WOODLAND HILLS : Revocation of Bingo License Is Upheld

A judge ruled Monday that a Los Angeles city official acted properly when he revoked the operating license of Identity Inc., a Woodland Hills nonprofit corporation that runs the city’s second largest bingo game.

The ruling by Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien was hailed as “a gratifying decision” by Assistant City Atty. Byron Boeckman, who was involved in the city’s protracted effort to revoke Identity’s license. Boeckman said that if the city continues to prevail in court, Identity could be closed by the end of this month.

Revocation proceedings against Identity, which provides free therapy and counseling to physically disabled youths, began in August, 1990, amid allegations that it had violated state law by paying some of its workers.

Edith Ryan, head of Identity, vowed Monday that she will appeal O’Brien’s ruling. Ryan has denied that she paid her workers.

O’Brien held that Robert Burns, head of the city’s Social Service Department, had not violated Identity’s due process rights when he revoked its license Jan. 10. Burns’ order has been held in abeyance pending Ryan’s court challenge.

Ryan had alleged that Burns erred by basing his decision to revoke on the advice of an administrative law judge not present at the extensive fact-finding hearings on the matter. The judge at those hearings was incapacitated by illness before he could issue his recommendation.

Ryan claimed that the second judge could not properly advise Burns because he was not present to hear and weigh the credibility of the witnesses.