Gag Order

The owners of the collapsed Northridge Meadows apartments dropped their request for a gag order Friday, leaving photographs and videotapes of the crumbling complex and the original building plans open to public review. The move was hailed by structural engineers and members of public agencies studying seismic safety in the aftermath of the Jan. 17 Northridge quake, the most destructive in Los Angeles history.

As part of a legal settlement, the city of Compton agreed this week to rescind an order that barred its employees from discussing their work. The Limitations on Public Employee Freedom of Speech order, which was issued last summer, warned employees that they would be fired for disruptive statements that detracted from the business of running the city.

The federal judge in the money-skimming trial of seven Los Angeles County sheriff's narcotics officers Tuesday clamped a gag order on participants after a defense attorney persisted in linking the case to allegations that drug money was used to fund Central Intelligence Agency operations. Harland Braun, who represents Deputy Daniel M. Garner, had told reporters--without providing evidence--that the U.S.

Camp O.J. II is up and running and the cameras are rolling. But the television media covering the sequel to the so-called trial of the century are all dressed up with little to show. In sharp contrast to the criminal murder trial of O.J. Simpson, which was marked by a media frenzy of continuous TV and radio coverage, countless interviews and programs recounting and analyzing the day's events, a gag order on Simpson's civil trial is tying the hands of local and national TV news outlets.

The attorney for murder suspect Diana Haun sought a gag order Wednesday forbidding prosecutors, investigators and police from discussing the case with reporters. Haun, a 35-year-old deli clerk from Port Hueneme, was arrested Friday on a charge of murder in the slaying of homemaker and mother of two Sherri Dally. The skeletal body of Dally, 35, of Ventura, was found bludgeoned and stabbed repeatedly in a ravine north of Ventura on June 1. She was last seen May 6.

Behind a curtain of secrecy, an arbitrator began hearing testimony Tuesday in Portland, Ore., on whether the NBA and the Golden State Warriors excessively punished Latrell Sprewell for choking and threatening to kill Coach P.J. Carlesimo. "I'm happy to be here," Sprewell said as he arrived at the start of the hearing. "Hopefully, this will get over with." Arbitrator John Feerick, dean of the Fordham Law School, has issued a gag order, barring those involved from revealing testimony.

University of California attorneys Thursday asked for a court order to block public disclosure of information from depositions in lawsuits filed in connection with its fertility clinic scandal. University attorneys argued in court papers that the move was necessary to protect the privacy of patients, to reassure publicity-shy witnesses and to protect the integrity of future jury pools.

Robert Stansbury, who is helping defend himself against charges that he kidnaped and killed a 10-year-old Baldwin Park girl in September, 1982, has been granted a request that a gag order be placed on his defense team as well as prosecutors and investigators connected with the case.

A West Palm Beach, Fla., judge imposed a modified gag order in the rape case of William Kennedy Smith. Originally, Circuit Judge Mary Lupo had proposed a sweeping gag order covering virtually all trial participants, but the news media protested. As issued, the order covers prosecutors, law enforcement officials, defense attorneys and their investigators and court personnel. It excludes Smith, the alleged victim and Smith's uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Smith has pleaded not guilty.

A judge refused Friday to lift a gag order that bars officials from discussing the case of a Navy petty officer charged with kidnaping and murdering an 8-year-old girl. Kings County Municipal Judge Ronald Maciel had been asked by three area newspapers to lift the gag order. Maciel said he found no grounds not to continue his order, which keeps prosecutors, defense attorneys and other court personnel from discussing the case with reporters.