People and Events

A Los Angeles-area attorney named Lake Trout was in a jam in Carson City, Nev., where he was arraigned Tuesday in connection with the alleged use of a dead man’s credit cards to pay for--among other things--a 12-hour, $2,000 visit to a brothel.

The 36-year-old Trout came to their attention, authorities said, when he left a briefcase in the taxi that took him from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., to Carson City and then to a legal bordello in adjacent Lyon County--a $300 ride. After waiting 12 hours, the cabbie gave up and left, taking the briefcase to Mammoth Lakes police.

Officers there said the briefcase contained items belonging to Irwin J. Monroe, a Studio City man who died two weeks ago at age 74. Mammoth Lakes Officer Paul Dostie said there were two handguns, keys to safe deposit boxes, bank account records and a death certificate showing that Monroe’s wife died last August.

Dostie said he also found a document that would have given Trout power of attorney over Monroe’s assets--if Monroe had signed it. Dostie said he found that Monroe’s credit cards had been used to get a cash advance at a Carson City casino and to pay for a hotel room.

By then, Dostie was getting suspicious. “I just didn’t think it was likely that a 74-year-old man could spend 12 hours in a brothel,” he said.

Things were not going at all well in Nevada for a West Los Angeles law student, either. Richard Irving Levinson, 25, was arrested in Las Vegas by FBI agents after he allegedly applied for fraudulent credit totaling $250,000 at five casinos.

FBI spokesman Tom Nicodemus said that Levinson, a Pepperdine University student, sought $50,000 credit at each of the unidentified establishments. He was taken into custody when he returned to the first one to pick up his credit markers, Nicodemus said.

The West Hollywood City Council’s Monday night meeting was being carried on cable TV. When the telecast was interrupted for a commercial, at least one fascinated viewer apparently couldn’t stand it. He called the security office for the building at West Hollywood Park where the meeting was held, demanding to know how soon the show would be back on his screen.

The guard didn’t know. That wasn’t good enough for the caller, who said there was a bomb on the premises, set to go off in 15 minutes.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the park building but found nothing explosive.

Meanwhile, the council members simply strolled across the street to the West Hollywood sheriff’s station and resumed their deliberations.

Dorothy Putnam and Lois Mercer can stay.

The two women, 92 and 93, had been facing eviction from the Los Feliz-area apartment where they have lived for 25 years, because of a dispute with their landlord over a $40 doorknob repair bill.

Now, says their attorney, Barbara Blanco, the landlord has agreed to split the bill 50-50, suspend the eviction and work out “a written protocol so we can avoid this in future,” said Blanco.

“I feel so much better . . . we don’t have to get out,” said Putnam, a pioneering long-distance driver and the area’s first licensed “chauffeuse.” She said many people expressed their concern after their story was printed. A couple she once chauffeured stopped by to ask if they could help.