Threats

A man who threatened another man with a knife during a traffic dispute in Woodland Hills was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail, according to the city attorney's office. Stephen McGarry of North Hollywood did not injure anyone in the angry confrontation that occurred near the intersection of Avenue San Luis at Shoup Avenue on Aug. 19, according to Deputy City Atty. Jeff Harkavy, who handled the case.

Many people knew Ronald Clebanoff was unhappy with his son's junior varsity baseball coach: the staff at Taft High School, where the Woodland Hills man came to demand the coach's firing; opposing teams, which saw him charge onto the diamond to dispute the coach's calls; and the school security guards who finally escorted him from a game last Monday. What was unexpected was that his unhappiness would result in his arrest by Los Angeles Unified School District police Thursday.

In a new act of defiance, "freemen" tax protesters entrenched at a foreclosed wheat farm near here on Monday began plowing fields for seeding within view of the FBI agents who have had them surrounded for three weeks. The field work at the so-called Justus Township infuriated the legal owners of the property, who are anxious to till the land themselves or lose out on the growing season.

While anti-government "freemen" involved in a standoff with federal agents in Jordan, Mont., met with negotiators Thursday, armed militia members were busy setting up base camps in the area, threatening to kill authorities if the incident ends in bloodshed. One of those groups, the Ohio Unorganized Militia of Columbiana County, has set up operations at a cabin near Winnet, Mont., about 75 miles west of Jordan.

A North Hollywood man who prosecutors said threatened to kill his ex-wife, bomb her car and sexually mutilate her son was sentenced to 360 days in jail. Shawn Kelly, 39, pleaded no contest in Van Nuys Municipal Court on Wednesday to threatening his ex-wife over the telephone, the district attorney's office said. The 40-year-old woman reported the calls to police earlier this year, saying she feared for her life, according to her attorneys.

The Woodland Hills father who threatened his son's baseball coach was sentenced Wednesday to 100 hours of community service and banished from all Taft High School sports events for one year. Ronald Clebanoff, 38, was sentenced by Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Mitchell Block after he pleaded no contest to one count of disturbing the peace on school grounds, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney's office.

The angry Woodland Hills father who threatened his son's baseball coach was sentenced Wednesday to 100 hours of community service and banished from all Taft High School sports events for one year. Ronald Clebanoff, 38, was sentenced by Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Mitchell Block after he pleaded no contest to one count of disturbing the peace on school grounds, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney's office.

For the second time in a week, an unlikely group huddled in a conference room at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters here--not far from what has become one of the most porous spots on the U.S. border. They were from the United States and Mexico. Some were former policemen, others lifelong cattle ranchers. But most were now cowboys with a deep mistrust of government, residents of what they call "The Free State of Maverick County."

Recent triumphs have been spectacular: The tracking of Carlos, the world's most notorious terrorist, during a CIA-orchestrated covert operation in Sudan. The FBI seizure in Pakistan of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the deadliest act of international terrorism in the United States. And the early capture of Timothy J. McVeigh, who is now awaiting trial in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building last year.

Dean Rogge heard the rumble of engines in the dead hours before dawn, coming down the dirt road that runs through the Montana prairies. Then he saw the headlights. Two of Montana's most-wanted fugitives were on the move: "Freemen" LeRoy Schweitzer and Rodney Skurdal--holed up for more than a year in the Bull Mountains near Roundup, Mont.--were heading for the ranch of fellow fugitive Ralph Clark. They were accompanied by armed guards from the Militia of Montana.