1999 The year in review

February 1-7: Beard-Williams, murder trials dominate news

Feb. 1

PALMDALE - Diana BeardWilliams, on forced leave from her job as school district publicist and fighting a court battle over handling of Palmdale Education Foundation money, offered her view of the crisis in a 22-page court declaration.

Filed in Superior Court on Jan. 25, the declaration was in answer to foundation President Kathe Duren's request for a restraining order against Beard-Williams, and a legal request for Beard-Williams to turn over financial records for a court-ordered audit of foundation financial records.

LANCASTER - Rite Aid's 1 million-square-foot warehouse is expected to open this September and eventually employ nearly 1,000 workers.

Feb. 3

WASHINGTON - In their first face-to-face meeting, White House lawyers offered Monica Lewinsky an apology Monday "on behalf of the president" for the difficulties the impeachment investigation has caused her.

LANCASTER - Park View Intermediate School has everything but a gym - but that's about to change. On Friday morning, school and city officials will break ground on a $1.7 million gymnasium. The 8,500-square-foot facility is expected to open in August.

LANCASTER - The Department of Defense budget request for fiscal year 2000 asks nearly $33 million to build 188 new homes at Edwards Air Force Base.

The request is part of an $8.5 billion military construction program announced in Monday's release of President Bill Clinton's budget.

Feb. 4

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County supervisors voted 4-1 to look into suing the gun industry in what is a growing national trend with several big cities already filing suit and dozens of others expected to do so soon.

TULSA, OKLA. - More than half of 23 prospective jurors voted Tuesday to acquit the two men accused of killing Robert Mark D'Errico, who was killed in September 1996 at a Tulsa nightclub.

PALMDALE - A task force of FBI agents working with local sheriff's deputies and LAPD swept in and arrested a Palmdale man, who was among 16 suspected Mexican Mafia leaders arrested Tuesday in a countywide sweep.

EDWARDS AFB - An end to supersonic transport research and a heading for the sands of Mars are some of the changes on the horizon for NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. All of this was revealed in the NASA fiscal year 2000 budget released this week.

PALMDALE - To address the overcrowding of students on the west side of Palmdale, the Palmdale School District board of trustees voted to pull additional facilities onto several school sites.

LANCASTER - In a planned reorganization of the Aero-Space Technology side of its operation, NASA has bolstered the Dryden Flight Research Center budget, making the center the lead in its new revolutionary concepts program.

PALMDALE - A Superior Court judge granted a motion that would require embattled Palmdale Education Foundation Director Diana Beard-Williams to appear at a civil deposition and give testimony, or face the prospect of losing her court battle.

LANCASTER - Mel Grussing was apparently ousted from his position as head of Los Angeles County's High Desert Hospital and placed on administrative leave Wednesday. The action apparently stemmed from results of a recent audit of the facility.

TULSA, OKLA. - A bar bouncer whose tactics caused the death of an Antelope Valley man in a gaudy Tulsa bar "talked trash" and slammed Robert D'Errico's head into the floor, witnesses said Wednesday. Prosecutors have the unusual task of sponsoring witnesses who are critical of the Tulsa Police Department.

LEONA VALLEY - After nearly 13 months on the lam, Apache, a 5 1/2-year-old red-speckled male Queensland Heeler owned by Lee and Sandy Wise of San Andreas, is back at Betty McGehee's Happy Acres Kennel, where the American and Canadian champion cattle dog will be reunited with his owners.

Feb. 5

TULSA, Okla. - Prosecutors rested their case Thursday against two men accused of killing Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico in a barroom scuffle more than two years ago. The state wrapped up its case against Chad Wayne Hillman and Travis Lee Shannon by playing audiotaped interviews of the defendants' conversations with Tulsa police officers made the day of D'Errico's death on Sept. 24, 1996.

CALIFORNIA CITY - "Operation Sandblast," a four-month investigation into illegal drug use in California City and Ridgecrest, netted 75 arrests for possession and sale of cocaine, PCP, methamphetamine and marijuana in an inter-agency drug sweep.

PALMDALE - Barris Sibbald, a Palmdale accountant accused of dishonesty by Palmdale Education Foundation director Diana Beard-Williams, said in a court document filed Thursday that Beard-Williams asked him to do something illegal, and when he refused she threatened him. Sibbald is one of the founding members of the foundation and an original member of the group's board of directors.

Feb. 6

LANCASTER - Improper dumping behind High Desert Hospital was the reason Mel Grussing, the facility's top administrator, was placed on administrative leave this past week, the Valley Press has learned.

The disciplinary action was the result of a report on hospital dumping issued a year ago by the Inspection and Audit Division of Los Angeles County's Department of Health Services.

TULSA, OKLA. - A judge dismissed a juror and slapped a contempt of court charge on defendant Chad Wayne Hillman in the second-degree manslaughter case against those accused of killing Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico.

Feb. 7

William C. Markham, publisher of the Antelope Valley Press, announced today that Dennis Anderson has been named the new editor of the newspaper. He replaces Larry Grooms, who left the paper on Jan. 4.

EDWARDS AFB - NASA's model of the X-38, an international space station lifeboat, successfully completed its second drop tests at Edwards Air Force Base on Saturday, virtually solving a pesky problem with the parafoil that slows and steers the vehicle.

WASHINGTON - Pressing their case before a national television audience, House Republican prosecutors and White House lawyers offered dueling video snippets Saturday of the woman at the center of the perjury and obstruction of justice case against President Bill Clinton.

PALMDALE - Robert Cason, a Palmdale resident who took the safety of his community into his own hands after a Christmas Day robbery attempt was honored by Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca during the Palmdale Sheriff's Station dedication Saturday. Baca said Cason went above the normal call of duty to detain a man who was beating and attempting to rob a mother and daughter.

Uploaded December 17, 1999