East Valley News: Man Tries to Entice Girls Into His Truck, Police Say; Teacher Arrested For Suspected Molestation

Burbank

Burbank police Thursday sought public help to find a man who allegedly tried to entice three young girls to get into his pickup truck.

It happened about 4:25 p.m. Wednesday in the 500 block of East Cypress Avenue, the Burbank Police Department reported.

According to police, the girls flagged down a patrol car in the area and told officers that a man had just tried to convince them to get into his truck. The girls ran away from the man, and the truck was last seen heading west on Cypress Avenue.

The suspect was described by police as a "male, white, Armenian," in his mid-to-late 40s, with dark brown hair, and a thick beard stubble. The vehicle was described as a gray, mid-sized pickup truck.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call police at (818) 238-3255.

Panorama City

Authorities today identified a man who was hit by several vehicles and killed while walking on the northbound Hollywood (101) Freeway.

The accident near the Highland Avenue onramp was reported at 1:11 a.m. Tuesday, said California Highway Patrol Officer Anthony Martin.

"Witnesses told responding officers that a man was staggering in between the Number 2 and 3 northbound lanes when he was struck by several vehicles," Martin said.

Mauro Manrique, 30, of Panorama City died at the scene, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter. Authorities don't know why Manrique was walking on the freeway.

210 Freeway

A top civilian official in the Los Angeles County Sheriff' Department was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after she was found stopped in the middle of the Foothill Freeway passed out with her head on the steering wheel of her county car, it was reported Tuesday.

Authorities received multiple 911 calls Friday evening alerting them that a car was stopped in a middle lane of the Pasadena freeway, the Los Angeles Times reported.

When California Highway Patrol officers showed up on the scene, they discovered sheriff's civilian Director Natalie Salazar allegedly intoxicated, with her foot on the brake pedal and her car in drive, an official told the newspaper.

A test some two hours after her arrest showed a blood alcohol level of 0.20, more than twice the legal limit, CHP Officer Ming Hsu told The Times.

Salazar heads the sheriff's Community/Law enforcement Partnership Program. The arrest was not her first run-in with the law. In 2009, she was convicted of driving under the influence, Hsu told The Times, and placed on probation. However, she kept her post at the Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told The Times that Salazar has been put on leave.

"The sheriff takes this kind of thing very seriously," he said.

After a previous drunk driving incident, Salazar apparently sent out a memo within the department apologizing, The Times reported.

Pacoima

The Los Angeles Unified School District confronted a new set of sexual-abuse allegations  today, this one involving a Chatsworth man said to have abused four children while working as a third-grade teacher at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima, subjecting one victim to violence and the "threat of great bodily harm."

Paul William Chapel, 50, was arrested and booked on Oct. 8, 2011, and remains jailed in lieu of $2.2 million bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Inmate Information Center website. Go to Chatsworth Patch for more.

Editor's note: These are Police/Fire stories from areas around the East San Fernando Valley not covered by Patch. Check North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch, Studio City Patch and Sherman Oaks Patch for new in those areas.