William J Rea

A lawyer and a businessman accused of bilking investors of $4.6 million in cable-TV ventures have been ordered to stop violating securities registration and antifraud laws, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday. Arthur A. Graves and Gregory P. Moeller, both of Irvine, admit no liability in consenting to the judgments against them. The order also applies to their defunct businesses, Broadcast Associates-I, Broadcast Acquisitions Inc. and Broadcast Holdings Inc., all in Irvine.

A Van Nuys tax preparer was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $130,000 following her conviction on numerous counts of tax fraud. U.S. District Judge William J. Rea sentenced Beverly Hollis, 47, who pleaded guilty in October to 11 counts of filing false claims and admitted that she used 15 aliases to open several mail drops and bank accounts to receive and deposit tax refund checks.

A Placentia man pleaded not guilty Monday to federal child pornography charges stemming from a raid at his home in December. George F. Milledge, 46, described by prosecutors as a sales manager for an automotive products firm, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge William J. Rea. A trial date was set for March 31. Milledge was indicted last month on three counts of violating a federal law prohibiting the mailing or transportation of pornography featuring children.

A Los Angeles federal judge has rejected a request to overturn a $566,000 jeopardy assessment by the Internal Revenue Service against the holdings of former federal drug agent Darnell Garcia, a fugitive since Nov. 22 in a major drug corruption probe. U.S. District Judge William J. Rea rejected a petition by the ex-agent's wife, Adeline Garcia, despite noting that he had "many questions about the government's case" in moving to seize Garcia's assets.

A Pennsylvania firm that buried toxic materials at a plant in Santa Fe Springs was found guilty in federal court in Los Angeles of illegally disposing of hazardous waste. Assistant U.S. Atty. Janet L. Goldstein said employees of Neville Chemical Co. of Pittsburgh illegally dumped more than 20 large drums of toxic waste into a pit, then paved it over in 1981.

The state's former top drug abuse official was sentenced Monday to five years in prison and ordered to pay $15,000 restitution to a methadone clinic operator from whom he admitted extorting the money. Walter Richard Atlee, 52, head of the drug abuse division of the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine by U.S. District Judge William J. Rea.

A former youth football coach was sentenced Monday to 90 days in a community treatment center and ordered to undergo psychological counseling after pleading guilty to one charge of possessing child pornography. U.S. District Judge William J. Rea also sentenced George F. Milledge, 47, to three years of probation and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine.

A federal judge has allowed a 25-year court injunction that prevented the acquisition of land for the Long Beach Freeway extension to expire. But officials with the city of South Pasadena, which filed the injunction, said the decision by U.S. District Judge William J. Rea amounts to a procedural delay in the case and that the battle is far from over. In his ruling, Rea said he would not entertain extending the injunction based on the original lawsuit filed in 1973. The $1.

Guilty verdicts against two Orange County men charged in a $23-million fraud scheme involving phony equipment-leasing transactions were unsealed Friday in Los Angeles. The verdicts against Robert P. Bernfeld, 37, of Huntington Beach and John N. Griffith, 39, of Santa Ana were sealed while the jury deliberated on a third defendant, Georgianna Carson, 41, of Huntington Beach. But U.S. District Judge William J.

A Lake Forest investment adviser who pleaded guilty in federal court three months ago to defrauding investors of nearly $1.8 million has been sent to prison for two years and ordered to pay restitution. Randall C. Hutchens, 40, also was sentenced by a federal judge to three years' probation following his release from prison. From 1990 to 1992, Hutchens used his company, Laguna Equities Inc., to sell 61 investors securities that were supposedly issued by two insurance companies and backed by U.S.