A billboard bears an ironic message near former chemical plant.

VERDICT IS UP: A mammoth billboard went on display this month on Normandie Avenue near Torrance alongside one of Southern California’s most famous toxic waste sites, and its somewhat cryptic message may have spawned confusion.

At the site--now a paved lot--once stood the factory of Montrose Chemical Corp., the largest producer of the now-banned pesticide DDT. Montrose has been blamed for polluting the ocean floor off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. But the new billboard appears to take a different view of Montrose’s environmental culpability.

Its one-word summation: “INNOCENT.”

The people behind the billboard are the marketing experts at talk radio station KFI. Fully 400 black-and-white billboards sprang up across the Los Angeles area in recent days, half of them reading INNOCENT and half, GUILTY .

While the promotional campaign is clearly a reference to the ongoing O.J. Simpson trial, the billboard on Normandie near 204th Street takes on a more ecological cast--especially in light of the controversial March dismissal of a major federal ocean pollution lawsuit involving Montrose.

Montrose attorneys, meanwhile, continue to dispute U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claims that the old factory was the source of DDT chunks found in two yards down the street from the billboard.

KFI program director David Hall says the INNOCENT billboard’s siting is purely accidental.

“We don’t even know most of the locations where they went up,” he said. “We didn’t predetermine a single site.”

Montrose attorney Karl Lytz and EPA attorney John Lyons both declined comment.

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JOLLY ST. CHAKA: Chaka, the infamous tagger known for spray-painting any receptive surface, is now taking a crack at decorating Christmas trees.

Fans of Chaka’s work--prosecutors accused him of “decorating” nearly 10,000 walls, signs and other surfaces--are used to seeing it in alleys and freeway signs. But his alliance with Redondo Beach artist Andy Alexander, who specializes in Christmas ornaments, could just land him shelf space in trendy boutiques, museums and upscale department stores.

“Placed in the right place, his work could be considered less vandalism and more art,” said Alexander, owner of Holiday Spirits boutique in Manhattan Beach.

The Christmas bulbs will sell for $25, Alexander said, and a portion of the proceeds will go toward Lancaster’s Inner City Youth Ministries, which Chaka, 22, credits with turning his life around.

Chaka, whose real name is Daniel Ramos, moved into the ministry in February, 1994, after an adolescence mired in drugs, prison and, of course, tagging. He has pledged to help the ministry by selling his artwork, and to help other youths who have encountered troubles similar to his.

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BANK SHOT: Laker guard Nick Van Exel’s last-second heroics against San Antonio did more than extend his team’s playoff run--they also slam-dunked some cash into Inglewood’s piggy bank.

When Van Exel won Game 5 with a buzzer-beating three-point shot last week against San Antonio, he allowed his team to come back home for Game 6. Though the Lakers lost that game to end the series, the sellout crowd was, as always, a welcome sight for Inglewood officials.

Since the city earns a percentage of gate receipts from the Forum, the Lakers’ home court, Inglewood banked an extra $15,000 to $20,000, said City Manager Paul Eckles. That doesn’t include the area’s restaurants, bars and gas stations, which also benefit from the influx of hoop fans.

And since the Lakers survived their first-round series against Seattle, they played five home games over the two series, when a minimum of one was possible. “Their success probably meant an extra $60,000 to $70,000 for the city” from gate receipts alone, Eckles said.

Of course, this isn’t the ‘80s, when the Lakers went to the finals almost every year. “The ultimate is to have the Lakers have home-field advantage and go all the way to the championship,” Eckles said.

And the cash infusion is tempered by the troubles of the Kings hockey team, which missed the playoffs for the second straight year in a league that includes most of its teams in the postseason. Kings playoff games at the Forum would represent similar windfalls. If they weren’t so rare.

--Compiled by DAVE GRIMM