The Leonard Files

The cause of the January 7, 2025 Palisades Fire remains a mystery, at least to the public, as fire investigators from the ATF and local agencies have said little about what’s been discovered. We’ve picked up a few clues in recent weeks, that appear to suggest the case is focused on what ignited a much smaller brush fire in the Palisades Highlands that burned a week earlier. Fire experts have told...

New court documents show federal authorities had considered the possibility in early June that the man accused of being an accomplice in the Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing might try to harm himself. Daniel Park was found unresponsive in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown LA Tuesday morning and died at a hospital. The LA County Medical Examiner says he died by suicide.   Thanks fo...

Police and federal agents announced 2 significant arrests this week in high-dollar jewel heists. Detectives in Simi Valley say they caught 4 members of a safecracking crew – a few weeks after a jewelry store was the target of a tunnel-in blowtorch burglary. Separately, federal prosecutors announced an indictment of 7 people accused of pulling-off – what authorities say – was the single-largest jew...

A key clue collected near the scene of the 2022 murder of 81-year-old Ok Ja Kim in Woodland Hills – may have helped investigators connect that case with the recent arrest of a man charged with murdering 53-year-old Menashe “Manny” Hidra in Valley Village in April. Newly amended criminal charges also accuse the man of a stabbing during a home burglary in San Fernando in 2022 – where the victim surv...

Here’s what we know about the murder of a man in Baldwin Park, California on Saturday, May 31, 2025 – that led to the ambush-killing of Baldwin Park Police Officer Samuel Riveros and a gunfight between officers and the suspected killer. A second officer was wounded and survived. The accused killer was publicly identified by authorities, and detectives are still trying to piece together all that ha...

Here’s what we know about the murder of a man in Baldwin Park, California on Saturday, May 31, 2025 – that led to the ambush-killing of Baldwin Park Police Officer Samuel Riveros and a gunfight between officers and the suspected killer. A second officer was wounded and survived. The accused killer was publicly identified by authorities, and detectives are still trying to piece together all that ha...

Thieves hit at least 2 Southern California jewelry stores this week, possibly taking advantage of the holiday weekend when more businesses would be closed. Both stores are small, family-owned businesses that say they lost more than $1-million each in jewelry, valuables, and cash. Are the break-ins connected? And what about a number of other massive jewel and cash heists that are still unsolved?  ...

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have announced that former deputy mayor Brian Williams has agreed to plead guilty to a charge related to a hoax bomb threat made at LA City Hall last Fall. Williams, who was Mayor Karen Bass' manager of public safety issues — and her liaison with outside law enforcement agencies, will admit he staged the call and reported a false threat to police, according to a...

The tragic death of a 21-year-old LA County Sheriff’s deputy in a car crash this week raised renewed questions about how mandatory overtime shifts have exhausted some of the Department’s workforce. Dep. Daniel Chavira died at a hospital after he was airlifted from the scene of the crash. He was driving home after working a double shift at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic, and with...

Federal agents scouring online profiles that appear tied to the man who blew up a fertility clinic in Palm Springs — include some videos of explosive experiments in the desert! Some of the videos, which have since been taken-down from YouTube and other sites, show specific chemicals used in some of the tests.   Thanks for listening to The Leonard Files – Stay with us as we uncover the investigatio...

We have a full account of the statements Lyle and Erik Menendez made in court this week just before a judge reduced their prison terms and opened the door to possible release on parole. Parole hearings are often scheduled months in advance, and it wasn’t clear when a hearing would happen. Then, late this week California prison officials announced a previously scheduled June 13, 2025 clemency suita...

Erik & Lyle Menendez will argue this week that they deserve to have their life-without-parole prison terms reduced after spending decades behind bars. A resentencing hearing, delayed repeatedly for a variety of reasons, is finally scheduled to begin Tuesday, May 13. The LA County District Attorney's Office says it will oppose it, after unsuccessfully trying to intervene to stop the proceeding enti...

Journalist Dexter Thomas joins the pod to explain who made those (obviously) fake videos of the Hollywood sign on fire – that spread rapidly across social media on the day the Palisades and Eaton Fires burned through Southern California. It turns out those fake videos earned the creator quite a bit of real money! And now – the person behind some of the imagery is selling an online course to teach...

In the latest development in the Menendez brothers’ saga — California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office says there’s no reason their resentencing can’t go ahead with prosecutors from the LA County District Attorney's Office. Erik and Lyle Menendez have asked the court to boot the DA, alleging the elected DA and the entire office are biased against their bid to receive reduced sentences for the 1...

The judge considering whether or not Erik and Lyle Menendez deserve to have their life-without-parole prison terms reduced is expected to decide this week - whether the LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman should be removed from the case. Menendez defense lawyer Mark Geragos says the DA himself is too biased to be fair, and that means all of the office’s employees should be booted as well. W...

Nearly a month after LAPD officers shot and wounded Jillian Shriner in Eagle Rock — prosecutors still haven’t decided whether or not to file criminal charges. The LAPD says Shriner, who’s married to Weezer bassist Scott Schriner, fired a shot at officers while they were searching backyards for three people who fled from a freeway crash. Shriner was wounded when two officers returned fire, but reco...

An odd side-story to the recovery from the Palisades and Eaton Fires: the LAPD has been collecting and cataloging hundreds of guns found in the ashes of burned homes. They’re trying to make sure government records show guns burned up in the fire are listed as destroyed, or returned to the legal owners.   Thanks for listening to The Leonard Files – Stay with us as we uncover the investigations from...

Defense lawyers for the Menendez brothers have filed a request with the court to remove the LA County District Attorney from the case. Not just the prosecutors in the courtroom — but the entire DA’s office, based on the idea that the elected District Attorney is so biased against them that the proceeding cannot be fair.   Thanks for listening to The Leonard Files – Stay with us as we uncover the i...

The giant drinking water reservoir in the Pacific Palisades highlands, that many Palisades fire victims believe could have supplied enough water to save their homes had it been filled in January, had to be drained again this month. Repairs to tears in its protective cover were made in March, 2025, but more leaks were found as the Santa Ynez Reservoir was refilled in the last weeks. The DWP says th...

The Menendez brothers’ efforts to have their life-without-parole sentences reduced has been derailed again, this time because of new risk assessment reports produced by the state, and the brothers’ new demand that the LA County District Attorney’s Office be removed from the case for bias. Now the resentencing is temporarily off the table while the judge considers these legal issues.   Thanks for l...

Deputy District Attorney Brock Lunsford considers what’s happened in the months since he and a former colleague authored the recommendation — that Erik and Lyle Menendez should receive a resentencing hearing that brings the possibility of a reduced prison term and release on parole. Lunsford says he was transferred out of the resentencing unit when the new LA County DA took over, and says he belie...

With roughly 8735 officers on its roster — the LAPD is far smaller than it was a few years ago, and its struggling to recruit and train enough new officers to reach the City’s target of a 9,300 officer-force. The Department has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new online ad campaign, aimed at the ‘smartphone generation,’ but will it produce the results the City needs? City Councilman Jo...

Now that a judge has denied the LA County District Attorney’s request to stop the resentencing proceedings for Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers will get to make their case this week - that they’re deserving of a reduced sentence, and in all likelihood, release from prison. The DA still says he’s opposed to their release, and apologized for his deputy showing in court, without warning, a graphi...

After a day-long hearing in Van Nuys a judge has decided that prosecutors have not provided enough of a ‘legitimate reason’ to stop the planned resentencing hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez. Hear all the detail from inside the courtroom!   Thanks for listening to The Leonard Files – Stay with us as we uncover the investigations from some of LA’s most challenging and intriguing moments. Subscribe...

The Menendez brothers’ chance for resentencing - and potential release from prison on parole — could hinge on a 2023 state appeals court ruling, that limits when a newly-elected District Attorney can change course in court. A judge wil consider whether to allow LA County DA Nathan Hochman to withdraw the resentencing motion first filed under form DA George Gascon, and, if so, whether the resentenc...