Surf City man found drowned in...

Surf City man found drowned in harbor

A motorist on Pacific Coast Highway found the body of James

Cormack floating in shallow water in Huntington Harbour about 100

yards from the dirt shoulder at about 8 a.m. Sunday morning.

Police believe that Cormack, 76, a Huntington Beach resident, fell

overboard because foul weather conditions. There are no signs of foul

play, Seal Beach Police Sgt. Tim Olson said.

He was first reported missing on Nov. 8 from his boat that was

docked in nearby Sunset aquatic park. A search by divers from the

Huntington Beach Marine Safety was conducted.

Police charge parents in toddler’s death

The Long Beach Police Department has launched an investigation

into the death of a 2-year-old girl who died last week after being

taken to Huntington Beach Hospital.

The parents of 2-year-old Maria Mendoza -- Raul Mendoza, 26, and

Martha Lopez, 23 -- have been charged with felony child abuse, Long

Beach Police Officer Greg Chirmer said.

The Long Beach couple called police from a Chevron Gas Station on

Edinger Avenue where they had stopped for gas with their two

children, when they noticed she was not breathing.

Paramedics took the child to the hospital, where she was

pronounced dead.

Police began investigating the death after bruises were found on

the girl’s body.

Autopsy results determined that the girl died of internal injuries

caused by blunt force trauma.

The case was referred to the Long Beach Police Department because

that is probably where the crime occurred, Huntington Beach Police

Sgt. Gary Meza said.

“We’ve taken over the investigation completely,” Chirmer said.

The couple’s 3-year-old son has been placed in protective custody.

City’s money-making jail in magazine

Money-generating concepts used in the Huntington Beach jail were

spotlighted in this month’s Wester City Magazine, the magazine of the

League of Western Cities.

Huntington Beach Police Capt. Jon Arnold and Sgt. Guy Dove

co-wrote the article, which details the ways the city uses the jail

to make money.

The police department contracts with eight surrounding cities and

books prisoners into the jail for a fee, giving the city more than

$18,000 a year in revenue.

The department also allows those sentenced for nonviolent

misdemeanor offenses to serve their time in the city jail rather than

the county jail and it charges prisoners $75 per day for doing so.

Those prisoners perform custodial services while they serve their

time. That program saves the city more than $7,000 a year and it has

brought in more than $280,000 in the last two and a half years.

-- compiled by

Jose Paul Corona