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Los Angeles Times
09-08-2025
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. County fire captain faked work injury to collect insurance, prosecutors allege
A Los Angeles County Fire Department captain is facing felony charges following allegations that he faked a work injury and forged doctors' notes to fraudulently claim thousands of dollars in disability payments, authorities said. Thomas Merryman, 45, allegedly received more than $25,000 in insurance payments for a work injury that could not have taken place because he was not at work, according to the L.A. County district attorney's office. He allegedly submitted fake paperwork under the name of another fire captain and a physician to Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, allowing him to claim long-term disability payments, prosecutors said. Merryman, who is currently believed to live in Georgetown, Texas, has been charged with one felony count of insurance fraud, one felony count of false personation and two felony counts of forgery, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. If convicted as charged, he faces up to five years in state prison, authorities said. The statement from the district attorney's office did not provide any additional information on Merryman's history with the department, or his current employment status. According to Transparent California, an online database that tracks pay to public officials, a man of the same name and identified as a captain with L.A. County fire, received $178,466 in total pay and $112,687 in benefits in 2024. 'Fake disability claims will not be tolerated under my watch, especially by first responders charged with keeping our county safe,' L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. 'False healthcare claims raise insurance premiums and make it more difficult for people with legitimate work injuries to claim benefits. My message to public servants who abuse the system is clear: We are watching you.'
Daily Mail
29-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Manhattan shooter Shane Tamura was the son of an LAPD cop and held jobs as a security guard and private investigator despite his mental health struggles
Manhattan shooter Shane Tamura's father was a Los Angeles police officer, and the gunman himself had a security guard license in California and Nevada, records reveal. Shane Tamura, 27, strode into the Midtown Manhattan offices that house the NFL's headquarters with an M4 assault rifle and killed four people on Monday, including an off-duty police officer. California government salary records obtained by Daily Mail show his father, Terence Tamura, was an LAPD police officer from at least 2011 to 2018. Tamura, who grew up around Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles city, obtained a security guard license from the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services on March 7, 2019, which expired on March 31, 2021. The now-dead shooter most recently worked at the Horseshoe Las Vegas hotel and casino as a surveillance department employee, a spokesperson for the business stated. He also had a private investigator license in Nevada, with his most recent residence listed at his parents' house, issued December 26, 2019, and expired December 28 last year. An apparent arrest record for his father Terence from 2008 states that he was booked by LAPD's 'Internal Affairs Division' and assigned a bond of $5,000 for an unspecified alleged offense, according to public records. However, there are no criminal charges against Terence filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. In response to Daily Mail's questions about Terence, LAPD said they are investigating. 'The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of the online rumors and media inquiries suggesting a possible connection between the individual involved in the recent New York shooting and our department,' a spokesman said. 'We take these matters seriously and are actively investigating the information. At this time, we are working to confirm details and gather the facts.' LAPD salary records documented by organization Transparent California list Terence K. Tamura as an experienced police officer with total pay of $101,403 in 2011. Tamura may have begun working with the department earlier, but records were not available from Transparent California. His last full salary recorded by the site was in 2017, for the same role of 'Police Officer III'. Terence earned $284.17 in 2018 according to the records, suggesting his work for LAPD ended very early that year. Terence and the Tamura family did not respond to Daily Mail's requests for comment. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Shane Tamura had a 'documented mental health history' and he appeared to blame the NFL for a brain injury according to a note found in his pocket. Police say they found medication in his car. LAPD salary records documented by organization Transparent California list Terence Tamura as an experienced police officer with total pay of $101,403 in 2011 Despite his alleged mental health issues, Tamura was able to obtain a concealed firearms permit from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, issued on June 14, 2022. However, his Nevada private investigator's license lists 'no' firearm status on his work card, meaning he wasn't legally allowed to carry while on the job. Authorities say Tamura arrived in Midtown Manhattan by car on Monday afternoon following a mammoth cross-country trip. New York mayor Eric Adams indicated that authorities believe his target was the NFL, which has its headquarters in the tower. A note found on the gunman's body mentioned the league. The three-page note outlined Tamura's perceived grievances with the NFL over its handling of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is strongly linked to sports in which players experience repeated head impacts. 'Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,' Tamura wrote, according to CNN. 'You can't go against the NFL, they'll squash you.' The shooter was referring to former Pittsburgh Steeler Terry Long, who committed suicide by drinking antifreeze in 2006 after suffering from CTE. 'Study my brain please I'm sorry Tell Rick I'm sorry for everything,' the note read. Authorities say Tamura arrived in Midtown Manhattan by car on Monday afternoon following a mammoth cross-country trip before entering the building that housed the NFL headquarters wearing a sport coat and button-down shirt while carrying the large rifle Tamura was born in Hawaii and grew up in Santa Clarita, California, where he was a high school running back. He later moved to Las Vegas. When Tamura arrived at 345 Park Avenue in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, he parked his black BMW around the corner before brazenly striding across a wide city plaza with his long-form M4 rifle in plain sight, by his side. Tamura had his concealed weapon permit issued by the Las Vegas Sheriff's Department on him as he walked straight into the building's lobby and opened fire. Once in the lobby he sprayed it with gunfire, shooting NYPD officer Didarul Islam in the back and a security guard who took cover behind a desk, before heading to the elevator bank and headed up to the 33rd floor and the offices of Rudin Management who run the building and other offices across New York City. One other victim, Julia Hyman who was an associate at Rudin, has been identified. Police believe was the shooting was premeditated and likely suicidal. 'It appears that he knew it would be his last stand,' said CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller, a former NYPD deputy commissioner. 'He fully intended to shoot his way through the lobby and make his way to that target – whatever that might have been.' The building became the scene of a frantic lockdown as gunshots echoed through the corridors and heavily armed police teams swarmed the floors. Authorities believe Tamura was trying to target the NFL headquarters but took the wrong elevator. And NYC Mayor Eric Adams said the Midtown Manhattan gunman missed the NFL office, which investigators believe was his intended target, because he got on the wrong elevator. 'From our preliminary investigation, he took the wrong elevator bank up to the NFL headquarters,' Adams told CBS Mornings. 'Instead, it took him to Rudin Management, and that is where he carried out additional shootings and took the lives of additional employees.' The NYPD revealed on Monday night Tamura had traveled through Colorado on July 26, through Nebraska on July 27 and through Columbia, New Jersey as recently as 4pm on Monday before arriving in Manhattan to carry out his deadly rampage. And during a late night press conference NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the police found a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, ammunition and magazines, as well as a backpack and medication prescribed to Tamura. 'Police want to know what brought him to that building, who or what the target was, and what the grievance or motive behind it might have been,' Miller explained. 'These cases often involve people who experience a downfall and begin to blame others - bosses, institutions, society at large. 'Then they decide to get even with everybody, even though in most cases, the problem is usually them,' Miller said. Tamura was a promising football player in junior varsity, obsessed with the game and once on a path that suggested a future defined by discipline and teamwork. In a video posted online from the 2015 season, Tamura can be heard giving a post-game interview in which he spoke of his victory with the Granada Hills football team based in Southern California. Tamura was instrumental in his team's victory after scoring several touchdowns. 'We were down 10-0, stayed disciplined and came together as a team. Couple of touchdowns,' he said on the day of his interview. His old high school friends in California said they were stunned to find out he was the shooter. 'You never would have thought violence was something you'd associate with him,' classmate Caleb Clarke told NBC. 'Everything he said was a joke.' His former coach Walter Roby said Tamura was a talented football player and a 'quiet kid'. 'I'm just blown away right now,' he said.
San Francisco Chronicle
23-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
City College of San Francisco poised to select outsider as chancellor over interim chief
Veteran educator Carlos Osvaldo Cortez is expected to be named next week as the 11th chancellor in 13 years to lead the financially troubled City College of San Francisco, edging out the interim chancellor, the Chronicle has learned. The seven trustees are in contract negotiations with Cortez, and a majority favor him over Interim Chancellor Mitch Bailey, said knowledgeable sources who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. Bailey has fallen out of favor with the faculty union, which strongly influences the majority on the seven-member board of trustees. The chancellor selection echoes a constant debate at City College over the best approach to restoring the college to good fiscal health and increasing enrollment. The faculty union and its supporters on the board want to dip into reserves to boost spending, saying this approach is the best way to attract more students. By contrast, Bailey says he wants to 'adjust college operations to align with current resources,' a practice that matches expectations of accreditors and state officials. The college has been under an accreditation warning sanction over its governance and finances since early 2024. Chancellor selections are secretive, with deliberations happening behind closed doors. At City College, they are a near-annual ritual. If approved, possibly at the May 29 board meeting, Cortez would become the school's fifth permanent head since 2012. There have been six interim chancellors during that time. The selection of Cortez over Bailey would be the second time in a year that the trustees have replaced a chancellor who sought greater financial stability by aligning spending with revenue. Cortez is seen as faculty-friendly. In the San Diego Community College District, where Cortez was chancellor from summer 2021 through spring 2023, faculty pay increased modestly, by an average of 2.5% in 2022 and 4.5% a year later, after a period of small increases before he arrived. Cortez quit that job after a year and a half. He was paid a total of $1.36 million during his short tenure, including $546,601 for his final four months, according to Transparent California, a database of California public employee salaries. While chancellor in San Diego, Cortez made news in 2022 when he was forced to cancel his belated welcoming ceremony at Petco Park after receiving complaints for inviting Alice Walker as keynote speaker. The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of 'The Color Purple' has for years been accused of antisemitism, including for penning a poem in which she called the Talmud, the book of Jewish law, 'poison,' and for her support of conspiracy-theorist David Icke. After 20 months on the job, Cortez announced in March 2023 that he was taking 'extended emergency leave' to care for his ill parents. On May 1, district officials announced that he had resigned to be with his parents in Florida. By that fall, however, he was a finalist for the chancellor's job in three Bay Area college districts: Peralta in the East Bay, Contra Costa and San Mateo. Court records show that on Jan. 19, 2024, police in Florida arrested Cortez on suspicion of driving under the influence. Ultimately, he pled no contest to the reduced charge of reckless driving. In a phone conversation, Cortez declined to answer a reporter's questions without authorization from City College. But he said the Florida charge was due to a 'mixture of prescription medicine.' While Bailey has not suggested layoffs, he has adopted an approach that acknowledges financial instability at the college of 44,000 full- and part-time students. Salaries eat up 90% of the general fund, compared with 82% statewide, and next year the college will lose millions of dollars in extra state funding that has kept it afloat since 2018 due to severe enrollment loss. Reserves are at 16% of general fund expenditures, far below the 33% average across other colleges. Among the ideas Bailey references in a May 8 budget update are reducing the number of single classes that attract few students and currently make up 70% of academic offerings. Instead, Bailey wants faculty to consider teaching more groups of classes that carry large numbers of students toward their degrees. It's an idea that does not sit well with the union, the American Federation of Teachers, Local 2121. 'In a dizzyingly shallow presentation, Interim Chancellor proposes cuts to 70% of College with no analysis,' the union headlined its essay accusing Bailey of targeting ethnic studies classes. The union essay called for 'serious leadership' that would tap into its $31 million reserves to pay for more academics, not less. Alexis Litzky, a communications professor and outgoing chair of the Academic Senate, called the union's description of Bailey's idea for boosting more popular classes a 'mischaracterization of the chancellor's presentation.' She said Bailey is not suggesting that the college axe classes but that faculty review course offerings so that City College can 'evaluate options for updating our programs and schedules.' The Academic Senate works with both the union and administrators. Litzky said the college has been confronting its accreditation missteps by working with a state assistance team, and that Bailey's budget workshops have been helpful in educating the college community about its finances. 'It actually feels like we're going in the right direction,' she said. Cortez, 50, earned his doctorate at the University of Southern California, focusing on 'African American Womanist political historical contributions to social welfare and education policy reform,' according to his employment bio. During his academic career as an instructor and administrator, Cortez served as dean of instruction at Berkeley City College and, before becoming chancellor in San Diego, was president of San Diego College of Continuing Education. The Chronicle reached out to trustees in each of the Bay Area college districts where Cortez applied since leaving San Diego, as well as to trustees of Madison College and Pasadena City College, where he was a finalist in April 2024 before he withdrew his name from consideration. Cortez told the Chronicle he had decided he didn't want to live in Madison. Only one trustee responded, agreeing to comment without being identified because the person was not authorized to speak about it publicly. 'He is very charismatic. He dazzled us,' said the board member from Pasadena. But the college did not select Cortez as its leader. The trustee declined to say why. San Diego trustees did not respond to requests for comment. Professor Inna Kanevsky, who teaches psychology at San Diego Mesa College and got into a public dispute with Cortez over the Alice Walker episode, said she was 'sad to hear' that he was the leading candidate at City College. Cortez drew ire from the free-speech group FIRE — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — when he blocked Kanevsky on social media after she complained that the Walker invitation would harm Jewish students. FIRE told the college district that the action violated Kanvesky's First Amendment rights. The chancellor then deleted his own account.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kern County union strikers choose March 5th as day of solidarity
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — After months of rallies, labor negotiations and threats of a strike, members of the Service Employees International Union are now turning those words into a reality. A one-day strike on March 5 would include road workers, public behavioral health employees, assessors, library workers and more. Kern County gave SEIU it's final best offer; a salary package of $36 million annually, one-time payout options amounting to over $2.8 million, and salary adjustments costing over $3 million. Kern County workers voted to reject it, authorizing a strike. Kern County has 5600 registered SEIU workers and thousands are expected to participate in the strike. According to Transparent California, a road worker makes around $27,000 per year, an assessor makes over $100,000 per year, and librarians make around $40,000 per year. Rosario Romero, a Human Services Supervisor, said the rally was a call to action for the public to stand with SEIU. 'If you believe Kern can be a healthier and safer community, together we can hold the board of supervisors accountable to deliver on the service levels that they promised,' said Romero. SEIU workers said that over $500 million budgeted for county services over the past three years went unused. Instead, it was put into 'restricted funds,' which are funds allocated from the state for mental health and public services. Scrivners reach agreement on restraining order, March hearing canceled 'They know they have the funds, they're just not allocating them for their employees,' said Alicia Aleman, a social services worker and a member of SEIU. Aleman says the low wages and unfair labor practices cause people to leave. 'The reason why people are leaving is because we aren't competitive when it comes to the wages. That affects the community at the end of the day…how we provide the services,' she said. The county said the 'restricted funds,' can't be used to pay workers. In a press release from the county, it says multiple county offices will close and county services will be delayed on March 5. We have reached out to county supervisors and staff multiple times for comment, but they declined due to legal reasons regarding the labor negotiations. It is expected to be a major topic of discussion at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
