Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 32

1 myuwteiM r'lM rrz "Twl C-2 Santa Cruz Sentinel Sunday, July 10, 1983 LA police tarnished image is by latest further scandal AP Laserphoto By LINDA DEUTSCH LOS ANGELES (AP) The arrests of two veteran Los Angeles police officers in an alleged murder-for-money scheme Friday added more tarnish to the once gleaming record of the nation's most type-cast police department. The LAPD, as it is known by almost everyone in town, has been the spit-and-polish, toothsome model for the honest cops depicted in TV series going back to "Dragnet" and including "Adam 12," "Police Story," and "Policewoman." But in recent years, a siege of scandals has left the department reeling and a "bad cop" image threatens to replace the portrait of clear-eyed, square-jawed honesty typified by Jack Webb in "Dragnet." "It's not true that more scandals happen in Los Angeles than elsewhere," said an observer of the nation's police departments. "The police here may be guilty of some overzealousness, but the LAPD is a highly motivated, highly disciplined force. They also have a highly polished image, and when one of them goes sour it looks much worse. This isn't supposed to happen to Jack Webb." After Friday's announcement of the police arrests, the department's spokesman, Lt.

Dan Cooke, conceded this was bad news for the LAPD image. "Obviously, it doesn't help us any," said Cooke. "Anytime you have an officer involved in a serious crime it reflects on all of law enforcement." He added that it was to the department's credit that "at least we uncovered Police Chief Daryl Gates announces arrest of two in connection with murder-for-money scheme. Official downplays the importance of announced offshore oil lease sale trend the growing number of Americans who carry guns. "Those officer-involved shootings this year have involved out-and-out gun battles," said Cmdr.

William Booth. "It is alarming that we are seeing that many criminals carrying guns on the street and initiating gun battles." Booth's comment came after a local newspaper reported last March that police officers had killed twice as many people this year as they did in the same period the preceding year. Friday's arrests may be the most shocking yet because they involve allegations of premeditated murder. A grim-faced Chief Gates came before reporters to announce that two police officers and an auto mechanic had been arrested and jailed for conspiracy to commit murder, allegedly to collect an insurance policy on the intended victim. Internal Affairs Division detectives arrested Detective Richard Ford, 43, and the mechanic, Bruce Edward Adams, 35, moments before they were allegedly to kill the victim Thursday night in suburban North Hollywood, Gates said.

Patrolman Robert Vonvillas, 38, was arrested later Thursday night at his home, Gates said. The victim, identified only as a 37-year-old woman, was to have been spirited into a waiting van, possibly given drugs and then killed in an unspecified manner, Gates said. She was not harmed. The announcement was likely difficult for Gates, who has previously stated his determination to create a "squeaky clean" department. In his recent speeches to police academy graduates, he has stressed the temptations they will face and his intolerance for those who fall.

"We tell them at the academy that discipline is tough in this department," he has said. "So they should know what to expect. If they want to get drunk or smoke marijuana or chase women or whatever on duty or off then let them find another profession. Let them be plumbers, not police officers." Cooke summed up the impact of the arrests on those now in the department. "Yes, it destroys us all," he said.

"It tarnishes my image. It really does. Every officer is hit with it. You go out with people and someone says to you, 'Have you knocked anyone off or 'Do you know where I can get a TV We'll be hit with these sick jokes for years. It's no wonder that officers become paranoid about socializing with anyone outside our profession." Cooke added, "Hopefully, the public understands we have 6,000 other officers who don't do this kind of thing." The notice also lists several other mitigation measures to offset environmental damage from offshore development, be said.

Pipelines to onshore facilities would have to be designed and constructed to protect fishermen's nets and a Wildlife and Fisheries Training Program implemented to protect the environment, Grant said. San Luis Obispo County coastal planner Ron DeCarli expressed doubts about the feasibility of safeguarding the 99-year-old woman shot to death by burglar Dellums seeks special prosecutor to probe U.S. role in Nicaragua He noted the Minerals Management Service's environmental impact statement says there is a low amount of oil in the area and a high risk of environmental damage. "We have made numerous recommendations to the MMS in trying to balance the need for oil development and environmental protection," he said. "We still have the same concerns" as in previous lease sales.

The governor's office received the proposed notice of sale July 1, and is evaluating it, said spokesman Bill Sessa. Berkeley Democrat, said Reagan, U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and CIA Director William Casey were named as defendants in the suit According to Van Der Hout, somewhere between several hundred and several thousand rebels trained in private camps in the United States had returned to Nicaragua to fight the Sandinista government. One of the bases is in San Bernardino County, he said. The lawsuit charges that alleged administration-financed rebel training violated not only the 200-year-old Neutrality Act but also last year's Boland amendment, which prohibits the use of U.S.

funds for military intervention in Nicaragua. WALNUT PARK (AP) A 99-year-old woman was shot to death in her home Saturday, Los Angeles County authorities said. Detectives said Lucille Rabun, whose 100th birthday would have been in November, was killed in bed by someone who entered her California Street home through a back window, said Ruth De-Laura, the victim's niece. Authorities initially said the victim was 100 years old. Coroner's investigator David Masuda said the woman was born it, we investigated it and we arrested the officers.

Some departments might try to cover up the whole thing. We do not." In some recent scandals, LAPD officers have been charged with sexual misconduct in a case involving minor girls who were part of an Explorer Scout volunteer group in the Hollywood division. A burglary ring was found to be operating in the Hollywood division with officers allegedly stealing from businesses in their area when they answered bogus burglary calls. Early this year, three officers in five months were arrested for investigation of cocaine dealing. Police Chief Daryl Gates became the focus of a probe into a controversial police intelligence unit accused of massive spying on private individuals and political action groups.

The controversial unit was ordered disbanded by the civilian Police Commission, which oversees the Police Department. But the probe into the unit's activities disclosed the alleged involvement of one officer in storing 90 cases of intelligence files at his home for use by the John Birch Socety. Citizens protested the frequent use of chokeholds by officers to subdue suspects. The chokeholds led to some deaths of people in custody. The skyrocketing numbers of officer-involved shootings on the streets of Los Angeles led to accusations of trigger-happy policemen.

But police officials said those figures were the offshoot of a social Nov. 22, 1883. She was last seen alive by neighbors Friday night, said sheriff's Deputy Wes Slider. "It is believed she may have encountered a burglar inside her home last night," he said. The body was discovered when neighbors noticed the woman's front door standing open and went inside to find out why, Slider said.

Walnut Park is about five miles south of downtown Los Angeles. skiing and inner-tubing which would put people in the water still were banned, Ms. Milton said. Meanwhile, applicants continued to stream into disaster assistance centers opened July 6 to help property owners repair damage to homes and busineses. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jack Wagner said by Saturday, 392 people had applied for assistance in Arizona.

In California, 187 people have sought aid at three centers, said FEMA spokesman Paul Mullane. Officials tackled an increasing number of mosquitoes that are threatening riverside residents with encephalitis by using larvae-eating fish. A total of 6,000 fish that eat mosquito eggs were dumped last week into stagnant pools along the river in Imperial and Yuma counties. Imperial County authorities also plan insecticide spraying this week. Encephalitis, a potentially fatal viral disease of the nervous system, can be transmitted by mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water.

The decrease in runoff into the river permitted the Bureau of Reclamation to cut the release from Hoover Dam on Saturday from 44.000 cfs to 42,000. The flow from Davis Dam was also due to be reduced from 44,000 to 42,000 cfs over the weekend. The flow from Parker Dam will remain at 38,000 cfs. The Bureau said the flow past Yuma was 26,000 cfs. In Arizona's Yuma County, the river fell about 18 inches over the previous three days.

Water level is dropping in swollen Colorado River Residential and Commercial Builders Tom Hopkins Construction A FOR 1 PIIOTOFINISHMG INCOHPORATED license no 406849 1 4084 29-8880, Ssntg Cruz SAN LUIS OBISPO (AP) The Interior Department has recommended development of about 2 million acres from Point Conception to Morro Bay for oil and gas exploration, an official said. The acreage includes 360 tracts encompassed in the department's Lease Sale 73, for which a Notice of Sale will be released this coming week, said Bill Grant, deputy regional manager of the Minerals Management Service. The Notice of Sale recommends development as long as environmental concerns are met, Grant said. His comments were contained in Friday's edition of the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune. The notice will alert the public and state and local agencies about the government's "tentative decision," said Grant.

Following issuance of the notice is a 60-day comment period to allow these agencies time to evaluate the report and make recommendations to the federal government. Grant downplayed the importance of the proposed notice and said it is usual procedure to offer all the tracts until final comments and recommendations are made. "We (Interior Department) are continuing discussions with the state," about the sale slated for October, Grant said. Lease Sale 73 is in federal waters extending from three to 66 miles off the shore of the central California coast. The proposed notice recommends strict miles west of Point Arguello, where radioactive wastes may have been dumped several years ago, Grant said.

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Dellums has filed a federal suit seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that the Reagan administration is illegally financing the training of Nicaraguan rebels, his aides said Saturday. The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court here, accuses President Reagan and three Cabinet members of violating the Neutrality Act by training Nicaraguan rebels in six states, including California. At a news conference Saturday, Dellums' district aide, Lee Halterman, said the suit's purpose is to "demand that our president obey the law." Marc Van Der Hout, the attorney who filed the suit on behalf of Dellums, a 918 OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY 11-4 ST FINE 1 C7 ASSOC V3-9I00 0fen IIome 1,0 four a Wo one three A acre in ve bath I 5 SOQUEL AVE. 425 1101 TO I KNJOY UFK: A lLA( BULLHEAD CITY.

Ariz. (AP) The amount of water flowing into the swollen Colorado River is slowly dropping after flooding that ravaged Western states for the past two weeks, federal officials said Saturday. "I'm not aware of any new flooding," said Bill Plummer, Lower Colorado Regional Director for the Bureau of Reclamation. There was no indication the flood waters had begun to recede. Plummer said that would depend on the continued reduction of water flowing into Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam in north-central Arizona.

'The inflow into Lake Powell is at 71,000 cubic feet a second," Plummer said. "On Thursday it was 78,000 cfs. It was over 100,000 cfs a week ago, so it's been dropping off fairly quickly. We hope the inflow will get below 50,000 cfs in the next couple of weeks." The dams are releasing heavy Rocky Mountain snowmelt flowing into lake-reservoirs behind them in Arizona, Nevada and California. A stretch of the Colorado from one mile below Davis Dam to Blankenship Bend, just north of Lake Havasu, was reopened to boaters Saturday, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Pat Milton.

The 50-mile stretch was closed to boaters on June 21 because of the dangerously high water and erosion caused by boat wakes. Federal officials began what they called "controlled flooding" on June 20. Although the restriction on boats was lifted, water sports such as swimming, 3 1 Good Management requires: Experience Knowledge Commitment Another fabulous new ultra custom home designed by Erreca and built by Bourria-gue. Its beauty matched only by the surrounding 4 acres. Six minutes to Highway 17 and just minutes from downtown Santa Cruz.

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