John Davies

Insurers Win $18-Million Judgment: Three insurance carriers won an $18-million default judgment Thursday in a health insurance fraud case against two Soviet emigre doctors--brothers David and Michael Smushkevich--whom the companies claimed operated 240 dummy medical labs in California. U.S. District Court Judge John Davies ruled for Aetna Life Insurance Co., Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and Employers Health Insurance Co. (Filed Oct. 23, 1986. Case No. CV-866955)

A 95-year-old widow gave a Christmas caroler a glass of lemonade and some spare change only to discover later that he had stolen her savings from her purse, police said. The schoolboy stole 95 pounds (about $174) from Annie Thomas after singing carols on her doorstep, Detective Inspector John Davies said this week. After singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Good King Wenceslaus," the teen-ager asked Thomas for a glass of water, Davies said.

Rodney G. King will receive most of his nearly $3.9 million settlement from the city of Los Angeles for his 1991 beating by police in one direct payment, rather than in a previously negotiated settlement that would have placed the funds directly into an annuity, the City Council agreed Wednesday. King's attorney, Steven Lerman, said King prefers direct payment so that he can invest the money on his own.

Two businessmen convicted of defrauding 186 investors--mostly from the San Gabriel Valley and Glendale--have each been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, officials said Friday. Russell A. Guarino, 57, of Pasadena and Carl A. Keith, 54, of Woodland Hills made no statements during their sentencing Thursday before U.S. District Court Judge John Davies. They pleaded guilty April 13 to nine counts of mail fraud in which investors lost $4.

A Van Nuys man who posed as a stockbroker was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday to five years in prison for defrauding an elderly couple out of $41,000 that he told them he would invest, but gambled away. James Nishinaka, 31, was also ordered by Judge John G. Davies to return the money to Hank Wheeler, 76, and his wife, Rose, of Van Nuys, officials said. Nishinaka was indicted in July and pleaded guilty to two counts each of securities fraud and mail fraud.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided in the Koon-Powell ruling (June 14) that federal judges are "to consider every convicted person as an individual and every case a unique study in the human failings that sometimes mitigate ... the crime and punishment to ensue," it will be interesting to see if black males who come before Judge John G. Davies and his colleagues on crack cases are afforded the same judicial flexibility and leniency that have...