PHOTOS OF SANTA ANITA OPENING SEE PAGE 5
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Santa Anita Winter Meet Opens to Big Crowd
Monrovia WEEKLY Temple MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2015 - JANUARY 11, 2015 - VOLUME 2, NO. 1
Monday Edition of the
CITY
Tribune
Former Pasadena City Official, Two Others Charged in $6M Embezzlement Scheme BY TERRY MILLER
BY JACOB BIGLEY Another lucrative opening day took place at Santa Anita Park as a rumored 40,000 spectators made their way to Arcadia to participate in the beginning of the 78th season of great horse racing. Nine races would take place during the picturesque, Friday afternoon as fans tried their luck in picking the winners. As Jay Cohen’s trumpet sounded the intro for each race, Trevor Denman's famous "and away they go!" echoed throughout park. With each passing race, more and more tickets would be discarded in unfavorable finishes. The most favorable horse of the day was that of Shared Belief. A three year old horse, with veteran Please see page 5
Pasadena is facing a major challenge in light of the arrest of Danny Wooten’s alleged $6.5 Million embezzlement of city funds –Photo by Terry Miller
Pasadena City Manager Michael J. Beck, Mayor Bill Bogaard and City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris held a hurried press conference Tuesday afternoon regarding the arrest of former Pasadena city employee, Danny Wooten. Mr. Wooten who was was arrested Tuesday in connection with an investigation by the Los Angeles
County District Attorney’s Office into the alleged misappropriation of public funds and embezzlement of $6.4 million from the City of Pasadena. A former Pasadena Public Works analyst and two of his friends were arrested on charges they embezzled more than $6 million in city money over a decade, the Los Angeles
Pasadena Community Coalition Angered by TOR’s Silence Activist Dubs TOR “Tournament of Racism” On New Year’s Eve. 2014, on the steps of Tournament House, Martin Gordon read a statement at a press conference alleging Tournament of Roses has adopted a racist policy in its executive branch. Flanked by one of his sons and Gene Washington, Mr. Gordon expressed dismay that the Tournament had not responded to an Please see page 4
BY TERRY MILLER
Martin Gordon, flanked by his son and another community activist, Gene Washington, at the press conference held New Year’s Eve. Outside the Wrigley Mansion. – Photo by Terry Miller
County District Attorney’s Office announced today. Danny R. Wooten, Tyrone Collins, and Melody Jenkins were arrested this morning by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation. They are charged in a 60-count felony complaint for arrest warrant, case BA430233, with embezzlement, conflict of interest and grand theft
Danny Wooten
Please see page 7
FREE
Woman Charged with Assault After Pointing Gun at Police A Los Angeles woman was charged today with six counts of assault with a firearm after allegedly pointing a gun during a fight in a Hollywood parking structure, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday. Diamond Shirley Vargas, will be arraigned at a later date due to medical issues. Prosecutors will ask that her bail be set at $1.3 million. Vargas was arrested Dec. 26 following a fight that occurred in a parking structure at Hollywood and Highland. Police shot Vargas after she brandished a firearm at officers. The complaint alleges Vargas has prior convictions for assault and robbery. If convicted, she faces more than 30 years in state prison. The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department.
Governor Brown Appoints Three to Los Angeles County Superior Court Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. recently announced the appointment of Keith H. Borjón, John A. Slawson and Anthony A. Trendacosta to judgeships in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Borjón, 55, of Whittier, has served as a supervising deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General since 1990, where he has served as a deputy attorney general since 1985. He was a clerk and attorney at Westside Legal Services from 1984
to 1985. Borjón earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Charles W. McCoy. Borjón is a Democrat. Slawson, 64, of Rolling Hills Estates, has served as a commissioner at the Los Angeles County Superior Court since 1993. Slawson has served as adjunct faculty at El Camino
College since 1994 and served as adjunct faculty at California State University, Dominguez Hills from 1999 to 2000. He served as the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor from 1978 to 1993 and was an attorney in private practice from 1977 to 1989. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Western State University College of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from California State University, Long Beach. He fills the Please see page 5