Gunman’s Mother Is Arrested in Abuse of Disabled Woman

Pasadena police Monday arrested the mother of one of two men killed in a bungled bank robbery in North Hollywood, saying she abused a mentally disabled woman and increasing her bail amid concerns that she may have access to millions of dollars her son allegedly netted in earlier heists.

Valerie Nicolescu will be charged today with one count each of dependent abuse, false imprisonment and operating an unlicensed board and care facility, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ardith Javan.

Prosecutors plan to file a motion requiring that any money Nicolescu uses to post her $250,000 bail does not come from robberies that her dead son, Emil Matasareanu, 30, may have committed with partner Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26. Investigators believe that in addition to the robbery earlier this month that ended in a cascade of automatic gunfire, Matasareanu and Phillips may have pulled off five other heists.

Pasadena Police Lt. Rick Law said authorities increased Nicolescu’s bail from $10,000 to $250,000 because “her son supposedly has been involved in over $2 million worth of robberies and the money has not been found.”

Added Javan: “In light of the bank robberies, we are making sure the bail money comes from a legal source.”

Los Angeles Police Department detectives are investigating whether any proceeds from those heists were funneled to Nicolescu, 55. At least two of the robberies netted between $1.3 million and $1.7 million, authorities said.

While detectives said they so far have nothing linking Nicolescu to the money, one added: “We are not ruling anything out at this point. We’re looking at everything.”

Howard Rotter, Nicolescu’s attorney, could not be reached for comment Monday. Last week, he repeatedly refused to comment on the case.

Last week, LAPD investigators searched a Pasadena business property that Nicolescu owned with her son. In addition to an underground bunker with computers, they found a 44-year-old schizophrenic woman locked in a room upstairs, with no toilet, light or hot water.

Investigators called Nicolescu to the building and she handed over the key to the padlocked door of the woman’s room, according to a Pasadena police report.

Law said that it was unclear how long the woman had been there, but that Nicolescu had initially been paid $300 by the woman’s family to care for her.

The woman’s sister told Pasadena police that Nicolescu had taken care of her schizophrenic sibling for six years but that she had not seen her sister in about a year, according to the police report.

Because she had been told of her son’s death only days before, police did not immediately arrest Nicolescu, authorities said. On Saturday, a funeral was held for Matasareanu at a church in Pasadena, officials confirmed, and he was cremated Monday.

About 12:30 p.m. Monday, Pasadena police arrived at Nicolescu’s Altadena home and took her into custody.

She complained of a medical problem and was taken to County Jail where she was to be examined in a medical facility, Law said, refusing to specify Nicolescu’s ailment.

If convicted, she faces up to 7 1/2 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Meanwhile, on a nationally televised program, the woman who bore Larry Eugene Phillips two sons said she never really knew what kind of man he was--nor had she foreseen the violence he would unleash during the bank robbery two weeks ago.

“It’s very upsetting that I was with somebody for 10 years . . . not knowing him,” said Sharon Santos on Dateline NBC, which described her as Phillips’ common-law wife whom he left in 1993 after having moved her to Los Angeles. “Sometimes love is blind,” she said.

Santos said the Los Angeles County coroner’s office told her that Phillips shot himself in the head during the gun battle, Dateline NBC reported.

Even after learning the truth about the father of her children, Santos said, she loved him until NBC took her to the spot where he died in the shootout with police.

She said she will never think of him in the same way. Despite her feelings of loss, she said, she now realizes that she was lucky to have escaped his influence.

“Now that I’ve seen everything, I put myself in [the victims’] place,” she said during the broadcast.

Times staff writers James Bornemeier and Beth Shuster contributed to this story.