A federal judge sentenced a former Los Gatos convent employee to 14 months in prison Aug. 22. It was less than half of the 30-month prison sentence she was possibly facing after allegedly admitting that she embezzled more than $100,000 from the Los Gatos-based convent.
California woman sentenced for defrauding convent
Thousands may be affected by California identity theft ring
According to the Glendale Police department, an identity theft and phony credit card manufacturing ring bust could have affected thousands of people. The department went on to say that the ring could result in millions of dollars in losses. The investigation that sparked the busting of the ring was launched when a man was arrested for having possession of re-encoded credit cards during a traffic stop. After officers found the re-encoded credit cards, they obtained a search warrant for a business that the man owned. There, they seized evidence of fake credit card manufacturing. Several arrests were made in connection with the ID theft operation.
Eight charged with mortgage fraud in California
On July 31, local and federal authorities in Ventura took eight individuals into custody in connection with an alleged mortgage fraud scheme. According to authorities, the scheme involved filing loan applications on behalf of primarily Spanish-speaking individuals in the lower-income bracket. The applications would generate substantial commissions and loan fees. When the homes went into foreclosure, lending institutions lost millions of dollars.
Fraud in California drug rehab
An addiction counselor at the Pride Health Services, located in Inglewood, knew something was wrong shortly after she was hired. It seemed like contacting patients to introduce herself would be the easiest part of her job, but it turned out to be harder than anticipated. Some of the patients were in jail. Several never showed up to the clinic and one was dead.
Murder charges thrown out due to dull-nosed police dog
A La Puente murder charge was reversed in a California court after more than 10 years of appeals because it was based largely on a scent match provided by a police dog with a history of misidentification, according to a Courthouse News Service story. The defendant was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001, but the investigation was fraught with confusion and poor identification. He was initially identified from a sketch based on an eyewitness description, and eyewitnesses who picked him out of a photo lineup later changed their stories at trial.
