L.A. Votes: Endorsements flow as Greuel and Garcetti seek edge

A new stream of endorsements emerged in Los Angeles' mayoral race Wednesday as Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti sought an edge in the May 21 runoff. The backing has two overarching goals – blunting criticism the two Democrats are facing about their ability to confront the most pressing financial problems in the city, and courting voters who supported candidates who did not survive the primary.

Greuel won the backing of former Republican Mayor Richard Riordan, who pledged he would serve as a senior advisor to her administration for a salary of $1 a year. This move, long sought by Greuel, comes as the city controller has faced increased heat about her support by the city’s labor unions and recent statements about her views on pension reductions for newly hired city employees. The latter prompted the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, which has backed Greuel, to call on the controller to explain her position on retirement benefits in person today.

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Greuel’s campaign hit back, with a co-chairman of her campaign, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, promising that Greuel would fight to cut retirement costs at City Hall, including by exploring raising retirement age for existing city employees, a hugely controversial proposal.

Greuel’s rival Garcetti, who edged her in the March 5 primary, also named new endorsements on Wednesday. He picked up the backing of Republican developer Steve Soboroff and an influential African American Democratic club, which could help Garcetti make inroads with two key groups he and Greuel are battling over: white GOP voters in the Valley and black Democrats in South Los Angeles.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

In other city races, the candidates seeking to become Los Angeles’ next city attorney clashed in the first runoff debate, with incumbent Carmen Trutanich and challenger Mike Feuer showing they have starkly different visions of the role of the city’s top prosecutor. And the statement for two competing medical marijuana initiatives survived legal challenges to appear unchanged on the May ballot.

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Photo: Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

Citing presence of reporters, Coliseum head won't give testimony

Objecting to the presence of Times reporters, the top manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum refused to answer questions Wednesday and walked out of a deposition in an open-government lawsuit against the stadium's overseers.

Interim General Manager John Sandbrook left the deposition in the suit brought by The Times and a 1st Amendment group. The Times would not agree to his lawyer's demands that it exclude the two reporters or prohibit them from publishing Sandbrook's sworn answers before they are introduced as evidence in a trial.

The suit accuses the governing commission of the taxpayer-owned Coliseum of illegally withholding records from the public and violating state law by conducting months of secret deliberations on a stadium lease with USC. The commission denies the allegations.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A. Coliseum under scrutiny

Sandbrook's attorney, Deborah Fox, said she was suspending the videotaped deposition so she could ask Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin to issue an order banning the reporters from the session. She said their presence was "an attempt to intimidate and harass and annoy" as Sandbrook answered an attorney's questions under oath. Under the deposition rules, the reporters were not allowed to pose questions.

"They should not be able to report on issues that unfold here in this deposition," Fox said.

Times attorney Jeff Glasser, who was to question Sandbrook, said the reporters were entitled to attend the proceeding, held at a downtown law office, and the courts have allowed journalists to observe depositions even if they were not involved in the case at hand. He said any effort to prevent The Times' reporters from publishing material from the Sandbrook deposition would be unconstitutional.

"We are absolutely, 100%, not going to agree to gag our reporters," Glasser said. "This case is all about government transparency."

Mother of teen killed at park seeks $35 million from Los Angeles

The mother of a youth volunteer who was fatally shot at Harvard Park in South Los Angeles has filed a claim for damages against the city totaling $35 million.

The claim cites the city’s failure to install security cameras and other safety measures in the park, which is a known gang hangout, as resulting in the death of the teen. Patrick Caruthers, 19, was sitting on a park bench last fall listening to music before the start of his volunteer shift when he was gunned down by an unknown assailant.

Police said the shooting was gang-related, but Caruthers, who had a learning disability, was an innocent bystander.

For months, Councilman Bernard C. Parks lobbied for security cameras to ward off crime and monitor illegal activity in the city-owned space. But the issue stalled in the City Council's Public Safety Committee. The cameras were finally approved hours after Caruthers was fatally shot.

His mother, Gail Sears, said in the complaint that the city's slow response to previous requests for surveillance cameras put her son and other park-goers in danger.

The city "negligently owned, operated, patrolled, controlled, managed and staffed the park in a manner which created a dangerous condition of public property," stated the claim, filed Thursday.

Sears is seeking $25 million in damages for emotional pain and suffering, an additional $10 million in compensation for the severe physical and emotional pain and suffering her son sustained before he died, and $12,000 for funeral expenses.

The city has 45 days to accept or reject the claim. If it rejects the claim, Sears will have the option to file a civil lawsuit.

"The city really let me down, and cost my dear son his life," Sears said in an email statement.

Cameras were finally installed in January.

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Photo: People offer written notes, candles and flowers to memorialize Patrick Caruthers, who was fatally shot at Harvard Park in September. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

USC student killed in suspected DUI accident in South L.A.

A 22-year-old student from USC was killed early Sunday morning in a suspected DUI collision, according to authorities.

The fatal car accident occurred around 3:30 a.m. at the intersection of Hyde Park and West boulevards in South Los Angeles, about six miles southwest of the university campus, according to Los Angeles Police Sgt. Manny Chavez of the South Traffic Division. 

Chavez said a woman in her early 20s was driving west on Hyde Park Boulevard and ran a red light. The woman's Ford Explorer struck the passenger side of a Ford Mustang that was heading north on West Boulevard. A 22-year-old man sitting on the passenger side was killed by the impact, he said. 

"Alcohol is suspected right now," Chavez said. 

No arrests have been made, but Chavez said that crash is still under investigation. 

University officials released a statement later that afternoon identifying the victim as Xinhai Huang, a junior who was majoring in electrical engineering.

"Xinhai was an honor student and in the Dean's list," the statement read. "We grieve for a promising life cut short, and for his parents who have lost their son."

The statement said the parents were notified of Xinhai's death.

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Two wounded in South Los Angeles shooting

Two adult males were wounded Thursday afternoon in a possible drive-by shooting in South Los Angeles, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. in the 700 block of East Manchester Avenue, one block east of Avalon Boulevard, according to Los Angeles Police Officer Christopher No.

He said police were notified of the incident by firefighters.

"One of the victims appeared to be unconscious," No said. Other reports said the victim was not breathing at the scene.

A motive for the shooting was not known. The incident remains under investigation.

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LAUSD to pay Miramonte victims $30 million; teacher due in court

Now that the Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to a $30-million settlement in the Miramonte Elementary School case, the teacher accused of lewd acts against dozens of children is set to appear in court next month.

Mark Berndt, 61, faces 23 felony counts of lewd conduct involving the alleged spoon-feeding of semen to students that were blindfolded and the placement of cockroaches on their faces.

Berndt has been in custody since his arrest in February 2012 and is being held in lieu of $23 million bail. Detectives had been investigating the alleged abuse for more than a year after a drugstore photo processor showed police disturbing images of blindfolded and gagged children being spoon-fed a liquid.

FULL COVERAGE: Teacher sex-abuse investigations

The alleged victims were boys and girls between 7 and 10 years old. Berndt had been teaching in the district since 1979 and was respected by parents of former students. Nearly 200 legal claims have been filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District by parents in the wake of Berndt’s arrest.

On Tuesday, lawyers representing parents in 58 of those claims announced a $30-million settlement with LAUSD. The mediation lasted about six months and involved more than a dozen law firms.

Attorneys said they wanted to spare children painful litigation and testimony.

PHOTOS: Parent uproar over sex-abuse claims

The settlements are the first in a case that rocked the nation's second-largest school system and prompted a flurry of new policies to better protect students. Each of the alleged victims will receive about $470,000 under the preliminary deal. It is the largest payout in a case involving a single teacher in the district.

Mortuary mixes up bodies; family buries wrong woman

A South Los Angeles family who held a funeral for and buried the wrong woman after a mix-up by the mortuary plans to hold another ceremony this week.

Evans Davidson, 74, told employees of Simpson Family Mortuary in Inglewood on March 1 that the woman in the casket did not look like his wife, but his concerns were dismissed and he was informed that “people’s features will change at death,” his attorney, Jeffrey E. Zinder, said Tuesday.

Despite their hesitation, Davidson and his family continued with the open-casket viewing and funeral, to which they had invited 150 guests, the attorney said. Five days later, the mortuary called the family and alerted them to the mistake.

“The mortuary has told us that the mistake occurred because the bodies were so similar,” Zinder said. “That excuse is absolute lunacy. And it’s evidence of the arrogance of the mortuary in not listening to the Davidson family, who they dismissed as being too emotionally upset to credibly be able to identify their own loved one.”

Davidson, a retired oil rig worker, his four children and 15 grandchildren have been distraught since the news and have had trouble coping, Zinder said.

L.A. Unified settles Miramonte abuse claims for $30 million

The Los Angeles Unified School District will pay about $30 million to settle 58 legal claims filed by students and parents in connection with lewd-conduct charges against a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School, plaintiffs' lawyers said Tuesday.

Each of the victims will receive about $470,000 under the preliminary deal struck with L.A. Unified, the lawyers said. The settlement covers about half of the identified victims at the school and is designed to avoid long drawn-out litigation that could potentially do more harm to the children, those attorneys said.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge still needs to review and approve the settlements, L.A. Unified officials said.

FULL COVERAGE: Teacher sex-abuse investigations

Ray Boucher, an attorney who represents 13 students and parents, said the desire to protect children from needlessly being subjected to difficult court proceedings was paramount.

“This was the right thing to do for the kids,” he said.

Still, the settlement amount and the mediation process was hard-fought.

PHOTOS: Parent uproar over sex-abuse claims

“The school district came in with incredibly low and unrealistic expectations of what it would take to resolve these cases -– but ultimately they did the right thing,” he said.

L.A. Unified officials would not comment on the settlement amounts. L.A. Unified General Counsel David Holmquist said that the entire process had been very difficult but that it was done to  "promote healing in the community."

David Ring, attorney for seven of the victims who settled, said that “this settlement was reached without putting any child through difficult and intense litigation. We acted in the best interests of these children, with the hope that they move on with their lives and try to put the Miramonte nightmare behind them.”

High-profile cases converge on L.A. courthouse's 9th floor

The 9th floor of Los Angeles’ downtown criminal courthouse always sees a lot of activity, but right now four high-profile cases are going on there at the same time, which is almost unprecedented.

Jurors in Judge Kathleen Kennedy’s Department 109 courtroom began their 12th day of deliberations Monday in the corruption trial of six Bell council members accused of illegally boosting their salaries to more than $100,000 a year.

In nearby Department 105, prosecutors and defense lawyers are just beginning to pick a jury for two accused gang members charged with fatally shooting 5-year-old Aaron Shannon Jr. in South Los Angeles, where he was playing in a backyard dressed in his Spider-Man costume on Halloween.

Leonard Hall Jr. and Marcus Denson, accused members of the Kitchen Crips gang, each face a murder charge and two counts of willful attempted murder of the boy's uncle and grandfather. More than 100 jurors are expected to be vetted in the coming week.

But that is not the most high-profile murder case that began Monday.

In Department 107, prosecutors are hoping the jurors selected will bring closure to a three-decade-old murder mystery they say is the work of a man born in a German village who took on many names before becoming the self-proclaimed Boston socialite "Clark Rockefeller."

Jury selection got underway Monday in the case of Christian Gerthartsreiter for the 1985 slaying of John Sohus. The attorneys Monday began reviewing potential jurors for the four- to five-week trial but did not expect to begin actual selection until Friday.

Sohus went missing in 1985 along with his wife, Linda. At the time of the disappearance, a man authorities say is Gerhartsreiter lived in the San Marino guest house owned by Sohus' mother under the alias Christopher Chichester.

Chichester claimed to be a British aristocrat with a love of film, worked on a local cable TV show and hung out at USC's film school. He disappeared shortly after Sohus and his wife vanished in 1985, and Sohus' mother would tell friends they had gone a secret mission. Postcards arrived from Paris supposedly from Linda Sohus.

But nine years later, as a new owner of the Sohus property on Lorain Road dug a swimming pool dug in the backyard, a bag of bones was uncovered. San Marino police and coroner's identified them as those of John Sohus. Gerhartsreiter, 52, remains a suspect in Linda Sohus' disappearance but has never been charged with the crime.

L.A. Votes: Garcetti, Greuel reach out; how the tax vote varied

After winning spots in the May 21 mayoral runoff, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are back on the campaign trail and heavily courting two distinct constituencies -- black Democrats in South Los Angeles and white Republicans in the San Fernando Valley.

The candidates are also increasingly highlighting their plans to revitalize the city’s economy -- a reaction, some argue, to widespread criticism that Greuel and Garcetti failed to offer many specifics during the primary.

Many eyes turned to failed mayoral candidates Jan Perry and Kevin James, whose supporters could be key to winning in the May runoff. Perry has not endorsed, but had harsh words for Greuel’s ties to labor. James met with both remaining candidates in recent days as he decides whether to endorse.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

The Times analyzed voter trends in the other big contest on the ballot: the half-cent sales tax increase that L.A. city voters rejected. The results showed a tale of two cities, with voters in the poorest parts of Los Angeles who are most dependent on city services more likely to support the measure, while residents in more affluent swaths were more likely to be against it.

Columnist Steve Lopez weighs in on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's supporting the sales-tax proposal as vital for retaining key city services, and then claiming that the city’s finances are rosier than believed after the tax failed at the ballot box.

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Comments, questions or tips on city elections? Tweet me at @LATSeema