D E DITIO N E K E E N W
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Santa Monica Daily Press March 11-12, 2006
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SAMOHI — It was on full display Friday how the school community and city as a whole have come together in the wake of Eduardo Lopez’ shocking death, as more than a thousand of his fellow
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NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
Volume 5, Issue 102
Student’s memory spurs a city
DAILY LOTTERY
Daytime: Evening:
A newspaper with issues
SHEPARD
A familiar definition of “insanity” (attributed to Albert Einstein) is doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting different results. Donald E. Neff, 38, of Pleasant Township, Ohio, launched his 27-foot boat in the Portage River to access Lake Erie on Nov. 12, but it ran aground, and Neff required a Coast Guard rescue. Despite warnings to wait for higher tide, Neff got another boat the next day and set out again. He of course ran the second boat aground and had to be re-rescued. Two days later, he persuaded a friend to take him out, but naturally the friend’s boat ran aground, requiring the Coast Guard once again. Officials were contemplating as many as seven criminal charges against Neff.
Today is the 70th day of 2006. There are 295 days left in the year. On March 11, 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, vowing: “I shall return.” (He kept that promise nearly three years later.)
INDEX Horoscopes 2
Snow & Surf Report Water temperature: 55°
3
State Latin-style laughs
4
Opinion That’s amore ... I think
6
Q-Line Gangs gotta go
6-7
Local Taking stock in art
12
Comics Strips tease
20
Classifieds Your place or mine?
21-23
Daily Press Staff Writer
WEST LA — A unanimous jury on Friday ordered City Hall to fork over nearly $2 million to an elderly man whose arm was crushed underneath the wheels of a Big Blue Bus. After deliberating for nearly two days in West Los Angeles Superior Court, the jury found City Hall negligent in an accident involving a Big Blue Bus and Haroun Mehdipour, 81, who said he was trying to hail down a bus at Barrington Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard on May 5, 2004, when the bus driver slammed the door in his face and drove off, knocking Mehdipour to the ground, where his left arm was run over and the skin ripped off. The arm was eventually amputated at the shoulder. The jury said City Hall should be responsible for paying for Mehdipour’s medical bills as well as for the loss of his arm and the ALL SINGERS
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See LOPEZ MEMORIAL, page 13
Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press Students walk alongside community activists and members of Eddie Lopez’ family during a march for peace and unity through Pico neighborhood on Friday.
Jury: City is responsible Accusations of impropriety for man losing left arm push city manager’s buttons BY KEVIN HERRERA
TODAY IN HISTORY
Playtime, Aries
EDUARDO LOPEZ
Samohi students and community activists took to the streets, joining the family for a peace and unity march through the Pico neighborhood. Meanwhile, a much more subtle, but no less meaningful gesture was being made in the school’s cafeteria. Five parents gathered with their children to clean and re-arrange lunch tables, collect donated food and decorate the bare cafeteria in preparation for a reception following today’s funeral for Lopez, who was gunned down by a suspected gang member on Feb. 28. Both events, while drastically different in purpose and scope, demonstrate the many ways in which the Samohi community and the city as a whole have come
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life he and his wide Parvin once knew. Parvin Mehdipour sued City Hall as well, contending her husband suffers from severe memory loss. Still, City Hall wasn’t solely to blame. The jury also found that Mehdipour was 25 percent responsible for the accident and deducted that amount from the total award, leaving Mehdipour and his family with $1.98 million and change. The verdict was celebrated by attorneys on both sides. “Our clients are happy, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters,” said Shawn Azizzadeh, an attorney representing the Mehdipours. “Finally, Santa Monica will be held responsible.” The Mehdipours had originally asked for $7 million to settle the case, but City Hall refused, according to a report from the City Attorney. “We are very happy with the verdict,” said Chief Deputy City Attorney Jeanette Schachtner.
By staff and wire reports
SAN DIEGO — Former San Diego City Manager and current Santa Monica City Manager Lamont Ewell responded Friday to conjecture that 9,000 e-mails on his computer were intentionally erased around the time he left for his new job in November. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
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See EWELL, page 13
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said it was a disturbing development because the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Securities and Exchange Commission could demand Ewell’s e-mails. Federal officials have sought a variety of employee e-mails and other documents in separate city government investigations in the past two years. “It doesn’t matter who subpoenas us or what they do, all we can reply is that somebody defeated security and erased them,” Sanders said Thursday. He has ordered an investigation into who deleted the e-mails. Deliberate elimination of email messages would violate state law and the city’s records-retention policy. But according to Ewell, the procedures surrounding the e-mails were legal. “Prior to my departure as San Diego’s City Manager, I understand
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