Free Talk Live

Six Fullerton, California, police officers were placed on involuntary administrative leave as the FBI and Orange County District Attorney investigate the death of a homeless man who was in police custody, authorities said Wednesday.The decision by Police Chief Michael Sellers came just hours before a contentious Fullerton City Council meeting Tuesday evening. More than 100 residents spent three hours at the meeting expressing outrage about the death of Kelly Thomas, who sustained serious injuries during the July 5 arrest by the officers, a police spokesman said.

An Orange County middle school teacher is in custody on suspicion of molesting four students, including a girl who says he had sex with her in a San Clemente classroom, police said. Richard Rack, a 50-year-old math teacher at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente, was being held Friday on $1-million bail after an investigation that began in November escalated when Orange County sheriff's detectives learned he had had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl for two years. "The sexual relationship began when she was a student in his classroom.

George Zimmerman's wife was arrested Tuesday afternoon for allegedly lying at his bond hearing about the couple's finances. Shellie N. Zimmerman, 25, faces a perjury charge, according to Jackie Barnard, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's office for the Fourth Judicial District of Florida. She met conditions for a $1,000 bond and was released Tuesday afternoon, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. At her husband's April 20 bond hearing, Shellie Zimmerman was asked whether the couple had financial means to assist in the defense.

A judge this morning formally dropped murder charges against a Lynwood police officer who had been accused of killing a man and wounding two others in a bizarre shooting spree along the Illinois-Indiana border.

Brian Dorian, 37, was released from Will County Jail Tuesday night, but appeared in court this morning where the judge accepted a motion to dismiss from prosecutors.

Despite protests from dozens of residents, Santa Clarita is poised to join a growing movement of budget-strapped communities that are turning over their libraries to private management.

The move, approved by the City Council in a 4-1 vote last week, was designed to save the city hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars by withdrawing its three libraries from the county system. But it left some residents fretting about a loss of service without access to the county's vast resources.

Another tip from a watchful citizen early Tuesday morning brought the Greensburg Police Department closer to exterminating the drug problem in the city.

The mother of a 14-year-old boy accused of making bombs out of dry ice appeared in court Tuesday.

The woman, 39, is charged with possession of a destructive device and child abuse. She was arrested over the weekend and released on her own recognizance.

Police were called to a home near 137th Street and Z Circle on Saturday. Police found and detonated an ice bomb in a plastic bottle.

A reported kidnapping in Yuba City proved to be little more than a misunderstanding Tuesday but not before law enforcement responded in force, said Lt. Tom Tappe.

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Lewis was not arrested and was released, pending review of requested charges by the district attorney, which would likely only be a misdemeanor of disturbing the peace, Tappe said.

Nearly 200 Los Angeles County employees earned more than a quarter of a million dollars in 2009, according to a list of the county's top earners released late Monday in response to a Public Records Act request from The Times.