Washed It!

DANNEMORA, N.Y. – Long Island serial killer Joel Rifkin says he’s not thrilled by the diabolic handiwork of a murderer who dumped the bodies of four women near Oak Beach.
With the feel of a veteran addressing an amateur, Rifkin said the sicko (being hunted by cops and the FBI) should never have dumped all the corpses in one place.

“I dumped them hundreds of miles apart,” Rifkin calmly told the Daily News Wednesday in a 70-minute interview at the upstate prison where he is serving life in prison.
Rifkin killed 17 prostitutes in a four-year time period – and took pains to dispose of their bodies.

He dumped his victims in rivers and woodland areas from the east end of Long Island to upstate. Three have never been found.
In Oak Beach, four decomposing bodies were found within a quarter-mile area just off a remote highway – and cops believe it’s a sole killer’s job.

Rifkin suggested the killer was haphazard for selecting a single dumping ground because it informed cops to the likelihood of a serial killer and brought more focus to the case.
Rifkin, who once lived in East Meadow, L.I., said he was always more frightened about dumping his bodies than strangling or dismembering his victims.

“I was surprised I didn’t get caught sooner,” said Rifkin, who was arrested in 1993 with his last victim’s body in the back of his mother’s pickup truck.
He said his arrest was the result of “a 25-cent mistake” – a missing license plate.

Rifkin who is 51 now said cops looking for the Oak Beach killer should probably focus on white men, aged 18 to 45, but admitted the magnitude of that challenge.
“That’s like half the country,” he said.

Police detained eight unlicensed welders Tuesday in connection with Monday’s deadly apartment fire in Shanghai that left 53 people dead and at least 70 injured, city officials said.

Investigators believe that the welders may have been using their equipment improperly, sparking a blaze that engulfed a 28-story building in the heart of the sprawling Chinese metropolis.

About 17 people remain in critical condition, said Shanghai Deputy Mayor Shen Jun.
Family members were reportedly scouring local hospitals for any information on missing loved ones, and aiming their frustration at authorities.

“It is hard to believe the government now. The drills on TV are successful, but when a fire truly happens, it’s just useless. We feel helpless,” a woman who gave only her surname, Liu, told the Associated Press. Her mother lived on the ninth floor of the building and died in the fire.

Chen Fei, director of the city’s firefighting bureau, said the blaze erupted on the building’s 10th floor.

Survivors either had to scamper down stairs or descend scaffolding that surrounded the tower. The apartment block, which housed 440 people, was undergoing renovations to add insulation at the time of the fire.

Firefighters facing difficulty reaching the upper levels set up hoses on top of an adjacent building to finally contain the blaze, which raged for more than four hours.

Rescuers were seen carrying survivors out of the building. Earlier attempts to airlift people off the roof with helicopters had to be called off because of thick smoke.

One resident said he and his wife climbed down to safety on the scaffolding from the 23rd floor, where their apartment was, according to the Xinmin Evening Post, a local newspaper.

The man, who identified himself as a retired teacher with the surname Zhou, said he was napping when he was awakened by smoke. He said he rushed through his front door into the hallway and uncoiled a fire hose to extinguish flames next to a window by a stairwell. He and his wife were then able to flee, the newspaper said.

Another survivor, Li Xiuyun, 61, said she hurried down stairs inside the building with her husband, son and granddaughter from their home on the 16th floor, cutting her feet on shattered glass along the way.

“The smoke was very strong and the glass from the windows was scalding,” she told the Agence France-Presse news service.

“My son took off his socks and soaked them with water, and we used them to cover our noses. I stumbled on people on the floor when walking,” she said at one of the nine hospitals that took in victims.

China’s minister of public security, Meng Jianzhu, rushed to Shanghai and called for a thorough investigation through the State Council, the country’s Cabinet, the New China News Agency said.

Although China has been undergoing a construction boom for many years, building safety has remained controversial.

Last year, firefighters could do little to stop a massive blaze in a nearly completed Beijing skyscraper housed in the same complex as China’s state television headquarters. The building, slated to be a luxury hotel, burned after being set alight by an illegal fireworks show.

Critics also point to substandard construction practices as a major source of safety problems.

They cite the collapse of thousands of buildings, including many shoddily built schools, during the deadly 2008 Sichuan earthquake as a prime example of the poor construction common in much of China.

The following year, a nearly completed 13-story apartment tower in Shanghai toppled, killing one worker in a high-profile incident that attracted stunned onlookers for days because the building remained largely intact on its side.

Chinese have come to call buildings constructed poorly for the sake of cutting costs “tofu dregs,” a reference to the mushy curds left behind in the tofu-making process.

david.pierson@latimes.com

Tommy Yang of The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.
8 welders detained in deadly Shanghai high-rise blaze

The U.S. Department of Justice has warned the Los Angeles Police Department that its investigations into racial profiling by officers are inadequate and that some cops still tolerate the practice.

As evidence of the ongoing problem, Justice officials pointed to two LAPD officers who were unknowingly recorded during a conversation with a supervisor being dismissive of racial profiling complaints.

“So, what?” one said, when told that other officers had been accused of stopping a motorist because of his race. The second officer is heard twice saying that he “couldn’t do [his] job without racially profiling.”

The officers’ comments, Justice officials found, spoke to a “perception and attitude of some LAPD officers on the street” and suggested “a culture that is inimical to race-neutral policing.”

The Justice Department’s concerns, which were conveyed in a recent letter obtained by The Times, are a setback for the LAPD, which remains under federal oversight on the issue. In order to rid itself of the federal scrutiny — which police officials have increasingly come to resent — the LAPD must assuage the Justice Department’s concerns.

The harsh assessment has also fed into internal tensions as members of the Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, grow impatient with the pace of department efforts to more aggressively address the politically and socially explosive issue that has long dogged the city’s police.

Police Chief Charlie Beck disputed the Justice Department findings, saying they were based on cases that predated strict investigative guidelines put into place last year. He also rejected the suggestion that the candid comments of the two officers caught on the recording reflected a pervasive problem.

“It is a huge leap to paint the entire department with that brush,” Beck said. “And it is just not true. It’s not that type of department. We have a tough history that we must overcome and that takes time, but … the vast, vast majority of Los Angeles police officers today police in the right ways for the right reasons.”

Nonetheless, accusations of racial profiling — “biased policing” in modern LAPD lingo — have continued to hamper the department as it has worked to leave behind a reputation for racism and excessive force.

Profiling complaints typically occur after a traffic or pedestrian stop, when the officer is accused of targeting a person solely because of his or her race, ethnicity, religious garb or some other form of outward appearance. About 250 such cases arise each year, but more damaging is the widely held belief, especially among black and Latino men, that the practice is commonplace.

In the letter to city and police officials, the Justice Department expressed “continuing concerns about the overall quality of … investigations of biased policing.” Federal officials criticized investigators for “going through the motions” and found they “simply take ordered statements from officers and then run down a checklist of required questions without following up on key points or asking fundamental questions one would expect.”

In one case the Justice Department reviewed, patrol officers passed a Latino man driving in the opposite direction and did a U-turn to pull him over for a broken brake light. After asking the driver if he was in a gang and checking to see if he had any outstanding warrants, the officers let him go with a warning.

“The investigating officer never asked the officers involved what prompted them to look behind them to actually observe a non-working brake light,” the Justice officials wrote. “The investigator accepted the officers’ single-word answers of ‘No’ to the question whether race was a factor in the stop.”

“They are criticizing us for the way we used to do things,” Beck said in an interview.

He said significant progress has been made, not only in the investigations but also with regard to officers’ attitudes. Still, he said he was concerned about the tape-recorded comments of the two officers, adding that a misconduct investigation has been opened. In that case, the officers were taped by a supervisor who neglected to turn off a recording device after interviewing two other officers accused of racial profiling.

The Justice Department did not respond to calls for comment.

Until last year, the LAPD was under a federal consent decree that the Justice Department imposed in 2001 after the Rampart corruption scandal. It required the Police Department to complete sweeping reforms on many issues and to submit to near-constant audits and monitoring.

The U.S. District Court judge who lifted the decree found that the department had completed most, but not all, of the required reforms. On racial profiling, the judge called on federal authorities to remain in an oversight role for a time to assess the quality of the LAPD’s investigations and the Police Commission’s ability to monitor the issue.

Justice officials sounded an alarm after a report in May from the inspector general, the commission’s watchdog, concluded that the LAPD generally was doing an adequate job. Justice officials criticized the inspector general’s office for “not asking more substantive and probing questions.”

In an effort to satisfy the Justice Department, Nicole Bershon, who took over as inspector general in May, is expected to release a detailed report at the end of the month that reviews 10 recent racial profiling investigations. The cases were handled by a special team of investigators the LAPD formed this year to look at complaints accusing police of searching or detaining a person because of race or ethnicity.

Police commissioners have grown frustrated with the department’s work on racial profiling. At a meeting earlier this month, the commission’s president, John Mack, and Commissioner Rob Saltzman questioned whether police officials were doing enough. They noted that no officer has been found guilty of racial profiling by an LAPD investigation for years, despite numerous complaints each year.

Police leaders have long argued that because racial profiling hinges on what an officer was thinking in the moment, it is all but impossible to determine if he or she racially profiled someone unless there is a confession. When the commanding officer of the Internal Affairs Division offered that explanation to the commission, Mack dismissed it.

“I’ve heard many times that we can’t get inside an officer’s head, but somehow, some way, we need to figure out a way to get to the facts,” Mack said. “I’m not talking about a witch hunt, but I am talking about reaching a point where we can say with confidence that these claims have been very fairly and very thoroughly investigated.”

joel.rubin@latimes.com

Justice Department warns LAPD to take a stronger stance against racial profiling

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca directed detectives to launch a criminal investigation outside his agency’s jurisdiction on behalf of a well-connected supporter who has given the sheriff political contributions and expensive gifts, a Times investigation has found.

The sheriff’s investigation targeted a tenant who was embroiled in a rental dispute with Ezat Delijani, a longtime Baca political donor. The sheriff assigned his detectives to the case after Beverly Hills police had concluded that Delijani’s allegations did not amount to a crime.

In an interview, Baca downplayed his personal involvement in opening the probe last year. He said the Beverly Hills business magnate received no preferential treatment.

Sheriff’s Department records, however, show that Baca sent a handwritten note to his then-chief of detectives requesting the investigation. Additionally, records reveal that detectives referred to the case as a “Sheriff Baca Special Request” and gave it a “rush” status, generally reserved for high-priority or time-sensitive cases, including homicides.

According to records, the Beverly Hills Police Department had determined that Delijani’s dispute was a civil matter and did not merit a criminal investigation. After sheriff’s detectives concluded their four-month investigation, they submitted their findings to prosecutors, who declined to file criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence. Baca said the incursion into the Beverly Hills department’s jurisdiction was necessary because the allegations of lease forgery were “too complicated” for the local police force.

Officials at the Beverly Hills Police Department, which handles hundreds of forgery cases every year, dismissed that explanation.

“I’m trying not to say anything that sounds inflammatory,” said Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Shan Davis when told of Baca’s comment about the case being too difficult for them. “That’s not a fair characterization.”

Law enforcement experts said it is highly unusual for one police agency to launch an investigation in another agency’s jurisdiction without being invited in.

Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of law and police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the case “smacks of the worst kind of special treatment.”

“It’s incumbent on the sheriff to explain why this case merited this kind of intensive resource allocation,” said O’Donnell, a former New York City police officer. “Not only is it a terrible thing for public perception, it has a very devastating impact internally for the rank and file who swear an oath to protect people equally.”

At the center of the sheriff’s investigation was a 2008 dispute between Delijani and his tenant, a pharmacist named Afshin Nassir. According to records, Nassir requested that Delijani reimburse him for tenant improvements and for rent he had paid while those improvements were being made. Nassir alleged that he was entitled to payment according to his lease; Delijani claimed he wasn’t.

After Delijani refused to reimburse Nassir, lawyers from both sides got involved — and Delijani alleged the lease that Nassir produced had been forged. Both parties sued.

During a deposition, Delijani said he took his complaint to the Sheriff’s Department.

“Do you know the name of the person you spoke to?” asked an attorney for Nassir, according to a transcript.

“Sheriff Lee Baca,” Delijani replied.

Delijani said he told Baca about the lease dispute during a meeting related to an award the businessman was receiving. Baca, he recalled, said “you must report such a crime. You must do it.’”

At some point, the Delijani family went to the Beverly Hills police with the tenant complaint. After officials there determined that the matter did not merit a criminal investigation, Delijani’s son sent an e-mail to Baca’s assistant.

“Hi Susie, Hope you’re well,” Delijani’s son, Shahram, wrote. “Can you please let the Sheriff know that I spoke to … Beverly Hills Police Department and they informed me that they will not investigate the case. Thank you.”

On a printout of that e-mail, a handwritten note from Baca urges action from Chief Willie Miller, who at the time oversaw the Sheriff Department’s detectives division.

Baca ordered criminal probe outside jurisdiction on behalf of political donor

The highest-ranking North Korean official to defect from the isolationist regime was found dead from a suspected heart attack here Sunday — his death from apparent natural causes coming despite numerous assassination attempts from Pyongyang, officials here said. He was 87.

For more than a decade, since his defection in 1997, Hwang Jang-yop was North Korea’s public enemy No. 1, repeatedly referred to as “human scum” in the regime’s state-controlled media.

Hwang, a former senior member of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party who taught ideology to leader Kim Jong Il, was known as the chief architect of North Korea’s guiding “juche” philosophy of self-reliance.

He graduated from Pyongyang’s top Kim Il-sung University, and studied in Moscow in 1949. One of the country’s most powerful officials when he fled during a visit to Beijing, Hwang’s vocal criticism led to numerous threats and assassination attempts by Pyongyang.

In December 2006, Hwang received a package with a picture of him sprayed with red paint and a hatchet. Last April, South Korean authorities arrested two North Korean spies reportedly sent to kill Hwang. They both received 10-year prison sentences.

North Korea denied making any murder attempts, accusing South Korea of staging the arrest to intensify anti-Pyongyang sentiment.

Ironically, Hwang’s death came on the same day that his arch enemy North Korea held a massive military parade to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party. Kim Jong-il and his son, heir apparent Kim Jong Eun, appeared together at the parade broadcast live on North Korean state TV.

Police in Seoul said that while there appeared to be no evidence of foul play, the coincidence of the death meant they would perform an autopsy.

His body was found by a security guard in the bathroom of his home in Seoul, where he lived under tight police protection as he continued to write books and deliver speeches condemning Kim’s government as authoritarian. There was no sign of a break-in, officials said.

A former South Korean intelligence official who met Hwang last week was surprised by the news. “His sudden death is a surprise. His voice was a little frail, but he spoke with great clarity and intelligence,” said the official who asked not to be named.

“Hwang Jang-yop was a symbol of the tragic divide between South and North Korea. It’s hard to imagine the torment he likely felt inside. After defecting, he gave numerous speeches on the harsh reality of North Korea, which was not overlooked by Pyongyang.

“Despite his strong outward appearance, it must have taken a toll on him living in such a constant state of tension,” he added.

john.glionna@latimes.com

Kim is a researcher in the Times’ Seoul bureau.
North Korean defector found dead in Seoul

An 8-year-old girl, kidnapped from her yard by a stranger — the object of an intensive overnight search — was returned to her mother alive Tuesday after a dramatic rescue by a quick-acting unemployed construction worker.

“It’s truly a miracle of God that she is with us…we certainly beat the odds,” said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.

The third-grader and a 6-year-old friend were playing in the driveway in front of their apartment complex about 8:30 Monday evening, when a man, whom police later identified as 24-year-old Gregorio Gonzalez, told them he would buy them gifts if they came with him.

Neighbors who saw the man talking to the children shouted at the girls to run. Gonzalez allegedly grabbed the 8-year-old and forced her into an older rust-colored Chevrolet pickup truck with white stripes.

The girl’s mother and a neighbor, Enrique Miguel, followed in his car.

“I saw that same truck around here for days,” Miguel said. “We chased and chased but lost him.”

Authorities issued an Amber Alert, which quickly escalated to a statewide bulletin about a small girl last seen wearing a purple “Winnie the Pooh” sweatshirt. About 130 officers were put on the case, and helicopters scanned the city. Alerts flashed on freeway signs and appeared during television shows.

Everyone working through the night knew the clock was ticking. Dyer would later point out in a news conference that most kidnapping victims are killed within the first 24 hours.

Just down the street from where the girl was kidnapped, Victor Perez was discussing the story with his neighbor.

“He was saying, ‘Man, what could we have done different to keep that from happening?’ I was saying, ‘We’ve just got to keep a lookout for that truck.’ “

On Tuesday morning, the first thing Perez did was turn on the TV to see if there was anything new in the case. Police had released surveillance camera footage of the truck. As Perez and his cousin Flor Urias watched the grainy black-and-white images, Urias looked out their living room window and saw an old rust-colored pickup with stripes making a U-turn in front of their house.

“I was saying, ‘Victor, that sure looks like that truck. Is that the truck? That is the truck,’ ” Urias said.

But Perez was already out the door giving chase in his 1988 Ford pickup, which he always backs into his driveway so he can leave quickly if he needs to.

The first time he caught up to Gonzalez, Perez waved and rolled down his window as though asking for directions.

“I told him, ‘Hey man, let me ask you something.’ He said he couldn’t talk, his battery was about to die. I said ‘I have [jumper] cables.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Maybe it’s not him, he seems like a friendly guy.’ Then while we were still talking he sped away.”

Perez caught up and forced Gonzalez to the side of the road. Gonzalez threw his hands over his head in anger.

He had been holding the little girl down. When his hands shot up, her head popped up over the dashboard and Perez saw her.

“I made eye contact with her. And that’s when I wasn’t scared anymore,” Perez said. “I won’t kid you, until then I’d thought ‘Does this guy have a gun?’ But once I met her eyes, I just thought ‘I’ve got to get that little girl out of there.’ “

Gonzalez sped off, at one point driving on the sidewalk.

Perez kept trying to force Gonzalez to the side of the road, finally pulling his truck directly in Gonzalez’s path. His plan was to rush the driver’s door. But Gonzalez pushed the girl out the passenger-side door and fled.

The girl’s first words to Perez were, “I’m scared.”

“I said “You’re OK now.’ Oh, man, she was shaking so bad. She kept saying ‘Am I going to be OK?’ and I kept saying ‘You’re OK now.’ “

Police say the girl told them Gonzalez took her to a wooded area near a canal where he sexually assaulted her and at one point threatened to “physically harm” her if she did not get back in the truck. Seven witnesses identified Gonzalez. Some witnessed the kidnapping; others witnessed an incident earlier Monday when he allegedly exposed himself to two young girls and then got away in the same truck.

Gonzalez, who lives with his grandparents, had previously been arrested on charges of possession of a sawed-off shotgun and domestic violence. He was on felony probation. About 40 minutes after he pushed the girl out of his truck, he was spotted in central Fresno by California Highway Patrol Officer Dustin Dimmer and taken into custody.

As Perez was chasing Gonzalez, her mother was home after a night at the police station, sobbing uncontrollably. Miguel, the neighbor who had helped her chase the kidnapper, could hear her through the thin walls.

Then, through the walls, he heard a phone ring. She came next door to tell him her daughter was alive.

“She was crying and crying all night,” he said. “Then suddenly, hope. I was afraid there was no hope, but there was.”

metrodesk@latimes.com

Marcum is a special correspondent.
Concerned citizen helps free kidnapped Fresno girl

WASHINGTON – “Tea party” activists on Sunday promised to mobilize a surge of conservative voters in the November elections as they marched on Capitol Hill to mark the anniversary of their first major protest in Washington.

“They say a storm is coming,” conservative activist Ginni Thomas told thousands gathered under an overcast sky. “They ain’t seen nothing yet. Nov. 2 will be a storm!”

The march was organized by the Washington-based advocacy group FreedomWorks and took place on Sept. 12, a date branded by talk-show commentator Glenn Beck as a symbol of a new political awakening for conservatives. Beck did not attend Sunday’s event.

Tea party activists used a similar march last year to galvanize their opposition to Democrats‘ healthcare overhaul bill. In the process, they established themselves as leading voices of opposition to the Obama administration and a threat to incumbent Republicans deemed too moderate.

“Last year was our Woodstock,” said 69-year-old Anne Forgey, a retiree from Huntsville, Ala. “I came this year because I’m still worried about our country. I’m worried about the direction we’re headed. I believe they are trying to take away our freedom.”

Like many at the rally, Forgey carried a sign linking Obama’s policies to socialism or communism, a central charge of the small-government movement. Forgey’s read “No USSA” over a hand-drawn picture of the hammer and sickle of the former Soviet Union’s flag.

Although the tea party failed to block the healthcare bill, the movement had success in primary elections. Tea party-supported candidates won Republican nominations in several states and unseated GOP incumbents in two Senate primaries. The movement’s next test is Tuesday in Delaware, where Christine O’Donnell is trying to defeat Rep. Mike Castle for the Republican Party nomination for Senate.

The mood Sunday was upbeat and energized as activists marched from the Washington Monument to the west steps of the Capitol building chanting, “Vote them out!” A group from Savannah, Ga., was dressed as signers of the Constitution. Others lined up to sign a massive Battle of Gonzales Flag — an emblem from the Texas Revolution — brought in by a group from Austin.

Police and National Park Service officials do not issue crowd estimates for events on the National Mall. The crowd of thousands covered most of the Capitol’s west lawn stretching to the Capitol’s reflecting pool.

Many said they were surprised by the strong turnout given that a much larger rally, coordinated by Beck, was held just two weeks earlier.

Unlike that event, Sunday’s rally was a political call to arms and organizational tool. Several conservative figures used the event to publicize their initiatives and reach activists.

Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, touted her website, Liberty Central. Andrew Breitbart, the founder of several conservative websites, accused the mainstream media of ignoring the tea party movement and promised to offer an alternative.

“We are a citizen journalism army and we are going to take our country back,” he said.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said his group was already looking past election day.

“Every two years, politicians come to you to promise to change the culture in Washington,” Kibbe said. “Politicians in Washington don’t mean it. You can’t change the culture in Washington. But what the tea party is doing today is changing the culture in America.”
‘Nov. 2 will be a storm’: Tea party activists march on Capitol Hill

The death toll mounted to seven Saturday and the search continued for six people still missing three days after a massive gas line explosion tore through a San Bruno neighborhood.

The cause of the disaster remained an open question, with gas company officials saying that the blown pipeline had been inspected just last year.

“We did the whole thing,” said Chris Johns, president of Pacific Gas & Electric, which owns the high-pressure natural gas pipeline that ruptured Thursday. The blast injured dozens and destroyed 37 homes. Hundreds remain displaced.

Utility officials, city leaders and politicians who toured the devastated neighborhood Saturday said a premium is being placed on ensuring the integrity of the gas line and eliminating fear that Thursday’s thunderous explosion could be repeated.

PG&E said it is reinspecting all three natural gas transmission lines serving the San Francisco Peninsula.

On Saturday, hundreds of San Bruno residents — some with gauze bandages wrapping their feet and arms — jammed a town hall meeting, expressing frustration and anger at being prevented from returning to their homes. Some were still wearing the smoky clothes they threw on as they scrambled from their burning homes Thursday evening.

But residents also gave a standing ovation to the city’s fire and police chiefs and an even warmer reception to news that many residents of the 271 evacuated houses would be allowed to return to their neighborhood Sunday. Residents who live near the blast zone, including those in the 37 destroyed homes, will not immediately be permitted to return.

“In a split second, a flash, our lives changed forever,” Mayor Jim Ruane told residents who packed the pews at St. Robert’s Catholic Church.

“This has been a tragedy of immense proportion.”

San Bruno Police Chief Neil Telford confirmed late Saturday that seven were dead and six were missing. Search-and-rescue crews continued to make their way through the disaster area with cadaver dogs.

Additional reports of missing people were filed Saturday, police said. Police officials said they do not know people are missing until relatives contact authorities to say they can’t locate family members.

The San Mateo County coroner’s office questioned the police department’s body count, saying it has only four bodies. Michelle Rippy, senior deputy coroner, said, “We have four confirmed dead.”

Although residents reported smelling gas in the days before the explosion, Johns said the utility had combed through two-thirds of the consumer calls received the week before the blast and found no record of any such complaints. Nor, he said, was there a record of crews responding to the area.

The burst pipeline, which had been installed in 1956, was not uncommonly old, experts said.

“Just like with an old airplane, the key is maintenance,” said Christopher Hart, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Although the safety board’s final report may take a year or more to complete, Hart said, any findings that merit “urgent attention” will be acted on.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said officials would push for “robust inspections” of natural gas lines that pass through residential neighborhoods.

“We cannot wait for the answers to this. Inspections are the way to go,” she said. “We have to be very clear that we’re trying to prevent this from ever happening again.”

As officials worked to secure the area and restore services, people displaced by the explosion were growing increasingly frustrated. “We’re trying to get back to our homes, but we’re getting the runaround,” said Cherie Sekulich, 35, who hasn’t been allowed back to her property since flames chased her away and destroyed her backyard deck. “All I could grab was my two cats, my two birds and my dog.”

San Bruno explosion death toll climbs to seven; six are missing

The young man, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and shackled at the waist, was poised on the witness stand, politely addressing attorneys as “sir” and “ma’am” as he matter-of-factly described the night he and other gang members took turns stabbing a suspected snitch 80 times in a cramped, cluttered garage.

“He didn’t scream or nothing,” testified Jose Covarrubias, now 24, describing how he plunged a folding blade hard into 21-year-old Christopher Ash’s stomach four or five times as he lay dying on his back.

The testimony of the 204th Street gang member with a youthful face and buzz cut, also known as “Chano” or “Criminal,” is at the center of a case on which a Los Angeles jury will resume deliberations Wednesday. Covarrubias’ testimony in the high-profile hate crime trial, should the jury choose to believe it, ties the gang to Ash’s death and to the slaying of a black 14-year-old girl, which authorities say was motivated by the Latino gang’s racial hatred.

Covarrubias, who took the stand last month in exchange for a lighter sentence and escaping the death penalty, offered the jury a firsthand look into the inner workings of a powerful Latino street gang prosecutors said used fear and intimidation to reign over the sliver of Los Angeles known as the Harbor Gateway.

Part of that reign, Covarrubias’ testimony showed, was an unsparing willingness to turn on the gang’s own members when the occasion arose.

Gang members suspected Ash of talking to police about the killing of Cheryl Green two weeks earlier. His body was found on the side of a road in Carson. Autopsy photos showed numerous gashes in his stomach.

Cheryl was shot and killed in December 2006 while hanging out with friends in broad daylight because of her skin color, prosecutors allege. Jonathan Fajardo, 22, has admitted to the shooting in a police interview; his defense attorney disputes that the killing was motivated by race.

“Basically, we’re against all black people,” Covarrubias said of the gang.

Fajardo faces the death penalty if convicted of Cheryl’s and Ash’s killings. A second defendant, Daniel Aguilar, 23, is charged with Ash’s murder for luring him to the garage and partaking in the beating and clean-up.

Because of his cooperation, Covarrubias will be allowed to plead to voluntary manslaughter and receive a 22-year prison term.

When police served a search warrant on Ash’s apartment in the days after Green’s death, the gang grew suspicious, Covarrubias said in his two-day testimony.

A week later, older gang members grilled the younger ones about whether anyone was snitching. Covarrubias testified that he, Aguilar and Ash were all under suspicion. Some mentioned that Ash may be keeping a journal about the gang’s activities, and his fate was quickly sealed. It was agreed that Aguilar, Ash’s best friend, would take him to the garage, Covarrubias testified.

An old-timer known as Raccoon, one of the gang’s leaders, allegedly pulled Covarrubias aside.

“He just told me if I was either with — with them or against them, if I was down for it. And I told him, ‘Yeah,’ ” he testified. “I had no other choice.”

After he stabbed Ash, Covarrubias said, he was overcome by the blood and smell and threw up, dropping the knife. Another gang member grabbed the knife and continued stabbing, he said

As Ash lay still on the floor, Aguilar, who had been watching, kicked him in the legs, Covarrubias said.

The body was rolled up in a blanket and tarp, then loaded onto the back of a van. Everyone worked quietly and methodically, helping with the cleanup, at first hosing down the garage, then turning to paint thinner to scrub the floor when bloody water started running down the sidewalk.

In cross-examination, defense attorneys pointed to what they said were inconsistencies between Covarrubias’ testimony and earlier statements to the police. He admitted under defense questioning that he was under the influence of methamphetamine the night of the killing.

Aguilar’s defense attorney, Antonio Bestard, attacked Covarrubias’ credibility, pointing out that he had been dating Ash’s sister at the time of his killing.

“You participated in the murder of your girlfriend’s brother, right?” Bestard questioned. “And right after that, you would go and then crawl into bed with her, right?”

A violent death retold

California pension officials are investigating the pay received by former top officials of Bell with an eye toward excluding large chunks of their salaries from retirement calculations.

A ruling against former City Manager Robert Rizzo and his colleagues could affect other officials across California who receive salaries from several government agencies simultaneously.

Rizzo is set to receive a pension of about $600,000 a year, which would make him the highest-paid pensioner in the California Public Employees’ Retirement fund. That amount is calculated from a salary of nearly $800,000.

His most recent contract split up his compensation so that his pay came not only for his work as city manager but as executive director of Bell’s Surplus Property Authority, Community Housing Authority, Public Financing Authority and Solid Waste and Recycling Authority.

The pay arrangement made it difficult for outsiders to determine Rizzo’s full salary, and it might come back to haunt him.

Brad Pacheco, a spokesman for CalPERS, said the fund is investigating whether pay that Rizzo received for jobs other than city administrator should count toward his pension. CalPERS is also looking at compensation for former Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and former Police Chief Randy Adams, he said.

If CalPERS rules that pay drawn from other agencies cannot be counted for retirement calculations, it could reduce pensions received by retired Bell council members. For example, former Councilman George Cole, who during some of his tenure received pay from various agencies, is receiving a pension of nearly $50,000 a year for the part-time job.

A Times survey of city managers’ pay last month turned up officials in several cities who had been receiving payments for more than one municipal job.

Rizzo’s salary and pension benefits have prompted widespread outrage and legislation that limits the raises of local government officials.

Rizzo’s attorney, James Spertus, said he would fight efforts to reduce his client’s pension.

“Mr. Rizzo never agreed to accept less compensation or to do anything that would impact his retirement,” Spertus said.

Rizzo’s latest contracts were signed by himself and Mayor Oscar Hernandez. Former City Atty. Edward Lee said he neither prepared the contract nor approved it. Hernandez did not return calls Friday.

CalPERS itself has been sharply criticized because it knew about the high salaries paid to Rizzo and Spaccia four years ago and did nothing to stop them.

Pedro Carrillo, Bell’s interim administrative officer, said CalPERS officials recently spent about three weeks at city offices going through records. He said he expected to receive a draft report identifying any problems within 10 days.

“The salaries and pensions of certain individuals are certainly a concern of myself, the city attorney and most folks in the city of Bell,” he said.

Along with the CalPERS audit, the Los Angeles County district attorney and state attorney general have launched wide-ranging investigations in Bell that include the high salaries city officials received and allegations of voter fraud and improper business dealings. The state controller is also conducting an investigation.

A review of records by The Times showed that City Council members were paid for their work on commissions that rarely met or did so for only a few minutes.

Questions about Rizzo’s pension may be the result of five new contracts he signed in September 2008, two months after his previous one went into effect. Old contracts paid him for being city manager. The new contracts paid him as city manager and as executive director of the four city commissions.

His total compensation remained the same. He received about $221,460 a year to run the city, and the remaining $566,177 was split among the authorities.

This final contract was not provided to The Times in its original request for Rizzo’s contract in June, a violation of the California Public Records Act.

In addition, Bell’s City Council on Friday announced plans to sue former city administrators, consultants and attorneys for actions that led to the city’s crisis.

City leaders said they suspect Rizzo conducted city business using his personal e-mail account and issued a subpoena to obtain copies of messages and computer files going back five years

The decision to subpoena the e-mails came after The Times reported that Rizzo had given city loans of nearly $400,000 to two businesses without public notice or council approval.

Rizzo was ordered to appear in person and produce copies of the e-mails by the next City Council meeting, which is scheduled for Sept. 20.

Spertus said his client wants the facts to come out, but the city has refused to talk to him.

“It would not surprise me if the city of Bell or other agencies in this political time … tried to pursue criminal or civil actions against Mr. Rizzo that are unfounded,” Spertus said.

jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com
In wake of Bell scandal, CalPERS may change pension calculation rules