Dr. Conrad Murray to surrender today.

Dr. Conrad Murray is expected to surrender to authorities in Los Angeles this week on charges related to Michael Jackson's death, according to The Associated Press and CNN. Murray arrived in Los Angeles recently from Houston in anticipation of a decision from the district attorney's office, spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik told the AP..

"Dr. Murray is in Los Angeles for a dual purpose — on family business and to be available for law enforcement," Sevcik told the AP. "We're trying to be as cooperative as we can."

"Dr. Murray is more than ready to surrender and answer to any charges," Ed Chernoff, one of Murray's lawers, told CNN, adding that prosecutors have not announced any charges, and Murray has not been told how or where he should surrender.

No official comment has been made about when charges might, come; David Walgren, the deputy district attorney handling the case, declined to comment to the AP on Tuesday (February 2).

Law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the AP that Murray is likely to be charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 25 death from an anesthetic overdose. Murray has denied criminal wrongdoing.

"We continue to maintain that Dr. Murray neither prescribed nor administered anything that should have killed Michael Jackson," Sevcik said.

Earlier this year, TMZ reported that the Los Angeles Police Department had completed its investigation into Jackson's death and was preparing to send the case to the DA's office within weeks.

Murray has told investigators that he administered the surgical anesthetic propofol, as well as other tranquilizers, to Jackson several times in the hours leading up to his death, and the coroner has ruled the singer died of lethal levels of the drug. Involuntary manslaughter charges would require prosecutors to show that Murray engaged in gross negligence in his actions but did not intend to cause harm or death to Jackson.

Cleanup under way in 462,000-gallon oil spill off Port Arthur

CNN) -- Crews removed about 46,000 gallons of oil from waters near Port Arthur, Texas, on Sunday, roughly 10 percent of the oil spilled a day earlier when a tanker collided with two barges, a U.S. Coast Guard officer said.

An estimated 462,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from barrels aboard the tanker, forcing the closure of the port in southern Texas, Petty Officer Larry Chambers told CNN. The Sabine Neches Waterway near Port Arthur also was closed. It was unclear Sunday when the port, about 100 miles east of Houston, Texas, will reopen or when crews will finish the cleanup, he said.

"We certainly want it to be done as soon as possible, but with that said, safety is the main issue," Chambers said. "We're not going to open the port until it's determined that vessels can pass through cleanly, safely and not cause any further damage."

No injuries were reported when the Exxon Mobile-chartered tanker -- the 807-foot Eagle Otome -- collided Saturday with two barges being towed by a tug boat. The tanker was carrying about 570,000 gallons of crude oil to Exxon's Beaumont refinery when it crashed, Exxon Mobile spokesman Kevin Allexon told CNN. The cause of the crash was unknown, but is under investigation, he said.

"We are very concerned about how this could have happened," Allexon said. "We are very concerned about the impact to the environment, to the community. No one wants to see this happen."

The port is primarily for industrial use, but it is not far from wetlands. None of the nearby marshes or sensitive wildlife were adversely affected, Chambers said, but one heron was "oiled." The bird was alive and undergoing treatment, he said.

An evacuation order that was imposed in a 50-block area around the port after the collision was lifted. That area was evacuated Saturday out of caution, as the tanker was carrying a type of oil containing sulfide.

Fifteen skimming vessels sailed the area recovering the oil and workers dropped more than 45,000 feet of boom -- fencing-like material -- to keep the oil from spreading, Chambers said. More than 500 people were involved in containing and cleaning the spill, said Darrell Wilson, spokesman for Malaysia-based AET Tanker Holdings, the owner of the tanker.

The biggest oil spill in U.S. history occurred in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in the Gulf of Alaska, resulting in the spill of 11 million gallons of crude.

Oil Equipment Maker Hit by $14M Embezzlement

BY MICHAEL COHN JANUARY 18, 2010
Davis-Lynch, a Pearland, Texas-based maker of oil field equipment, had $14 million embezzled from the company accounts over a decade’s time, according to a federal lawsuit filed against 18 employees, including the head of the accounting department.

It’s just the latest case of embezzlement by accounting workers. A study released last week by Marquet International found that two-thirds of embezzlement cases last year involved employees who held finance and accounting positions (see Accounting, Finance Workers Most Likely to Embezzle). In the case of Davis-Lynch, accounting department supervisor Nancy Moreno, a 12-year employee who ran accounts payable and receivable, was named in the suit, along with three other employees who worked in the department under her supervision, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Other defendants included several of Moreno’s family members and relatives. The scheme involved dummy companies with names that resembled those that Davis-Lynch already did business with billing the company for services. Davis-Lynch executives would then be tricked into signing checks to them, or their signatures would be forged. Some of the defendants also owned companies that would perform some services for Davis-Lynch but would continue to bill for services they didn’t perform.

According to the Marquet study, the average embezzlement scheme lasted four-and-a-half years. In the Davis-Lynch case, the checks issued under the scheme date back to at least May of 2000. That’s not a surprising amount of time for a scheme to go uncovered, particularly when it allegedly involved at least four members of the accounting department.

The case in some ways is reminiscent of the D.C. Tax Office scandal, in which a group of employees and supervisors, and their family members, were involved in stealing $48.1 million by filing phony property tax refunds (see D.C. Tax Scam Ringleader Sentenced to 17 Years). When employees cover up for other employees, and get extra help from family members, accounting fraud and embezzlement become that much easier to get away with for a time, until ultimately and inevitably it gets uncovered by somebody.

Brazoswood whoops up on Stings

By Billy Loveless
Special to The Facts
Published January 13, 2010

CLUTE — Brazoswood’s boys soccer team continued its hot start to the season Tuesday with a 6-2 pounding of Texas City at Slade Field.

The victory, coupled with a win at the Pearland/Friendswood tournament over the weekend, ups the Bucs’ overall record to an undefeated 5-0 mark.

While he admits it’s good to start the year with some wins, Brazoswood head coach Jeff Hunt isn’t allowing his team to look ahead.

“It’s nice to start out this way, but you sure don’t want to hang your hat on it yet,” Hunt said.

“We have a long season ahead, but it’s good to get a little confidence early on.”

The Bucs appeared to have plenty of confidence against Texas City.

Brazoswood scored two early goals to jump out to a quick lead. Then, after Texas City (2-3) scored midway into the first half, the Bucs turned it up a notch and grabbed control of the game.

Brazoswood took multiple shots, resulting in two more goals, in the final 15 minutes of the first half, followed by two more quick goals in the opening five minutes of the second half to up the ante to 6-1.

Nick Sanchez netted three goals in the game, including both of the second-half scores, while Roy Renteria found the back of the net twice. Will Robbins ended with one goal.

“We’ve got some things to work on, but it’s stuff we can clean up in practice,” Hunt said. “Texas City is a very, very fast team and we needed to play someone that would run up and down the field with us.”

The game began on a strong note for Brazoswood when Sanchez headed the ball to Robbins, who scored from close range for the contest’s initial goal two minutes in.

The Bucs increased their lead 13 minutes later when Sanchez netted his first score off a throw-in from Robbins.

Texas City responded with an aggressive offensive attack that resulted in a goal by Luis Rodriguez to cut Brazoswood’s advantage to 2-1 with just less than 15 minutes remaining in the first half.

That seemed get the Bucs fired up, however, as they scored four unanswered goals in the next 20 minutes.

Renteria scored consecutive goals before the first half ended to give Brazoswood a comfortable 4-1 lead.

Renteria’s first goal came off a corner kick from Shea Blevins. His second goal was possibly the nicest score of the game. On the play, Joe Sanabria threw the ball in to Robbins, who delivered a crisp pass to Renteria right in front of the goal for the close-range shot.

“I think a lot of it was panic mode,” Hunt said. “We weren’t playing the kind of ball we had played over the weekend. I think they kind of woke up and realized that we needed to play our kind of game and start distancing ourselves from the opponent.”

Texas City was fired up at the start of the second half, but Brazoswood quickly doused any hopes of a comeback.

Retrial under way in fatal shooting

Retrial under way in fatal shooting

By John Lowman

The Facts

Published January 13, 2010ANGLETON — Reginald Carmen “did not know what he was walking into” when he was shot to death in his own home, authorities testified Tuesday.

His son stands accused of pulling the trigger.

Ashton Carmen, 18, is on trial for a second time on a murder charge in his father’s death on Dec. 8, 2005. A state appellate court in 2008 ruled the judge in his first trial erred by not allowing a self-defense instruction in the jury charge.

Ashton Carmen was 14 at the time of his father’s killing. He was tried as an adult and convicted Jan. 12, 2007, then sentenced to 50 years in prison.

If convicted again, his punishment could range from five to 99 years in prison.

Police said Ashton Carmen waited for his father to return to their Pearland home from work and shot him as he walked in the door.

Defense attorney Stan McGee said the boy was driven to the shooting by eight years of abuse by his father. At one point during Ashton Carmen’s childhood, McGee said the boy was hospitalized because of physical abuse.

“Ashton was so fearful that when his father arrived at home, he acted like an immature 14-year-old, not a cold-blooded killer,” McGee said during opening statements Tuesday in Judge Randall Hufstetler's fourth-floor courtroom at the Brazoria County Courthouse. “When he was threatened by his father, he took the gun and shot his father.”

Ashton Carmen regularly ran away from his father’s home because he wanted to be with his mother, McGee said. In taped and written confessions objected to by McGee, Ashton Carmen said he shot his father because he was afraid he was going to be beaten. Reginald Carmen “yelled something” before falling to the foyer floor, but neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys said what those words were.

Prosecutor Jessica Pulcher told jurors Carmen broke into his father’s bedroom and found a gun, then waited for the man to come home from work. Reginald Carmen was shot three times in the left side of his back, she said.

Wearing a long-sleeved, black-and-white checked shirt, black shoes and black pants, Ashton Carmen sat quietly thorough the testimony.

Officer Robert DeSilva was the first person at the home after Reginald Carmen’s employer asked police to check on his well-being. Police kicked in the front door to enter after DeSilva said he saw a man lying motionless in the foyer.

“I checked the man’s pulse to check if he was alive,” DeSilva said. “His left wrist … rigor mortis had set in. It was stiff.”

A black bandana with a white pattern covered the man’s face.

Pulcher said when Reginald Carmen walked from the garage into a foyer, his son shot him. Herrera told jurors Reginald Carmen initially was not aware of what was happening.

“From the position of the body, it appeared the victim was walking from the laundry room area to the dining room area,” Herrera said. “It appeared to me he did not know what he was walking into.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Hypnosis Used in Pearland Cold Case

PEARLAND, TX (KTRK) -- While the New Year means a fresh start for many, one Brazoria County family finds it difficult to move on, knowing a killer is still on the loose. Investigators are turning to hypnotism in hopes of finding a new lead in this unsolved murder.

It all started with a drive-by shooting in February of last year on County Road 94 near Blueridge. It's been almost a year since 22-year-old Willie Wallace was murdered in cold blood. Investigators say he was gunned down in his own car during a drive by shooting on a quiet suburban street right outside Pearland city limits.

"It's just very odd," said Ruben Aguilar with the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities are baffled because they have no motive and Wallace, they say, had no enemies.

Aguilar said, "Everyone that I've talked to so far has mentioned nothing but good about him, good person, never did anything out of the ordinary."

There was such a shortage of evidence, Investigator Aguilar says Wallace's friend agreed to let a Texas Ranger hypnotize him in hopes he might remember something. It revealed nothing. Aguilar says it's not an uncommon technique.

"When something traumatic happens to them, people tend to put it to the back of their mind where they really don't want to think about it anymore," he explained.

Wallace was murdered on February 28, 2009, right around the same time Brazoria County detectives were investigating a rash of home invasions not far from the scene of the shooting. It was also the same month Susana DeJesus was kidnapped from a nearby Brazoria County strip mall. Her body was found a month later. Nicholas Michael Jean has since been charged with capital murder in that case.

It's unclear whether Wallace's murder is connected to any of the other cases, including the DeJesus murder. Sheriff's investigators recovered shell casings and bullets from the shooting, but no matching gun. They're asking anyone with any information to call Brazoria County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-460-2222.

SEE VIDEO HERE

Lufkin hit by tornado.

By Whitney Grunder -
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - Severe storms ripped through parts of East Texas Wednesday evening. Some Lufkin neighborhoods sustained extensive damage from a possible tornado.

Among them is the Lufkin VFW, which is now gone. The damage comes right after 10,000 dollars worth of recent tile work. A check for the construction was written Wednesday, before the storm hit.

One resident living near Gipson Funeral Home on Chestnut Street even reported seeing caskets in his backyard.
Jakoia Grimes and her children were happy to have made it safely out of their Lufkin apartment, before their entire roof collapsed. "I looked up and I just saw the light from outside and I had my girls come and sit by the door, and within minutes the entire roof caved in," said Grimes, who is now staying with family members.
Jennifer Mays watched the tornado touch down right outside Stephens Court Apartments. She described it as "massive." She said, "I couldn't believe it was so powerful to the point that it just opened up my door."
Next door, owners sifted through what remained of their welding business, part of Lufkin for 25 years. Max's Welding Shop on Denman Avenue was completely destroyed.
Owners said they can't blame God for the severe weather, and that fortunately another shop behind the building stands untouched by the storm.

"I think we're going to be able to salvage some of our equipment. I think we're going to be alright," said co-owner Betty Purgahn.
Cheddars employees also witnessed a tornado touch down in the middle of the Olive Garden parking lot. "I heard a bunch of commotion and they were talking about the patio chairs were nearly about to hit some cars so we ran to try to help," said Cheddars employee Brad Barrow.

According to witnesses, other than damaging a few of the vehicles parked in the Olive Garden parking lot, the tornado did not affect any of the buildings. The Department of Public Safety reported that the tornado lifted back up, and did not cause any injuries.
Utility crews were also working to remedy power outages caused by toppled power poles. Thursday morning, thousands of residents were without power. An Oncor spokesperson said approximately 2,500 customers were without power in the Lufkin area.

So far no severe injuries have been reported.