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The trial for a Long Island, New York, foster father who is accused of numerous allegations of sexual abuse with children in his care began on Wednesday. Prosecutors describe his home as tranquil in appearance, having a nicely manicured lawn and classic cars parked in the driveway. But, was “like a prison” for the boys he was raising. Many of these boys suffered from mental illness or low I.Q.s.

According to the prosecutors in this case against Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu, boys would wake up in the middle of the night to find Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu allegedly on top of them. At other times, the boys would be chasing the dogs around the house and would allegedly find him sexually abusing another child.

One boy allegedly allowed the rape to happen. He hoped that if he submitted to Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu and kept his attention on him, that he would be less likely to sexually abuse his younger brother.

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Overnight between March 27 and March 28, several homeowners in the Dover Shores area of Newport Beach reported that someone had attempted to vandalize and burglarize their homes. Newport Beach spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said, “In each of these cases, an unknown suspect had used brute force, possibly a kick, to force open the front door to the residence.”

Although nothing was taken in those incidents, witnesses had reported to the police that they had seen a white man with a muscular build, along with an SUV near the scene of two of the crimes around the same time.

The next night, between the hours of 7 and 10 p.m. another home in the Newport Beach area was burglarized. “The door was forced open in the same manner as the other homes,” Manzella said. The resident was not home at the time of the crime. According to Manzella, watches and several items of jewelry were stolen.

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A 32 year old Florida man, Anthony Mendez, was found Monday night allegedly under the influence of drugs and unresponsive with a child in his car. He was arrested on suspicion of child neglect.

Drivers found Mendez unresponsive at the wheel of his car around 7:30 p.m. according to the Collier County Sheriff’s arrest report. The report states that witnesses called 911 and while waiting for deputies to respond, an off-duty firefighter treated Mendez. He had a pulse, but was barely breathing.

A woman that was stopped behind Mendez at a traffic light said that it appeared as though he was sleeping. She tried to wake him but couldn’t. The off-duty firefighter saw the woman pounding on the driver’s side window of Mendez’s car and pulled over to help. The firefighter told officials that when he saw Mendez slumped over the steering wheel, he proceeded to pull the man out in case he needed CPR.

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A California woman, Denise Huskins, described the “hell that we have survived” to her abductor, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The police originally dismissed this case as a hoax because it was so elaborate and downright bizarre.

Huskins was held for two days, after being kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the abductor, which she describes as physical and psychological torture. The disbarred lawyer, Matthew Muller, reportedly snatched her from her home in San Francisco two years ago.

“I still have nightmares every night,” she said, fighting back tears. “Sleep is not rest for me; it is a trigger.” Her boyfriend was bound and drugged during the kidnapping. He said “he can not and will not ever be the same.” U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley called the abduction a “heinous, atrocious, horrible crime” as he sentenced 39 year-old Muller. Muller faced up to life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to 40 years in exchange for his guilty plea. Muller’s lawyer wanted a 30 year sentence arguing that Muller had manic depression and could be rehabilitated with proper treatment.

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On Tuesday, Chicago police reported that they were looking for five to six men who allegedly sexually assaulted a 15 year old girl, while it was being streamed live on Facebook.

The teen had been missing since Sunday night. The girl’s mother had gone to the police on Monday and approached Sgt. Eddie Johnson as he was leaving a news conference, with a screenshot from the live video of the assault. The girl was then found by Chicago detectives on Tuesday.

It is reported that dozens of people had watched the assault live on Facebook’s live feed but none reported the incident to police. The video has since been removed from the site.

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According to news reports a 24 year old man named William A Bates Jr., of Kansas City is charged with first degree attempted sodomy and attempted statutory sodomy with a person under 12.

At Kemp playground a two year old was playing on a swing when her mother noticed Bates allegedly “eyeballing her children.” The mother told police that Bates then approached her daughter and grabbed her off the swing before allegedly grabbing the girl by the hips and pulling down her diaper. The mother said that she saw Bates lift his shirt and pull down his pants, to which then he started thrusting against her daughter.

Reportedly the police say she ran after Bates, knocking him to the ground, and while he was down she was attacking him with her fists. Bates eventually freed himself and ran from the park, but the mother ran to a nearby homeless shelter and called the police. Officers arrested Bates near the playground.

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At the end of January, thieves stole $4.5 million in eye shadow palettes from a San Fernando Valley warehouse in an apparent heist. The unknown thieves sawed through the roof of a warehouse that stores the product for Anastasia Beverly Hills. The theft occurred between January 28th and 30th.

Over 100,000 “Modern Renaissance” palettes, which sell for $42 each, were taken during this heist. The palette is well-known and consumers are encouraged not to purchase palettes outside of a normal retailer.

Detectives in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Commercial Crimes Division are still investigating the theft and have yet to name any suspects.

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In passing Assembly Bill 813, California has now joined 44 other states nationwide in allowing a person who has suffered a criminal conviction to challenge that conviction, even though he or she is no longer in custody.

The new statutes allows relief based on 1) a claim of actual innocence; and 2) failure to fully understand the consequences of the plea.

Although the statute applies to both citizens and non-citizens, in practice, this statute is expected to allow immigrants to seek relief for past convictions which hold devastating immigration consequences.

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Until recently, the Federal Government and the State of California defined criminal “misdemeanors” differently. While the federal government defined a misdemeanor as a crime punishable by up to 364 days, California defined it as one punishable by up to 365 days. This one-day difference often proved disastrous for immigrants with convictions, however, because the Federal government considers a crime punished by 365 days a felony and felony convictions often subject immigrants to deportation or exclusion.

In 1996 Congress enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which expanded the crimes for which legal residents can be deported to include crimes which were punished by 365 days. States which continued to defined misdemeanors as including sentences of 365 days unwittingly caused their immigrant-residents to face not only up to a year in jail, but deportation or exclusion from entry as well. This applied to all immigrants, regardless of whether a sentence was suspended or whether a person spent only a few days in jail.

Effective January 1, 2015, California Senate Bill 1310 changed the maximum misdemeanor sentence to mirror the Federal Government’s 364 days. Senate Bill 1242 then applied this change retroactively, allowing those who were sentenced before 2015 to receive the statute’s intended protection.

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According to prosecutors, 29 year-old Rico Christopher Clayton, of Carson, had allegedly recruited a woman to participate in prostitution on February 8th. He allegedly advertised her sex services online. On that same day, officers on the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force had responded to an online ad and arranged a meeting with the woman.

Clayton was allegedly seen dropping the woman off at a Fullerton motel where the meeting had been arranged with the undercover officer. Clayton had also allegedly made calls and sent text messages to the woman indicating that he was pimping her. Clayton was out on bail for another pimping charge in Los Angeles at the time.

He was charged on Monday with one felony count of pimping and pandering. He is facing sentencing enhancements for committing the crime while out on bail in addition to a previous strike conviction for burglary in 2007. If found guilty, Clayton faces up to 15 years in prison, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

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