In brief: Armenian gang accused in scams
Los Angeles – U.S. prosecutors accused an Armenian organized crime gang of bilking victims out of an estimated $20 million in an audacious series of financial scams that included replacing the credit-card machines at more than a dozen 99 Cents Only stores with their own scanners designed to steal customers’ banking information.
The charges filed Wednesday against alleged members and associates of the Armenian Power gang included allegations of two kidnappings, theft of money from elderly bank customers, the smuggling of cell phones into state prisons, and trafficking in drugs and weapons.
Seventy-four suspects were arrested in early-morning raids at about 90 locations throughout Southern California in an operation that involved nearly 1,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Additional arrests were made in Miami and Denver.
Legislature OKs gay civil unions
Honolulu – Hawaii lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday to allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s office said he intends to sign the bill into law within 10 business days.
Civil unions would begin Jan. 1, 2012, making the state the seventh in the nation to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.
Father of 5 Browns charged with abuse
Salt Lake City – The patriarch of a prominent family musical group has been charged with sexually abusing his three daughters in a stunning revelation that was followed four days later by the father careening his Porsche off a 300-foot enbankment into an icy stream.
Keith Brown, whose daughters are part of The 5 Browns, survived the crash and faces one first-degree felony count of sodomy on a child and two second-degree felony counts of sexual abuse of a child, according to Fourth District Court records obtained Wednesday.
The 5 Browns are a classical piano group from Utah that features the three sisters and their two brothers.
The records filed Feb. 10 in the abuse case don’t identify any victim by name or indicate the relationship between Keith Brown and the alleged victims.
However, Kimball Thomson, a spokesman for The 5 Browns, said the charges involve Brown’s daughters and group members Desirae, 32, Deondra, 30, and Melody, 26.
Thomson said the Brown children severed their professional relationship with Keith Brown in October 2008.