Local News in Brief : Nurse Pleads No Contest
Hal Speers Rachman, a 41-year-old registered nurse, pleaded no contest Monday in Santa Monica Superior Court to charges that he attempted to murder an AIDS patient and to five counts of forgery in seeking to steal $32,000 from the man’s bank and credit card accounts.
Rachman, a Venice resident, is expected to be ordered to serve nine years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 1, according Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard de la Sota.
Rachman was accused of calling St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica one night in 1986 and--pretending to be a physician--prescribing a potentially lethal dose of insulin for Edward S. Lebowitz, then a patient at the hospital. Rachman had taken care of Lebowitz for a time at St. John’s.
Lebowitz, a 49-year-old lawyer and vice president of the William Morris talent agency in Beverly Hills, died four days later as a result of complications from acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
