The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 19

wymiamurT I'jf 1 -pf UJ-- JH, Tr'. "ji till 1 .,1 LOCAL NEWS WEATHER EDITORIAL PAGES SECTION tin WEDNESDAY AVGUST3, 1994 cct Dos Aufletes Sftraee CO 'If np 15 HIGHLIGHTS Let's Talk Turkey: Nation Is Hooked on Hot Lines art HOT LINES SIZZLE: Once primarily used to offer emergency assistance, hot lines, which have proliferated, now take tips from the public and offer information on everything from pants to pork cgpps. Bl (800) 'How Am I Driving' number displayed above the 18-wheeler's rear mud flap. Is there any doubt that America is hot line crazy? Consider the fact that there are two competing toll-free phone lines sponsored by firms selling tablets to break down the indigestible gas-causing sugars found in beans. "Tn the beginning, when they said 'hot it was i.

exactly what it meant a place you'd call if you were in trouble and there'd be someone on the end of the line who could give you assistance, referrals and direction," said Andrea Thompson Adam, hot line coordinator for the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women. "These days, the term hot line is being taken for granted as anything you can get information on including where to buy cars, shoes and furniture." In the Simpson case, attorneys for the celebrity murder defendant say they've received more than 250,000 calls on a toll-free tip hot line set up less than two weeks ago to seek exculpatory evidence. In the case of the transit strike, a second "800" phone line offering recorded information was established after callers Communications: Once used mainly for emergency help, the phone services now take tips from the public and offer advice on everything from pants to pork chops. By PAUL FELDMAN TIMES STAFF WRITER O.J. Simpson has one.

So does the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But even if you're not trying to catch the "real killer or killers" or catch a bus during a transit strike it's more than likely that a toll-free telephone hot line is available to suit your needs. Swallow some boric acid and need an emergency antidote? Phone the Poison Control Center. Curious about the safe temperature for baking a pork chop? Call the federal Meat and Poultry Hotline. Spot an erratically steered big-rig on the Santa Monica Freeway? Dial the 1 inundated the MTA's regular transit hot line with an" estimated 15,000 calls on the first day of the walkout.

Yet the volume of calls on those highly publicized phone lines is but a fraction of that generated by toll-free hot lines nationally. On any given business day, about 1.4 million calls go through to "800" hot lines serviced by alone, according to phone company officials. "With an '800' number, you can cover the entire nation, or a region, a state or even a specific area code," said spokesman Monty Hoyt. "For businesses, hot lines are a very important immediate contact with their customers. They can find out instantly whether they have a big success on their hands or a lemon they can change before it's too late." Although consumer hot lines are now a staple for firms ranging from clothing manufacturers to turkey farmers, the roots of the phenomenon are far removed from the everyday world of merchandising.

The first known use of the term hot line, according to etymologists and telephone historians, was in the Please see HOT LINES, B4 TEACHER TALKS: Top Los Angeles Unified School District and teachers union leaders began face-to-face contract talks but the two sides appeared far apart on the key issue: restoring a 10 cut in teachers' salaries, which would cost the district $139 million. B3 Video Stirs Brutality Allegations Violence: TV station airs tape of Compton officer beating youth during July 29 arrest. Police Department will call on D.A.'s office to conduct a 'concurrent, independent investigation' of the incident. LAWRENCE K. HO Loe Angeles Times QUAKE RELIEF: Santa Monica Mayor Judy Abdo and L.A.

Mayor Richard Riordan, above, speak tO' President Clinton, who has asked Congress to free up $225 million to issue as repair loans for quake -damaged housing in their cities. B3 THE SPIN Important in understanding the Simpson case is something called a protection that allows journalists to report what's said in court, or in other public proceedings, without being sued for libel. Bl i2 EDITORIALS Photoa by GEORGE WILHELM Lot Angeles Times Jerry Bolduc blames overzealous police officers and spiteful neighbors for a city suit seeking to end parties at his leased mansion. HISTORIC APOLOGY: Japan should take note of Germany's extraordinary public apology for the suffering it caused Poland in World War II. B6 Revel Rousters COMMENTARY By SHAWN HUBLER TIMES STAFF WRITER A home video aired Tuesday by a local television station stirred allegations of police brutality with footage of a burly Compton police officer beating a 17-year-old youth who had confronted him during an investigation of child neglect at the youth's home.

Compton police said they already had launched an internal investigation into the July 29 arrest of the 17-year-old youth, who had complained about the arrest. However, said Capt. Steven Roller, the department was unaware the tape had been made until they saw it on KNBC-TV Tuesday night. Because of the video, Roller the department will contact the Los Angeles1 County district attorney's office today to; request that it conduct a "concurrent, independent investigation of the arrest and surrounding events." The tape apparently made by a neigh- bor without the officer's knowledge at the trailer park where the teen-ager lives- shows the officer smacking the youth on the side of the head with his police baton, pummeling him with baton blows after he has collapsed to the ground, jumping on the back of the much smaller teen-ager to; handcuff him and then using the baton to drag the youth across the ground by his handcuff chain. Compton police would not comment on the details of the arrest.

Humberto Guizar, an attorney repre-; senting the youth and his mother, Enrique-; ta de la Cruz, said the boy's family plans to file a civil rights suit against the "The officer beat this guy, totally contrary to what he says in the police, report," Guizar said. "In the report he says my client struck him, fought with him, that he subdued him and arrested him without incident. I think that when this comes out in court, the jury will see that that's just not true." Guizar said the youth argued with the officer because "someone from Children's Services wanted to take his sisters away. He asked the officer if he had a warrant. Please see BEATING, B3 FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Our ambassador to Paris is, fittingly, a woman known mostly for the loves of her life, writes Jenijoy La Belle.

But does that make Pamela Harriman a role model? B7 ON THE RECORD "It wasn't worth it. We all lost." Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member James Cragin on the transit strike. Al 4 owners and tenants, seeking an injunction that would say, in legal terms: "The party's over." But Bolduc, who said he has a pay phone business, vows to fight for his right to party. "Basically, we spend a lot of money here to lease a big house so we can have parties," he said in a poolside interview, a portable phone at his side and a sweeping view of the San Fernando Valley as his backdrop. "Anybody who buys this kind of house is going to want to entertain," said Bolduc, who prefers to be called "Jerry Bo." "I'm not a rock star.

Things could be a whole lot worse." The city attorney's suit alleges, however, that not all the parties were private. At times, court documents say, the estate was used illegally for commercial purposes-so-called "underground" parties, advertised in flyers, at which revelers were charged $15 at the door, and liquor was sold without a license. If the city prevails in court, property owner Paul Campbell, property manager Steven Powers and tenants Bolduc and Please see PARTIES, B3 Courts: The city files suit to stop parties at a Studio City mansion after neighbors complain of noise, public sex and drug sales. The tenant vows to fight for his fast times. By ANN W.

O'NEILL TIMES STAFF WRITER To Jerry Bolduc, the mansion that he and his friends rent in the hills above Studio City is his castle one primo party palace with a hot tub, five bedrooms, a sea of king-size mattresses and a sand-filled volleyball pit by the pool. To neighbors and the Los Angeles city attorney's office, it is a public nuisance where up to 1,000 people at a time paid admission to join in revels-for-hire that on at least one occasion were televised on MTV. And so, it soon could be last call at the house on Wrightwood Drive. The city attorney's office filed suit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the estate's THE SPIN BILL BOYARSKY Lottery Reult SUPER LOTTO Tonight's Jackpot: $12 million Time: Sales close at 7:40 p.m. for Tuesday, Aug.

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Simpson's lawyers brings up the question of just how the media gets its news in this sensational case. Fuhrman is one of the cops dispatched to Nicole Brown Simpson's condo after her body and that of Ronald Goldman were discovered. His LAPD recruiting poster appearance and forthright manner made him a powerful prosecution witness in Simpson's preliminary hearing. Then the New Yorker magazine published a story quoting "leading members of Simpson's defense team" portraying Fuhrman as a racist rogue cop who may have tried to frame Simpson by planting a key piece of evidence, a glove, near his house. Now Fuhrman's attorney, Robert H.

Tourtelot of Los Angeles, has sent Simpson's lead attorney, Robert L. Shapiro, a letter, telling him the detective intends to sue. Targets of the suit would be Shapiro, Simpson and the magazine's unnamed sources on the defense team. Tourtelot told me Fuhrman also will sue the New Yorker for libel. If Fuhrman files his suit, whether he wins will depend on whether he can prove the New Yorker published the story knowing that it was false a standard set by the Supreme Court 30 years ago.

A lot of people journalists included may not like the idea of basing such a powerful story on anonymous sources. Others probably are praising the New Yorker for having the guts to risk a libel suit and publish a story it believes is newsworthy. But I think everybody, in reading about Fuhrman's lawsuit, wants to know more about how the media gathers news. For the media's role is turning out to be central in this case, with both sides engaged in total war in an effort to influence public opinion, and potential Let's take the story of the talkative burglar. A few weeks ago, he called The Times with a story.

He 1 said he was a burglar and, while casing potential victims' homes in Brentwood one night, he saw two burly, 1 bearded white men dressed in dark clothing near the back gate of Nicole Simpson's condo. An hour later, he heard a woman yell "No!" He ducked behind a hedge and saw the same two white men running from the condo. -One of the men, the burglar recalled, said something about slicing or slashing a victim. Reporter Jim Newton had several conversations with the burglar, both on the telephone and in person. But he was unable to verify his story.

It was one of thousands of tips received by the police, prosecutors, the defense and Please see SPIN, B3 INDEX Digest B2 Air Quality. Weather B5.