Courtroom Style May Trump Substance in Ferrari Guy Trial

Photo credit, Frank Lamonea
CHAPTER ONE—The crashed Enzo Ferrari was unceremoniously transported from the accident scene, the first leg of the journey that would take its remains back to England where the vehicle is reportedly being restored by the bank that owns it.

Photo credit, Frank Lamonea
CONTRACT LAW—The wording of sports car leasing documents has taken center stage in the Ferrari trial. Defense counsel Jim Parkman (left) and William White look over some of the paperwork before Tuesday’s court session.

Photo credit, Frank Lamonea
CASE—The lead county prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Tamara Hall, told the jury that Stefan Eriksson’s spectacular crash of the million-dollar-plus Enzo Ferrari in Malibu foiled his efforts to defraud British lessors of two sports cars that he illegally brought into the United States.

• Head Defense Counsel Pits Country Twang Against Contract Jargon in Bid to Win Over Jury

BY ANNE SOBLE

The six men and six women on the jury in the trial of Bo Stefan Eriksson on four felony changes of embezzlement and grand theft of two exotic sports cars from British leasing institutions watched contrasting legal styles as opening statements were presented and witnesses began to take the stand.

Similar felony charges related to the million-dollar-plus red Enzo Ferrari that Eriksson allegedly crashed in Malibu last February were dropped when the lessor decline to take part in the case, and the driving-under-the-influence charges related to the crash were resolved with a no contest, or nolo, plea last week.

What was first estimated to be a 10-day trial in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg is now expected to last two-thirds that time because of the whittled-down list of charges and the case may even be ready to go to the jury on Friday, according to both sides.

Lead prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Tamara Hall, set the stage for contentions that Eriksson, 44, a Swedish national with a criminal record, was pulling off a perfect scam on lessors of the red Enzo, a second Enzo and a Mercedes McLaren SLR, until the story of the crash became a worldwide media sensation.

Hall described Eriksson, a former high-paid executive with the now-bankrupt Gizmondo Europe video game company, living the high life in Bel-Air and driving around in cars worth more than $3 million with leasing agreements that prohibited their being taking out of Great Britain.

Though he was newly coiffed and garbed in boardroom attire, Hall wanted to evoke the man known in Uppsala, Sweden, where he served time on counterfeiting and fraud charges, as Tjock Steffe, loosely translated as “Fat Steffe” (short for Stefan) or what is closer to the American Mafioso-style tag of “Big Steffe,” as in “Big Al” or “Big Louie.”

No amount of Brooks Brothers transformation can alter the stocky, prizefighter-type frame of the defendant, who has been incarcerated since May, and, even if he gets off on all charges, is expected to face deportation hearings before the federal immigration agency that has prevented him from posting bail.

The so-called “Ferrari Guy” prosecution is Hall’s first high-profile case. The seven-year veteran with the District Attorney’s Office is based in the D.A.’s Auto Insurance Fraud Division, not exactly known for the most colorful of trials until now.

But courtroom color is just what the Eriksson’s defense team hopes to bring to their client’s cause. Head counsel Jim Parkman pokes and prods at the prosecution case with folksy comments and proverbs befitting his Alabama roots.

Fresh from major courtroom victories in Alabama and Arizona cases that put him in the media spotlight, Parkman, dubbed a “jurors’ lawyer” for his ability to sway the folks in the jury box, doesn’t want that light to dim.

Where Hall sees complicated contract details, Parkman sees fine print that is subject to interpretation. Where Hall sees illegal importation of cars into the U.S., Parkman sees highly visible actions that passed official scrutiny.

Where Hall sees wronged financial institutions, Parkman sees business establishments that should have known where the cars were being serviced and been able to contact Eriksson if they had contractual issues to discuss.

Parkman also hammers away on whether the disputes concerning the exotic super cars should even be the subject of a criminal proceeding in California as they are civil disputes with businesses in another country.

The first prosecution witness, Iain Hyatt of Lombard Bank, the leaseholder on one of the two cars, took the stand Monday and Tuesday. His English accent and accountant’s mannerisms provided yet another style to contrast with the urban Hall and the down-home Parkman.

Next on the prosecution list of witnesses was Eric Mair of Coldesdale Bank, the second leaseholder, whose testimony was slated to continue after The News went to press.

An injured prosecution witness held up the trial’s original starting time and there have been minor traffic delays, but both sides expect the remainder of the proceedings to move briskly.

Taxpayer Groups Sue SMM Conservancy over Spending

• Powerful Agency Insists Activities in Question Were Vetted by Attorney General’s Office

BY BILL KOENEKER

It seemed that the threat of litigation hung over a meeting this week of the board of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy which met in Malibu to discuss the controversial Malibu parks public access enhancement plan.

The executive director of the agency, Joe Edmiston, announced at the beginning of the meeting pending litigation by a taxpayers group. While the rest of the meeting dealt with the public works plan and hours of public testimony, the board was apparently ready to discuss the pending lawsuit in closed session.

The next day, a press release was issued by several taxpayer groups including the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers’ Association, the Ramirez Canyon Preservation and several other organizations announcing they filed suit in Ventura County Superior Court accusing the SMMC of “illegally using Proposition 50 Clean Water Bond funds.” They are asking the court to recover what they contend are misused funds.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of the plaintiff’s attorney Allison Burns asking both the state Attorney General and the Department of Finance to investigate the allegations. Both agencies declined to do so with the Attorney General’s office saying there were measures recently put into place that the Conservancy must follow in spending the funds and other procedures.

The Department of Finance also indicated in a letter to Burns that budget control language was added to the Conservancy’s bond fund appropriations from encumbering bond funds for any grant not previously approved by the Attorney General. The control language also requires the Conservancy to issue grants only in accordance with the law, the specific provisions of the bond funds and advice from the Attorney General.

Conservancy officials continue to maintain they have followed all of those procedures and submitted all items as required to the Attorney General for review and approval.

Provisions of state law allow a citizens group to pursue litigation of the matter if the state agencies decline to do so.

The plaintiffs allege the SMMC transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars of Prop 50 funds to its sister agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

The complaint states the SMMC spent Prop 50 grant money to develop the Malibu Public Works Plan and that SMMC spent bond funds to pay its lawyers to defend a lawsuit filed by local residents in 2000 to stop SMMC’s “illegal use of its property.”

Meanwhile, the SMMC board continued to hear public testimony much of in favor of the public works plan by various environmental groups, biking enthusiasts and equestrians who said they supported the trails connecting the various parks owned by SMMC or the MRCA in the City of Malibu.

Edmiston explained to the board how he envisioned the matter proceeding. He indicated that while the SMMC board would approve the plan it is not the decision-making body to certify the plan as legally valid. That authority rests with the California Coastal Commission.

The SMMC executive director, who noted submitting the plan to the coastal agency and its review is the equivalent in state law of undertaking an Environmental Impact Report, said the entire process would probably take six months.

“The Coastal Commission approves the plan, then we can propose to implement the plan and then we submit projects to the commission [to determine] if it is consistent with the plan,” Edmiston added.

However, that approach has raised the ire of Malibu city officials and others who contend the process would allow the SMMC to not have to deal with the city’s or county’s local planning laws and skirt local authority for the public works plan.

The plan calls for increased activities at Ramirez Canyon Park, the SMMC headquarters, and includes connecting Ramirez Canyon Park with Escondido Canyon Park and Corral Canyon Park.

Recent revisions to the plan call for maximizing camping opportunities at the Corral Canyon Park, because it is most isolated from adjacent neighborhoods, with about 20 campsites.

The revised plans indicate each campsite location will have a water line and tank placement to accommodate the county fire department requests for fire safety, and that all campsites will be “cold camps,” camp fires will be prohibited at all times. Camping will be prohibited during “red flag days”

The draft plan which was not available for this week’s meeting is expected to be ready for public scrutiny on the SMMC and MRCA websites on November 10. Edmiston said there would be more meetings for public comment on the draft document.

Cabrillo Port’s Celebrity Opposition Gets the World’s Attention

• Combination of Surfers and Entertainers Helps to Get the Anti-LNG Message to Outside Media

BY HANS LAETZ

It was a classic ’Bu scene last Sunday morning at Malibu Pier, when the fog burned off, a perfect chest-high set rolled in, and TV cameras and paparazzi focused on 175 or so surfers as they paddled out to protest plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal just off Malibu.

“We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but when you see the people paddling out and then forming the circle, then you can see the unity,” said surfing legend Laird Hamilton. “And when you see unity, you see action.”

Hamilton, along with women’s surfing champion Lisa Anderson and a slew of entertainment celebrities, participated in Sunday’s Day of Action in protest of Cabrillo Port, the aircraft-carrier-sized factory ship that an Australian company plans to anchor 14 miles upwind of Malibu.

“Surfers are known to be selfish people,” said Anderson, “you know, the old ‘my beach, my wave,’ attitude. But when you get older, you realize you have to be more responsible and participate in this sort of thing.”

The surfers mixed with entertainers, including Halle Berry, Cindy Crawford, Ted Danson, Minnie Driver, David Duchovny, Kenny G, Daryl Hannah, James Keach, Tea Leoni, Gabrielle Reece, Ryan Seacrest, Jane Seymour and Dick Van Dyke on the pier. In addition to the $20 per head pancake fundraiser and the paddleout, a children’s sandcastle contest and some Pacific Island hula dancers added to the scene.

The event was a fundraiser for Coastal Advocates, the local organization attempting to raise $250,000 locally to fight the $650 million Cabrillo Port LNG terminal, which is scheduled to get permits next spring and be operational in 2010. That quarter million dollars will attempt to offset the $1.8 million in lobbying expenses that Cabrillo Port developer BHP Billiton of Australia spent last year alone.

“We have this sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” said host Pierce Brosnan, who along with wife Keely Shaye hosted the event. Malibu’s most famous mingled with residents, strolling among gawking fishermen on the pier, which remained open to the public during the Sunday morning fundraiser.

Brosnan said he has discussed the Cabrillo Port project with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ultimately could decide the fate of the Malibu LNG terminal. Brosnan said the governor was noncommittal.

On the pier and beach, about 2,000 persons watched as Halle Berry strolled arm in arm with boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, to the paparazzi’s delight. “I’m worried what it will do to our environment,” she said.

With the well-behaved line of paparazzi on the right, and the regular Sunday morning amateur fishermen on the left, a constellation of Malibu denizens made its way up the pier. Longtime ocean advocate Ted Danson tried to explain to an armful of celebrity reporters the impacts of the LNG plant.

“We have to draw attention to this LNG terminal,” Danson said. “It has been flying under the radar.”

The former “Cheers” star said it would be a huge mistake for California to embrace LNG as a fuel, because of the large amount of smog and greenhouse gas it will generate. “We invented smog in this state, and for us to be increasing the amount of smog is just insane, it makes no sense.”

Danson acknowledged that hitching the LNG issue to celebrities could be counterproductive. “Yeah, we’re the effete. Yeah, we’re the elite. But check out the facts. Don’t just listen to me.”

At that point, speeches began, and surfboard impresario Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner dived from the pier into the ocean to signal the paddlers at Surfrider Beach to begin the paddleout.

In four groups, the surfers ranging in age from eight to 80 paddled out, posed for a photographer in a helicopter, joined hands and formed a massive circle off Surfrider Beach.

Daryl Hannah’s pink surfboard stole the show as TV cameras and paparazzi craned for the best shots of the paddleout.

And on Monday morning, Berry, her boyfriend and Hannah’s pink surfboard dominated headlines and photos throughout celebrity-deprived corners of the world, including Australia, where the news about the potential pollution and wildlife impacts of Cabrillo Port largely have been ignored.

The Australian Age newspaper in Melbourne asked if BHP Billiton has met its match in its quest to site the LNG terminal off the Malibu coast.

“Quite apart from nudging out several competing proposals from rival energy companies, BHP Billiton will have to overcome opposition from James Bond, Catwoman and Mary Poppins’ chimney sweep friend if the Cabrillo Port is to get a green light,” the newspaper reported.

CAPTION 1. Photo credit, MSN/Frank LamoneaMAJOR MESSAGE—Some of the participants on the beach at Sunday’s Day of Action unfurled a banner pointing out that the beaches that could be impact by the Cabrillo Port LNG terminal welcome millions of people every year. Most of the photographers, however, focused on the entertainers and the surfers who were the event’s starring attraction and helped shine an international spotlight on the effort to stop offshore LNG development. More photos on page 15.

Another of Area’s Mountain Lions Dies—Fight Led to Infection

• Concern Also Grows that Widespread Use of Rodenticides Is Impacting Local Wildlife

BY HANS LAETZ

A horrific cat fight in Tuna Canyon several weeks ago has left another juvenile mountain lion dead and convinced National Park Service wildlife experts that there is at least one unknown local mountain lion and two radio-tagged lions ranging in the Santa Monica Mountains.

But officials worry it is possible that at least two native pumas, or cougars, have been killed by poisons that entered the food chain via humans leaving bait out for rodents, which were eaten by coyotes, which in turn were eaten by the big cats. Riley said the effects of the widespread use of these poisons on wildlife is an area that has not been adequately studied.

The mountain lion fight two months ago in Tuna Canyon, in the hills above Big Rock, involved a previously unknown animal and P-8, one of four cubs who were born two years ago in the hills near Malibu Creek.

“P-8 died of an infection, caused by the wounds suffered in the fight,” said Seth Riley, an adjunct UCLA professor and wildlife expert with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “But we know it wasn’t P-1.”

The cubs’ father, P-1, has killed the cubs’ mother and two of the cubs in territorial disputes. P-1, a highly territorial, 140-pound alpha male, has mostly been ranging in the hills of Zuma, Trancas and Decker canyons west to the Boney Mountain and Point Mugu area, feasting on deer and avoiding humans.

“P-1 was out at Point Mugu during the fight,” Riley said. The locations are 30 miles apart.

A DNA lab at UCLA analyzed residual material from the fight found in P-8’s claws, and determined it to be from another, until now, unknown mountain lion.

“Whether he came in across the 101 freeway, or whether it was here in the Santa Monicas all along, we don’t know,” Riley said. “These are big mountains and they’re full of deer, and it’s possible we may have some cats up there that we don’t know about.”

Two other cats have been tracked crossing the 118 freeway near Simi Valley as many as nine times. Both of those animals eventually died after eating coyotes, and were found with the rat poison in their livers.

Biologists theorize lions and other critters can cross the 101 at Liberty Canyon, where an underpass links wilderness areas on both sides of the Ventura Freeway.

Of the four cubs born locally two years ago, only P-6 has avoided death at the paws of another cat. P-6 hunts for deer in the Malibu Creek State Park area and, like its father P-1, is wearing a GPS radio collar that can be detected by NPS researchers.

The poisons, brodifacoum and bromadiolone, are used in rat bait that accumulates in rodents, eventually causing internal bleeding and death.

“We don’t know how the anticoagulants are getting into the lions, because we know they are mostly eating deer, which makes up 95 percent of their diets, and there are no anticoagulants in deer,” Riley said.

“It’s possible that the lions occasionally eat a coyote that has been eating poisoned rodents, and we know that there are anecdotes of people using these anticoagulants to poison coyotes.”

Two lions who died near Simi Valley had large amounts of poison in their livers. “We know both of these lions had killed coyotes just before they died,” Riley said. “But no one had ever done a study to find out how much anticoagulant will kill a mountain lion.”

The rodent poison is widely sold at hardware stores and used by exterminators. Homeowners buy it because it makes rodents feel nauseous before they die, causing them to flee houses and die elsewhere. Although rodent poisons are not supposed to be used against coyotes directly, they are. In addition, rodents are a part of the coyote’s natural diet.

The joint federal-state mountain lion tracking program has run out of money, and scientists may have to cease tracking the mountain lions with radio collars.

“We’d really like to follow these animals as they range across the habitat, not only in the Santa Monica Mountains but also in the Santa Susanas, Simi Hills, and north on into the Los Padres National Forest,” said Riley.

CAPTION 1. Photo credit, NPS Photo
FIND—A previously unknown mountain lion is believed to be ranging in the Santa Monica Mountains. The new animal has not yet been given a P—for puma—designation.

Ferrari Trial Gets Off to Slow Start After Plea Deal Is Turned Down

Photo credit, KTLA Press Pool
DEFENDANT—A TV crew captured a low resolution image of Stefan Eriksson’s trial attire of dark gray suit, blue dress shirt and tie and new military-style haircut before all cameras were banned from the courtroom by Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg.

Photo credit, MSN/Frank Lamonea
DEFENSE TEAM—Jim Parkman and Bill White of the Cochran Firm get ready to return to the courtroom for jury selection in the trial of alleged Ferrari crash driver Stefan Eriksson on multiple counts of fraud and embezzlement.

• Jury Is Sworn in Tuesday and Opening Statements Are Scheduled to Begin on Wednesday

BY ANNE SOBLE

The Swedish businessman and racing car aficionado who allegedly crashed a $1.5 million Enzo Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway in February while driving under the influence turned down a plea deal related to multiple charges of fraud and embezzlement that followed the investigation of the spectacular car accident that created a worldwide media stir.

Judge Patricia Schnegg described as “very generous” plea terms that would have had Eriksson serve a 28-month prison term versus the 11-plus years he might have to serve if he is convicted on the now-reduced number of felony counts he faces in the courtroom.

Eriksson would have had to plead no contest to two felony counts of embezzlement, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon (he spent five years in a Swedish prison in the 1990s for counterfeiting, extortion and other crimes), and a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence and pay a $25,000 fine.

The prosecution deal was put on the table last week and Eriksson’s defense team has indicated that the decision to turn down the deal was the defendant's.

Groomed for Monday’s plea hearing minus the orange jumpsuit and wrist and waist chains he was required to wear at all earlier hearings, the former Gizmondo computer game company executive, a millionaire with a Bel-Air estate, said through an interpreter that he refused to state that “I stole the cars because I didn’t.”

Eriksson is now facing fewer counts than he was first charged with because the title holder of the crashed red 2003 Enzo Ferrari now has the vehicle back and has elected not to meet with the prosecution. The car is reported to be repairable and its worth has increased.

The charges that lead prosecutor Tamara Hall is still pursuing include theft and embezzlement counts related to the possession and illegal importing into the United States of a black 2003 Enzo Ferrari and a 2005 Mercedes McLaren SLR that were subsequently impounded. The value of these vehicles exceeds $3 million.

The felony gun possession charge will be tried separately.

With the turn down of the plea, jury selection began Monday afternoon and continued through Tuesday, delayed in classic Los Angeles fashion because numerous traffic accidents and freeway tie-ups made members of the jury pool late for their assignment.

Eriksson’s defense team, including lead counsel Jim Parkman and William White and Martin Adams of the Alabama office of The Cochran Firm founded by the late Johnnie Cochran, have repeatedly stressed that they look forward to dispelling many of the so-called rumors that have been circulated in the international media blitz that following the Enzo crash.

Parkman and his law firm partners successfully represented former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in his high-profile multi-billion accounting fraud case last year in Alabama, winning a surprise acquittal on all charges.

On Tuesday, Parkman grilled prospective jurors about their biases against wealth and luxury lifestyles, whether jurors always read the fine print in automobile contracts, have ever been charged with a DUI, trust the media, think law enforcement personnel are always correct or are biased against immigrants.

Prosecutor Hall’s jury pool in -queries included whether the wealthy are above the law, do the prospective jurors read the fine print in contracts, have would-be jurors ever bought or leased a car and what would happen to them if they didn’t make payments and whether they had heard of the case before.

Judge Schnegg added another dimension when she raised the issue of whether officials always tell the truth, including law enforcement officers, pastors and others in positions of trust.

The jury of six men and six women was sworn in Tuesday afternoon and opening statements were scheduled to begin Wednesday after The News goes to press.

Schnegg, in keeping with media restraints she has imposed in other high-profile trials, is allowing no cameras or audio equipment in the courtroom during the trial.

Schnegg was on the bench during the Courtney Love substance abuse prosecution and the Catherine Zeta-Jones stalking case, both of which generated publicity on a par with the media frenzy that occurred after the first reports of the Ferrari crash on Feb. 21.

Part exotic sports car traveling at a speed approaching 200 mph, part international financial and criminal intrigue and a Damon-Runyonesque cast of characters who are stranger than fiction make for a compelling story, except perhaps for Eriksson, who has been in custody under a hold at Men’s Central Jail since May. For the most part, he sits stoically through courtroom proceedings.

Parkman, an openly effusive Alabaman with a well-honed drawl and a penchant for down-home philosophy sprinkled with extensive legal citations continues to reiterate past statements that the trial will be the time to bring out facts and circumstances that are different than the official allegations and media accounts.

The lead counsel wasted no time testing his accent and his sense of humor on the judge, courtroom personnel and members of the media during the plea bargain and jury selection process. His hometown press describes Parkman’s first foray into Southern California as “grits and biscuits meet Hollywood.”

Parkman is expected to handle the opening and closing arguments as well as most of the witness cross-examination. Accounts of the HealthSouth and other Parkman performances indicate that the trial of the man that many of the Superior Court employees refer to as the “Ferrari Guy” will be anything but dull.

The defense team and the District Attorney’s office are indicating that they both expect the trial to last 10 days.

Ventura County Officials Try to Plug Loopholes Easing Smog Rules

• White House Pressured Federal Regulators to Exempt Proposed Cabrillo Port LNG Terminal

BY HANS LAETZ

Ventura County smog officials are looking to close the loophole in their smog rules that has allowed federal regulators, under White House pressure, to exempt the Cabrillo Port LNG terminal from the strictest level of smog rules, the Malibu Surfside News has learned.

That action comes in the same week that both BHP Billiton and anti-LNG activists reacted to news that whales and other marine animals could be deafened or killed by sub-sea noise from the factory ship’s 190 decibel gas ovens.

And last Thursday in coastal Louisiana, six crew members were presumed killed when a tugboat hit an offshore natural gas facility and exploded in hundred-foot-high flames. The Cabrillo Port project includes twin gas pipelines, 24 inches in diameter, that would parallel the shore from Malibu’s Leo Carrillo State Beach up to Oxnard, where they would come ashore.

Two Ventura County supervisors said they have directed the Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board to tell the EPA it made a mistake when it said that Cabrillo Port, for regulatory purposes, was part of the 20-mile distant Channel Islands, instead of the 14-mile distant Ventura County mainland.

“We are asking the district to take a position stating to EPA that they made an error in interpreting our smog regulations,” said Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, who sits on the smog agency’s board. “I think it’s really clear that they made an error when they decided this project was classified as being out in the Channel Islands.”

BHP Billiton has said it would offset the 270 tons per year of smog-producing chemicals by reducing smog from other sources in California. The tighter smog interpretation being considered by Ventura County would not be met by the current Cabrillo Port smog plan, Bennett said.

Regional EPA officials reversed themselves after the White House interceded on behalf of BHP Billiton, and exempted Cabrillo Port from stringent onshore smog offsets required for new sources of air pollution. At the time, EPA said it could “exercise its discretion” and consider the ship’s smog-producing gas ovens to be in the offshore air basin, despite the fact that those emissions will blow ashore most of the time.

That decision was a reversal from EPA’s more forceful earlier finding that required BHPB to use a much-stronger set of standards for designing its plant and offsetting its smog.

BHP Billiton successfully lobbied the White House to avoid the costly procedures that some experts say could have made the Cabrillo Port project impossible.

The Ventura County supervisor said the county itself is being careful not to take a stand on Cabrillo Port or the smog issue, because the Board of Supervisors may have to hear an appeal of the Air Pollution Control District’s decision.

“Our county counsel has told us not to take a stand on the application officially, because we might be ruling on the permits,” Bennett said.

Last week, federal officials revealed that BHP Billiton has not furnished data about the impact of loud, continuous noises from the BHP Billiton plant that likely would kill or disable whales. In Houston this week, BHPB spokesperson Patrick Cassidy said the company has “to my knowledge” replied to all federal requests for information.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said its request for noise impacts from the 190-decibel shipboard ovens was sent to the company in 2003, but not answered. The federal agency faulted the BHPB application for mistakenly claiming that endangered humpback, fin and blue whales would not likely be in the area, when such whales are known to inhabit the offshore waters.

Last week, BHPB Billiton sent out a news release noting that the environmental review for Cabrillo Port has entered its fourth year. “We are proud to say that Cabrillo Port’s design of its operations, and the technology it employs, will comply with all applicable requirements of the Clean Air Act and will protect the environment in the safest manner possible,” said Kathi Hann, the company’s Oxnard spokesperson.

Company officials had originally planned to wrap up that review process and obtain needed permits in spring, 2005, but the entire process is bogged down by what the U.S. Coast Guard has termed “data gaps,” and by what other state and federal agencies have termed incomplete or inaccurate information about the project’s impact on Malibu and adjacent coastal waters.

On Tuesday, the Malibu Association of Realtors was told that state and federal approval of Cabrillo Port “is greased,” and that residents need to contact Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger personally to head off approval of the controversial plant 13.8 miles off the Malibu coast.

“If you don’t know the governor personally, you know the people who know the governor,” said Loretta Lynch, a former Public Utilities Commission member who is fighting LNG imports.

Lynch said Malibu needs to use its famous and politically-powerful residents to make noise about LNG, which she likened to the decision to allow nuclear power plants to be built in the 1960s.

Lynch, who regulated public utilities in the aftermath of the Enron energy conspiracy that caused blackouts in California, said the LNG lobby has convinced California industries of an artificial shortage of natural gas, in an effort to drive up prices and sell foreign fossil fuels in this country.

Renaming Bids Trigger Debate over Community History

• Critics Say City Council Is Ignoring Malibu’s Past in Favor of Trendiness and Big Bucks

BY BILL KOENEKER

DeButts Terrace residents are going to try again to seek a name change for their street after having been initially rebuffed by a majority of the Malibu City Council last week when they wanted to rename the hillside street Paradise View Way.

Residents, who will approach the council at its meeting next week, agreed to erect a monument to the colorful family who lived in the area for many years, saying the memorial for the DeButts family would be placed in a conspicuous location.

According to a staff report, homeowners have conducted research and determined that The Overview was a prior name used for the road now known as DeButts Terrace.

Homeowners seeking the name change had previously told council members they found the current street name derogatory in nature.

“It has been hijacked to vernacular slang and it is devastating to our teenage children,” said Allison Thomsen, who said 19 other property owners on the street signed a petition.

“The name is inappropriate,” agreed another resident, Charles Schette, who said his four-year-old child does not know the name of his street because he doesn’t want him repeating the word.

Councilmember Jeff Jennings and Mayor Ken Kearsley said they would not support the request and gave a brief history course on the colorful family that lived on DeButts Terrace before all of the others.

Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich pointed out that city guidelines call for historic names to be used whenever applicable.

Councilmember Andy Stern said he appreciated the history, but was more concerned about the people on the street who have to endure the taunts. “People face it on a daily basis,” he said, and agreed to support their request. Councilmember Sharon Barovsky apparently agreed. “I support it,” she said.

BLUFFS PARK NAME SALE

In another renaming agenda item, Conley Ulich’s request last week to consider renaming the Bluffs Park which the city took over formally three weeks ago, met some of the same resistance from other council members.

Conley Ulich said she thought the city could make some money on allowing folks to name the park, the ball fields, tot lot or picnic tables after themselves or others if they wanted to pay. She said she also wanted to see a new sign that displayed ownership of the park by the municipality.

Barovsky said she thought if someone wanted to pony up a million dollars, they should have the right to rename the park. She said the matter should be sent to the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission for consideration. “I’m against sending it anywhere. It is the Bluffs Park,” said Stern.

Jennings said he would like an updated sign, but preferred the name Bluffs Park. “Those fields were already named Heroes Fields, remember?” he asked. “I think there are better ways to raise money for the ball fields.”

County Officials Say Threat of DNA Policing Is Unfounded

Photo credit, MSN/Hans Laetz
QUELLER—Health officials use Malibu as a scenic backdrop Friday to dispel reports that DNA samples from polluted creeks will be matched to DNA from individuals suspected of using malfunctioning septic tanks. Mark Gold of Heal the Bay, left; Mark Pestrella, a Public Works official; county health officer Jonathon Fielding; and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky all give high marks to Malibu efforts to regulate septic tanks, but said a new $1 million project will target sources of pollution.

• Cracking Down on Bad Septics Doesn’t Require User IDs Despite Spate of News Reports to the Contrary

BY HANS LAETZ

Los Angeles County officials, anxious to avoid $10,000 a day fines for allowing their storm drains to pollute the Pacific Ocean, have approved a $1 million effort to track down what is polluting the creeks that drain through Malibu. But plans to use DNA testing to look for human contamination have fueled breathless, but erroneous, news media reports saying DNA would be traced into individual movie stars’ Malibu toilets.

News outlets around the world picked up an Associated Press article Thursday that implied that the individual DNA of Malibu celebrities (and presumably other less well-known residents) could be gathered by court order, and checked against human DNA that might be found traveling down creeks and into the ocean.

“Let me make something clear,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy, at a hastily-called damage-control news conference overlooking the Malibu coast. “We are not any way in the world going to be identifying individual DNA by doing these tests.”

Yaroslavksy and county health and public works officials emphasized the human DNA tests would be added to existing tests to see if chronic pollution at the mouths of several creeks originates in human waste percolating out of the city’s septic tanks.

“This is not a Malibu problem,” Yaroslavksy said to TV cameras at a news conference at the Santa Monica Pier. “This is a very rural area, and we have to identify what the source is of the material coming down the creeks, a lot of it coming down the creeks from above Malibu.”

The supervisor said he got a chuckle out of the wire story that intimated Malibu residents would be asked to surrender DNA swabs to match against ocean water samples. “The DNA testing aspect is very sexy, and got everybody excited,” he said.

The Board of Supervisors last week approved a $1 million effort to find the biological source of viruses and bacteria that plague a few sections of the city’s 27 miles of beaches. Although human waste is an obvious target, scientists have said that hotspots near creeks and lagoons may be picking up bird droppings or other contamination from dirty sand.

County health department officials already use tests for caffeine and other chemicals that can only be excreted by humans into the environment. If such indicators warrant it, expensive DNA tests can now be used to confirm if human waste caused the problem, but not to identify specific individuals who may have poorly-functioning sewage systems, officials said.

The new task force will first concentrate on two creeks – Ramirez and Escondido – that dump urban runoff, natural seepage and storm water into the Pacific Ocean within a half mile of each other. Ramirez Creek runoff is already cleansed by a small water treatment system paid for by the business interests at Paradise Cove and operated by the Santa Monica Baykeeper.

Comprehensive weekly testing shows that the contaminated water coming down Ramirez Canyon is completely cleaned by the treatment plant, and is also cleaned as it is released back into the creek just above the beach. But as the cleansed water seeps into the sand, it again becomes contaminated by birds and organisms in the muck.

Ocean water quality water is bad at the outfall, but returns to normal just a few dozen feet away in either direction, scientists said.

Longtime residents say the problem may be the year-round nature of the creeks, which are frequently fed by tainted, fertilizer-laden urban runoff. In years past, most Santa Monica Mountain drainages dried up in the summer.

At the news conference, Malibu was singled out for praise by Heal the Bay founder Mark Gold. “If you asked me this five years ago, I would have had a different answer,” Gold said. Since then, he added, “Malibu has adopted the strongest onsite wastewater treatment ordinance in L.A. County by a mile.”

Malibu City Councilmember Jeff Jennings, who rushed to the news conference when tipped off about it by a reporter, told the media that the community has a strong interest in getting to the bottom of the local pollution.

Yaroslavksy agreed, and lauded the city and its residents: “Maybe the pollution is coming down the creek from a mountain lion’s den. Maybe it’s coming from birds, or from dog droppings. We don’t know, but we are going to find out. And if it is coming from a home, they can expect to be visited by us,” he said.

Agency Says Cabrillo Port Endangers Whales

BY HANS LAETZ

Federal wildlife officials have thrown up a possible roadblock to the Cabrillo Port LNG terminal near Malibu, and said data indicates the natural gas combustion ovens proposed for the ship would be loud enough to damage whales’ hearing more than a dozen miles away from the ship.

In a letter released late Tuesday, the National Marine Fisheries Services said the controversial energy terminal requested by Australian energy conglomerate BHP Billiton will have an unknown impact on whales, sea otters, sea turtles and endangered fish. Federal fisheries experts say their requests for additional information from BHPB, some of them three years old, have yet to be answered.

The Federal Endangered Species Act requires large projects like the LNG terminal to complete an assessment of its impact on endangered animals, and coastal advocates had zeroed in on perceived errors in the Cabrillo Port application. The federal letter lends credence to objections filed by the California Coastal Protection Network and by Oxnard and Malibu residents.

In the new letter, NMFS administrator Rodney McGinnis said that the BHP Billiton LNG proposal was in error when it said sea turtles and three species of whales were “very unlikely” to be found in the Santa Barbara Channel, when they are seen there frequently. Because of that error, NMFS said it could not examine whether loud, continuous noises from natural gas ovens at Cabrillo Port could harm passing whales.

“The determinations made for marine mammals,” McGinnis wrote, “are either incorrect or insufficient.” Among impacts underestimated by BHP Billiton is the danger of LNG ship collisions with whales known to frequent an area that, according to BHPB documents, is devoid of the large creatures.

McGinnis indicated that the amount of undersea noise that would be created by Cabrillo Port could “have a deleterious effect on marine mammals by causing stress or injury, interfering with predator/ prey detection, and changing behavior,” as well as cause temporary or permanent loss of sound, a possibly deadly impact that is not addressed by Billiton.

The federal official said a map of noise impact areas still has not been produced by BHP Billiton. NMFS said some of the data it is seeking has yet to be delivered three years after BHP Billiton was told it needed to provide it to the agency.

A second version of an Environmental Impact Report is nearly six months behind schedule, as state officials grapple with 1400 supposed safety, terrorism and environmental impact errors and omissions spotted by critics of Cabrillo Port.

The NMFS letter was written last July, but only released by the federal government late Tuesday, too late for the newspaper to solicit comments from BHP Billiton and environmentalists.

Biggest Nuclear Spill in U.S. History Was Upwind of Malibu Creek

Photo credit, Hans Laetz

PATH—Smoke and ash from the September 2005 fire that burned across the former Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab blew south toward Malibu. Efforts are now underway to determine whether similar wind patterns were in effect during the nuclear reactor accident that occurred at the site in 1959.

Radioactivity Drifted from Accident Site Located 20 Miles North of Coast

BY HANS LAETZ

The possibility that the largest nuclear accident in United States history dumped radioactive material in Malibu Creek’s watershed was raised last week, when scientists released a series of reports about a secret 1959 nuclear accident 20 miles north of Malibu.

State Sen. Sheila James Kuehl on Friday demanded that the current owners of the Rocketdyne site release additional records that were withheld from state investigators about the spread of radiation, as well as tons of poisonous and cancer-causing chemicals, from the facility.

Kuehl said she is specifically angry that Boeing will not release its detailed weather data from the summer of 1959, crucial to finding out which direction the radioactive cloud was blown. A Santa Ana wind or other offshore wind event could have blown the cloud over the Malibu Creek watershed and out to sea over the few thousand residents of 1959 Malibu.

Officials at Boeing, which bought the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory a decade ago, vehemently dispute the study’s conclusions.

“Two major environmental studies, which Boeing was not a part of, examined the site thoroughly and have found there is no health risk,” said the company’s environmental communications manager, Blythe Jameson. “And an examination of the cancer reporting maps shows that there is no concentration of cancers among the plant’s neighbors.”

Kuehl disagrees. “We have never seen a federal study that they (Boeing and Rocketdyne) did not have their fingers in,” she said. “Their scientists always show up to testify that they are not responsible.”

An EPA study in 2003 discounted risks from the site, where an Energy Department cleanup of spilled and partly-burned rocket fuels and solvents is underway. Several housing projects are planned for the immediate area, which federal officials say is safe for habitation.

Kuehl said her job as a state senator “is to make sure development never happens up there.”In the report issued Friday, state scientists estimate that at least 260—and possibly as many as 1800—cases of human cancer could be expected from the airborne nuclear contamination. The report was written over five years by a committee of independent scientists hired by the state at the request of legislators who represent the area.

The new state report was hailed as vindication by Simi Valley residents who have been campaigning for full disclosure for 17 years. They said they were shocked to learn in 1989 that rocket fuel oxidizers called perchlorates, cancerous chemicals and poisons were routinely dumped into unlined disposal pits, leached into groundwater and flowed off the research center site in washes and creeks.

“It was the end of our innocence,” wrote Dawn Kowalski, one of four neighbors galvanized into action 17 years ago, Writing together in a report released Friday, the neighbors said they were blindsided by the disclosures. “The fact that the state agencies we thought were there to protect us knew nothing about the radioactive work at the site was also a rude awakening.”

The Rocketdyne Santa Susana facility sits north of Agoura Hills, with portions of it draining east into the Los Angeles River, west into Calleguas Creek, and south into Malibu Creek. It was used beginning in 1946 for rocket engine tests that sprayed deadly chemicals onto the ground, which may have leached into surface water runoff, and the secret nuclear project beginning in 1949 saw 10 small reactors located there.

No one was told in 1959 when a small nuclear reactor, 20 miles north of Malibu, suffered severe damage and released 450 times more radiation into the air than was released in the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster. The amount of airborne radiation released 47 years ago was quantified for the first time in last week’s report.

In the 1960s, rocket engines that powered the Apollo astronauts to the moon were test-fired at the site. Chemical residue, including 1.7 million gallons of toxic solvents, were dumped in dirt pits, and toxic rocket smoke and unburned fuel coated the hillsides, prompting a multiyear federal cleanup effort.

Tons of trichloroethylene, a cancer causing solvent, and perchlorate were dumped by Rocketdyne and may be leaching into groundwater and three creeks that drain towards Malibu, Los Angeles and Point Mugu.

Last year, firefighters who battled a brushfire in the Malibu Creek watershed at the Rocketdyne plant said the thick brush burned with strange, green flames. Firefighters at Ventura County station 56, in northern Malibu, were ordered to give blood samples after the fire to establish medical records in case they were contaminated by chemicals that had been drawn into vegetation, and then released into the atmosphere during that recent blaze.

The nearest residents are worried that the Rocketdyne site might be used for residential development, which would require the heavy grading of contaminated soils.

“How could a facility operate with materials of such great potential for harm, in an area surrounded by hundreds of thousands of residents, become so contaminated, with essentially no effective oversight?” the residents said in a statement issued Friday.

SMMC Officials Take Challenge in Stride

• Law Firm Seeks Investigation of Their Use of Funding

BY BILL KOENEKER

A Conservancy official said the attorney general’s office has already presented an opinion on the matter. “They found it to be perfectly legitimate,” said Rorie Skei, who is the chief deputy director of SMMC.

The crux of the letter, penned by the law firm Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth “on behalf of certain concerned taxpayers,” is that the SMMC awarded funds to its joint powers agency, called the Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority, that were either allegedly misspent because they were not used for the stated purposes or that it was improper for SMMC to be giving money to MRCA because “[SMMC] is the de facto operator of the MRCA.”

Skei said both assertions are incorrect. “The SMMC and MRCA are joint powers. It is an incorrect conclusion,” she added.

The SMMC is essentially, according to the law firm, making grants of Prop 50 monies to itself. “As previously noted by the Department of Finance in its 2004, 2005 and 2006 audits of SMMC ‘there is not an arms-length separation’ between SMMC and MRCA, which situation is evidenced by the violations identified. Because of SMMC and MRCA’s significant and continuing violations of California law, the taxpayers believe that only the institution of legal action will serve to stop SMMC and MRCA’s illegal expenditure of public funds,” the letter states.

Skei said the charges two years ago were addressed by the two state agencies, which found no wrongdoing and the SMMC’s actions to be perfectly legitimate. She said the two grants being questioned by the taxpayers were specifically approved by the attorney general’s office. Citing state policy, Skei said the bond money may be used for planning and legal services. “That is the law,” she added.

Because the statute of limitations to bring a reverse validation action is approaching, the state agencies are being asked to respond by Oct. 17. If the state does not file legal action, the taxpayers have indicated they will do so.

Yamaguchi Site Deemed ‘Unsuitable’ for Possible SMC Satellite Campus

• Trustees Terminate Escrow on Seven Acres in Civic Center Area

Malibu city officials announced this week that the college district trustees have terminated escrow on the Civic Center property owned by the Yamaguchi Tokiye Trust.

The property was previously identified as a potential site for the Santa Monica College Malibu satellite campus, but was determined to be “unsuitable” for the project. City Manager Jim Thorsen said he did not know what the specifics were for rejection. There was no official SMC statement on the reasons for the trustees action on Monday night.

“Several alternative sites have been identified,” said SMC President Dr. Chui Tsang, in the press release issued by City Hall. “And both the college board and city officials are optimistic that a suitable location in the Civic Center will be found for the Malibu campus.” Tsang was not available for comment on Tuesday when The News goes to press.

In August, city and college officials had announced the start of escrow on the nearly seven-acre parcel adjacent to Malibu City Hall for $8 million.

Since then, extensive trenching was done on the property, a former nursery sometimes known as the “rain forest.” Thorsen said it is probable the rejection of the site was based on test results.

When voters approved Measure S in November 2004, it contained language allowing the city and SMC to partner in the planning of a satellite campus by forming a joint powers authority. The measure allocated $25 million of the bond proceeds to be spent within Malibu.

Political Showtime

BY HANS LAETZ

It was a classic study in modern media manipulation last week, when newspaper reporters and TV crews trudged out to Malibu not once, not twice, but three times to cover all the events surrounding the governor and the environment. Each of the three events were case studies in style over substance, pictures over context.

Such are the real-world pictures of political science, journalism and environmental activism that collided in a perfect storm in Malibu, when our coast was front and center in the political kabuki theater that will affect the view off the Malibu coast for generations.

Local anti-LNG activists had scrambled into action last Monday, when Democratic challenger Phil Angelides’ advance team asked about using Bluffs Park as a backdrop to come out against the BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port project. The next day, LNG opponents learned that Governor Schwarzenegger was planning a media extravaganza at Pepperdine on Wednesday, two days before Angelides.

Activists read this as a surefire hint that the governor was going to endorse Cabrillo Port, and hasty calls were made to the media announcing a preemptory press conference before Schwarzengger’s motorcade rolled in. LNG critics urged the press to “ask him about his support for Cabrillo Port.” But local reporters had already tried that. Their inquiries were directed by the governor’s press office to the governor’s campaign office, and from the campaign office back to the state capital. No answer.

So that was the question of the day as participants were bused up to Pepperdine. The scene that awaited awed even jaded reporters, who said it would have been hard to top the tightly-scripted and highly-staged signing ceremony that the the governor’s script doctors had created.

No expense was spared as Pepperdine University was transformed into an elaborate television stage. Nature reserved judgment, the Malibu coastline, the biggest prop of all, was shrouded in smog from the wildfire near Castaic.

Later, the Los Angeles Times broke the story that several industries that stand to benefit from the Greenhouse Act were paying for the day’s events. The Times estimated $25,000 in costs, but it was clear that more was spent in Malibu alone.

The governor spoke, as did a half dozen dignitaries with important things to say, like the president of the big garbage recycling firm that helped pay for part of the program. But as the speeches wrapped up, no one had mentioned the elephant in the room, the LNG terminal just 22 miles away from Pepperdine that would generate greenhouse gases equal to five percent of California’s current output, according to one scientist.

So, when the governor jokingly asked the crowd if anyone else wanted to talk, one Malibu reporter shouted out a question from the press pen at the rear: “Governor, what about BHP Billiton and its greenhouse gas?”

The governor ignored the question, treating it as coming from a heckler. The reporter was then introduced to several earnest press aides and a plainclothes Highway Patrol officer, who were very concerned that he get an answer to his question without any more shouting.

Because LNG never came up in the governor’s remarks, the impact of the Malibu LNG terminal remains unanswered. The Malibu anti-LNG rally Wednesday got virtually no play on TV, and even the L.A. Times missed the local angle.

The Phil Angelides news conference on Friday, where Oxnard and Malibu officials got to speak, gathered a smattering of local TV coverage and a small article on page B-10 of the Times. But AB 32 got TV news, color pictures and front-page treatment all across the state.

The corporate money used to manufacture the governor’s environmental image was well-spent. The governor will go through this election without being pressed to reconcile how he will reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, while at the same time increasing greenhouse gas emissions dramatically through Cabrillo Port and its attendant, transpacific supply chain.

The smog-shrouded coast was an apt metaphor for it all.