Wallace Tope

Two articles (Times, June 14) dealt with Wallace Tope, a man who is unfortunately in a comatose condition as a result of a beating, the nature and severity of which should be made known in an eventual trial of two suspects being held in custody. The cover article deals with the court's denial of lesser charges against the defendants. It then begins to portray, for me, a person who virtually placed himself in "harm's way" and in defense of what? Was it in defense of human life as it was in the instance of the four young black women and men who mercifully came to the defense of Covina truck driver Reginald Denny, who was in the area with his cement/gravel truck?

Two men charged with murder in the last major case of the Los Angeles riots each pleaded no contest and were sentenced to prison Monday for the fatal beating of a middle-aged street evangelist who had tried to stop looters at a Hollywood drugstore.

Street evangelist Wallace Tope Jr.--who was beaten and kicked when he tried to stop looters during the 1992 riots--has died after lying in a coma for 19 months, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Wednesday. Prosecutors said they have not decided what additional charges may be filed against Fidel Ortiz, 22, and Leonard Sosa, 24, both of whom already have pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and aggravated mayhem in the attack on Tope.

Street evangelist Wallace Tope Jr.--who was beaten and kicked when he tried to stop looters during the 1992 riots--has died after lying in a coma for 19 months, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Wednesday. Prosecutors said they have not decided what additional charges may be filed against Fidel Ortiz, 22, and Leonard Sosa, 24, both of whom already have pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and aggravated mayhem in the attack on Tope.

Watching images of looting on television during the second night of the Los Angeles riots, Pasadena evangelist Wallace Tope was moved to show the looters the error of their ways. After several friends refused to accompany him, Tope, 52 and white, went alone to a shopping mall at the corner of Western Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, where hundreds of people had gathered to watch looters ravage a Sav-on drugstore.

Acting on a tip, police have arrested two men in the beating of a Pasadena evangelist who was trying to stop looting in Hollywood during the riots that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case. Leonard Sosa, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, both of Los Angeles, were each charged Wednesday with one count of attempted murder in the assault on Wallace Tope, Deputy Dist. Atty. Norman Shapiro said. Tope, 52, has been in a coma at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center since the April 30 beating.

Two men charged with murder in the last major case of the Los Angeles riots each pleaded no contest and were sentenced to prison Monday for the fatal beating of a middle-aged street evangelist who had tried to stop looters at a Hollywood drugstore.

He is the last riot victim still hospitalized, a man in a coma whose beating remains an obscure counterpoint to the televised assault of trucker Reginald O. Denny. While Denny's assault was witnessed by millions, only a few dozen watched as Wallace Tope, a street evangelist, was beaten as he was preaching to looters in Hollywood. Now, as the city anxiously awaits the outcome of the Denny trial, the Tope case is largely forgotten.

A Los Angeles Municipal Court judge has ordered two friends to stand trial on attempted murder charges for the near-fatal beating of a Pasadena evangelist who tried to stop looting at a Hollywood shopping center during the April riots. After a daylong preliminary hearing last week, Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell rejected defense arguments that Leonard Sosa, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, did not intend to kill evangelist Wallace Tope, and that the charges should be reduced.

Acting on a tip, Los Angeles police have arrested two men suspected of severely beating a Pasadena evangelist who was trying to stop looters at a Hollywood shopping center during the second night of riots following the Rodney G. King verdicts. Sosa Leonard, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, both of Los Angeles, were arrested Friday in connection with the attack on Wallace Tope, authorities said. Tope has been in a coma since the April 30 beating.

He is the last riot victim still hospitalized, a man in a coma whose beating remains an obscure counterpoint to the televised assault of trucker Reginald O. Denny. While Denny's assault was witnessed by millions, only a few dozen watched as Wallace Tope, a street evangelist, was beaten as he was preaching to looters in Hollywood. Now, as the city anxiously awaits the outcome of the Denny trial, the Tope case is largely forgotten.

Two articles (Times, June 14) dealt with Wallace Tope, a man who is unfortunately in a comatose condition as a result of a beating, the nature and severity of which should be made known in an eventual trial of two suspects being held in custody. The cover article deals with the court's denial of lesser charges against the defendants. It then begins to portray, for me, a person who virtually placed himself in "harm's way" and in defense of what? Was it in defense of human life as it was in the instance of the four young black women and men who mercifully came to the defense of Covina truck driver Reginald Denny, who was in the area with his cement/gravel truck?

A Los Angeles Municipal Court judge has ordered two friends to stand trial on attempted murder charges for the near-fatal beating of a Pasadena evangelist who tried to stop looting at a Hollywood shopping center during the April riots. After a daylong preliminary hearing last week, Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell rejected defense arguments that Leonard Sosa, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, did not intend to kill evangelist Wallace Tope, and that the charges should be reduced.

Acting on a tip, police have arrested two men in the beating of a Pasadena evangelist who was trying to stop looting in Hollywood during the riots that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case. Leonard Sosa, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, both of Los Angeles, were each charged Wednesday with one count of attempted murder in the assault on Wallace Tope, Deputy Dist. Atty. Norman Shapiro said. Tope, 52, has been in a coma at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center since the April 30 beating.

Watching images of looting on television during the second night of the Los Angeles riots, Pasadena evangelist Wallace Tope was moved to show the looters the error of their ways. After several friends refused to accompany him, Tope, 52 and white, went alone to a shopping mall at the corner of Western Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, where hundreds of people had gathered to watch looters ravage a Sav-on drugstore.

Acting on a tip, police have arrested two men in the beating of a Pasadena evangelist who was trying to stop looting in Hollywood during the riots that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case. Leonard Sosa, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, both of Los Angeles, were each charged Wednesday with one count of attempted murder in the assault on Wallace Tope, Deputy Dist. Atty. Norman Shapiro said. Tope, 52, has been in a coma at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center since the April 30 beating.

For many Californians, the riots were more than a momentary blip on the screen--they were a flash point for lasting and fundamental changes in their lives. The devastation left a legacy of broken dreams for many, awakened a sense of social justice in some, unleashed anger and hatred in others, and rekindled a spirit of hope among others.