Outrage Over Bail in Pastor’s Murder Prompts New Policy : Justice system: D.A.’s office moves to generally prohibit bail in such cases. Amounts of $20,000 had been set for 2 white teens in black man’s death.

Responding to community outrage over the “absurdly low” bail set for two white teen-agers suspected of murdering a black pastor, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office apologized to the victim’s family Friday and announced a new policy that will generally prohibit bail in murder cases.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Thompson said prosecutors will now routinely recommend no bail for murder suspects. If circumstances lead prosecutors to deviate from that policy and recommend bail, any amount under $250,000 will require approval of top administrators in the district attorney’s office, he said.

“If it’s a murder case, we are starting with the assumption that there is no bail and we go from there,” Thompson said.

The policy change follows meetings between prosecutors, ministers and community activists from the northeast San Fernando Valley who were angered when prosecutors recommended bail of only $20,000 for two white teen-agers charged with the July 28 slaying of 54-year-old Carl White, pastor of the Apostolic Temple Church in Pacoima.

The Ministers’ Fellowship of the Greater San Fernando Valley called the low bail “lethal racism” and charged that if two blacks were accused of slaying a white minister, a far higher amount would have been recommended.

On Friday, the ministers backed away from charges of racism and lauded the policy change.

“This is what we asked for,” said the Rev. James V. Lyles, president of the ministers’ group. “I think this will prohibit a similar thing from happening again.”

Authorities said White was killed in his Chatsworth home by two Northridge teen-agers who shot him during a dispute over a minor traffic accident that had occurred the night before. Three days after the slaying, police arrested Philip Dimenno, 19, and Dana Singer, 18, and charged both with murder.

Before the teen-agers were arraigned, prosecutors in the San Fernando district attorney’s office recommended unusually low bail of $20,000 because of the suspects’ ties to the community, their lack of known criminal records, their cooperation with investigators and the fact that they lived with their parents.

But the next day, bail was revoked at the prosecutor’s request when police learned that the gun used to kill White had been stolen, that the suspects had been previously cited for carrying weapons and that they allegedly had been involved in credit card fraud.

Dimenno was free less than a day before he was jailed again. Singer had not been released before bail was revoked.

The district attorney’s office denied the racism charge raised by the ministers. Billy D. Webb, head of the prosecutors’ office in San Fernando who approved the initial bail recommendation, said he was unaware of the victim’s race when he made the decision.

But top officials in the prosecutor’s office, after reviewing Webb’s decision, said it was a mistake.

At Friday’s press conference, Thompson called the $20,000 bail “absurdly low” and said, “It cheapened the life and death of Rev. White.”

Thompson said the tragedy White’s family has experienced was compounded by the bail error. “They had a right to expect more from the criminal justice system,” he said.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s office released a copy of a letter he sent this week to the victim’s wife, Margaret. “The initial decision to recommend the bail for the defendants clearly was wrong,” Reiner wrote.

Fred Taylor, a member of the ministers’ group and president of a consortium of local homeowners’ groups, said that resolution of the bail controversy will help improve relations between the community and the district attorney’s office.