Jury selection is starting over in the high-profile murder trial of Samuel Woodward — accused of stabbing former high-school classmate Blaze Bernstein to death and burying his body near a Lake Forest park — after Woodward’s courtroom outburst last week led to the dismissal of the previous jury pool.

Woodward will not be shackled in court despite the disturbance in front of the previous prospective jurors, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger ruled on Tuesday. But dismissing all the previous prospective jurors and starting with a fresh jury pool is expected to delay the closely watched trial by at least two weeks, if not longer.

The judge during a hearing on Tuesday did not go into detail about the disruption Woodward caused, and those who were in the court at the time — including the previous potential jurors — were asked by the judge not to discuss it with anyone else, according to court records. It occurred about two weeks into the first round of jury selection, which started with a pool of about 400 prospective jurors.

Woodward, who entered the courtroom with his long hair covering his face, appeared calm during Tuesday’s court proceedings. His defense attorney told the judge that Woodward hasn’t been feeling well.

“You had an outburst that was unexpected to say the least,” Judge Menninger said to Woodward.

The judge noted that it was the first time Woodward had been disruptive during more than five years of hearings. On the advice of her courtroom deputies, the judge said she didn’t think it was necessary to start shackling Woodward during court hearings.

But the judge warned Woodward that if any additional disruptions occurred, additional security measures could become necessary.

“We can’t have outbursts, does that make sense to you?” the judge asked.

“Yes, your honor,” Woodward responded.

The new round of jury selection will begin with 100 prospective jurors to be brought in on Wednesday morning followed by another 100 in the afternoon. The jurors will be given a questionnaire to fill out asking about their backgrounds and hot-button issues expected to come up during the trial. The prospective jurors will then be required to return to the Santa Ana courtroom days later for questioning by the attorneys and the judge.

Jury selection has been complicated by the estimated length of the trial — several months — along with the intense media attention surrounding the killing and the expectation that testimony and evidence will include homophobic and racist material.

At the time of the slaying, Woodward lived with his family in Newport Beach. Bernstein was a pre-med student in his sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania, whose family lived in Lake Forest.

Woodward is accused of stabbing Bernstein, then 19, to death when the two former Orange County School of the Arts classmates met up over winter break in January 2018.

A six-day search for the missing Bernstein drew massive media attention. It ended with the discovery of his body, buried at the edge of Borrego Park in the Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest. Bernstein had been stabbed at least 19 times.

Woodward, who is alleged to have ties to a neo-Nazi group, is accused of carrying out the slaying at least partially because Bernstein was gay.

Investigators during previous testimony said Woodward told them that Bernstein tried to kiss him while they were both sitting in a car at the park, leading Woodward to push Bernstein away. Woodward told the investigators that Bernstein tried to apologize but then walked off into the park and didn’t return, according to law enforcement testimony.

A knife was found in a drawer in Woodward’s bedroom that had blood on the tip and the handle that investigators matched through DNA to Bernstein, according to previous testimony. The investigators also testified to finding blood stains in Woodward’s vehicle that matched both Woodward and Bernstein.

Woodward has Asperger syndrome — a developmental disorder that generally leads to difficulties with social interactions — as well as issues with his own sexual identity, according to a defense attorney who once represented Woodward but who is no longer tied to the case.

Along with the murder charge, Woodward faces enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and a hate crime.

Two men wrongly convicted and imprisoned for 17 years are suing Los Angeles County, claiming three sheriff’s detectives fabricated reports, hid exculpatory evidence and intimidated witnesses from telling the truth.

Making the allegations are attorneys for Juan Rayford and Dupree Glass, both of whom were convicted of multiple charges of attempted murder and sentenced to 11 life terms each as well as an additional 220 years for gang enhancements. The men, both teenagers at the time of their arrests, were accused of shooting at an occupied house in Lancaster in 2004.

The lawsuit, filed March 1 in U.S. District Court, seeks unspecified damages.

Rayford and Glass were released from prison in 2020 after an appellate court overturned their convictions. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge later declared they were not the shooters after another prison inmate confessed to firing at the house. A second alleged shooter had died earlier.

While forensics indicated there were only two shooters, prosecutors concluded there must have been more, in order to fit the charges against Rayford and Glass, the lawsuit claimed.

The state has paid Rayford and Glass nearly $900,000 each as compensation for their time behind bars. Now the two are seeking damages from the county and the investigators who put them there.

Law enforcement ‘reckless’

The actions of law enforcement were “deliberate, reckless, wanton, cruel, motivated by evil motive or intent. … The criminal case against plaintiffs was weak, and the only evidence against them was the false testimony fabricated by defendants,” the lawsuit states.

The Sheriff’s Department issued a statement this week denying the suit’s allegations.

“The department has not been served with this lawsuit, but it is committed to conducting thorough criminal investigations in order to present facts and evidence to the district attorney for prosecution consideration,” said the statement. “We respect the judicial process, but the department does not agree with the allegations.”

DA stands by convictions

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has said it stands by the convictions.

“The defendants are not actually innocent,” said court papers filed by the district attorney as part of the criminal proceedings. “The motion’s principal claim — that two key trial witnesses lied under oath — is false. … Respondent has not lost confidence in this conviction.”

According to the lawsuit, detectives acting as gang experts falsely testified that Rayford and Glass were gang members. The appellate court later threw out the gang enhancements, saying there was insufficient evidence to support them.

Witnesses inconsistent

During the trial, prosecutors and investigators relied heavily on the testimony of the house owner — a three-time felon — and her 15-year-old daughter, who later faced criminal charges of her own for attempted murder in an unrelated incident, the suit said. Both witnesses were vulnerable to intimidation by law enforcement, the suit said.

There were inconsistencies in both of their testimonies, according to the suit. The homeowner later allegedly complained to a private investigator for Rayford and Glass that she testified against them because they wouldn’t tell her who the actual shooters were.

Attorneys for Rayford and Glass wrote that the witness was ready to recant her testimony, but was warned by a sheriff’s investigator — who by then was retired and living in another state — that she could be criminally charged if she changed her story.

Investigation incomplete

The suit says sheriff’s investigators failed to interview nearly a dozen key witnesses who were at the scene and would have told them that Rayford and Dupree were not the shooters.

“The defendants unjustly and intentionally resolved to charge Rayford and Glass without thoroughly investigating other potential suspects involved in the crime,” the suit said.

Additionally, eight shots were fired, but some bullets were not recovered, the suit said. The unrecovered bullets would have proven there were only two shooters, said the suit.

“Their willingness to frame innocent teenagers served the ulterior motive of inflating their statistics in apprehending gang members, revealing a callous disregard for the truth and the lives of the wrongfully accused,” said the lawsuit.

Eric Dubin, one of the attorneys representing Rayford and Glass, said, “These men have been to hell and back, spending 17 years in prison with both being ‘Shawshank Redemption’ innocent.”

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is sending thieves and robbers a message via Southern California billboards, buses and bumper stickers: “Crime doesn’t pay in Orange County. If you steal, we prosecute.”

The advertising campaign is in response to the rash of widely publicized smash-and-grab robberies in Southern California and other headline-generating commercial burglaries. Prosecutors note that many property crimes in Orange County are committed by crooks coming from other areas.

Of the 141 alleged robbers and burglars prosecuted in the first nine months by the district attorney’s new HEIST unit, only one was from Orange County, officials said.

“Sacramento may be rolling out the red carpet for thieves, but here in Orange County we’re throwing the book at criminals who come here to steal,” Spitzer said in a prepared statement, referring to perceived lenient policies by reform-minded state legislators. “If you steal, we will prosecute. It’s that simple.”

Spitzer continued: “When the risk is far less than the reward, it’s no surprise that criminals are committing smash and grabs, residential burglaries, and simply walking out the front door of stores with arms full of stolen merchandise, while you’re standing in line waiting to pay for your items.”

The campaign, expected to last four weeks and reach 38 million people, is funded by federal dollars raised through seizing criminal assets. Federal rules allow the money to be used to pay for anti-crime advertising.

Spitzer spent $150,000 to buy space on 10 static and electronic billboards along major freeways heading into Orange County from Los Angeles and Riverside counties, as well as on signs throughout Orange County, including one at The Outlets in Orange.

Public buses in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Norwalk and Glendale also will be draped with the anti-crime slogan. Additionally, up to $75,000 will be used on digital marketing advertising targeting cellphone users in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial counties. Bumper stickers also will be circulated.

“We know where these people are coming from, we know what they’re doing here and we hope they get the message, it’s not worth it,” said Kimberly Edds, the district attorney’s public affairs director.

While the ad campaign is arguably a conversation starter, the jury is still out on whether it may do more to reassure Orange County residents than to scare off would-be criminals.

“Maybe it makes residents here feel more comfortable,” said Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College. “I don’t think somebody planning a crime suddenly changes their mind because they see a billboard.”

Already, the criminals are responding. One billboard on the way into Orange County from Los Angeles County has been vandalized by a tagger to read: “Crime does pay in Orange County.”

“We’re leaving it up (that way) as a symbol of exactly what we’re fighting against, a widespread sentiment among some that crime does pay,” Spitzer said.

The Orange County district attorney’s office has concluded that jail personnel were not negligent in the suicide of former Southern California News Group columnist David Whiting’s adult son.

Sean Whiting, 35, was under suicide watch in an Orange County jail mental health unit when he choked to death after stuffing orange peels down his throat on Dec. 23, 2022.

Although the Sheriff’s Department “owed Whiting a duty of care, the evidence does not support a finding that this duty was in any way breached — either intentionally … or through criminal negligence,” concluded the district attorney’s investigation, released Thursday, March 21.

An attorney for David Whiting, who is suing the Sheriff’s Department, contended Thursday that jailers did not adequately monitor Sean Whiting and allowed him to stockpile oranges from his sack meals.

“They literally gave him the gun and gave him the bullets and then were surprised when he killed himself,” said attorney Annee Della Donna, arguing deputies should have routinely confiscated Sean Whiting’s trash.

David Whiting added: “I do hope for justice for Sean and especially other families whose adult children may have taken their lives in the Orange County jail. Those who do this are rarely in the right state of mind.”

David Whiting retired in 2019 as an award-winning metro columnist for the Southern California News Group and, earlier, the Orange County Register, where he had worked for three decades. Over his 10-year tenure as a columnist, he wrote more than 1,000 pieces. Previously, he was an assistant managing editor at the Register.

The Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the report because of the pending litigation.

Sean Whiting was arrested on Dec. 21, 2022, for violating a temporary restraining order obtained by his mother. He died two days later.

Whiting had a history of mental illness and had been hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation. He would not sleep for days because of severe insomnia, resulting in hallucinations, according to his father’s lawsuit. He also had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as well as anxiety disorder and suffered from depression.

Less than two hours before Sean Whiting’s death, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered him released from jail.

According to the district attorney’s report, Sean Whiting made statements while in custody that he was feeling depressed, wanted to kill himself and would stab himself in the neck, cut his wrists “or I’ll figure out a way.”

He was placed in a psychiatric observation unit at the jail’s Intake Release Center in a cell with a glass wall and a large observation window, the report said. There were security cameras inside and outside the cell.

Footage from the videos show deputies and jail workers checked on Whiting every 30 minutes and administered prescribed medication, according to the report. The video also captures Whiting stuffing food down his throat, but deputies did not respond until he pounded on the glass wall in distress.

“You have all those cameras — shouldn’t someone be watching those cameras?” Della Donna said.

The report says Whiting was behind a privacy wall shielding the commode when he stuffed the orange peels down his throat.

“There was nothing to indicate that Whiting was attempting to commit suicide,” said the report, adding that jail medical staff responded promptly when Whiting indicated he needed help.

“There is nothing to indicate that Whiting’s death was the result of inaction or improper action of OCSD personnel or those under the supervision of OCSD,” the report said.

As a gambler, Mathew Bowyer bet big, often unsuccessfully, listing nearly half a million dollars in losses to two Las Vegas casinos in his 2011 bankruptcy.

As a bookmaker, the Orange County man wagered that a client’s relationship with baseball phenom Shohei Ohtani would pay off by boosting Bowyer’s reputation in the gambling world.

Bowyer, who turns 49 next week, instead, ended up at the center of an international scandal over allegations by the Japanese-speaking Ohtani that a trusted friend and interpreter stole more than $4 million from Ohtani to pay down bets made with Bowyer.

A source associated with Bowyer said the now-fired interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, still has unpaid gambling debts, but would not say how much is owed.

Bowyer, reached by phone Wednesday, declined comment.

Ohtani spent six years with the Los Angeles Angels before signing the richest contract in sports history with the Los Angeles Dodgers — $700 million over 10 years — in the offseason. And Mizuhara, who lives in Diamond Bar and graduated from Diamond Bar High School, has been at his side nearly all the way.

Also see: Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter gets cheers from his old school, Diamond Bar High

According to ESPN, wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account were made to an associate of Bowyer purportedly to pay down Mizuhara’s gambling debt. Mizuhara initially told ESPN that Ohtani knew of the payments, but then recanted in a later interview. Ohtani’s attorneys then issued a statement that he was the victim of a “massive theft” and said they were reporting it to “authorities.”

Major League Baseball is conducting its own investigation into the gambling allegations involving Mizuhara.

Worn many hats

Square-jawed and unshaven, Bowyer has worn many hats over the years: bookie, former commodities trader, owner of a failed pest control business and operator of a Brazilian jujitsu studio called RYSK, where he is a white belt.

But it is his role in the Ohtani scandal that brought an unwelcome horde of reporters to his doorstep in San Juan Capistrano one recent morning and put a global spotlight on a federal investigation by the IRS, FBI and Homeland Security into Bowyer and illegal sports betting. California is one of only 12 states where sports betting is unlawful.

Bowyer’s relationship with Mizuhara began in 2021, when they met through a mutual friend in San Diego after a Padres game, the source said. They were in a hotel lobby and Mizuhara was placing a bet on his cellphone with another bookie.

The friend overheard Mizuhara, walked over and said, “This is the guy you need to be betting with,” and introduced him to Bowyer, according to the source.

ESPN has reported that Mizuhara and Bowyer met in 2021 at a San Diego poker game.

At first, Mizuhara started betting small on international soccer, basketball and football — never baseball. As the losses grew, so did the bets. But Mizuhara regularly paid his losses, a source said.

‘Never spoke with Ohtani’

“Mr. Bowyer never spoke with Ohtani. The only person he ever dealt with was Mr. Mizuhara,” said Bowyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, adding that they communicated through texts or verbally.

But Bowyer didn’t mind if people thought he was taking bets for Ohtani.

“When (Bowyer) heard Ohtani’s name was on one of the wire transfers for Mizuhara’s debt, he didn’t shy away from boasting Ohtani was his client because he thought it would bring him more business,” the source said.

As part of the investigation, Bowyer’s 4,500-square-foot home not far from Mission San Juan Capistrano was raided by federal agents in October. No charges have been filed.

Filed for bankruptcy in 2011

Bowyer’s relationship with gambling dates back before 2011, when he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. At the time he was a divorced father of four earning $65,652 a year working for a trading company, according to federal court records. He reported gambling losses totaling $425,000 in 2010 and 2011 to the Cosmopolitan and Aria casinos in Las Vegas.

Bowyer also had taken a total of $524,000 in personal loans from three people, two of them registered real estate agents in Orange County, contributing to $2 million in liabilities with only $879,000 in assets — mostly for his then-home in Aliso Viejo, bankruptcy documents show.

The investigation into Bowyer is linked to the probe into Wayne Nix, a former minor league pitcher and bookmaker whose clients included ex-Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig. Nix pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business in 2022. There have been nearly a dozen other indictments, said the Washington Post.

Heavy debts at Las Vegas casinos

Court records show Bowyer had trouble with some casinos, which sued him for not paying his marker or bouncing a check, the Post reported.

The Aria casino filed a $250,000 suit against him for an allegedly bounced check, with the litigation ultimately being dismissed, the Post said.

The Post and the Los Angeles Times reported Bowyer was given $1.2 million in credit by Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut after his bankruptcy, but he failed to pay back the marker. The casino sued him in tribal court, according to the Post, and was still trying to collect on the debt in Orange County Superior Court in 2023.

A source close to Bowyer said he was initially banned by some Las Vegas casinos, and now with the federal investigation is unwelcome at all casinos. He currently is writing an autobiography.

Staff writer Destiny Torres contributed to this report.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus was quick to disclose information after deputies fatally shot an autistic 15-year-old boy armed with a sharp gardening tool in Apple Valley.

Within days of the March 9 shooting outside a home, Dicus released portions of the body-worn camera footage and defended his deputies at a news conference.

Conversely, in Fontana, more than four months after police shot and killed a man in November while responding to a domestic dispute, the department has stayed mum about the details of the shooting.

Fontana police have been equally silent in two of three other shootings by its officers since then, each time invoking the exemption in state transparency law allowing police to temporarily withhold some details if a case is under investigation.

Said Chief Michael Dorsey: “These investigations take months to complete and I will not be responsible for releasing information prematurely that can jeopardize an investigation.”

While the law may allow such silence, police are still free to release more information, as Sheriff Dicus demonstrated. Media attorneys argue that just because police can withhold some details doesn’t mean they should.

The investigation exemption “is not a ‘get-out-of-jail-free-card’ for public information,” said David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, an open government group. “There can’t be a complete black hole, they have to disclose more information than they are.”

In the Fontana shooting on Nov. 11, 2023, police said officers responded to a call of a man threatening family members at 7:30 p.m. in the 7100 block of Big Sur Street. Police encountered the man and an officer-involved shooting occurred, said the news release. An officer was injured.

The state attorney general’s office, which investigates police shootings when the subject is unarmed, is looking into the Fontana shooting and identified the deceased as Jaime Valdez, 33, of Fontana. However, the Fontana Police Department has not released any more details on the shooting, continuing to cling to its vague press release.

Other shootings

The department also has been tight-lipped about other, more recent shootings involving its officers.

On Dec.13, 2023, Fontana police pulled over a car that was identified earlier in a report of someone brandishing a gun. The driver fled on foot, “the situation escalated” and officers fatally shot the man, said the sparse news release. A gun was recovered at the scene, it said.

Again, more than three months later, Fontana police would not say how the “situation escalated” or whether the man was holding the gun when he was killed. In reports published by other media organizations, the man’s family identified him as Jose Pena and said he was shot in the back. 

The family has accused the city of repeatedly refusing to release documents and videos of the shooting to their attorneys, according to a lawsuit they filed in late January.

State disclosure laws

The suit claims the refusals violate state public disclosure laws. Under Assembly Bill 473, they say, Fontana should have released video of the incident 45 days after Pena was shot.

The 2021 bill established the time window for police agencies to disclose video records deemed to be in the public interest. While the law allows police to withhold audio and video recordings they believe could compromise criminal investigations, the bill also requires them to explain their reasoning in writing.

Attorneys for the family pressed the city to release a “critical incident video” documenting the shooting. Such videos have been released by the Los Angeles Police Department since 2018, after city lawmakers passed new rules requiring them to do so.

LAPD was among the first agencies in the state to produce critical incident videos, regularly releasing them on YouTube. While often highly edited, the videos typically provide most of the available video of an incident from officers’ body-worn cameras and from dashboard cameras on their cruisers, as well as audio from 911 calls and radio communication between dispatchers and officers.

Since then, agencies large and small have adopted similar video-release policies.

The Pena family said in its lawsuit that attorneys for Fontana demurred when asked if they would release a critical incident video.

“Amongst other things, counsel for (Fontana) indicated, but not confirmed, that the city may not likely publish critical incident video within 45 days of the shooting,” according to the suit.

An attorney for the Pena family did not return multiple requests for comment.

The Southern California News Group requested the bodycam footage of the December encounter but was denied by the Fontana department as well, citing the investigation exemption and saying the release would have a negative effect on locating, contacting and interviewing witnesses.

February shootings

Two other shootings involving Fontana officers occurred in February.

On Feb. 9, a Fontana officer shot and injured a man in Yucaipa who allegedly had a gun in his vehicle. The officer was part of a San Bernardino County crime suppression unit called Operation Consequences. The man purportedly was pulled over for alleged traffic violations.

Fontana police released the name and age of the person who was shot: Allen Metka, 56. Police said a gun was found in the vehicle, but would not say where the firearm was specifically located or if Metka was holding the weapon. A month later, they would not give an update on Metka’s injury or disclose whether he has been charged with a crime. Police also would not give any information on how the shooting occurred or, still, the specific location of the gun.

And then on Feb. 26, Fontana officers shot and killed a man who fled inside a Home Depot store after running into nearby traffic. The initial news release was vague and said the man armed himself with an “edged weapon.”

Details disclosed

However, the department — in stark contrast with the other shootings — later released more information, identifying the deceased as Marcus Allen Camacho, 36, of Fontana. Police also said Camacho brushed off an attempt by officers to incapacitate him with a Taser and charged at them, wielding a 6-inch, jagged, jab saw blade that he grabbed from the store.

Police said the officers tried to deescalate the situation, to no avail, and that Camacho matched the name and age of an individual arrested that morning in Fontana on suspicion of being under the influence in public. The same person was arrested on the same charge earlier that month.

So why was the Fontana department more forthcoming in the Home Depot shooting?

“They can do it when they want to,” said attorney Kelly Aviles, who specializes in open government cases.

Like the other Fontana officer-involved-shootings, the Home Depot incident is being investigated by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which is standard procedure. A sheriff’s spokesperson said neither the Sheriff’s Department nor its coroner division could release information on any of the shootings, citing an agreement it has with the Fontana Police Department.

The basic state law regarding the release of police information is the California Public Records Act, which was enacted in 1968 and requires law enforcement to, at a minimum, disclose such things as the name and age of the victim and the circumstances surrounding the incident.

In 2019, SB 1421 expanded the records act to require, among other things, that police reports be released for officer-involved shootings, with delays allowed for cases under investigation.

Why secrecy in some cases?

Attorney Tiffany Bailey, interim director of police practices for the ACLU of Southern California, said police should not be allowed to shroud some officer-involved-shootings in secrecy, while releasing more details in others.

“They cannot be allowed to pick and choose when releasing information. They should be consistent across the board,” Bailey said. “Absent details provided by the department, it’s hard for the community to understand what occurred. So ideally, the department should be providing as much information as they possibly can.”

Dorsey said he is being as open as possible with the public and denied giving more information in the Home Depot shooting than in the others.

“I am not trying to hide anything,” he said. “My sole intent is to let the investigation take its course by the outside investigating agencies while providing transparent information to the community as soon as possible and as soon as the investigation allows.”

Since January, San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators have been secretly watching Deputy Christopher Bingham, a firearms expert and former gun shop owner with suspected ties to the notorious Mongols motorcycle group.

Their surveillance led to the arrest Thursday, April 4, of the 45-year-old Twentynine Palms resident, who was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, with bail set at $500,000. He has been charged with stealing a shotgun from the department, participating in a criminal street gang and possessing a machine gun, a short-barreled rifle, silencers and the stolen shotgun.

Bingham, an 18-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, is expected to be arraigned by video on Monday, April 8.

“The actions of this deputy are alarming and inexcusable; he not only tarnishes his badge but also undermines the integrity and credibility of the entire department,” Sheriff Shannon Dicus said. “Criminal behavior will not be tolerated, and we have placed him on compulsory leave effective immediately.”

Bingham’s downfall came March 23, when a detective following the deputy saw him riding a Harley-Davidson along with another man near Onaga Trail and Elk Trail in Yucca Valley, according to a source close to the investigation. Bingham’s companion was wearing a black leather vest with Mongols gang patches.

The detective followed Bingham and the other man onto the westbound 10 Freeway and alerted the California Highway Patrol. A CHP officer pulled Bingham and the other man over for speeding as they approached Highland Springs Road in Beaumont. Both men told the officer they were carrying knives, the source said.

While searching the two men, the officer found an unregistered Glock 9mm handgun on Bingham, who identified himself as “law enforcement.” The sheriff’s detective subsequently arrested Bingham at the scene and took him to the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, where Bingham was booked on suspicion of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm.

At the jail, the source said, Bingham was again searched. He wore a T-shirt that read, “(Expletive) the 81!” The number “81” is a nickname for the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club, a longtime rival of the Mongols. Also on the T-shirt were the initials “SYLM,” which stands for “Support Your Local Mongols.” Bingham also was wearing a ring — with the black letter “M” on it — that hung from a chain around his neck, according to the source.

Bingham subsequently was released from custody.

Investigators later that day searched Bingham’s home on Adobe Road in Twentynine Palms, finding about 160 firearms, including a modified, fully automatic assault rifle with an attached grenade launcher, the stolen Remington 870 shotgun, a customized AR-15 assault rifle with a 12-inch barrel, the silencers and Mongols paraphernalia.

District Attorney Jason Anderson could not say Friday whether Bingham is suspected of trafficking guns for the Mongols, nor could he confirm Bingham’s supposed affiliation with the outlaw motorcycle gang. Anderson was, however, able to confirm one thing with certainty.

“This appears to involve the Mongols, without question,” Anderson said.

Bingham has been with the Sheriff’s Department since September 2005, and earned $288,012 in pay and benefits in 2022, according to Transparent California, a public pay database.

According to published reports, Bingham testified in a 2019 double-murder trial in which he sold a 45-caliber handgun to the defendant before the killings. During the trial, Bingham was identified as the owner of the O’Three Tactical gun shop in Twentynine Palms, which closed in June 2021 after six years in operation.

On a Facebook posting, the owner said: “After being unable to maintain any kind of inventory and hemmoraging (sic) my own personal finances over the last year trying to keep our doors open, O’Three Tactical will be permanently closing its doors.”

The post continued, “Please do no (sic) start calling my personal phone or showing up at my front door.”

A San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy charged with possession of illegal firearms, explosive devices and grand theft in connection with the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang pleaded not guilty Tuesday, April 9, at his first court appearance on the charges.

Shackled and wearing a green jail jumpsuit indicating he has been isolated from the general population at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Christopher Bingham appeared before Judge Colin Bilash in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Bingham, 45, is charged with 10 felony counts, including grand theft of a Remington 870 shotgun — reportedly stolen from the Sheriff’s Department — and possession of a machine gun, a short-barreled AR-15 assault rifle, two explosive devices and four gun silencers. He is being held on $240,000 bail and was ordered to return to court April 18 for a preliminary hearing.

Each charge against Bingham includes a gang enhancement alleging the crimes were committed “for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street gang,” in this case, the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang.

Bingham, an 18-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, was arrested on Thursday, April 4, at his home in Twentynine Palms, where a March 23 raid by sheriff’s investigators yielded 160 firearms, explosive devices and Mongols paraphernalia, including a fully-patched leather vest, according to the Sheriff’s Department and sources close to the investigation.

Clutching a white motorcycle helmet as he left the San Bernardino Justice Center following Tuesday’s proceedings, Bingham’s attorney, Jeff G. Moore, declined to comment, other than to say, “The preliminary hearing should be interesting.”

Asked to elaborate, Moore, a former Riverside County prosecutor, said, “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Background checks

The criminal case against Bingham isn’t his first brush with trouble from his own department.

In late 2019 or early 2020, Bingham came under suspicion for improperly using the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS, to conduct criminal background checks. The Sheriff’s Department referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office to potential charges, but county prosecutors turned the case down in January 2020 due to insufficient evidence, district attorney’s spokesperson Jacquelyn Rodriguez said Tuesday.

Rodriguez could not confirm whether Bingham had allegedly misused the CLETS database to conduct criminal background checks on customers at his former gun shop in Twentynine Palms, O’Three Tactical.

O’Three Tactical gun shop

Bingham, a former Marine, operated O’Three Tactical from 2015 through 2021 near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, on Twentynine Palms Highway, east of Adobe Road.

With its proximity to the military base, O’Three Tactical was popular with Marines and law enforcement officers from as far away as Downey and Newport Beach, according to a former employee who asked to not be identified.

The employee, who described Bingham as a dirt bike enthusiast who rode a Kawasaki motorcycle and drove a Jeep, said the gun shop sold firearms and magazines to and did repairs for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department as well as other agencies.

“Everything we did was legit,” the employee said. “It was really by the book. … (Bingham) was teaching us the right way. Everything was certified.”

Bingham would kick people out of the shop for wearing the “colors” of an illegal motorcycle gang or smelling like weed, and also participated in fund-raisers with the Sheriff’s Department and conducted gun raffles, said the former employee, who left in 2017 and described Bingham’s arrest as “off-putting.”

Bingham shuttered O’Three Tactical on June 23, 2021.

“After being unable to maintain any kind of inventory and hemmoraging (sic) my own personal finances over the last year trying to keep our doors open, O’Three Tactical will be permanently closing its doors,” Bingham said earlier that June in a post on the gun shop’s Facebook page.

Origins of raid

The March 23 raid on Bingham’s home stemmed from an ongoing sheriff’s investigation into his activities that began in January and culminated with his arrest earlier that day on the westbound 10 Freeway in Beaumont. A source close to the investigation said Bingham and another man were riding Harley-Davidsons when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled them over for speeding.

The man Bingham was riding with was wearing a black leather vest with Mongols patches, according to the source.

The CHP officer, according to the source, seized from Bingham an unregistered Glock 9 mm handgun he had in his possession, and Bingham identified himself as law enforcement. A sheriff’s deputy who had followed Bingham and his friend from Yucca Valley arrested Bingham and booked him on suspicion of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm. Bingham subsequently was released from custody.

A Sheriff’s Department news release said Bingham was riding with two other “outlaw motorcycle gang” members — not one — at the time of his first arrest.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs

The U.S. Department of Justice lists the Mongols among a group of outlaw motorcycle gangs, or OMGs, “whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises.” The Justice Department characterizes them as “highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking.”

The United States is home to more than 300 active outlaw motorcycle gangs ranging in size from single chapters with five or six members to hundreds of chapters with thousands of members, according to the Justice Department.

And the outlaw motorcycle gangs often clash, typically triggering law enforcement investigations.

Last month, authorities in Stanislaus County arrested four men and seized drugs, guns and bomb-making materials as part of a months-long investigation into outlaw motorcycle clubs. The investigation began last year amid violent altercations between dozens of members of the Hells Angels, Mongols and Salida Nomads.

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter has been charged with stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay the translator’s illegal gambling debts, federal authorities announced Thursday, April 11.

Ippei Mizuhara, who was fired by Ohtani’s current team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, is charged with a single count of bank fraud, carrying a possible federal prison sentence of up to 30 years.

Related: Ippei Mizuhara made 19,000 illegal wagers and fell into debt by more than $40 million, feds reveal

Mizuhara is scheduled to surrender Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, authorities said. He is expected to be released on bond. Mizuhara’s attorney, Michael Freedman, declined comment Thursday.

At a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Martin Estrada said Mizuhara, 39, of Newport Beach had impersonated Ohtani in phone calls to the bank to authorize the wire transfers to an illegal bookmaking operation. Estrada said Mizuhara in 2018 helped Ohtani set up the bank account in Arizona to deposit the ballplayer’s salary, so he was familiar with the codes and personal information necessary to access the money.

Investigators found recordings of the phone calls between Mizuhara and bank officials.

Mizuhara allegedly told Ohtani’s U.S.-based financial professionals, none of whom spoke Japanese, that Ohtani had denied them access to the account, authorities said.

Ohtani knew nothing of the fraud or gambling payments and was purely a victim, Estrada said, adding that investigators reviewed electronic communications between Ohtani and Mizuhara and none included discussions about gambling or authorization to access Ohtani’s bank account.

“Mr. Mizuhara used and abused (his) position of trust in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account,” Estrada said, adding that Mizuhara was feeding an “insatiable appetite” for gambling.

Authorities added that up until March, Mizuhara also used Ohtani’s account to buy about 1,000 baseball cards for $325,000 through eBay and Whatnot. Mizuhara allegedly used the alias “Jay Min” and had the cards sent to the Dodgers’ clubhouse.

Mizuhara’s involvement with the Orange County bookmaker turned up in a far-reaching investigation by the IRS, Homeland Security and FBI into illegal gambling in Southern California and the laundering of proceeds through Las Vegas casinos, according to an affidavit filed with the federal complaint. To date, the probe has led to 12 convictions and what authorities called “non-prosecution agreements” with two casinos in Las Vegas.

Mizuhara met the bookmaker in 2021 — a source said in San Diego after a Padres game — and started placing sports bets, according to authorities. In time, the bets became more frequent and of higher denominations, amounting to thousands of wagers. None was on baseball, Estrada said.

From November 2021 to January 2024, Mizuhara wired funds through his electronic devices and IP addresses to the bookie, authorities said.

Estrada said winnings from Mizuhara’s gambling ventures went straight to his account, not Ohtani’s.

Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers in late March while the team was in Seoul, South Korea, for two major league games with the Padres after published allegations tied him to an estimated $4.5 million in payouts from Ohtani’s bank account to the alleged illegal bookmaking operation.

At the time, Ohtani’s attorneys issued a news release that the Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive fraud” and that they were turning the matter over to authorities.

Mizuhara, a graduate Diamond Bar High School, told ESPN that he had paid the money through Ohtani’s account to an associate of alleged bookie Mathew Bowyer, a former exterminator and commodities trader who now operates a Brazilian jujitsu studio.

Bowyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, has said Bowyer dealt only with Mizuhara and never with Ohtani. But a source affiliated with Bowyer said the bookmaker allowed his associates to believe that Ohtani was doing the betting as a way of drumming up business.

In a later news conference in Seoul, Ohtani told a worldwide gathering of reporters that he never gambled and that Mizuhari had lied to him and stole from him. Ohtani told the media that he was “very saddened and shocked.”

The source said Mizuhara bet on international soccer and professional football and basketball, not baseball, which is disallowed by the league.

Mizuhara was a fixture in Ohtani’s life during the ballplayer’s meteoric rise in the big leagues, initially with the Los Angeles Angels. More than just an interpreter, he had become a trusted friend and what Estrada described as a “de facto manager.” Mizuhara often caught for Ohtani in pregame warm-ups, battled with him in video games and made grocery runs for Ohtani during the pandemic.

Ohtani took Mizuhara with him when he left the Angels after six years to join the Dodgers in free agency on a 10-year, $700 million contract.

In the aftermath of the gambling scandal, questions arose about Mizuhara’s resume, as cited in news stories and the Angels media guide. The Athletic reported that Mizuhara never attended or graduated from UC Riverside as stated in his bio and that he did not interpret for players in Boston and New York.

Staff writer Scott Schwebke contributed to this report.

On the gambling books, Ippei Mizuhara was known by the account number “35966.”

Using that handle, Mizuhara made 19,000 illegal wagers with an Orange County bookmaker, averaging 25 bets a day, from $10 to $160,000, indicating the level of his alleged addiction. In one day in October, he made three bets totaling $233,386, authorities said.

Related: Ohtani’s interpreter charged with bank fraud, stealing $16 million from ballplayer

The former translator for Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani did his share of winning, to the tune of $142.5 million, in little more than two years. But it wasn’t nearly enough to cover his losses of nearly $183 million.

A federal affidavit filed Thursday, April 11, in the federal bank fraud case against Mizuhara, 39, of Newport Beach, shows in detail what a federal prosecutor described as his “insatiable appetite” for gambling and his despair as he fell more than $40 million into debt. He is accused of stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay down his losses, much higher than the $4.5 million embezzlement figure initially reported by the media.

Mizuhara was awash in bad bets.

As he said in a text message to his bookie, believed to be Mathew Bowyer of San Juan Capistrano: “I’m terrible at this sports betting thing, huh? LOL.”

According to the affidavit, Mizuhara in 2018 helped set up Ohtani’s payroll account in Arizona and later linked the account to Mizuhara’s own cellphone. That phone was seized by federal investigators when Mizuhara arrived last month at Los Angeles International Airport from South Korea, where the Dodgers had played the San Diego Padres in two games.

Mizuhara’s involvement with Bowyer turned up in a probe by the IRS, Homeland Security and FBI into illegal gambling in Southern California and the laundering of proceeds through Las Vegas casinos, the affidavit said.

Bowyer, one of the alleged targets of the federal investigation, met Mizuhara in 2021 after a San Diego Padres games, according to a source affiliated with Bowyer. Investigators seized Bowyer’s cellphone, which allegedly contained numerous conversations about illegal bookmaking.

The affidavit quoted one email sent by a casino worker to another would-be gambler, saying Bowyer “takes big action and can give you whatever you need.”

Mizuhara seemed to need a lot, according to the texts recovered from his phone.

Authorities said Mizuhara started off betting small and then built up.

Ultimately, Mizuhara found himself repeatedly asking the bookmaker for more credit — or bumps — and more time to pay it off. At one point, Mizuhara asked his bookie to lower his credit because he had the tendency to get too “reckless,” but then reversed himself, promising on “his mom” to pay his debt, according to the affidavit.

Even after after Mizuhara was down $1 million, the bookmaker extended his credit, the document showed.

“Any chance you can bump me again,” Mizuhara allegedly texted, “As you know, you don’t have to worry about me not paying.”

But the bookmaker did worry and at one point threatened to approach Ohtani because Mizuhara stopped returning his texts.

In early January, the bookie wrote, “You’re putting me in a position where it’s going to get out of control. If I don’t hear from you it’s gonna be out of my hands.”

Mizuhara replied: “I’m really struggling right now, I need some time.”

The affidavit shows that the first unauthorized payment from Ohtani’s account was for $40,010 in November 2021 and grew to denominations of $500,000.

Authorities said Mizuhara sometimes called Ohtani’s bank masquerading as the ballplayer, once saying he needed to send the money for a car loan. The bank, responding to the suspicious call, froze Ohtani’s online transactions. The account was unlocked after Mizuhara called again, identifying himself as Ohtani and offering biographical information, the affidavit said.

Bowyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, declined comment Thursday, as did Mizuhara’s lawyer, Michael Freedman.