By Diana L. Chapman

 Images that blossomed on Facebook pages of "ratchet" girls in the Harbor Area in early December were not criminal and were considered child "erotica," rather than pornography, says a lead investigator who heads a regional task force that deals with internet crime against…

By Diana L. Chapman

First a man shot his girlfriend to death in San Pedro on the street behind my house before killing himself. I knew him and his kids.

I also knew that Johnny O'Kane's actions had torn away the tethers of humanity, leaving two families in utter despair.

Still, I believed. Ever since I read "The Diary of Anne Frank" when I was 12 years…

By Diana L. Chapman

   The minute the facebook site -- called San Pedro Ratchets -- launched last week, some San Pedro High School girls found themselves posted there only in their bras and underwear and targets of alleged sexual exploits.

   Comments swarmed in about…

"We haven't solved it. He's still out there and could do it again."--LAPD Detective David Alvarez.           

By Diana L. Chapman

   Los Angeles Police Detective David Alvarez calls it the kind of crime that keeps him up at night: A tiny woman with the mind of a…