Six Males Arrested for Attempted Residential Burglary
On March 6 just after 9 p.m., officers responded to a residence on the 1100 block of Avonoak Terrace regarding an unknown person wearing a ski mask who was seen jumping the fence and entering the rear of the property.

Within minutes, the Air Support Unit arrived overhead as an alarm at the house activated and relayed to responding officers that four males with backpacks were in the backyard of the property fleeing towards the front. The four male suspects then entered two vehicles parked at the front of the residence and quickly fled the location.

The Air Support Unit kept a visual on both suspect vehicles as they directed patrol units to their locations.
Officers located and stopped both involved vehicles – one (which had another vehicle’s license plate on it) at the intersection of Mountain Street and Verdugo Road and the other at the intersection of Cañada Blvd and Verdugo Road.

Each vehicle was occupied by three males: 31-year old Michael Smyer of Woodland Hills, 26-year-old Terry McGee of Los Angeles (who initially provided a false name), and 22-year-old Kalin Butler of Los Angeles occupied one vehicle, while 26-year-old Drequanne Armstrong of Palmdale, 20-year-old Daizon Blue of Palmdale, and 26-year-old Dionza Blue of Van Nuys occupied the second vehicle. During the investigation it was discovered that Smyer was on parole and had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, and McGee also had an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

During their investigation, officers located multiple ski masks, gloves, crowbars, a hammer and a screwdriver.

All six individuals were arrested and booked for attempted burglary to a residence and conspiracy to commit a crime.
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Male Arrested for EDD Fraud and Illegal Drug Possession
On March 4 just after 5 p.m., officers assigned to the Special Enforcement Detail (SED) of the Glendale Police Dept. were on patrol near the intersection of Adams Street and Colorado Street when they noticed a vehicle with a brake light out travelling westbound on Colorado Street.

The officers conducted a traffic enforcement stop and contacted the driver, 23-year-old Mathew Cupp of Lompoc, who was unable to provide officers with a driver’s license. While speaking with Cupp, officers noticed a debit card on the floorboard that had another person’s name on it. When asked if there was anything illegal in the vehicle, Cupp told officers the vehicle was not his but that there was a methamphetamine pipe inside. During the traffic stop, officers learned that Cupp had a non-local warrant out for his arrest and was considered a “parolee at large.”

A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed approximately nine debit/credit cards and one identification card all belonging to other individuals along with multiple pieces of opened Employment Development Dept. (EDD) mail belonging to other people, a notebook containing personal identity profiles of other people (including names, birth dates and Social Security numbers), multiple small plastic bags of methamphetamine and methamphetamine pipes.

Cupp was ultimately arrested and booked for identity theft, possessing controlled substance(s) and unlawful paraphernalia, and for his outstanding warrant.
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Male in Custody for Child Sex Abuse after Assaults Investigation
On Nov. 13, 2019, the Glendale Police Dept. received a report that a female minor had been sexually abused between 2009 and 2016 by a family friend, identified as 63-year-old Barry Clark. Detectives from the Glendale Police Dept. – Assaults Unit immediately began an investigation.

During their investigation, detectives discovered a second minor victim when they found out that Clark had complaints filed against him at his previous place of employment where he was accused of taking photographs underneath the clothing, also known as “up-skirt” photos, of his coworker’s minor daughter in 2012. Detectives also located a third minor victim in San Francisco where in 2004 Clark started talking to the victim about masturbation and asked the victim if they wanted to do it with him.

On Dec. 28, 2019, detectives learned that Clark was living in St. Joseph, Missouri. On Jan. 17, 2020, as a ruse detectives sent Clark a text message portraying to be one of his victims, but they did not receive a response.

On Feb. 3, 2021, Clark reached out to this same phone number that detectives initially used to contact him. During a phone call on that number, Clark made admissions of sexually abusing this specific victim throughout the years.

On Feb. 24, 2021, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office filed an arrest warrant for Clark for two counts of committing a sexual act with a child under 10 and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child. The bail was set at $1.5 million.

On March 4, Glendale Police Dept. – Assaults Unit detectives went to St. Joseph, Missouri. With the assistance of detectives at the St. Joseph’s Police Dept., Clark was placed under arrest and a search warrant was conducted at his residence where additional evidence was located.

Clark is currently in custody in Missouri awaiting extradition back to California.
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Three Arrested for Catalytic Converter Theft, Vehicle Theft and Identity Theft

On March 3 just after 3a.m., patrol officers responded to the 800 block of Foxkirk Road regarding a catalytic converter theft in progress. A resident called to report they were awakened by the sound of a power saw being used and then observed someone underneath a parked truck.

Upon arrival, two occupied parked vehicles were contacted by officers. Seated in the driver seat of one of these vehicles was 46-year-old Eliborio Valenzuela of Los Angeles. Officers asked Valenzuela to step out of his vehicle and, as he did so, a screwdriver fell off of his lap. They then noticed the trim surrounding the ignition in the vehicle was missing and, through follow-up investigation, learned that the vehicle was an unreported stolen. The vehicle was later returned to the owner.

The second vehicle was occupied by one female (31-year-old Zuley Paredes of San Bernardino) and one male (31-year-old Juan Gonzalez of Los Angeles). Officers could see two catalytic converters that had been cut-off from vehicles in plain view inside the vehicle. A subsequent search of this vehicle yielded one more catalytic converter, two portable reciprocating saws and several reciprocating saw blades along with other burglary tools, methamphetamine, counterfeit money and a significant amount of evidence relating to identity theft including access cards and checkbooks belonging to other people.

Paredes, Gonzalez and Valenzuela were all arrested and booked on multiple charges including vehicle theft, grand theft and identity theft. Due to Los Angeles County’s emergency “zero-dollar” bail schedule, all three arrestees were released hours later with a notice to appear in court.