Inglewood Police Chief’s Son Arrested for Robbery, Assault, Terrorist Threats

INSIDE INGLEWOOD-The son of Inglewood Police Chief Mark Paul Fronterotta was arrested on Monday, March 30 at approximately 4:45 p.m. The Calabasas resident, who lives with his mother, sister and father, was charged with two felonies, one misdemeanor and one additional violation. He is being held at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles on $160,000 bail.

Mark Paul Fronterotta, Jr., 23, has been charged by the LA County District Attorney’s office with the felonies of second degree robbery (penal code 211 PCRSD) and making terrorist threats (422(A)PC); a misdemeanor charge of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to cause grievous bodily injury; and a violation regarding attempted assault with a deadly weapon but not a firearm with the possibility of grievous bodily injury (245(A)(4).

According to a spokesperson at the LA County D.A.’s office, “the ADW charge involved a ball point pen, and did not involve a commercial robbery.”

Fronterotta, Jr., was arrested by LA County Sheriff’s deputies (LASD) out of the Lost Hills station in Agoura Hills.

Chief Fronterotta was hand-picked by Inglewood’s mayor, James T. Butts. On January 28, 2013, Butts released a press statement announcing the selection of the elder Fronterotta as the 17th chief of police for Inglewood. “I've known Mark for over 30 years, and his integrity is beyond reproach.  I was his first supervisor when he went to patrol after graduating from the police academy. He has served the citizens of Inglewood with dedication and valor for over 3 decades, and he is one of the brightest and most capable police executives I have worked with in my 40 years of public service,” Butts stated. 

Butts spent 19 years as an IPD officer, was chief of police for the city of Santa Monica from 1991 until 2006, served as the head of security at Los Angeles World Airports (LAX) from 2006 until 2010, and in 2011 became the mayor of Inglewood. He was re-elected in November, 2014.

According to the 2015 State of the City Address written by Mayor Butts and delivered at the Forum on Thursday, April 23, “Violent crime in Inglewood increased 6% (44 crimes) in 2014.”

According to the L.A. Times Homicide blog, 20 of those 44 “violent crimes” in 2014 were homicides—a startling ratio which leaves a mere 24 non-homicide “violent” crimes. 

In the first two years of Chief Fronterotta’s service, Inglewood experienced 37 homicides. Nearly every one was declared by the LA County Coroner to have been shooting deaths.

There have been four homicides in 2015, three of which were confirmed shooting deaths. Not one arrest has been made for a homicide in Inglewood since Fronterotta’s appointment.

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Since Fronterotta’s appointment in January, 2013, not one arrest for any of the 41 homicides has occurred in Inglewood.

The junior Fronterota was arrested near his home along the block of 3600 Raven Court which approximately one mile from the LASD’s Lost Hills Station and a few short miles southeast of Inglewood Commissioner Mark F. Weinberg, a close friend of both Fronterotta and Butts. 

Weinberg sits on Inglewood’s Former Redevelopment Agency Oversight Board. (Butts also sits on the board.) He is a former city manager for Inglewood and an occasional paid consultant regarding matters that involve the Inglewood and the Madison Square Garden-owned Forum as well as other development deals. He owns CareersInGovernment.com, a Web site that regularly features essays written by Butts. 

He frequently contributes articles about Inglewood and Fronterotta in the city’s “community” newspaper, Inglewood Today and has also taken the time to promote Inglewood’s “ascendance” via letters to the editor at the LA Times.

Multiple requests to Fronterotta, Butts and Weinberg via telephone and e-mail were not answered.

(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a weekly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com.  Mr. Fleming’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.) 

 -cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 35

Pub: Apr 28, 2015