Robert Courtney

A teen-ager arrested in the slayings of three family members allegedly committed the killings to get money and a truck so he and two friends could run off to South America, authorities said Monday. Scott Kammeyer, 19, and his two friends fled with $163 and made it to Mexico after the Friday slayings, but ran out of money and returned across the border to National City, where they were arrested Sunday, Kern County Sheriff's Sgt. Glenn Johnson said.

A $5-million settlement of damage claims has been reached in a Starline Sightseeing Tours bus crash that killed 21 elderly Santa Monica residents and injured 22 others north of Bridgeport in Mono County a year ago this month. The settlement, announced by Industrial Indemnity Co. of San Francisco, was approved after a "good-faith" hearing Friday in Santa Monica Superior Court. Similar hearings to determine the fairness of the proposed agreement were held earlier in Los Angeles and Bridgeport.

A Simi Valley doctor pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he sexually assaulted four women in his office. An April 15 trial date on the misdemeanor charges has been scheduled for David Lounsberry, 51. Lounsberry did not appear in Ventura County Municipal Court, but entered his plea through his attorney, Robert E. Courtney of Redondo Beach. Lounsberry, a family practitioner, is accused of fondling the women between February and September, 1992.

A pharmacist has reached a plea bargain on charges that he diluted chemotherapy drugs for cancer patients, his attorney said Monday. Jean Paul Bradshaw, the lawyer, declined to specify what type of plea Robert R. Courtney would enter. But he said in "a case like this, it would be unusual for the government to agree to anything less than to a straight-out guilty plea." Bradshaw said Courtney's plea addresses sentencing, but he declined to elaborate. The sentence will ultimately be decided by U.S.

A Simi Valley doctor already accused of fondling two women in his office was charged Wednesday with three additional counts of misdemeanor sexual battery. The arraignment for David Lounsberry was postponed until Feb. 5 because of the new developments in the case, attorneys said. Lounsberry did not appear in court for the brief hearing Wednesday but sent his attorney, Robert E. Courtney of Redondo Beach. Prosecutors first filed sexual battery charges against Lounsberry on Jan.

Gordon Jones, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner's racing reporter and handicapper, pleaded no contest in Santa Anita Municipal Court in Monrovia Thursday to violating a municipal code that prohibits a person from operating a public place for the purposes of gambling. Jones admitted that he rented a banquet room at the Santa Anita Inn for the purpose of collecting money to wager on Pick Six tickets. Jones was fined $500 by Judge Eleanor Provost.

Eli Lilly & Co. faces at least five lawsuits alleging it knew a Kansas City, Mo., pharmacist was diluting cancer drugs and failed to contact authorities immediately. The lawsuits stem from the arrest of pharmacist Robert R. Courtney, who is accused of diluting Lilly's Gemzar and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Taxol and pocketing the difference.

The owner of a Kansas City pharmacy was charged Tuesday with diluting chemotherapy drugs to save money. "There could literally be hundreds of patients who received improper dosages," said FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza. Robert R. Courtney, 48, who owns Research Medical Tower Pharmacy, was charged with a single felony count of misbranding and adulteration of a drug. Courtney was accused of dispensing two chemotherapy drugs in amounts that were a fraction of what had been prescribed.

Borscht Belt humor and fraternal ribbing marked the 51st Annual Criminal Courts Bar Assn.'s Awards Dinner Dance, held at the Millennium Biltmore on March 13. "It's a high school prom for criminal defense attorneys," said attorney Andrew Stein, looking over the several hundred trial lawyers gathered for cocktails in the Tiffany Room. "It's a bar mitzvah for the incoming president," countered Stein wife's, attorney Gigi Gordon, who is on the association's board, which chose this year's honorees.

Deane Bailey, a Hollywood Park mutuel clerk, pleaded not guilty to charges of misdemeanor conspiracy and grand theft in connection with an alleged scheme involving a $1.38-million Pick Nine betting pool at Hollywood Park. Bailey, along with James Farenbaugh, were arraigned in Inglewood Municipal Court on Tuesday. Farenbaugh did not appear and Judge John Lynch issued a bench warrant for his arrest with a bond of $9,000. A pretrial hearing has been set for Bailey on June 25.