1990: A RETROSPECTIVE : Trials and Tribulations : The Rich and Famous, the Law Enforcers and the Law Breakers All Had Their Problems

Los Angeles, long a citadel of impulse and excess, kicked off the 1990s with spectacular displays of fire and gunfire, takeovers and trials.

The first year of the ‘90s was also one in which history kept repeating itself.

Still reeling from the First Interstate Bank tower, Los Angeles Central Library and Pan-Pacific Auditorium blazes of the late 1980s, Los Angeles firefighters were back in action extinguishing massive conflagrations that roared through canyon neighborhoods of Glendale, the back lot of Universal Studios and a Metro Rail subway tunnel. The latter blaze, while primarily underground, forced officials to close portions of the Hollywood Freeway for more than a week.

In Hollywood, foreign businessmen continued their spending spree. On the heels of Sony’s 1989 takeover of Columbia Pictures, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. agreed to buy MCA Inc. and MGM-United Artists was sold to Italian investor Giancarlo Parretti.

The MCA purchase included the Universal Studios property that had caught fire a few weeks earlier. But it was not exactly a fire sale. With a $6.59-billion price tag, the deal was by far the largest takeover yet of an American company by a Japanese firm.

During 1990, Los Angeles County’s murder rate continued to spiral out of control, soaring 17.9% through midyear. Gang-related killings skyrocketed a staggering 69% in unincorporated portions of the county. During one October weekend, 20 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded--from Malibu to Highland Park to La Canada Flintridge.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials continued to get into trouble themselves.

Six veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were found guilty of conspiring to steal cash seized from drug traffickers. A state agency accused the Los Angeles Police Department of unlawfully discriminating against Latino officers in promotions and pay increases. Residents of a Dalton Avenue neighborhood ransacked by Los Angeles police during a 1988 drug raid accepted a $3-million settlement in a still-unfolding case. And, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates drew fire himself for suggesting a novel solution to the war on drugs.

“The casual drug user ought to be taken out and shot,” Gates declared during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.

Leading businessmen, politicians and Hollywood celebs faced the music in 1990.

Former thrift czar Charles H. Keating Jr. was indicted in Los Angeles for allegedly violating state security laws in the sale of more than $200 million of uninsured bonds at branches of his failed Lincoln Savings & Loan.

And that other symbol of excess in the go-go ‘80s, Encino’s Michael Milken, was handed a 10-year prison sentence in New York for securities law violations. The former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond king, who operated out of a Beverly Hills office building, was denied leniency despite letters extolling his virtues from luminaries including Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, actor Henry (The Fonz) Winkler and Chief Gates.

Former state Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) was sent to prison for 6 1/2 years in 1990 for selling his vote to special-interest groups. State Board of Equalization member Paul Carpenter earned a 12-year prison term for extorting money from special interests while serving as a state senator from Norwalk. Despite his conviction and removal from office, Carpenter won reelection to the tax board post two months later--although he remains barred from serving.

Various Hollywood celebrities starred in real-life productions of L.A. Law.

Long-reclusive Marlon Brando appeared frequently before cameras outside Los Angeles courtrooms after his eldest son, Christian, was charged with slaying his pregnant sister’s lover. The shooting occurred at Brando’s $4-million hilltop house while the actor was in another room.

Actor Corey Feldman was sentenced to four years’ probation for drug possession; “Cheers” regular Kelsey Grammer received 30 days in jail for failing to attend an alcohol-abuse program, and “Diff’rent Strokes” star Todd Bridges was acquitted of charges of shooting a drug dealer eight times in a South-Central Los Angeles rock house.

Then there was Zsa Zsa Gabor, who strode out of the El Segundo slammer after serving 72 hours for slapping a Beverly Hills cop. Still defiant, she told the pushy paparazzi that she had learned no lesson. “I never done a damn thing,” she explained.

The longest and costliest criminal prosecution in history--the McMartin Pre-School molestation case--finally ground to a halt in 1990. But the conclusion was far from conclusive.

Seven years after lead defendant Ray Buckey was arrested for allegedly participating in ritualistic sex molestations of scores of pupils, two successive juries failed to resolve whether Buckey had abused anyone. Facing the likelihood of yet another mistrial, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner ended the long regional nightmare by announcing that his office would not try the Manhattan Beach preschool teacher a third time.

Meanwhile, a task force report painted a lurid picture of child abuse in Los Angeles County. During a one-year period, an average of one child was murdered a week by a parent or caretaker; more than 2,400 babies were born addicted to drugs, and school officials found at least 1,800 children who had been sexually abused.

The year saw real estate sales plummet and the homeless population rise. One private study concluded that there are now more than 100,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County. The regional drought continued, and in late December a record-breaking cold snap wreaked havoc on water mains and farm crops.

However, there was a lot of good news, too.

The Long Beach-to-Los Angeles Blue Line light rail service opened, ushering in what regional transit planners hope will be a new era of public transportation in Southern California.

By year’s end, government plans were announced to purchase Southern Pacific right of way to operate a 280-mile rail network linking Los Angeles, San Bernardino and the San Fernando Valley.

In addition, the Port of Los Angeles passed New York as the nation’s busiest commercial gateway. Southern California smog levels were the lowest in more than 40 years of record-keeping during the May-through-October smog season.

Joyous, tear-filled reunions were the order of the day at Los Angeles International Airport when more than a dozen area residents held hostage by Iraq returned home. “I plan to lean back, have a couple of long-neck beers, and maybe a milkshake,” declared John Remington, thinking back to the deprivations of his human-shield diet.

Finally, whatever the jaded might think, outsiders continued to stream into Los Angeles County in 1990. About 340,000 newcomers set up residence here, joining more than 3.5 million people who have moved to Los Angeles County during the last decade--the largest tide of humanity to flood a U.S. community since New York at the turn of the century.