2 Southland Men Acquitted in Fraud Case

Two Los Angeles area businessmen, found innocent by a jury Wednesday on four criminal charges in a $25-million bank fraud case, do not have to go to trial again Tuesday along with a separate group of defendants, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Rea ruled Friday.

The judge rejected a motion by the U.S. Attorney’s Office involving the retrial of 35 still-unresolved charges against the two, Kimball Dean Richards and Thomas E. Curnow.

The jury, which sat in the case since mid-January, ended in a deadlock on those charges. A large majority of the jurors reportedly favored acquittal on the remaining charges, according to attorneys on both sides.

Reconsideration Asked

Richards, who headed an entertainment firm called Consolidated Allied Cos., and Curnow, who operated T-C Audio, were indicted with others on charges of conducting a scheme to defraud major lending firms with leases on recording equipment that did not exist.

Rea had ruled last December that Richards and Curnow could be tried separately from a group in the same case associated with Riviera Capital, a commercial finance firm based in Huntington Beach. The three are Robert P. Bernfeld, president; John Newton Griffith, vice president, and Georgianna Carson, secretary.

After the jury action, prosecutor Leon W. Weidman asked Rea to reconsider his earlier ruling and have Richards and Curnow tried jointly with the Riviera defendants.

The groups originally were separated for trial after Richards and Bernfeld had blamed each other for the events that led to the charges. Judge Rea said Friday that he found no reason to change his earlier decision. He scheduled a retrial of Richards and Curnow for Oct. 10.