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THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012
Volume 11 Issue 172
Santa Monica Daily Press
SMC NAMES TOP ATHLETE SEE PAGE 3
We have you covered
THE ON THE LAWN ISSUE
City Attorney settles with another local gold company BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL A Santa Monica-based precious metals dealer has agreed to pay up to $2 million to approximately 250 customers that alleged the company had taken money for gold coins and provided nothing in return. The settlement comes over a year after a court placed the company, Superior Gold Group, under receivership and froze its accounts. It requires that owner Bruce Sands put up $200,000 immediately to compensate former customers and commit between 20 and 25 percent of his future net income until he has paid out the full $2 million. Under the settlement neither Superior Gold Group nor Sands admit to any wrongdoing, but Sands is barred from owning another precious metals business or using SEE GOLD PAGE 8 Daniel Archuleta daniela@smdp.com
SPEAKING UP: Jennifer Conrad with the Paw Project holds a tranquilizer gun that she says could have helped sedate a stray mountain lion that was shot and killed by Santa Monica police last week. She was a part of a press conference staged on the lawn of City Hall on Wednesday.
Groups want policy change after mountain lion death BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL Animal rights advocates gathered outside City Hall Wednesday afternoon to lobby for a change in police policy that they feel would have saved the life of a young male mountain lion killed in Santa Monica last Tuesday. Members of In Defense of Animals, the Paw Project and Animal Advocates called on city officials to require that police officers contact animal experts and veterinarians when confronted with a wild animal rather than killing the creature. “Public safety and animal safety,” said Bill Dyer, director of In Defense of Animals (IDA). “Why can’t we have both?” Last week, a 75-pound male mountain lion was killed by a Santa Monica police officer when it moved toward first responders after officials with the Department of
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Fish and Game hit it with a tranquilizer dart. IDA announced Wednesday that they would posthumously name the animal “Innocence.” Animal advocates including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals immediately condemned the action, saying that the death was unnecessary and demanded an investigation. Department spokespeople, backed by the Department of Fish and Game, said that the officers did what they had to do to protect the public. Many people had stopped at the police tape to watch the proceedings, some of whom had classes at the Santa Monica College Emeritus College building where the mountain lion had holed up. The animal’s body has since been taken to a lab in San Bernardino for a full necropsy.
Rather than go after police for the actions taken, speakers at the Wednesday press conference focused their comments on how to improve a future response. Key to that would be to take advantage of people in the nonprofit and private sectors that have experience dealing with large and wild animals rather than forcing police and even Fish and Game officials to deal with them, said Jack Carone, IDA communications director. “For hindsight to truly be 20/20, they need a plan of what to do to collaborate with local resources,” Carone said. Local resources like Jennifer Conrad, Conrad is the director of the Paw Project, a group that works with “big cats” that have been declawed. Just as veterinarians aren’t trained to deal with dangerous people, law enforceSEE LION PAGE 9
Magnitude-4.0 earthquake rumbles off Malibu shore ASSOCIATED PRESS MALIBU, Calif. A small earthquake has jolted the Southern California coast but there are no reports of damages or injuries. The U.S. Geological Survey says in a preliminary report that the magnitude-4.0 quake struck in the Channel Islands region at 10:14 p.m. Tuesday. The USGS says the earthquake was centered 30 miles southwest of Malibu and was felt throughout the Los Angeles area, especially in West L.A., Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley. Sheriff ’s and fire officials say there are no reports of damages or injuries from the quake, and the Los Angeles Fire Department is not in earthquake mode. Brandon David Wilson, a school teacher who lives in the Culver City area, said on Twitter that he felt the earthquake, but it was “just a sharp jolt. No big whoop.”
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