Black Leaders Seek Court, Gun Law Changes After Bail Error : Activism: A community group wants to use the slaying of a preacher and subsequent mishandling of the murder suspects as a rallying point for criminal justice reforms.

Black community leaders in Pacoima said Saturday that they would use the controversy over the treatment of two white students accused of murdering a black preacher as a rallying point for gaining reforms in the criminal justice system and tighter restrictions on gun ownership.

“We need to take the unfortunate death of Rev. White and build on this,” said Fred Taylor, president of the community group Focus 90s, referring to the July 28 slaying of the Rev. Carl White in Chatsworth.

The death should be “a rallying point to get people involved in working within the system to change things.”

More than 60 Pacoima church members and civic leaders gathered Saturday to hear details of a 2 1/2-hour closed-door meeting held Friday between Taylor and two other black leaders and top officials of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to discuss the handling of those accused of White’s death.

White was shot in the back of the head in his home, allegedly during a dispute that arose when Philip J. Dimenno and Dana L. Singer tried to persuade him not to report a minor traffic accident.

Dimenno, 19, and Singer, 18, were later arrested, and bail was set at the unusually low amount of $20,000.

The bail was quickly revoked, and the district attorney’s office acknowledged that a mistake had been made.

Singer and Dimenno are now in jail without bail.

But the Ministers’ Fellowship of the Greater San Fernando Valley, an organization of 41 Pacoima-area churches, objected that the original bail had been an insult to White’s family and possibly racially motivated.

After Friday’s meeting, a spokeswoman for the district attorney said the office would re-evaluate its bail-setting procedures and publicly apologize to White’s family.

The Rev. James V. Lyles, the president of the ministers’ fellowship who also participated in Friday’s meeting, said the black leaders and the district attorney’s office will hold a news conference Thursday or Friday to announce specific terms of the revised policies and to issue the apology.

“We want to work with the district attorney’s office so that the criminal justice system can be the best that it can be,” Lyles said. “We want it to be where our people can walk the streets without fears and not be prisoners in their own homes.

“We have very consistently said that people who commit murder should not be granted bail,” he said. “We would certainly ask that people who commit crimes of violence not be put back on the street whether they are black, white, green or gray.”

Lyles announced that a town hall-type meeting will be held Sept. 8 so that members of the community at large can become involved in efforts of the ministers and Focus 90s, a group of six homeowner associations and several community groups in the Pacoima area.

“It will be a communitywide meeting, and we’re inviting the leadership of all organizations,” Lyles said. “We want to map out new steps. There are two or three areas we need to move into.”

For example, Lyles said, gun control of some type is needed. “If you don’t have a gun, you can’t shoot anybody.”

The ministers’ fellowship voted Aug. 11 to call for the firing or resignation of Billy D. Webb, the head of the district attorney’s operations at the San Fernando Courthouse who recommended the low initial bail.

But Lyles said that if the district attorney’s representatives follow through on their promises, that vote will be formally rescinded next week.

“After yesterday’s meeting, we discovered that Billy Webb is not the issue,” he said. “Billy Webb is more a victim of the system.”

Although Taylor agreed with Lyles, he said he still would like to see Webb reassigned. “I still would not want him out here.”

Lyles said black community leaders will also meet Saturday with Mayor Tom Bradley to discuss crime and other issues in the Pacoima area.