News briefs from Southern California

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) A gunman smeared chocolate pudding over his face, then climbed through a drive-through window and robbed a Wienerschnitzel restaurant.

``Anyone who sees a man running around with pudding smeared all over his face should consider that suspicious activity and call police,'' police Sgt. Paul LeBaron said Tuesday.

Police were called to the north Long Beach restaurant at 10:53 p.m. after receiving reports that the pudding bandit had pushed one employee to the floor and threatened another with a handgun, LeBaron said.

``He told them not to look at him,'' the sergeant said.

The robber fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

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VENTURA, Calif. (AP) An Oxnard drug dealer was convicted of torturing and killing a 14-month-old boy.

Jurors deliberated five hours before deciding Patrick Santillano, 34, deliberately beat, gagged and bound Demitre Robledo on Oct. 22, 2000, after the baby's mother left him in the care of Santillano and his girlfriend, Teresa Rodriguez.

Santillano, convicted of first-degree murder, torture and mayhem in verdicts read Tuesday, faces up to 25 years to life in prison when he's sentenced March 18.

The child died after weeks of abuse inside a converted Oxnard garage. He had been in the care of Santillano and Rodriguez because the child's mother was arrested for using drugs.

``I'm sober. I'm looking for work and trying to get my life in order,'' the mother, Yvette Rivas, said Tuesday as she left the courthouse. ``I'm trying to do things right. It's what I can do to honor my baby.''

Rodriguez testified during trial that Santillano began tying and gagging Demitri because he had a hard time finding a vein to inject his heroin and wanted to keep the child quiet.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Two Rancho Palos Verdes brothers were indicted for allegedly submitting $400,000 in bogus billings for drugs to government health care programs.

Mohammadali Abolahrar, 31, and Reza Abolahrar, 34, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday for allegedly conspiring to defraud a health care benefit program and 20 counts of health care fraud, said Thom Mrosek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The 21 charges in the indictment are based on the Abolahrars' operation of Bayview Pharmacy in Redondo Beach, which they operated from about 1995 until 1998, and Roxbury Pharmacy in Los Angeles. The indictment alleges that the pharmacies billed Medi-Cal for prescription drugs that they did not provide.

The two pharmacies received a large amount of business from the liver transplant unit at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, which would fax prescriptions to the pharmacies on behalf of liver transplant patients.

Over time, the amount of medication a patient would need would decrease but the pharmacies allegedly continued to bill Medi-Cal for the original amount, prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges the pharmacies billed and received from the state Medi-Cal program and the federal Tricare program a total of approximately $400,000 for medication that it did not provide.

The Abolahrars will be summoned to appear for an arraignment in March. Each count in the indictment carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in federal prison.

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SANTA PAULA, Calif. (AP) Twenty nonteaching positions were abolished and another 55 will see hourly reductions because of mid-year budget cuts implemented Tuesday by the board of the Santa Paula School District.

The personnel cutbacks, which take effect in 30 days, are the largest so far by a Ventura County school board coping with the financial impact of Gov. Gray Davis' proposed state budget cuts.

Superintendent Luis Villegas has said he recommended the board make the cuts now because delaying them would only make the situation worse.

About 20 percent of the elementary district's nonteaching or classified employees are affected by the decision, including custodians, accounting assistants, clerks, a public information officer and instructional aides.

The cuts are part of an assortment of reductions designed to make up a $1.13 million shortfall in the elementary district's budget. The Santa Paula board was poised to lay off the employees three weeks ago but delayed implementation in the face of a legislative decision to block the governor's proposal seeking across-the-board cuts of $1.5 billion statewide in the middle of the school year.

Legislators said they preferred delaying the cuts to the 2003-04 school year.

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EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) A 19-year-old firefighter has pleaded guilty to arson for setting a series of fires that destroyed two homes in the mountain town of Julian last summer.

Jonathan Patrick Klausen of San Diego had been a firefighter with the California Conservation Corps for about three months before setting the fires on Aug. 27.

He pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of arson; prosecutors dropped three other arson charges as part of a plea deal. Klausen faces more than 17 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 9.

The fires set by Klausen burned 280 acres and consumed five outbuildings.

They followed a July wildfire triggered when a drug-patrol helicopter clipped a power line near Julian, and a spate of alleged arson fires in the same area that month. Kyle Van Epps, 32, and Mary Blair, 39, both of San Diego face five counts of arson in connection with those fires.

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VALLEY CENTER, Calif. (AP) A third commercial poultry ranch in San Diego County has been hit by the exotic Newcastle disease, meaning 69,000 more birds will have to be destroyed.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, citing unnamed sources, said the ranch is close to a Valley Center ranch owned by Armstrong Farms which tested positive for the virus last week. State and federal officials do not disclose the location of affected ranches.

State and federal workers have begun euthanizing 150,000 birds at the Armstrong ranch.

The disease appeared in the county in December when it was found in a flock of 73,000 chickens at a ranch in Ramona.

Exotic Newcastle Disease is highly contagious among poultry and other birds but does not pose a significant health risk to humans.

Gov. Gray Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have declared states of emergency across Southern California and expanded a quarantine zone for the disease.

Since October, when the disease was discovered in backyard flocks in Los Angeles County, more than 2 million birds have been destroyed.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Funding was approved to keep a nine-member Sheriff's Department cargo-theft squad operating at the Port of Los Angeles at least through June 30.

The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to give $200,000 to the Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team, known as Cargo CATs, after determining the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had provided $200,000 each to fund the unit's operating costs for six months.

Cargo CATs were only five days away from running out of money.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who questioned the Long Beach port contribution, was assured by Supervisor Don Knabe that Long Beach would come through with its contribution. It wasn't clear what would happen to the squad when the money runs out June 30.

``There actually isn't a set plan,'' sheriff's spokesman Harry Drucker said.

The Cargo CATs are a priority for Sheriff Lee Baca, he said, adding that the unit has an impressive track record for arresting thieves and protecting millions of dollars in cargo. Even so, the unit was closed down last year because of budget cuts.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) A Sheriff's Department computer database aimed at identifying and tracking problem deputies is becoming unreliable because much of the information logged into the system is incomplete, inaccurate and often too old to be of value.

A report released Tuesday also found that many department administrators and managers do not use the ``early warning'' database because they are ignorant of its capabilities, according to Merrick Bobb, a special counsel to county supervisors who has monitored the Sheriff's Department for the last 10 years.

Sheriff Lee Baca and others have praised the computerized tracking system as one of the nation's best risk management tools in law enforcement. The system tracks citizen complaints, use-of-force incidents, lawsuits, discipline and commendations.

The sheriff's system is similar to the one the federal government has mandated that the Los Angeles Police Department adopt as a result of the Rampart corruption scandal.

Bobb's report criticized the department for not putting adequate resources into the maintenance of the system. Information logged into the database is typically 6-months-old and reports aren't reviewed because of understaffing, he said.

Bobb said the department ``currently treats (its early warning system) like a collectible automobile: It is put on display from time to time to demonstrate to the outside world that the (department) has the Rolls-Royce of risk management software and procedure. ... But when the odometer is checked, it is apparent that it has hardly ever been taken out of the garage.''

Baca said Bobb's Rolls-Royce analogy was an ``oversimplified form of hyperbole,'' adding the criticism in the report was overstated and did not reflect the importance he places on risk management.

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RIALTO, Calif. (AP) Police officers arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly impersonating a cop to get telephone numbers from attractive women.

Officers allegedly spotted Deshawn Darnell Carter trying to pull over a woman at the intersection of Rialto and Cedar avenues on Sunday night.

``Basically, they just saw him pull a car over and went over to find out what was going on,'' Sgt. Robert Cross said. ``Then they found out he's not who he said he was.''

Carter was driving a white four-door Chevrolet Caprice similar to vehicles driven by police with a red and blue strobe light, investigators said. Carter was wearing a red Los Angeles Kings hockey team shirt and had a replica gun and a walkie-talkie in his car, police said.

Carter was stopping women in an attempt to get their phone numbers, police said.

He was arrested and booked for investigation of impersonating a police officer.

``I think every place that cops exist, there's someone trying to be like us for one reason or another,'' Cross said.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) The City Council approved a growth fee that forces developers to pay extra if they want to build in the city.

The Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee is being adopted by cities throughout western Riverside County to help pay for efforts aimed at relieving traffic congestion caused by growth.

Certain projects, such as churches, low-income housing, public schools and government buildings, are exempt from the fees. The council pledged Tuesday to seek amendments that also would exempt senior and student housing construction projects.

The ordinance calls for collecting fees on the construction of any new homes, apartments or condominiums, offices, retail or industrial buildings to pay for local road projects. Developers can file appeals with the Western Riverside Council of Governments, which is administering the fee program.

Mayor Ron Loveridge said the city would lose $4 million annually in Measure A transportation funds starting in 2009 if it didn't pass the new fee. Riverside County already is charging the fees in unincorporated areas.

Temecula, Murrieta, Norco and Moreno Valley have adopted the fees, while Corona is expected to do so this week.

General contractor Vance Farlow said developers will pass the burden of the fees onto new home buyers and businesses that are moving to Riverside.

``People may be discouraged in locating in Riverside. Maybe they'll be interested in located in San Bernardino County,'' he said.

The fees could generate as much as $290 million for projects in Riverside over a 20-year period. Those projects could include widening roads, expanding freeway entrances and exits and adding railroad underpasses and bridges.

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INDIO, Calif. (AP) A condo owner is suing neighbor Eddie J. Babbitt because his cigar smoke infiltrates his Palm Springs home.

Nearly every night after dinner, Babbitt sits out on his patio to enjoy a good cigar. But Joseph DiPuzo said in a Superior Court suit that the smoke wafts into his adjacent condominium, bothering him and worsening the asthma of his live-in girlfriend.

A judge has already ruled the case has merit and can move forward toward trial.

``If it goes through, it would open up the floodgates of litigation,'' said Peter Schlueter, who is co-counsel for Babbitt with his brother, Jon. ``The vegetarian could now sue the meat-eater for the barbecue outside. Certainly, you'd see a lot of nonsmokers and smokers suing.''

DiPuzo attorney Joe Roman said the suit is in line with current case law on nuisance issues. Once the state determined that tobacco is harmful, it set in motion the right for people to protect themselves against its effects, even on private property, he said.

``I don't want to make new law but it's the logical direction of the law,'' Roman said, noting that there already have been instances of people getting restraining orders against smokers. ``More and more people are getting sensitive to smoke.''

Edward L. Sweda, who tracks tobacco litigation as senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University in Boston, said there has been an increase in lawsuits over smoking, particularly in apartment and condominium complexes.

Babbitt, 67, said he was smoking on his patio in March when DiPuzo protested the smoke.

``We got into a little argument and I turned around and was walking inside and he hung one on me,'' said Babbitt, who claims he was knocked out by the punch. Babbitt filed a civil battery lawsuit against DiPuzo, who then countersued over the cigar smoking.

``This is a health problem,'' Roman said, adding that Babbitt could enjoy his cigar inside to prevent the smoke from affecting his neighbors. The lawyer also claims DiPuzo never hit Babbitt.

The next step is a case-management conference, where a date for trial or arbitration could be set.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)