evidence

Published on: December 19, 2017

Reckless Driver Found with Hundreds of Prescription Pills

When a Garden Grove woman was pulled over for reckless driving on Saturday morning, police discovered she was carrying a rather large quantity of prescription narcotics in the vehicle.

Shauna Kester had been driving near the Festival of the Arts grounds in Laguna Beach when she was reportedly seen by an on-duty officer while operating the vehicle erratically. With the assistance of another patrolman in the vicinity Kester was pulled over.

The officers requested that Kester step out of the vehicle, and they began to question her. She disclosed that she had been smoking marijuana earlier in the evening. The officers then searched her car and located a cosmetic storage case containing hundreds of prescription pills comprised of over fifteen different kinds of medication.

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Published on: November 5, 2017

Man Accused of Attempted Kidnapping of 13-year-old Student

by Staycie R. Sena

A teenage girl walking to school on Monday was allegedly approached by a man in possession of a handgun who tried to force her into his vehicle. The man has pleaded not guilty to these accusations.

Garrett Evans Webber was driving near Ridgecrest Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes when he believed something was hurled at his truck. Webber then reportedly exited his vehicle and accosted a 13-year-old on her way to school pointing a gun at her and trying to coerce her into his truck. The girl screamed and ran to the school, while witnesses recorded the truck’s license plate number and alerted the authorities.

Webber drove off and deputies searched the area for him, and during that period the school was locked down for safety reasons. He was found a short time later at his apartment where detectives also discovered several guns, and other evidence supporting the case that they did not disclose.

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Published on: October 1, 2017

South Orange County Teacher’s Flutes may be Tainted with Semen.

by Staycie R. Sena

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An independent teaching contractor who instructed a music program in more than one Southern California school district is currently under investigation for allegedly contaminating flutes with his semen before giving them to young students.

On September 29th, parents of the students attending elementary schools in Fountain Valley, Los Angeles, Fullerton, Inland Empire, Fullerton, Chatsworth, Capistrano Unified and Newport-Mesa, and a minimum of five other school districts in Southern California received email alerting them about an ongoing investigation regarding the possible contamination of flutes that had been distributed to the children.

It has not yet been determined which of the schools in each district may have been affected by the suspected tainted instruments. Accounting for the time it will take to investigate the considerable amount of sites in the districts, administration felt it was a priority to communicate with parents as soon as possible.

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Published on: September 25, 2017

Deputy Accused of Raping Female Inmates

by Staycie R. Sena

On Wednesday morning at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, a female inmate approached a teaching instructor on the staff claiming she had been raped by a deputy during the night in the one of the jail dormitories. The woman named her alleged attacker as 31-year-old Giancarlo Scotti; a San Pedro resident and 10-year veteran deputy of the LA County sheriff’s department who is employed at the facility. Shortly after the initial report a second woman made similar allegations about Scotti, who was on duty during the time the assaults occurred.

As reported during a news conference by L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, the area of the jail where the alleged attacks took place was hastily secured in order to preserve any possible evidence. Investigators were called to the scene, and Scotti was held in a watch commander’s office. After an initial inspection, enough data including DNA evidence was obtained to justify Scotti’s arrest on suspicion of two counts of rape and two counts of oral copulation, both under the color of authority.

No charges were filed, and within 10 hours of his booking Scotti was released after posting $100,000 bail. He has currently been put on paid administrative leave.

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Published on: April 28, 2017

Police Use Fitbit Data to Charge Husband with his Wife’s Murder

by Staycie R. Sena

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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