Author: Steve Clow

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday that bars the popular Venice dispensary Organica from selling or distributing marijuana at its store on Washington Boulevard.

The ruling is the second that Judge James C. Chalfant has issued against a Los Angeles dispensary based on his conclusion that neither the medical marijuana initiative nor the law adopted to clarify the measure allow the drug to be sold.

Chalfant’s decisions are preliminary orders and both cases are slated to go to trial, but his rulings against Hemp Factory V and Organica could force the courts to directly address the contentious issue for the first time. Most, if not all collectives, sell marijuana to their members.

Asha Greenberg, an assistant Los Angeles city attorney, said Chalfant’s decision should make it clear to the city’s dispensaries that selling marijuana is a violation of state law.

In a hearing, Chalfant strongly reiterated his view that the state’s laws were intended to allow medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to form collectives to grow pot together and share the harvest, but not to sell it like a retail store. "Maybe I am too old, but those of us who grew up in the 1960s know what a collective is," he said.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have pressed that view. Dispensary operators and their advocates, including Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s main advocacy group for medical marijuana, have insisted that the two prosecutors are misinterpreting the law and recent court decisions. Trutanich has sued four dispensaries: Hemp Factory V in Eagle Rock, Organica and two Holistic Caregivers stores in South Los Angeles.

David Welch, the lawyer for Organica and its operator, Jeff Joseph, argued that cash contributions for marijuana are just one way that collective members contribute to cultivation. After the hearing, Welch dismissed Chalfant’s conclusion as his opinion. "I think we will take this through the process, that in the end, we will be successful," he said.

Joseph said Organica was not currently operating and would not speculate on the collective’s future. He and his lawyer argued that its members cultivated marijuana on site and in Topanga and Malibu. "He has no idea of how we were operating," Joseph said, referring to the judge. "We weren’t getting any from outside sources."

The dispensary, which registered with the city in 2007, was targeted by federal and local narcotics agents and raided three times. Analyzing records seized from the dispensary, law enforcement officials said it had $5.3 million in sales over a 13-month period.

— John Hoeffel in Los Angeles County Superior Court

 

Federal authorities thwarted three separate sea smuggling attempts from Friday through Sunday, arresting 21 illegal immigrants and four suspected smugglers, including a female U.S. citizen who had allegedly stashed five immigrants aboard a cabin-style vessel .

In the first incident Friday morning, federal agents arrested nine people who had apparently beached their panga boat near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. A man suspected of being the driver for the group was also arrested, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Saturday morning, U.S. Border Patrol agents boarded a boat docking near San Diego’s Mission Bay and arrested the driver, a female U.S. citizen, and five illegal immigrants from Mexico. On Sunday, agents intercepted a 24-foot Bayliner near San Diego’s Ocean Beach with eight immigrants aboard. One member of the group was charged with alien smuggling.

The interdictions signal traffickers’ continuing efforts to smuggle illegal immigrants into California by sea to avoid increased enforcement over land.

— Richard Marosi in San Diego

A measure to repeal Proposition 8, the anti-gay-marriage initiative, has failed to qualify for the November ballot.

John Henning, who heads a group that sponsored the repeal effort, declined to say how many signatures were gathered since the all-volunteer campaign got underway in late November. He said 694,000 valid signatures were required by Monday.

"There comes a point where the intake of signatures isn’t rapid enough to make up your deficit," Henning said. "We started to realize last week that we weren’t going to make it."

He said his group, Love Honor Cherish, will work with other activists to put a repeal measure on the November 2012 ballot.

The effort to repeal Proposition 8 this year relied heavily on the Internet. Supporters could download signature-gathering forms and watch videos about how to approach voters.

Henning said he did not regret the effort, despite its failure.

"We have kept this issue in the public’s eye for the better part of a year, and the signature gathering in itself was a huge opportunity to talk to the public," he said.

A constitutional challenge of Proposition 8 is pending in federal court in San Francisco. Closing arguments in the case, expected last month, have been delayed because of disputes over the production of documents sought by proponents of the initiative.

Even if the federal challenge succeeds in the lower courts, a repeal measure should be placed on the 2012 ballot, Henning said.

"We have a conservative U.S. Supreme Court, and it is going to be very hard to win that case in the Supreme Court," he said.

— Maura Dolan

The FBI is investigating an affordable-housing deal in which Los Angeles officials channeled $26 million to a developer who they knew was under criminal investigation for alleged misuse of public funds, city officials said Thursday.

The developer, David Rubin, was indicted last fall in New York for alleged bid-rigging and fraud, charges unconnected to the L.A. project.

The $26 million went toward construction of a 92-unit apartment building near downtown L.A. for disabled homeless seniors. It has sat empty since October while its prospective tenants live in shelters or substandard housing.

The city’s Housing Authority, concerned about irregularities in the deal, has refused to release money that would pay the tenants’ rent. Without that rental income, the developer could be forced into default. In turn, the city could be on the hook for millions of state and federal dollars that it helped arrange for the developer, City Controller Wendy Greuel said in an interview Thursday.

The controversial deal came to light in an audit released by Greuel’s office. FBI agents have requested notes and documents gathered during the audit, the controller’s office said.

The agency involved in the deal is the Housing Department, which oversees compliance with rent control laws and aids construction of privately run, affordable apartments. The Housing Authority, a separate agency, manages federal Section 8 rental vouchers and city-owned housing projects.

The audit found that in 2008, Housing Department officials "blatantly disregarded information that … one of the partners was under federal investigation."

Officials "then chose not to share this information with the city attorney or other stakeholders," Greuel said in a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other city leaders.

The audit does not accuse any city officials of criminal behavior, or allege that the $26 million was misspent.

Doug Guthrie, the newly appointed head of the Housing Department, said he was working to find a way to "get these people housed."

Guthrie succeeded Mercedes Marquez, who headed the agency when the deal was made.

"We are left today with a much-needed project [that] sits empty," Greuel said, calling it "a fiasco."

Officials in the housing department, she added, "appeared to act in the developer’s best interest, as opposed to the best interest of the city and the taxpayers."

Rubin could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Donald Etra, was not immediately available. Marc Gelman, chief executive of Enhanced Affordable, said the company had done nothing wrong, adding that it has severed ties with Rubin. Gelman blamed squabbling city agencies for keeping homeless seniors from moving in to the new building, and said he might sue the city for not releasing the rent money.

"I have an empty building that every day costs money to operate, pay the debt … a minimum of a few thousand dollars a day," Gelman said. "And these poor homeless people, we have them coming to our office, our building, on a daily basis."

Added Rudolf Montiel, the head of the Housing Authority: "It is reprehensible that public officials would aid and abet in the misuse of federal dollars. ... Unfortunately, the tenants are the ones who are bearing the brunt of the misdeeds of this developer."

— Jessica Garrison at Los Angeles City Hall

A review of computer systems elsewhere has yielded potential information-sharing fixes that might prevent deaths or injuries to children in the child welfare system here, Los Angeles County officials said Friday, but all would require legislative changes.

Among the likely contenders to replace the county’s much-maligned computer system, known as the Family and Children’s Index, is a Web-based "portal," similar to a search engine, that would allow authorized users to freely exchange information.

But that option — which is being developed in New York — and others reviewed by county officials could not be put in place without revising laws that now restrict what types of information can be shared among child welfare workers, doctors, schools and others.

"The County is held back by a system that combines aged technology with laws focused more on shielding government from liability than protecting children from abuse or neglect," Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wrote in a letter Friday to county Chief Executive William T Fujioka.

"Investigators still lack rapid access to criminal records, mental health histories or even information on which adults reside in a child’s home,"
Ridley-Thomas said.

After being told repeatedly over the years that better communication among child welfare workers and others might have prevented children’s deaths or injuries, county supervisors approved a plan last year to revamp the computer system. The county chief executive’s review of other computer systems is part of that plan.

–Kim Christensen

The body of a stranded hiker was found by a search-and-rescue team on Mt. Shasta Thursday morning and airlifted down by helicopter, a spokeswoman for the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department said.

Thomas Bennett Jr., a 26-year-old chemical engineer from Oakland, was hiking the 14,179-foot mountain with a friend when they encountered high winds at the summit late Saturday and were forced to spend the night on the peak.

Mark Thomas, 26, of Berkeley, told authorities that Bennett was fine overnight but started to experience altitude sickness on breaking camp Sunday morning, said Susan Gravenkamp, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

"He eventually became unresponsive," Gravenkamp said. "Mark Thomas fashioned a snow cave and put him in and marked it with an avalanche marker."

Thomas got off the mountain late Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, three helicopters tried to search for Bennett but were forced back by high winds, Gravenkamp said.

On Thursday morning, a Chinook helicopter from the California National Guard carrying seven search team members took advantage of a brief window of calm weather to look for Bennett.

"It took them an hour and they found the snow cave marked with an avalanche marker," Gravenkamp said. "They dug into the cave and unfortunately found that Thomas Bennett had died. The body has been airlifted off the mountain at this time."

Since authorities began keeping records in the early 1900s, more than 60 people have died on Mt. Shasta, Gravenkamp said, including a man who suffered a heart attack in 2009 and a woman who died of head injuries after a fall in 2008. The volcanic peak is about 40 miles south of the Oregon-California border.

–Maria L. La Ganga in San Francisco

Photo: Mt. Shasta in Siskiyou County. Credit: Evan Halper/Los Angeles Times

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With Jamie McCourt sitting on one side of the lawyers’ table and Frank McCourt on the other, her divorce attorney Dennis Wasser spent more than an hour passionately arguing that his client deserved support to continue the lifestyle she had before the couple’s separation.

Wasser didn’t skimp on details of their extravagant lifestyle.

"They lived in seven lavish homes … they flew in private jets … they had hair stylists come to their house every day. Every need, every want these people had was met," he told Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon on Monday morning.

Wasser suggested not judging them for simply having an outsized lifestyle: "It’s not our province to say, ‘That’s too much, that’s too little, who lives like that?"

Instead, he offered that this case was no different than any other divorce case, despite all the zeros, and he invoked the coming sundown start of the Passover holiday. Appropriating from the Passover Seder question "Why is this night different from all other nights?" he said, "I said to myself, why is this case different from all other cases?"

While noting that the magnitude of the money and the number of attorneys involved in the case did make it different, he added that it was like any other divorce case.

"The same rules apply," he said.

Wasser took the court through a series of examples, seeking to refute Frank McCourt’s contention that the recession had hit both him and the Dodgers. He said that Frank McCourt’s side had suspiciously argued his net worth went down from "being a billionaire to about $163 million."

Wasser’s argument was interrupted a few times, once by an outcry just outside the courtroom when a father found out he was being forbidden from seeing his daughter for five years, and once when Gordon received a request for a restraining order in a domestic-violence case.

[Updated at 11:32 a.m.: Sorrell Trope, Frank McCourt’s lawyer, launched a scathing indictment of what he called "Mrs. McCourt’s needs."

"It was attributed to Marie Antoinette," he said, "…that when she was told people in the streets were rioting because they had no bread to ‘let them eat cake.’"

He called that famous line "insightful to this case itself."

While Jamie McCourt looked on calmly, he described how she used the seven residences in her name, residences that she says she needs money to keep up.

Trope said she had one Holmby Hills house she used for swimming, and another "is just a shack she uses to store furniture."

Trope said that Jamie lived in one Malibu residence, while using the home next to it “to do her laundry.”

He argued she could easily rent her unused properties and bring in what he estimated at $158,000 in monthly revenue.]

Both the McCourts were sworn in at the beginning of the hearing. Although they won’t be testifying, Gordon is expected to ask them questions during the hearing. They each arrived at the downtown L.A. courthouse with a throng of attorneys and did not meet each other’s eyes.

The hearing is expected to last through the end of Monday.

The larger, more incendiary issue — which carries repercussions for Major League Baseball — is whether Jamie is a co-owner of the Dodgers, as she contends.



— Carla Hall and Victoria Kim in Los Angeles County Superior Court

Upper photo: Jamie McCourt enters Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown L.A. on Monday morning. She declined to speak to the media members assembled out front. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

Lower photo: Frank McCourt, second from left, and attorneys walk toward an underground parking lot during a lunch break in the McCourt spousal-support hearing. Credit: Ann Johansson / For The Times

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State election officials announced Wednesday that an initiative to legalize marijuana will be on the November ballot, triggering what will likely be an expensive, divisive and much-watched campaign to decide whether California will again lead the nation in softening drug laws.

Los Angeles County election officials Wednesday turned in their official estimate of the number of valid signatures, putting the statewide figure above the 433,971 needed for the measure to make the ballot. The county, where one-fifth of the signatures were collected, was the last to report its count, filing just before 5 p.m.

Polls have indicated that a majority of voters in California want marijuana legalized, but the margin is not enough to ensure the initiative will win. Two years ago, opponents defeated an attempt to relax the state’s drug laws despite being outspent. "It’s always easier for people to say no than to say yes for an initiative," said Mark Baldassare, the pollster for the Public Policy Institute of California. "Generally, all it takes is for people to find one reason to say no."

The initiative would allow adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce for personal use. Possession of an ounce or less has been a misdemeanor with a $100 fine since 1975, when Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who was then governor, signed a law that reduced tough marijuana penalties that had allowed judges to impose 10-year sentences. Legalization supporters note that misdemeanor arrests have risen dramatically in California in the last two decades. The initiative would also allow adults to grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana per residence or parcel.

But the measure, known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, goes further, allowing cities and counties to adopt ordinances that would authorize the cultivation, transportation and sale of marijuana, which could be taxed to raise revenues. It’s this feature of the initiative that supporters hope will draw support from voters who are watching their local governments jettison employees and programs in the midst of a severe budget crisis.

The measure’s main proponent, Richard Lee, savored the chance to press his case that the nation’s decades-old ban on marijuana is a failed policy. "We’re one step close to ending cannabis prohibition and the unjust laws that lock people up for cannabis while alcohol is not only sold openly but advertised on television to kids every day," he said. He said the measure would allow police to focus on serious crime, undercut Mexican drug cartels and make it harder for teenagers to buy marijuana.

Lee, who owns several marijuana businesses in Oakland, has already spent at least $1.3 million on the campaign, primarily on a professional signature-gathering operation. He has also recruited a team of accomplished political advisors, including Chris Lehane, a veteran operative who has worked in the White House and on presidential campaigns.

"There’s all kind of big professional politicos who are coming on board now to take it to the next level," he said.

Lee has said that he hopes to raise as much as $20 million for the campaign, 10 times the amount that proponents spent in 1996 to pass Proposition 215, the state’s medical marijuana initiative.

Opponents have also begun organizing. "There’s going to be a very broad coalition opposing this that will include law enforcement," promised John Lovell, a Sacramento lobbyist who represents several law enforcement organizations. "We’ll educate people as to what this measure really entails." Lovell said legalizing marijuana would lead to increased use, cause the same kind of social ills as alcohol and tobacco, and put more demands on law enforcement.

— John Hoeffel

Photo: L.A. Times file

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Union supporters rallied in Hollywood on Wednesday in support of a contentious organizing drive at the private Los Angeles Film School on Sunset Boulevard.

Pro-union speakers accused school management of using stall tactics to put off a vote on unionization of about 150 instructors and other staffers. Union activists also charged that the school had fired one union supporter and illegally disciplined another since the union began organizing in February, while holding mandatory meetings among workers in a bid to thwart the union.

"All we want is a vote so people can decide if they want a union," said Peter Q. Nguyen, field representative at the California Federation of Teachers, which is spearheading the drive. "Instead, there’s a lot of harassment and intimidation."

In February, the union says, it submitted to the National Labor Relations Board pro-union authorization cards from more than 60% of school staffers. Under federal labor law, the authorization cards could lead to an election among employees about affiliating with the union. But union officials allege that the school has used delaying tactics before the federal National Labor Relations Board in an effort to dodge a vote likely to lead to unionization.

Representatives of the school declined to comment on the allegations, said spokesman Antoine Ibrahim.

Instead, Ibrahim provided a statement from Diana Derycz-Kessler, the school president and chief executive officer, saying that management would "look forward to working collaboratively" with its "outstanding faculty."

The school, which offers associate of science degrees in film, game production and computer animation, has about 1,000 students at any time, Ibrahim said. The Los Angeles Film School was founded in 1999 and also includes the Los Angeles Recording School, formerly known as the L.A. Recording Workshop.

In promotional material, the school says that alumni films were part of more than 50 domestic and international film festivals in 2007 and received 100 awards. The school boasts of a "world-class" education in film and recording arts.

Pro-union staffers said they seek improvement in curriculum and classroom conditions, as well as better pay and health benefits.

"We’d like to have control of our destiny," said Tema L. Staig, an instructor who supports the union drive.

— Patrick J. McDonnell

Two Los Angeles City Council committees Tuesday approved an array of special fees that medical marijuana dispensaries will be required to pay to register with the city, deciding with minimal debate to send the proposal to the council for a vote in early April.

The city’s medical marijuana ordinance, which passed in January, cannot take effect until the council sets the fees. Councilman Ed Reyes said he hopes the law will be in place by the end of May or early June, allowing city enforcement officials to shut down unregistered dispensaries.

In addition to other city fees, an operator registering an existing dispensary would have to pay fees adding up to about $1,200. Medical marijuana advocates, who aggressively fought the City Council over its ordinance, did not challenge the proposal, saying it seemed reasonable.

City officials plan to send notices to dispensaries that are qualified to register, noting that operators have to start the process for the required criminal background check now so that it can be finished by the time they must notify the City Clerk that they intend to register.

"We want to make sure they are given every chance to fulfill that paperwork," Reyes said.

— John Hoeffel

The nation’s first free-standing hospice and respite-care center for dying children has closed its inpatient programs temporarily because of a drop in donations caused by the recession, officials said Tuesday.

George Mark Children’s House will continue to offer counseling and support services for the families of dying children, said Julie Brewer, executive director of the San Leandro, Calif., facility.

The facility hopes to reopen in the fall, Brewer said, after restructuring its finances to improve insurance reimbursements and to rely less on donations.

Since its inception in 2004, George Mark has offered counseling and bereavement services to 1,200 family members, including providing medical care for 300 terminally ill children. (The Times profiled the hospice in this 2009 article.)

In the last 12 months alone, the East Bay facility has cared for 99 children, of whom 34 have died.

"We’ve provided support to those families during the most unimaginably difficult experience they could ever go through," Brewer said. "We got to a point where we didn’t have enough donor money coming in to continue operations. … We need to restructure."

Donations to George Mark have dropped 50% in the last 18 months. Over the last year, the facility has laid off staff and begun talking with insurance companies and pushing for legislative fixes.

"We’re a brand-new model of care," Brewer said. Insurance companies "are not used to paying a facility like ours for the care we provide. They’re used to paying a hospital or a hospice or a nursing facility."

The average stay at George Mark is about two weeks for hospice and 10 days for respite care, which gives families a break in caring for children with life-threatening illnesses. Families are not charged for services.

"We can’t let this facility close," Brewer said.

–Maria L. La Ganga in San Francisco

With fewer than half the eligible Californians enrolled in the federal food stamp program, state and local officials have been stepping up efforts to spread awareness of the benefit.

The California Department of Social Services has a pre-screening tool posted on its website that people can use to estimate if they are eligible for food stamps. They can also download the forms to apply for the program. 

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services sends outreach workers to food pantries, health centers and other community sites to inform residents about food stamps. It has also contracted with faith-based and other nonprofit organizations to help residents with the application process.

The city of Los Angeles has opened 21 Family Source Centers to provide free counseling and connect struggling residents to government services. At the centers, residents can fill out a form known as a One-E-App to help determine eligibility for a variety of programs, including food stamps.

More information about California’s food stamp program is available here.

[Updated at 3:40 p.m.: California First Lady Maria Shriver and the Women’s Conference are hosting a three-day community resources fair beginning Friday to help connect Los Angeles families to free support services, including tax preparation, flu shots and food stamps. The WE Connect Weekend Los Angeles will take place at the Forum in Inglewood.]

— Alexandra Zavis

Medical marijuana activists hoping to overturn a Los Angeles ordinance that caps the number of dispensaries failed to collect enough signatures to force a referendum on the new law.

City election officials said Friday that the group turned in 24,031 signatures, falling short of the needed 27,425. Organizers estimated that they had collected about 30,000 signatures. Election officials also said 274 of the 564 petition booklets were disqualified because they did not include the affidavits signed by the circulators, which reduced the total count to 11,391.

"It’s done," said Tom Reindel, an administrator in the election division. Reindel said that it took 36 people about 26 hours to complete the review. "We were extremely careful and detailed and did double and triple checks. We wanted to make sure it was right."

Nathan Hoffman, the lawyer for the coalition of collectives, acknowledged the petition drive was flawed, but said that could have been corrected if the group had been given an extension. "There are some issues there with how they went about it," he said. "If they had had more time, 10 more days, and used professional signature-gatherers, I think they would have prevailed."

The effort’s coordinator, Dan Halbert, who runs Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista, had asked for an extension, but city officials denied the request, saying they had no authority to grant one.

Hoffman said the collectives were reviewing their legal options to challenge the ordinance that will force hundreds of dispensaries to close. "This is really just too draconian," he said.

— John Hoeffel

A coalition of medical marijuana collectives hoping to overturn a new Los Angeles ordinance that will cap the number of dispensaries suffered a setback Wednesday when city election officials denied them an extension to continue to collect signatures for a referendum.

"It’s just evidence to show that the city is blocking what the people’s will is," said Dan Halbert, who oversaw the effort and is the operator of Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista, one of hundreds of dispensaries that the ordinance would force to shut down.

The city’s election division chief, Arleen Taylor, said in a letter to Halbert’s lawyer that the City Charter does not give her the authority to grant an extension. The charter requires referendum petitions to be filed within 30 days after an ordinance is published. That deadline was Monday.

The decision makes it likely that the referendum effort will fail. The petition drive netted about 30,000 signatures, but Halbert estimated that only about 14,200 were valid. The number needed to qualify a referendum on a law is 27,425.

City election officials, however, are reviewing the petitions to see if they have more than the required signatures. If so, then they will test a random sample to determine how many are valid.

Halbert asked for a 10-day extension to gather more signatures, arguing that it had taken city election officials that long to approve the petition, cutting into the time he had to circulate it. Taylor, however, noted that her staff responded to each draft petition within a day and said those submissions were "informal, incomplete and contained many errors."

Halbert declined to respond. "It is what is. We are where we are," he said.

Nathan Hoffman, a lawyer for the dispensaries, said that the group may consider organizing a referendum on the registration fees for dispensaries, which the City Council has not yet adopted. He noted that the medical marijuana ordinance cannot go into effect until those fees are in place.

He suggested that the group might look to hire professional signature-gathers. "Dan Halbert, through his group, has been able to raise a war chest," he said.

Halbert, however, said he was still considering his options. "That’s a possibility," he said. "Honestly, I think, now that we are geared up, we could actually succeed."

— John Hoeffel

A group of Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries that hoped to persuade voters to reject the city’s new ordinance has failed to collect enough signatures to force a referendum.

Dan Halbert, the operator of Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and the primary organizer, said the collectives had gathered about 30,000 signatures, but fewer than 15,000 appear to be valid. The collectives need at least 27,425 signatures for the referendum to qualify.

But Halbert said he still plans to turn the petitions in to the city clerk Monday afternoon and would formally ask for an extension. Halbert said it took city officials 10 days to approve the form of the petition, cutting into the 30 days allowed for the petition drive.

"It’s been an education process for everybody. Bottom line is nobody can do this in 20 days unless you have big money," he said. "It affects all of our rights as citizens of Los Angeles to stop something the City Council wants to do."

The city’s medical marijuana ordinance, which will not take effect until the council adopts registration fees for dispensaries, would cap the number of stores at 70, but exempts those that registered with the city in 2007. City officials estimate that would allow no more than 128.

Halbert, who moved to Los Angeles from Phoenix to get into the business, is one of hundreds of operators who would be forced to close under the ordinance. Despite the threat to their businesses, many operators were wary about becoming involved in the political process, concerned about drawing the attention of the police and city enforcement inspectors.

Halbert, who said he spent between $20,000 and $30,000 on signature gathering, was discouraged that collectives did not rally around the petition drive until the final days.

"I’m disappointed in the process, and I’m disappointed in, obviously, the coalition," he said. "There were some players in it, but just not as many as needed."

Halbert said he did not expect the city to grant an extension and said he would be reviewing his legal options. "We’re going to use that as more ammunition," he said.

The city already is fighting two lawsuits stemming from its attempts to clamp down on the number of medical marijuana dispensaries. One challenges the new ordinance and another takes on the moratorium adopted in 2007. A Superior Court judge has issued a preliminary ruling that found the ban was invalid because the City Council had illegally extended it.

— John Hoeffel

Photo: Dan Halbert, on right, and volunteers and employees work on verifying signatures at the Rainforest Collective in Los Angeles. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

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The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District said Thursday that he would reassign three South Los Angeles elementary school teachers after they had their students display pictures of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul in a Black History Month parade.

Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said he had no evidence that the teachers’ actions were racially motivated. But he said, "I think it was an exercise of very poor judgment."

"That lack of judgment was not acceptable," he said. "These were not novice teachers."

The first-, second- and fourth-grade teachers at Wadsworth Elementary School were suspended without pay for three days last week and will be kept out of the classroom until they can be assigned to three schools, Cortines said.

United Teachers Los Angeles officials declined to say whether they would contest the suspensions or the transfers, saying that personnel matters are confidential under the union’s contract with L.A. Unified. 

The teachers, who are white men and reportedly had a reputation as pranksters, have not publicly explained themselves. But Cortines said he was informed that one of them "understood my outrage and concern" and accepted the suspension.

Some civil rights leaders had demanded that the teachers be dismissed, saying their choices made a mockery of black history and reinforced racial stereotypes at a school that is more than 90% Latino.

Cortines said he took the maximum steps at his disposal and did not believe that dismissals were warranted. But because of the public outcry, he was advised that allowing the teachers to return to Wadsworth would be disruptive to the school, L.A. Unified spokesman Robert Alaniz said.

District officials said teachers selected names from an approved list, which included Simpson because it dated to 1985, long before the former NFL star was acquitted of murder and jailed for a botched robbery. Because the list was old, some teachers added names, such as President Obama, as well as controversial former NBA player Rodman and RuPaul, a famous drag queen. The principal did not see the additions and was not on campus when the parade took place Feb. 26, L.A. Unified spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said.

[Updated at 3:40 p.m.: The principal was on campus at the time of the program but was busy disciplining three students, district spokesman Alaniz said.]

Cortines said that there had been a lack of oversight in the matter and that letters of reprimand were issued to the principal and another school administrator.

Cortines said the principal understood his position and had been "highly cooperative." Last week, Principal Lorraine Abner offered an apology in a letter addressed to parents and community members for the "questionable decisions" made about whom to highlight during the program.

The school will work with the district’s Office of Human Relations, Diversity and Equity to help students and adults learn from the experience, the letter said.

— Alexandra Zavis

Photo: Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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 Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III is a focus of the investigation into the death of Amber Dubois, the high school freshman whose skeletal remains were discovered Saturday in northern San Diego County.

The announcement Monday afternoon by the Escondido Police Department is the first time authorities have acknowledged that Gardner, 30, may be linked to the case.

Gardner is being held without bail after being charged last week with the suspected murder of Chelsea King, a 17-year-old from nearby Poway.

His arrest renewed attention on the disappearance of Dubois, who was last seen on her way to school in February 2009.

Dubois’ remains were found Saturday in rugged terrain near Pala off Interstate 15.

Authorities, who continued searching for clues on the remote hillside, have yet to disclose the nature of the tip that led them to the area.

— Richard Marosi in San Diego

Photos: King, Gardner, Dubois. Fox 5 Dan Diego

The parents of John Patrick Bedell, who was shot to death after pulling a gun on Pentagon police guards, said Friday they are “devastated” by the incident, adding that “his actions were caused by an illness and not a defective character.”

“To the outside world, this tragedy is the first and only thing they will know of Patrick,” his parents said in a statement. “To us, he was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin. We may never know why he made this terrible decision.”

Bedell, 36, of Hollister, Calif., had mental health problems and had used marijuana, according to authorities, friends and court records.

San Benito County Supervisor Reb Monaco said he had been a close friend of the Bedell family for 35 years.

Upon hearing of the shooting, and at the request of one of Bedell’s brothers, Monaco said he went to the family home late Thursday, spending almost three hours.

“They’re an excellent family, very loving, very close. They have three boys, all of them very intelligent. They grew up with my own children,” he said. “My wife and I were there to support this family. It’s such a tragedy and shock to this family. I can’t believe this tragedy.”

Patrick, he said, had suffered from mental illness for at least 15 years.

“He probably was mentally ill for that period of time,” said Monaco, a retired schoolteacher. “He seemed rather paranoid. He was a heavy marijuana user and tended to self-medicate with marijuana. I don’t know if he used other drugs.”

Nevertheless, Monaco said, Patrick also was a “gentle person.”

“His actions do not really fit that. I’ve known him since he was a little kid. He was always impressed me” as being very gentle, he said. “He was very bright, very intelligent.”

Monaco said the Bedells did not appear to know where Patrick was recently.

His parents reported him missing in January and asked local authorities to hold him, concerned about his mental health, said San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill.

Hill said the report stemmed from a call the family received from a Texas state trooper Jan. 3. The trooper said he had stopped their son for speeding on a freeway heading west outside Amarillo, Hill said.

“There’s an inference in [the report] that he was concerned about his mental health,” Hill said. Apparently finding no cause to hold Bedell, the trooper let him go, the sheriff said.

In the San Benito County sheriff’s Jan. 4 missing-person report, Bedell’s father said Patrick and Patrick’s brother had been in an argument about three weeks before. The father said he had not seen Patrick since Dec. 30. His son, he said, had been living and working in San Jose, but he didn’t know where.

According to the report, the Texas state trooper told Bedell’s mother that he was concerned for her son’s mental health because his car appeared to be in disarray. He said that Bedell had told him he was on his way to the East Coast.

The father told San Benito County deputies that he was concerned for his son’s safety. He said Bedell had a medical marijuana card, had been detained for mental evaluation before and had no friends or relatives on the East Coast.

In 2006, Orange County court records show, Bedell was arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana and resisting arrest. The marijuana charge was later dropped and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of resisting arrest. He served three years’ probation, which ended in August, and for which he did Caltrans community service, according to court records.

Irvine police arrested Bedell at his apartment on Amherst Aisle after neighbors reported him growing marijuana on a balcony.

Seeing the plants, officers obtained a search warrant for his apartment. Four days later, they returned and found 16 marijuana plants, along with an irrigation system, lights and other growing equipment. Bedell was alone in the apartment, according to the police report, and was arrested. He refused to leave under his own power and officers had to carry him to a patrol car.

Officers confiscated cards listing his name and a business, One Gram Cannabis, said Irvine police Lt. Henry Boggs.

Bedell recently had attended San Jose State as a graduate student, studying electrical engineering, said Pat Harris, a university spokeswoman. He had enrolled in courses in fall 2008 through fall 2009, she said.

Bedell had not enrolled for the 2010 spring semester, but “he was a student in good standing. He was not on academic probation” nor did he have a criminal record at the university, Harris said.

–Sam Quinones

Related: A
troubled path to Pentagon — The man who died trying to blast his way
into the military complex had been mentally ill for years

The Poway City Council cut short its regular meeting Tuesday evening so that those present could attend a candlelight vigil for Chelsea King, whose body was believed to have been found in a shallow grave near the lakeside park where the teenager had gone running last week.

"Poway is a tiny town. We are 50,000 now. When things like that happen, it rocks the soul of the community," Councilmember Betty Rexford said Wednesday.

She said the community has been grappling for some time with the issues that come with urban growth.

"They call it a city in the country," Rexford said.

When she moved to Poway 40 years ago, there was only one traffic light, she said. Children could enjoy the lake and trails in relative safety. Now, she said, parents are wondering whether they should allow their children to go to the mall alone.

"The world has changed," said Rexford, who worries about her two teenage granddaughters. "It is kind of scary that as a society we have to be looking over our shoulders all the time."

But she said the community had rallied around King’s family. Already a city with a strong volunteer tradition, she said thousands helped search for the 17-year-old Poway High School senior.

"It does your heart good that you have a community that, when something happens to their own, they come together," she said. "It was just an outpouring of love and support."

Authorities have linked the suspect in the case, John Albert Gardner III, a 30-year-old registered sex offender, to an attack in December on another young female jogger in the same park.

"I think right now people are numb," Rexford said. "They don’t know what to do. But everyone is angry."

— Alexandra Zavis

Photos: (Don
Bartletti / Los Angeles Times / March 2, 2010) Top: An estimated 4,000 people gathered at St. Michael’s
Church in Poway on Tuesday for a vigil for Chelsea King.
Brent King and his wife, Kelly, and their son thank a gathering of
about 4,000 people at St. Michael’s Church for their help and prayers.

The body of 17-year-old high school student Chelsea King was believed to have been found Tuesday in a shallow grave near a lake not far from her northern San Diego County home, authorities said.

““There is a strong likelihood we have found Chelsea,” said Sheriff Bill Gore at a Tuesday afternoon news conference, confirming the worst fears of the Poway High School senior’s family and friends who had harbored hopes that she might still be alive.

King, a straight-A student and cross-country runner, had been missing since Thursday, when she went out for a run in hilly parkland near Lake Hodges, located near Escondido.

A convicted sex offender, John Albert Gardner III, 30, was arrested Sunday night in connection with King’s disappearance and will be charged Wednesday, according to the San Diego County district attorney’s office.

King’s disappearance prompted an outpouring of  support in San Diego and beyond, with hundreds of people joining search efforts and more than 76,000 becoming fans of a Facebook page. Her parents, Brent and Kelly King, appeared on national news broadcasts expressing the belief that she was still alive.

Authorities said earlier Tuesday that Gardner had been linked to an attack in December on a 22-year-old woman in the same park where King disappeared. Gardner allegedly tackled the woman and demanded money. She escaped after hitting Gardner in the face, San Diego police said.

Gardner is registered as a sex offender and lives in Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, but he had been visiting his mother in Rancho Bernardo, just south of Lake Hodges, officials said.

Gardner served five years in connection with a 2000 attack on a 13-year-old girl, officials said. After getting out of prison, he wore a global positioning system tracking device until his parole ended in 2008, Gore said.

— Richard Marosi in San Diego

Photo: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times; Mugs of Gardner and Chelsea (AP)

Photos: First a jog, then a disappearance