The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 64

SAN DIEGO COUNTY Cos Anodes (Times I riday. July 29, 1988 LOCAL NLWS I I I () I A IS III I IRS CC Senate Panel to Open Hearing Into Elephant Beating witnesses, including officials of the Zoological Society of San Diego, the committee has in the last month subpoenaed dozens of internal documents from the society, which operates both the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Although the committee has no power to prosecute. McCorquodale has said the hearings could result in tougher state laws regarding the oversight of zoos. The controversy began last February, shortly after Dunda, an 18-year-old African elephant, was moved from the zoo, where she had lived for most of her life, to the Wild Animal Park, where she is to become part of a breeding herd.

Keepers at the zoo say that Dunda became agitated when she arrived at the park, in part because she had been poorly prepared for the move. At the park, Dunda was chained by all four legs, pulled to the ground and beaten on the head with ax handles by five elephant handlers over at least two days. Dunda's former keepers at the zoo heard stories about the beating, then photographed the visible damage to her head and complained to zoo officials. They claim their complaints were ignored by zoo officials until the first story about the incident appeared in The Times on May 25. Zoological Society officials have firmly backed the keepers at the Wild Animal Park throughout the controversy and have rejected the allegations of the keepers at the zoo.

Keepers at the park say the elephant was out of control and threatened their lives and that they used only necessary discipline. Cleveland Amory to Testify Over the last two months, stories about the bitter controversy at the world-renowned institutions have drawn national attention, and the park and zoo have been swamped with angry letters. Also scheduled to testify today is Cleveland Amory, founder of the Fund for Animals, who has been highly critical of the Wild Animal Park keepers involved in the beating. Amory said his organization has received hundreds of letters from people all over the world who are "incensed" about the Dunda incident. The hearing will begin with statements by Betty Jo Williams, president of the Zoological Society' board of trustees, and Douglas Myers, the society's executive director.

Also on the agenda is David Herbet, captive wildlife specialist for the Humane Society of the United States, a Washington-based group that was the first to investigate the incident. Herbet termed the beating "animal abuse." Officials of the San Diego Humane Society, an unrelated group, and the San Diego city attorney's office also are scheduled to testify about their joint investigation into the incident. Probe Stymied in Shooting of Former Officer By RICHARD A. SERRANO. Times Staff Writer Authorities in rural Spokane, announced Thursday that they have reached an impasse in their investigation into whether two armed gunmen shot Doyle Wheeler, or whether the former San Diego police lieutenant staged the bizarre incident to win publicity for himself and cause public distrust of the San Diego Police Department.

Stevens County Sheriff Richard Andres said the last slim investigative lead his office will follow is to have a brief telephone tape recording analyzed to determine, if possible, whether the person who called the Police Department from the Wheeler home moments before the shooting was one of the gunmen or Wheeler himself. Other than that, Andres said, the case is being placed in his inactive file. "We've done everything we possible can," the sheriff said. "It was certainly a difficult case. It was one of those very difficult to prove.

'No Question He Was Shot' "But there's no question he was shot. That's irrefutable. We recovered a bullet from under a pillow where he indicated he was shot. And the emergency medical technicians who arrived at his house had to untie him." In a telephone interview from his home. Wheeler said the sheriff's office never really believed his story that that two men entered his home last April, tied him up, tortured him and shot him once behind the ear.

"A crime investigation was started, but it was never completed properly," he said. "If a rational person stops and looks at this, they have to realize how frustrating this entire thing has been." He has alleged that he was attacked because of his testimony on behalf of Sagon Penn in Penn's celebrated trial last year for shooting two police officers. On Thursday, Wheeler contended that San Diego police officials "lied and interfered" in the Stevens County investigation to discredit him with the sheriff's office. "They waged a campaign against me," he said. "All they did was attack me, attack me personally." But Andres said the San Diego Police Department cooperated in the investigation.

And he said Wheeler was unable to identify suspects from among police officers who work in the San Diego Police Narcotics Street Team and whose descriptions were somewhat similar to composite drawings of Wheeler's alleged assailants. "Doyle Wheeler thought they might be responsible," Andres said. "But photographs of those individuals who came any way close to the composites were sent up, and he examined them all. And he was unable to identify any of them." The sheriff said that as many as 2,000 man-hours have gone into investigating the April 19 incident. Wheeler was alone at his home when the shooting occurred.

Left to review is the tape-recorded telephone conversation. Andres said that. Please see IMPASSE, Page 3 By JANE FRITSCH. Times Staff Writer San Diego Wild Animal Park handlers involved in the beating of Dunda the elephant and the San Diego Zoo elephant keepers who blew the whistle on the incident are among more than a dozen witnesses scheduled to testify today at a state Senate committee hearing. San Diego Animal Advocates, an animal rights group, has announced plans to demonstrate at noon outside the hearing at Escondido City Hall.

The hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., is to last all day. Documents Subpoenaed The hearing was called by state Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose), chairman of the Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, who termed the beating "shocking" and said he was dissatisfied with the results of an investigation by the San Diego city attorney's office, which declined to press charges against any of those involved. In addition to issuing subpoenas for Making progress San Diego much ESSE 1 delayed Convention Center, seen against a background of downtown high-rises, Battle on Growth Takes Different Path Carlsbad Council, Citizens' Group Avoid Clash on Open-Space Issue Escondido Slow-Growth Coalition Withdraws OK of Signal Project BOB GRIESER Los Angeles Times is finally beginning to take shape. in 2 Cities refused to buckle in its resolve to curb the inland city's rampant growth.

After more than three hours of charges and countercharges, the trio prevailed in a 3-2 vote over Mayor Doris Thurston and Councilman Ernie Cowan. Forced to Negotiate Tim Paone, attorney for the Irvine -based Signal firm, said he had been forced to negotiate with Harmon and DeDominicis after it became clear the newly aligned council intended to rescind the development pact first approved by a pro-growth council headed by former Mayor Jim Rady. Paone, who likened the pressure of the impending decision to having "a gun to my head," said the goal of city officials in the negotiations was to "extort" more money from the firm, not to scale down the size and density of the development. He mentioned lawsuits against the city several times and warned the council that "any action you take here tonight is invalid." "If you want our cooperation," Paone said, "put aside this foolishness." Harmon counterattacked by charging that Paone and Signal had tried to rush through approval of the disputed agreement in the waning days of the former Please see CLASH, Page 6 Magazine Finds S.D. Has Sunk to 52nd-FinestCity By RALPH FRAMMOLINO, Times Staff Writer All right, already: San Diego isn't exactly the flawless paradise everyone would like to think it is.

Sure, sewage has been known to break through weakened underground pipes and run directly into Mission Bay. Interstate 8 turns into a parking lot during rush hour. Elementary-school kids are shoe-horned into increasingly scarce schoolrooms throughout the city. The breakneck pace of urban growth has environmentally minded citizens clamoring for stringent government controls on how many new homes developers are allowed to build. Rather Live in Buffalo But have things gotten so bad that the nation's upwardly mobile types would rather live in Buffalo, Cleveland, Gary, St.

Louis Lorain, Ohio, even than in America's Finest You bet, according to the August issue of Money magazine. In its second annual listing of the Please see POLL, Page 2 By GENE YASUDA, Times Staff Writer Carlsbad council members will establish a citizens' committee to decide how to preserve open space, avoiding a clash with environmentalists who were threatening to place a slow-growth initiative on the November ballot. Members of Save Open Space, a group concerned that open space is quickly disappearing in the city, had obtained enough signatures to qualify an initiative that would have curtailed development. But, during a negotiation session last weekend, a council subcommittee led by iCouncilmen Eric Larson and Mark Pettine persuaded the majority of SOS members to accept a compromise giving the city authority to file away the initiative, effectively keeping it off the ballot. The SOS initiative would have required the city to obtain two-thirds voter approval before allowing any development project on land designated as open space.

In addition to forming the committee, whose 15 members will be appointed by the council, the city's compromise package approved by the council Tuesday calls for a temporary moratorium on zoning changes or General Plan changes that "would decrease the size or diminish the environmental quality of open space." Under the compromise, the city will also By NANCY RAY, TimeS Staff Writer In a wild and raucous City Council session that lasted far into the night, Escondido's new slow-growth coalition notched its first victory against entrenched pro -development forces Wednesday. Verbal clashes and threats of lawsuits and recalls were sprinkled liberally throughout the heated debate, which centered on approval of an agreement between the city and developers of an exclusive, 640-unit estate community in the hills overlooking the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Despite all the fireworks, the outcome was predictable: the slow-growth majority elected last month teamed up to rescind the development agreement for Signal Landmark's Eaglecrest project, citing flaws in the document. Under the agreement, the Eaglecrest development would have been exempt from provisions of a restrictive growth-management plan that the three slow-growthers are expected to vote into law next week. Although veteran Councilman Jerry Harmon and his newly elected colleagues Carla DeDominicis and Kris Murphy were targets of shouted threats and catcalls from a large contingent of builders who packed the chambers, the slow-growth coalition draft a new open space map, which will identify lagoons, wetlands and other environmentally sensitive lands.

"The role of the citizens' committee would be to take a hard look at our current open -space programs," Larson said. "They will be responsible for taking a look at all our policies and city ordinances concerning open space." The moratorium could last as long as a year, or be suspended once the committee completes its study. Report Will Be Evaluated Following a review, the committee will also recommend ways to improve open-space protection. Such a report will then be evaluated by the council for adoption as a city ordinance, Larson said. Not all SOS members, however, were pleased with the compromise.

"The group has voted to accept the final proposal, but being one of the three legal proponents of the initiative, cannot give my consent without protest," said SOS spokeswoman Anne Mauch. Mauch, who helped collect more than 4,500 signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, said the city's offer changes the group's original objectives. Please see CARLSBAD, Page 10 (J TV Group Owner Trying to Sell KCST George N. Gillett Jr. has begun looking for buyers for some of his firm's 12 properties, including station KCST-TV (Channel 39) in San Diego.

BUSINESS, Page 1 Color It Funny "The Colored Museum," playing at San Diego Rep, never stops being funny, amid the pain. CALENDAR, Page 1 Not Enough Help for Padres' Show The Padres lost, 3-2, to Houston as Eric Show pitched another strong game but his teammates failed in several key situations at the plate. SPORTS, Page 1.