Expensive Santa Cruz Mountains search finds stoned teen
SANTA CRUZ (AP) — A mother’s frantic
911 plea for help finding her injured teen son lost in the Santa Cruz Mountains
led to an expensive search that ended with rescuers locating the youth stoned
on drugs.
Eighteen-year-old Matthew Rosenberg had used
his cellular telephone Monday night to call his mom and tell her he tripped,
broke his leg and was lost.
But Cal Fire Capt. Bill Finch says the Los
Gatos High School senior didn’t break his leg, adding the teen had apparently
swallowed hallucinogenic mushrooms, possibly dropped some acid and just “thought”
his leg was broken.
Finch says the teen “was really gorked” when
rescuers found him standing at the bottom of a ravine.
The cost of the search was estimated at up to
$10,000.
The teen’s father Mark Rosenberg says the boy
will be punished, adding “he probably won’t get to use the car for a while.”
SoCal doctor indicted for extensive
OxyContin prescriptions
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles
federal grand jury has indicted a doctor on narcotics charges for allegedly
writing a huge number of prescriptions for the painkiller OxyContin.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Wednesday
that the grand jury returned the 23-count indictment late Tuesday against
54-year-old Dr. Masoud Bamdad of Granada Hills. Bamdad has been in custody
since April 17.
The U.S. attorney’s office says the Drug
Enforcement Administration estimates Bamdad’s prescription writing earned him
$100,000 in cash each week.
The DEA also says Bamdad wrote prescriptions
for about 70,000 OxyContin tablets in 2007.
Caltrans says spike in roadway metal thefts
endangers public
FONTANA (AP) — A spike in roadway metal
thefts, from copper wiring in traffic signals and street lights to guard rails,
has state highway officials warning of dangers to the public.
Caltrans and other officials say they are
concerned broken traffic signals and poor lighting could increase crashes and
impede emergency responders.
California Department of Transportation
spokeswoman Terri Kasinga told reporters in Bloomington on Tuesday that brazen
thieves move in quickly to steal metal items.
Last week, she says, sprinkler heads were
installed on Riverside Avenue in Rialto and “by lunchtime, they were gone.”
Copper is fetching $3.50 a pound at recycling
yards.
Ex-Sacramento police officer arrested for
stealing $20,000
SACRAMENTO (AP) — A former Sacramento
police officer is facing felony charges of grand theft for refusing to return
$20,000 to a friend.
The friend asked Sean J. Lewis, 35, to hold
onto $50,000 so she would appear destitute and could qualify for welfare. The
next day, the 40-year-old woman changed her mind and asked for the money back.
Lewis returned only $30,000, telling the
friend that authorities had confiscated the rest.
She reported the incident on March 10 to the
department’s internal affairs unit.
Lewis had been a patrol officer since 1999
but resigned before the arrest, according to a statement issued by the
Sacramento Police Department.
The missing $20,000 has not been found.
Police: Man lured girl from Calififornia to
Florida
through MySpace
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Police are
looking for a man who allegedly offered a plane ticket and a break into
showbusiness through his MySpace page to lure a 15-year-old girl from
California to South Florida.
The girl, who is from Fullerton, was found
alone in a Hollywood apartment hours after she arrived.
Police say she’s the victim of sexual
molestation.
An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for
32-year-old Ansen Lawes Brown. Hollywood police say Brown claimed to be a music
producer as he talked to the girl for four months over the social networking
site MySpace.
When she arrived earlier this month, police
say Brown took her identification, gave her an adult entertainment ID card and
told her to memorize her new name.
Hollywood police found the girl after getting a tip from a Fullerton
police detective.