Bogus ‘Illegal-Alien Hot Line’ Gets Switched Off : Dispute: Latino leaders talk Anaheim businessman into hanging up the tactic in fight with TV station.

The originator of a bogus telephone hot line asking citizens to turn in illegal immigrants said Friday he has discontinued the controversial line in an effort to settle a dispute with a Spanish-language TV station.

Anaheim businessman Bruce Derflinger, former head of the county chapter of the Jewish Defense League, said the line was discontinued after members of a county Latino-rights group offered to mediate his dispute with Glendale TV station KVEA, Channel 52.

“I have gotten sort of tired of the whole situation,” Derflinger said, referring to his nearly four-year battle with the station and to the uproar his hot line created.

Latino leaders became outraged earlier this month when they learned of the anonymous Spanish-language telephone recording formatted like a contest that offered “bonus points” for those who turn in illegal immigrants. The message also contained a derogatory term for illegal immigrants.

Derflinger contended that the hot line was not racially motivated but was installed to “get back” at the station.

KVEA ran a contest on the same telephone number--but with a different area code--as that of Derflinger’s former business. Contestants following the station in Orange County would miss the area-code difference and jam Derflinger’s line in area 714.

Because his line got jammed, customers could not reach him, Derflinger said, and he finally went out of business in early 1990.

Within weeks, Derflinger said, he placed the recording on the 714 number in hope that callers would get angry and pressure the station to change the contest number or to address his concerns.

Derflinger and station general manager Augustine Martinez met soon after the hot line gained media attention, but Derflinger said the station’s offer of $1,500 to change his number and drop the recording did not come close to meeting his business losses, which he estimated at $35,000.

Derflinger refused to remove the recording until Friday, when David Amin, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, and member George W. Abbes offered to meet with station officials.

But they did not promise Derflinger that they would help get him a cash settlement, they added.

Abbes also recorded for Derflinger a new message in Spanish that states that the hot line is “no longer in business” and that “we do not expect it to return.”

Amin said he and Abbes pleaded with Derflinger to give up the line and not to take his frustrations out “on the poor and powerless.”

“I think he just erred, in every possible way, of doing something” about his problem with the TV station, Amin said.

He said he promised to help Derflinger explain to the Spanish-language media why he started the telephone message.

In a separate interview, Derflinger said he hopes to “at least be able to get my story out to the (Latino) community about Channel 52 and their attitude toward the whole thing.”

Abbes said he is eager to hear the station’s version of the dispute. But having heard only Derflinger’s side, Abbes said, his impression is that station officials “might not have been as sensitive as they could have been” to Derflinger’s problem.

Martinez said he is “delighted that the Orange County group was obviously able to come to some understanding with Mr. Derflinger” and will meet with community leaders later this month.

However, Martinez said, he does not know what more the station can offer Derflinger to ease his anger.

He said when the hot-line problem first arose, a disclaimer was added to the contest line, stating that the phone number could not be used in Derflinger’s 714 area code.

“Here’s a guy who seems to be in a very desperate situation, looking for money,” Martinez said.