MEDAL OF COURAGE & LIFESAVING: Deputies rescue woman from man wielding knife

On March 16, 2019 at 11:46 a.m., deputies were dispatched to a residence in Laguna Niguel for a domestic violence call in which it was reported that a man struck a female but then the call abruptly ended.

Upon arrival, Deputies MacDonald and Skutvik were approached by a neighbor who said the couple’s children had run to his home, and their father was now holding a knife to the throat of their mother.  At the same time, Deputies Prado and Rombough arrived on scene.  As the four deputies approached the residence, they could hear crying coming from inside the house.   

The deputies entered the house through the open front door and made their way to second floor master bedroom.  From the doorway, they could see the suspect seated on the bed pinning the female victim to the wall.  The suspect had a six-inch knife in his hand and the deputies could see blood on both the suspect and victim.  Deputies entered the room with their guns drawn and ordered the suspect to drop the knife.  He refused to drop the knife and told the deputies, “Shoot me.”

The victim’s face was the only part of her body they could see.  The suspect reached over his shoulder with the knife, positioning it even closer to the neck and upper torso of the victim. Deputies tased the suspect, causing him to drop the knife, and took the man into custody.

The victim was rescued, and both were evaluated by paramedics and received treatment for their wounds. 

The deputies were honored at this year’s ceremony with the Medal of Courage and the Medal for Lifesaving.

MEDAL OF COURAGE & LIFESAVING: Saved juvenile from jumping off a bridge

On June 15, 2019 at approximately 1 a.m., Aliso Viejo deputies were dispatched to Alicia Parkway and California State Route 73 reference a juvenile who was threatening to jump from an overpass into oncoming traffic. 

Deputy Yannizzi was the first deputy to arrive on scene.  Recognizing the juvenile’s perilous position, he immediately engaged the young lady in conversation.  Within minutes, Deputies Perkins, Munguia, Byrne and Sergeant Steinle arrived. 

As Deputy Yannizzi continued to talk to the distraught juvenile, Deputies Perkins, Munguia and Byrne all reached through the chain link fencing and grabbed a piece of her clothing.  Together they pulled the young lady taut against the fence.  The juvenile struggled to get away saying, “Let me go.”

Sergeant Steinle retrieved bolt cutters from his patrol vehicle and began cutting a hole in the fence around the victim while the deputies temporarily restrained her.  As soon as the hole was big enough, Deputy Byrne reached through the fence and grabbed firmly onto the young lady’s arm, trapping it against the inside of the fencing. 

Sergeant Steinle continued cutting the fence until there was a hole large enough for him to attempt the rescue.  Working as a team, the deputies held onto the young lady’s clothing and simultaneously held onto Sergeant Steinle’s legs so that he could lean outside the safety of the fence and grab the young lady.  With one swift motion, Sergeant Steinle wrapped his arms around the juvenile and the team helped pull them both off the ledge and through the opening in the fence.  The juvenile was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. 

The deputies were honored at this year’s Medal of Valor ceremony.

SAN CLEMENTE, Ca. (September 23, 2020): A deputy-involved shooting occurred today in the city of San Clemente at approximately 1:15 p.m. 

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On January 20, 2018 deputies were involved in a use of force in the city of Mission Viejo. The use of force was determined to be within policy. Training issues were identified and corrective action was addressed. Click here for responsive records Please note that due to the size of the files, and depending on download speeds, it could take several minutes for the files to open.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Ca. (Sept. 22, 2020) – Distracted driving is a dangerous and illegal behavior the Sheriff’s Department is working to deter drivers from doing. On Thursday, Sept. 24, deputies will focus their efforts on drivers that are talking, texting, using an app or any other action on their phone that is not hands-free and violates California’s cell phone law. A violation is subject to a $162 fine for the first offense, and at least $285 for a second offense.

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Forensic History: How the OC Crime Lab helped evidence mount against serial killer Randy Kraft

On a non-descript stretch of freeway during a routine traffic stop, one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers was caught. 

Randy Kraft, convicted of murdering 16 men but suspected of having more than 60 victims, was arrested at about 1 a.m. May 14, 1983 after California Highway Patrol Officers observed him swerving on the 5 Freeway in Mission Viejo.

A failed sobriety test landed him in handcuffs, but the motionless body of the man in the passenger seat was the beginning of the end for a man who terrorized Orange County’s freeways, picking up unsuspecting hitchhikers only to torture and murder them.

“How’s my friend?” Kraft reportedly asked the officers who pulled him over that night; his tone composed and emotionless. 

The officers tried to rouse the man they thought was sleeping but when they removed the jacket covering the passenger, they discovered the man was dead. The victim was a 25-year-old Marine corporal who had hitched a ride with Kraft to meet friends at a party.

Kraft is believed to have killed more than 60 men in at least three states from 1971 to 1983. He earned the moniker, “The Scorecard Killer” for the morbid catalog of his victims’ names he scrawled on a white sheet of paper.  Others called him “The Freeway Killer” -- a nod to his M.O. Kraft was known for targeting young male hitchhikers, many times along the freeway. After torturing then killing his victims, he discarded their bodies near freeway interchanges, in parking lots and, at times, in remote locations.

Five years into his killing spree, Orange County deputies responded to a remote area in Silverado Canyon where they found a murdered young man with shards of glass from a vodka bottle littered around his body.

Pieces of the bottle were collected and forensic scientists with the Orange County Crime Lab methodically fit together the dozens of jagged fragments. After reconstructing what remained of the bottle, they were able to collect fingerprints.

Those fingerprints were later matched to Randy Kraft after his 1983 arrest.

This critical piece of evidence helped build the case against Kraft, who was convicted in May 1989. The 75-year-old currently remains on death row at San Quentin state prison.

MEDAL OF COURAGE & LIFESAVING: Deputies stop man with machete

On January 19, 2018 at 4:15 p.m., Deputies Anthony Garza, Robert Tomasko, Jason McLennan, Paul Chiron and Charles Johnson responded to Walmart in Lake Forest reference a suspect wearing a mask and carrying a machete.

Before deputies could arrive, the suspect left Walmart in his vehicle. Dispatch received another call stating the same vehicle was at another business down the street. The suspect then ignited a briefcase in the business parking lot, where it later exploded. The suspect left and drove to another business location on the west side of Lake Forest, where he was now armed with a gun, as well as the machete. The suspect robbed the business of a glass pipe and fled the scene.

The suspect then drove his vehicle to a residential neighborhood where he parked and began walking around.  The suspect approached a man that was walking his dog and began brandishing his firearm and machete. The man immediately ran to his backyard to warn his wife. Unfortunately, his wife was opening the front door when he was in the backyard and she was confronted by the suspect. The suspect attacked his wife causing a laceration to her head and then forced entry into the home. The suspect ran through the home, into the backyard, jumped over the backyard fence and ran to the end of a cul-de-sac.

Deputy McLennan arrived and immediately confronted the suspect in the street, ordering him to drop his gun and machete. Deputies Garza, Johnson, Tomasko and Chiron arrived to assist. The suspect refused all commands from deputies and a shooting occurred.

Deputies immediately secured the suspect and began life-saving measures. They were able to stabilize the suspect, who was taken to the hospital and survived his injuries.  

They were honored at this year’s Medal of Valor Ceremony with the Medal of Courage and the Medal for Lifesaving for their actions that day.

Forensic History: The man that was freed thanks to science

For 16 years, Kevin Green maintained he didn’t do it.

It was someone else, he said, who had entered his pregnant wife’s bedroom in 1979, bludgeoned her into a coma, killing the couple’s unborn daughter.

When Green’s wife, Dianna D’Aiello, recovered from her coma, albeit with significant memory loss, she testified in the case that helped convict her husband of attempted murder and second-degree murder for the death of their unborn child.  Green was sentenced in 1980 to 15-years-to-life in prison.

Around the time D’Aiello was attacked, several other women in Orange County were sexually assaulted and brutally murdered by an assailant investigators called “The Bedroom Basher.” At the time, however, the cases weren’t linked and the murders in Tustin and Costa Mesa eventually ran cold.

Investigators with the Tustin and Costa Mesa continued to work the unsolved murders and, in the 1990s, learned of a new technology for genetic testing knows as Short Tandem Repeats (STR), a type of DNA analysis effective for identifying individuals. At the time, the Orange County Crime Lab was one of only three labs in the nation capable of this type of analysis.

Tustin PD and Costa Mesa PD investigators submitted DNA from the Bedroom Basher murders and the STR method was used to match DNA of convicted individuals through a computer database called CODIS (Combine DNA Index System).

They got multiple hits.

Forensic scientists matched the DNA from the Bedroom Basher murders to Gerald Parker, who was in custody for sexually assault a 13-year-old girl in Tustin.

Gerald Parker, a former Marine assigned to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, confessed to attacking D’Aiello and murdering five other women in Orange County.

He was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to death in 1999. He remains on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison today.

Kevin Green was exonerated and was awarded $620,000 in restitution for his wrongful conviction and prison sentence.

DANA POINT, Ca. (Sept. 21, 2020) – The Sheriff’s Department will take part in a bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation aimed at educating bicyclists, drivers and pedestrians on traffic laws, rules and responsibilities.On Thursday, Sept. 24, deputies will be looking for violations made by bicyclists, drivers and pedestrians that put roadway users at risk. These violations include drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, failing to stop for signs and signals or any other dangerous violation.

San Clemente, Ca. (Sept. 21, 2020) – The Sheriff’s Department will take part in a bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation aimed at educating bicyclists, drivers and pedestrians on traffic laws, rules and responsibilities.On Wednesday, Sept. 23, deputies will be looking for violations made by bicyclists, drivers and pedestrians that put roadway users at risk. These violations include drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, failing to stop for signs and signals or any other dangerous violation.

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