Local News in Brief : Jail Informant to Be Segregated
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered informant Leslie White, who sparked an unprecedented review of jailhouse “snitches,” segregated from other County Jail inmates for his own safety.
“Because of the information he has divulged, he could be in jeopardy from other inmates,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Longo said in asking Judge Ernest Hiroshige for the “keep-away” order.
White, who failed to appear in Hiroshige’s court last week for sentencing in a purse-snatching case, told his attorney that he had been beaten up while on the street by unidentified gang members who had marked him a “snitch.”
White was arrested during a drug raid at a downtown motel over the weekend and was brought before Hiroshige for the sentencing Wednesday, but the proceeding was postponed until Feb. 23.
White last year demonstrated for authorities how, while in jail, he could concoct a murder confession from a defendant he had never met by gathering information over the telephone.
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