News

California Truck Parts Manufacturer Pays $1 Million After Pleading Guilty to Conspiracy and for Manufacturing and Selling Illega Parts

SACRAMENTO - Diesel performance parts manufacturer Sinister Mfg. Company Inc. – doing business as “Sinister Diesel” – pleaded guilty to criminal charges today in federal court and agreed to pay a total of $1 million in criminal fines and civil penalties. The company also agreed to implement a compliance program and not to manufacture, sell or install any device that defeats a vehicle’s emissions controls.

Sinister Diesel pleaded guilty to a two-count Information, charging it with conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) and defraud the United States and with violating the CAA by tampering with the monitoring device of an emissions control system of a diesel truck. Under the plea agreement, the defendant agrees to pay a $500,000 criminal fine.

North Fork Man Arrested for Possession and Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

NORTH FORK - Madera County Sheriff’s Detectives received a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) through the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC) regarding the possession and distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Imagery that was uploaded to the internet in Madera County.

MCSO Detectives immediately initiated an investigation and identified 51-year-old Madera County resident Wayeng Cha of North Fork, CA as the suspect. On Wednesday, April 7, 2021, Cha was taken into custody and booked at the Madera County Jail for felony possession and distribution of CSAI (Child Sexual Abuse Imagery).

Two Men Convicted of Using Credit and Debit Card Skimmers at Fresno Gas Stations

FRESNO - Akop Dongelyan, 47, of Glendale, and Artak Vardanyan, 40, of Burbank, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to commit credit and debit card fraud, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court records, in November 2015, Dongelyan and Vardanyan went on a crime spree in Fresno and Southern California, stealing multiple victims’ credit and debit card information through skimmers at gas stations. They then used that information to make counterfeit credit and debit cards and fraudulently withdraw $198,000 from the victims’ accounts.

Fresno Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Distribution of Child Pornography

FRESNO - Gary Lee Briggs, 66, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to receiving and distributing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, on Jan. 3, 2020, a concerned citizen reported to law enforcement that Briggs appeared to be trying to lure an eight-year-old boy into Briggs’s apartment in Fresno.

When officers confronted Briggs, he reported that he planned to test his ability to withstand urges that attracted him to the boy. Briggs also admitted that Facebook recently terminated his account for transmitting sexually explicit material on that platform. Facebook separately had notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that Briggs’s Facebook account had been used to transmit sexually explicit images of minors from August through December 2019.

Sheriff’s Office Identifies Armed Suspect who was Shot After Attacking Deputy

FRESNO - The Fresno man who was shot and killed after allegedly attacking a Fresno County Sheriff’s deputy Friday afternoon has been identified as 30-year-old Tyler Kennedy Deel. The Fresno Police Department is assisting the Fresno County Sheriff's Office with the investigation.

Around 4:00 pm on Friday, deputies were dispatched to a home on the 5600 block of South Waverly Lane in southeast Fresno. There was a report of a man named Tyler Deel, who was armed with a knife, trying to attack his family members. While en route, dispatchers notified deputies that the suspect had fled the house. About 10 minutes after the initial call, a deputy in the area spotted a man matching the suspect's description walking toward a shopping center on the northeast corner of Kings Canyon Road & Clovis Avenue.

Direct TV Customers Lose Nexstar Programing Over Local Fee Dispute: KSEE24 & KGPE47

EL SEGUNDO -The nation's largest local broadcaster, Nexstar Media Group, is forcing the temporary loss of more than 200 stations for DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and U-verse customers in more than 100 metro areas following the recent contract expiration. After denying Nexstar's demands for DIRECTV to pay more than double the previous fees for the same content, DIRECTV lost the rights to offer Nexstar-controlled ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW stations in select markets, as well as NewsNation.

Since the end of 2022 alone, Nexstar has threatened or removed stations it owns or controls from DIRECTV (Oct. 2022), Verizon FIOS (Oct. 2022), Comcast Xfinity (Dec. 2022), DISH Network (Jan. 2023), FuboTV (Feb.-March 2023) and Altice USA-Optimum (March 2023).

Central Valley Man Sentenced to over 6 Years in Prison for $9 Million Cow Manure Ponzi Scheme

FRESNO - Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville, and Sheridan, Montana, was sentenced today to six years and nine months in prison for running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme where he purported to turn cow manure into green energy, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court records, from March 2014 through December 2019, Brewer stole $8,750,000 from investors by claiming to build anaerobic digesters on dairies in Fresno, Kern, Kings, and Tulare Counties, as well as other counties in California and Idaho. Anaerobic digesters are large machines that use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material and turn it into methane. The methane can then be sold on the open market as green energy.