Los Angeles Times - 04.10.2019

LATIMES.COM FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019B

CITY & STATE

A Long Beach pilot was
among seven people killed
Wednesday when a vintage
plane he was flying crashed
at a Connecticut airport, au-
thorities said.
Ernest McCauley, 75, was
flying the World War II-era

B-17 bomber when it

slammed into Bradley Inter-

national Airport in Windsor

Locks just before 10 a.m.

The plane, which was car-

rying 13 people, had been in

the air about five minutes

when it began experiencing

problems and crashed into

a deicing facility at the air-

port before bursting into

flames, Connecticut State

Police said in a statement.

Also killed were: Michael

Foster, 71, of Jacksonville,

Fla., the co-pilot; Gary Maz-

zone, 60, of East Windsor,

Conn.; James Roberts, 48,

of Ludlow, Mass.; David

Broderick, 56, of West

Springfield, Mass.; and

Robert Rubner, 64, of Tol-

land, Conn.

Five passengers and a

flight engineer were injured,

as well as an airport employ-

ee on the ground.

The National Trans-

portation Safety Board, the

FBI and the Federal Avia-

tion Administration are

among the agencies investi-

gating the crash.

The Associated Press

contributed to this report.

ERNEST McCAULEY,75, of Long Beach was killed this week when the World War II-era bomber he was
piloting crashed in Windsor Locks, Conn. Above, federal investigators at Bradley International Airport.

National Transportation Safety Board

Long Beach man was pilot

in deadly B-17 plane crash

By Alejandra
Reyes-Velarde

Already disbarred and

removed from his presti-

gious law firm, Gordon Cap-

lan on Thursday received a

final rebuke from the legal

system he once sat atop

when he was sentenced to

one month in prison for con-

spiring to rig his daughter’s

college entrance exams.

Caplan, a resident of

Greenwich, Conn., paid

$75,000 to ensure his daugh-

ter received a score in the

97th percentile on the ACT.

Her test was fixed by William

“Rick” Singer, a Newport

Beach consultant who has

admitted rigging dozens of

such exams for his wealthy

clients by bribing test proc-

tors and administrators.

Once a co-chairman of

the global law firm Willkie

Farr and Gallagher, Caplan,

53, was ordered incarcerated

by U.S. District Judge Indira

Talwani over the objections

of his attorneys, who had ar-

gued Caplan was so dis-

graced, his career so ruined

and his family so wounded

by his misdeeds that prison

wasn’t necessary.

Talwani disagreed.

Still, the judge came

down on Caplan lighter than

prosecutors had wanted.

They had requested eight

months, pointing to Cap-

lan’s admission in a wire-

tapped phone call that he

“wasn’t worried about the

moral issue” of cheating.

They also noted how he

hired a lawyer to threaten

the ACT with legal action

when he feared the scam was

unraveling, and that a “fixa-

tion on saving his own skin”

pervaded nearly every re-

corded conversation he had

with Singer.

“That a lawyer who has

reached the apex of his pro-

fession could engage in such

blatant criminality reveals a

staggering disdain for the

law,” Eric Rosen, an assist-

ant U.S. attorney, wrote in a

sentencing memorandum.

Caplan must also pay a

$50,000 fine and perform 250

hours of community service,

Talwani ruled. He is the

fourth parent to be sen-

tenced in the scandal.

Agustin Huneeus, a Napa

vintner, will appear before

Talwani for sentencing on

Friday. Prosecutors want

him to be incarcerated for 15

months. His attorneys say

two months in prison would

be a fair punishment.

Caplan’s attorney,

Joshua Levy, said his client

would make no excuse for

his crimes before sentenc-

ing, and nor had he ever.

Levy noted Caplan was

the first of the 33 parents ar-

rested in March and charged

in the admissions scandal to

issue a public apology and

admission of guilt, and the

only parent to address the

“frenzied media” that as-

sembles outside the John Jo-

seph Moakley United States

Courthouse in Boston

whenever a defendant in the

case is due in court.

“He screwed up. He com-

mitted a crime. He has

owned it,” Levy wrote in a

sentencing memorandum.

A complaint unsealed in

March and new documents

filed by prosecutors last

week lay out Caplan’s entry

into Singer’s scheme, his

eagerness to secure a top

standardized test score for

his daughter tempered by

his wariness of getting

caught.

“Keep in mind I am a law-

yer,” he told Singer in one of

many phone calls between

the two recorded by FBI

agents. “So I’m sort of rules-

oriented.”

Had anyone, he wanted

to know, ever gotten caught?

“The only one who could

catch it is if you guys tell

somebody,” Singer said.

“I am not going to tell

anybody,” Caplan replied,

and they shared a laugh.

Caplan, however, was still

uneasy. Not “about the mor-

al issue,” he clarified to Sing-

er in another recorded call.

“I’m worried about the, if

she’s caught doing that, you

know, she’s finished.”

Assured by Singer that

no one had been caught in

his “twenty-some-odd

years” of fixing tests — Sing-

er, in fact, was exaggerating

the longevity of his scheme,

which the government says

lasted about a decade —

Caplan agreed to pay $75,

to secure his daughter a 32

out of 36 on the ACT, a score

in the 97th percentile.

On the pretext of a col-

lege recruitment visit, Cap-

lan flew with his daughter to

Los Angeles in December

2018. Federal agents
      watched him drop off his
      daughter early on a Sat-
      urday morning at the West
      Hollywood College Prepara-
      tory School, whose director
      has acknowledged taking
      bribes from Singer in ex-
      change for allowing an ac-
      complice to fix exams taken
      there by the children of Sing-
      er’s clients.
      Caplan returned five
      hours later to pick up his
      daughter. Unbeknownst to
      her, Caplan and the govern-
      ment say, Mark Riddell,
      Singer’s Harvard-educated
      test-taker, had corrected the
      girl’s answers after she’d fin-
      ished the test.
      The school’s director,
      Igor Dvorskiy, indicated
      Tuesday he would plead
      guilty to racketeering con-
      spiracy and cooperate with
      prosecutors. Riddell and
      Singer have pleaded guilty
      to a number of felonies.
      A month after Caplan’s
      daughter took the test, the
      scam hit a snag: The ACT
      told Caplan it wouldn’t score
      her test and was revoking
      the accommodation that al-
      lowed her to take it in Cali-
      fornia. Caplan called Singer.
      “Well,” Caplan said,
      “we’re [expletive].”
      He told Singer he had
      hired a lawyer to force the
      ACT to score the test. He
      fretted, again, that the scam
      could be exposed and even
      splashed across “the front
      page of the Wall Street Jour-
      nal.”
      Since his arrest March 12,
      Caplan has lost his co-chair
      post at Willkie Farr and Gal-
      lagher, where he had worked
      since 2002. He also stepped
      down from a dean’s council
      at his alma mater, Fordham
      Law School, and lost his bar
      license to an interim suspen-
      sion that will soon become
      official, Levy wrote.
      Rosen, the federal prose-
      cutor, laced into Caplan in
      his sentencing memoran-
      dum for “boasting” in media
      interviews of his pro bono
      work for Fordham Law.
      Caplan also served on the
      board of Publicolor, a New
      York City nonprofit that
      helps schoolchildren repaint
      their schools.
      “Like many con-men,”
      Rosen said, “Caplan com-
      mitted his crime from be-
      hind a facade of feigned in-
      tegrity.”

DISBARREDattorney Gordon Caplan, right, arrives

at federal court in Boston for sentencing Thursday.

Steven SenneAssociated Press

Ex-attorney is

given 1 month

in college scam

Gordon Caplan, who

paid $75,000 to rig his

daughter’s test scores,

was first of 33 arrested

in admissions scheme.

By Matthew Ormseth

A 34-year-old woman was
arrested Wednesday on sus-
picion of murder in the
death of her 2-year-old
daughter, who authorities
say died after being left
alone in a hot car last week.
Lacey Mazzarella was
taken into custody about
8 p.m. and was being held in
lieu of $1-million bail, accord-
ing to jail records. She has
not been charged.
Mazzarella’s daughter,
identified by coroner’s offi-
cials as June Augosto, died
Sept. 23 at a hospital after
she was found unresponsive
in the 22400 block of South
Vermont Avenue in an unin-
corporated area near Tor-
rance, authorities said.
Relatives, who started a
GoFundMe account to raise
money for the toddler’s fu-
neral, say the girl’s last name
is spelled Agosto. More than
$7,800 has been raised in less
than a week for the girl’s
family.
Authorities interviewed
Mazzarella when the girl was
found, but she was not im-
mediately arrested.
According to a coroner’s
report cited by multiple me-
dia outlets, Mazzarella may
have left the girl inside the
car with the heater running
while she sat in a nearby ve-
hicle drinking with a friend.
The woman said she cov-
ered the girl with a blanket
and turned the heat on to en-
sure the child wouldn’t get
cold, according to the re-
port. The mother fell asleep
in the other vehicle, and
when she awoke about five
hours later, she found the
girl unresponsive, according
to the report.
“Vomit was present on
her shirt and the car seat,”
the report states, according
to KTLA-TV Channel 5. The
mother placed the girl “on
the grass and sprayed her
with the water hose in an at-
tempt to cool her down. The
decedent was taken into the
house and a call was placed
to 911. ”
Paramedics said the girl
apparently had burns on her
face, chest and arms, and
her temperature was 107.
degrees, the station re-
ported.

City News Service
contributed to this report.

Mother

arrested

in death

of girl, 2

By Hannah Fry

A South Bay resident has

died from a neuroinvasive ill-

ness caused by West Nile

virus, marking the first con-

firmed death this year from

the mosquito-borne disease

in Los Angeles County.

Public health officials

confirmed Wednesday that

the patient was hospitalized

and died from a West Nile

virus-associated illness that

affects the central nervous

system but did not provide

details about the person’s

age or when he or she got

sick.

“West Nile virus contin-

ues to be a serious health

threat to residents in Los

Angeles County,” Dr. Muntu

Davis, the Los Angeles

County health officer, said in

a statement. “We encourage

residents to check for items

that can hold water and

breed mosquitoes, both in-

side and outside their

homes, and to cover, clean or

clear out those items. Resi-

dents should protect them-

selves from disease spread

by mosquitoes by using

EPA-registered mosquito

repellent products, espe-

cially during the peak mos-

quito season, which lasts

from June to November in

Los Angeles County.”

This year, California has

seen at least 112 confirmed

human cases of West Nile, in-

cluding three other deaths

in Amador, Fresno and Im-

perial counties. There have

been nine documented

cases in L.A. County, exclud-

ing Long Beach and Pasa-

dena, where cases are identi-

fied by local health depart-

ments.

West Nile virus first

emerged in L.A. County in

2004, and the county has

seen increased levels of virus

activity for the last six years,

including in 2017 when there

were 27 confirmed deaths re-

lated to the virus, according

to county data.

The majority of people in-

fected with West Nile virus

don’t feel sick. About 1 in 5

people infected develop a fe-

ver and other minor symp-

toms, according to the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and

Prevention. One in 150 peo-

ple infected develop serious

illness affecting the central

nervous system, such as en-

cephalitis, which causes in-

flammation of the brain; or

meningitis, which causes in-

flammation of the mem-

branes that surround the

brain and spinal cord, ac-

cording to the CDC.

There is no vaccine or

specific antiviral treatments

for West Nile virus infection.

Recovery from severe illness

can take several weeks to

months, and some effects to

a person’s central nervous

system might be perma-

nent, according to the CDC.

L.A. County confirms first

West Nile death of the year

CALIFORNIAhas seen 112 human cases of mosquito-

borne West Nile virus this year, including four deaths.

Bob ChamberlinLos Angeles Times

South Bay resident

had a neuroinvasive

illness resulting from

the virus, officials say.

By Jaclyn Cosgrove

LEARNING BY DOING

Dania MaxwellLos Angeles Times

Teens at Dorsey High School in Los Angels demonstrate sports medicine for

Audubon Middle School students at an event to promote college readiness.