Election Section
Briefs
Man accused of SF
home invasion rapes arrested
SAN FRANCISCO — One of three men wanted in connection with breaking into homes and raping the women inside has been arrested.
Steven Glass, 23, was arrested at his home Tuesday on weapons possession and narcotics charges. He was later charged with sexual assault, robbery, false imprisonment and assault while armed with an assault weapon, police said.
He and two other men are accused of entering a home early Monday morning and sexually assaulting a mother and her two adult daughters while the family of five was sleeping, said San Francisco Police Lt. Jere Williams of the sexual assault unit.
The armed men are accused of locking the husband and a son in a room. The mother and a daughter were raped, while another daughter fought off her attacker and pulled off his mask, Williams said.
Jewelry and electronics were stolen from the house before the men fled, police said.
The July 2 attack was in the same neighborhood and conducted in a similar way. The three men entered the house, raped a woman and tied up her husband while their three children were locked in a room, police said.
The two other suspects were still being sought.
Fake Oscars are out there
LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of fake Oscar statuettes were destroyed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Friday, part of a continuing crackdown on copyright infringement.
A document destruction company was hired to chop up 12 pallets of phony Oscars and keychains, shot glasses, snow globes and picture frames that made unauthorized use of the Oscar symbol, said John Pavlik, a spokesman for the academy.
The items were turned over to the academy in recent weeks by wholesalers who were selling them to souvenir shops on Hollywood Boulevard.
“These were plastic, real cheap knock-offs,” Pavlik said. “Only from a distance would you really be fooled into thinking it was an actual Oscar.”
The academy has an in-house lawyer who tracks down fake Oscar suppliers and sends wholesalers “cease-and-desist” letters.
Passer-by discovers dismembered
body in Inglewood alley
INGLEWOOD — A headless torso believed to be the remains of a woman was found in an alley by a passer-by, police said.
The discovery of the mutilated body near the Gospel Temple Church was reported at 3 p.m. Thursday, said Inglewood police Sgt. Ray Lloyd.
Lloyd said it appears the woman had been killed elsewhere and her body was dumped in the alley.
“It’s a pretty macabre crime scene,” he said.
Police have yet to identify the woman.
DNA evidence helps convict
bear poachers
RANCHO CORDOVA — Game wardens used DNA evidence to convict a Yuba County bear poacher for the first time in California, authorities said Friday.
“It’s very similar to a murder case — just a different animal,” said California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Foy.
A Fish and Game laboratory in Rancho Cordova matched DNA from pieces of a deer carcass used in a bear bait pile with drops of deer blood in a shed at suspect Edward Harryman’s residence. A positive match also occurred with deer meat found in his freezer.
Harryman, 41, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to bait bears with poached deer.
The lab’s analysis of the venison in Harryman’s freezer also found the meat was from seven different deer, including two does.
Harryman’s son-in-law, Shaun Mote, 29, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of the female deer.
The department used DNA evidence last year to gain a conviction in a deer poaching case, setting a legal precedent, Foy said.
Bear poachers commonly use bait piles to attract the animals to a remote area where they can be killed.
Bears are often poached for their gallbladders and paws, which some Eastern cultures believe have powerful medicinal properties. However, Foy said investigators found no evidence Harryman was poaching for that illegal trade.
His sentencing has been delayed for a year, and the charges may be reduced if he refrains from possessing a firearm, ammunition or hunting. Mote is set for sentencing Monday in Yuba County Superior Court.
