Local News in Brief : Judge Rejects Jail Informant’s Bargain

A Superior Court judge Thursday refused to accept a plea bargain that the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office had negotiated with jailhouse informant Leslie Vernon White. Judge Ernest Hiroshige said the convicted kidnaper and armed robber deserved to spend more than 16 months in jail for snatching an elderly woman’s purse.

White had negotiated the 16-month term last fall, just before county prosecutors began a massive review of cases involving informants because he demonstrated that, by posing as a law enforcement officer on a jail telephone, he could convincingly fabricate the murder confession of an inmate he had never met.

Hiroshige said he rejected the bargain because of White’s long criminal record and his failure to appear at a sentencing hearing Jan. 19. Over White’s objection, he ordered the case returned to Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing.

White’s attorney, John Polakovic, said afterward that he believes White is being punished because of his demonstration. “They’re not happy with what he’s done,” he said.

White faces a maximum sentence of three years on the purse snatching charge and perhaps as many as 25 years if all of his convictions are taken into account, Polakovic said.