Local News in Brief : State Closes Car Dealership

The Department of Motor Vehicles have closed an El Segundo used car dealership and filed 13 counts of grand theft against its owner for allegedly stealing cars from other dealers and cash from customers.

Judith A. Younge, 28, owner of South Bay Auto Brokers, pleaded not guilty to the felony charges Friday in South Bay Municipal Court. She was being being held on $50,000 bail.

Younge’s brokerage purchased cars from other dealers and resold them to the public, DMV special investigator Benito Juarez said.

But Juarez charged that Younge failed to pay as many as 20 dealers for cars and that she did not deliver cars to as many as 40 customers who made deposits of up to $10,000.

The DMV has revoked the operating permit for the dealership, which was located on Sepulveda Boulevard in El Segundo.

The DMV first received complaints about the 2 1/2-year-old auto brokerage in May, Juarez said.

Staff Increase Opposed

During lengthy deliberations on a proposed $5.1-million budget for the city of Lawndale, a three-member City Council majority opposed funding additional personnel positions during the 1988-89 fiscal year, with the possible exception of the Police Department.

City Manager Daniel P. Joseph, who took over management of City Hall on June 6, said his proposed budget calls for a reorganization of positions and hiring some new personnel, but overall has about five fewer staff members than the 71 on last year’s city payroll.

But Councilman Harold E. Hofmann insisted Thursday that, because Lawndale lost $1.68 million last year in a speculative securities investment, no new positions should be funded for the 1988-89 fiscal year. He was backed by Councilmen Larry Rudolph and Dan McKenzie. Rudolph said the only possible exception would be increased police staffing to counteract gang incidents in Lawndale.

Mayor Sarann Kruse and Councilwoman Carol Norman argued in favor of the city manager’s requests, but they are likely to be outvoted by Hofmann, Rudolph and McKenzie, who are close political allies.

Although no vote was taken during a three-hour hearing Thursday, the three councilmen objected to a $14,410 request for additional staffing in the city clerk’s office, up to $33,690 for a secretary to the city manager and $45,000 earmarked for the Chamber of Commerce. The council will continue budget talks at 7 p.m. Monday, at City Hall, 14717 Burin Ave.

Jury to Decide Killer’s Fate

A Superior Court jury will hear testimony Monday on whether convicted murderer Maurice Hastings should be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in jail.

Hastings, 34, was convicted Thursday by the same jury of murdering Roberta Wydermyer of Inglewood more than five years ago.

The jury needed two weeks to reach its verdict, at the end of a four-month trial, one of the longest criminal trials in Torrance courthouse history.

Wydermyer never returned home from a late-night trip to the supermarket in June, 1983. The 30-year-old woman was robbed and shot once in the head.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Martin used circumstantial evidence to tie Hastings to the crime, while Deputy Public Defender Mike Clark argued that Hastings was at a party in Los Angeles, and not in Inglewood, on the night of the murder.

More than 100 witnesses testified and nearly 300 exhibits were presented during the trial.

The trial is the second for Hastings on the murder charge. Another Torrance jury deadlocked 10-2 for conviction two years ago.