Rape suspect from Riverside arrested Laguna Beach...

Rape suspect from Riverside arrested

Laguna Beach police arrested a Riverside resident early Thursday

on suspicion of raping a 35-year-old woman visiting from Utah.

The victim called police at 6 a.m. Thursday after being dropped

off by the 52-year-old suspect at the Jack in the Box on South Coast

Highway. She said he had picked her up Wednesday in Laguna Beach to

go on a date, took her to his home in Riverside and raped her.

“She had scratches and a laceration on her head,” Sgt. Darin Lenyi

said. “She said she had just met the guy and just wanted to hang out

with him, then he raped her.”

The suspect, a construction worker, was in Laguna Beach on a job,

Lenyi said. He was taken to the Riverside County Sheriff’s

Department, and the investigation has been transferred to them.

“We had the initial contact with the victim, but the [alleged]

rape occurred in Riverside, so the investigation’s theirs,” Lenyi

said.

The victim had been in Laguna Beach for three days.

Bodysurfer injured at Crescent Bay

A bodysurfer at Crescent Bay Beach staggered out of the ocean

complaining of neck and back pain Sunday evening, and was airlifted

to Mission Hospital after lifeguards and paramedics determined he may

have suffered spinal cord damage.

Michael Feng, 28 of Anaheim Hills, struck his head on the ocean

floor after being thrown by a wave at about 6:15 p.m., Chief of

Marine Safety Mark Klosterman said.

Lifeguards approached Feng upon seeing him walking unsteadily and

bleeding from the nose as he came ashore. Supervising lifeguards Ed

Wilson and Kai Bond laid Feng in the sand, examined him and

determined his injuries might be severe.

“He had weak grips and pushes, which led us to believe he may have

suffered a cervical injury,” Wilson said. “Neural deficits were also

apparent -- he could speak but he was unresponsive, which was a major

concern of ours.”

Traffic was closed on South Coast Highway for a short time while

the helicopter landed.

Feng was still at Mission Hospital Thursday and listed in fair

condition.

Man pulled from burning minivan

An off-duty emergency medical technician and son of a Laguna Beach

firefighter helped pull a 28-year-old Buena Park resident from a

burning minivan on Laguna Canyon Road on Sunday.

The driver of the minivan lost control of his vehicle at around

10:15 a.m. and ran into a tree just north of the San Joaquin Hills

toll road. The Ford Aerostar then caught fire, which spread to about

200 feet of brush before firefighters put out the blaze.

Firefighter Dennis Marsh was among the firefighters responding to

a call in which his son, 21-year-old Nick Marsh, was the first of two

on the scene. Nick Marsh and another passing driver stopped and

pulled the victim from the car.

The victim suffered second-degree burns on his back and head. He

was taken by helicopter to UCI Medical Center.

-- Mike Swanson