Above the Law by Skolnick Fyfe

Author:Skolnick Fyfe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press

THE MCDONALD’S BANDITS

Both Tortorici and Brooks also were involved in the second SIS case we examine, perhaps the most spectacular in the unit’s bloody history.58 In this latter case, Brooks did much of the shooting, and Tortorici, by then assigned to LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division and a member of its Officer-Involved Shooting Team, did much of the investigating, including the official interview of his old SIS colleague and co-defendant, Jerry Brooks.

In late 1989, twenty-five-year-old Jesus (Jesse) Arango came to LAPD’s attention as a suspect in a series of armed robberies in which the safes of Los Angeles area McDonald’s restaurants were the usual targets. Arango and his brother-in-law, thirty-seven-year-old Hector Burgos, had previously been suspected of complicity in a series of robberies and thefts from McDonald’s franchises over the five years in which one or both had worked for McDonald’s.

By the time they ran into SIS, the evidence against Arango and Burgos was fairly compelling. In late 1988, while working for a McDonald’s franchise in Culver City, Arango made some lame excuses for bungling a Saturday transfer of store receipts to an armored car company. His “mistake” made it necessary to safeguard heavy weekend receipts in the store’s safe. When the store manager opened for business on Monday morning, he found that the safe had been broken into and robbed. The following day, Arango “showed up at work driving a new 1987 Ford Thunderbird (gray).”

About 1:00 A.M., August 25,1989, four young Hispanic men confronted a cleanup employee as he opened the rear door of a Westwood area McDonald’s in order to remove trash. The men, masked and armed with shotguns, pistols, and a knife, forced the manager to open the safe, took its contents, and left in an employee’s car. The car was found the following day; in it was a “toy plastic rifle resembling a shotgun.”

At 11:15 P.M., Sunday, September 4, according to Arango, by then—inexplicably —the manager of a downtown McDonald’s franchise,

. . . as he was exiting via the rear door, two or three males, possibly Hispanic, forced their way in and made all the employees lay [sic] on the floor. Two of the victims had their hands, feet, and mouths taped with duct tape. Arango was taken to the office and made to open the safe. Arango was then put on the floor and his hands, feet and mouth were taped. One of the suspects put a McDonalds shirt on so as not to draw attention from passersby. . . .

Detective B. Cureton, #24975, Central Detectives, was assigned as the original investigating officer as to this robbery. On 9–8-89, Detective Cureton interviewed Arango regarding the robbery. Arango told Cureton that after he had opened the safe, one of the suspects wrapped tape around his mouth and legs. Arango stated that his hands were also taped behind his back. Cureton noticed that where the tape supposedly was wrapped around Arango’s wrists, there was no hair missing from either wrist. During the interview of the other victims that had their hands taped, Cureton noticed hair missing from the wrist areas.

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