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C.J. and Marvin were together for nineteen years. Marvin was a former marine, and had just received his Doctorate in Education. One morning, he left for work and seven minutes later . . .

Fatal crash occurs on rain-slick La Tuna Canyon Road

By Christina Villacorte, Daily News Staff Writer
POSTED: 11/21/11, 9:00 PM PST
One man was killed and another was injured when their vehicles slammed into each other in Sun Valley early Monday.

"It was a dramatic and forceful collision which took one man's life at the scene and caused another to sustain critical injuries," said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

The crash occurred at 6:47 a.m. in the 8300 block of La Tuna Canyon Road near the Foothill (210) Freeway. A white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was heading eastbound on La Tuna Canyon when the driver lost control on the wet pavement and slid sideways into the westbound lanes, according to officers with the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division. A red Scion was heading westbound and broadsided the Toyota truck.

The collision caused a small fire to break out in one of the vehicles, but was immediately extinguished by firefighters, Humphrey said. The driver of the Toyota truck, Manilo Imperial, 46, of Canyon Country, was trapped inside and was pulled to safety by witnesses, police said.

Imperial sustained severe injuries and was transported to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center for treatment. But the man in the Scion, Marvin Horner, 45, of Tujunga, suffered massive internal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
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Former Cranberry pastor ousted from California church

Wednesday, September 13, 2000
By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The saga of former Cranberry pastor Richard Rossi, a tale of hirings, firings, an attempted-murder charge and a subsequent mistrial, has taken further twists in his adopted state of California, where he has been ousted from his latest church and picketed by an anti-gay group.

For the past several months, Rossi has been conducting services in his three-bedroom townhouse in Long Beach for a handful of followers. He was fired in January after 2 1/2 years as pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church when a group of church members changed the building's locks and filed a civil suit against him charging, among other things, that Rossi failed to let them know he'd been charged with beating his wife almost to death in 1994 along a rural Pennsylvania road.

Although a mistrial was declared in that case, Rossi, then pastor of the First Love Church, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Sentenced to four to eight months in prison, he served 96 days plus four years of probation.

This March, in an effort to generate support for Rossi, some of his backers organized a protest against his dismissal, utilizing the minions of pastor Fred Phelps of Kansas, who has made a name for himself with virulent anti-gay demonstrations around the country. Much to Rossi's chagrin, however, Phelps' protesters railed against Rossi's lenient attitude toward homosexuals when he was pastor of the church.

The best news Rossi has had this year was that the civil suit against him was dropped. It charged him with illegally changing Immanuel Baptist Church's bylaws and converting more than $10,000 of church funds for personal use.

"We decided, what's the sense of throwing good money after bad," said Rebecca Birmingham, the Long Beach attorney representing church members who had filed the suit.

Neither Rossi nor his spokesman, Jeffrey Griffith of Long Beach, could be reached for comment. One of Rossi's attorneys, James M. Ecker of Pittsburgh, said he was unaware Rossi had been fired from the church. Ecker said he last spoke with Rossi a month ago.

Preventable Death - Wrongful Death

Care Would Have Saved Inmate, Lawyer Says
Jails: Attorney alleges that deputies ignored court orders to treat client. Sheriff's Department is investigating man's death.

January 15, 2001|DAN WEIKEL | TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Sheriff's Department is investigating the Jan. 1 death of a Los Angeles County jail inmate whose attorney says would have survived if deputies had obeyed four court orders to provide him with medical care.

The death of Henry A. Torres Jr. at the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood comes amid a federal review of health care in the enormous county jail system, which handles about 180,000 inmates annually.

Torres, 32, of Hawaiian Gardens, was facing trial in Superior Court on three heroin-related charges. He lost consciousness in his cell shortly after 2 p.m. on New Year's Day and was pronounced dead at King/Drew Medical Center.

The coroner's office later found what appeared to be a piece of hypodermic syringe in Torres' right lung that he apparently had swallowed accidentally before his jailing and that caused the organ to fill with blood and other fluid. Torres had repeatedly complained about something stuck in his throat since he was jailed Nov. 8, case records show.