The Los Angeles Police Department is stepping up patrols in a Mid-Wilshire neighborhood where a popular gang intervention worker was fatally shot after confronting a tagger on West Pico Boulevard.

Ronald Lamonte was leaving a bar in his old neighborhood Sunday night with his girlfriend when he noticed a tagger defacing a wall on Pico. Detectives said he confronted the tagger, who fatally shot him as his girlfriend and others looked on.

LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said officials were beefing up patrols in the area to help ensure the safety of the community and to prevent retaliatory violence.

“From what we can tell it looks like he was trying to do the right thing and senselessly shot because of it," Smith said.

-- Andrew Blankstein

Photo: A memorial lies in the 5000 block of West Pico Boulevard, where Ronald Lamonte Barron was killed Sunday night after arguing with a tagger outside a bar. Surveillance tape captured the slaying. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Showers and thunderstorms are expected to drop between 1/3 of an inch to 2 inches of rain starting Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night, said forecasters with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Though the storm will be patchy and "showery," forecasters said it could dump more than a half-inch of rain an hour in some areas.

Los Angeles County authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders Monday night for more than 500 residences in mudslide-prone areas in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton. Sheriff's deputies are ordering residents to leave their homes by 10 a.m. Tuesday

A complete list of all addresses to be evacuated can be found on the Web page of the county Department of Public Works.

Evacuation centers will be set up at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 2411 Montrose Ave., Montrose, and the Acton Community Center at 3748 Nickels Ave. in Acton, authorities said.

Crews are working to clear debris basins that filled up during the storm Saturday, when mud flows damaged more than 40 homes.

Some residents in La Cañada Flintridge have questioned whether the county's emergency notification system worked properly. 

--Tony Barboza and Robert J. Lopez

The 35-page order by U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess turned away a challenge by union officials who went to court to block a provision requiring officers joining anti-gang and narcotics units that frequently seize cash or contraband to disclose to department officials an array of personal financial information every two years.

The roughly 600 officers already assigned to the units were granted a two-year grace period in February 2009 before having to complete the records, although that could be delayed because of legal challenges.

In an e-mail sent to members, Los Angeles Police Protective League President Paul M. Weber called the disclosure provisions an “unnecessary and dangerous invasion into the personal finances of our members and their families” and held out the possibility of further legal challenges to the provisions. 

-- Andrew Blankstein

The leaders of Public Trust for Lands intend to disclose their acquisition effort publicly for the first time Thursday morning in Hollywood. They say they have raised about half of the asking price for the 138-acre mountaintop parcel from a Chicago investment group.

They have an April 14 deadline to seal the deal. The investors purchased the mountain site west of the Hollywood sign from the estate of Howard Hughes in 2002 for about $1.7 million.

The aircraft and filmmaker tycoon bought the mountaintop in the 1930s and planned to build a love nest there for actress Ginger Rogers.

Investors had hoped to sell the land for as much as $40 million for home sites. Their plans prompted Hollywood-area City Councilman Tom LaBonge to ask for the San Francisco-based land trust to help preserve the mountaintop.

But police took the edge off the trust's planned surprised by announcing that the Hollywood sign would be covered Thursday as part of “an international campaign” and would remain draped “until further notice.”

The e-mailed “community alert notification” to Hollywood residents urged that they “not be alarmed” because the 450-foot-long landmark “will remain in place and there will be no changes done to the sign.” Police said the notification was issued “so we do not receive phone calls from worried citizens.”

A spokesman for the San Francisco trust, Tim Ahern, said Monday afternoon his group was still awaiting permission to cover the sign from Los Angeles officials and the Hollywood Sign Trust, which maintains the sign. “The police department jumped the gun,” he said. Monday night, Ahern released details of the proposed acquisition.

-- Bob Pool in Hollywood

Photo: Reed Saxon / Associated Press

JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) system captured the accompanying composite image of Port au Prince and the surrounding area on Jan. 27. The radar unit was dispatched aboard a modified NASA Gulfstream III aircraft.

In the image, one section of the large fault responsible for the 7.0 earthquake that struck southern Haiti on Jan. 12 is clearly visible. The so-called Enriqullo-Plantain Garden fault extends from the western tip of Haiti into the neighboring Dominican Republic.

The image will be compared with later images to measure differences  on the Earth’s surface since the quake. The technique, known as interferometry, allows scientists to study pressures building up and being released along a fault line.

Satellite radar readings have shown that the earthquake ruptured a segment of the fault extending westward about 25 miles from the epicenter. The epicenter was situated about 15 miles west-southwest of Port au Prince.

Scientists hope to measure subtle changes in the earth following a quake. Eventually, experts hope such technology, employed with other techniques, can be useful in understanding the phenomena that trigger earthquakes and volcanoes.

“We’re hoping to get some idea of how the earth relaxes, or releases stress, after an earthquake,” said Dr. Scott Hensley, principal investigator for the aeral radar project. “This is just one tool to improve out understanding of the mechanisms in earthquakes and volcanoes.”

-- Patrick J. McDonnell

This year's budget set aside $21.4 million for salaries in the 15 council offices and allocated $7.9 million for salaries in the mayor's office, according to a recent budget memo from the city's top financial analyst.

In our story today, we detail some of the council-controlled accounts that members can use for their special projects. One is their "street furniture" fund, which captures revenue generated by ads on city bus shelters. We note that:

Since November, amid dire warnings from their financial analysts about plummeting tax revenue, nine council members requested transfers of at least $1.6 million from their street furniture accounts to buttress the money available to pay their aides.

Just last week, four council members asked for transfers into their office's salary accounts: Richard Alarcon ($389,000), Tony Cardenas  ($278,000), Janice Hahn($100,000) and Bernard C. Parks ($95,000). Their motions said the funds were needed to assist on transit-related projects. These have yet to come up for debate.

-- Maeve Reston at Los Angeles City Hall
twitter.com/LATimesReston

Related:

Villaraigosa sets sights on City Council's pet projects funds

Credit rating agencies voice concern about L.A.'s budget crisis

Risks are seen in L.A.'s plan to privatize parking structures

The auditorium was gutted in a May 2007 arson fire. A 17-year-old Garfield student was convicted of setting the blaze, sentenced to juvenile camp and ordered to pay restitution. The fire caused an estimated $30 million in damage to the East Los Angeles landmark.

Since then, the Los Angeles Unified School District has been mired in a dispute with insurers over the scope of reconstruction. The two sides have engaged in mediation without progress, which has frustrated school administrators, students and community members.

Now the district is proposing to separate the insurance claim and use a financing mechanism called Certificates of Participation, which would eventually be repaid with future insurance payments, private funds and other sources. The district would use money from the general fund for the project — estimated to cost $54 million — until the other funding sources become available.

The plan calls not only for rebuilding the auditorium using design features that mimic the 1925 structure’s original architectural details, but razing and rebuilding the attached administration building to meet current state codes.

If Tuesday’s proposal gets the go-ahead, the district will return by June with a final design plan and an environmental study for the board’s approval, district officials said.

-- Carla Rivera

Evacuation centers will be set up at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 2411 Montrose Ave., Montrose, and the Acton Community Center at 3748 Nickels Ave. in Action, authorities said.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for areas of Southern California. The agency has said there is a threat of flash flooding in areas as rain, sometimes heavy, starts Tuesday and continues through Tuesday night.

-- Robert J. Lopez

How mudslides form after a fire

In a memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Fitch Ratings told one of his aides they were monitoring a number of factors that could lead them to downgrade the city’s credit rating. They included the erosion of the city’s reserves, the city’s structural deficit and the failure of city officials to reduce the size of the city’s workforce.

Later Monday afternoon, Moody’s Investors Service also told city budget analysts they were concerned that the council had not adopted certain midyear budget adjustments to deal with a $212-million shortfall. Next year, the city’s deficit is expected to rise to $484 million.

Last November, Fitch downgraded the city’s credit rating on $2.94 billion in debt — a move that made it more expensive for the city to borrow money.

Santana’s memo quoted a representative from Fitch stating Monday that there was “an amazing opportunity for the elected officials to show leadership and for a valid reason. According to the press, though, they can’t seem to step up and make decisions. So if it can’t be done now, then when?”

On Tuesday, the council plans to revisit the three-year budget plan outlined by Santana.
Villaraigosa, who last week ordered the elimination of 1,000 jobs, is expected to make a guest appearance at the council meeting to lay out his plan to deal with the budget crisis. 

-- Maeve Reston at Los Angeles City Hall

twitter.com/LATimesReston

Los Angeles police Monday pulled the wraps off a surprise that an environmental group was planning for Thursday.

Authorities disclosed that the Hollywood sign will be covered Thursday as part of “an international campaign” and will remain draped “until further notice.”

The e-mailed “community alert notification” to Hollywood residents urged that they “not be alarmed” because the 450-foot-long landmark “will remain in place and there will be no changes done to the sign.” Police said the notification was issued “so we do not receive phone calls from worried citizens.”

The temporary alteration is being planned by the Trust for Public Land, which is scheduled to announce a land preservation initiative Thursday.

A spokesman for the San Francisco trust, Tim Ahern, said late Monday that his group was still awaiting permission to cover the sign from Los Angeles officials and the Hollywood Sign Trust, which maintains the sign. “The Police Department jumped the gun,” he said.

-- Bob Pool in Hollywood

Photo: L.A. Times file

Howard Astorga, 26, was convicted by a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury of one count each of first degree murder and shooting at an unoccupied motor vehicle, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

Jurors also found that Astorga carried out the crime to benefit the Diamond Street gang, according to authorities.

Roberto Lopez Jr. died after he was struck in the chest Jan. 13 last year by a bullet that police said was intended for rival gang members in a passing car. Roberto, who was with his sister and cousins, was walking to a park when he was shot in the 1200 block of Court Street, prosecutors said.

The crime sparked outrage in the community, where a 9-year-old girl had been killed two years earlier by gang crossfire as she stood in the kitchen of her home.

More than 500 people attended Roberto's funeral, where Cardinal Roger Mahony conducted a Mass in Spanish.

According to a Times database, 60 homicides have been reported within two miles of where Roberto died since January 2007.

Astorga has three previous felony convictions in Los Angeles County, for grand theft in 2006, possession of a controlled substance for sale in 2005 and unlawful taking of a vehicle in 2002, the district attorney's office said.

He will be sentenced March 8.

The numbers were printed on the outside of envelopes sent to elderly patients of the Adult Day Health Care program, many of whom are blind or have Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disabilities. The Department of Health Care Services sent the envelopes, which contained change-of-benefit notices,  Feb. 1.

Officials have since sent follow-up letters advising recipients to destroy the envelopes and are advising patients to contact credit agencies to put a freeze on new accounts.

“Why isn’t the state doing it for them?” asked Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Assn. for Adult Day services, who noted that the disclosure exposed the patients to identity theft. 

State employees mistakenly included the Social Security numbers in a list of patient addresses, said Karen Johnson, chief deputy director of the Department of Health Care Services.  The department sent the list to an outside contractor, who printed and mailed the envelopes.

-- Jack Dolan in Sacramento

File photo / David Fitzgerald / Los Angeles Times

Mark Lacter explores the local TV scene in the new issue of Los Angeles magazine, reporting on the ever-expanding number of newscasts. It's all about economics: News is cheaper to produce than purchasing the most popular syndicated fare.

Reports Lacter: "L.A. is being bombarded with news — it’s on virtually nonstop, starting each morning at 4 a.m. (KNBC, Channel 4) and running throughout the day and late into the night. The stretch from 5 to 7 a.m. is especially intense: Besides KCBS and KNBC, there is news on KTLA (Channel 5), KABC (Channel 7), and KTTV (Channel 11). All told, 32 hours of local news every day, and that doesn’t count non-English stations or the morning gabfests on channels 5 and 11. Expect additional slots to be filled in the coming months."

He also says ratings for news are on the decline. Read more here.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: KTLA Morning News

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney in Santa Ana imposed a 188-month prison term on Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 73, a naturalized U.S. citizen who resides in Orange.

At Monday’s sentencing, Carney declared that he could not “put a price tag” on national security and sought to send a signal to China to “stop sending your spies here,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Chung, who worked at Boeing’s Huntington Beach plant, denied being a spy and said he was gathering documents for a book, not for espionage. His attorneys argued that much of the material was already available on the public record.

At his sentencing, Chung professed his love for the United States, even as prosecutors depicted him as a spy who would compromise U.S. national security.

“Giving China advanced rocket technology is not in the United States’ national interest,” said Asst. U.S. Atty. Greg Staples. “There is a voracious appetite for U.S. technology in China.”

Whether loyalty to his homeland or financial gain was Chung’s motive remained unclear. The case is one of a number of prosecutions that have shed light on alleged Chinese efforts to gain access to U.S. technology and research through espionage.

Chung was the first suspect tried with attempting to help a foreign nation under the terms of the 1996 Economic Espionage Act, passed to help prevent pilfering of sensitive economic information.

When Chung was convicted last year, Carney said the case revealed Chung’s “secret life” as a “spy” for China. The case against him arose from an investigation into another engineer, Chi Mak, who worked in the United States and obtained sensitive military information for China.

Mak and several relatives were convicted of providing defense information to China, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Carney sentenced Mak to more than 24 years in prison in 2008. Chung was convicted last year on charges of economic espionage and acting as an agent for more than three decades while employed by Rockwell International and Boeing Co.

Federal authorities said Chung stole restricted technology and trade secrets, including data related to the space shuttle and the Delta IV rocket, designed to launch military payloads into orbit.

“This case demonstrates our resolve to protect the secrets that help protect the United States, as well as the important technology advancements developed by scientists working for companies that provide crucial support to our national security programs,” acting U.S. Atty. George S. Cardona said Monday in a statement.

Chung held a “secret” security clearance when he worked at Rockwell and Boeing on the space shuttle program, authorities said. He retired in 2002 but the next year returned to Boeing as a contractor, a position he held until September 2006, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Between 1985 and 2003, Chung made multiple trips to China to deliver lectures on technology involving the space shuttle and other programs, the government said. During those trips, Chung met with Chinese government officials, including military agents, U.S. authorities said.

-- Patrick J. McDonnell

Colorado 9th District Court Judge James B. Boyd allowed Sheen to return to Los Angeles with his wife, Brooke Mueller, and modified a protective order that had prohibited Sheen and Mueller from seeing each other.

Sheen is scheduled to return to court March 15. He and Mueller embraced after the hearing in Aspen and left the courthouse in separate vehicles.

The “Two and a Half Men” star was arrested Dec. 25 in Aspen after Mueller called police, saying she feared for her life. Sheen and Mueller had been arguing early that morning when she said she wanted a divorce, according to an affidavit.

Mueller, 32, told police that Sheen, 44, had pinned her to the bed, gripped her neck with one hand and held a knife to her throat with the other as he straddled her.

After Sheen was arrested, Boyd had ordered Sheen not to come into contact with his wife or possess or consume alcohol or other controlled substances. He was released that night from Pitkin County Jail on $8,500 bail.

Sheen requested and was allowed to visit Mueller in a Sherman Oaks hospital in late January after she suffered complications from oral surgery.

Sheen and Mueller married in May 2008, and Mueller gave birth to twin boys in March 2009.

Sheen previously pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of battery with serious bodily injury after a 1996 incident in which he was accused of knocking then-girlfriend Brittany Ashland to the ground.

The company that makes Hanes underwear, Hanesbrands, said in January that it had dropped Sheen from its advertising campaign because of the domestic violence-related charges against the actor.

Last Friday, burglars stole Sheen’s Mercedes-Benz after he left his garage door open with the keys in the car, which ended up crashed and abandoned in a ravine off Mulholland Drive.

Police have yet to find the burglars, who also stole items from other homes in Sheen’s gated community in Sherman Oaks.

-- Amina Khan

[Correction: An earlier version of this headline incorrectly said that Sheen had been charged with three felony counts. He was actually charged with one felony count and two misdemeanor counts.]

Photo: Charlie Sheen, right, arrives at the Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen, Colo. Credit: David Zalubowski / Associated Press

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Keith L. Schwartz set bail for Conrad Murray at $75,000 – three times the standard for involuntary manslaughter cases. The judge also forbade Murray from prescribing heavy sedatives, including propofol, to his patients.

“I don’t want you sedating people,” the judge told Murray.

[Updated at 3:07 p.m.: Murray, dressed in a light gray suit, remained silent throughout the hearing, other than to answer "yes" in a soft voice several times when the judge asked if he understood the terms of his bail and the rights he waived. At the conclusion of the hearing, Murray was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies and escorted from the courtroom.]

Earlier Monday, prosecutors charged Murray with involuntary manslaughter in connection with administering a combination of surgical anesthetic and sedatives blamed in the music legend’s death last summer.

In the last hours of his life, Jackson was given a powerful anesthetic -- propofol --  at a level equivalent to what would be used in “major surgery” and in a manner that did not live up to medical standards, according to the singer’s autopsy report released by the L.A County coroner’s office today. 

The complaint filed by the county district attorney’s office alleges that Murray “did unlawfully and without malice kill Michael Joseph Jackson, a human being, in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony; and in the commission of a lawful act which might have produced death, in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection.”

Jackson’s parents, Kathryn and Joe, as well as some of his brothers arrived at the courthouse shortly after the charge was filed.

In a news release, the district attorney’s office said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Walgren, a prosecutor in the major crimes division, would try the case. Walgren is also handling the attempt to extradite movie director Roman Polanski to face sentencing in a 3-decade-old child-sex case.

The release credited the LAPD and the county coroner’s office for building the case against Murray. "Both agencies worked diligently and exhaustively to collect the evidence leading to the filing of the case,” the statement said.

Murray walked into the courthouse at 12:55 p.m. to shouts of “murderer” from a handful of Jackson fans whose presence was dwarfed by an international contingent of media that began camping out at the courthouse last week.

Brian Oxman, Joe Jackson’s attorney, said some family members were disappointed that the physician was charged only with involuntary manslaughter.

The criminal case comes after a seven-month investigation that stretched from the master bedroom of Jackson’s rented Holmby Hills mansion to the heart clinic that Murray ran in a poor neighborhood of Houston. The focus, however, rarely left Murray.

Within weeks of Jackson’s death, detectives described the doctor as a manslaughter suspect in court papers that said he admitted leaving the singer alone and under the influence of propofol -- used to render surgical patients unconscious -- in a bedroom of the sprawling home.

The coroner’s office ruled Jackson’s death a homicide and said the cause was “acute propofol intoxication” in conjunction with the effect of other sedatives Murray acknowledged providing.

Despite the almost immediate focus on Murray -- authorities first questioned him in the hospital where doctors were working in vain to revive Jackson -- the multiagency probe that included federal and local investigators progressed slowly, and the doctor was not formally accused of wrongdoing until the district attorney’s office filed its complaint.

Involuntary manslaughter is the least serious homicide charge available to prosecutors, its maximum punishment of four years in prison far less than the life sentence for murder or the 11 years for voluntary manslaughter. The charge, which applies to an unlawful killing committed without malice or intent to kill, turns on Murray’s possible negligence in allegedly giving Jackson propofol for an unapproved purpose -- the treatment of insomnia -- and outside of the normal operating-room setting.

The drug, one of the most widely used general anesthetics in the nation, is so dangerous that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says only those trained in anesthesia should administer it.

Murray told police that he had been giving Jackson nightly intravenous doses of propofol for six weeks, about the time he began working for the performer, according to police affidavits filed in court. Murray, who was in debt and behind on child support payments, earned $150,000 a month treating Jackson and closed practices he operated in Las Vegas, where he lived, and Houston to join the performer in Los Angeles for rehearsals.

According to the affidavits, Jackson told the physician that for years other doctors had treated his chronic insomnia with doses of propofol, a white liquid the singer called “milk.”

Murray eventually became concerned that the singer was addicted and tried to wean him off the anesthetic, according to the affidavits. The day Jackson died, Murray had tried to get the performer to sleep using Valium and, later, two other sedatives, according to the affidavits. But Jackson remained awake for 10 hours, demanding propofol.

According to the affidavits, Murray said he relented and sat next to Jackson’s bed as the propofol took effect. He told police he left for two minutes to use the restroom, and cellphone records indicate he also talked on the phone for 45 minutes, according to the affidavits. When he returned, Jackson was not breathing.

Through his attorney, Murray has maintained his innocence and said he did nothing that should have caused Jackson’s death. In his only public comment -- a one-minute video released in August through his lawyer -- a somber-looking Murray expressed confidence that he would be exonerated.

“I told the truth, and I have faith the truth will prevail,” he said.

-- Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim in Los Angeles; Jack Leonard and Richard Winton at the Airport Courthouse

Photos: Media focused on Dr. Conrad Murray arraignment

Photo: Dr. Conrad Murray, second from right, is arraigned in the Los Angeles County Superior Court Airport Courthouse on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson.  Murray was remanded into custody and held on $75,000-dollar bail. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

The locations offer a single application for many of the federal, state, county and city assistance programs and are located in neighborhoods hardest hit by the recession.

Of the 21 FamilySource Centers in L.A., 16 are being run by community organizations and five by the city.

The program is being funded through an $18-million federal community development grant and federal stimulus money. As of December, Los Angeles had an unemployment rate of 13.2%, a slight dip from the month before but still higher than rates in the county, which is at 12%, and statewide at 12.1%.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

In the last hours of his life, Michael Jackson was given a powerful anesthetic at a level equivalent to what would be used in a “major surgery” and in a manner that did not live up to medical standards, according to the autopsy report on the pop icon released Monday by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

“The standard of care for administering propofol was not met,” coroners’ examiners wrote in the report. “Recommended equipment for patient monitoring, precision dosing, and resuscitation was not present.”

The report said Jackson died of “acute propofol intoxication” administered by another. Coroner’s officials described a scene around Jackson's bedside that showed a host of problems in using propofol at such a high level.

An oxygen tank was empty and equipment disconnected, and there were no monitors or controlled infusion pump for intravenous administration, they wrote.

They also found that an anesthesiologist would have noted the other sedative drugs in Jackson’s system would have increased the propofol’s effect on the singer’s lungs and heart. In addition to propofol, Jackson’s blood contained lidocaine, diazepam, nordiazepam, lorazepam, midazolam and ephedrine.“

[Updated at 2:08 p.m.: There are NO reports of [propofol's] use for insomnia relief, to my knowledge,” anesthesiology consultant Selma Calmes wrote in the report, underlining and capitalizing the word "no."

“The only reports of its use in homes are cases of fatal abuse (first reported in 1992), suicide, murder and accident,” she wrote.

Because of the risks associated with the drug, it should be administered only by anesthesiologists or other supervised anesthesia providers, trained to recognize respiratory or cardiac problems that can arise, Calmes wrote.

“Full patient monitoring is required any time propofol is given,” she wrote.

Precision in the drug’s dosage through a controlled pump is necessary because “of the narrow margin between mere sedation and full general anesthesia,” she wrote. “The levels of propofol found on [the] toxicology exam are similar to those found during general anesthesia for major surgery (intra-abdominal) with propofol infusions.”] 

-- Victoria Kim at the L.A. County coroner's office

Photo: Murray arrives in court. Don Bartlelli / L.A. Times

The state prohibits all forms of animal fighting and the keeping of primates, venomous snakes, bears, wolves and big cats as pets. It also outlaws force-feeding of geese for the production of foie gras, battery cages for egg-laying hens and tail-docking of dairy cows.

Bear hunting is allowed in the state, but trade in bear parts is prohibited. In equine protection, California is one of only four states to prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

"The trends are positive, but there are major gaps in the law throughout the nation," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president. "Anemic animal protection laws in many states will allow cruelty and abuse to continue, and that must change."

The report said the Humane Society helped pass 121 new laws last year to strengthen animal protection.

-- Carol J. Williams

Learn more about the most popular breeds and dog names in Los Angeles County on The Times' interactive database: L.A.'s Top Dogs

Los Angeles police stopped bicycle rider David V., 14, one afternoon in August 2007 because he was not wearing a helmet. The office found a metal bike footrest – a cylinder about 4 ½ inches long and about 1 ½ inches in diameter -- in the boy's pocket and determined it did not fit anywhere on the boy's bike.

David was charged with illegal possession of metal knuckles. A juvenile court judge, determining that David carried the device as a weapon, sustained the petition, and an appeals court agreed.

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown's office, arguing in favor of prosecution, had likened footrests to clutch purses, which the fashion industry says are "worn in the hand," his office said.

The state high court dispatched its verdict in a brief, 10-page ruling, determining that footrests were not "worn on the hand" and that David had not violated the law by carrying one.

"Metal knuckles of the usual sort, which are fitted to the hand, generally with holes for the fingers, are 'worn ... in or on the hand,'" the court said, quoting the state Penal Code. "But a metal cylinder like the footrest in this case is not, in ordinary usage, said to be 'worn' when held in the hand."

Even if common terminology in the fashion industry considers a purse to be worn, wrote Justice Carol A. Corrigan, "it is unlikely that the Legislature would have considered it in connection with a weapons statute."

-- Maura Dolan

The complaint filed by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office alleges that Dr. Conrad Murray “did unlawfully and without malice kill Michael Joseph Jackson, a human being, in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony; and in the commission of a lawful act which might have produced death, in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection.”

[Updated at 2:10 p.m.: Murray arrived in court and pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $75,000.]

Jackson’s parents, Kathryn and Joe, as well as some of his brothers arrived at the courthouse shortly after the charge was filed.

In a news release, the district attorney’s office said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Walgren, a prosecutor in the major crimes division, would try the case. Walgren is also handling the attempt to extradite movie director Roman Polanski to face sentencing in a three-decade-old child-sex case.

The release credited the LAPD and the county coroner’s office for building the case against Murray. "Both agencies worked diligently and exhaustively to collect the evidence leading to the filing of the case,” the statement said.

[Updated at 1 p.m.: Murray walked into the courthouse at 12:55 p.m. to shouts of “murderer” from a handful of Jackson fans whose presence was dwarfed by an international contingent of media who began camping out at the courthouse last week. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m.]

Brian Oxman, Joe Jackson’s attorney, said some family members were disappointed that the physician was charged only with involuntary manslaughter.

The criminal case comes after a seven-month investigation that stretched from the master bedroom of Jackson’s Holmby Hills mansion to the heart clinic Murray ran in a poor neighborhood of Houston. The focus, however, rarely left Murray.

Within weeks of Jackson’s death, detectives described the doctor as a manslaughter suspect in court papers that said he admitted leaving the singer alone and under the influence of propofol -- a powerful anesthetic used to render surgical patients unconscious -- in a bedroom of the sprawling home. 

The coroner’s office ruled Jackson’s death a homicide and said the cause was “acute propofol intoxication” in conjunction with the effect of other sedatives Murray acknowledged providing.

Despite the almost immediate focus on Murray -- authorities first questioned him in the hospital where doctors were working in vain to revive Jackson -- the multi-agency probe that included federal and local investigators progressed slowly, and the doctor was not formally accused of wrongdoing until the district attorney’s office filed its complaint.

Involuntary manslaughter is the least serious homicide charge available to prosecutors, its maximum punishment of four years in prison far less than the life sentence for murder or the 11 years for voluntary manslaughter. The charge, which applies to an unlawful killing committed without malice or intent to kill, turns on Murray’s possible negligence in allegedly giving Jackson propofol for an unapproved purpose -- the treatment of insomnia -- and outside of the normal operating room setting.

The drug, one of the most widely used general anesthetics in the nation, is so dangerous that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says only those trained in anesthesia should administer it.

Murray told police that he had been giving Jackson nightly intravenous doses of propofol for six weeks, about the time he began working for the performer, according to police affidavits filed in court. Murray, who was in debt and behind on child-support payments, earned $150,000 a month treating Jackson and closed practices he operated in Las Vegas, where he lived, and Houston to join the performer in Los Angeles for rehearsals.

According to the affidavits, Jackson told the physician that for years other doctors had treated his chronic insomnia with doses of propofol, a white liquid the singer called “milk.”

Murray eventually became concerned that the singer was addicted and tried to wean him off the anesthetic, according to the affidavits. On the day Jackson died, Murray tried to get the performer to sleep using Valium and, later, two other sedatives, according to the affidavits. But Jackson remained awake for 10 hours, demanding propofol.

According to the affidavits, Murray said he relented and sat next to Jackson’s bed as the propofol took effect. He told police he left for two minutes to use the restroom, and cellphone records indicate he also talked on the phone for 45 minutes, according to the affidavits. When he returned, Jackson was not breathing.

Through his attorney, Murray has maintained his innocence and said he did nothing that should have caused Jackson’s death. In his only public comment -- a one-minute video released in August through his lawyer -- a somber-looking Murray expressed confidence that he would be exonerated. “I told the truth, and I have faith the truth will prevail,” he said.

-- Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim in Los Angeles; Jack Leonard and Richard Winton at the Airport Courthouse

Photo: Dr. Conrad Murray is escorted by a law enforcement officer into the Airport Courthouse for his arraignment. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times