Driver charged in fatal Chatsworth Metro bus crash arraigned
Bailee Lynn Rios was arraigned this week on murder and DUI charges in connection with the Sept. 15 crash that killed two people when her SUV struck a Metro Line 166 bus in Chatsworth. Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath addressed the tragedy directly in the days after the crash.
The crash indirectly led to a second tragedy that evening. About two hours after the bus collision and roughly a quarter-mile away, a news helicopter covering the scene for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 went down and burst into flames, killing pilot George Marciniw, reporter Eliana Moreno, and one person on the ground. A fourth person was hospitalized. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the helicopter crash separately.
Interestingly, the helicopter involved in the fatal crash was owned by Pacoma-based firm Angel City and operated out of the controversial Whiteman Airport, which has already had two small plane crashes this year.
Rios’s case will now move through pretrial proceedings in San Fernando Superior Court. No additional details on her defense have been made public.
2009 execution-style murder of RPV attorney heads toward hearing, though murder counts have been dropped
Richard Wall Sr., a former Whittier businessman, was arraigned this week in connection with the 2009 killing of attorney Jeffrey Tidus, who was shot outside his Rolling Hills Estates home.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Wall arranged the killing after Tidus won a $1.7 million settlement in 2007 against a close friend of Wall’s. Wall was also charged in the 2011 murder of Juan Mendez, a former employee of his company, Welded Fixtures, who had separately sued Wall and won a $300,000 judgment for unpaid overtime.
“When Richard Wall Sr. lost lawsuits, instead of appealing the verdicts, he allegedly decided to kill those who opposed him in court,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said when the charges were announced in June, according to the DA’s office.
Wall’s murder counts were dismissed earlier this month after a co-defendant’s extradition fell through, according to Patch. He remains charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and, per Patch, has been ordered held without bail pending this week’s arraignment.
The case had gone unsolved for more than 15 years before charges were filed, according to Random Lengths News, which reported that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide detectives identified Wall as a person of interest only after releasing a composite sketch of a second suspect in 2026.
Jury reaches deliberations in East Hollywood nightclub shooting
Efrain Villalobos, 29, of Lawndale, saw his case move from closing arguments into jury deliberations this week.
Villalobos is charged with assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon after allegedly shooting Fernando Ramirez in the back following a chaotic scene outside the Vermont Hollywood nightclub in July 2025, according to ABC7.
Ramirez had been kicked out of the nightclub for being disruptive before he drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians near Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, injuring 37 people, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bystanders pulled Ramirez from his vehicle and began beating him before Villalobos allegedly approached and shot him, per the Times. Ramirez is charged separately with 37 counts of attempted murder and could face life in prison if convicted, according to NBC4.
A nightclub security director testified earlier this year that he heard Villalobos say, after an earlier altercation, to “watch what was going to happen” shortly before the crash occurred, according to Patch.
A verdict in Villalobos’s case could come as soon as this week.
Ex-assemblymember, former city manager face hearing in decades-old City of Industry corruption case
William Barkett, Anthony Bouza, Paul Jule Philips and former state Sen. and Assemblymember Frank Hill are moving toward a preliminary hearing setting in a corruption case that has been working through the courts since 2021.
Prosecutors allege the four men diverted roughly $20 million in public funds meant for a proposed City of Industry solar farm project between 2016 and 2018, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Barkett, who controlled the account the funds were routed through, is accused of personally spending about $8.3 million and falsifying invoices to conceal the theft, according to the DA’s office.
Bouza and Hill, both private contractors retained by the city, are accused of having undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in contracts they helped draft, according to KTLA.
Hill, once a rising figure in California Republican politics who served in both the Assembly and state Senate, previously served nearly four years in federal prison after being convicted in a 1994 FBI corruption sting at the state Capitol, according to the Davis Vanguard.
Philips’s attorney has maintained his client should not have been charged, according to the Pasadena Star-News. All four defendants pleaded not guilty in 2022, according to HeySoCal.
Seven CHP officers face hearing in death of Edward Bronstein
California Highway Patrol officers including Sgt. Michael Little and officers Dionisio Fiorella, Dustin Osmanson, Darren Parsons, Diego Romero, Justin Silva and Marciel Terry are moving toward a preliminary hearing in the 2020 in-custody death of Edward Bronstein.
All seven are charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault under the color of authority, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Bronstein, 38, was pulled over on the 5 Freeway in Burbank on suspicion of driving under the influence in March 2020, CNN reported.
After he initially refused a court-ordered blood draw, officers restrained him on the ground, where he repeatedly screamed “I can’t breathe” before becoming unresponsive, according to CNN. The county coroner ruled his death was caused by acute methamphetamine intoxication during restraint by law enforcement, according to LAist.
Then-District Attorney George Gascón, who filed the charges in 2023, said the officers “had a legal duty to Mr. Bronstein” and that “their failure was criminally negligent, causing his death,” according to Fox 11.
The case predates George Floyd’s killing by roughly two months and drew renewed national attention when body camera footage was released as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit.
California agreed to pay Bronstein’s family $24 million in 2023, one of the largest civil rights settlements in state history, according to CBS News.
Also on the docket:
A jury trial continues for Nicole Linton, charged with six counts of murder in the August 2023 Windsor Hills crash that killed six people, including a pregnant woman, when her Mercedes struck multiple vehicles at high speed.
A separate jury trial also continues for Carlos Medina, charged with murdering Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell in his Hacienda Heights home in February 2023. Medina’s case was suspended for more than a year after questions were raised about his mental competency to stand trial, according to Angelus News, before proceedings resumed.
In a lighter case, Luis Tanahara, a former MGA Entertainment employee, is moving toward a preliminary hearing setting on charges that he stole more than $1 million in diecast collectibles from the toy company’s Chatsworth factory.
