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Anaheim resident Tarek Hamad was returning home to his pregnant wife and young child before dawn. As 34-year-old Hamad turned his car into the driveway of his apartment complex, he was plowed into by a drunk driver.

18-year-old Jorge Esteban Lunas Martinez was allegedly intoxicated and speeding when he lost control of his car, swerved into oncoming traffic and abruptly pulled into the driveway of the apartment complex where Hamed had just returned home. This caused Martinez to collide with the back of Hamad’s car, and the innocent victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hamed and his family moved to America a year ago and he was the sole wage-earner in his household. The sudden catastrophe of his death has left his children without a father, and his wife, who is due to give birth in one month, a young widow and single mother of two.

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Authorities reported that after an eight-month investigation, police arrested 25-year-old Matthew Ryan Wood of Seal Beach for allegedly causing a car accident while intoxicated, resulting in the death of a 19-year-old woman.

The crash took place on the afternoon of December 9, 2016. Wood was driving a pick-up truck eastbound when he passed over a painted center median resulting in a collision with a westbound traveling minivan driven by Lisa Shelhorn. Shelhorn was declared dead at the scene and Wood was in critical condition and treated at a local hospital.

Wood faces charges for suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated, transportation for sale of a controlled substance, and possession of a controlled substance with a firearm.

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41-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Garcia from San Juan Capistrano, suspected of sexually assaulting two teenage females, is facing seven felony charges for forcible rape and sexual penetration by a foreign object.

The first victim, a 16-year-old girl from San Juan Capistrano, was familiar with Garcia before the assault. He allegedly raped her after forcing her into a garage, and she recognized him nearly a year later when he returned to the neighborhood where the assault took place.

The second incident took place approximately one month later. Garcia was said to have given a 19-year-old woman who was lost in Santa Ana a drink laced with an illegal substance, and then proceeded to rape her in the backseat of his car.

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After a hold-up in a Riverside Carl’s Jr. restaurant and a prior heist at a Riverside Pizza Hut, 28-year-old Jose Felipe Fernandez was charged with two counts of robbery with an enhancement of using a firearm in a felony. Enhancement laws, which vary by state, are typically sought to increase the classification of a conviction to a higher level offense and penalty due to the severity of the crime, or for repeat offenses.

After allegedly holding up the Carl’s Jr., Fernandez tried to flee the scene by driving his car through a nearby field leading the police on a chase that resulted in his arrest after the suspect crashed his vehicle causing it to ignite. The fire from the collision caused approximately 1 acre of brush to scorch before it was contained.

Fernandez has entered a plea of not guilty on all charges, and he is being detained on $1 million bail. Authorities reported that they are still seeking a second suspect who successfully escaped from the scene and remains at large.

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32-year-old Jerilee Hughes was arrested after the Northwest Narcotics Task Force searched her home and found glass jars with psilocybin mushroom spores and growing supplies, as well as a small bag of useable mushrooms. Police also procured small amounts of marijuana and methamphetamine as well as residue-coated paraphernalia.

Hughes faces two felony and five misdemeanor drug related charges. During her bond hearing, the prosecuting attorney accused Hughes of cultivating enough mushrooms to consider her a danger to the community. She is being held on $10,000 bond.

Due to financial hardship, Hughes, who alleges she has never before been implicated in legal issues, asked for a lower bond. She willingly offered to participate if a stipulation was added where she take part in regular drug testing.

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Although the message of not drinking and driving is a simple one, DUIs account for about 3,200 arrests each day throughout the United States. Additionally, about one third of those arrests are by repeat offenders. The OC Sheriff and local police departments will be out in force on July 4 to nab those who are driving drunk, or even just buzzed. They may set up routine checkpoints to check whether drivers have been drinking, or they may target individuals who are driving erratically. Cell phones allow concerned citizens to act as an enforcement unit of their own, reporting drunk drivers on highways or in their neighborhoods. Those who have been reported may arrive home to find the police waiting for them in their driveway.

Police on patrols may be extra vigilant on holidays, paying close attention to drivers and the way they are driving. If you make an illegal U-turn, fail to completely stop at a stop sign, drive above the speed limit, or weave or drive erratically, they may be more inclined to stop you to check for a possible DUI. Once you are pulled over, there are certain things you should do, and not do, to get the best outcome for your situation:

  1. First, it’s important to realize that you don’t have to be drinking to be found guilty of DUI. If you are tired, drowsy, have taken sleeping pills, allergy medicine, prescribed or unprescribed painkillers, anti-anxiety, anti-depressant medication, have been smoking or vaping pot etc., a police officer may arrest you for generally “Driving while intoxicated.” If you have been drinking alcohol, you may also be arrested for the secondary “Driving while BAC > 0.08%” charge.
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Peter Herz, a 61-year old Westminster resident, pleaded guilty to a possession of child pornography charge in February. This offense is among many that are eligible for lifetime sex-offender registration. Before his arrest and incarceration, Herz reportedly had a job as a pianist and musical director for Laguna Beach’s “Pageant of the Masters.” Sources say he was also an accompanist at Cal State Fullerton’s Theater Department.

Herz was targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) “Operation Predator,” an initiative designed to protect children from sexual predators and to identify and rescue victims of child exploitation.

While Herz was out on bond and waiting for trial, he allegedly obtained new electronic devices and obtained new images of child pornography on them. In total, Herz was reportedly in possession of more than half a million images and roughly 400 videos of child pornography.

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A jailed inmate and his attorney are facing federal charges for a scheme to allegedly distribute drugs to an Anchorage Correctional Complex for sale between inmates, according to federal prosecutors.

Kit Lee Karjala, a 54 year-old attorney and her 33 year old client, Christopher Brandon Miller, an inmate at the ACC, are charged with distribution of, and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, drug conspiracy, and providing and possessing contraband in prison.

A statement made by the Alaska U.S. attorney’s office on Thursday said that Karjala and four other inmates allegedly started this smuggling ring during the second half of last year and continued “until the present”. Prosecutors claim that Karjala allegedly took advantage of her attorney-client visits to smuggle drugs to Miller, and also other inmates that were not her clients. Karjala would allegedly transfer the drugs while blocking the cameras and then the inmate would allegedly carry the drugs “inside his body” into the jail, according to the statement.

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A New Jersey judge was scolded by his peers for ruling that an Essex County mom was guilty of child abuse and neglect because she occasionally smoked marijuana.

On Thursday the Essex County mother was cleared of her charges almost three years after the birth of her son, who was born with some marijuana in his system because the mom smoked occasionally during her pregnancy to help with her appetite and anxiety.

After giving birth, the hospital notified Child Protection. As a result of the report, the agency was supervising her parenting of the children and required that she attend drug counseling.

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Richard Dabate, a 40 year old man from Connecticut, was charged with the alleged murder of his wife after the police found electronic evidence which included data from her Fitbit fitness tracker.

In December 2015, Dabate told the police that he left his home to go to work at 8:30 a.m., but then received an alert from his home security system, that the alarm had been activated. Dabate claimed to have emailed his boss from his car to let him know he would be late for work. But, the evidence had indicated that the alarm had not been activated, and that Dabate had actually emailed his boss from his laptop at home. Dabate also allegedly checked the time of his wife’s exercise class from his laptop.

Dabate had told police that he was unable to stop an intruder from shooting and killing his wife after she had returned home from her exercise class. The Fitbit data records, however, told a different story. The data showed Connie Dabate’s movement up until 10:15 a.m. on the day she was killed in December 2015, almost an hour after Richard Dabate claimed she had died. Dabate claimed that he confronted an intruder after he returned to his home around 9 a.m. and that his wife returned home during the confrontation.

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