Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

Andrija Artukovic, one-time interior minister of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia and a former Seal Beach resident, was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad in Yugoslavia for atrocities he committing during World War II.

Reaction to the death sentence was mixed. “Justice was done,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Los Angeles. But Artukovic’s son, Radoslav, said the verdict “stinks,” and he vowed to appeal.

“The Yugoslav government did not allow us to put on a defense,” the younger Artukovic said. “If he committed war crimes, I’ve got no problems (with the verdict). But how can you prove anything when you don’t give me the right to defend my dad?”

Artukovic, 86, was found guilty last Wednesday by the District Court in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, of murdering hundreds of men, women and children, mostly Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.

The elderly man, who had lived in the United States since 1948, was extradited to Yugoslavia last February. His attorneys are expected to appeal the decision.

Michael Victor Louciano started out stretching limousines and ended up stretching the truth, authorities said--so far, in fact, that he wound up last week in a Los Angeles federal courtroom on bank fraud charges.

Louciano and his partner, John Marsella, 45, of Corona del Mar, allegedly planned to build a fleet of customized stretch limousines to lease to visitors at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Louciano borrowed $3.8 million. Although the two men had offices in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana and built a few of the giant luxury cars, federal authorities allege that the two pocketed most of the money they borrowed from banks in Los Angeles and Northridge.

Louciano was arrested last February after he allegedly tried to bribe an FBI agent posing as a loan officer, and a federal grand jury indictment charged him with 32 counts of conspiracy, submitting false loan applications to banks and attempting to execute a scheme to defraud a bank.

Marsella was indicted on 17 counts similar to Louciano’s.

According to the indictment, Louciano and Marsella persuaded about 50 friends and acquaintances to fill out loan applications to borrow about $50,000 to build each limousine. They allegedly promised the borrowers generous tax write-offs and an immediate $5,000 cash payment for leasing back their limousines.

Louciano is in custody in Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution. Marsella is free on bail.

The controversy over Ku Klux Klan leader Thomas Metzger’s taping of his “Race and Reason” television show at Cal State Fullerton appeared to subside when Group W Cable announced that the show would be taped at a new location off campus.

For more than a month, students had protested Metzger’s use of public access television equipment on campus to broadcast racist programs. The equipment was provided by Group W in exchange for use of the university’s buildings.

Jim Bray, manager of Group W’s North Orange County Office in Fullerton, said plans to move public-access taping off campus had been under way long before the Metzger controversy erupted. Bray said the company will consolidate all its equipment at its West Commonwealth Avenue office because activities had been too fragmented.

Metzger praised Cal State Fullerton President Jewel Plummer Cobb, who repeatedly told students she would not prevent the Metzger tapings because freedom of speech was involved.

“She has handled the situation well and earned great respect,” Metzger said.

The only “loss” to his Fallbrook-based Aryan Resistance organization, Metzger said, will be the loss of publicity about student protests.

Metzger explained that the protests and news stories have generated “a lot of mail and applications for membership. . . . What can I say? I’ve got good enemies.”

State medical officials and an Orange County surgeon have settled their dispute over so-called “bloodless surgery” out of court, but spokesmen on both sides of the controversy stand by their positions.

Kenneth Wagstaff, director of the Board of Medical Quality Assurance, agreed to drop its charges of negligence and incompetence against Dr. Ron Lapin, who previously practiced in Yorba Linda. Lapin later moved to Los Angeles County, where he practiced in Bellflower, and he now works in Norwalk.

Wagstaff said the only reason the charges, which he maintained were justified, were dropped was that “you need a solid outside medical expert and we couldn’t find one.”

Lapin’s lawyer, Frank P. Barbaro, said, “My purpose was to clear Dr. Lapin, and he has been totally vindicated.” In return for the state’s dropping the charges, Lapin agreed to drop $10 million worth of state and federal suits against the board.

A Jehovah’s Witness, Lapin offered surgery that would not require blood transfusions, which are prohibited by the religion.

The state’s accusations, dating from 1981, include charges by several women who said Lapin performed hysterectomies that may not have been necessary.

Of 116 similar proceedings brought by the state in the last 12 months, only six have been withdrawn by the medical board.