and she went back for an additional confrontation when the passenger stabbed her. A struggle for the knife ensued and the woman walked away, clutching the knife jammed in her abdomen.
The woman was treated for a non-life-threatening injury, Huntington Beach Police said. “Several witnesses called into our dispatch center and provided numerous license plates. Officers began to check different combinations of the differing license plates provided by witnesses and found a match to the reported suspect vehicle,” Huntington Beach Police said. “Utilizing several police resources along with great communication between officers and dispatchers, they were able to locate the suspect vehicle in a nearby location,”Huntington Beach Police said. Both Lebrun and Piraino were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Piraino was additionally booked on suspicion of attempted murder. |
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