Pasadena – Attorney Legal Counsel

Man Charged in Killing of Ex-Laker Michael Cooper’s Brother Due in Court Monday – Pasadena Now

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:39:59 +0000

Aaron Miguel Conell, 24, of Pasadena, is accused of killing Mickey Cooper, 64, at Washington Park on Nov. 18. [Pasadena Police dept. photo]

Arraignment is scheduled Monday for a man charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of the younger brother of former Lakers star Michael Cooper at a Pasadena park.

Aaron Miguel Conell, 24, of Pasadena, is accused of killing Mickey Cooper, 64, at Washington Park on Nov. 18.

Conell is also charged with one count of attempted murder involving an alleged attack early Oct. 29 on a man who was shot in the neck at Washington Park, and one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for allegedly walking up to a car and pointing a gun at a man seated in the driver’s seat at a gas station in Pasadena just before 9:30 p.m. Nov. 5, according to the District attorney’s Office.

The charges include allegations that Conell personally used a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun during the commission of the crimes and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim in the Oct. 29 shooting.

Mickey Cooper was found at 4 a.m. Nov. 18 suffering from gunshot wounds after Pasadena police responded to a ShotSpotter gunshot detection alert in the 700 block of East Washington Boulevard, between Lake and El Molino avenues. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim’s brother, Michael, was a defensive stalwart during the Lakers’ “Showtime ” championship era in the 1980s. After his playing career ended, he had various coaching positions, including as coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, guiding them to two WNBA titles. He is now the boys’ basketball coach at Culver City High School.

“The reason that my brother was there (is) because it was a safe haven for him, a place that he felt that he could be comfortable and safe,” Michael Cooper told reporters during a Wednesday morning news conference. “And it had been, up until that tragic night this has happened.”

Cooper said he and his brother played regularly at the park when they were growing up.

He thanked Pasadena police for their work on the case, reiterating that his brother had struggled with drug addiction “that he just couldn’t shake.”

“I like to feel he is in a better place,” Cooper said.

Conell was taken into custody late Nov. 18 by Pasadena police. He remains jailed in lieu of $4.25 million bail. Police said the shootings appeared to be random attacks.

Police coordinated an arrest operation with members of the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force and the department’s SWAT and K-9 units, according to Pasadena police Lt. Monica Cuellar.

Conell was initially booked at the Pasadena City Jail on suspicion of assault with a firearm, but detectives obtained additional evidence so he was additionally booked on suspicion of murder, Cuellar said.

Conell could face more than 50 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the District attorney’s Office.

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Prosecutor Alleges Use of Force Decision Withheld to Hurt Villanueva – Pasadena Now

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 12:24:14 +0000

Another veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor is suing her employer concerning the actions of District attorney George Gascón, in this case for opposing the alleged withholding of a decision to not file charges in a highly publicized use-of-force case in order to impact former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s re-election bid.

Deputy District attorney Amy Pellman Pentz’s Los Angeles Superior Court retaliation suit was filed Friday and seeks unspecified damages. A representative for the District attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

For three years, Pentz was assistant head deputy of the Justice System Integrity Division, which reviews complaints alleging government corruption and improper uses of force employed by law enforcement.

During the 2022 campaign for Los Angeles County sheriff, Villanueva’s opponents criticized him for a widely publicized use of force by deputies that was recorded on video and depicted a deputy placing his knee on an inmate’s neck for more than three minutes.

“This video was illegally released to the public and was used by Villanueva’s detractors to spread the false narrative that the use of force was illegal and that Villanueva had attempted to cover it up,” the suit states.

Pentz’s unit investigated the case and her supervisor, former Richard Ramirez prosecutor Alan Yochelson, approved her September 2022 recommendation that no charges be filed because the use of force appeared proper and justified, the suit states.

Yochelson’s supervisor, Diana Teran, gave her nod to the decision and Gascón did so a month later, the suit states.

A decision to not file charges is typically provided to the law enforcement agency right away, but in this case it was not turned over to the sheriff’s department or any other law enforcement department, the suit states. Yochelson told Pentz that Teran wanted to withhold release of the determination “in an effort to impact the outcome of the election against Sheriff Alex Villanueva,” the suit states.

Yochelson told Pentz, “This is total BS” and said he believed the information should be released, but that the administration did not want to “give Villanueva any good news this close to the election,” the suit alleges.

A meeting was held about the use-of-force case in October 2022 and was attended by Pentz, Gascón, Teran and Yochelson, who told the plaintiff to not speak during the session, according to the suit.

Teran said she and another administrator wanted the decision to not file charges held until after the elections and Gascón was in agreement, the suit states.

After the meeting, Pentz told Yochelson that the refusal to release the decision in order to impact the elections “was unlawful or used words to that effect,” according to the suit.

Villanueva eventually found out that the decision was being withheld and chastised Gascón for doing so, the suit states.

“Gascón and other high-ranking officials in the District attorney’s Office believed that plaintiff was the person that disclosed to Sheriff Villanueva that the declination had been withheld,” according to the suit, which further states that Pentz was removed from her position in November 2022, the same month in which Villanueva was defeated by former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, described in the suit as a “close ally” of Gascón.

In testimony in January 2023 before the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission, Pentz contradicted Teran’s testimony that no one in the District attorney’s Office had applied for an open integrity unit position, with the plaintiff stating that multiple prosecutors had indeed applied.

After her commission testimony, Pentz was offered a position on the Equity Action Team as a representative for the Jewish community. Pentz was a founding member of the Jewish Prosecutor’s Association.

However, after attending her first meeting with EAT, Pentz was removed by Chief Deputy Sharon Woo “under the pretext that there were too many lawyers” on the team, the suit alleges.

Multiple other prosecutors have also sued the county over the alleged retaliation they experienced for speaking out against Gascón’s criminal justice reform directives.

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3 charged in Angeles Crest Highway killing – NBC Los Angeles

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 10:14:15 +0000

Three men have been charged with murdering and robbing a man at a scenic turnout on Angeles Crest Highway in Pasadena in July, the Los Angeles County District attorney‘s Office announced Wednesday.

Luis Ventura, 24, Marco Antonio Hernandez, 18, and Abraham Ernesto Alvarenga Cortez, 21, are charged in the killing of Jesse Enrique Munoz, whom authorities said was shot multiple times at about 3:50 a.m. July 22.

The three are also charged with robbing a female who was with the 32- year-old victim, according to the District attorney‘s Office.

Cortez is additionally facing an allegation that he personally used a handgun.

Ventura – who was arrested July 26 by Pasadena police – was initially charged with robbing Munoz and his companion, with the murder count subsequently being filed. He has pleaded not guilty and is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Oct. 6, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to allow the case against him to proceed to trial.

Hernandez and Cortez are set to be arraigned Sept. 11.

A fourth man who allegedly was involved with the crime has not been identified, according to the District attorney‘s Office.

Munoz was allegedly robbed and murdered by the three defendants and an unidentified man and died at the scene, prosecutors said.

Lt. Keith Gomez of the Pasadena Police Department said in July that investigators believed Munoz’s shooting was connected to the killings of two other people who were found dead July 24 in a vehicle in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Jorge Ramos, 36, and Taylor Raven Whittaker, 26, were shot to death inside a parked Subaru sedan in the 7000 block of Palos Verdes Drive, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Gomez declined to give specifics about the alleged link between the two shootings.

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Pasadena Police Department Swears in Five New Officers – Pasadena Now

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:21:28 +0000

Five new officers received their badges and were officially sworn in as members of the Pasadena Police Department by City Clerk Mark Jomsky in a ceremony at Police headquarters Tuesday.

Pasadena Police Chief Gene Harris congratulated the new officers and addressed their parents and friends in attendance at the ceremony.

“We thank you for loaning us these men,” he said.

Harris smiled, explaining, “We’re just borrowing them, we know that, but we also know that we will give them back to you in much better shape than when you loaned them to us. That’s a promise. How often does that happen?”

Officer Chrystian Banuelos was born in Monterey Park, California on August 13, 1993, to Hector and Lilly Banuelos. He began competing in judo and wrestling at the age of six.

Banuelos earned a degree in Biology and Chemistry when he graduated from college in Nebraska. He worked as a nurse for three years before becoming a correctional corporal for the Nebraska Department of Corrections. After working there for one year, he joined the Grand Island Police Department, where he worked for five years and rose to the position of gang officer, as well as serving as a member of the Tactical Response Team.

He met his wife Ashleigh while living in Nebraska and they started a family, with a son, Grayson, 5. They are eagerly anticipating the arrival of their second child. In June of this year, they were married. With the support of his family, they moved back to California to further his career with the Pasadena Police Department. His wife Ashleigh pinned on his badge.

Officer Jacob James was born on January 1st, 1990, in Acton, California, the youngest of six siblings. His older brother Chris is currently a detective for Oceanside PD and encouraged James’s pursuit of law enforcement.

James began his first responder career as an EMT and later as a Special Response Officer for Caltech. While at Caltech, he observed and interacted with officers from the Pasadena Police Department and decided to work alongside them. He pursued the path and graduated from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in June.
James’s wife, Sophia, pinned on his badge.

Officer Kenneth Katim was born on May 5, 1998, in Fountain Valley, California. As a child, he was extremely active and enjoyed various
physical activities, including wrestling. In his bio, Kenneth noted that he considers his father to be his hero, as his dad came to this country “with nothing but the clothes on his back.”

Despite working two jobs and taking care of his mother and three sisters, he was able to help raise Katim and support his career in law enforcement.

Katim studied biology at Cal State Poly Pomona while managing a Poke restaurant part-time. He currently holds a blue belt in Jiu-jitsu and aspires to become a black belt to teach both law enforcement and non-law enforcement. Kelven Katim, Katim’s father, pinned on Katim’s badge.

Officer Saul Cuevas was born in Los Angeles, California in November 1998. He was raised by his parents along with his two sisters. Saul was a very active child who loved boxing and working out.

After high school, Cuevas attended California State University, Los Angeles, where he studied Political Science. He began working at La Puente Firing Range as a Range Safety Officer and eventually worked his way up to manager.

Saul Cuevas Sr., Saul’s father, pinned on his badge.

Officer Steve Alvarez was born in Los Angeles, California on March 29, 1990. He is the youngest of four children. When Steve was six years old, his mother passed away from cancer, leaving his father alone to raise him and his siblings.

Despite facing adversity, Alvaez had a supportive group of neighbors and friends. He often played basketball with his neighborhood friends and would be seen helping his father with his lunch truck on weekends.

In 2022, Alvarez married his girlfriend Stefanie, and they now have two children, Sadie, 7, and Sebastian, 5. Alvarez left a position at Bank of America to pursue law enforcement for “a greater purpose and to be a good example for his children,” according to his biography.

His wife Stefanie pinned on his badge.

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