Los Angeles County District Attorney

After a bruising campaign that has left his office sharply divided, Gil Garcetti was sworn in Friday for his second term as Los Angeles County district attorney. Garcetti, who narrowly defeated Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lynch, said in a speech delivered in the Board of Supervisors chambers that his top courtroom priority remains the vigorous prosecution of street crime. He said he also intends to pay special attention to cases involving gangs, domestic violence and the collection of child support.

The district attorney's office in Los Angeles Thursday announced that it returned about $2.6 million in drug profits to local law enforcement agencies involved in the second-largest seizure of cocaine and cash in state history. Under the California Drug Asset Forfeiture Law, the El Monte Police Department and the State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement each will receive $1.3 million. Another $1.

Challenger John Lynch kicked off the fall campaign for Los Angeles County district attorney on Wednesday, declaring at a news conference that the office is "in chaos" and that incumbent Gil Garcetti is to blame. Lynch, who heads the district attorney's Norwalk branch, said Garcetti has lost the "trust of his own deputies, the respect of the legal community and the confidence of the general public." Lynch made it clear that the failed murder prosecution of O.J.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Wednesday it has made dramatic improvements this year in locating absentee parents and collecting child support payments. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said about 75,000 absent parents were located in the past month, compared to 25,000 in all of last year. In addition, the numbers of court-ordered support payments jumped from 1,795 in March to 3,261 in April. Garcetti attributed some of the improvements to a new automated computer system.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney has found insufficient evidence to pursue charges in a roommate squabble involving onetime state Assembly candidate Julian Sirull and council-watcher Chris Boyle. The protracted battle between the two started with a January argument in their Esplanade apartment over the volume Boyle had on the TV set. After a fight, Boyle ended up at the hospital and Sirull was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges.

A settlement was reached Tuesday in the punitive phase of a sexual harassment lawsuit by an investigator against her supervisor in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Last week, a jury awarded $120,000 in general damages to Virginia Harper, who alleged in a 1992 lawsuit that supervising investigator Henry Grayson fondled her and verbally harassed her while they worked together in the district attorney's Santa Monica office.

Bill Shoemaker, who rode more winners than any other jockey in horse racing history, will not be charged with driving under the influence in an accident that left him paralyzed, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said Monday. Shoemaker, who suffered a severe spinal-cord injury in the accident April 8 on the Foothill Freeway in San Dimas, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13%, California Highway Patrol authorities reported. The legal limit in California is 0.08%.

The Board of Supervisors asked the Los Angeles County district attorney's office Tuesday to look for ways to offer more protection to people who agree to testify about violent crimes. "We cannot get the public to come forward," said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. "We should ask the district attorney to come forward with an effective witness protection program." Burke said the existing program offers only $1,200 to help a witness move away from suspects in a case.

A Superior Court judge Friday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Los Angeles County district attorney's office from continuing to destroy misdemeanor case files that are less than 2 years old. The action was taken at the request of a group of defense lawyers, who contend that prosecutors' legal files must be preserved in the event that they might contain information that could result in the acquittal of defendants who were wrongly convicted.

A veteran Los Angeles County deputy district attorney faces cocaine possession charges after his arrest by colleagues outside a Van Nuys restaurant earlier this week. Jack White, chief of investigations for the district attorney's office, would not reveal how much cocaine prosecutor Simon R. Hiller allegedly had, but he said "it does not qualify for a sale case."