Erik & Lyle Menendez’s defense lawyer Mark Geragos says he’s going to court to challenge the decision last week to deny parole for the brothers, but it’s a difficult legal path. Criminal justice professor and parole attorney Bruce Zucker talks about the reality of the decisions last week and the prospect of a successful legal challenge.  

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The last of 6 men accused of taking part in the 2008 murder of LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was returned to Southern California from Mexico this week, as part of a negotiated agreement between the US Justice Department and Mexican justice officials. Roberto Salazar was charged in 2011 but wasn’t located until March, 2025. Deputy Escalante’s murder led to one of the largest organized crime prosecutions of a street gang in Southern California – that helped transform the Cypress Park neighborhood where Escalante was killed.  

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We update a few stories we’ve been covering: arrests in burglary of actor Brad Pitt’s home in Los Feliz, an information vacuum in the hoax bomb threat made by LA Mayor Karen Bass’ former deputy mayor for public safety, and new allegations against already-accused LA City Councilman Curren Price.  

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The ATF and LA County Sheriff’s Department continue to examine what caused the hand grenade explosion that claimed the lives of Detectives Victor Lemus, William Osborn, and Joshua Kelley-Eklund. The grenade that detonated – had been examined and x-rayed and was believed to be inert. But what if the x-ray was inaccurate? The latest on the ongoing investigation.  

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More questions have been raised about the LAPD’s response to the home of an American Idol music supervisor and her husband, who were worried about security in the neighborhood, and were murdered when they walked-in on a burglary in progress. Police had been at their doorstep minutes earlier, but newly-public court records suggest the couple was never made aware of the prowler investigation and were shot to death.  

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Federal agents and homicide detectives are working to find out – how 3 members of the LA County Sheriff’s Department’s Arson and Explosives Detail, also known as the Bomb Squad, were killed July 18 when something they were examining detonated in the parking lot of the unit’s headquarters near East LA. Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn were killed. Now, investigators are tracing the origin of the items that caused the explosion.  

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Mid-year crime data suggests LA is safer now – than last year. Like most other major cities in the US the number of violent and property crimes reported to police continue to decline, following major drops in 2023 and 2024. Historically the number of police shootings trend down along with the violent crime rate, but in the City of LA, they’ve increased in the first 6 months of 2025.  

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The cause of the January 7, 2025 Palisades Fire remains a mystery, at least to the public, as fire investigators from the ATF and local agencies have said little about what’s been discovered. We’ve picked up a few clues in recent weeks, that appear to suggest the case is focused on what ignited a much smaller brush fire in the Palisades Highlands that burned a week earlier. Fire experts have told us it’s possible, but unlikely, that something left smoldering from the first fire re-ignited in the intense winds on the morning of January 7.  

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New court documents show federal authorities had considered the possibility in early June that the man accused of being an accomplice in the Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing might try to harm himself. Daniel Park was found unresponsive in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown LA Tuesday morning and died at a hospital. The LA County Medical Examiner says he died by suicide.  

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Police and federal agents announced 2 significant arrests this week in high-dollar jewel heists. Detectives in Simi Valley say they caught 4 members of a safecracking crew – a few weeks after a jewelry store was the target of a tunnel-in blowtorch burglary. Separately, federal prosecutors announced an indictment of 7 people accused of pulling-off – what authorities say – was the single-largest jewelry heist in US history: the theft of more than $100-million in valuables from a secure transport trailer at a truck stop along the I-5 freeway.  

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