The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 35

LOS ANGELES TIMES SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2000 B3 METRO NEWS Investigator in Missing-Girl Case Dies in Crash k1 VfYV 'if -1, t3 tfiifcirt" ran' awtfrif he joined them. They included 28 murder trials, 16 of which were death penalty cases. He worked for attorneys for Eddie Nash in the infamous "Laurel Canyon Massacre" case, Lyle Menendez in the Menendez brothers case, Jeremy Strohmeyer in the Nevada casino murder case, and Glendale Fire Capt. John Orr, who was accused of four arson deaths. Other high-profile cases he investigated included the Billionaire Boys Club, the Asian Boyz and the Cotton Club murder.

"In his business a victory was not getting the death penalty," Stacy Woolsey said Saturday of her husband's work. "None of his people got the death penalty." Stacy Woolsey said her husband set aside his own personal feelings when investigating murder cases for defense lawyers. But his memory of his own troubled teenage son prompted him to work extra hard on the Miyasaki case, she said. Ariane Miyasaki had remained distraught over the 1994 death of her mother and grandmother in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Woolsey said he was perplexed by the actions of Culver City police after Ariane's disappearance.

During a crucial period shortly after she vanished, police deleted Ariane's name from a national computer database that logs missing children. And when the 14-year-old girl who vanished with Ariane returned home, police refused to interview her, explaining that the girl's mother didn't want them to. "I met with the investigating officer several times and he said they weren't looking at the case as anything other than a runaway and it's not against the law for a kid to run away," Woolsey told The Times earlier this year. "I said, 'Look, detective, this girl is 13; she got into a van with two men 10 and 15 years older Manson-type I said if it was your kid who got in, you'd have done something." Services for Woolsey, who is survived by a 9-year-old son, Baily, in addition to his wife, are set for 10 a.m. Monday at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena.

Search: Private detective, who handled many high-profile cases, was trying to find Culver City teenager. By BOB POOL TIMES STAFF WRITER The sad case of a missing Culver City girl took a tragic turn when a prominent Los Angeles private detective searching for her in Georgia was killed in a car crash, authorities said Saturday. Investigator Ted Woolsey, 60, of Altadena died late Wednesday when his rental car smashed into a concrete median divider and flipped over, officials in Augusta, said. Woolsey a veteran private investigator who worked on some of Los Angeles' highest-profile murder cases was in Georgia searching for clues to the disappearance of 13-year-old Ariane Miyasaki, who vanished almost 15 months ago. He was working for the girl's father, UCLA dentistry professor Ken Miyasaki, who has alleged that Culver City police botched their investigation of the case and failed to interview two key witnesses to his daughter's Jan.

5, 1999, disappearance. Culver City police deny that they did anything wrong. Miyasaki's frustration with police was detailed in a March 12 report in The Times. Woolsey was quoted in that story explaining that Georgia was one of the focal points of his own search. Woolsey was there last week looking for Jesse James Williams, a 26-year-old ex-felon who was seen with another man driving off in a van with Ariane and a 14-year-old girl on the day of her disappearance.

Williams, who calls himself "Jester," was arrested in Seattle last fall on a parole violation charge and extradited to Los Angeles. But Culver City police did not interrogate him before a Santa Monica judge released him and he again disappeared. CARLOS CHAVEZ Los Angeles Times Crowd basks in the warmth at Saturday's unveiling of rebuilt pier. Ventura Hopes Rebuilt Pier Makes a Splash GARY FRIEDMAN Los Angeles Times Ted Woolsey, left, in mid-1990s with former LA. Ram player Darryl Henley, who was convicted of drug and murder-plot charges.

Qronttork (Hji main st. I --Y 1 I Ventura MJ 'I 1 I Pier THOMPSON BLVU tenter County 1 I Fairground there." Associates of Woolsey said he mounted an all-out search for Miyasaki's daughter because he related to Miyasaki's grief. They said Woolsey's son, a troubled 15-year-old living with Woolsey's ex-wife, took his own life several years ago. Woolsey was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy for 10 years before becoming a stockbroker. Later he turned to private detective work, specializing in fraud investigation before turning to murder case defense work.

During the past decade, Woolsey earned a reputation among Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers as a dogged investigator whose cases often seemed like lost causes when Woolsey later learned that Williams had indicated to a probation department worker that he intended to return to his family's home in Georgia. Woolsey hoped to track down Williams and question him about Ariane's whereabouts. Woolsey died from head injuries suffered in the crash when he lost control of his car on the Bobby Jones Expressway, said Georgia's Richmond County Coroner Leroy Sims. Ken Miyasaki was stunned Saturday by news of Woolsey's death. "I'm in shock.

He had become almost a father to me," Miyasaki said. "This did not have to happen. If the police had done their job, he would not have had to be back PWcO3fi 1 Miii LA. Then and NOW CeriUaRasmussen Renovation: Nearly destroyed nine times, it now features steel pilings, many aesthetic changes. ByGINAPICCALO SPECIAL TO THE TIMES VENTURA-The sea-battered Ventura Pier, built back when this beach-side town was more accessible by water than roadway, reopened Saturday after a seven-month, renovation to bolster the historic monument against the weight of the Pacific.

Balmy weather drew about 2,500 people to the beach to admire the pier's new octagonal end, steel-reinforced pilings and dozens of aesthetic changes designed to make the structure more inviting. City officials, who want the pier to draw more tourists and local residents to the downtown area, hope the new steel pilings and an elevated deck will save the structure from the brutal winter swells that have nearly destroyed it nine times in the last 128 years. Among the efforts to spruce up the structure, they point to the decorative gate that replaced the old chain-link fence, a 50-foot flagpole, wooden benches, colorful pennants and information panels posted to describe the pier's history. Floodlights will light up the surf at night. The new deck at the pier's end is the perfect place for events and the pier's history already makes it a tourist attraction, said Janice Wa-gar, the city's marketing manager.

On Saturday, people in sandals and tank tops walked their dogs along the wooden planks, while others cast fishing lines off the side and shared bags of free popcorn and cups of ice cream. At the end of the pier, seven men in suits played jazz as women in period costumes smiled behind their feather fans. When the pier was completed in 1872 the structure was named the Hueneme Wharf, and it marked a new boom era for the dusty towns of Ventura County by giving farmers better shipping access. It was also the gateway for California travelers who reached the area by steamboat instead of risking their lives on a mountain stagecoach. The Ventura Pier, however, is also the focal point for some of the Pacific Ocean's most powerful winter waves.

Los Angeles Times "Under certain conditions, wave energy will converge right at the pier," said meteorologist Rey Strange, a city consultant. An underwater ridge, he said, sends waves directly toward the structure. For decades, the pier has endured severe weather and violent waves, including a 1937 storm that destroyed about 700 feet. After a 1986 storm, the pier was so damaged that state officials kept it closed until the city assumed ownership in 1993, said City Engineer Rick Raives. Then a storm in December 1995 consumed 400 feet of the structure and yanked the pilings out to sea.

"That really made us go back to the drawing board and look at what we should be doing out there," said Raives. Using insurance money and state grants, the city replaced about 500 feet of the pier with steel, making the structure 10 times stronger than when it stood on the original wood pilings, Raives said. A grass-roots group known as Pier Into the Future raised nearly $800,000 to maintain the structure. The group's founders, longtime Ventura residents Dan and Edna Mills, organized a group of about 16 locals who have sold T-shirts, posters, magnets and other memorabilia. Even pieces of the pier were up for grabs.

Fund-raisers offered each plank of the structure for about $125. About 3,700 buyers received a special title as proof of their ownership. Considering the pier's precarious location, however, City Manager Donna Linderos is skeptical that this renovation will be the last. Weather patterns are too unpredictable. "It has a much better chance of surviving," she said.

"But it's nature, guys." Tfl in I fi 1 1 1 1 I ti 'til IJj JJ I'l -R il III' 1 rlf Mil jfli' USC archives Robert Maclay Widney, left, is remembered at USC in the name of the Widney Alumni House, shown here in 1880 when it was new. USC Is Early Developer's Monument Lottery Results For Saturday, April 1 SUPER LOTTO Winning Numbers: 3-17-21-29-34-50 Jackpot: $15 million FANTASY 5 Winning Numbers: 119-28-30-36 DAILY 3 Winning Numbers: 5-0-1 DAILY DERBY When land baron Abel Stearns went bankrupt and retained Widney to divide up his property, the lawyer accepted land in lieu of a fee. Widney took some of Stearns' former holdings, along with other land he purchased, and developed whole towns, including Pacoima, San Fernando, Ontario, Victorville and Long Beach. His office was conveniently located, only a block from the popular Bella Union saloon where he occasionally conducted business, though he didn't drink. One day Widney stood at the entrance to the jammed saloon, watching as some hard-drinking wise guys used a knot of wood on the wall for target practice.

Frustrated by their inability to hit the mark, the drunks turned on Widney. "Run that damned teetotaler out of town," shouted one of them, unholstering his gun as he walked over to the lawyer and tried to force him to take a drink. "I don't drink," Widney snarled between clenched teeth as the man slowly backed away. Then Widney drew his own pistol and put three shots into the knot all dead center. "You win!" the drunk said.

Working his own printing press, Widney soon began writing the monthly Los Angeles Real Estate Advertiser. As one reader put it, he somehow convinced his readers that they were buying a "corner lot in heaven and had the whiskey concession, too." Businessman though he may have been, Widney was never cautious. In 1871, as bloody anti-Chinese rioting raged through the town, he drew his Colt revolver and plunged into the murderous mob, escorting several immigrants to safety. The notorious Chinese Massacre left 19 Asian immigrants dead. Three months later, Widney was appointed a U.S.

district judge and, within weeks, found 37 indicted rioters standing before him in his courtroom. He subsequently sent eight who were convicted of manslaughter to prison, though their convictions ultimately were reversed. The new judge had his own ideas about courtroom decorum, and once brandished his ever-present pistol at a litigant who didn't concur. Meanwhile, Widney continued his promotion of local development. In 1872, Southern Pacific was threatening to build its main line from San Francisco through the Cajon Pass, bypassing Los Angeles.

The railroad wanted $600,000 to come to L.A., and Widney, one of the leaders of a 30-member committee, worked out a plan for a $377,000 bond issue and a 60-acre land grant, subject to a special election. The night before the election, the anti-railroad folks seized almost 300 Mexicans whose votes they had purchased and attempted to hold them in a corral. Later that same night, the pro-railroad people offered a larger price and freed the voters. The bond issue passed. Two years later, after moving his family to 4th and Hill streets (where the Subway Terminal Building now stands) Widney helped establish the city's first horse-drawn trolley, starting at the plaza and ending at 6th and Figueroa streets.

Cars often went off the track at several curves, so Widney, who did not appreciate the town's wisecracks about it, redesigned the lines himself. Later, he would try his luck again at building a narrow gauge horsecar line from the seaside resort Willmore City whose name he changed to Long Beach to the Wilmington Depot. The line ran over swampy ground on railroad ties and a timber roadbed that was soon called the GOP RR, for Get Out and Push Railroad. In 1892, just before the economic panic, Widney rescued the 12-year-old University of Southern California and its 53 students by giving it enough property to see it through the tough times. In 1955, when the university celebrated its 75th anniversary, Widney's gift was memorialized by naming the oldest building on campus for the school's first and most colorful great benefactor.

Amid the ivy-covered brick buildings and towering palm trees that dot the USC campus sits an unassuming two-story, 120-year-old, white clapboard building that is a direct link, not only to the school's founder, but also to Los Angeles' colorful past. Built in 1880, Widney Alumni House, fondly known as Widney Hall, was USC's first building and has survived several moves on the campus. It was built by one of 19th century Los Angeles' unique characters, a land promoter, attorney and judge who just happened as it fortunately turned out to be a deadly pistol shot and "father" of the university. Robert Maclay Widney was born a poor Ohio farm boy and left home at 16 with an ax, knapsack and rifle. Eventually, he hooked up with a wagon train led by his future father-in-law which arrived in Northern California in 1857.

After working at odd jobs and graduating from Santa Clara's College of the Pacific, he taught math and geology while studying law and courting the wagon master's daughter, Mary Barnes. In February 1868, Widney arrived in Los Angeles with $100 in his pocket, a small trunk and his new bride on his arm. When the couple's buggy pulled up to the two-story Bella Union Hotel on Main Street, Mary was dirty and still seasick after the harrowing ride up from Wilmington, where they had arrived by ship. Her tall, bewhiskered husband, by contrast, cut a poised figure, well turned out in a suit and tie. The newlyweds not only honeymooned at the hotel, but made it their home until their house was built at 4th and Main streets.

Widney hung out his legal shingle on an adobe shack near Main and Arcadia streets, but soon found that land was a far more valuable commodity than legal advice. In short order, the ambitious young husband became the town's first real-estate salesman-attorney. Halle Berry Turns Herself in to Deputies From a Times Staff Writer Actress Halle Berry turned herself in Saturday and received a citation from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department charging her with leaving the scene of an accident that injured another driver, Deputy Elisabeth Sachs said. Sachs said Berry reported to the Lennox station and was released. She is scheduled to appear in court May 4 in Beverly Hills.

The charge, filed Friday by the district attorney's office, is the result of a Feb. 23 crash at a Sunset Strip intersection in West Hollywood. If convicted, the 31-year-old star of the cable TV movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge" could face up to one year in county jail and a $10,000 fine. Authorities contend that Berry's rented Chevrolet Blazer ran a red light, hit another car and then left the scene. The other driver, Hatal Ray-thatha, has sued Berry for gence.

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