BRIEFLY IN PUBLIC SAFETY

Officials drop charges against punk rock drummer

The Orange County district attorney’s office dropped all charges Tuesday against legendary punk rock drummer Don Bolles, whose real name is Jimmy Michael Giorsetti, after its crime lab determined organic soap that initially tested positive for GHB by Newport Beach police during a routine stop was indeed just soap.

Giorsetti, who was an original member of the 1970s punk band the Germs, was scheduled to appear in court in May on charges of felony possession of a controlled substance, as well as three lesser charges, including violation of court order and possession of a small amount of marijuana, district attorney spokeswoman Farrah Emami said.

Newport Beach police stopped Giorsetti for having a broken taillight on his 1968 Dodge van. During a search of the vehicle, Giorsetti reportedly seemed to try to hide a wooden toiletry box, which had the bottle of soap, as well as a small amount of marijuana inside.

Tests done later by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s crime lab showed that the test done on the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap by Newport police at the time of the stop resulted in a false-positive.

Prosecutors “advanced the case to get the charges dismissed as quickly as possible,” Emami said Tuesday.

Newport Beach police use a few criteria to determine whether to test a substance — using the ODV 905 test, which Newport police used — including by its packaging and by the way a person seems to want to hide it, Sgt. Evan Sailor said Tuesday.

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps President David Bronner told the Associated Press that he bought a test made by the company and ran it on his soap and other similar products.

“We confirmed that the test is useless when used on soap since every test came back positive,” Bronner told the wire service. “We also tested other common brands of soap including Johnson & Johnson’s popular Neutrogena brand, as well as Colgate-Palmolive’s popular Tom’s of Maine brand, which gave the same false-positive tests as well.”

The soap Giorsetti had was reportedly made with organic coconut, olive, hemp, peppermint and jojoba oils.

$600 reported stolen from Elks Lodge in Newport Beach

A commercial burglary was reported just before noon Tuesday at the Elks Lodge on Via Oporto in Newport Beach.

Someone apparently broke into the Elks Lodge’s safe and stole about $600, according to police.

It did not initially appear there was a forced entry to the building, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Lloyd Whisenant said Tuesday afternoon.

Police had not finished the burglary report at press time Tuesday.