The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 49

Humphrey Knew of Gift Plans, Maheu Testifies; nn 0 Ex-Vice President Describes Statement -y 1 fit 1 -1 SrH I as Sheer Poppycock BY GENE BLAKE Times Staff Writer Former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey knew he was to receive Howard Hughes' contributions of $50,000 cash and $50,000 by check in 1968 and wa3 aware the currency was in a bag delivered to his limousine, Robert A. Maheu testified Thursday. Humphrey, reached by The Times in Washington, described Maheu's account as "fantasy and sheer poppycock and I'm weary of hearing about it." Maheu, deposed chief of Hughes' Nevada operations, told a federal court jury here the commitment for the contributions was made at a meeting he had with Humphrey in Denver. A Humphrey campaign aide has testified he ushered Maheu to such a meeting on May 5, 1968, but the senator denied Thursday that he was even in Denver that day.

"From then on we had several conversations by telephone and the matter was handled very delicately," Maheu testified. At the time, Hughes was concerned about underground nuclear "testing being conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission in Nevada, near where the billionaire industrialist had begun to acquire gambling casinos and other properties. "He (Humphrey) certainly indicated he would give us all the help we needed in our fight relative to atomic energy and he seemed very grateful," Maheu related. Maheu said the cash was delivered after a fund-raising dinner July 29, 1968, at the Century Plaza here. He said he first spoke to Humphrey about it during the cocktail hour preceding the dinner.

"I mentioned to the Vice President I had with me the item we had discussed previously," Maheu testified. "He seemed happy." Maheu said he learned from a Humphrey aide whom he could not identify that the delivery was to be made in the Vice President's limousine in front of the hotel. He testified he got his cash-filled briefcase from his room and boarded the limousine in front of the hotel the YF-17, during ceremonies ot Northrop Corp. plant in Hawthorne. Times photo by Don Cormier SUPER JET -View from rear of ART SEIDENBAUM How to Bring Up a City CC PART II FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1974 main entrance.

He said he spent no more than three minutes in the car. "I made some reference to the atomic energy problems which Howard Hughes wanted curtailed in Nevada," Maheu related. "I left the briefcase on the floor of the limousine, bade the Vice President godspeed, said good-bye to his wife and I left." Maheu testified that he did not open the briefcase, that he referred to its contents only as "some papers pertaining to atomic energy problems" and did not mention a political contribution. "I did not think it appropriate to open the briefcase, rip open the envelopes and brazenly take out the cash," he explained. "I did not believe it was a proper moment to have such a conversation." It was U.S.

Dist. Judge Harry Pre-gerson, presiding over Maheu's $17.5 million defamation suit against Hughes' Summa who opened up the question of Humphrey's prior knowledge. "Did you have any prior information that Vice President Humphrey knew there would be money in the briefcase," the judge asked. "Yes, sir," replied Maheu, and he went on to relate the alleged prior commitment in Denver and the alleged discussion with Humphrey and his aide in the hotel. At one point Maheu started to blurt out what appeared to be a challenge to Humphrey to take a lie-detector test.

The judge halted him, but Maheu later volunteered to take such a test himself under the court's jurisdiction. "You're going to get a test, Mr. Maheu, from the jury," rejoined Summa Corp. attorney Norbert R. Schlei.

Please Turn to Page 5, Col. 4 "I never talked to the governor about any relationship of a judicial appointment to Proposition 1," Mills said. "I would be very surprised if the governor would appoint me on the basis of one position that I took." Mills also supported the reelection of President Nixon in 1972. There are three courses open to the council in designating a successor to Mills, who was first elected to the council in 1963 and reelected in 1967 and 1971. It can call a special election, appoint an interim councilman or leave the seat vacant until the next regular election in April, 1975.

Edelman said it was important that the district, in South-Central and Southwest Los Angeles, have a right to select its own representative rather than have the council appoint Please Turn to Page 3, CoL 1 Special Election Urged to Name Successor to Councilman Mills the twin-tailed lightweight fighter plane, The commissioners sit in supervision over city departments and, at their best, exert citizen pressure on civil servants. Environmental quality manager Jack Green was saying that Bradley's experience with both the Southern California Assn. of Governments and the National League of Cities has made the mayor extremely sensitive to pollution problems that know no city boundaries. Bradley, claimed, has surrounded himself with able environmental advisers. And then I bumped into Councilman Marvin Braude at a meeting of the Encino Property Owners Assn.

I had been complaining to the group about cityvvide housing costs and housing needs and lack of long-range land-use plans. Braude stood up and told his constituents not to take my gloom too seriously. Everything could be all right, Braude said, because the mayor and the Planning Commission are operating in the public interest ahead of the private interest. For the first time in two terms on the City Council, Braude has confidence in what the rest of local government will do about development. This is the month the Bradley budget became public.

Several departments had been upset because the mayor ordered a 5 cut across the board in budget proposals. Several departments recreation and parks, police, library carried their upsets into public print. Now those departmental arguments turn out to have been premature. The Mayor's tentative budget is balanced and City Hall seems able to live within its means for another year. Bradley was lucky with a small windfall; inflation raised city revenues.

But the city atmosphere is more than luck. And the best kind of inflation turns out to be the big rise in local confidence. Young Pleads Perversion Case BY ERWIN BAKER Timet City Bureau Chief Things go better with Bradley, to paraphrase the hard sell for a soft drink. In the case of Los Angeles, it's the work that refreshes. After 42 years of somnambulant city administration that liked to tell the voters how powerless it was, we are 1 suddenly served by a mayor's office making decisions, winning friends and even influencing peo- ple.r Such movement is all the more remarkable against" a national background of scandal, cynicism and low crimes in high places.

Americans probably have never mistrusted their elected leaders more than they do right now. And yet the feeling in Los Angeles is warm. Trust almost oozes between the electorate and the elected. Morale is up among agencies that work together. Pollyanna didn't do my typing for me today.

I tried the usual jaundiced journalist approach on a longtime city expert about a month ago, announcing that Tom Bradley's romance with the public seemed to have more sweetness than substance. The expert said not true: Bradley moved into the energy crunch immediately, organizing Los Angeles to cope with minimum discomfort. Bradley is carrying us closer to mass transit by insisting that the various bureaucracies coordinate their movements for a change. Then I happened, in the course of other business, to run into three separate stalwarts of City Hall. Each of them, unprodded, had kind words for the mayor.

City Atty. Burt Pines, for instance, was talking about the way the mayor was making a lawyer's life easier because of the high qual- ity of appointed overseers. "The importance of the mayor," Pines said, "is tremendous in Los Angeles because of the commission system we have." Son of Loretta No Contest in Ultramodern Jet Fighter Unveiled at Northrop Plant BY MARVIN MILES Times Aerospace, Writer A new lightweight fighter that can maneuver 50 better than current operational combat jets and accelerate twice as fast was unveiled Thursday at the Northrop Corp. plant in Hawthorne. Designated the YF-17, the sleek twin-tailed scrapper is one of two ultramodern fighter types ordered by the Air Force to assess technology in an innovative program that could lead to effective fighters at low cost.

The other aircraft is the YF-16 produced by the General Dynamics Ft. Worth, currently in test phase at Edwards Air Force Base. Both firms were allowed wide latitude in their designs (two aircraft each) to assure high performance in the new day fighters that could lead to a new -mix in the U.S. force structure, with more low-cost aircraft and fewer expensive, sophisticated types. While the Air Force is under no commitment to buy either plane, it is expected the program will produce a wealth of technical knowledge on lightweight fighters that will in turn develop understanding and confidence in their development and use.

Thomas V. Jones, Northrop president, told a press conference he preferred the designation "fightweight" instead of "lightweight" for his company's design, which he said will have a takeoff weight of but 23,000 pounds, compared with approximately 58,000 pounds for a new sophisticated fighter. In addition to the fighter's maneuverability and acceleration, the YF-17, he said, will have other prerequisites for victory in the swirling arena of air-to-air combat. Please Turn to Back Page, Col. 4 Sylmar Tunnel Suits Settled Million BY MYRNA OLIVER Times Staff Writer Twenty-three civil suits resulting from the June 24, 1971, Sylmar Tunnel explosion which killed 17 persons were settled Thursday for by Superior Judge Bernard S.

Jefferson. The awards included $9 million for damages for 16 deaths and injuries to three persons at the time of the explosion and $315,000 for injuries to four men in a flash fire the day preceding the explosion. Jefferson said the Metropolitan Water District would pay 76 of the money, the Mine and Safety Appliance, Co. 12.5 and the state Division of Industrial Safety 11.5. Awards for deaths ranged from to $800,000.

Still pending is a case by survivors of Louis Richardson, the single Metropolitan Water District employe killed, against Lockheed Shipbuild-" ing Construction Co. Jefferson said he hopes to settle that case in the near future. He said Argonaut Insurance workman's 0 a i 0 insurance carrier for Lockheed, agreed not to try to recover money it has paid the survivors from their court award. Because most of the men who were killed worked for Lock heed, their survivors could collect the benefits but could not sue the employing company. Please Turn to Page 3, CoL 1 UTILITIES BOARD OK'S JITNEYS IN SIX AREAS OF LA.

BY LEE HARRIS Timet Staff Writer The Los Angeles Board of Public Utilities and Transportation Thursday gave its approval to the first jitney service in Los Angeles. The five-member board voted unanimously to give the La France Transportation Systems permits to operate jitney buses in six areas of Los Angeles. The permits allow the company to operate on fixed routes in Venice, Ocean Park, Mar Vista, Westchester, Playa del Rey and at Los Angeles International Airport. La France's proposal was opposed by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, the Culver City Transit Line, the Santa Monica Transit Line and Airportransit. However, indications were that the company would go ahead with $l-a-ride service in five passenger vehicles within a few days.

Please Tura to Back Page, Col. 1 Supervisors Reject Advice, Vote Funds for Poverty Agency BY RAY ZEMAN Timet County Bureau Chief The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors overruled Chief Administrative Officer Arthur G.Will's recommendation Thursday and voted to give the Greater Los Angeles Community Action Agency a monthly subsidy. This sum will be paid during the remaining three months of the 1973-74 fiscal year. The Los Angeles City Council voted a similar $110,000 monthly subsidy Feb. 8, contingent upon the county providing matching funds.

An overflow Hall of Administration hearing room throng of 800 gave a standing ovation when Supervisor Ernest E. Debs' motion to aid poverty communities was passed unanimously. Mexican-Americans, blacks and Indians predominated In the large minority groups that crowded the chamber. Will contended in two extensive reports to the Board of Supervisors that GLACAA is currently receiving $830,000 monthly from the federal Office of Economic Opportunity and said the current level of funding is greater than in 1973. "While we support GLACAA, its programs and its administration, we reserved funds earlier to sustain the organization against the possibility of sharp federal defunding," Will said.

"That defunding did not come to pass. "They are funded at essentially their previous levelThis current request is over and above that level. It is a supplemental request. For that reason, it is not recommended." C. Edward Corbett, chairman of the GLACAA board of directors, introduced a chain of speakers.

They insisted more money is needed for such programs as manpower training, youth rehabilitation, senior citizen training, child day-care centers and drug-abuse education. Ralph Fertig, GLACAA executive director, said $12,349,000 will be needed in 1974, or more than $2 million above the expenditures of two years ago, just to "stay still" while inflationary costs soar. Please Turn to Page 0, CoL 3 A. special election to name a successor to Los Angeles City Council. President Pro Tern Billy G.

Mills in the 8th District was urged by Councilman Edmund D. 1 a Thursday. Mills, 44, an 11-year veteran on the council, was appointed to the Superior Court bench here Wednesday by Gov. Reagan. The appointement is effective immediately, but Mills said he would confer with Presiding Superior Judge Alfred C.

McCourtney today to determine when he will take office. Mills, a Democrat appointed by a Republipan governor, strongly denied reports in Sacramento Thursday that he was appointed to the judgeship as a "reward" for supporting Proposition 1, the unsuccessful Reagan-backed tax initiative on last November's ballot. i 4- -H ill -SJk Jp" BY WILLIAM FARR Timet Staff Writer I it iVv srfT7 Christopher Lewis, 29, the son of actress Loretta Young, pleaded no contest Thursday to a charge of engaging in an act of sex perversion with a 13-year-old boy. Lewis entered the plea before Superior Judge M. Ross Bigelow, who then appointed two psychiatrists to determine whether the Beverly Hills film maker is a "mentally disoriented sex offender." il The psychiatric examinations are to be conducted preparatory to the sentencing of Lewis on April 25.

He I faces a one-year-to-life term. Three other felony counts of sex perversion against Lewis probably r- will be dismissed at the time of sentencing, according to Dep. Dist. Atty. James Grodin.

Lewis was one of 14 men indicted fflast October by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury for alleged ho- mosexual activities with male The indictments were the outgrowth of a Los Angeles Police Department investigation into the making of movies featuring sex acts with young boys. Pleas of no contest have been entered by three others indicted in the case. Francisco DeSoto, 43, who resigned as a teacher at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks after 17 years on the faculty there, is scheduled to be sentenced April 16. Sentencing is set May 13 for Frank Hershey, 66, a Manhattan Beach electronics technician; and Richard George, 36, a systems analyst for a major Burbank movie studio and a onetime scoutmaster in Redondo Beach. James Braskims, 40, a Riverside man with a prior record of similar charges, pleaded guilty to one count of oral copulation and received a one-to-15 year prison sentence.

Please Turn to Page 2, Col. 3 CAUGHT IN A ROUNDUP A woman with sleeping baby is directed into van by an immigration officer after she and about 40 other suspected aliens were found in a single three-room apartment at 5881 W. Pico Blvd. After being processed, members of group were to be returned home, believed to be Zacatecas, Mex. Times photo by Michael Mally 1.