WEEK IN REVIEW : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

The anti-development trend that some have perceived spreading in Orange County seems not to have reached Seal Beach.

Despite hard campaigning by anti-development candidates, incumbents Mayor Joyce Risner and Councilman Victor Grgas easily won reelection in their councilmanic districts.

Their opponents had attacked their stance on development matters: Risner’s support of a business park and Grgas’ proposal to allow downtown developers to contribute to a parking fund rather than provide additional parking.

In a campaign virtually devoid of issues, former Planning Commissioner Joseph Hunt won a spot on the City Council with a landslide vote in the district that comprises most of Leisure World.

The winner, Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Rogers of Costa Mesa, said the battle was not over religion. It was just a housing dispute, he said.

That was not the position of Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. of Huntington Beach, the world’s largest Bible translation organization. Its lawyer argued that the organization is exempt from the usual laws concerning landlords because of freedom of religion.

Wycliffe owns three apartment buildings in Orange County, which it uses to provide low-cost housing to its workers or “members.” Some non-members live there, however--tenants who were there when the buildings were sold to Wycliff.

The organization has in the past waited for the non-members to move out voluntarily, but last December it served an eviction notice on Rogers and his two sons, ages 13 and 11.

But Rogers didn’t want to go. “The fact of the matter is, it’s home,” he said, so he fought the eviction on grounds of religious discrimination.

After nearly four months, a judge rejected the freedom-of-religion argument and ruled that Rogers could not be evicted.

Rogers said he was expecting a few cold shoulders back at the apartment house, but “I’ve got nothing against the group. Most of the members are really nice people.”

It took a Superior Court jury only two hours to decide that Cal State Fullerton philosophy professor Richard L. Smith was not insane when he shot and killed his girlfriend’s estranged husband two years ago.

The same jury, however, had rejected the prosecution argument that Smith had carefully planned the killing. Instead they had convicted Smith of second-degree murder. When he returns for sentencing, Smith could receive a 17-year to life prison sentence.

In another courtroom, Ty Glen Clayton of Westminster was being tried for the third time for the rape of a 21-year-old Huntington Beach woman, and this jury seemed to have little doubt. It convicted him after less than four hours of deliberation.

But his victim, Kimberly Prentice, was not there to see it happen. After the first jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared, she committed suicide by drug overdose.