SAN DIEGO PARAPLEGIC SKATEBOARDER CRUSHED BY TRUCK: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police say a 36-year-old paraplegic riding a skateboard on his stomach while hanging onto the undercarriage of a tractor-trailer rig is hospitalized in critical condition after he was crushed by the truck's wheels.
Police Officer Dino Delimitros tells City News Service that the accident occurred when the truck made a turn at Bacon Street and Santa Monica Avenue in San Diego's Ocean Beach area just before 2 a.m. Thursday.
Police say it's unclear if the truck driver knew the skateboarder was hitching a ride. A spokesman says traffic investigators should be available later in the day to provide more information.
Officers say the skateboard sustained major internal injuries and his pelvis was crushed.
TEEN ORDERED TO STRIP NAKED DURING ROBBERY: SACRAMENTO . (AP) — Police say a teenager in Sacramento was ordered at gunpoint to strip naked during a robbery and then shot in the lower body.
KCRA-TV reports that the victim was shot near the American River bike trail on Wednesday afternoon, and that a suspect has been arrested.
Doug Morse, a Sacramento police spokesman, said the department is not releasing the victim's name "for investigative reasons."
Police still do not know why the victim was ordered to undress during the robbery.
Morse said the suspect was caught after officers hit him with a stun gun during a chase.
MAN KILLED DURING GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE: SAN BERNARDINO (AP) — A California man has fatally shot himself while playing a game of Russian roulette with at least one other person at an apartment.
San Bernardino police say the 35-year-old man, whose name hasn't been released, shot himself early Wednesday with a revolver in front of a woman and two other men. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. None of the four lived at the apartment where the shooting occurred and police believe they were engaged in drug activity.
It is unknown how many times the gun was passed around before the round was fired. No one was arrested.
MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SEXUALLY ASSAULTING TEEN: INDIO (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting four teenage girls, including one he lured to the Southern California desert by posing as a teenage boy on social networking websites.
The Desert Sun newspaper says 45-year-old Jeffrey Thomas Sackman pleaded guilty in Indio on Wednesday to nine counts, including sexual penetration with a foreign object and oral copulation. He is scheduled to be sentenced to 18 years in prison on Oct. 3.
Prosecutors say Sackman lured a 15-year-old girl to his apartment, plied her with drugs and sexually assaulted her over a four-day period.
Sackman posed as a 17-year-old boy on several social networking sites. He was originally charged with 40 counts, some of which dated back to 2002.
WOMAN ENTERS INSANITY PLEA IN DAUGHTER'S DEATH: PATTERSON (AP) — A Central Valley woman accused of drowning her daughter in a bathtub has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Jennifer Lynn Bigham has been in Stanislaus County Jail since January 2010, when her 3-year-old daughter Alexandrea was found underwater in a bathtub at a home in Patterson.
The 25-year-old mother appeared in court on Wednesday. Judge Thomas Zeff ordered her to return to court on Oct. 3, when he expects to receive a report from doctors about whether Bigham still suffers from mental illness.
The girl was found in the bathtub on Jan. 14, 2010 after a family member and neighbor called law enforcement to report a commotion. Attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful.
Authorities say the mother had superficial, self-inflicted stab wounds to her upper body.
BANKRUPT SAN BERNARDINO TO CUT MORE THAN 100 JOBS: SAN BERNARDINO (AP) — The San Bernardino City Council has voted to eliminate more than 100 jobs in order to bridge a $45.8 million budget deficit after the municipality filed for bankruptcy last month.
The council voted Wednesday to slash $20 million from the city's $166 million budget and drop dozens of jobs, ranging from non-sworn positions in the Police Department to janitors.
San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 1 and city officials had voted to borrow from restricted funds to continue to pay employees' salaries.
Council members balked at a proposal to cut 20 Fire Department positions, but did approve a measure to explore outsourcing trash collection to a private company that would eliminate the Sanitation Department.
MAN SENTENCED FOR PUSHING UMPIRE AFTER EJECTION: TULARE (AP) — A California man has been sentenced to roughly five months in jail for pushing an umpire against a fence after being ejected from a softball game.
The Fresno reports that 41-year-old Frankie Gonzalez of Tulare, Calif., pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of battery against a sports official. He was sentenced Wednesday to 150 days in jail and two years' probation.
Authorities say Gonzalez became upset after he disputed the umpire's call. Other players had to rescue the umpire.
SAN DIEGO AREA MOM TO STAND TRIAL IN SON'S DEATH : SAN DIEGO (AP) — A San Diego County woman has been ordered to stand trial for murder and assault in the drowning death of her 4-year-old autistic son.
The U-T San Diego says 36-year-old Patricia Corby of Carmel Valley sobbed often but never lifted her head during Wednesday's hearing in San Diego Superior Court.
Prosecutors claim Corby drowned her son Daniel in a bathtub, then drove him to a police station and told authorities she had killed him.
A district attorney's investigator testified he interviewed Corby after she was arrested and she told him she had no life because it was so entwined around her son's.
He said she told him she also tried to drown herself but failed.
Corby faces 25 years to life if convicted.
FEDS INITIATE PROBE OF UC DAVIS BRAIN CANCER CASES: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Federal officials have initiated an investigation into the care provided to three University of California, Davis brain cancer patients who died after receiving experimental treatment.
The university confirmed to the Sacramento Bee (http://sacb.ee/OSh0BZ) this week that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has asked the state to investigate the cases. The state Department of Public Health is expected to release its findings in about a month.
The university has accused two neurosurgeons, J. Paul Muizelaar and Rudolph Schrot, of failing to get proper university and federal government approval before introducing bacteria into open head wounds on the patients in 2010 and 2011. The doctors were trying to see if infections would stimulate an immune response against the cancer.
According to university documents reviewed by the newspaper: One patient died of sepsis, a severe reaction to bacteria and germs, six weeks after the treatment; another patient who underwent surgery in 2011 died soon after developing sepsis and meningitis; a third suffered a wound infection and died more than a year later.
