Agencies learning to work together

GLENDALE — Armenian prosecutor Mikaelyan Geisha remembers some years ago when if he wanted to work with Glendale authorities on a case, it took a long time just to present it to them.

But cooperation with Armenian officials has improved a great deal during the last five years, he said.

“It’s a lot easier than several years ago when it would take a year to present a case to the other side,” he said through an interpreter as he visited Glendale police Friday with another prosecutor from Armenia, Baghdasazyan Khachatuz.

The improved communication makes it easier to prosecute criminals who flee to Armenia from the U.S., Geisha said.

The prosecutors came from Armenia to the U.S. this week to work with the FBI on a medical fraud case in Sacramento. But they also made time to visit with their crime-fighting partners in Glendale.

For criminals, the relationship between Glendale police and Armenian prosecutors establishes that “there is no safe haven in Armenia,” Glendale police Lt. Jon Perkins said.

Armenian prosecutors and detectives have worked with Glendale authorities on many cases.

One of the more notable ones happened in 2006. Detectives traveled to Vanadzor, Armenia, to help prosecute Artur Khanzadyan, who was convicted of killing girlfriend Odet Tsaturyan in Glendale before fleeing to Armenia.

On Sept. 16, 2006, she was found strangled and stuffed inside the trunk of Khanzadyan’s 2005 Audi.

In the days following her death, Khanzadyan reportedly traveled to Las Vegas, flew to Atlanta, to Moscow and finally to Yerevan, Armenia.

Glendale police began working with the FBI and Armenian authorities to find him after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed second-degree murder charges against Khanzadyan and issued a warrant for his arrest.

Armenian authorities arrested him in late November 2006.

Khanzadyan, who was a citizen of Armenia, did not want to voluntarily return to the United States, and Armenian officials were not willing to denaturalize him. He was tried in Armenia and found guilty of killing Tsaturyan.

Geisha and Khachatuz didn’t prosecute the murder trial.

Khanzadyan was sentenced to 10 years in an Armenian prison.

Since the murder conviction, Glendale police have continued to work with Armenian authorities in criminal cases.