Film Noir, Newport Beach Style

The Orange County Weekly has the best comment on the Mike Carona Indictment Fest, in the form of a photo: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/crime-sex/oc-sheriff-carona-indicted-for/

Carona probably would have got away with lots more graft, incompetence, and poorly chosen drinking buddies if he hadn’t tried to help out an old buddy with a small case of videotaped underage gang rape. People get fussy.

Their Sheriff Carona Corruption Archive and Haidl Rape Case Archive are worth a browse for fans of Chandleresque corruption.

I hope the new regime at the Weekly doesn’t muzzle or drive out Moxley. Without him there wouldn’t be investigative journalism of any use in this county.

But he’s a millionaire!

According to the Register, a Mr. Joseph Garcia is currently in jail here on a million dollars bail for rape and sexual assault of at least three women. Mr. Garcia’s M.O. was to go on a date, take her home, and jump her. This is apparently not recommended in that he could get up to 45 years if convicted. And where did he get his dates? One just at the post office, and the others at MillionaireMatch.com!

Don’t worry, gals. Not all of the local real estate millionaires are rapists.

Edit: From the millionaire dating service site itself: “If the site is slow at this moment, come back early morning or late night. It may be due to the recent publicity about a major Hollywood celebrity having found a match here.” Yes, or…

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1328764.php

Area Newspaper’s Police Blotter Weird This Week

Newport Beach:

Island, 300 block: suspicious circumstances, July 7. A resident found that an envelope had been placed in her mailbox with her name printed on it. The envelope contained a vibrator, a battery and a note.

Costa Mesa:

Location undisclosed: arrest, July 11. James Norwood Branch, 45, of Newport Beach, was arrested on suspicion of rape of a drugged victim and lewd and lascivious acts.

Police are investigating the cause of a loud explosion and several broken windows at a Costa Mesa apartment building late Monday. Police responded to the 2100 block of Elden Avenue at 9:30 p.m. to reports of a loud explosion, but did not see any evidence that an explosion had occurred. Tuesday morning, one resident found a piece of metal on the front porch and two other residents said their windows were broken, Costa Mesa police said. Arson investigators and the Orange County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad Tuesday morning found evidence that a destructive device was exploded outside the apartment building.

I am in. Um. Awe?

LONG STORY SHORT I THOUGHT I WAS GETTING A PARTY BALL FROM THE ABSINTHE CLEARINGHOUSE BUT IT WAS TOTALLY NOT WHAT I THOUGHT

springheel_jack linked to digby’s post on the “Purity Ball” phenomenon. This is put on by the Abstinence Clearinghouse people, and is a ritual in which formally-dressed daughters make a pledge of abstinence to their formally-dressed fathers. It’s basically them marrying their fathers until they find husbands.

The abstinoids sell a purity ball planner, and you can browse a photo gallery of the 2005 and 2006 balls.

This is the best Rural Pakistan ever! By the way I hear the abstinence chicks are totally easy for oral and anal, dude.

what

Lionel Hutz meets Sideshow Bob in Rapetown

cavallo Defense lawyer/supervillain/accused bailbond fraudster Joseph Cavallo is included in a lawsuit by the Jane Doe victim in the Haidl Gang-Rape Case. He’s responded as expected; with threats and hints of blackmail. Meanwhile, it’s clear that L.A. Times’ columnist Dana Parsons has completely and permanently disgraced himself with his coverage. I know that columnists are more “personal” in their approach than daily news journalists, but letting your seething misogyny ruin analysis of a gang rape case that highlights the bizarre world of Orange County wealthy teens and reveals corruption and collusion all the way to the top of County government is… lame.

But back to Cavallo. Clearly, if he’s included in this lawsuit, then that little bitch is going to find out what happens when you fuck with Joe Cavallo! Why, he’s going to tell the ENTIRE SCHOOL what a SLUT she is, and she’ll never get to have lunch with the popular girls again! Dude, she was raped with a Snapple bottle and she’s after blood. I don’t think you can do much worse to her now. Go ahead and release your terrible revenge upon the town of Springfield.

Attorney vows SoCal sex assault victim will regret suing him

ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:50 a.m. March 20, 2006

SANTA ANA – The attorney for one of three young men sentenced to prison for the videotaped sexual assault of an unconscious teenage girl vows that the victim and her family will regret naming him as a defendant in a $26 million civil lawsuit.

“They’re going to rue the day they brought me into this case,” said Joseph G. Cavallo, who represented Gregory Haidl, son of a former Orange County assistant sheriff.

Haidl, 20, and co-defendants Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, both 21, were sentenced earlier this month to six years in state prison stemming from the July 2002 incident.

The civil lawsuit filed in December by the victim, now 20, names as defendants her attackers, Cavallo and two defense investigators, John Warren and Shawn Smigel.

The victim, known only as Jane Doe, alleges that Cavallo and the investigators harassed and intimidated her by staking out her Rancho Cucamonga house, improperly obtaining her medical records and revealing her identity, among other things.

“We’re taking these people to task about what they did,” said her attorney, Sheldon Lodmer. “They crossed the line in terms of appropriate legal defense.”

Cavallo said he did nothing wrong. He denied Jane Doe’s claim that investigators screamed out her name at her new school and said they had to stake out her home to serve her parents with court papers.

He characterized the lawsuit as “revenge” and said that during the civil trial, his defense will include bringing up new information about Jane Doe’s past.

“By the time I get done with Jane Doe, the case won’t be worth $10. I know more about Jane Doe than her lawyer and her family,” Cavallo said.

Haidl, Spann and Nachreiner were convicted last year of 15 felony counts for sexually assaulting the then-16-year-old victim with lighted cigarettes, a pool cue, a Snapple bottle and a juice can as she lay nude and unconscious on a pool table at the home of Haidl’s father, who was not present.

During the criminal trial, Cavallo and other defense attorneys portrayed the victim as an emotionally troubled, promiscuous, would-be porn star who faked unconsciousness on the tape.

Lodmer said he anticipated Cavallo would attack his client.

“I’m sure he will use this opportunity, and she’s ready to stand up to it,” Lodmer said.