A 65-year-old man suspected of sexually assaulting a minor pleaded not guilty today to several felony charges. Â Â Oscar William Alvarez of Palm Desert was charged with one felony count each of engaging in oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child under 10, penetration by force, sodomy with a person under 18, and annoying
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A man who fatally shot another man in an unincorporated area of Riverside County near Indio was convicted today of murder. Ruben Corria Esquivel Jr., 34, of Coachella was also convicted of being a felon and narcotic addict in possession of a firearm, and jurors additionally found true a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm
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Law enforcement agencies across the County of Los Angeles have partnered to establish a task force to investigate, apprehend and prosecute suspects who have committed retail theft as businesses grapple with an uptick of smash-and-grabs in recent weeks. In a press conference Thursday morning, Mayor Karen Bass announced the Organized Retail Crimes Task Force that
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A 65-year-old Palm Desert man was arrested after being accused of sexually assaulting a minor. The man was arrested Wednesday at around 11 a.m. on the 39000 block of Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage. According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Dept., the report of the sexual assault first came in on April 3, 2023.
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Some local business owners are on high alert after an attempted smash-and-grab armed robbery in downtown Palm Springs Tuesday. The suspects are still at large. Organized retail theft like smash and grabs and flash mob robberies have sadly become much more common. This is not the first smash-and-grab attempt in the Coachella Valley within the past
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A Cathedral City man who killed another man in 2017 in Banning out of jealousy over a woman was convicted today of first-degree murder. Ronald Dean Ricks, 37, was convicted of the murder count, and jurors also found true a special-circumstance allegation of discharging a firearm from a vehicle and a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging
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Former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges including obstruction of justice, wire fraud and lying to federal investigators stemming in part from his actions during an aborted city effort to sell Angel Stadium, according to court documents filed today.  “While serving as Anaheim’s mayor, Mr. Sidhu took a series
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Felony charges were filed today against a 26-year-old Indio man suspected of shooting at several occupied vehicles in Rancho Mirage and injuring at least one person.  Adrian Fuentes was charged with three felony counts each of shooting at a dwelling and assault with a gun as well as one felony count each of being a
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Police are searching for suspects in a robbery attempt at a downtown Palm Springs jewelry store where an employee fired gunshots Tuesday afternoon. The robbery happened at the Gold Estate Jewelry on S Palm Canyon and Arenas Road at around 3:05 p.m., according to Lieutenant William Hutchinson of the Palm Springs Police Department. Hutchinson told
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Students from Palm Desert High School have produced an original video to combat human trafficking, the Riverside County Office of Education announced today. Production of the four-minute video was a partnership among the Riverside County Office of Education, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and the Coalition to End Human Trafficking Coachella
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A now-former Texas sheriff’s corporal was arrested in connection with a hit-and-run in Riverside that killed a man who was trying to put gas in his pickup on the shoulder of Interstate 215, the California Highway Patrol announced today. Â Â According to the CHP, Giovanni Ceja, 31, of San Antonio, Texas, was arrested without incident
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A Riverside County man has been charged in a federal indictment alleging he sold a 17-year-old boy fentanyl, which resulted in the teenager’s fatal overdose the following day, officials announced today. Kyle Thomas Overby, 22, of Temecula, was arrested Friday and arraigned that day on the nine-count indictment, which a federal grand jury returned on
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A 26-year-old Indio man was arrested in connection with a car-to-car shooting in Rancho Mirage last month. The man was taken into custody Monday at around 1 p.m. at the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station, according to county jail records. He was booked into the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio where he faces three counts
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Originally Published: 14 AUG 23 18:43 ET By Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — Cecily Aguilar, the woman charged in connection with the 2020 killing of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Aguilar pleaded guilty last year to one count of accessory after the fact, and three counts of
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A 16-year-old boy was killed in a shooting at the La Quinta Kohl’s parking lot early Monday morning. According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, they responded to a possible shooting in the parking lot of Kohl’s shopping Center, located on the 78-000 block of Highway 111 just before 2:00 am Monday. RSO officials said
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One of the suspects in this weekend’s shooting at Applebee’s Grill and Bar in Cathedral City has been officially charged. According to the District Attorney’s Office, they filed one count of homicide for Willie Bustamante, 33. Bustamante was arraigned in court on Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges of murder and a
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A Camp Pendleton Marine has been charged with sexual assault of a minor in connection with a 14-year-old Spring Valley girl found on base earlier this summer, it was announced today. The girl, who has not been identified because of her age, was reported missing by her grandmother on June 13, according to the San
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A bill seeking to have judges weigh a defendant’s race and potentially exempt him or her from some sentencing terms to “rectify racial bias” is a “straightforward measure” to correct past wrongs, according to one Riverside County lawmaker, while another characterizes it as an affront to “blind” justice that threatens equal due process of law.
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A 27-year-old woman was arrested early today on suspicion of almost hitting a group of pedestrians before colliding into a “Don’t Drink and Drive” signboard during a DUI checkpoint, but was later released on bond. The woman, a Texas resident, was arrested shortly after midnight Friday at the intersection of East Tahquitz Canyon Way and
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Authorities today identified a man who was killed in a hit-and-run collision in Palm Desert and found dead on a roadway. He was identified by the Riverside County coroner’s office as 48-year-old Francisco Rojas of Palm Desert. Deputies from the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station responded at 10:16 p.m. Wednesday to a report of a vehicle-versus-pedestrian
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