Figure in Informant Scandal Faces 3rd Strike

Leslie Vernon White, the central figure in the late 1980s jailhouse informant controversy that led to the review of scores of murder convictions in Los Angeles courts, is back in County Jail and facing a third-strike prosecution in a Redondo Beach drug arrest.

White, 40, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in South Bay Municipal Court to two felony counts, one of transporting methamphetamine, the other of possessing methamphetamine for sale.

Municipal Judge Thomas R. Sokolov set bail at $500,000 and scheduled the next hearing in the case at the Torrance courthouse for Dec. 29.

White set off the informant scandal when he demonstrated to sheriff’s officials the ease with which he could fabricate a convincing confession in a murder case. Using a jail telephone, he posed as a law enforcement officer to get inside information on the case of a murder suspect he had never met.

A subsequent Los Angeles County Grand Jury investigation led to a report critical of the district attorney’s and sheriff’s offices.

Since then, White has maintained, authorities are out to get him.

California’s three-strikes law, enacted in 1994, mandates sentences of at least 25 years to life in state prison for any third felony conviction.

White’s record includes convictions for robbery in 1989 and kidnapping in 1978, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The law says a third strike can be for any felony, even possession of drugs. Prior convictions, however, must be “serious” or “violent” to qualify as strikes. Such crimes include murder, robbery, kidnapping and burglary.

In a 1994 opinion piece he wrote for The Times, White observed that although the “concept [of a three-strikes law] is good--I agree that no one should be subjected to repeated victimization by violent offenders--the law should have been tailored to the third-time serious offender.”

“As the law reads now,” he went on, “we will have hundreds (at least) of car thieves and check bouncers doing life at the taxpayers’ expense. Not good for anyone.”

In April, a Superior Court judge in Victorville ruled that methamphetamine allegedly found in White’s car after a 1995 arrest in the High Desert could not be used as evidence in court because authorities did not properly obtain a warrant. A few days after that ruling, prosecutors dropped charges.

White was arrested Monday in Redondo Beach. Acting on a tip, police there had been following him.

He was arrested after officers obtained a warrant alleging that he was driving with a suspended license. His car was impounded and methamphetamine found in the auto, prosecutors alleged.