Local News in Brief : Ex-JDL Member Cited

A former member of the Jewish Defense League was held in contempt of court Friday for refusing to provide fingerprints and photos to a grand jury investigating a 1980 bombing, but she agreed to cooperate moments after she was ordered into custody.

Louise Salomon, 31, of Santa Monica, had sought Wednesday to quash a federal grand jury subpoena--seeking her fingerprints, palm prints and a photograph of herself--because she believed the order was unreasonable.

When Salomon continued to defy the subpoena in another hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon found her in contempt of court and ordered her jailed. But moments later, she told the judge that she would comply by providing the requested material.

Salomon is one of six current and former JDL members who have been subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating the mail-bomb death of Patricia Wilkerson, 35, a Manhattan Beach secretary, in July, 1980. Although the six were subpoenaed, federal authorities said the bombing was not politically motivated.

Former JDL member Robert Manning, 36, and his wife, Rochelle, 48, have been indicted in the Manhattan Beach case. She is in custody here but her husband remains a fugitive in Israel. Federal authorities have identified Robert Manning as one of four suspects in three other bombings in this country believed to be the work of right-wing Jewish groups, including the 1985 killing in Santa Ana of Arab-American activist Alex Odeh.