LA Times names new biz reporter

Stuart Pfeifer, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has been named a new business reporter at the Los Angeles Times, according to an internal memo from business editor Sallie Hofmeister.

Hofmeister writes, “For the last eight years, Stuart has poked around California courthouses chronicling legal battles, exposing government bungling, and offering fascinating tales that were supposed to be hush-hush. Stuart jogged the streets of London with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca while writing a profile of his quirky management style. He wrote a frightening series of stories about violence and murder inside the Los Angeles County jails.

“For four months, he recounted details of the Michael Jackson child molestation trial in Santa Maria. His reporting helped two wrongly convicted men win their releases from prison — DeWayne McKinney in 2000 and George Lopez in 2002. More recently, he has been covering the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the prosecution of former Sheriff Michael S. Carona. He has worked both in The Times Orange County and Los Angeles Metro newsrooms.

“What better background is there for a new assignment in Business, using the courts as a mirror into the business world and the personalities that dominate it? Emerging from court files, depositions, flamboyant judges, colorful defendants and trial testimony are compelling stories of corporations in crisis, consumers battling for justice, moguls in conflict. Stuart will mine these stories in state and federal courthouses, and keep all of us alert to stories on our beats.”

Read more here.