Trust Funds

The family of the victim of what police described as a gay-bashing incident in Laguna Beach set up a trust fund Friday to help finance his hospital expenses. Loc Minh Truong, 55, of Costa Mesa was beaten Jan. 9 by a group of young men who apparently thought he was gay, police said. Truong was in critical condition Friday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Two men and a 16-year-old boy have been arrested in connection with the beating.

A federally run trust fund for Native Americans that was mismanaged for more than a century can be fixed within four years, President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs said Wednesday. Neal McCaleb acknowledges that it will be difficult to determine how much the government owes thousands of Native Americans for past mismanagement and to create safeguards against future malfeasance. "That's a quick fix under the schedules I've seen," McCaleb said.

The Daniel Freeman Hospitals have established a trust fund that will award grants of $5,000 to $50,000 to community organizations serving social and health care needs, hospital officials announced Wednesday. The two nonprofit Catholic hospitals, located in Marina del Rey and Inglewood, have dedicated 10% of their annual net revenue to the trust fund. About $200,000 is expected to be available in the first year.

Saying that Nicole Brown Simpson's tape-recorded cries for help continue to ring in his ears, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs on Monday proposed establishing a Police Department trust fund devoted to domestic violence that would bear her name. Wachs said he would offer a formal motion this week to devote an additional $250,000 a year to fighting the problem of domestic abuse.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan Tuesday to establish a trust fund for private donations given to police in the northwest San Fernando Valley district of Councilman Hal Bernson. Bernson, who suggested that the city establish the fund, has already promised to donate $16,000 to the account to help police pay for overtime, new equipment or other expenses.

One day after a citizens commission asked for help to finance its efforts in rewriting the city's governing charter, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to create a trust fund for the panel. The 15-member panel that was created by voters in April estimates it needs about $1.6 million to fund its two-year budget. The trust fund will serve as the panel's general budget account and will accept public and private contributions.

A trust fund has been established to help the husband and child of a pregnant woman who was murdered during a brutal Feb. 26 attack in the family's Huntington Park home. Named after Sylvia Enriquez, the slain mother, the fund is sponsored by Montroy Supply Co. in Commerce, which employs Alfredo Enriquez, 27, as a warehouse manager. Donations may be sent to Wells Fargo Bank, 2559 S. Eastern Ave., Commerce, 90040.

The Ocean View School District has established a college trust fund for the three young sons of Anita Garcia Lachenmeyer, an Oak View Elementary School teacher who died suddenly this week. Lachenmeyer, 39, coordinator of an acclaimed Ocean View School District bilingual program, was seven months pregnant with her third child when she died Wednesday, a day after she suffered a brain aneurysm. The child she was carrying, a boy, lived.

A private trust fund will help pay for improvements to a 50-meter swimming pool at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center. The City Council voted 4 to 1 Monday to create the trust and seek nonprofit status, which would provide benefactors with tax breaks. So far, $205,000 has been pledged. Councilwoman Alice Jempsa cast the dissenting vote, saying she wanted more information on the long-term financial responsibilities of reopening the pool for community use.

A Coto de Caza family has started a trust fund for the family of Bryan Donis, the 5-year-old who was critically injured last Wednesday by a brick thrown from a freeway overpass in Huntington Beach. Fred Dezwart, a 47-year-old accountant, said he started the fund with the former director of a day-care center attended by Bryan and Dezwart's 12-year-old daughter. Dezwart and others have contributed about $300 to the fund, which he said will help pay for medical and other expenses.