Gerardo Martinez

A jury rejected Tuesday a $750,000 claim against Oxnard and 14 police officials filed by the parents of a man who hanged himself in the city's police lockup in 1985. Manuela and Heriberto Martinez of Oxnard filed the suit eight months after the death of their son, Gerardo Martinez, 27, said David Doyle, who represented the city in the case.

A jury rejected Tuesday a $750,000 claim against Oxnard and 14 police officials filed by the parents of a man who hanged himself in the city's police lockup in 1985. Manuela and Heriberto Martinez of Oxnard filed the suit eight months after the death of their son, Gerardo Martinez, 27, said David Doyle, who represented the city in the case.

Raul Perez took an unbeaten and tenacious challenger to boxing school Monday night and retained his World Boxing Council bantamweight championship with a ninth-round technical knockout. Perez, at 5 feet 11 the second tallest bantamweight champion ever, bounced short, countering right hands off 5-5 Gerardo Martinez's head for eight rounds, then ended the fight with his right late in the ninth round of the 12-round bout, before 5,652 at the Forum.

Raul Perez took an unbeaten and tenacious challenger to boxing school Monday night and retained his World Boxing Council bantamweight championship with a ninth-round technical knockout. Perez, at 5 feet 11 the second tallest bantamweight champion ever, bounced short, countering right hands off 5-5 Gerardo Martinez's head for eight rounds, then ended the fight with his right late in the ninth round of the 12-round bout, before 5,652 at the Forum.

Six Orange County residents, who are already in jail on state narcotics charges, have been named in a six-count federal indictment returned in Los Angeles that alleges that they were part of a drug ring that stretched from Southern California to south Florida, Panama and Colombia, federal officials said. More than 40 pounds of cocaine and business ledgers indicating multimillion-dollar drug deals were seized, Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Bryant-Deason said.

Raul Perez of Tijuana defends his World Boxing Council bantamweight championship for the fifth time tonight when he meets Gerardo Martinez of San Jose at the Forum. Perez (45-1), the second-tallest bantamweight champion in history at 5 feet 11 inches, will have a six-inch height advantage over Martinez (23-4). Tonight's appearance will be the third at the Forum since October for Perez.

Attempted murder charges will not be filed against a Port Hueneme AIDS patient accused of sexually molesting a 6-year-old boy, an official in the Ventura County district attorney's office said Friday. Gerardo Martinez, 31, has been charged with one count each of sodomy, child molestation and assault for the alleged attack, which he revealed during a group counseling session for sufferers of the deadly AIDS virus, officials said. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah S.

County prosecutors this week allowed an AIDS patient charged with sodomizing a 6-year-old boy to plead guilty to a lesser charge to spare the victim a courtroom ordeal. Gerardo Martinez, 31, of Port Hueneme admitted to engaging in lewd acts with the boy and pleaded guilty to a "special allegation" that bars him from receiving probation. The boy had become frightened during 3 hours of testimony, said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah S. Elliott.

Six Orange County residents, who already are in jail on state narcotics charges, were named Wednesday in a federal indictment alleging that they were part of a drug ring that stretched from Orange County to Florida, Panama and Colombia. Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Bryant-Deason said authorities Wednesday seized more than 40 pounds of cocaine and business ledgers indicating multimillion-dollar drug deals had been transacted. She said more arrests are expected.

A Port Hueneme man suffering from the deadly AIDS virus who was arrested Tuesday and charged with sexually molesting a 6-year-old boy could face charges of attempted murder, an official in the Ventura County district attorney's office said Wednesday. Gerardo Martinez, 31, who officials said revealed the incident during a counseling session for AIDS victims, has been charged with one count each of sodomy, child molestation and assault.

Standing amid hundreds of African oil palms, their gray and desiccated fronds drooping to the ground, Edgar Barrera shakes his head and speaks of their death sentence. "What we have is a technological disaster, an economic disaster and a social disaster," said Barrera, superintendent of the Bucarelia company's 12,000-acre African palm grove. Barrera is referring to a mysterious, fast-spreading and deadly disease called "PC" that has devastated African palm plantations here in the Magdalena River valley area 200 miles north of Bogota, the capital, and elsewhere in Colombia.