The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 109

SECTION METRO WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9, 1998 cctt Accused Mother Describes Family's Pain Two Words for Mayor: Take Off! Tragedy: Young woman denies intentionally killing infant son, says authorities are threatening to take her sister from parents' home. "I would never do something sick like that to my baby." SHANTAE MOLINA With her mother, Olga Welch, at far right It's official. The suspense is over. Nothing left to do now but announce the ribbon-cutting. Los Angeles is officially in favor of an international airport for Orange County.

And, oh, by the way, it wonders if we could throw in a couple jails, a couple landfills, a homeless shelter and a nuclear power plant. And the Dodgers would like the Angels to give Mo Vaughn back to the Red Sox and quit wasting money on good ballplayers. L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan came loh Contreras, died after being shot in the head Oct. 15.

Molina later told her attorney that she was frightened after hearing what she thought was an intruder outside her home, picked up a gun and fired, hitting the baby accidentally. She was arrested on charges of first -degree murder Nov. 9 and released on $250,000 bail a few days later. After her release, Molina went to live with the rest of her family at an aunt and uncle's house in northern San Diego County until last week, when the family said it received phone calls and a letter from a San Diego County social worker. The official told them that because of Molina's arrest, her 14-year-old sister would be taken into custody if they continued to live in the same home, according to her parents, Please see MOTHER, B8 By JANET WILSON TIMES STAFF WRITER A young Laguna Niguel mother accused of deliberately killing her infant son said this week that authorities have threatened to take her younger sister into protective custody if the two continue to live together with their parents.

In her first interview since the Oct. 15 shooting, 20-year-old Shantae Molina proclaimed her innocence and said the last two months have been agonizing. "I would never do something sick like that to my baby," said Molina, flanked by her younger sister and other family members, during an interview at her attorney's office Monday. Molina's 9-month-old son, Armani Shy- to Irvine this week and bit the I GERALDINE WILKINS-KASINGA Los Angeles Times -nwm DANA PARSONS bullet. After what must have been an anguishing process, abetted by blowing in his ear from George Argyros, Riordan said Orange County simply must build an international airport at the El Toro Marine base Coaster's Up and Running Zero Gravity Adds to the Thrill as Public Tests Knott's Latest Supervisors OK Project Near Two Monasteries Development: Board ignores pleas on behalf of the religious retreats and approves housing plan in Trabuco Canyon area.

S6 4 I rU? 3 Fm I i i By MEGAN GARVEY TIMES STAFF WRITER Paul Ruben counted eight moments of zero gravity during his first turn on GhostRider Knott's Berry Farm's largest attraction, which opened to the public Tuesday. To those not fluent in the language of roller coaster enthusiasts, that's the number of times he rose off the seat and could have been flung out of the nearly mile-long, 118-foot-high, two-minute roller coaster ride, if not for the seat belt and safety bar that held him in place. Ruben considered this a pleasurable sensation. GhostRider is the first major addition to Knott's historic Ghost Town since 1969 and is billed as one of the most massive wooden roller coasters in the world. That Ruben was able to count anything at all during the fast-paced, no-breaks ride is a testament to his work.

As editor of Park World, a magazine dedicated to amusement parks, he has ridden more than 500 roller coasters worldwide. Citing "smoothness of the ride" and "few breaks in action," he offered this review: "One of the best new wooden roller coasters." For someone who has not been on all 347 currently operating roller coasters in America, counting much of anything from the front car would seem to be impossible. i 1 i -1 1 or. li site. We should support the airport, the mayor said, because it will help the poor and is the morally proper thing to do.

I'm no backwater local honk unless it suits my purposes but if we wanted advice from a self-serving, glad-handing mayor, we wouldn't need to go to L.A. for one. It just so happens we have 31 of them right here. i Any way, Riordan, suddenly sounding like Jesse Jackson, says it isn't right that a place like Orange i County proclaim, "We have ours," i and then turn its back on much-needed projects that could benefit the poor. Obviously, the man from Los rAngeles knows very little about Jprange County.

"We Have Ours (And We're Not Giving It Back)" is the of ficial county motto. Riordan is probably a swell guy, i despite saying in June that Orange 1 County "is the most boring place in the country." Still, his entry into the El Toro airport issue is puzzling in that his opinion about our affairs is the quintessential one hand clapping. It makes no sound. His opinion is not one Orange Countians especially care about unless, of course, he had opposed the El Toro airport), so all he could do by endorsing it was ruffle feathers, i Perhaps he thought pushing publicly I for an enlarged Orange County airport I might, just might, ease pressure in Los Angeles, where some factions don't I want LAX expanded as much as he does. We can't knock Riordan for having I an opinion and, technically, it's not even illegal for a Los Angeles mayor I to visit Orange County, but did he have to lay a guilt trip on us? Did we ne'er-do-wells need the mayor from The Big City to tell us we're morally off track if we don't support an airport? I've heard George Argyros argue forcefully for the airport, but not in moralistic terms.

At least, not with a straight face. Good thing; Argyros' desire to have a new airport at El Toro is hardly rooted in the ethics of the matter, unless he considers it righteous to keep John Wayne I Airport in his town of Newport Beach from expanding. But the Rev. Riordan, apparently playing to the bleeding-heart liberal crowd here in Orange County (uh, Mr. Mayor has no such trepidation.

His morality thesis? At first, I thought he meant even poor people have a right to fly internationally. But he means that the jobs generated by an airport project will provide jobs for the masses. The mayor said, "Morally, we owe everybody the right to be part of the middle class, to be part of the American dream. The ultimate goal is not increasing the capacity of our airports. The ultimate goal is creating quality jobs." I I just made a note to myself to see what Los Angeles has done, especially in its poorer sections, to keep people working.

If that effort is exemplary, I V' might take Riordan's Orange County comments with more than a grain of salt. What I've seen in the bleaker parts of L.A., however, are empty lots, vacant stores and hopeless people. A mayor has every right to morally challenge a place to help the poor. In Riordan's case, the name of that place is Los Angeles. I 1 I i i A By JEAN O.PASCO TIMES STAFF WRITER Despite pleas that the monastic lifestyle of two nearby religious retreats will be ruined, the Board of Supervisors approved construction Tuesday of up to 299 single-family homes on a controversial parcel of undeveloped land near Trabuco Canyon.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said he had nothing to show except frustration after nine months of negotiations but voted in favor of Saddleback Meadows, a housing project originally approved 20 years ago for 705 manufactured homes. Canyon area residents and attorneys for nearby St. Michael's Abbey and a Ramakrishna monastery have been fighting the project ever since. Attorney Edmond Connor, who represents the abbey and is president of the Orange County Bar pleaded with supervisors to hold off on making a decision so he could continue negotiations on behalf of the abbey to buy most of the property while allowing development on a small corner of the property. But Spitzer, as well as Supervisors Charles V.

Smith and William G. Steiner, said further delay would unfairly penalize the landowner and voted for the project. Supervisor Tom Wilson opposed the project, saying he couldn't support more than 225 homes on the development. Board Chairman Jim Silva abstained from discussion because of a past campaign donation from landowner Aradi Inc. The supervisors' action will be challenged, said longtime canyon activist Ray Chandos.

Nearby residents also hope to persuade state and federal wildlife officials to deny the development because of intrusion on a sensitive wildlife corridor that biologists want preserved. The worst part of the vote, Chandos said, was allowing the project to be exempted from the area's hard-fought specific plan, which guides development in one of the county's last rural enclaves. "It wasn't a matter of effort, it was a matter of will," Chandos said. "All supervisors had to do was to say no. Instead, they chose to side against residents versus the profit levels of an outside speculator." Please see RETREATS, B4 DONKELbEN Los Angeles Times GhostRider was built with 2.5 million board feet of yellow pine wood and 50,000 pounds of nails.

coaster sped at 56 mph. But most came to the Buena Park amusement park for fun. Robert Vaughn, 48, of Anaheim waited from the moment the park opened at 10 a.m. for his turn, finally boarding the ride nearly four hours later. In a tan Please see COASTER, B4 consolation.

As the coaster plunged letting gravity do the work people screamed and shrieked and cried from laughter. The skittish maintained a death grip on the car's handle, as though, should some massive malfunction occur, they could hang on while the On the slow climb up, the massive frame of the coaster seemed little more than a grade-school science project made of matchsticks. The fact that the coaster had 2.5 million board feet of yellow pine wood and 50,000 pounds of nails may or may not have been Carona's 'Rush' to Make Changes Irks Gates Sheriff: Incumbent is angered by election winner's suggestions of inefficiency and a bid to alter the nonpartisan office by proposing to change hiring standards so he can install a political ally as one of his top commanders. "I don't understand what is the rush to get involved in changes when Carona should have enough courtesy to let the sitting sheriff finish his job," Gates said. "Then he can make any changes he wants to make.

"I've been pretty amenable up to this point," he said. "But it's offensive to me to have someone who I like, but who is lacking in experience as I've said before, come to the board and get involved in an item he has little knowledge of." The spat exposed political wounds still raw from the June election, which Carona, now the county marshal, won over Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters. Gates did not endorse Walters but was outspokenly critical of Carona, saying he was not qualified Please see SHERIFF, B8 glimpse of a simmering private feud between the two less than a month before Gates leaves office. Speaking to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Gates said he was hurt and insulted by Carona's implications that Gates has not operated the department cost-efficiently.

He also accused Carona of injecting politics into By JEAN O. PASCO TIMES STAFF WRITER Outgoing Sheriff Brad Gates accused Sheriff-elect Michael S. Carona on Tuesday of jumping the gun to reshape the department that Gates has headed for 24 years, giving a rare public mm Lottery results, B4 Weather, B5 How to contact us, B3 Action Log, B4 Gifts for Young Minds Jack Martin, left, and Dustin Fero, both 4, play with Legos at Childtime Center in Brea. Creativity-sparking toys make the best gifts. B2 On the Approach L.A.'s mayor was right to insert himself into the El Toro debate.

Airport planning has to be done regionally. B6 Tapping Opinions Comments were positive at a hearing on a proposal to purify waste water and recycle it as tap water. B4 Dana Parsons' column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers can reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mall to dana.parsonsfatfmes.com. 4.