So to quote Michael Jackson, THIS IS IT. Prosecutors David Walgren and Debra Brazil are ready to go with opening statements in case number SA 073164, the People v. Conrad Murray. Everyone is gearing up for the main event. Pundits and legal blah-blah-blah-ers are predicting who is going to be...

By Robin Sax and Carmela Kelly

Continued from yesterday (read Part 1)

Can you imagine the out of control, desperate, illegal, reckless and dangerous actions people may be willing to take just for a tabloid photo? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new assembly bill into law, going into...

By Robin Sax and Carmela Kelly

The paparazzi have officially gone overboard. They are overzealous, over the top and will go to any lengths for a photo, story, blurb, shot. Yes, our society is obsessed with celebrity gossip and pop-culture; but there is a limit. Endangering the celebrities themselves or...

By Robin Sax and Darrell Goodwin

The police are convinced that the shooting of Ronni Chasen was not a professional hit and 43-year-old Harold Martin Smith acted on his own with the motive being a robbery, albeit a botched robbery. While yesterday's press conferences was intended to solidify one thing...

The day after his third birthday celebration, with over 100 friends and family members, little Grayson Vaughn was ripped away from his family by court order. Grayson was delivered to the custody of his biological father -- a virtual stranger to him. The event was horrific for Grayson. The unnecessary trauma...

by Vicki Polin

Over the last ten years there's been so much emphasis and media attention on cases of clergy sexual abuse - with the perpetrators being priests, pastors, monks and rabbis - that we seem to be forgetting that forty-six percent of cases of child sexual abuse...

What happened to the best interest of the child?  Why do some states care about the best interest of children and others do not?  The best interest of children, while a default standard in family law cases (i.e. divorce), seems not to matter to some states when it comes to...

Legendary homicide detective Lou Smit, age 75, passed away last week in Colorado after a battle with cancer. Over the span of his career, beginning in 1966, Smit investigated hundreds of homicides. He was a modest, methodical and ethical detective. Nine out of every ten cases he investigated...

For over a week I have been agonizing if I should publicly write about a movie premier I recently attended: Middle Men. You can imagine my trepidation writing about a movie which appears to be Studio 54 meets Boogie Nights and is about the creation of porn on the Internet....

What can we learn from the recent media blitz on Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson? You may expect me to come up with some hidden message or special lesson here -- but sometimes the obvious is the hardest to digest. The lessons from LiLo and Mel:...

The battle for baby Vanessa made headlines last week when a local KNBC Los Angeles journalist, Tara Wallis Finestone, got wind of the heartbreaking tug-of-war between the adoptive mother Stacey Doss and birth father Benjamin Mills, Jr. Emotions are running high as a looming July 16...

Ever pass by a building or landmark, wonder what it is, and wish you could just find out on the spot? Now you can! With the click of your camera phone combined with the launch of "Goggles" - a new image recognition technology where instantly you can receive...

These are chilling and memorable words spoken by the actress Mo'Nique, 42, as part of...

It's that time again -- the very end of the year. In addition to looking to the future (charting goals and resolutions), this is a chance for us to reflect upon 2009 and learn. Blogs, TV shows, newspapers and magazines are looking at the year: the good and the bad,...

It is the Thomas Beltran case all over again, two years later and in Redondo Beach. Many of you may remember what happened in the case of Thomas Beltran - the 30-year veteran teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica who sexually assaulted several of his female junior high...

Are you kidding me? Has the "Summer of Missed Opportunities" extended to the Fall of 2009, as well? It sure looks that way!

The summer of 2009 was marked by cases where there were clear "missed opportunities," a term used to define cases where law enforcement, prosecutors, parole, the judicial...

As the saying goes, "Justice delayed is justice denied." It has been over seven years since Elizabeth Smart was taken from her home and some six years, seven months since Brian David Mitchell was charged with her kidnapping and rape. When is justice coming for Elizabeth Smart and her family?...

Some say that Nancy Garrido, 54, is the "real monster" in the 1991 abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard. There is no doubt that her husband, Phillip Garrido, 58, is a horrific figure. But it's the predator's partner who sends shivers down my spine.

I don't know...

ATM is practically synonymous with "stick up." Everyone knows that being at an ATM is like practically screaming, "I have cash, rob me!" ATMs are the perfect crime site: they are open 24 hours a day and the people going there are going to get money. Yup -- a perfect...

Opponents of sex offender registration lists argue that the lists are more punitive than they are helpful. These opponents are using the Philip Garrido case as the smoking gun to show how ineffective sexual registration laws and registries are.

After taking one look at the Garrido case, there is...