POLICE: MAN DRESSED AS WOMAN IN RESTROOM ARRESTED: PALMDALE (AP) — A Palmdale man has been arrested for allegedly videotaping women in a Macy's restroom while dressed as a woman.
Jason Pomare, 33, was charged Tuesday with five misdemeanor counts of unlawful use of a concealed camera for purposes of gratification.
Authorities say he was wearing a bra with fake breasts, a wig and women's clothing as he videotaped the women Saturday.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Brian Hudson says a customer spotted Pomare and alerted security. A deputy on patrol in the Antelope Valley Mall parking area saw him leaving the store. Hudson says Pomare ran and was later found hiding in a mall storage area.
Hudson says Pomare concealed a camera in a brown paper bag and secretly videotaped women while they were using the restroom.
MAN BREAKS INTO VENTURA RESTAURANT, COOKS FOOD: VENTURA (AP) — Police say a man who broke into a Ventura pizza restaurant was cooking himself a meal before he was arrested.
The Ventura County Star employees detained 37-year-old Lance Conley after they returned to the Pizza Chief on East Main Street Monday night.
They say Conley was working in the kitchen preparing food.
Arriving officers took him into custody without incident. He was booked on suspicion of commercial burglary.
The newspaper says Conley is homeless.
SUIT ACCUSES COMPTON SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ABUSE: COMPTON (AP) — A federal lawsuit targeting the Compton Unified School District alleges a pattern of abuse and racial profiling of Latinos by campus police.
The suit was filed Monday by a group of parents and students.
It also claims that school police used excessive force against parents and students who protested against district policies.
The filing describes an incident in which officers allegedly beat, pepper sprayed and used a chokehold on a bystander who was recording video of an arrest. The officers then erased cellphone videos taken by students, according to the suit.
Attorney Martin Kaufman tells the newspaper the case points to an "organized attempt to discriminate against Latinos."
The lawsuit seeks $41.4 million in damages.
POLICE: DRIVING DAD HID BEER CANS IN DIAPER BAG: GLENDALE (AP) — Glendale police say a dad suspected of drunk driving with two kids in the car had hidden empty beer cans in a diaper bag.
The Los Angeles Times reports Tuesday that 31-year-old Juan Peralta told officers who pulled him over that he was trying to rush his daughters, who weren't in car seats, to the hospital.
Peralta was stopped by police Friday after he allegedly hit a Volkswagen and didn't pull over. They found six empty Budweiser cans in his daughter's diaper bag.
Police say Peralta had alcohol on his breath when he told them he fled the scene of the crash because he doesn't have a driver's license.
SANTA ANA POLICE SHOOT, WOUND 2 CAR-THEFT SUSPECTS: SANTA ANA (AP) — Police say they've shot and injured two people accused of stealing a woman's car outside an Anaheim hotel.
The Los Angeles Times reports the suspects approached a guest at Akua Motel in Santa Ana on Tuesday and forced her to hand over her car keys at gunpoint.
The robbery victim was uninjured. The car was then tracked down through the anti-theft tracking device installed in the car.
Police found the car and chased it for several blocks until the suspects lost control and crashed.
FOCUS OF SEARCH FOR 9-YEAR-OLD CHANGES: CLEARLAKE (AP) — Surveillance video has changed the focus of the search for a 9-year-old autistic girl who went missing from her family's vacation home in Northern California.
Clearlake Police Lt. Tim Celli tells KGO-TV on Tuesday that the video shows Mikaela Lynch running up the street after she was last seen at the home on Sunday. The video came from a neighbor's surveillance camera.
Celli says the video eliminates the possibility that Mikaela went across the street and into the water. Authorities have changed their focus accordingly.
Mikaela can't speak and has the mental capacity of a 1-year-old child. She was last seen in the backyard of the Clearlake home, where she had been jumping on a trampoline.
Homeowners are being asked to check their cars, outbuildings and crawl spaces.
EX-JANITOR GETS JAIL FOR SECRET OC SCHOOL FILMING: SANTA ANA (AP) — A former janitor who secretly taped girls in an elementary school bathroom has been sentenced to nine months in the Orange County jail.
City News Service says Angel Rojas Jr. of Corona also was fined $7,000 at Tuesday's sentencing hearing. He'll have to register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors say Rojas hid a camera in the bathroom at Glenn L. Martin Elementary School in Santa Ana last summer. Authorities say he locked other restrooms in order to direct women and girls to the bugged bathroom.
Rojas was convicted of misdemeanor counts of secret filming and child annoyance.
MAN RESCUED FROM CHIMNEY IN LA'S SYLMAR AREA: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police say they saved a man who was stuck in a chimney at a Los Angeles recreation center after he called 911 from the tight space.
Lt. Paul Vernon says 27-year-old Cuauhtli Castillo Lujano called overnight Thursday to say he was trapped in the chimney in the San Fernando Valley's Sylmar area.
Though he didn't make it past the hearth, officers suspect Lujano may have been trying to steal from the center. They plan to check his fingerprints against others found at burglary sites in the area.
In the meantime, he was booked on a trespassing charge.
Vernon says Lujano's breath smelled strongly of alcohol when he told officers he'd been jumping from roof to roof because "that's what people do."
MARIJUANA FOUND IN BMW INVOLVED IN SIERRA CHASE: TRUCKEE (AP) — The California Highway Patrol is trying to determine why a 55-year-old Northern California man led officers on a high-speed, 50-mile chase in the Sierra Nevada that ended his life when he lost control of the BMW he was driving and crashed.
CHP Officer Pete Mann said Tuesday that William Orr of Penn Valley had 2.5 pounds of marijuana in the convertible that went airborne and struck two California Conservation Corps workers near Donner Summit on Monday afternoon.
Mann says investigators do not know if the weed is why Orr fled the officer who tried to pull him over for reckless driving. Orr did not have a warrant out for his arrest and he was not on parole.
The BMW reached speeds up to 100 miles per hour during the chase.
OC MAN GETS STOLEN RING BACK AFTER 26 YEARS: LAGUNA BEACH (AP) — An Orange County man has gotten back a high school ring stolen 26 years ago — thanks to detective work by a youngster who found it on the beach.
The Orange County Register says 13-year-old Josh Turner was using a metal detector he got from his grandfather last month when he discovered the ring buried at Laguna Beach.
The 1984 Costa Mesa High School class ring had initials on it. School employees helped Josh and his mother trace it to Kevin James Finley of La Mirada, who lost it in a 1987 burglary of his parents' home. The crook was never found.
