Sites Tied to Gunmen Searched

Investigators searched two San Gabriel Valley properties Tuesday in their quest for more information on the dead gunmen involved in last week’s bloody shootout, discovering an “underground bunker” at one location where they also found a mentally disabled woman locked in a dark, foul room with no food, water or toilet.

Police were looking for evidence linking Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, and Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26, to a series of violent armed heists over the past couple of years. During a search of a commercial building in Pasadena listed as Matasareanu’s business address and owned by his mother, police confiscated two computers, computer disks and documents from an underground room.

No weapons were found, but authorities stumbled onto the apparent victim of an illegal board and care arrangement.

“There was excrement everywhere,” said Pasadena City Prosecutor Tracy Webb, who was called out to investigate the woman’s unhealthful living conditions. “It’s pretty bad. It’s not livable.”

The 44-year-old woman, whose identity was not released, was rescued late Monday and taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital for evaluation. Police then conducted further searches of that building and the mother’s home Tuesday.

At Valerie Nicolescu’s Altadena home police seized a small box, but declined to say what was in it.

While police pushed forward with their investigation into Matasareanu and Phillips, there were new developments on a variety of fronts:

* LAPD officials made a formal request before the Police Commission to give some officers the option of carrying .45-caliber handguns and to equip some supervisors with high-powered rifles.

* A Los Angeles City Council committee voted to support legislation that would allow the city to impose stricter gun control laws than the state’s.

* The Police Department launched a massive internal affairs investigation into the shooting; it plans to interview nearly 100 officers, including more than two dozen who fired their weapons during the gun battle.

* A source close to the investigation said at least one robber--and possibly both--had stopwatches sewn into their gloves. That way, they would know how much time they had inside the bank before police were alerted to the heist by the bank alarm. Another source said investigators are looking into the possibility that the two gunmen operated out of “safe house” somewhere in the San Fernando Valley.

* A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the federal agency, at the request of the LAPD, has traced all the firearms recovered in Friday’s shootout. He declined to provide any details because of the ongoing investigation.

Investigators had hoped to find what one source called a “weapons cache” during Tuesday’s searches, but police officials were not overly impressed with what they had recovered.

“I don’t think it yielded much,” said Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Frank Piersol, who had been at the scene.

Detectives continued to search for information that would link Phillips and Matasareanu to a series of crimes, including two San Fernando Valley bank robberies last May and two armored car heists--one of which left a guard dead. Police also were looking for any evidence of how the pair might have spent about $1.5 million from those bank robberies, where they obtained their arsenal of weapons and whether they had ties to subversive criminal organizations.

But the most shocking discovery of the day was the mentally disabled woman locked in a dark room.

Webb, the Pasadena prosecutor, said the building on Orange Grove Boulevard, which has words “Dechebal Inc.” posted on the facade, appeared to be a “quasi-boardinghouse with mattresses, incontinence pants and garbage” strewn through each makeshift bedroom in the two-story structure.

“It was carpeted, but it didn’t smell very good . . . the smell was awful,” she said.

Webb said the place was set up with a bucket in each room to serve as toilet. “In some rooms people had used the floors as toilets and there were holes in the floors that went down to the basement and people used those as toilets too.”

A police report said the woman’s room had a “nauseating odor of feces and urine.” The woman told police her situation was “awful and frightening.” She also told police she had no recollection of taking her medicines, eating or seeing anyone in more than a week.

Authorities said Nicolescu is a “possible suspect” for operating an illegal board and care facility at the Pasadena location and for dependent abuse.

“Our department made a conscious decision last night not to take her in as a possible suspect given her son was killed Friday,” Pasadena Police Lt. Rick Law said.

Law said Pasadena police conducted a brief interview with her and expect to interview her more extensively. Nicolescu, contacted at her home, declined to comment.

Nicolescu was licensed to house six board and care residents in her Altadena home in July 1982. In July 1996, her license was placed in temporary suspension by the Community Care Licensing division of the state Department of Social Services because of accusations that two developmentally disabled clients were improperly left at a hospital.

Those residents had been placed at Nicolescu’s home by the San Gabriel-Pomona Regional Center. The agency, which provides services for the mentally disabled, was “very concerned” about the care of the two individuals, said Doug Harvey, supervising special investigator with the state agency.

The home’s closure was finalized when it failed to meet fire safety specifications, Harvey said. Earlier this week, Nicolescu had said her son had helped her run the facility before it closed.

While the searches were conducted Tuesday, LAPD officials appeared before the Police Commission and the City Council, making a pitch for more powerful weapons and receiving praise for the department’s handling of the shooting, which left 11 officers and six civilians injured.

At the commission meeting, police asked the panel to give officers the option of replacing their standard 9-millimeter pistol with a .45-caliber handgun, which has more “knockdown” power. LAPD officials also asked the commission to let the department put high-powered rifles in sergeant’s cars, so they are available in battles where long-range weapons are needed.

A majority of commission members said they supported the idea and expected to approve it in upcoming weeks. But they also struck a note of caution.

“This will not be a mindless response of escalating an arms war. We certainly don’t want that,” Commission President Raymond Fisher said.

After the commission meeting, Police Chief Willie L. Williams and other top leaders walked across the street to brief the Los Angeles City Council on the North Hollywood incident.

Williams told lawmakers that 350 officers were on the scene of Friday’s bank robbery, and that the department is working with the FBI and the ATF to trace the weapons and the gunmen’s possible ties to any groups, individuals or previous crimes.

Council members praised the actions of LAPD officers, with some agreeing that the department needs more firepower in the future.

Councilman Joel Wachs said the city should take advantage of the current “remarkable period of goodwill” regarding weapons to both beef up the LAPD’s arsenal and restrict access to high-powered guns by the public.

Councilman Mike Feuer, a strong gun-control advocate, successfully urged fellow members of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee to approve his motion to support or sponsor a bill in Sacramento allowing the city to impose gun control laws that could exceed state restrictions.

Although such legislation in the past has failed in the face of opposition from the National Rifle Assn., Feuer said public sentiment on the issue has changed as a result of shooting.

While some top LAPD officials were out greeting policymakers, others went about launching one of the largest internal investigations relating to an officer-involved shooting. In Friday’s gun battle, at least 27 officers fired weapons.

“It’s the largest officer-involved shooting investigation that I’m aware of,” Cmdr. Tim McBride said. “ . . . This is certainly a unique and challenging investigation.”

The officers are being asked a series of questions, including when they drew their weapons and how many times they fired. They are being asked to explain their tactics and the locations of their partners and what they did to protect civilians.

“We have to review each shot fired,” McBride said.

The investigation will also consider why one of the gunmen was not treated for his wounds. According to witnesses, Matasareanu was wounded on Archwood Street in a shootout with SWAT officers and was alive for about 30 minutes, but did not receive medical attention.

Sandra Valencia, an 18-year-old student who watched events unfold from her house on Archwood, said, “I saw him squirming. [Police] were walking, doing their business, coming and going but they didn’t pay too much attention to him. . . . I was wondering when they were going to get the ambulance.”

McBride said the department could not “risk the lives” of Fire Department personnel by requesting their assistance.

“We couldn’t get an ambulance in to a couple citizens that were hurt, to a couple officers that were hurt or to the suspect,” McBride said. “It was our information that we had a third suspect out there.”

Typically, police shootings are reviewed by a team and then turned over to a use-of-force panel that reviews the interviews. The Police Commission also reviews police shootings and will do so in this case.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Glendale police disputed a judge’s assertion that they agreed to let Phillips and Matasareanu reclaim an assortment of weapons paraphernalia after a 1993 arrest. The men served less than four months in jail on weapons violations.

In an interview Monday in his chambers, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Stoever said he signed release orders on Jan. 28, 1994, only after he had “the concurrence and agreement” of the district attorney’s office as well as “assurance” from prosecutors that Glendale police had no objection.

After being informed Tuesday afternoon of the statement issued by Glendale police, Stoever observed: “I would say that is a matter between the district attorney’s office and the Glendale Police Department.”

A spokeswoman with the district attorney’s office said the prosecutor on the case had no recollection of telling the court that Glendale approved of the matter.

Times staff writers James Rainey, Nicholas Riccardi, Beth Shuster, Greg Krikorian, Alan Abrahamson and Jodi Wilgoren contributed to this story.