City Attorney S Office

Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo accepted thousands of dollars in political contributions from two landlords accused of operating apartments with slum conditions after he settled a lawsuit against them for a third of the amount the city initially sought. Lance Robbins, called "one of Los Angeles' most notorious landlords" in the lawsuit, and Stanley Treitel have an extensive history of involvement with properties cited for violations.

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich intensified his crackdown on illegal billboards, securing arrest warrants against four people accused of putting up supergraphics without permits, according to court records reviewed by The Times on Wednesday. Prosecutors declined to discuss the case, but the arrest warrants accuse the four defendants of misdemeanor counts of violating the city's municipal code, including a ban on the installation of new supergraphics. An attorney for one of the men disputed the charges and said his client would fight the accusations.

Over the last week, Los Angeles County Public Defender Michael Judge has sought to have hundreds of cases filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo dismissed on the grounds that Delgadillo is not a qualified for the job. The argument, which judges have rejected more than 600 times in the last three days, is based on the fact that Delgadillo let his membership in the State Bar of California lapse while he worked for former Mayor Richard Riordan.

Misdemeanor charges of engaging in an act of prostitution were filed Thursday against Scott Z. Adler, the Riordan-appointed head of the Los Angeles Business and Safety Commission, who resigned earlier this year. Adler, a 40-year-old lawyer, lobbyist and land developer who lives in Marina del Rey, and 42-year-old Mark Handel of Sherman Oaks, are accused of paying to have oral sex with a masseuse at a Van Nuys apartment building, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In its stepped-up campaign to curb gang activity, the Los Angeles city attorney's office Wednesday announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the owner of a small Venice apartment building that is allegedly a home base for drug dealing and other illegal activity by the Shoreline Crips. The civil lawsuit, which was filed in July, seeks the closure for one year of the three-unit property in the 600 block of San Juan Avenue in the Oakwood neighborhood, officials said.

Good Samaritan Hospital officials say two reports show the hospital was not spying on its employees when they installed cameras hidden in clocks around the hospital. Nurses complained in November about the cameras, which were installed in break rooms, a fitness center and other areas, because they believed the cameras invaded their privacy. They said people often changed clothes or took medications in those areas.

Saying "attorneys have ruined the world," a gunman shot and killed his lawyer inside the Los Angeles County Law Library on Monday afternoon and then killed himself as dozens of people ran for cover, police and witnesses said. James Sinclair, 62, approached his attorney, Michael Friedman, 38, at a photocopy machine and fired several rounds before his gun jammed. No library patrons were injured.

Barry's Ticket Service is under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department for possible criminal violation of state commercial bribery and computer crime statutes. The probe--sparked by a $1-million "fraud and unfair business practices" lawsuit filed against Barry's by Ticketmaster accusing the Encino broker of bribing a Ticketmaster employee to gain unlawful access to choice seats--is believed to be the first involving a Southland ticket broker.

Mavourneen O'Connor, the twin sister of San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor, is working for the mayor in a City Hall office and may not be required to publicly disclose her financial holdings because she is a volunteer in charge of protocol matters, Mayor O'Connor and her aides said Monday. Mavourneen O'Connor began working part time last week as a volunteer and works out of an office on the 11th floor of City Hall where the mayor and her staff are located, the mayor said Monday.

The Los Angeles city attorney's office has joined a lawsuit accusing a landlord of defrauding the Department of Water and Power out of millions of dollars and escaping responsibility for substandard conditions in his building through a complex web of sham corporations, "self-foreclosures" and retaliatory evictions.