Daily News from New York, New York • 58

closing Rotting B'klyn Bridge may face w.w.-mv:o::.;::.w By MARK LIEBERMAN llpiSlli mmmm 'fiat tv 23 ft leakage into the anchorage that secures the suspension cables. ZAIMES SAID THE CORROSION has caused the one-eighth inch thick wires to rust and break. About 300 wires form one strand, and 60 to 80 strands form one bridge cable. "An alarming number of wires are broken and rusted," he said. In some strands, 50 of the wires are broken or rusted, he added.

Repairs would involve a first-time attempt to replace entire strands, at an estimated cost of $103 million, Zaimes said. The state has asked the federal government for immediate bridge repair funds and a commitment for funding over the next 15 years, when it is estimated that more than $372 million will be required for repairs on the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. REPS. FRED RICHMOND (D L-Brooklyn) and Geraldine Ferraro (D-Queens) are scheduled to meet next week with federal officials who are considering a separate request for $18 million to start repair work on the Queensboro Bridge. During yesterday's announcement of the formation of the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission, Koch, Stein and Golden sliced into a 4-foot cake replica of the span.

"This is my chance to cut the Manhattan side from the Brooklyn Bridge," said Golden. A preliminary inspection of the Brooklyn Bridge has found serious deterioration, including broken and rusted suspension cables, that could force a shutdown of the 97-year-old span unless federal officials approve a fast infusion of repair funds, the Daily News learned yesterday. Details of the extent of the problem surfaced as Mayor Koch and Borough Presidents Howard Golden of Brooklyn and Andrew Stein of Manhattan announced the creation of a 22-member Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission to prepare for the bridge's 100th birthday on May 24, 1983. But the bridge may barely survive its centennial, said George Zaimes, director of engineering in the state Transportation Department's Office of New York City Affairs. He based his concern on the preliminary findings of a study by the consulting firm of Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist Birdsall.

THE FIRM, WORKING UNDER a $500,000 state contract, found a number of broken diagonal cables on the bridge, as well as crack's in the struts that connect larger cables supporting its main deck. But the most serious problem, Zaimes said, were broken and rusted wires in cables embedded where the bridge is anchored on the Brooklyn side. "Without federal funding, we'll have five years of The Brooklyn Bridge will be 100 years old in 1983. agony and would have to seriously consider closing the bridge," Zaimes warned. If all available state money were allocated for the Brooklyn Bridge and the three other East River spans, all of which are in various stages of disrepair, no funds would be left for other, smaller bridges in the city, Zaime said.

Officials blame the Brooklyn Bridge's problems, in part, on corrosion caused by water and salt ft By ALFRED MIELE and MARK LIEBERMAN Mayor Koch disclosed yesterday that the city's Criminal Court judges have turned down his request for individual1 evaluations of the court system, and he accused them of "stonewalling." But, declaring that he is not discouraged by the judges' reaction, Koch said: "You know what my clout is the force of public opinion. If they don't set up a set of standards, I'll hold public hearings. I'll call in witnesses and, with the public watching, let them explain why they haven't a set of standards." Testifying at the first of a series of State Senate Investigations Committee "ill I I iMi WIUJE ANDERSON DAILY NEWS Mayor Koch testifies yesterday at hearing on criminal justice system. top Angsi probes 'threats' to hearings on the criminal justice system, Koch also called for legislation that would allow him to appoint at least 20 more Criminal Court judges, and require judges to deny bail to defendants with a history of violent crime. He said that the judges had decided to make a joint response, instead of the individual evaluations he had requested, on why the justice system isn't working.

Koch, who makes the appointments to the court, said the joint letter would be a "purged version" of the strengths and weaknesses of the criminal courts. IN HIS TESTIMONY, Koch suggested also that one way to improve the criminal justice system is to replace the city's five district attorneys with a single, citywide prosecutor. He said the move would reduce overhead costs for the prosecutors' offices, but he did not go into detail. The mayor was tough also on critics of his call for the death penalty. "They accuse you of being a racist" he said.

"But 67 of the people of the state, including blacks and Hispanics, are for the death penalty. It's the elitist leadership that is opposed to the death penalty. Who should we respond to?" Koch urged the state to set up its own law enforcement assistance administration, pointing out that the federal government will soon end its law enforcement funding program. Ed admits putting 5 splinters on bench Mayor Koch conceded yesterday that nearly 12 of the judges he has appointed to the Criminal Court have been clinkers. "I have about five clinkers out of my 42 appointments to the bench," he explained, which is about an 11.9 clinker rate.

"I'm not going to tell you who they are. They will find out when their appointments run out" Koch also noted that because of his screening process, only five of his 42 appointees had been what he described as friends. But he laughed off a question on whether the same five were the clinkers. Michael Oreskes By THOMAS RAFTERY and PETER McLAUGHLIN Bronx District Attorney Mario began investigating charges by Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa told the Daily News that he was lured into a car on a Bronx street at 11 p.m. last night by three men, one reportedly calling himself "Officer Johnson," who said another Angel had been hospitalized after a subway incident The leader of the volunteer crimefighters said yesterday he would start patrolling the subways with a partner in the wake of the episode.

The men also told him during the ride that they knew where his parents and two sisters lived, Sliwa said. MEROLA, AFTER TALKING to Transit Authority officials and state police at Jones Beach, said the charges could amount to kidnaping. The Transit Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, however, dismissed Sliwa's story as fiction. it- 4 Sty Sliwa that three men posing as cops lured him- into a car in the Bronx, threatened him and his family, and abandoned him at Jones Beach, L.I., early yesterday. Sliwa, who has clashed bitterly with the Transit Authority Police union lately over his controversial volunteer group's role, charged that the men told him Curtis Sliwa Angel aids TA cop in BEY3Y arrest A member of the Guardian Angels, once accused of assaulting two Transit Authority cops, won the praises of another transit officer yesterday when he helped the cop arrest a man in a Brooklyn subway station.

A TA spokesman said Nelson Joga, 17, who had been cleared of the assault charges, was riding the BMT train with four other Angels when they spotted the officer, Arthur White, struggling with a man at the Prospect Park station. The Angels, the spokesman said, assisted White as he subdued and handcuffed Leonard Carter, 20, of 105 Lincoln Road, Brooklyn. Carter, who allegedly had attacked White as the officer attempted to give him a summons for smoking, was charged with resisting arrest possession of marijuana and disorderly conduct Robert Lane CO the Angels were stepping on "a union thing." Sliwa said that before leaving him at Jon'es Beach where state park police said they found him at 2:30 a.m. yester-! day the three men reportedly told him: "This time we'll let you walk out of the car. The next time we'll carry, you out".