The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 2

A-2 Wcdne.day, November 1991 I SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Customers of 2 banks win on overcharges POLICE ACTION PROTEST wmB cops lose Mbs ot law by holding that Wells must pay an additional $1.96 million to cus racist messages Past dients of Wells Fargo, Crocker paid excessive penalty fees, court rules Eleven minority officers signed a letter Tuesday that appeared to conflict with Norton's action. In a letter to the citizens, the minority officers said they were "hurt, disappointed, angered and embarrassed" by the four officers but said their actions "do not reflect an attitude either within the department or condoned by the Police Administration." The minority officers also said they "stand firmly behind and are in general agreement with" the decisions regarding the suspensions. "We feel that any further i i EXAMWERFRAN ORTIZ BySethRosenfeld OF THE EXAMNER STAFF In a major victory for consumers, a state appeals court has issued a ruling requiring that past customers of Wells Fargo and Crocker banks be repaid $9 million because the banks overcharged them on credit-card late fees and overdrafts. The ruling Tuesday by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco stems from a 1986 suit filed by Alice M. Beasley, a San Francisco lawyer and Wells customer.

She contended the bank was violating a state law that says financial institutions can only assess fees based on their actual costs, and not for profit. James C. Sturdevant the San Francisco lawyer who brought the class action suit, hailed the ruling for protecting consumers' rights. It requires Wells and Crocker to return to hundreds of thousands of past and present customers "ill-gotten gains," he said. Brian P.

Brosnahan, a lawyer for Wells, said the bank was considering appealing the ruling to the California Supreme Court. The ruling also strengthens California's "private attorney general" Rapper "2Pac," Tupac Shakur, tells Oakland press conference Tuesday that he was wrestled to the ground, Oakland rapper files claim against 2 cops tomers' attorneys for their costs of successfully bringing the suit. Wells had argued the attorneys' fees should come out of the fund it has set aside to repay customers for overcharges, meaning customers would have received considerably less. The ruling is the first by a California appeals court to hold that under the private attorney general law businesses must pay lawyers' fees in addition to damage awards to consumers. The law, created in the 1970s, is intended to encourage private parties to bring lawsuits that might not otherwise be brought to protect consumer rights.

A San Francisco Superior Court jury concluded that between 1982 and 1987 Wells had overcharged credit card customers a total of $5.2 million. The jury said the bank overcharged about 20 percent for each late penalty, which ranged from $1 to $5, and about 44 percent for each $10 charge for exceeding account limits. Wells, which bought Crocker Bank in 1986, had agreed to settle a similar suit against Crocker for $3.8 million based on the outcome of the suit against Wells, bringing the total to be repaid under Tuesday's ruling to $9 million. No rebates have been paid yet, said Sturdevant, and none will be pending any appeal by Wells to the state high court Graduate Gemologists (NIDEROST TABER) DIAMOND EXPERTISE Shown from "Quality Collection" of 'H' color, VS' clarity or better Member of Digital Underground says he was brutalized during encounter By Don Martinez OF THE EXAMINER STAFF OAKLAND A member of a nationally known rap group, whose message centers on what he says is the plight of young black males harassed by cops, has filed a $10 million claim against two police officers who allegedly brutalized him after a jaywalking incident last month. Tupac Amaru Shakur, 20, known in the entertainment world as "2Pac," was flanked by members of his Digital Underground rap group Tuesday as he outlined the alleged brutality.

Shakur admitted that he had jaywalked near the busy downtown intersection of 17th and Broadway last Oct 17. But what followed, he said, "shows that what I've been DIRECT DIAMOND IMPORTERS 80 years on Post Street Union Square since 1912 2nd floor, 278 Post Street San Francisco 94108 (415)781-7371' COMPARE AT PRICES 40 TO 50 BELOW MARKET Open Thursday Nights till 7:00 pm City manager fires them; 1 1 minority officers say notes do not reflect department attitude By Gregory Lewis OF THE EXAMNER 8TAFF ALAMEDA City Manager Bill Norton has fired two of the four officers who were involved in sending racist messages to each other via patrol car computers. Police Department spokesman Lt Stan Voogd said Norton had sent termination letters Saturday but wouldn't name the officers, saying disciplinary procedures are private. Other sources identified the officers as Ron Jones and Sgt Dave O'Neill. Mayor Bill Withrow said: 'Tve got to guess that it was them.

I'd be shocked if it was anybody else. But I'm not in that loop." Voogd said the letters didnt say why the city manager was overruling the suspensions meted out by Police Chief Robert Sheills. In an interview last week, Norton said he would review the records of all the officers involved, then examine the chiefs handling of the situation. Withrow said the city charter gave Norton "extraordinary authority" as overseer of the city to readdress the chiefs decision as long as he "goes' through the pro cess from ground zero. Officer Al Cofer, president of the 130-member Alameda Police Officers Association, said the union met Monday to deplore the behavior of the four officers and express support for suspensions as an appropriate punishment The union itself isnt planning to appeal the firings, he said, but legal fees for the four officers are paid automatically by a legal defense fund available to all members who need lawyers for job-connected legal problems.

ally used to describe severe heart rhythm disorders that lead to death in less than an hour. They are most often a consequence of damage to the heart from heart attacks. Heart disease is the nation's leading cause of death, killing about 500,000 people a year, hi' eluding 300,000 who die from sud den cardiac death. Digitalis has been used for 200 years to treat heart disorders. Pre' vious studies have suggested that it could pose some risk, but this is the first to link it strongly to these extremely sudden deaths, Moss said.

Moss's findings came from a study of 2,400 heart-attack sum vors, 229 of whom died over a two year period. In addition to finding that digi talis was a risk, he found that the drugs called beta blockers helped prevent sudden death. Patients not receiving beta blockers had eight times the risk of sudden death than patients who were getting the drugs, Moss said. Moss' study is part of an effort to determine which people with heart disease are most likely to die suddenly and unexpectedly. In other developments reported at the meeting: A super speedy X-ray machine that snaps stop-action pic tures of the beating heart is the first accurate, easy way to reveal the early stages of heart disease in outwardly healthy people.

Some doctors believe the device, called an ultrafast CT scanner, will identify people at high risk of heart trouble 20 years before they suffer heart attacks. Youngsters who consume plenty of calcium, largely by drinking milk, have significantly lower blood pressure and may be warding off heart trouble later in life. Early treatment of heart attacks has proved so effective that doctors and the federal government are pushing a crash program to get hospitals to treat heart attack victims within an hour. Digitalis cited in sudden deaths involvement by forces or individuals outside our department would sion of the Police Department and disruptive to the community. Maxine Jackson, president of the Alameda chanter of the A A VW wv mained the same.

"We want all the officers fired, including the fifth officer." she said, "alone with Chief Sheills." ment's internal affairs unit is in- parentlv sent racially insensitive messages over his patrol car com puter on a different night Officials have identified the officer but refused to make his name public. Voogd said the officer had not been relieved of his duty and remained on the streets while the investigation continued. City officials are still awaiting word from the FBI regarding a possible agency review of the police department AIDS drugs help offered to state's uninsured By Kathleen Grubb ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO ft Uninsured 'people with AIDS wm be able to 11 new medications at no or greatly reduced cost under the first expansion of the state AIDS Drug Program. Among the new medications that will be immediately available is ddl, which recently was approved for use by the federal government, officials said Tuesday. Seven other drugs will be added immediately to the AIDS Drug Program.

The remaining three will be available next April 1. Started in 1987, the AIDS Drug Program provides selected medica tions to people who earn too much to be eligible for the Medi-Cal health-care program but are uninsured and can't afford drugs that slow the virus and AIDS-related infections. Previously, the program only covered aerosolized pentamidine, which is used to prevent and treat AIDS-related pneumonia, and AZT. The program is open to people who earn up to $50,000 a year in adjusted income. Individuals with incomes over $26,480 are required to pay sliding-scale fees.

People who make less than that amount get the drugs at no charge. Gov. Wilson said providing the medications would cost the state and federally funded program about $14 million to $16 million annually. But he said the drugs are' expected to reduce an average 18-month cost for treatment from $43,000 to roughly $21,000. "This is a really great step in the right direction.

We're really happy the governor allowed this to happen," said Todd Kooyers of ACT UP Golden Gate, which has been pressuring the state to expand the AIDS drug program. Yet Kooyers said ACT UP ac tivists still want a total of 15 drugs added to the program at once. Besides ddl, drugs immediately available are: dapsone, pyrimeth amine, sulfadiazine and trimetho primsulfamethoxazole, which are used to treat AIDS-related pneumonia: and clindamycin, ganciclo vir and nystatin, which help man-, age infections. Available in April will be the anti-infection drugs clotrimazole, fluconazole and ketoconazoie. Fine Prints Photographs 771 Buttcrfidd Buttcrficld, intcr-I JTjL I national fine art auctioneers and I 1) I aPPrascrs s'ncc l85 's accepting I consignments of Fine Photographs and of American, European and Contemporary Prints for upcoming auctions.

For a complimentary auction estimate, send us a photograph of the work with dimensions or visit our free appraisal clinic held every Monday from 9 a.m. -12 p.m. Private Consultations: 415 8617500 Julia Nelson-Gal ext. 340 Fine Photographs Barry Heisler ext. 370 Fine Prints rapping about isn't just rhetoric that I'm not just another angry young black man." Alleging false arrest and imprisonment, Shakur's lawyer, John Burns, said the claim would most likely be denied by city officials, which would prompt him to file a damage suit in U.S.

District Court in San Francisco. "They said that even though I i was a member of rap group that I still have to 'know my place im Oakland' that I wasn't above! the law," Shakur said. "Fuially, I told them to give me the ticket, I uttered profanity and told them, that I wasn't a slave, and they weren't my master One said, 'Hey, I like the sound of that Shakur said he eventually was wrestled to the ground with a chokehold, arrested for resisting arrest and taken to the city jail, where he remained for seven hours before his release. Oakland Police Chief George Hart said Monday that no formal complaint had been filed with his Internal Affairs Department patients faced the risk of sudden death from the drug. Moss also found that a surprisingly high number of heart-attack survivors about one in three later died of extremely sudden heart rhythm disorders within 60 seconds.

One million Americans survive heart attacks each year, and about 25 percent of them are treated with the drug digitalis, he said. His study found that digitalis increased the risk of the sudden heart-rhythm disorders. "It was a very significant risk," Moss said Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. "Sudden-cardiac death" is usu- 1 not a turtle utes to get the pet to let up. Henson stood at the ready with a knife, ready to decapitate it "I think the kids were playing with it and spooked it" said Randy Henson, Adam's father.

"It's a shame. I think we're going to donate it to the zoo." Adam and his 5-year-old sister, Meredith, had been told to keep animals away from their faces, but Lightning made a side attack, his mother said. "He's used to being played with," she said. "That was his (Adam's) best buddy all summer. He's never been aggressive before." Adam visited the doctor Monday to have his swollen lip inspected, but his pet's betrayal cut him deeper.

"I want to play football with him," Adam said. 3 I Henri Cutia-BreMon Rut MwfftUrd 1954, printed btei; 14X 9N inches, signed in ink with the poonmphci't blindtamp in the murin, to be oflextd iuction on Dccerobet 10, 1991; Euimue Fine Art Auctioneers and Appraisers since 1865 220 San Bruno Avenue San Francisco CA 94103 Exquisite Meissen But withdrawal not recommended for cardiac cases ASSOCIATED PRESS ANAHEIM Digitalis, one of the oldest and most widely used heart drugs, significantly increased the risk of extremely sudden death in people who had survived a heart attack, a new study shows. However, patients who use digitalis should not be taken off the drug, said researcher Dr. Arthur Moss of the University of Rochester Medical Center. He said further study was needed to identify which This was Dr.

Seuss Pet clamps itself to boy's upper lip ASSOCIATED PRESS HUTCHINSON. Kan. The best-buddy relationship between aj boy and his turtle ended a liplock and a call to 911. I Adam Henson. 8.

was playing with Lightning on Monday when; the foot-lone turtle stretched its 3-inch neck sideways and clamped Adam's upper lip. The boy's parents called 911 for help. But before rescue workers ar rived, Adam's mother, Marie Hen-son, took her son's advice and used carrot to entice Lightning into opening its jaws. The family had tried for 5 mm-' i Exceptional handpainted porcelain dinnerware, since 1739. Shown: "Heavy Gold Leaf Cup saucer: $272.00, SaladDessert plate: $128.00 The most enviable collection JK oj European china crystal in America.

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