Recently in Other Felonies Category

The 2008 death of a 23-year-old UCLA research assistant in a freak laboratory fire may have been preventable, and the Los Angeles County district attorney's office means to hold those involved responsible.

The district attorney's office filed felony charges against the University of California and a UCLA chemistry professor in connection with Sheharbano Sangji's death, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Both Professor Patrick Harran and the University of California were charged with three counts of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards. Harran faces up to four-and-a-half years in state prison, while UCLA could be fined up to $1.5 million on each of the three counts.

LAPD announced they have a suspected arsonist in custody who may have set dozens of fires in the Los Angeles area, reports NBC Los Angeles.

Harry Burkhart, a 24-year-old German citizen, was reportedly upset over his mother's deportation, according to NBC Los Angeles.

The suspected arsonist is believed to be connected with at least 53 fires that have been reported since Thursday. Eleven fires were reported on Monday morning alone, and the majority of them were started in the city of Los Angeles. The property damage by the fires is expected to cost millions.

It’s common for teenagers to hate high school. Apparently, it’s also criminal for them to broadcast that hate on YouTube.

A sophomore at Torrance’s Bishop Montgomery High School was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats after a YouTube video was found threatening violence at the school, reports KTLA News.

The video reportedly included a voice stating: “Bishop Montgomery shall fall. It shall decline. It shall never be the same. It will bounce, bounce, bounce to (expletive) hell and beyond.”

Palm Springs resident Virginia Valdez is under arrest on charges of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and spousal abuse for allegedly trying to cut her husband’s penis off with scissors, reports KTLA News.

Police received a report of an assault at her Palm Springs home Saturday evening and arrived to find a 62-year-old man with injuries to his genital area, according to KTLA.

The man reportedly told them his wife had attacked him with a pair of scissors, which police found in the home. News reports did not say what prompted the 67-year-old to attack.

A violent encounter with a 300-pound, naked body builder left a Colton couple with critical injuries after he beat them in a suspected “roid-rage”-and-drug-fueled attack, reports The San Bernardino County Sun.

The incident occurred late Saturday when the couple arrived at their North Pennsylvania Avenue home to find 22-year-old Ruben Arzu naked on their porch. While the wife called the police, Arzu allegedly attacked her husband and caused major head trauma and injuries, according to Colton police Cpl. Ray Mendez.

Arzu then reportedly attacked the woman, throwing her and causing facial injuries. Although he tried to flee after the attack, neighbors surrounded the suspect in another home’s backyard.

The Transportation Security Administration doesn't care if you have been naughty or nice this holiday season. If your brightly-wrapped package potentially contains an illegal item, it will get confiscated and you may get arrested, reports CBS Los Angeles.

TSA issued the warning to passengers after a traveler was caught allegedly trying to smuggle marijuana in a wrapped gift earlier this month, according to CBS. The ganja-giver was subsequently arrested.

Will orange be the new black for the celebrity-obsessed alleged members of the so-called "Bling Ring"? Rachel Lee, one of its reported ring leaders, is heading to prison for four years after pleading no contest to residential burglary, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, and her minions may be shortly following suit.

Lee and her Bling Ring posse are accused of targeting celebrity homes and robbing them of more than $3 million in jewelry, designer clothes and accessories. Their A-list victims included Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan. They are also the subject of a Lifetime movie aptly titled "The Bling Ring."

Former ESPN personality Jay Mariotti once again faced significant jail time for an incident with his ex-girlfriend, and once again escaped imprisonment with a no contest plea in his most recent assault and stalking case, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Mariotti faced five years in state prison if he had been convicted on all five counts against him, including three felony charges of stalking, corporal injury on a partner, and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury. Instead, Mariotti received 90 days of community service and five years of probation in exchange for his no contest plea on Tuesday.

He is eligible to have his probation reduced in three years.

Actor Joseph Hyungmin Son may potentially be a villain on-and-off the silver screen: the 39-year-old member of the original "Austin Powers" cast is currently the defendant in a gang rape trial that began on Tuesday, reports The Orange County Register.

Son, who played the shoe-throwing villain "Random Task" in the 1997 blockbuster film, faces conspiracy to commit murder and torture charges for his role in the brutal rape of a Huntington Beach 20-year-old on Christmas Eve 21 years ago. Each charge is punishable by life in prison.

Although the rape occurred a couple of decades ago, Son was not arrested until 2008 when DNA evidence collected while he was in custody for violating his probation on an unrelated vandalism charge connected him to the crime.

It had been almost four years since U.S. Representative Gary Miller has seen his grandsons, a lifetime for any child. But last Wednesday, Miller and his son were finally given the hope of reuniting with the kidnapped kids after their mother was apprehended in Tijuana, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Jennifer Lopez Dejongh was arrested on Wednesday by Mexican police for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Dejongh allegedly abducted the three boys, now twelve-year old Brian and ten-year-old twins Christian and Evan, four years ago in violation of a shared-custody court agreement with her ex-husband.