Tracking significant cases in Los Angeles County Superior Court
By Los Angeles County Politics (LACP)
La Cañada Flintridge’s trusted city hall insider accused of stealing nearly $200,000
A preliminary hearing setting was held Friday in the fraud case against a former La Cañada Flintridge city official who prosecutors say spent six years stealing from insurance companies using the city’s own letterhead while collecting a salary of $184,287 a year.
Carl F. Alameda, 45, of Ojai, was charged in May 2025 with 11 felony counts of embezzlement and 23 counts of insurance fraud in connection with a scheme he allegedly ran between 2016 and 2022 while serving as the city’s assistant city manager.
According to NBC Los Angeles, Alameda sent demand letters to insurance companies using city letterhead requesting reimbursement for accidents or property damage caused by insured drivers in La Cañada Flintridge. He then falsified invoices and directed payments to a personal address, depositing checks totaling $193,086 into his own bank account.
According to the La Cañada Outlook, the scheme was uncovered not by the city itself but by the LA County Sheriff’s Department, which launched an investigation after suspicious checks arrived at the LA County Public Works Office.
The Outlook reported that the city first learned of the accusations from the Sheriff’s Department and that Alameda was placed on leave before leaving city employment in early 2023. After his departure, the city tightened its internal financial controls. Alameda had subsequently been hired by the City of Ojai, which stated it was unaware of any pending investigations at the time of his hiring.
LAist reported that Alameda pleaded not guilty and faces up to 33 years in state prison if convicted.
Deputy District Attorney Bjorn Dodd of the Public Integrity Division is prosecuting.
Nonprofit CEO accused of feeding homeless residents ramen while buying $7M Westwood home
A preliminary hearing setting moved forward Monday in the case of a Hyde Park nonprofit executive accused of stealing more than $5 million in homeless services funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) while feeding the vulnerable residents in his care instant ramen noodles, canned beans, and breakfast bars instead of the three nutritious meals a day he was contractually obligated to provide.
Alexander Soofer, 42, is charged with 11 felony counts of conflict of interest, two felony counts of offering false evidence, and five felony counts of forgery in connection with millions of dollars in contracts between LAHSA and his nonprofit, Abundant Blessings.
According to the LA County District Attorney’s Office, Soofer contracted with LAHSA to provide housing and supportive services for more than 600 homeless program participants at multiple sites across South Los Angeles between 2018 and 2025, receiving more than $23 million in total homeless housing funding.
According to KTLA, federal prosecutors allege Soofer pocketed at least $10 million — using $7 million toward a Westwood home, $125,000 for a Range Rover, $475,000 for a vacation property in Greece, private jet travel, and stays at luxury resorts from Hawaii to Florida, including The White Lotus’s Four Seasons.
ABC News reported that Soofer’s nonprofit board of directors was fake — some purported members did not exist and others had never heard of Abundant Blessings or Soofer. LAHSA investigators conducting site visits found residents were being served only ramen noodles, canned beans, and breakfast bars, the Courthouse News Service reported.
Soofer faces parallel state and federal charges. In the state case, he faces up to 17 years and six months in prison. In the federal case, he faces up to 20 years.
Deputy District Attorney Casey Higgins of the Public Integrity Division is prosecuting the state case.
Security guard accused of killing the Spartan College dean he was hired to protect
A motions hearing was held Tuesday in the case of a Monterey Park man charged with fatally shooting the dean of the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Inglewood — the very institution he had been hired to protect as a campus security guard.
Jesse Figueroa, 40, is charged with one felony count of murder, one count of attempted murder, one count of possession of a firearm with prior violent convictions, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to ABC7, on May 2, 2025, at approximately 3:45 p.m., Figueroa shot and killed the college’s dean inside her office on the campus at 8911 Aviation Boulevard and injured a second employee — a receptionist — before fleeing the scene in a vehicle. He was arrested a few hours later in Koreatown after his vehicle was spotted by law enforcement. A 9mm shell casing was recovered at the scene and a gun was found in his vehicle.
ABC7 identified the dean as Cameisha Clark, who had been recently promoted to the position. According to NBC Los Angeles, Clark had previously worked at Clark Atlanta University in her hometown of Atlanta.
The television outlet also reported that Clark’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spartan College, alleging the institution was negligent in hiring Figueroa, a six-time felon whose security guard license had expired nearly 14 years before he was hired.
Figueroa faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison if convicted.
Deputy District Attorney Tim Henderson of the Inglewood Area Office is prosecuting.
Siblings living out of a Prius accused of killing 66-year-old businessman in Cerritos
A preliminary hearing resumed Monday in the case of a brother and sister charged with fatally shooting a 66-year-old businessman on a Cerritos bike path during what prosecutors describe as an attempted carjacking — a case cracked in part by a TikTok video that identified the suspects.
John Chong Moon, 54, and Cindy Kim, 58, both of La Palma, are each charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted second-degree robbery.
According to CBS Los Angeles, on February 25, 2025, at approximately 12:30 p.m., Cuauhtémoc Garcia was getting out of his car to take his routine afternoon walk along the Coyote Creek Bike Path near Don Knabe Community Regional Park in Cerritos when the two suspects allegedly approached him and attempted to steal his car. When Garcia refused to hand over his keys, the siblings opened fire and killed him before fleeing the scene.
According to Fox 11, Moon and Kim were living out of a silver Toyota Prius at the time of the shooting. The Long Beach Post reported that investigators identified the suspects through a TikTok video showing the siblings.
On March 10, Fullerton police located the Prius and initiated a pursuit that ended with a PIT maneuver in Anaheim, where both were taken into custody. Garcia was a successful businessman, father of two, and married to his wife for nearly three decades. His family told Fox 11 that he walked ten miles every day, joking that he was their own Forrest Gump.
Bail was set at $3 million for Moon and $2 million for Kim.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Kleffman of the Norwalk Branch Office is prosecuting.
San Marino husband allegedly beat his doctor wife to death
Pretrial proceedings continued Wednesday for a San Marino man charged with beating his wife — a respected endocrinologist — to death on New Year’s Day 2025 and then setting fire to their home to conceal the crime, in a case that has shocked one of LA County’s wealthiest and most serene communities.
Yoon “Kevin” Lai, 62, is charged with one count each of murder and arson of an inhabited structure. Two special circumstance allegations have since been added — murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait — which could expose him to a potential death penalty or life without the possibility of parole. He is held without bail.
According to KTLA, firefighters responding to a blaze on January 6, 2025, at the couple’s home on the 2000 block of Lorain Road in San Marino found the body of Dr. Irene Gaw-Lai, 56, in a back room of the fire-damaged residence. She had suffered traumatic injuries to her upper body.
According to the Outlook Valley Sun, investigators found a bloody frying pan and a metal baseball bat at the scene. Arson investigators concluded the fire was intentionally set and confined to the single room where Gaw-Lai’s body was found. The home’s security cameras had been manually disabled.
MyNewsLA reported that prosecutors alleged Lai beat his wife to death then set the house on fire to cover it up, with cellular site data and surveillance video placing him at the home shortly before the blaze. The Outlook Valley Sun reported that Gaw-Lai had filed for divorce from Lai in August 2024 — the second time she had attempted to do so, the first having been in 2003 just months after the couple married before they reconciled and had twin teenage sons.
Prosecutors called it a financially motivated murder. The defense has argued the fire was likely electrical in origin.
Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott of the Major Crimes Division is prosecuting.
Also on the docket
Sam Shahbazi, 38, of Citrus Heights appeared for a pretrial hearing Thursday in his case alleging he stole the identities of 22 Los Angeles County residents between March 2021 and October 2023, using fraudulent Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to collect approximately $146,474 in public assistance benefits — withdrawing cash at Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and US Bank locations throughout California and using the stolen EBT cards to make purchases at Costco and Whole Foods. He faces 22 felony counts each of grand theft and unauthorized use of personal identifying information and a maximum of 32 years and eight months in state prison if convicted. Deputy District Attorney Ursula Aguiar of the Public Assistance Fraud Division is prosecuting.
Nikolas Hart, the North Hollywood man charged last February with stomping on his girlfriend’s two-month-old rabbit Momo in a fit of rage, throwing the animal from their second-story apartment window in a trash bag, and killing it — a case first reported by LACP in April — appeared for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Van Nuys Superior Court as his case continues to move through the system. Hart faces up to eight years in state prison if convicted.
