South Gate Ca

The district attorney's office will seek to retry South Gate Treasurer Albert Robles and has launched another political corruption investigation in the troubled city. The Robles decision comes three weeks after a jury deadlocked on charges that he had threatened to kill four people, including two state lawmakers. Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio has not ruled on whether he will allow a retrial. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday.

A judge ruled Friday that a voter recall drive targeting South Gate's leading officials can go forward, bringing a high-stakes election one step closer to reality. Superior Court Judge Dzintra I. Janavs rejected the targeted officials' claims that the recall should be thrown out because of printing flaws on the petitions. The decision means that an election seeking to oust the city treasurer and his three City Council allies could occur as early as summer.

South Gate officials report that crimes such as robbery, burglary and car theft are down considerably over the past four years while homicides rose slightly. From 1993 to 1997, burglaries declined 41%, robbery 32% and car theft 23%. Homicides increased from 10 murders in 1994 to 11 in 1997. "One of the reasons is community-based policing," police Chief George Troxcil said Monday of the drop in crime.

The South Gate City Council meeting opened with a warm remark from the Turkish consul general. Visiting the southeast Los Angeles County city to receive a proclamation for "Turkey Republic Day," he returned the compliment in accented English. "It is a great honor," said Aykut Berk, "to see how democracy works in this great democracy."

A newborn girl surrendered at a county fire station was doing well Tuesday at Downey Regional Medical Center. "Every child saved this way is a tremendous victory for our community," said Evelyn V. Martinez, executive director of First 5 LA, which oversees distribution of funds from a cigarette tax to childhood development programs. "Parents in these circumstances need to know that there is an alternative to abandonment, that this law saves lives."

A printer of political campaign mailers and a former South Gate City Council candidate pleaded no contest Monday to electoral fraud charges stemming from their roles in South Gate's 2001 election. The former candidate, Katrina Jackson, entered a no-contest plea to charges that she lied about her residency to qualify for the ballot.

Albert Robles has called opponents hallucinating dogs with rabies and pigs at the trough. He has brawled atop boardroom tables, scuffled with rivals, screamed Spanish-language profanities in South Gate City Hall. Harmless bravado and bluster, it seemed to many. But on Tuesday morning, the South Gate treasurer is scheduled to appear in criminal court, to be charged with making murderous threats against two state legislators and a police officer.

Less than a year after residents defeated a plan to build a power plant in South Gate, the controversial proposal appears back on track. The surprise resurrection of the 550-megawatt project has unleashed a new round of opposition from the blue-collar city and some of its neighbors in southeast Los Angeles County.

A Massachusetts man arrested on suspicion of molesting two altar boys in Boyle Heights in the 1980s faces extradition to California, police said. Amado Pena, 51, was arrested Thursday night at his home in Chelsea, Mass. Last week, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office filed 18 counts of lewd conduct with a child against Pena, who was a seminary student at the time of the alleged crimes. He is accused of molesting the boys from 1980 to 1982 at Santa Teresita Church.

A security guard was shot to death outside a restaurant early Saturday after an argument in the parking lot escalated, authorities said. A man got out of a black Honda about 3:45 a.m. and fired a handgun, apparently at patrons on the east side of the Brite Spot restaurant on Firestone Boulevard, said Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Authorities are seeking information on the gunman, who was accompanied by two women in the Honda.