Court of Appeals "Tentatively" Rules In Favor Of Big Evil's Claim Of Vindictive Prosecution On Three Murder Charges

The saga of Cleamon "Big Evil" Johnson continues. 

The Court of Appeals has tentatively ruled in favor of a motion that argues Johnson is the target of vindictive prosecution, a claim that could led to three murders and an attempted murder charge being dropped against the infamous  89 Family Swans gang member.

Even if those charges are dismissed Johnson - and his co defendant Michael "Fat Rat" Allen - still face a retrial of the 1991 double murder of Payton Beroit and Donald Ray Loggins for which they spent more than 13 years on death row in San Quentin. That conviction was overturned in 2011 by the California Supreme Court which ruled that a juror, leaning toward acquittal, was wrongly removed by the judge, Charles E. Horan.

Johnson and Allen were sent back to the Los Angeles Men's Central Jail for a retrial  As they prepared to retry that case, the district attorney's office, aided by LAPD Robbery Homicide detectives, set out to find additional cases to pin on Johnson. Eventually, they filed the four additional charges.  This led Johnson's lawyers to file the claim of vindictive prosecution.  

A definitive ruling by the Court of Appeals is expected within two weeks.

When Johnson’s lead attorney, Robert Sanger, initially learned of the added charges, he was flabbergasted.

“After nearly 14 years on Death Row and the decision by the court to overturn the case, the addition of the three murder charges and one attempted murder was truly breathtaking,” Sanger said during the court of appeals hearing.

The prosecution argued to dropped the charges could lead to a dramatic change in strategy for other future capital cases.  

John Harlan of the district attorney's appellate division said that If these additional charges are not allowed to stand,  a so-called  “Kitchen sink” effect would evolve, meaning that prosecutors, fearing they would not be able to add additional charges later, would file every possible charge in the initial filing document.

Sanger countered.

“This [the added charges] would send a significant message to other people that if you attempt to appeal, you might end up with more cases. You just don’t pile on 187s (murders) and hope to get lucky on one.”  

According to a piece in the Yale Law Review,  legal "vindictiveness" does not refer to a prosecutor’s ill feeling toward, or even his desire to harm, a defendant. Rather, wrote Doug Lieb, a law clerk for the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, "As defined by the Supreme Court,vindictiveness means that a prosecutor has retaliated against a defendant for the exercise of a legal right, denying his/her due process."  

In addition to Beroit and Loggins - shot to death at a car wash in 1991 on 88th and Central  - the district attorney's office now alleges Georgia Denise "Nece" Jones, Albert Sutton and Tyrone Mosley were all killed or ordered killed by Johnson.  While Johnson was in Ironwood State Prison, Jones was shot and killed June 12, 1994 at 87th Place and Wadsworth Avenue in the 89 Family Swan neighborhood. Sutton was also killed in that neighborhood.  Mosley was shot and killed in September 15, 1991 on 97th Street and McKinley Avenue, a 97 East Coast Crips neighborhood.

Johnson, acting as his own lawyer,  was previously tried on the Mosley killing in 1998.. The result was a hung jury, well in his favor. 

If the vindictive prosecution is indeed granted, and the extra charges dropped. Johnson and Allen would be retried on the original double murder case.  However, that case was not a ":slam 'dunk" and relied much on the testimony of one Freddie "FM" Jelks, himself a gang member facing prison who was killed many years ago in an unrelated incident on the west side.. 

Sanger and co-counsel Victor Salerno were pleased as they left the courtroom. They were greeted by Johnson’s parents and his brothers.  Sanger was cautious with his optimism. Still, he admitted it was a good day in the court room, but the case was far from over.

"This might end up in the Supreme Court."

The above photo is many years old. Johnson is now 48 and that goatee is salted with grey. 

Redemption For a Nation - How Donald Trump Can Make America Great Again

Redemption. It’s right up near “imagination” on my list of favorite words. Redemption is the tale of failure followed by a triumphal comeback. My favorite movies – “On the Waterfront” and “Casablanca” – my favorite novel – “Les Miserables” – are about redemption.

The best sports stories – Muhammad Ali’s three-and-a-half year banishment for refusing to be inducted in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and his loss to Joe Frazier, then titanic victories over George Foreman and Frazier; Sandy Koufax’s refusal to pitch on Yom Kippur in the opening game of the ‘65 World Series against the Twins then winning Game Seven with a three-hit shutout – are filled with redemption.

Redemption is usually and most famously served individually.

There have been incidents of mass redemption, but never before has the United States as a whole had such a royal chance to achieve redemption as it does this election year.

And your boy, Don Trump, is the man who can give the United States redemption and - in his words - "make America great again."  I don’t get Democrats, my fellow Dems, who go on Facebook and rant against Trump. They don’t realize he’s the best thing to happen to the Democratic Party since Watergate. He's accomplished something Democrats have only fantasized about; royally jacking up the Republican party.  Yet,  for my Democrats, the prospect of a Donald presidency is pretty much the end of civilization. For me, Don Trump is the person who can restore America to greatness.

All America adults have to do is vote him in as president. Do that, and America will – after a shaky start - be “great again”.

I’ll spill on how this works, but bear with me for a few graphs.

Donald Trump, as it stands right now, is a force in American politics. Whether you like him or hate him, whether you think he's the savior to rise from these streets you've been waiting for or Attila the Hun on his wedding night, he is a force. There is clearly a large portion of the country that want him as their leader. And even if he loses in the general, he will be - and remain  - a force.

But, if he is elected to become president, he won’t be a force for long. Why? Here’s why and here is where redemption comes into this play.

Vote for Trump. Elect Donald Trump president and then, as every petrified liberal Dem believes, he messes up. I mean he fucks up in a grand way that makes that debacle at Nakatomi Plaza seem like a smooth day at the office. And then, he is impeached.

That simple. Elect. Impeach. Redemption.

Yes, we will have to weather some rough - and I’m sure embarrassing, maybe even scary  - months. Hopefully not as frightening as some fear. Boy won't be walking around alone with a nuclear briefcase. Maybe he'll fire someone about to investigate him. Still, waiting for his downfall, that will be the difficult segment where you get the opportunity for redemption. That is imperative for redemption. You cannot have redemption if you go sailing along in smooth seas.   . 

But, Don leads the country on a path so wacky, that Republicans and Democrats actually come together as - like that Pledge says - one nation, indivisible  and unite on something. Throwing him out.

We admit to the world, “Okay, we went a bit daffy. Not a bit daffy, Straight out. We overdid our utter disgust with bullshit politics, our loathing of politicians, made some adjustments, returned to our senses, got up off the canvas and are fighting back.”  Can collectively say - as Ali famously said to George Foreman in the 5th round after taking a pounding in Kinshasa  - “Now, it’s my turn.” Three rounds later, it was over. Ali had his glorious redemption.

And now it could be America’s turn. Elect Trump and you’ll see.  He will screw up. He can’t help it. Fool's running around with blinders that make it seem like Seabiscuit had on wide-angle night vision googles.  

Look. We put up with George Bush and Dick Cheney with their tragic catastrophe, the war in Iraq.  That seems to be forgotten and okay with everybody. Clinton got some oral and there was impeachment hearings.  Cheney and Bush start a war of untold casualties, no impeachment chatter.  Why? I have no idea. But, that was the supercharging of our decline and can – if we elect Don – lead us to an actual knockdown which is imperative to the Redemption of America tale. And our return to greatness.

And greatness, -beloved greatness -  cannot be accomplished without failure.  

It’s called “weathering a storm”. It’s like you go on vacation. You come back and the first – and best – story you tell is the most disastrous part of the trip. My gal and I went to Southern Italy a few weeks  back and, in search of a David Rosoff-recommended two-star restaurant, I turned down the wrong street – or“strada”  - in a little town south of Naples. This street gets narrower and narrower. To the point I pull in the mirrors. And it gets even narrow. “Is this a street or a funnel?” I ask Nancy. She gets out and actually puts my Michelin map of Italia Sud against the car’s right door to act as the world’s worst buffer from a wall scrape. We’re stuck. Backup attempts are futile. Finally, a local man of 70-something shows up and helps us back out. First story of the trip? Not the pizza at Pepe in Grani. Not the foot-stomping drive along the Amalfi. The funnel street.

Don Trump can be our own national funnel street.  Leading us down a path that gets narrower and narrower, darker and darker until we all team up and get back on the right strada.

don trump with the greatest

*For the record, on his wedding night, legend has it the normally stone-cold sober Atilla the Hun got drunk and died.

Fugitive Dominique Crenn Named "Best Female Chef in the World"; FBI Names Elizabeth Falkner As "Person of Interest"

In a move that infuriated law enforcement agencies around the globe, the World's 50 Best Restaurants organization has named fugitive San Francisco chef Dominique Crenn the "best female chef in the world", setting off both raucous celebrations and angry protests in her native France and adoptive California.

Crenn, who has been on the run since 2014 after a well-publicized felonious incident in Los Angeles, has managed to elude authorities despite making occasional public - albeit unannounced - appearances. More alarmingly, she has somehow been able to orchestrate Atelier Crenn, her two-star  Michelin restaurant in San Francisco while on the lam 

Meanwhile. the FBI today named chef Elizabeth Falkner as a "person of interest" in the case of the hunt for Crenn. A law enforcement source, speaking on the condition of anonymity,  said the FBI thinks Falkner, known for her unique ability to crash at various pads throughout Europe and America, could be aiding and abetting Crenn's unlawful flight. 

When asked point blank about the "Crenn / Falkner" connection at a news conference in Los Angeles, the FBI was vague.

"Let's just say Crenn is getting help from someone," said FBI special agent Efram Zimbalist, III, special agent-in-charge of the Los Angeles field office. "She can't be out there all alone. We know she's popular woman, almost like a beloved outlaw in that wacky chef community. So she has many friends. We also know for a fact that Crenn was recently seen in public with Falkner.  So, Elizabeth Falkner, if you read this, you need to contact us immediately." 

Photographs of Crenn and Falkner partying in Los Angeles in mid-April at various sites went virile on the world wide web when they were posted The two were seen in Century City, Paramount Studios and Connie and Ted's restaurant in West Hollywood. 

Connie and Ted's owner Michael Cimarusti said he had no knowledge that either Crenn or Falkner had been to his restaurant. Mysteriously, when the FBI asked to see security tapes, Connie and Ted's manager, Murray Rubinstein, told agents the cameras were turned off that day in honor of the birthday of Philadelphia Flyer hockey great Bobby Clarke.

"That didn't make any goddamn sense to me," said FBI agent Zimbalist III. "What would Clarke's birthday have to do with security cameras being on or off? To make matters really fishy is that Clarke was born on a August 13th."    

Rumors flew that Crenn was not only with Falkner. but fellow chefs Brooke Williamson, Antonia Lofaso,  Johanne "Fetunta" Killeen and a woman known only as "Miss Florida".

Reports surfaced at press time that even the legendary Nancy Silverton was with the outlaw and the crasher.  When this reporter went to Silverton's house Sunday in the Windsor Square sector of Los Angeles she denied having seen them, but only seemed to deepen the mystery.

"I havent seen either of them," said Silverton. "But i just got home and, for all i know, if she's with Falkner,  well, they could both be upstairs sleeping in the guest bedrooms."

Crenn is nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef in the West. The ceremony is Monday May 2,  Will Crenn be there?   

Authorities are not taking any chance. Security around the Lyric Opera House where the awards will be held is said to be the highest in Chicago since the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention.  

#####

Previous winners of the Best Female chef include Helene Darroze, Helena Rizzo, Nadia Santini and Elena Arzak

To see the original article about Crenn's felony assault of fellow 2-star Michelin chef Josiah Citrin, check this link.

http://www.krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/3/23/chef-dominique-crenn-wanted-by-police-flees-to-france

For more on Falkner's dubious past, check this.

http://www.krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/8/1/chef-elizabeth-falkner

An Oasis Blooms In Watts; Dorothy Sampson and Her Roses

More than 19 years ago, I was H2H, ( heading to a homicide) on 102nd and Grape when I noticed a profusion of color to my left. Hundreds of rose bushes were in full bloom near the corner of Grandee Avenue and Century Boulevard. It was the rose garden at the Watts Senior Center. I went back later and talked to the caretaker of the garden, the lovely and spirited Dorothy Sampson.

Yesterday, I stopped in on the way to Jordan Downs and learned Dorothy, now 82,  had retired two years ago. In 2007, the city council voted to renamed this oasis as the Dorothy Sampson Senior Center and Rose Garden.Rose.

I wrote the story below that ran in the Los Angeles Times on January 1, 1997.  

###

Today in Pasadena, hundreds of thousands of people will watch the nation's best-known celebration of the rose. On Thursday in Watts, one person will continue her work on a quieter tribute--the smallest nationally accredited rose garden in America.

Dorothy Sampson will don overalls, grab pruning shears and lovingly tend the Watts Senior Citizens Center Rose Garden.

"I love this place," said Sampson, 63, the gardener at the center, pruning her way through the 480 rosebushes.

The rose garden near the tracks of the Metro Blue Line grew from a dream that germinated eight years ago.

In 1988, Dolores Van Rensalier, then the director of the center, took a group of seniors citizens to Exposition Park's rose garden near the Coliseum. A member of the group, Arvella Grigsby, taken by the beauty of the roses, sadly remarked that it was "too bad there will never be a beautiful public rose garden in Watts."

"I said, 'Why not?' " Van Rensalier recalls. "From that moment on, I was determined to have a rose garden in Watts. Everybody laughed at the idea. They thought the roses would be stolen. Even Arvella patted me on the back and said, 'That's OK, dear.' "

*

But it wasn't OK with Van Rensalier, a native New Yorker who vowed to create a place of beauty in a neighborhood too well-known for its negatives.

"It doesn't take a lot of people to make a difference," Van Rensalier said from her office at City Hall, where she works for the Department of Recreation and Parks. "Just a few people is all it takes."

Thanks to Van Rensalier, Sampson and crews from the parks department, Watts now has a true garden spot at 1657 E. Century Blvd.

The first roses were planted in 1990. By 1994, the garden was given national accreditation by All-America Rose Selections, based in Chicago. The organization usually requires a garden to have a minimum of 800 bushes before it is accredited, but waived that for the Watts garden, which at the time had fewer than 300.

"We think that a garden is such a wonderful place to reflect, especially in an urban environment like Watts, that the community deserved accreditation," said Patti Tobin, the organization's director of communications. Being accredited allows the garden to receive about 40 of the year's top-rated new roses from the accrediting group.

Today, the garden still has fewer roses than any of the nation's more than 130 other accredited gardens. Nonetheless, there are 480 rosebushes and 25 varieties at the Watts garden, which is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

One month after the first bushes were planted, Sampson was hired as the full-time gardener. She had developed an early love for gardening while growing up in Louisiana. Her father would come home from his day job and work on his plot until dark.

"I'd hear that old hoe go 'chomp, chomp,' and I would have to go out and help him," Sampson said.

Sampson married a man who didn't care for the outdoors, so they made a deal: He'd make the breakfast, she'd work in the yard.

"It worked out fine, until he had company over," she laughed. "He would say, 'Look at you, look at you.' "

After she retired in 1983 from her manufacturing job, Sampson began to work as a professional gardener. Not until last year, at 62, did she stop cutting lawns. Now she has only roses to tend.

"It's nice to go by and see this," Juan Mendoza, 19, said as he strolled by the garden on his way to a market.

Mendoza remembers the plot of earth before the roses bloomed.

"It used to be bunk. Now it's cool. The guys around here respect this place," he said, gesturing at the graffiti-scarred neighborhood, a stark contrast to the clean walls of the senior citizens center.

There were a few thefts of rosebushes during the early years of the garden, but they have stopped, residents said.

For motorists driving down Century Boulevard near the Blue Line tracks, the garden provides a stunning splash of color most of the year. This week, however, Sampson is finishing the yearly pruning of the bushes, and soon nothing but bare canes will be on display while the roses rest for two months.

As lovely as the garden is, Sampson is not quite satisfied. Many of its older bushes are not the top-performing varieties, and Sampson longs to replace them. However, there are no funds to buy new roses.

*

The rose she yearns for the most is Double Delight, one of the world's most beloved flowers: intensely fragrant, with a brilliant red edge and a creamy white center.

She grows dreamy-eyed when she talks about the flower.

"That's my favorite rose, but we only have one," she said.

On Monday morning, with the cloudy skies threatening, Sampson was out in the garden pruning. She came across the one bush of Double Delight, graced with one last strikingly beautiful rosebud. She cut the bloom, took a long whiff, gave it to a visitor and shook her head.

"God, I love that rose," she said.

2 More L.A. Gang Killings; Man Beaten to Death 83rd & Western, Man Shot to Death on 105th & Lou Dillon in Watts

A 31-year-old man died Thursday morning from the injuries he suffered in a relentless beating by several men on Western Avenue and 83rd Street and, in Watts the previous evening, a 28-year-old man was shot to death.

James McDonald was beaten by up to six black males, ages about 20 to 30, Wednesday night, transported to a local hospital where he died today.  No arrests have been made as of Thursday afternoon. It was the 20th homicide of the year in LAPD's 77th Street Division, traditionally the city's deadliest division. 

Wednesday in Watts,  shortly before 6:30 p.m., the 28-year-old, a Hispanic, was standing at 105th Street and Lou Dillon Avenue when an unknown suspect in a dark gray or blue SUV fired on him, The man, whose name was not released, was struck in the head and pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles Fire Department responders

Both incidents are gang-related.  Anyone with information or either killing can call LAPD's Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (323) 786-5100

Two Saturday Homicides - National Guard Veteran Killed at 64th & Vermont, Woman Stabbed to Death on 83rd near Vermont

When LAPD officers responded Saturday afternoon to a disturbance call of a man with a knife at 83rd Street near Vermont Avenue, residents told them they had heard a woman screaming from a second floor apartment.

When officers went to the apartment they found a black woman, approximately 40 years old, bleeding badly from a knife wound to her stomach  She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A black man, 35-40, was  arrested and a bloody knife recovered.

No further details were available.

Earlier on Vermont Avenue near 64th Street, Charles Nevils, 33, was hanging out with several friends when he was shot. Neviles stumbled into Bottoms Up Liquor Store and died. 

His distraught family told KNBC news reporter Kate Lawson and KTLA's Ellina Abovian that Neviles was a good family man and veteran who had served nine years in the national guard.

"I don't understand the reason why they took my baby from me," his mother, Mira Bables, said as she stood near yellow police tape at the scene. She described Neviles as "a good father to his girls," ages 10 and 12, and said "he was a good son to me."

Adding to the sadness, Neviles deceased man's wife had died of cancer in 2009, the family said. 

"I would like for the world to know he was a very, very, very good person," said his sister Valerie Neviles.

Added Quintivia Abner, his niece: "He was a good father. He was a good uncle. So for somebody to kill him like this out here in the street wasn't right. We need justice."

Sorry for the cold nature of this brief report of two taken lives - and that local TV news was used,  but it is the only information available at the present time as this reporter is out of town. Still, I wanted to do something as these two stories will soon be forgotten and they shouldn't be. 

.  

Searching For The Artist Known As "T. Denver"

On two recent morning walks to Mozza to pick up a car left overnight, Nancy and I passed a closed antique store which prominently displayed a colorful, modern oil painting of a table laden with glasses, papers, and wine bottles. Our kind of table.  Nancy was smitten. 

Tuesday afternoon, I went there alone and - after unsuccessfully attempting to Armenian the owner down - bought the painting. I took it home, put it on the living room floor, propped up against a chair. Even set there, it looked good. (Check below) 

Nancy came home early and was thrilled to see it. She has an eclectic collection of modern art, but nothing, in my artful opinion, to compare. She tried to see who signed this fine work. I got out the flashlight and the magnifying glass. The best she could do was "T. Dznv" followed by a scribble.  Nothing on the web. I took a turning with the magnifying glass. Maybe that "Z" was an "E", I told her. 

"Could it be T. Denver?", she asked.

Yeah, it could. It was. We looked more on the net and found an identical signature on a painting.  But, not much more. He - or she -  was ( hopefully still is )  a 20th century European, had a painting sold at a 2004 Christie's auction and has a painting hanging at one of the Oxford University hospitals in England.. I emailed them, but got an out of office 'til April 19th reply. A webster said T. Denver might be a name for Itzchak Tarkay, an Israeli artist born in Serbia.  Another theory was that "T. Denver" was a joint effort by several painters designed to mean "starving artist".  

So a public plea. Anyone know anything about this "T Denver"?  Best answer gets four pizzas from Mozza.  T. Denver Pizza Contest expires May 5.  Ideally, the actual T. Denver checks in.

.

Mozza's Chi Spacca Dominates 2 Rounds At Pebble Beach Invitational Event

Mozza's Chi Spacca dominated the competition at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine event  with two performances so commanding, so masterful they evoked memories of Tiger Woods' 2000 U.S. Open victory here when he bested the others by a record 15 strokes.

Thursday evening, well-positioned near the front of Roy's at the Inn at Spanish Bay, the Chi Spacca crew. led by chef Ryan DeNicola, Kim "Grumpy" Trac, Cameron Miles Trombone, and Sinta* took an early lead and never even bothered to look back. 

Of the 975 guests who sampled the cinnamon-dusted pancetta-wrapped pork sausage spiedinos with lemon caper butter and bay leaves, 974 proclaimed it the DON (Dish of Night). The lone dissenter, an obnoxious 13-year-old boy whose parents refused to let him bring a prototype Play Station 5 to the Inn at Spanish Bay. voted for the booth of Kentucky Fried Chicken 

Friday night, a dinner for 60 was heralded by all as the DOW ( dinner of weekend). It featured octo, tomahawk pork chops and 50 oz. steaks and a chocolate caramel tart. Wine was procured by Sarah Clarke, The wine was drunk by Nancy and Kate Elizabeth Green 

It was a record  27th time that the food of Nancy Silverton dominated a food event   The only other chefs to have more than 10 victories are Aguste Escoffier (10), Fernand Point (11), Fredy Girardet (13) and Colonel Harlan Sanders (14).

* Sinta is actually Sinta Nikol Villero, but is known simply as "Sinta"

1 Dead, 1 Critical After Easter Morning Shooting at 84th & Main, 1 Dead in Saturday Attack at 87th & Flower

(UPDATED)
Two weekend shootings, including one Sunday morning at 7 a.m., left at least two young men dead and two others in critical condition. 

The first attack, occurred Saturday night at 9:10 p.m. at 87th and Flower Street, near the western border of the Harbor Freeway when a black man, 22 was shot. He made it a block away to 87th and Figueroa where he was found down, but alive. However, he was transported to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. 

The Sunday morning shooting occurred five blocks away at 84th and Main streets, one of the city's hottest neighborhoods. Multiple suspects opened fire on two black males, both age 20. They were struck multiple times in the upper torso. 

One victim was transported to California Hospital, the other to Harbor/UCLA Medical Center. Both were in initially listed in critical condition. However, word sadly just came out that the man taken to California Hospital died of his injuries. 

The shooters fled in a unknown vehicle.

Anyone with information can anonymously call LAPD's Criminal Gag Homicide Division at (323) 786-5100.