Good evening, 919 Gang. Ron Hutcherson has an interesting story
related to the PSA crash from a very different angle. But first, this public
service announcement:
CARL LARSEN writes:
Plan
your getaway for tomorrow. Basically, all transit routes in San Diego and North
County will be free tomorrow, Tuesday, on Free Ride Day. Just hop aboard. This
includes the Trolley, bus routes, the Coaster and the Sprinter. Here's the
link;
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RON HUTCHERSON writes:
PSA and life’s ironies. I left
faltering UPI in February of 1978 to go into law practice. I joined a small
firm but landed on the street just weeks later when the partners developed
differences and dissolved the firm. Seven months later came the PSA airliner
collision and crash. Police arrested a Channel 8 photographer, Steve Leiserson,
for refusing an officer’s orders to leave the crash site. Acting on his own
motion, Municipal Court Judge Richard Hanscomb (if memory isn’t too flawed)
dismissed the criminal case against Leiserson “in the interest of justice.”
Leiserson,
then unknown to me, asked for representation in a civil claim against the city.
He had tried a lot of other practitioners first. We were a pair. He had little
money and I had neither experience nor a decent mentor. I filed his claim in
Superior Court. The powers that be in the court dragged heels in granting us a
trial date. Finally, the presiding judge (I don’t remember his name) gave us a
date—Christmas week. We did the trial preparation and showed up on the
designated date only to be told there was an unexpected shortage of judges and
the date would be vacated. We asked for a new date and got it—Christmas week a
year later. Did we have a popular cause or what?
As
the date approached the presiding judge informed us that due to a shortage of
jurors and judges we had to choose between a bench trial or another
continuance. Impatience won and we agreed to a bench trial. When the time came
we were assigned to a visiting judge named Carter. He was old, and my recall
says he came from Fresno.
We
made our simple and straightforward case in front of Judge Carter, but none of
his rulings went our way. A very able deputy city attorney offered evidence for
the city. He eventually became the No. 2 (non-elected) man in the city
attorney’s office, indicating the case had weight. Judge Carter took the case
under advisement and left town. No ruling was handed down in the allowed time
frame, and I complained. I was told the judge was vacationing in Europe and
could not be reached. That was in midsummer. Finally, the judge returned late
in the year and found against Leiserson on flimsy grounds.
I
wrote a blistering motion attacking Carter’s heart, soul, legal ability, etc.,
and demanding that he set his ruling aside. A hearing was set, but Carter died
of a heart attack the night before the hearing. The presiding judge, with what
I viewed as malice in his beady eyes, denied the motion and told me our option
was to appeal. We filed our appeal with the Fourth District Court of Appeal
quickly.
The
only question was whether, in light of a state statute that accorded bona fide
news reporters a right to be at accident scenes, Leiserson should not have been
arrested. The appellate court ruled for Leiserson. We had made law. Reporters
can go to accident scenes in California and stay there, subject to reasonable
behavior.
Then
I applied for attorney’s fees. I had about 200 hours of time invested in our
crusade. The application was rejected at both trial court and appellate court
levels. The rationale: you have to win at least a dollar at the trial court
level to qualify for attorney’s fees if you prevail. We had made law again,
this time unfavorable to us.
Later
I learned that our trial court judge was known in judicial circles as “Crazy
Carter.” One learns by doing. I have to say my tooth-cutting experience proved
to be quite valuable in years that were to come.
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WALT BARANGER
writes:
David
Farmer wanted to know about the green tower and pipe at Chalmers Drive & S.
Holt Avenue, which is in Los Angeles — but only barely in Los Angeles. Here’s
another view of it.
And
that is the key to the mystery — the tower is barely within the city of
Los Angeles. Chalmers & Holt is in L.A.’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood (and
very close to my old nursery school!). It’s a notch-like enclave of Los Angeles
cut out of the southern border of Beverly Hills. One block east, in the
southeastern corner of Beverly Hills, are the La Cienega Tennis Center and Beverly
Hills Tennis Center, which sit on the site of the old Beverly Hills Water
Treatment Plant #1 reservoir.
Sewage
flows downhill to treatment plants via gravity. Beverly Hills recycled its
treated sewage, so they had to pump the cleaned water back uphill into the
western part of the city, where it was probably used for irrigation and street
cleaning. Or is that explaining too much?
This
tower appears to be a leftover from the disused connection between the major
western neighborhoods of Beverly Hills and their city sewage treatment plant
and reservoir, abandoned in 1976 but whose landmark campanile-style tower is
still visible around La Cienega Park. The treatment plant building is now
occupied by — ready for this? — the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences as a museum annex. The tennis complex is next door to the north, also
on La Cienega Blvd.
This
is proof that Beverly Hills is effluent. (Hey, someone had to say it.)
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REBER: Tomorrow we start a new month and Jim
Goldsborough and Ruby Layson start a new year. We hope each has a Happy Birthday
Oct. 1.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
