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MONDAY, MAY 24, 2010
Volume 9 Issue 166
Santa Monica Daily Press ‘LIMA TIME’ NO MORE SEE PAGE 9
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Accused chef’s co-author says ‘it doesn’t add up’
THE SO, SO WINDY ISSUE
Gold company investigated by City Attorney
CHRISTINA HOAG
BY LENIKA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer
Special to the Daily Press
LOS ANGELES The former “Calorie Commando” TV chef accused of trying to hire homeless men to kill his attorney wife was completely in love with her and devoted to her, his co-author on a new cookbook said Thursday. “It’s all so crazy. It just doesn’t add up,” said Amy Reiley, who wrote the aphrodisiac cookbook “The Love Diet” with former Food Network personality Juan-Carlos Cruz. “He was very positive about her.” Cruz was arrested last week by Santa Monica police after homeless men told an officer that a man had approached them to hire them to kill his wife, Jennifer L. Campbell, 47, a trusts and taxation lawyer. The 48-year-old chef has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and solicitation of murder, and is being held on $2 million bail. Reiley told The Associated Press she has known Cruz for six years and worked on the book with him intensely for nine months. She said Cruz and Campbell were high school sweethearts who have been together for 33 years. Cruz was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States when he was 3, she said. The couple, who lived in a modest condominium on Los Angeles’ west side, have no children. “They came to terms with that a long time ago,” Reiley said. “They jokingly referred to their dogs as their kids.” The author said she never detected any disharmony in the marriage. When she and Cruz worked on recipes, the couple was in constant contact with phone calls and text messages, she said. When Campbell was sick with the flu once, Cruz set his alarm to go off every two hours to make sure he called her to remind her to take her medicine. “It was really sweet,” Reiley said. Reiley said Cruz’s career was also moving. She and Cruz were already talking to a production company to do a TV show based on “The Love Diet,” which is due to be published next month. “He was very much looking forward,”
CITY HALL The Santa Monica City
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com Chumash ceremonial elder Matiwaiya says a ceremonial prayer for the whales at a demonstration held by the Western Alliance for Nature at the end of the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday morning. Demonstrations were held in many coastal communities of California to protest the International Whaling Commission’s proposal to remove the current moratorium on commercial whaling and allow the resumption of whaling.
Saving the whales THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO More than 50 environmentalists and animal rights activists have gathered in San Diego to protest a proposal to allow the resumption of worldwide commercial whaling.
The demonstration Sunday was part of a coordinated protest in Santa Monica and other coastal communities in California calling on the International Whaling Commission not to remove the current moratorium on whaling.
SEE MURDER PLOT PAGE 5
Commitment Bands
SEE INVESTIGATION PAGE 6
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Attorney’s office last week confirmed that a local gold company is under investigation after receiving complaints that the business was possibly scamming customers. The company, Superior Gold Group (SGG), is apparently based in Nevada although it also operates out of an office on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. One of the complainants, Mr. Roberts from Tennessee, who preferred to use only his last name, said that after seeing a commercial for the company on Fox News last December, he and his wife looked into investing their savings in gold coins. Convinced of the company’s legitimacy, they called a hotline and received a brochure in the mail. After speaking with a representative, they sent in a cashier’s check for $10,000 worth of gold. Four months later, they still have not received their order. After the promised delivery date came and went, Roberts called the company only to find that his account executive no longer worked there. He then spoke to other representatives who told him that his order would be shipped shortly. When the coins still did not arrive, Roberts finally managed to contact the listed president, Art Jackson, who assured him that he would personally make sure that the order was shipped immediately. “Now when I call the company and try to talk to Mr. Jackson, he says ‘Leave a message and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours,’” said Roberts. “But that doesn’t happen.” After deciding they had been scammed, Roberts tried to contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB), but to no avail. Roberts’ story bears strong resemblance to that of another ex-customer. “My client found it totally impossible to get in touch with anyone from the company,” said Matt Ferguson, an attorney from
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