Man pleads guilty to threatening prostitute with fake gun.

By DEEPA BHARATH

Roberto Velazquez was arrested in Fountain Valley Tuesday after a prostitute flagged down a police patrol car saying that he had threatened her. Velazquez pleaded guilty to one count of felony false imprisonment and one count of misdemeanor brandishing a weapon, said his attorney Jeffrey Stivers. However, the district attorney dropped one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, which would have been a strike, Stivers said. Velazquez's felony false imprisonment charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor if he successfully completes three years of probation and a 90-day jail sentence. The prostitute told police Velazquez had asked her for oral sex and drove off with her. But instead of paying her before hand, Velazquez reportedly pulled out a pellet gun and demanded oral sex from her. Police said the prostitute was able to escape. Read entire article

O.C. deputy convicted of falsifying reports

SANTA ANA - An Orange County sheriff's deputy was convicted Tuesday of eight misdemeanor counts of filing false reports for claiming he contacted property crime victims and reporting that they did not wish to cooperate with DNA testing.

The jury of seven women and five men also found Jason Christopher Brant, 33, not guilty of four similar counts and deadlocked on five others.

Brant now faces a potential one-year term in the Orange County Jail at his sentencing by Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom on Jan. 16.

One of the jurors told Beacom that he hoped the judge would consider Brant's clean record as a deputy sheriff for 10 years before imposing sentence. Two other jurors said they felt Brant had been let down by his supervisors in the Sheriff's Department.

Defense attorney Paul S. Meyer argued during the nine-day trial that Brant's reports in the 17 cases were preliminary and that he never had the chance to modify the information before they were submitted to the District Attorney's Office.

Deputy District Attorney Tammy Spurgeon argued that Brant, of Chino, failed to contact some of the reported victims and falsely reported that others did not wish to cooperate when in fact they did.

Brant, a 10-year veteran, was one of several deputies assigned to follow up on 500 property crime cases as part of a federal grant given to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, working with the District Attorney's Office.

Allegations of Brant's misreporting deepened a rift between the Sheriff's Department and District Attorney Tony Rackauckas over who should lead the county forensics lab, then run by the sheriff's office. It is now run by the sheriff, the district attorney and the county chief executive officer.

The grant from the National Institute of Justice was aimed at measuring the effectiveness of DNA evidence in solving property crime in south Orange County. But the feuding between the Sheriff's Department and Rackauckas - ignited in part by allegations of false reports - hampered the outcome of the federally funded study.

Brant was responsible for contacting 39 victims of unrelated property crimes that occurred from 2005 to 2007.

Investigators with the District Attorney's Office reviewed Brant's files and found discrepancies in his reports, according to district attorney's spokeswoman Farrah Emami.

He was placed on administrative leave after the discrepancies were uncovered.

Housewives kid Josh gets a helping hand

I tried, his mom, Lauri Waring tried, Derek the Vending Machine Guy tried, and many others have tried as well - and so far none of us successfully. Now comes attorney Jeffrey Stivers, who has decided to go above and beyond the call of normal legal duties to help troubled "Real Housewives" spawn Josh Waring.

Last week, after I reported that Josh had gotten eight months in jail in a possession-for-sale case, I got a call from Stivers' secretary wanting to know why I hadn't mentioned her boss. "We wanted his name printed in the article for some P.R. and recognition for his hard work on the case."

Hmm, I thought. Josh got convicted of all nine counts. What exactly did his attorney do for him? But, I admire nothing so much as the cheekiness of such a request, so I gave Stivers a call.

He said he ran into Josh when he was in court and struck up a conversation. That resulted in Stivers representing him (he wouldn't talk about the financial arrangement) and another attorney, Chris Glew, helping out as well.

As Stivers tells it, a confidential informant ratted out Josh, telling the Sheriff's Department he could be found at a Laguna Hills hotel in a room full of drugs. When the deputies arrived, that's what they did find - "136 heroin balloons and about 200 ecstasy pills."

"The D.A. wanted two years in state prison," said Stivers, who's had other clients similarly charged who just got probation and court-ordered rehab. Stivers said he was pushing for six months in county jail and six months of court-ordered rehab.

The defense was going to be that the room was not registered in Josh's name, that while Josh might have been using, he wasn't selling, and that the guy whose name the room was registered to was the actual dealer. That guy was never arrested, by the way, even though the authorities had his name.

By law, Josh was good for the possession-for-sale anyway because he was at the room when the deputies showed up.

"Yes, it's a lot of drugs, but they were not all his drugs," Stivers said.

A defense used many times, obviously, but in this case with some circumstantial evidence to back it up.

In any case, Judge Thomas Borris gave Josh the six months and three years probation. With good behavior and credit for time served, Stivers estimates he'll do about five months and be out in January.

Stivers says he spent more than 20 hours with Josh, counseling him and trying to get him to commit to resuming rehab upon his release. He was living in a Sober Living home in Costa Mesa - not at the hotel - at the time of his arrest, Stivers told me. He says Josh has called him from the county jail and that he's already gotten some kind of job and seems to be adjusting.

"He's doing well. I'm very proud of him."

Spoken like several others who've tried to help. Maybe it will work this time.

Political consultant Adam Probolsky wasn't happy with the way I portrayed his brother Brian, who is running for a seat on the Moulton Niguel Water District board. I implied Adam was all there was holding up his civic involvement and identified Brian as a "hardware salesman," noting my brother is as well. In fact, the two have spoken about business.

"I am pretty sure I explained that he served on the Laguna Niguel Parks and Recreation Commission (and that) his appointment by Pat Bates to the O.C. Parks (board) was all him," Adam fired off. "And he is president of his own metal-fastener company - saying he is a hardware salesman is kinda unfair. Sounds like he works at The Home Depot ."

OK, I fired back, but saying he's the president of his own metal-fastener company makes it sound like he owns Home Depot., or some equivalent.

Then my brother, Albert, weighed in.

"Please correct," he wrote. "I am a fastener specialist. I can only surmise the reason Brian is running for office is because he's not selling enough of my fasteners and needs to find alternative income. But he could be an excellent voice for corrosion-resistant fasteners in the O.C."

And I gave up covering national politics why?

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