D.A. Reopens Probe in Delores Jackson’s Death : Investigation: Office acts in response to a coroner’s report that said the former wife of Tito Jackson may have died in an ‘assisted drowning.’

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Wednesday that it is reopening its investigation of the drowning of Delores Jackson, former wife of entertainer Tito Jackson and former sister-in-law of pop superstar Michael Jackson.

The district attorney’s office acted in response to new evidence released Tuesday by coroner’s officials, who said Jackson may have died of an “assisted drowning.”

Jackson, 39, was pulled from the pool of her boyfriend, businessman Donald J. Bohana, at his home on Holt Avenue in Ladera Heights shortly before dawn Aug. 27. Coroner’s officials said cuts on her lip, tongue and ears, as well as a bruise on her head and a muscle hemorrhage in her neck, indicate “blunt-force traumatic injuries.”

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said Bohana had not been arrested but also has not been ruled out as a suspect in Jackson’s death. Phone calls to Bohana’s home seeking comment were not returned.

Initial investigations by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies found the drowning to be accidental. But the new coroner’s report said Jackson died of “asphyxia, due to or as a consequence of drowning, alcohol intake and blunt-force traumatic injuries.” The report said her blood-alcohol level was 0.22%, nearly three times the legal limit for drunken driving.

Jackson had been married to singer Tito Jackson for 16 years when they divorced in 1988.

Gibbons said the Sheriff’s Department has turned over its preliminary investigation, which included interviews with witnesses, to the district attorney’s office.

Bohana, who has had several financial problems in the past, including a failed insurance company, gained fame a few years ago when he opened the first sit-down restaurant in the Watts-Willowbrook area since the 1965 Watts riots.

He was the force behind the Denny’s “N” the ‘Hood on Wilmington Avenue in the Kenneth Hahn Shopping Plaza. The restaurant, which opened in September, 1992, was welcomed with open arms by a community starving for something beyond the fast-food spots that dominated the area. At that time, it was the first African American-owned Denny’s in the nation.

After noticing lagging sales at the restaurant in 1993, Bohana brought in chef Roy Cash, who spiced up the menu with collard greens, oxtails and other traditional Southern foods. Business picked up for a while, but began to sag again.

Two years after the restaurant opened, Bohana was ousted as manager and Denny’s officials took over the facility, saying Bohana had never made any payments on a $735,000 low-interest loan he used to build the restaurant. Officials from the national Denny’s offices took over the restaurant in March and hired a new staff.

Bohana purchased the troubled California Life Insurance Co. in 1982, but in 1988 the company was placed in conservatorship by the state, which cited the company as insolvent.

According to friends, Bohana has been an active member of the black community in Los Angeles for some time, belonging to the Urban League and 100 Black Men. They said he has hosted various fund-raising events at his home.

One of Bohana’s closest friends, Guy Crowder, a photographer for Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, said he spoke to Bohana Wednesday morning. He said Bohana was not worried about any potential ramifications of the information that Jackson had bruises and cuts on her body at the time of her death.

“He seemed calm and willing to talk about everything,” Crowder said. “(Bohana) believes he hasn’t done anything wrong.”