Christine Pelisek

Watchdog Group Will Release Report on Rape Kit Backlog in LA County

Christine Pelisek
Human Rights Watch will release a report tomorrow about the rape kit backlog in Los Angeles. The much-anticipated report, entitled "Testing Justice: The Rape Kit Backlog in Los Angeles City and County," is purportedly the first comprehensive study about the issue. The 68-page report reveals that there are more than......

L.A. Planning Commission Approves New Sign Law

Christine Pelisek
The Los Angeles Planning Commission voted today to adopt a new sign ordinance that would prohibit brightly-lit digital billboards and giant vinyl supergraphics citywide but allow them in 21 potential sign districts. The commission also voted to establish a city task force to annually review the impact of the new......

Is L.A. Planning Commissioner Bill Roschen in love with billboards?

Christine Pelisek
The Los Angeles Planning Department will most likely vote Thursday on whether to back a sign ordinance that will prohibit giant-sized supergraphics and brightly-lit digital billboards from the city's sweeping landscape but allow them in 21 potential sign districts around the city. Fighting the charge to adopt the new billboard......
The Boo-Yaa Counter

Grim Sleeper Web Site Creator Unmasked

Christine Pelisek
Ever since the L.A. Weekly broke the story about the Grim Sleeper serial killer in August of 2008, the news about his ongoing killings, which began in 1985 on the streets of South Los Angeles, has gone global. We dubbed the male suspect the Grim Sleeper because he took a......
LAPD’s giant freezers

DNA Deep Freeze

Christine Pelisek
New Yorker Sarah Tofte, a Manhattan-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, was looking for a meaningful project to undertake when the trim blonde decided to focus on DNA in rape cases that have sat, untested, on evidence shelves of the nation’s police departments. She had been bothered ever since discovering......
(function(r, d, u) { var s = d.createElement(r); s.async = true; s.setAttribute('data-cfasync', false); u += '&cb=' + Date.now() + Math.random(); s.src = u; var n = d.getElementsByTagName(r)[0]; n.parentNode.insertBefore(s, n); })('script', document, '//engine.laweekly.com/?221982862');
A “preppy black man”: That’s how Enietra Margette remembers the Grim Sleeper outside this market.; Credit: Orly Olivier

Grim Sleeper's Sole Survivor

Christine Pelisek
UPDATE: A Lifetime movie featuring LA Weekly reporter Christine Pelisek explores the DNA-based manhunt for the alleged Grim Sleeper. Suspect Lonnie Franklin Jr. is now in jail in L.A., where he is mounting an aggressive defense against charges that he murdered 10 women -- and where he enjoys regular visits......
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Lady Looters Get Prison Time for Sayre Fire Caper

Christine Pelisek
Two female burglars who were caught red-handed looting a suburban Porter Ranch home during the Sayre Fire were sentenced to prison on March 5. Judge Ronald S. Coen sentenced 32-year-old Sabrina Devens to four-years in state prison, and the suspected brains, Gina Rios, 19, to a two-year state prison term......