The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 51

B2 SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1992 LOS ANGELES TIMES Metropolitan Digest LOS ANGELES COUNTY NEWS IN BRIEF a job and obtain either complete or partial exoneration, then truly our justice system has degenerated into a vast and darkened abyss from which I am apprehensive it shall never again arise," Palmieri said at the conclusion of a 22-page written statement. Williams and the other defendants are scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court next week. At that hearing, Williams is expected to change attorneys. NEWHALL Judge Sets $l-Million Bail in Misdemeanor Case A Newhall judge has taken the unusual step of setting bail at $1 million in a misdemeanor case. Municipal Court Judge Alan S.

Rosen-field increased bail from $30,000 to $1 million this week for James Eugene Turner, 48, of Saugus, who was being held on misdemeanor charges that he repeatedly made harassing telephone calls to a neighbor. Deputy District Atty. Pam Springer declined to comment on Turner's bail, saying only that "the judge had looked at all the circumstances." Rosenfield said he considered Turner "dangerous" and a "possible threat" to the alleged victim. Two. other men, said to be friends of the couple, were arrested Tuesday.

Christopher Scott, 26, of Fontana was released after police said they were not prepared to file charges. He has not been eliminated as a suspect, officials said. Cedric Singleton, 27, of Riverside remains jailed for a parole violation and charges related to the murders may also be filed against him Monday, police said. LOS ANGELES Lawyer Strikes Back at Firm That Fired Him Dennis Palmieri, who has represented a main defendant charged in the April 29 attacks on motorists at Florence and Normandie avenues, Friday accused his former law firm of slandering him and subverting his efforts in court. Until last week, Palmieri worked for the Center for Constitutional Law and Justice, but he was fired on the final day of a preliminary hearing for three suspects, including Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, whom Palmieri represented.

The center said it fired Palmieri after a review of his work and resume. "If my person and name have been intentionally slandered in a deliberate attempt to preclude my representation of Damian for fear that I would do too good The measure, approved by a 13-0 vote, would broaden the commission's powers to include department heads and top aides to City Council members and the mayor. Now, the commission only has the power to punish elected officials and some city commissioners for violations of the voter-approved ethics law. "I'm pleased that it has been expanded, but the Ethics Commission ultimately wants all employees covered by the ethics law," said Ben Bycel, the commission's executive officer. PASADENA Third Person Arrested in Slaying of Couple A third person has been arrested in connection with the slayings of a young Pasadena couple in which police suspect robbery was the motive.

Nicholos Dwane Martin, 18, of San Bernardino surrendered Thursday afternoon at Pasadena police headquarters, detectives said. Murder charges are expected to be filed Monday. Jeffrey Venable, 25, was found Monday suffocated in the apartment he shared with Robyn Braxton, 20, whose body was found later that day. She had been shot and dumped in a remote area of San Bernardino County. new police chief after the retirement of Terry Ebert, who was removed from his position after an audit revealed possible misuse of department funds.

Ebert, who retired earlier this month after 23 years on the force, was placed on administrative leave in April after a management audit found that about $5,000 from a special undercover operations fund was missing. Despite repeated requests by The Times, city officials have declined to release the audit. Acting City Manager Paul Richards II said the investigation into the funds is continuing and declined to discuss the matter, saying only that "there are a number of different reasons for Ebert's retirement, but I'm not sure what the compelling one is." Ebert could not be reached for comment, but has denied any wrongdoing. He had been chief for two years. LOS ANGELES Council OKs Expansion of Ethics Panel's Domain Seeking to close a loophole in Los Angeles' ethics law, the City Council on Friday sent Mayor Tom Bradley a measure expanding the enforcement authority of the Ethics Commission to cover more than 100 high-level officials.

LOS ANGELES 11 Bank Robberies Reported in One Day Los Angeles added to its reputation as bank robbery capital of the United States on Friday as 11 were reported in the city, including three violent "takeover" holdups, authorities said. In the seven-county region around the city, 20 bank robberies were reported, the FBI said. "It's crazy is what it is," said Los Angeles Police Detective Joe Getherall. In a typical week, the city records 20 bank robberies. Investigators do not think any of Friday's 11 robberies were connected, Getherall said.

In the most violent incident, an armed man jumped a teller counter at a Bank of America branch on Wilshire Boulevard while another man stood guard in the lobby. The man behind the counter shoved an employee's head against the floor, kicked a second employee and pushed a third. COMPTON Police Chief, on Leave Since April, Retires Compton officials are searching for a Only in L.A. Repair By Steve Harvey the Republican Convention, KCBS Channel 2 re-ran the miniseries "On Wings of Eagles," about the rescue of two jailed Americans in Irahby a dynamic, can-do employer named H. Ross Perot.

Is he seen as a 1996 threat to the Republicans? In case you didn't notice, President Bush made two unfavorable mentions of Elvis in his acceptance speech Thursday night. We'd say that pretty much rules out any chance of the singer ever posing for a photo in the White House with Bush as he did with Richard Nixon. miscelLAny: Divorce license? A car on the Santa Monica Freeway was observed with a vanity plate that said: DEB'N'ART. The plate frame carried this rhyming update: "Are now apart." Deb appeared to have won custody of the automobile. Perhaps it should be a prerequisite: a prospective bride and groom took one look at the long line for marriage licenses in the Santa Monica courthouse and asked a clerk if there were any interesting trials where they might kill some time.

"There's a real good messy divorce across the way," the clerk said. The couple happily trouped off to that courtroom, the would-be groom quipping: "We'll see what the future might bring." Go ahead and joke. But we'd recommend against buying a vanity plate. 1 Stupid Criminal Tricks: Two suspected bank robbers were arrested in Pasadena less than a mile from the Bank of America they allegedly held up. Police said they were attempting to make their getaway in a.

Yugo. Surprisingly, the car hadn't broken down. We Break for Misspellings: Dam Heald wonders whether the confidence of customers in a San Gabriel Valley auto garage might be shaken by its flyer (see reproduction). The vision of St. Bernard? Dog lovers from around the world will no doubt be flocking to Valley College in Van Nuys soon to observe a seemingly miraculous stain on a sidewalk that resembles a pooch.

Especially if the specter starts to slobber. Gee, maybe he ought to get into politics: On the last three nights of BREAK SPECIAL $29.95 Most Cars Semi-Metallic Extra A dog that always gets underfoot: above, the specter of a canine on a Valley College sidewalk. At right, It's hard to tell whether this repair shop wants to fix cars or fix Its customers. Speedway, a Venice street, is so named because it was originally paved with bricks, like the Indianapolis Speedway. A sports car race was held there early in the century, but now traffic moves pretty much as slowly as in the rest of L.A.

AUDIT: Poverty Agency's Management Problems CLINIC: New Facility Is Swamped Continued from Bl Open for only a month, the clinic is already swamped with patients. Providing service until midnight seven days a week to accommodate working parents, the clinic sees about 100 patients daily for ailments that range from colds to constipation, sore throats to strep throats. The clinic, located across Vermont Avenue from Childrens Hospital, is the brainchild of the hospital's emergency medicine director, Dr. Nancy Shonfeld. Shonfeld had become increasingly concerned about the flood of children who came into the emergency room in recent years with routine health problems.

They were waiting too long to be seen, alongside children who were much sicker, Shonfeld noticed. They were not getting the full physical exams that Shonfeld and others believe should accompany their visits. And their treatment was unnecessarily expensivemade costly by the emergency wing's expert and highly paid staff and its sophisticated equipment. The hospital's own studies fueled her worry. They showed that up to 40 of the children seen in the hospital's emergency room were there for mundane medical problems.

They were often shunted to the emergency room because their parents lacked health insurance or worked day hours when most private clinics were open. "We had kids with colds who were competing to be seen with kids with meningitis," she said. "We were treating their acute needs telling their parents, 'Your child has a cold. Your child has an ear But we knew we should be doing more we knew that we were their only source of health care." Three years ago, a wing of the Childrens Hospital emergency division was set aside for the lower-level care. But Shonfeld wanted more space and a free-standing facility so that the children would not have to detour through the emergency room.

A vacant medical office across Continued from Bl In 1991, an audit conducted by Tuttle's office found that the department's oversight of the city's Neighborhood Development program "was ineffective or virtually nonexistent." Yet, grants and loans were issued by the program without proper documentation, contracts were not enforced and questionable activities were not reported to high-ranking officials, the audit found. In July, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie released a management audit report on the Community Development Department, which determined that the agency's staff lacked the expertise in some programs to effectively manage and perform required work. "Taking our audits together with the CAO audit raises some very serious questions about the internal controls of the department," Tuttle said in an interview. "When you have serious deficiencies in financial and management controls, there are two loserstaxpayers, whose money is not being spent as well as it should be, and clients who include the poor, disabled and dispossessed in our society," Tuttle said. Community Development general manager Parker Anderson could not be reached for comment.

But Steven Porter, assistant general manager, dismissed the review as a "routine audit" that "points out what we consider minor deficiencies, most of which have been corrected over the past 2'i years." Beyond that, Porter said, "it did not identify a single misspent dollar, and we administer about $200 million a year in state and federal grant funds." Nonetheless, a copy of the controller's audit was forwarded to City Councilman Mark Ridley -Thomas, who heads a council committee that oversees department grants. "I'm very concerned about it the issues it raises are significant and can't be ignored," Ridley-Thomas said. "The committee can recommended changes in the CDD to the City Council." The council is expected to hold a special hearing on Community De-, velopment operations in Septem-; ber aimed at finding ways of shaping up the agency's financial and management controls, city officials, said. Miguel Barrios, an inspector general with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop? ment, which funds Community Der velopment projects, said he also is "very interested in reviewing the, audit." Meanwhile, Tuttle's audit includes an array of recommendations to Anderson to correct deficiencies and improve operations.

Among the recommendations, are that Anderson provide his, managers with updates on the performance of employees and programs to ensure compliance, and that he take action when employee performance is less than required. The audits were triggered in 1990 by a Times investigation of alleged political influence and misuse of city-funded projects involving the Rev. H. H. Brookins, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and an influential supporter of Mayor Tom Bradley.

Later, city investigators alleged that Brookins improperly obtained a $334,000 loan to rehabilitate a Crenshaw Boulevard building that he owned, unbeknown to Community Development officials. The building housed nonprofit anti-poverty programs headed by Brookins. Citing conflicts of interest, the city sued Brookins to recover nearly $50,000 in rent paid to Brookins' private company. Brookins has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. Addressing the overall concerns -raised by the audits, Ridley -Thorn as said: "Obviously, there are corrections that have to be made.

"The response from the department has been one that sounds defensive," Ridley-Thomas said. "The general manager is ultimate-. ly responsible for what happens in' the department." ROBERT DUFtELL Los Angeles Times Maria Arceo feeds her 1 -month-old son, Melvin, while she waits for a doctor to examine the child. "Once people hear about this place, we may actually see more people overall," he said. Indeed, there has been no noticeable drop in emergency room business yet, though that is being blamed in part on the state budget impasse, which has prompted more hospitals to turn away Medi-Cal patients.

Projections that the clinic would treat 22,000 patients in its first year were quickly amended last week. If the average daily load of about 100 holds, there will be more than 35,000 patients this year. The Venice Family Clinic, by comparison, treats more than 45,000 annually. Shonfeld shares concerns that the clinic might be overwhelmed. But she hopes that it will become a model for similar satellite centers around the city.

In addition to the hospital's financial backing, she' is attempting to create a clinic foundation that would help defray the clinic's costs and hopes local business owners will support it. crowded waiting room and grew crankier, some parents lost their patience. In rapid Spanish, Elizabeth Av-ena shouted at one of the medical assistants: "If the doctor's not coming, I'm leaving now!" Avena, who lives in Huntington Park, had been referred to the clinic by the hospital's emergency room. Her 11-month-old son, Armando, had a fever that had lasted three days. There was another late-night clinic closer to her residence, but she did not like her previous treatment there.

Within 15 minutes, Avena's son's virus had been diagnosed by attending physician Eyal Ben-Isaac and she left, smiling, with her son cradled on her shoulder. "It's OK, it's OK," she said. Ben-Isaac fears that as the clinic's popularity increases, so will the crowding. He is less convinced than Shonfeld that the emergency room will experience any decline in patients. the street from the hospital owned by a retired and sympathetic doctor provided the opportunity.

Financing came in the form of $400,000 in grants from the hospital and from Shorifeld's fellow emergency doctors. The clinic opened its doors on July 23, staffed by resident physicians, nurses and social workers who rotate in from the main hospital. The facility accepts Medi-Cal, which Shonfeld said accounts for about 70 of the patient load. Other patients are charged what they can afford, usually about $25 a visit. Complete physicals are offered whenever time allows, as are immunizations which are provided free under a Los Angeles County health program.

Although the clinic aims to treat the surrounding community, patients have come from as far away as Valencia. The waits are still long up to three hours at times. Last Thursday night, as the children sat in a 4.