State Prison

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.

Amy Ennis, 31, could face to up to 12 years in prison with her open plea to Superior Court. PASADENA -- A 31-year-old Los Angeles woman accused of abusing a Glendale couple's newborn baby more than a year ago pleaded no contest to child abuse charges Thursday, court officials said. Amy Ennis was charged last June with one count of child abuse with a special domestic-violence allegation of causing great bodily injury, Deputy Dist. Atty. Oscar Plascencia said. She made an open plea Thursday in Pasadena Superior Court and will spend the next 90 days in state prison, until her next court date, April 7, when the California Department of Corrections will recommend a sentence, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa discussed how Southern California is seeing an increase in crime by repeat offenders a year after the passage of AB 109 when he spoke to the Glendale Noon Rotary Club on Nov. 8. AB 109 was the public safety realignment bill that aimed to reduce the number of low-level inmates in state prisons. A year after the law was implemented, De Pompa said, 22,000 felons have returned to the community in Los Angeles County. About 12,000 have been released from state prison and are under county probation.

Robert Chacon A former South Pasadena High School student who pleaded no contest to attempted murder for shooting a La Canada High School student in the face was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in state prison. David Melendez, 18, shot Thomas Johnson-Blasucci on May 25, 2003, at a post-prom party in La Canada Flintridge after a fight broke out between La Canada High students and teens from South Pasadena High School. Melendez shot Johnson-Blasucci, a varsity football player, through the left side of his jaw. He has since recovered from his wounds and recently finished his first year of college and is home for the summer, Deputy Dist.

Jackson Bell A Burbank Superior Court judge sentenced a woman accused of robbing a Bank of America earlier this month to two years in state prison. Norma Martus, 50, of Echo Park, was sentenced to two years in state prison Tuesday. Martus pleaded no contest Aug. 9 to a charge of armed robbery. On Aug. 5, Martus walked into the bank at 3812 San Fernando Road and allegedly robbed the teller by claiming to carry a bomb inside her gift bag, police said.

A 71-year-old convicted sex offender was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months in state prison for setting small fires outside two downtown storefronts because he reportedly wanted to “make Glendale more beautiful,” officials said. Gerald Harris pleaded no contest in January to one felony count of recklessly causing a fire to a structure, officials said. Harris, who has been convicted of arson twice, also has multiple convictions for trespassing, battery, vandalism, theft, public drunkenness and indecent exposure, according to Los Angeles County Superior court records.

Jackson Bell A Glendale man imprisoned for setting a fire that killed his wife and six children nine years ago hung himself Monday in a state prison, officials said. Jorjik Avanesian, 49, was found dead just after 11 p.m. in the Lancaster state prison's infirmary, prison spokesman Lt. Ken Lewis said. Avanesian was convicted of seven counts of murder for dousing his Glendale apartment in gasoline and lighting the fire that killed his wife, Turan, and their six children.

SAN FERNANDO ? A Superior Court judge sentenced Glendale attorney Arthur Crabtree to five years and eight months in state prison, and an additional two years in county jail, for preying on underage girls online. After more than two weeks of testimony and a few hours of deliberations, the former Glendale Police officer was convicted Friday of one felony count of attempted lewd acts on a child, three felony counts of attempting to send harmful matter over the Internet, four misdemeanor counts of attempted child molestation and one misdemeanor count of child molestation.

BURBANK ? Amy Beck, the former Burbank middle school teacher who turned herself in earlier this month for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old student, faces up to two years in state prison as part of a plea deal announced in court Thursday. Beck, a 33-year-old former English and social science teacher at Jordan Middle School, pleaded no contest in Los Angeles County Superior Court as part of a deal in which she faces up to two years in state prison, in addition to registering as a sex offender for two charges related to sex with a minor.

Situated on a cold concrete floor, a young man sits atop a rickety bunk staring at four walls and wondering how he wound up in such a God-forsaken place. He has no identity ? that was stripped away when he became a ward of the state. He is a nobody, just another number in the California Penal System. On the outside, he used to be Mike Barrett, a promising football star with a bright future. Now, he's just a convict. Unlike most criminals wallowing in state prison, Barrett doesn't claim his innocence.

A 71-year-old convicted sex offender was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months in state prison for setting small fires outside two downtown storefronts because he reportedly wanted to “make Glendale more beautiful,” officials said. Gerald Harris pleaded no contest in January to one felony count of recklessly causing a fire to a structure, officials said. Harris, who has been convicted of arson twice, also has multiple convictions for trespassing, battery, vandalism, theft, public drunkenness and indecent exposure, according to Los Angeles County Superior court records.

Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa discussed how Southern California is seeing an increase in crime by repeat offenders a year after the passage of AB 109 when he spoke to the Glendale Noon Rotary Club on Nov. 8. AB 109 was the public safety realignment bill that aimed to reduce the number of low-level inmates in state prisons. A year after the law was implemented, De Pompa said, 22,000 felons have returned to the community in Los Angeles County. About 12,000 have been released from state prison and are under county probation.

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.

A 52-year-old parolee was sentenced Wednesday to two years in state prison for pilfering hundreds of dollars from charitable donation boxes at Catholic churches in Glendale and Burbank. Peter Manuel Galindro, who has remained in custody since being arrested on Jan. 10, pleaded no contest to two felony counts of burglary. He was also sentenced to three years parole. Stacked against him was Galindro's criminal record that dates back more than 20 years, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Atty.

PASADENA — A 20-year-old Glendale man was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for paralyzing a 38-year-old driver who unwittingly pulled out into a 2009 street race. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz said the prison sentence was appropriate due to the gravity of Rafick Daroosee's injuries and the recklessness in which Aren Aznavoleh drove his car on Glenoaks Boulevard. "It's obviously such a tragedy that the victim, Mr. Daroosee, was really just at the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.

GLENDALE— A Glendale man was sentenced Monday to five years in state prison for running a health-care fraud and money laundering scheme that affected more than 800 Medicare patients in the Los Angeles region, officials said. U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow ordered Manuk Karapetyan, 46, to serve five years in prison after being convicted in March of multiple counts of health-care fraud and money laundering, officials said. "It was a serious offense that had a number of aggravating circumstances," Assistant U.S. Atty.

BURBANK ? Amy Beck, the former Burbank middle school teacher who turned herself in earlier this month for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old student, faces up to two years in state prison as part of a plea deal announced in court Thursday. Beck, a 33-year-old former English and social science teacher at Jordan Middle School, pleaded no contest in Los Angeles County Superior Court as part of a deal in which she faces up to two years in state prison, in addition to registering as a sex offender for two charges related to sex with a minor.

Two boys and two men were sentenced Monday to spend time in prison for engaging in a three-day crime spree that spanned from Glendale to Tujunga. Christian Rubio, 15, Kevin Ruano, 15, Nicolas Ventura, 18, and Sergio Rodriguez, 20, were arrested Sept. 1 and pleaded not guilty Dec. 10 to charges of robbery and carjacking. They changed their pleas to no contest Monday in Pasadena Superior Court, paving the way for the sentencing. Rubio and Ruano both received two strikes and were sentenced to serve three years each in state prison.

SAN FERNANDO ? A Superior Court judge sentenced Glendale attorney Arthur Crabtree to five years and eight months in state prison, and an additional two years in county jail, for preying on underage girls online. After more than two weeks of testimony and a few hours of deliberations, the former Glendale Police officer was convicted Friday of one felony count of attempted lewd acts on a child, three felony counts of attempting to send harmful matter over the Internet, four misdemeanor counts of attempted child molestation and one misdemeanor count of child molestation.

Situated on a cold concrete floor, a young man sits atop a rickety bunk staring at four walls and wondering how he wound up in such a God-forsaken place. He has no identity ? that was stripped away when he became a ward of the state. He is a nobody, just another number in the California Penal System. On the outside, he used to be Mike Barrett, a promising football star with a bright future. Now, he's just a convict. Unlike most criminals wallowing in state prison, Barrett doesn't claim his innocence.