Authorities have ordered toxicology tests in the death of Rodney King, but the results won’t be known for several weeks, a sheriff’s spokeswoman told msnbc.com on Monday.

King, the black motorist whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers in 1991 sparked some of the deadliest race riots in U.S. history, was found dead on Sunday. He was 47.

Police in Rialto, Calif., found King's body in a swimming pool after his fiancee called 911, Rialto Police Capt. Randy DeAnda told NBC News. He was transported to Arrowhead Hospital in Colton, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m. PDT, DeAnda said.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday, but results won’t be

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 released today, San Bernardino County Sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said. Authorities said there were no signs of foul play.

Rodney King: 20 years after L.A. riots, 'Can we all get along?'

King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers on a dark street on March 3, 1991, after he was stopped for speeding. Four officers hit him more than 50 times, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. A bystander videotaped much of the incident from a distance.

A year later, a California jury acquitted three of the four officers. The jury deadlocked on one of the charges for the fourth officer, Laurence Powell. Three of the officers were white and one Hispanic.

The riots that erupted on April 29, 1992, were among the most lethal in U.S. history. By the time order was restored, more than 50 people had died, nearly 3,000 were injured and thousands of businesses were damaged or destroyed.

20 years later: Have race relations improved?

In the two decades after he became the central figure in the riots, King was arrested several times, mostly for alcohol-related crimes. He later became a record company executive and a reality TV star, appearing on shows such as "Celebrity Rehab."

Looking back on that time, King told NBCLosAngeles.com in April, “Some of me wanted to get out there and riot and loot and tear up stuff too, but it just wasn’t the way I was raised.”

When he ventured into the streets during the riots, he wore a reggae hat with dreadlocks so people wouldn’t recognize him.

“It just looked a little bit like the war zone to me, smoke everywhere,” he told the station. “It broke my heart to look at that and to know this is, it’s really all about racial tension, and it’s a man-made problem.”

When King sat down with NBCLosAngeles.com, he was promoting his just-published memoir, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption," which came out around the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots. According to the biography that accompanied his book, King had three children and was engaged to marry Cynthia Kelley, a juror in the civil suit he brought against the city of Los Angeles.

Nearly a year after the riots, a federal jury convicted two of the police officers of a federal charge of violating King’s civil rights and sentenced them to 30 months in prison. Two other officers were acquitted. King eventually received a $3.8 million settlement from the city, and the case led to sweeping changes in LAPD.

King said he was no longer bitter about what had happened.

“I like to be able to wake up and be able to pray for myself and pray for the world, that’s the most important thing,” he told NBCLosAngeles.com.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Los Angeles officials say the costs of police overtime and cleaning up local parks due to the Occupy protests have nearly doubled to $5 million, as cities across the country continue to tally the protests’ price tag.

City officials initially said the cost would be $2.6 million, but Los Angeles Councilman Mitch Englander told NBC Los Angeles the figure had grown, with the bulk of the cost attributed to overtime for law enforcement.

 

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"At a very difficult time financially with the city, at a time we're talking about laying off civilian LAPD and fire personnel, this is going to have a dramatic effect on the city budget," said Englander, chair of the public safety committee. "For every action the city takes, there is a cost."

 

 

 

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The two-month camp in the city closed Nov. 30.

Other events in the city also racked up millions of dollars in cost: the 2010 Lakers Parade was estimated at $1.8 million and the Michael Jackson funeral came in at $3.2 million in 2009, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Other cities have spent from tens of thousands to millions of dollars in police overtime and cleanup costs. In New York, the tally reached $17 million through mid-March, DNAinfo.com reported, citing police testimony at a city budget hearing. In Oakland, the city had paid $3.7 million through Feb. 27, according to a report by Oakland Local.

Of the money the cities said they spent, Justin Wedes, of Occupy Wall Street, noted: "America doesn't need to spend millions of dollars on a paramilitary response to citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in public space."

Most of the Occupy camps across the country were shuttered over the winter, but protesters continue to hold marches and demonstrations against income equality, corporate greed and political corruption. Their latest national action, held on May Day, brought thousands of people into the streets.

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Move over, New York City. Nine of the 10 most densely populated areas in the U.S. are out West, and eight out of 10 Americans are now urbanites, a U.S. Census Bureau report released Monday shows.

The Charlotte, N.C., area is growing at the fastest rate, increasing by 64.6 percent, followed by Austin, Texas, at 51.1 percent, according to census figures from 2000 to 2010.

“It’s one of those things we’re seeing -- the South and West are definitely growing, and growing more than other regions in the country,” Stacy Gimbel Vidal, spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau, told msnbc.com. “It is hard for us to speculate the 'why' people are flocking to and congregating in those areas.”

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The nation’s urban population grew by 12.1 percent from 2000 to 2010, outpacing the nation’s overall growth rate of 9.7 percent for the same period, according to census figures.

Of the 10 most densely populated urbanized areas nationwide, nine are in the West, with seven of those in California.

The nation’s most densely populated urbanized area is Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, with nearly 7,000 people
per square mile. The San Francisco-Oakland area is the second most densely populated at 6,266 people per square mile, followed by San Jose (5,820 people per square mile), and in the Central Valley, Delano, with 5,483 people per square mile, ranks fourth, according to census figures.

The New York-Newark area is fifth, with an overall density of 5,319 people per square mile.

“Urban areas — defined as densely developed residential, commercial and other nonresidential areas — now account for 80.7 percent of the U.S. population, up from 79.0 percent in 2000,” the bureau said in a release. “Although the rural population — the population in any areas outside of those classified as ‘urban’ — grew by a modest amount from 2000 to 2010, it continued to decline as a percentage of the national population.”

The census data identifies two types of urban areas: “urbanized areas” of 50,000 or more people and “urban clusters” of at least 2,500 and less than 50,000 people. There are 486 urbanized areas and 3,087 urban clusters nationwide.

Other notable census finds:

• The New York-Newark area continues to be the nation’s most populous urbanized area, with 18,351,295 residents. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is the second most populous (12,150,996), followed by the Chicago area (8,608,208).
• Maine tops the nation as the most rural state, beating out Vermont. According to the new data, 61.3 percent of Maine’s population lives in rural areas, compared to Vermont’s 61.1 percent.
• States with the largest rural populations were Texas (3,847,522), North Carolina (3,233,727) and Pennsylvania (2,711,092).

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LOS ANGELES -- Authorities say a man masqueraded as a female to get into three local hospitals, charging more than $100,000 in medical bills to a woman's medical card.

"He had enough personal information, including the victim's address, to obtain some type of health care card under the victim's name," said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Jim Amormino of 51-year-old Perla Serrano.

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Police said Serrano was arrested initially because he was found sleeping overnight along a roadside in San Clemente. Investigators described him as a transient, and believed he was a woman.

Read NBCLosAngeles.com's Man Dressed as Woman in Medical Claim Scam

"He wore clothes that females would wear, such as a female-type sweatshirt with a hood, or female-type shirt or blouse, not necessarily a dress," Amormino said.

He was also wearing an identification bracelet from a San Clemente hospital, one of three in South Orange County where he is accused of racking up $100,000 in medical bills, police said.

Serrano is facing six charges of identity theft, burglary and impersonation. The victim is said to resemble Serrano.

"This has been a nightmare for the victim," Amormino said, adding "as one could imagine."

 

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Los Angeles Unified School District paid the teacher at the center of the Miramonte child sexual abuse scandal $40,000 as part of a settlement in the wake of accusations of classroom behavior deemed “immoral” and “unprofessional” as well as a claim of “evident unfitness for service.”

In a financial settlement reached in June of 2011, the Los Angeles Unified School District paid Mark Berndt $23,980.10 in back pay and $16,019.90 in legal fees, according to documents obtained in a joint investigation by 89.3 KPCC and NBC4.

Under the agreement, Berndt, 61, is entitled to his full pension and retirement health benefits.

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Among the accusations levied against Berndt in an administrative hearing:

• blindfolding students and allowing himself to be blindfolded;
• taping several students’ mouths as well as his own;
• spoon-feeding students “an unknown cloudy-colored liquid substance”;
• and feeding students cookies with “an unknown cloudy-colored liquid substance.”

Berndt “exhibited poor judgment, unprofessional and immoral conduct” during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, according to an Accusation and Statement of Charges filed by the district.

Full Coverage | About Miramonte | Timeline of Events

The former third-grade teacher also “touched several students by placing his arms around them,” according the document.

The allegations were levied in a proceeding before the Office of Administrative Hearings, a quasi-judicial court that hears administrative disputes.

Read the original story, watch video on NBCLosAngeles.com

Under the terms of the settlement, Berndt, who had been suspended without pay after teaching at Miramonte for 30 years, was retroactively reinstated to “paid status.”

The settlement, signed by Berndt, his attorney and an attorney for the district, also stipulates that “neither of the parties admits or concedes any of the claims, defenses, or allegations that were raised.”

The deal opened the door for Berndt to receive his full district pension and health benefits.

The district first started looking to get rid of Berndt about a year ago. In February of 2011, the district suspended Berndt from his teaching position at Miramonte and notified him that they intended to fire him.

In March, he objected to the dismissal and requested a hearing, which was set for October.

But in June, Berndt and the district settled.

The case first came to the public’s attention in January, when Berndt was arrested and held on $23 million bail for allegedly committing felony molestation with 23 children ages 6 to 10.

In early February, a second Miramonte teacher, Martin Springer, 41, was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child.

Several days later, it came to light that former teacher’s aide Ricardo Guevara was convicted and sentences to 15 years in prison in 2005 for committing lewd acts with children.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy shut down the school for two days and moved the entire staff to another school that is not yet open. Miramonte reopened on Wednesday with an entirely new staff.

Follow NBCLA for the latest LA news, events and entertainment: Twitter: @NBCLA// Facebook: NBCLA

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Updated, 12:41 p.m. ET: LOS ANGELES -- New teachers greeted children and their parents Thursday when they returned to class at a Los Angeles elementary school rocked by the arrests of two longtime teachers on lewdness charges.

Miramonte Elementary School reopened Thursday, two days after the nation's second-largest school district closed the campus to hire a brand new staff. New employees include a retired principal and 88 teachers and support staffers who were recently laid off and were on a rehiring list.

Hundreds of children streamed through the front doors of the school under the watch of school police and some 100 protesters, who opposed the disruption of removing the entire staff for the rest of the school year.

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The protesters, who included parents and students at Miramonte, held signs bashing the Los Angeles Unified School District, proclaiming "Give us our teachers back" and "LAUSD Shame on You."

"It's kind of hard," said Lorena Sorian, whose sixth-grader attends Miramonte. "You barely know your teacher, and they're gone. The kids don't know what's going on."

Sorian said the arrest of the two teachers made her think twice about enrolling her younger children at Miramonte next fall.

Sheriff's investigators, meanwhile, say they've found 200 additional bondage-style photos they believe were taken by one teacher who's accused of committing lewd acts on 23 children over a five-year period.

'Devastating'
Parents were invited to sit with their children in class Thursday to help with the transition. They will be allowed to attend the first 30 minutes of class.

Read Miramonte School Reopens Amid Child Abuse Investigation on NBCLosAngeles.com

"We want parents, as much as possible, to feel comfortable under the circumstances here," Tom Waldman, director of communications for the school district, told NBC News. "It's unprecedented. This is a very devastating thing for everybody here. Hopefully, over time, we'll get back to the business of learning."

New staff members attended orientation at the school Wednesday. They met with outgoing staff members to discuss lesson plans.

The removed staff members were transferred to Augustus Hawkins High School, a facility under construction in South Los Angeles. The Hawkins school is expected to open in the fall.

The outgoing staff members will be counseled and interviewed as part of the child abuse investigation. An independent commission led by retired California Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Moreno will conduct the district's investigation. Former students and staff members at Miramonte also will be interviewed.

Costs and counts
The new hires will cost the district $5.7 million, Waldman told the Los Angeles Times. The cash-strapped district will still pay the teachers and staff who were removed.

Allegations came to light last week with the arrest of Mark Berndt, 61, who was charged with committing lewd acts on 23 children, ages 6 to 10, between 2005 and 2010. He is being held in lieu of $2.3 million bail.

Later in the week, another teacher, Martin Springer, 49, was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts on children. Springer was charged with three counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14, according to authorities.

Another student who accused Springer of fondling her reportedly recanted her story, NBC News reported. Springer was being held in lieu of $2 million bail.

A film processor provided authorities with 40 images that showed Berndt with children, some of whom had blindfolds over their eyes and spoons of a white substance held to their mouths. The substance was later identified as Berndt's semen.

NBCLosAngeles.com's Jonathan Lloyd, John Cadiz Klemack and Toni Guinyard contributed to this report, as did The Associated Press.

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Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies on Wednesday rushed to dispel rumors among Latino families that they would be deported if they come forward with information about child sexual abuse allegations at Miramonte Elementary School, where two teachers have been arrested.

"We've seen a reluctance among families to come forward on the advice of lawyers," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott told msnbc.com. "The sheriff has assured the community that a person’s legal status will not be questioned."

But many remain silent.

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"People are afraid to talk. They are confused. They are scared," Jessica Dominguez, a Los Angeles lawyer who specializes in immigration cases, told msnbc.com. "Parents are worrying that if they speak out to authorities they will be deported, because some of them are undocumented."

Parents fume over accused LA teachers' pensions

The case erupted last week with the arrest of third-grade teacher Mark Berndt, 61, who was charged with committing lewd acts on 23 children, ages 6 to 10, between 2005 and 2010. He is being held in lieu of $2.3 million bail.

Later in the week, another teacher, Martin Springer, 49, was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts on children. Springer was charged with three counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14, according to authorities.

Another student who accused Springer of fondling her reportedly recanted her story, NBC News reported. Springer was being held in lieu of $2 million bail.

Second teacher from LA school arrested

The allegations have stunned families like Sergio Blanco and his wife, Marisela Blanco. The Blancos have five boys. Their 9-year-old son, Andres, is a third-grader at the school. 

Marisela Blanco told NBCLosAngeles.com immigrant families now face the difficult decision of whether to speak out or not.

"They think something is going to happen, like the immigration will come to get them," Blanco said.

Read more on the Blanco family on NBCLosAngeles.com

The school will reopen Thursday with an entirely new staff hired from a list of recently laid off workers.

“The parents and children of Miramonte are going through an unspeakable nightmare," Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice Education Fund, said in a statement. "The fact that many of them are afraid to work with law enforcement only adds to their tragedy."

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