Jail

Joseph Brancato, the 70-year-old Burbank man accused of beating his wife to death with a chair leg, is receiving appropriate medical attention in jail, officials said. Brancato told authorities that he only sustained a fractured shoulder as a result of a fall in a holding facility, sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker said in an email. ____________________ FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Brancato's attorney claimed his client had been stabbed.

DOWNTOWN — Glendale’s jail was singled out in a lengthy grand jury report of detention centers for being among the best run facilities in the county. The Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury on Wednesday released its annual report on an in-depth investigation into various city and county programs, including video teleconferencing, inmate healthcare, water and trash services and more. The grand jury’s Detention Committee also praised facilities in Beverly Hills, Inglewood, and East Los Angeles.

GLENDALE — Authorities on Thursday released the identity of the 32-year-old Glendale man who was found dead in a Salem Street parking lot earlier this week, just a day after his release from jail. Ernest Seyranov was discovered dead about 8 a.m. Wednesday, his body lying next to a luxury car in the metered parking lot next to Clancy’s Crab Broiler, Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said. Glendale police are still waiting on the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

For anyone who ever thought that putting up the Haunted Jail at the CV Sheriff's Station was just a real quick thing - throw some camoflauge netting, colored lights and fog machines in there - you're wrong. The volunteers work from early in the morning to late at night. And if that's not enough, some stay until 1 in the morning. From painting sets to rigging up lights, they do it all. The Haunted Jail has been a tradition in La Crescenta for about 10 years, said Deputy Charles Norris, the head of the Search and Rescue and Uniform Reserves, who oversees the Haunted Jail.

SOUTH GLENDALE — A 31-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after police spotted him wearing a black inmate jumpsuit and riding a 10-year-old girl’s stolen pink bicycle — just hours after he was released from a Los Angeles County jail. Michael Toplin, who was on parole for receiving stolen property, had been released from jail earlier that day, but allegedly wasted little time in taking advantage of an opportunity crime, according to Glendale police reports. Special Enforcement Detail officers, whose duties include monitoring parolees, reported spotting Toplin about 7:30 p.m. riding the pink bike on a Central Avenue sidewalk, a code violation.

A 70-year-old Burbank man accused of beating his wife to death with a chair leg appeared in court Wednesday in a wheelchair after suffering from a fractured shoulder and back spasms in jail, his attorney said. Joseph Brancato faces murder charges after allegedly beating his 65-year-old wife, Marie Brancato, to death with a chair leg. His public defender, Kasie Lee, told a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Wednesday that her client has been unable to attend two previous hearings due the injuries he sustained while in jail.

Paul M. Anderson GLENDALE -- Tim Jagoe, the father of two siblings killed in an October car crash, may have helped spare jail time Tuesday for the man accused of causing his children's deaths. As Los Angeles County Commissioner Gerald T. Richardson weighed whether to release Mark Herwig on his own recognizance after his arraignment Tuesday, Jagoe got the bailiff's attention and asked to be heard. He told Richardson that Herwig could be trusted to return to court to answer charges he was drunk when he crashed his car Oct. 16. Herwig's attorney, Richard Helphand, said the gesture tipped the scales in Herwig's favor.

A Glendale insurance agent was sentenced Monday to 75 days in jail after pleading no contest to one count of grand theft when authorities discovered he took auto insurance premiums from several Los Angeles and Glendale customers. An investigation by the state Department of Insurance found that Arshak Mike Rostomyan, 27, collected insurance premiums and never submitted them to an insurance company, a Los Angeles City Attorney's office news release said.

A Glendale man convicted of assault with a deadly weapon died in county jail while serving a one-year sentence, officials said. Ronald Phillips, 22, died Sunday while in custody, but the cause of his death is not yet established, said Lt. David Smith in the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. The coroner's office has ordered additional testing, Smith said. A supervisor at the county inmate information line confirmed Phillips died while in custody, but could not identify in which facility he was housed.

GLENDALE — A 39-year-old Glendale man who was already in police custody for another charge was allegedly identified through DNA evidence as the attacker of a 58-year-old woman who was bound and beaten unconscious June 2 inside her apartment, police said Wednesday. The DNA evidence allegedly matched Lorenzo Ordonez, who was in custody in a downtown Los Angeles jail in connection with a separate Glendale case for assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, Glendale Police Det. Mike Wenz said.

Inmates at the Glendale city jail more than paid for the cost of their incarceration in 2012, anteing up roughly $96,000 to stay at the facility. The facility's pay-to-stay program, which allows certain inmates to serve out short court sentences for $85 per day, generated $96,475 in 2012, up from $67,995 in 2011, according to Glendale Police Department reports. The program has earned $1.6 million since it was established in 2008, helping to offset operational costs at the jail. "I don't feel that burden should be placed on the taxpayers," Jail Administrator Juan Lopez said, adding that inmates "should pay their own way. " As the program's earnings increase, more arrestees also paid the jail's booking recovery fee. Everyone who is booked at the jail must pay $135 to cover the costs of being processed.

A 32-year-old Glendale police jail inmate was arrested after allegedly attacking a custody officer on Tuesday, officials said. The 43-year-old officer suffered a small cut on his right elbow from his incident with the inmate, who was identified as Mohamed Mousa of Los Angeles, according to police. The officer was moving Mousa from the attorney visitation area to a holding cell when Mousa reportedly moved to stare at a female inmate in the next cell, police said. When the officer told Mousa - who was in custody on a warrant for domestic violence - to leave the female inmate alone, he suddenly starting yelling and flailing his arms, police said.

A 30-year-old Glendale man was arrested this week on suspicion of dealing narcotics in Glendale and smuggling several grams of drugs into the local jail in his rectum, police said. Narcotics detectives had taken Leyvi Dawson into custody on Monday for alleged drug dealing. When they searched him as he was being booked into the Glendale police jail, they made the discovery, according to police reports. A piece of cellophane containing 1 1/2 grams of methamphetamine and a couple of grams of heroin fell from his buttocks during the strip search, the report states.

A 42-year-old Glendale woman was banned from owning any pets while on probation after pleading no contest to allegedly stabbing her Shiba Inu dog multiple times while high on cough syrup, officials said. Merry Jane Clift was sentenced on Thursday to 28 days in jail after being given credit for time already served for the alleged attack on Dec. 28, according to Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Patrick Hegarty also ordered Clift to serve three years of formal probation.

Good morning readers. Today is Monday, July 23. It looks to be another beautiful Southern California day. But remember your sunblock! A good Samaritan saves a man from a burning car in Sun Valley.   North Hollywood Patch  Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation SKG has agreed to pay $155 million to purchase Classic Movies, which owns the rights to movies and television shows like "Lassie" and "Casper the Friendly Ghost. " Associated Press  Los Angeles Sherrif's deputies rescued two hikers in the Angeles National Forest who overheated.

Police are warning residents to beware of scammers who called and allegedly harassed a Glendale woman by repeatedly demanding she repay a bogus loan or face arrest. The scammers claimed they were from the Law Office of Patricia Brown, 1160 11th Ave. in San Francisco, and were trying to collect an unpaid loan. Other victims have said similar scammers use the same address in San Francisco, but alter the name of the law office or say they are Michael Carter from the “Department of Legal Affairs.” Apparently, it's a scam not worth hiding.

The Glendale Police Department has redirected $650,000 to deal with parolees and individuals on probation since the state-mandated release of some prison inmates began two years ago, officials said this week. The department's Special Enforcement Detail has been fully dedicated to monitoring former inmates and identifying related crime trends. That's a far cry from the detail's original duties of preventive patrolling, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. At Tuesday's Glendale City Council meeting, Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa attributed the move to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's release of low-risk offenders without parole supervision and the state's realignment of its prison system.

Last month, tens of thousands of people took to the street to remember ethnic Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was gunned down five years ago by an ultranationalist teenager. The number of people who turned out underscored the level of discontent about how the media are treated in Turkey. "Without belittling the achievements of the government, the roof has fallen in on freedom of expression," said Hurriyet columnist David Judson. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders recently published its annual press freedom index, which dropped Turkey 10 places to 148th in the world, just behind countries such as Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Glendale Police Department jail has collected more than $1.5 million in fees associated with inmates who opt to pay to stay at the facility. The $1.58 million in inmate fees generated by the pay-to-stay program since it began in 2008 has helped offset operational costs, according to a recent report presented to a police advisory committee. “The savings gets rolled back, initially, to the taxpayer,” Jail Administrator Juan Lopez said. “The local taxpayers can find confidence in the fact that their money is being utilized.” In the past two years, more than 17,000 inmates have opted to pay a fee of $85 per day to serve court-approved sentences in the department's jail, which can be a major step up from crowded Los Angeles County facilities.

A 22-year-old parolee was arrested Sunday when he allegedly made threats via Facebook to “put a hit” on his 15-year-old girlfriend's family after they forbid him from seeing her, police said. Raul Reinoso of Glendale was arrested at his home in the 300 block of East Chestnut Street on suspicion of making a criminal threat, unlawful sex with a minor and oral copulation with a minor, according to Glendale police. The girl's parents told police that Reinoso threatened them on Facebook after they logged into their daughter's social network account and sent him a message saying that he was not allowed to see her again, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.