The commander, Nicole Mehringer, argued she was held to a different standard than her male LAPD colleagues, who she claimed were allowed to keep their jobs under similar circumstances, sometimes with department officials going to extreme lengths to cover up their wrongdoing.

The jury ultimately agreed with her.

“I feel grateful and vindicated,” Mehringer told The Times after the verdict. “This verdict means everything to me and in my mind it restores my reputation.”

One of her attorneys, Greg Smith, said testimony by former Chief Michel Moore was key. Smith said he showed jurors that Moore lied when the ex-chief, who retired in 2024, testified that he hadn’t sought to overrule a disciplinary panel’s decision in Mehringer’s case.

“The jurors believed that our client was clearly treated differently,” Smith said.

Smith said the case partly hinged on how his client was treated by police officials when she sought to expose others for misconduct.

During trial, Smith played jurors a videotaped message from a former LAPD deputy chief, John Sherman, in which Sherman spoke about Mehringer’s sterling record and made an argument for why she should keep her job. But Sherman later withdrew his support, openly declaring that he was doing so because Mehringer had chosen to expose the department’s dirty laundry, Smith said.

Mehringer’s case dates back to April 27, 2018, when she and her subordinate, Sgt. James Kelly, were arrested by Glendale police officers. The two were found in an unmarked police Dodge Charger that had come to rest against a parked vehicle in the middle of the road.

Kelly, who was behind the wheel, appeared to be under the influence, while Mehringer also showed signs of intoxication and argued with the officers, who needed about 20 minutes to get the pair out of the vehicle, Glendale police told The Times in 2018. Mehringer was charged with a single misdemeanor count of public intoxication, while Kelly was booked on charges of driving under the influence.

Mehringer’s charge was later dismissed, after she completed a 30-day outpatient recovery program. Kelly later pleaded no contest.

At the time of the incident, Mehringer was considered a rising star in the LAPD. She ran the department’s employee relations group, which handles contract negotiations, grievances and other union-related issues.

Mehringer said in her motion she was offered a demotion of two ranks to lieutenant, which she turned down. She ended up losing her job after a disciplinary panel ruled against her. Kelly was downgraded to police officer from sergeant and assigned to an administrative post. He is no longer listed on a recent department roster.

Mehringer sued the city to get her job back, alleging that her conduct — while against department policy — was no different from male command staff who routinely flouted rules and got away with it. Unlike her, she said, some of these men were allowed to retire quietly. Others kept their jobs or were even promoted.

During a sometimes tearful testimony, Mehringer testified that she knew having an inappropriate relationship with an underling and being drunk in public was wrong. She said the situation had “humiliated” her and left her career in tatters, but maintained that the way her case was handled was unfair.

The verdict marked another huge legal loss for the city when it comes to a lawsuit by a female police command staff member.

In 2022, a jury awarded $4 million in damages to Lillian Carranza, a since-retired commander who sued over allegations that department leadership had failed to appropriately respond when officers began circulating a photo of a nude woman that some falsely claimed was her.

Another former LAPD higher-up, ex-Capt. Stacey Vince, received a $10.1-million verdict in 2023 after accusing the department of retaliating and discriminating against her for complaining about a supervisor’s conduct.

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Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, and Jing Dong, 47, were each found guilty on one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering.

According to evidence presented at a four-day trial, from at least January 2012 to March 2015, Liu and Dong ran a maternity house in Rancho Cucamonga. Their pregnant Chinese clients would come to the area, and waiting for them were apartments that Liu and Dong had rented across Southern California.

In addition to housing, other services Liu and Dong provided for the women were assistance on how to obtain visas to enter the United States, customs entry guidance, and transportation in the United States, as well as assistance applying for U.S. legal documents for the babies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Liu and Dong received money from their overseas clients to promote their scheme and advised the women on how to hide their pregnancies from the immigration authorities.

“Liu and Dong also knew — or deliberately avoided learning — that their customers lied on their visa applications submitted to immigration authorities to enter the U.S.,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Generally, their customers’ visa applications falsely stated that the trip to the United States was for tourism, when it was to give birth, and the length of the stay was days or weeks when it was, in fact, months. The visas also misstated the location where the pregnant women intended to stay, the Attorney’s Office alleged.

Liu and Dong or their agents also advised the women to fly to ports of entry that the pair perceived as having less customs scrutiny before flying to Los Angeles. The women were instructed to wear loose-fitting clothing and to favor certain lines at customs; they were also told how to answer customs officials’ questions, according to the Attorney’s Office.

Liu and Dong face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy count and up to 20 years for each international money laundering count. They are scheduled for sentencing Dec. 9.

Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the FBI investigated the case. The Irvine Police Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department assisted.

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A Riverside jury deliberated nearly two days before finding Steven Daniel Carrillo, 24, of Riverside guilty of killing Derrion Thomas of Rialto in 2020.

Along with the murder count, jurors convicted Carrillo of attempted murder, special-circumstance allegations of killing for the benefit of a criminal street gang and perpetrating a hate crime, as well as sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

They acquitted him of one attempted murder charge.

Jurors started deliberations Wednesday morning, after the prosecution and defense delivered closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. The panel announced it had reached a verdict late Thursday afternoon.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jerry Yang scheduled a sentencing hearing for June 28 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Carrillo, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail, is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The defendant is a documented member of Riverside’s oldest street gang, prevalent in the area along the University Avenue corridor, authorities said.

In late October 2020, Carrillo was staying with fellow gang members in a room at the Motel 6 near the intersection of Iowa and University avenues, according to briefs filed by the District Attorney’s Office and the defense.

Staying in a room nearby were Sharon Mayweather, Isaiah Smith and Thomas, all related. On Oct. 24, Mayweather was released from the downtown Riverside jail, where she had been held for unspecified reasons, and she became intoxicated at the motel, according to court papers.

“She was hanging around Mr. Carrillo’s (black Jaguar) in the parking lot, and he told her to get away from his vehicle,” according to the defense.

There was a hostile exchange before she returned to her room.

Two days later, on the night of Oct. 26, Thomas and Smith were preparing to drive in the latter’s Saturn sedan to pick up food, and Mayweather was trailing behind when she encountered Carrillo in his car, leading to another confrontation, during which she told Smith and Thomas the defendant had threatened her. They doubted her claims and “ushered” her into the car, the defense said.

Prosecutors said the defendant was incensed, possibly because he had been publicly challenged by a woman in front of three juvenile gang members.

Although his Jaguar had been pointed in the direction opposite to where the victims were going, he turned around and pursued them eastbound on University, according to the prosecution’s brief.

Court papers state the victims tried to avoid further contact, racing through traffic lights until they reached the left turn lane to go into the Food4Less grocery store parking lot at University and Chicago avenues. Carrillo pulled alongside and shouted profanity-laced challenges, at which point Thomas pulled a semiautomatic handgun and “fired up to 11 rounds at Mr. Carrillo,” the defense said.

The Jaguar’s driver’s side window was blown out, but Carrillo and the youths with him were not hit. Smith tried to pull his own pistol out of his front pocket, but the trigger caught on his pants, and he shot himself in the right thigh, according to court documents.

Carrillo pulled his own 9mm pistol and fired into the Saturn, striking Thomas twice, including a fatal wound to the chest, according to the prosecution. Smith tried to flee when the shots were fired but crashed into a traffic sign. He stumbled out of the car and hobbled away to get help.

Mayweather was not injured. Thomas stepped out of the car and collapsed.

Carrillo fled the scene.

Thomas was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Smith underwent surgery to his leg and fully recovered.

Relying on security surveillance video from the motel and businesses along University, Riverside police detectives were able to identify the perpetrator, and an arrest warrant was served on him without incident two weeks later at a residence in the 2300 block of Candlestick Way in Perris.

Investigators seized his journal, in which he “bragged about the shooting,” according to the prosecution’s brief, which said he referred to the victims as “snails” and wrote that “there is a sort of war” between groups.

“The defendant noted he was proud he was able to show the little homies how to gang bang,” the brief said.

The defense blamed Mayweather for provoking the altercation, additionally asserting Carrillo was not the one who initiated violence that night.

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