Orange County Bondsman To Do Time For Referrals

Orange County bail bondsman Ronald Lee Brockway owner of Respect Bail Bonds was convicted for soliciting attorney referrals and drumming up bail business from inmates inside jails. He was sentenced last week to one year in jail and three years of formal probation for the illegal bail bond scheme.

Brockway plead guilty to two counts in violation of bail license regulations. According to California bail law, bail bondsmen may not solicit any business directly from someone in jail. They also cannot recommend attorneys to bail bond clients, whether or not there is any money involved.

Brockway delivered several emails to Orange County attorneys asking them to participate in the scheme with his company. He suggested they refer business to his agency in exchange for referring clientele to them.  It is illegal for a bondsman to refer clients to an attorney.

He was so egregious as to Read more »

San Diego PD Welcomes New Leadership to Northwestern Division

There’s a new Captain in town, and his name is Albert Guaderrama. He’s only been in Carmel Valley for three weeks, but Captain Guaderrama has made a smooth transition to the SDPD Northwestern Division. Also joining the Department is newly appointed Lieutenant, Jerry Mills.

“We are going to take  a community police approach… You’re going to see a lot of us out in the community. We want to focus on prevention and teach people to be a hard target for crime,” stated Guaderrama. 

Both Guaderrama and Mills are ready to hit the ground running by working with residents along with the entire community.

Guaderrama replaced Captain, Miguel Rosario who is now a part of the Southern Division of the San Diego Police Department.  Guaderrama comes from a long line of Read more »

Former Orange County Sheriff Surrenders To Serve Prison Term

Tuesday, former Orange County Sheriff, Michael Carona, began a federal prison term in Colorado.

Carona was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to serve five and a half years in a low-security facility, located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains which can hold approximately 700 inmates.

Once coined as “America’s Sheriff,” Carona surrendered himself to the Federal Correctional Institution to begin his prison time for a conviction on witness-tampering.

At a brief hearing in Federal Court Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford said, “I believe justice has been done.”

The Federal Prosecutors involved say that Carona solicited assistance from a multimillionaire to launder at least $30,000 in campaign Read more »

La Mesa Police Station Receives “Onion Award”

What does receiving an “Onion Award“ imply? The San Diego Architectural Foundation’s “Onions and Orchids” jury bestowed the name upon the behemoth new La Mesa Police Department building and station. The Foundation found it to be an “aesthetic stinker,” and gave it the 2010 “Onion Award.” The huge police station is the most expensive construction of a public building ever in the history of the city.

The designers chose to opt for the practicality of having no windows in the holding cells or evidence lockers, reflecting an austere but practical site plan and façade.

History of the La Mesa PD

Beginning in 1927, there were many iterations, expansions and developments of the La Mesa Police Station over the years. In fact, in 1951, the City Council approved plans for both a new police and fire station at the mere price of only $85,000. And that was for both! The facility of that time  Read more »

Blaine Street Jail

General Information

Blaine Street Facility
141 Blaine Street
Santa Cruz, CA. 95060
(831) 454-2177

Blaine Street Facility in Santa Cruz only houses minimum and medium security female inmates. The facility has been in operation since 1984 and is adjacent to the Santa Cruz Main Jail.

The Blaine Street Jail is designed for women inmates who have been screened as minimum security risks. Low risk medium security women may also be assigned to this facility.

During processing of the female defendant, bail will be set. The amounts for bail in Santa Cruz are set by the county judges.

Rules for Visiting Blaine Street Facility Jail:

All visitations must be approved 24 hours in advance.

Visiting days for this facility are Read more »

San Diego Lowest Murder Rate In Over 40 Years

Experts and law enforcement are seeing a downward trend in the murder rate in San Diego County where it has hit its lowest since 1968.  Over four decades ago when Lyndon Johnson was the president and 24 people were murdered that year. The recent drop has been attributed to more focused police crackdowns on gangs, better trauma care and curfew sweeps.

The city’s Mayor, Jerry Saunders stated, “I’m absolutely astounded at 29 total homicides for a city with a 1.3 million population… That’s just unbelievable to me.” Saunders served as San Diego Police Chief of from 1993 to 1999.

Credit has also been given to the gang suppression team who use street intelligence to understand where violence may strike.  Additionally, multi-agency curfew and  task force sweeps have aided in putting gang shot-callers behind bars.

According to data provided by the FBI, the entire nation has actually seen murder decrease for four consecutive years.  It has dropped 7.3 percent in 2009 over the previous year and the trend continues.

Reportedly, most of the county’s homicides stem from gang-related and random crimes, fights and domestic violence. Some experts believe the economic downturn places stress on homes that may already be subject to violence which in turn, escalates into worse situations.

However, criminology professor Elliot Currie of UC Irvine believes the Read more »

Mayor Villaraigosa Says Crime Drop Due to LAPD Hiring

The crime drop in Los Angeles is a hot subject on Mayor Villaraigosa’s plate. He announced that the number of homicides fell last year to 297, the lowest rate since 1967. He wants it to stay that way, so he’s speaking out about it. 

For nine straight years, crime has dropped in Los Angeles County, and it’s said because LA has kept a major force of officers on the street.  That’s why he’s urging the City Council to back his plan in the continuation of hiring Los Angeles Police officers.

At a news conference with LAPD Police Chief, Charlie Beck and other city officials, Villaraigosa stated, “Make no mistake about it, there is a direct correlation between the drop in crime and the number of cops we have on the street.”  Drops in crime were seen in all of LAPD’s four bureaus.

City Administrative Officer, Miguel Santana claims they may need to reduce the number of police officers. The current amount of officers is authorized at 9,963. With regards to budget, there are talks to drop that number.

Villaraigosa does not Read more »

Santa Cruz Sheriff Office Offers Auto Body Repair To The Public

Here’s something that you may not often see: The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, located in Watsonville offers a fully operational, open to the public auto body repair shop.

The auto repair shop operates in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and is part of the auto body repair training program in the County. They offer a full range of auto body repair, welding, fabrication, frame straightening, restoration, sandblasting, auto painting, along with auto detailing, wash & wax and much more.

Appointments for estimations can be made on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays by calling between the hours of 8AM and 10AM and from 1PM  to 3PM.

For payment they take cash, money orders and personal checks which are cleared prior to the start of any work. No insurance payments are accepted.

If you’d like work done on your car, Read more »

SFPD Chief Vacant as George Gascón Selected New DA

George Gascón of the San Francisco District has been selected as the new San Francisco district attorney. All of this comes after 18 months serving as Chief of the San Francisco Police department. His new political position transition has left the work he started to modernize the Department in his successor’s hands.

Sworn in as the first Latino district attorney, Gascón stated, “It was completely unexpected… Frankly, I had to think about it a great deal. But I’ve taken this because I see a tremendous opportunity to do something unique here.”

His public office role will Read more »

LAPD Chief: Hire More Officers or Risk Increase In Crime

It’s stated that the number of homicides in the past year have dropped under 300 in Los Angeles. This is a first in nearly four decades. However, LAPD Police Chief, Charlie Beck cautioned that those numbers may change if the City Council turns down hiring new police officers to replace those that retire.

Cheif Beck spoke at a news conference this week asking the City Council to maintain their commitment to keep at least 10,000 officers on the force, stating, “If we go back on that, we’ll go back on these gains… This is the ninth year of crime reduction in Los Angeles — no other big city has that.”

The looming $300 million city budget deficit has some Read more »