San Marino Ca

The last time she saw Chris Chichester, they sat in the backyard outside his San Marino guesthouse drinking iced tea and playing Trivial Pursuit. It was the mid-1980s. They were friends, movie buffs who loved classics. "Double Indemnity" was Chichester's favorite. Chichester, Dana Farrar recalled, acted like just another one of the old-money scions who inhabited the area. But Farrar, then a USC student, suspected there was more -- or perhaps less -- to his story.

A former girls' basketball coach wrongly accused of sexual assault has settled with the city of San Marino for $2.1 million. Patrick Gillan sued the city and several of its police officers nearly six years ago for defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and malicious prosecution, court documents say. In 2001 a police officer suggested at a news conference that Gillan might have molested several girls.

A fire Monday heavily damaged a 6,000-square-foot mansion that once was the home of the late Los Angeles Times Publisher Otis Chandler. The fire, reported shortly before 6 p.m., was still active more than four hours later. No one was in the home, and there were no injuries. Jim Anderson, San Marino fire marshal, said the home may be a total loss. He said arson investigators were called to the scene in the 1000 block of Oak Grove Place, but he said he doubted that foul play was involved.

Anita Martinez considers herself the historian of her family's century in Los Angeles. The office manager from Lincoln Heights safeguards the old photos, the scrapbooks and the World War II love letters between her grandparents. So when she heard about an unusual exhibition of historical archives on Southern California life, she hurried to the Huntington Library in San Marino on Saturday.

From the street, this San Marino house looks much like it did when it was built in 1917 for Tristan and Elsie Coffin. Known as the Coffin House, the Italian Revival-style home allows a stroll down memory lane to more genteel times when a butler actually used the original butler's pantry, with its mahogany counters, and the maids' quarters needed two bedrooms for servants. Grand in scale, this well-preserved home sits back from the street.

After spending a day behind closed doors, the key players in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial appeared in open court Thursday just long enough for a judge to adjourn for the day. Judge Alfred Delucchi said testimony would resume Monday. Peterson, his defense team and Delucchi began meeting in private Wednesday to discuss evidence investigators gained by bugging Peterson's phones.

For 76 years, the men of the San Marino City Club have discussed local affairs, golfed and played tennis, and didn't have to deal with outside changes that to some make their all-male group an anachronism. All it took was one woman speaking up Thursday night after the latest speech in a series of club-sponsored programs to bring the hot-button issues of 1998 to the venerable organization's door. When Atty. Gen.

After a quick rise through the ranks of City Hall, Debbie Bell has been named San Marino's first female city manager. On Monday, Bell, 32, joined La Canada Flintridge's Gabrielle Pryor as the only female city managers in the San Gabriel Valley's 30 cities. She takes the reins in an upscale community where the privately run City Club allows women to attend its discussions on government but still only allows male members. But that does not bother Bell.

After 10 years of membership, San Marino Mayor Bernard Le Sage announced his resignation Friday from a prestigious community organization that has a 70-year-old policy of barring women as members. "I probably should have quit before," Le Sage said Friday. "I probably should not have joined." Club members defended their policy in the face of Le Sage's protest. "There is no exclusion from our activities, just from our membership," said former President Ken Riley.