Local News in Brief : Sabotage Count Dropped

Federal prosecutors Monday dropped one of two sabotage counts in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against a woman who said she destroyed a sophisticated Air Force navigation computer so it could not be used in a first-strike nuclear attack against the Soviet Union.

Katya Komisaruk, 28, who left behind flowers, cookies and a poem after the June 2 attack at Vandenberg Air Force Base, will be tried on a single charge of damaging government property. Assistant U.S. Atty. Nora M. Manella said the second charge--damaging national defense material--was dropped because “we think the case can be tried sufficiently and adequately with just a single count.”

U.S. District Judge William J. Rea previously granted the government’s request to exclude all evidence that Komisaruk was acting to prevent the threat of nuclear war.