The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 32

B4 WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1999 LOS ANGELES TIMES SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA A news summary The Local Review The DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY Regional Review 7 Plead Guilty to Money Laundering for Cali Cartel TO Moving to the 4 iiiii IRIS SCHNEIDER Los Angeles Times The annual free lunchtime concert series at Pershing Square through September, with concerts presented on Tuesdays in downtown Los Angeles began Tuesday with a show by the and Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m. This Thursday's concert Young Dubliners that inspired a variety of audience members will feature the swing band Red the Red Hots. Pershing to show off their dancing skills. The program will continue Square is located between 5th, 6th, Olive and Hill streets. Beat the Cerritos-based Water Replenishment District of Southern California.

The district, which serves 43 cities in southern Los Angeles County, has been under fire for a 200 increase in water assessment fees since 1991 and the approval of a construction contract for a $22-million recycling project without competitive bidding. State Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), who asked for the audit, said the rich but obscure water agency pulled out all stops in trying to defeat her request to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. "They worked the members over big time," said Escutia after the 11-0 vote in Sacramento. "Many senators and Assembly members on the committee told me they had never been lobbied as much as they were lobbied on this audit request." Escutia said 10 cities in her district had complained about the district's financial practices.

"The audit will put to rest a lot of these allegations once and for all," she said. Council OKs Lease Despite Space Surplus LOS ANGELES The City Council approved a three-year, $464,000 lease of a commercial building in Van Nuys on Tues with the workers. Goldberg said one solution might be for the university to agree to require any subcontractors it might retain in the future to hire existing university workers at the same pay and benefit levels. Wachs said the cost of accommodating the workers' demands is nothing like the money spent on athletics at schools like USC. "If you look at some of what they pay some of these football and basketball coaches and compare that to what they pay the people who clean the auditoriums, it's ridiculous.

A lot of this is about values," he said. Alex Rivera, a waiter in the president's dining room who stopped by Durazo's trailer on his way to work, said he has worked at USC for 32 years, but wants a job security guarantee anyway. "We don't know what can happen in the future, we need some insurance." He said he has not raised the issue with Sample "out of respect," but will "talk to him about it if he asks me what I think," he said. Contrasting the poverty, Los Angeles has a higher proportion of high-income households than the state or nation, the study said. Six percent of Los Angeles County households earn $150,000 or more, compared to 5 in California and 4 in the rest of the country.

The Los Angeles County median household income of $43,908 is 14 higher than the national median. For women there's more good news. More women own businesses in Los Angeles than anywhere in the nation. On top of that, one in five adults are college graduates, one of the highest rates nationally. With the county enjoying a strong economy and becoming more cognizant of its poverty, said Haggerty, "Now is the time to invest in the community's future." DEVELOPMENTS IN ORANGE, RIVERSIDE, SAN BERNARDINO AND VENTURA COUNTIES Tyisha Miller's Parents File Civil Rights Suit RIVERSIDE Attorneys for the parents of Tyisha Miller filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday, seeking an unspecified amount of money from the city of Riverside, the four police officers who shot her Dec.

28, and their field supervisor. The wrongful death lawsuit, announced by attorney Johnnie L. Cochran terms the shooting "one of the most shameful, vicious, and cruel acts of police brutality in the history" of Riverside and alleges a police "conspiracy to cover it up." The lawsuit also alleges that the four police officers made racial comments just before the shooting and that racial slurs were uttered by other officers after Miller's death. Riverside County prosecutors recently asked the state attorney general's office to look into allegations about remarks made by police officers after the shooting, but have expressed strong doubts that the four officers who shot Miller ever made racial comments. Miller, 19, was killed when the four officers, responding to a 911 call about an unconscious woman inside a locked car with a gun on her lap, broke the window to retrieve the weapon.

The officers said she moved for the gun, prompting them to open fire. County prosecutors recently cleared the officers of criminal negligence, but questioned their tactics in responding to the incident. The officers, who remain on paid administrative leave, are awaiting possible Police Department discipline. Attorneys for Miller's family previously filed a wrongful death claim against the city, which went unanswered. Attorney Skip Miller, representing the city of Riverside, said Tuesday, "We plan to defend the case vigorously and let the courts decide the outcome." UFW Seeks Union Vote by Strawberry Pickers VENTURA COUNTY The United Farm Workers union has filed for an election to represent pickers at the nation's largest strawberry grower, a move that could put hundreds of Oxnard field hands in a position to help resolve a long-running battle to unionize California's strawberry industry.

UFW officials filed an election petition Monday with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board after a majority of the 1,240 workers at the Coastal Berry Co. in Oxnard and in Central California indicated they wanted to vote on union representation. If the petition is approved, that vote would have to be held within seven days of the filing. A state labor official said the election probably will take place Monday. Because of rapid growth in the local strawberry industry, the Oxnard workers are key to a UFW campaign to win a union contract at Coastal Berry and, on a larger scale, establish a foothold in the state's tough-to-organize strawberry industry.

severe physical pain). Fredrick prescribed at least 1,400 doses oi codeine to Obrenski over a six-month period last year, records show. When Obrenski would complain to Fredrick that he had developed a tolerance to a particular drug, the psychiatrist would respond by prescribing him a larger dosage or switching him to a stronger drug, the complaint says. While Fredrick specifically told Obrenski that she was prescribing the narcotics for treatment of his anxiety, the psychiatrist also informed him she needed to conceal the real nature of his condition to avoid problems with the pharmacists that would fill his prescriptions, the complaint says. "She told me that she was not permitted to write some of the prescriptions for anxiety and that she was.

going to write down that they were for diarrhea, pain and for the treatment of other medical problems," Obrenski stated in the complaint. Indeed, at least one prescription written by Fredrick states that Obrenski should take two 60-mg tablets of codeine four times a day to treat diarrhea, records show. Obrenski stopped his treatment with Fredrick after his wife threatened to leave him. After a visit with an addiction specialist, Obrenski went through six weeks of withdrawal and detoxification before kicking his addiction, the complaint says. "The drugs Dr.

Fredrick used to treat my so-called anxiety were narcotic medications that were given in dosages that could have been lethal," Obrenski stated in his complaint. "Dr. Fredrick was a menace to me and is a menace to patients throughout California as long as she continues to have and use her medical license." LOS ANGELES Seven accused money launderers for the Cali drug cartel pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court as they were about to go on trial in connection with Operation Casablanca, a 2V6-year investigation of international drug money laundering. Five of the defendants entered their pleas Friday and two more pleaded guilty Monday on the eve of what would have been the second of four trials stemming from the massive probe. In the first trial, which is continuing, six Mexican bankers, stockbrokers and businessmen are accused of laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds fun-neled to them through a business front operated by undercover U.S.

customs agents. Two other trials are pending against suspected members of the Juarez drug cartel and a group of Venezuelan bankers. Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph A.

Brandoli-no said the defendants will be sentenced on different dates beginning in August on charges ranging from money-laundering conspiracy to aiding and abetting the distribution of narcotics. Operation Casablanca resulted in the indictment last May of more than 100 people and three Mexican banks. Many of those charged are either fugitives or have pleaded guilty. The government has also seized more than $100 million in assets. Sex Charges Dismissed Against Compton Officer COMPTON A Municipal Court judge has dismissed charges against a Compton police officer who was accused of having consensual unlawful sex with a minor, according to the district attorney's office.

Charges against Ed'ourd Peters, 38, were dismissed when the alleged victim failed to appear at two court hearings. Peters, a nine-year veteran of the department, was accused of having sex with the 14-year-old runaway girl while on duty. Defense lawyer Winston McKesson contended that the case against Peters was a weak one and that the girl had contradicted her own story of events several times. "She was a shaky witness at best," McKesson said. Peters was placed on unpaid leave by the Compton Police Department and still faces a hearing on the accusations.

Police Identify Suspect in High School Shooting PACIFIC PALISADES Los Angeles police on Tuesday identified the man who allegedly shot a Palisades High School student and football coach Monday as Sheldon Pearce, 20, of Los Angeles. He is expected to be charged Wednesday in the shooting of 18-year-old Vontray Gardner and coach Ron Price, 62, after an apparent fight just before school let out Monday, police said. Pearce and three other suspects, two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old, were arrested shortly after the 2:30 p.m. attack at the campus after a brief police chase that ended near Robertson Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway. The juveniles, two UNION Continued from Bl university pledge in writing that it will not hire an outside contractor to perform the jobs now handled by 360 union employees.

tWhen the workers' contract expired in 1995, USC and the union agreed on nearly all terms of a renewal. But a new contract has not been signed because the university and the union cannot agree on a pledge against subcontracting services. Philip J. Chiaramonte, USC's associate vice president for auxiliary services, said the university has no plans to replace the union Workers with subcontractors and has a history of generosity toward its staff. He said, for instance, that when fast-food franchises were allowed on campus, the university demanded they be staffed with USC employees, 50 of whom are Local 11 members.

CHARITY Continued from Bl as the lack of jobs for people being dropped from welfare. In Los Angeles, the challenges are enormous. "Los Angeles is the nation's poverty capital with the largest number of poor of any metropolitan area," the report said. One of every three children live in poverty. Many parents fail to work themselves out of poverty because of temporary employment, low pay and part-time work.

A wage earner who gets $5.75 an hour the California minimum wage makes $11,690 a year, far less than the poverty level of $16,450 for a family of four. The report noted that there are marked inequalities in pay among different races, day, despite concerns by some members that the city owns facilities with unused office space elsewhere. Councilman Joel Wachs questioned why the city Planning Department wanted to lease 9,350 square feet in an office building on Van Nuys Boulevard when the Department of Water and Power has 76,000 square feet of unused office space in Sun Valley, as well as other vacancies closer to Van Nuys. Reginald Jones-Sawyer, an assets man ager for the city General Services Department, said the Planning Department likes its current facility because it is centrally located in the Valley and because it would be expensive to move to another building, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, meantime, questioned another lease approved Tuesday, a 10-year, deal for space in the county courthouse on South La Cienega Boulevard to be used by the city attorney's office. Goldberg said the city might be able to find an office just a mile away for less than the $2.19 per square foot being charged by the county.

However, Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton said the attorneys want to be inside the airport-area courthouse on La Cienega, and also cited moving costs. PATIENT Continued from Bl Many of the medications that authorities confiscated from Simpson's Bel-Air estate after his Jan. 19, 1996, death were prescribed by Fredrick, records show. Six months before Simpson died, he hired Fredrick and Dr. Stephen Ammer-man to conduct what officials have called an illegal chemical detoxification program at the producer's home to help him kick a drug addiction.

That program ended Aug. 15, 1995, when Ammerman was found dead of a drug overdose on Simpson's estate. Simpson's death triggered a federal criminal investigation of 14 local doctors and eight pharmacies that culminated in a raid nearly three years ago on the homes and offices of Fredrick and her mentor, Dr. Robert Hugh Gerner. No action resulted from the criminal inquiry; accusations against Fredrick and one other physician are the only moves taken so far by the Medical Board.

Hearings focusing on Fredrick's treatment of Simpson and several other patients are not expected to begin until late September. Obrenski first sought treatment from Fredrick in September 1997 because he thought he had several symptoms associated with attention deficit disorder, the complaint says. Fredrick told Obrenski that he did not have attention deficit disorder but advised him that he was suffering from anxiety, the complaint says. Over the next 15 months, the complaint says, Fredrick treated Obrenski's anxiety with prescriptions for more than a dozen controlled substances, including codeine, oxycodone, phenobarbital, buprenex and duragesic patches (a synthetic opiate typically prescribed to patients suffering from of whom attend Palisades High, will be charged in the shooting by the end of the week, police said. Gardner and Price suffered minor leg injuries in the shooting and were treated at and released from Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.

On Tuesday, the mood on the campus, which is less than a mile from the Pacific Ocean, was one of uneasy calm. The Palisades High has consistently ranked among the safest campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Principal Linda Hosford said. "We are normally a quiet, safe campus," she said. "But I suppose we have to realize these things can happen at any time." Hosford launched all-day crisis counseling sessions for those traumatized by Monday's violence. But by lunchtime, only 12 had shown up for counseling.

The school is also reconsidering a once-dismissed idea to place fences around the now-open campus. Lawmakers Back Probe of Obscure Water Agency CERRITOS Despite a heavy lobbying effort, a committee of Senate and Assembly legislators voted Tuesday to have state auditors examine the financial dealings of Chiaramonte said the university refuses to pledge not to contract services only because it needs to have all options open in the event of a future financial crisis. "Flexibility is what the university needs. We need to make sure we are able to provide our students with the best education at the best possible price," he said. That argument has never moved Durazo, who called USC "an enormously wealthy corporation." For several years, the union has led protests at university commencement exercises, and directly lobbied the school's trustees.

Durazo has been living in a trailer in a church parking lot abutting the campus since May 10, where she earlier received visits from state Assembly members and Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, in whose district the university is located. The City Council has no control over USC, a private university, but Goldberg said members can use "moral persuasion" to call on the school to reach an agreement with African Americans earning the least and white Angelenos earning the most. More people rent here than anywhere, and they pay the second highest rents in the nation, according to the United Way's analysis of housing costs. As a result, people crowd into apartments, many of which are in substandard condition. On top of that, one in three adults didn't complete high school.

Twenty-seven percent of adults, or 1.8 million people, are illiterate, the report said. The good news is that Los Angeles has the resources to help, if Angelenos so desire. Los Angeles is the world's 18th largest economy with a gross regional product of $285 billion, which is slightly smaller than Taiwan's and larger than Switzerland, Austria and Sweden, the United Way reported..