TBS Today, April 22

Today's stories include a sex crime case we uncovered in the court files and a bit of news on utility line undergrounding work in Berkeley.

Man charged with groping girl, 11, at Berkeley music club

Police say Kevin Luzzi was “fixated” on the girl, then created a mosh pit so he could get close enough to grope her, leaving bruises.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Berkeley officials urge PG&E to underground power lines

A California Senate bill approved in 2023 made federal money available for projects to underground utility lines.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

In other news

The Alameda County DA's office announced Monday that it will review all 35 of its death penalty cases (which date back to the 1970s) after uncovering what one federal judge called "strong evidence that, in prior decades, prosecutors from the office were engaged in a pattern of serious misconduct."

That evidence stemmed from a review of a 1993 death penalty case that found that Jewish and Black jurors had been automatically excluded from those cases, the DA's office said.

In a very windy press conference Monday in San Francisco, DA Pamela Price said the review may not stop at death penalty cases.

We plan to have a story tomorrow.

Correction: In the original copy above, we referenced a 1984 death penalty case that will now be assessed rather than the 1993 case that prompted the broad review announced Monday. We fixed that shortly after publication.

In case you missed it

Over the weekend, we shared news about our press freedom award last week, including our acceptance speech.

Berkeley police investigate catalytic converter theft reports

There was a report of gunfire during the crime, but police had found no evidence of a shooting as of publication time.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Patrons fought back after laptop robbery near UC Berkeley

Police said two of the suspects were arrested the same day after a theft at Marshalls in Emeryville.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Driver who struck cyclist Sunday was a Berkeley man, 19

The driver was arrested — but not in connection with the crash, police said.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

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