Los Angeles Times - 02.10.2019

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Linda Ostrowski has passed. She is survived by both of her parents, Helena Paap and Fred Ostrowski, and many friends. She will be remembered always for her outgoing, friendly personality, for her compassion towards others, and as the tall statuesque beauty with the radiant smile. Arrangements are at Hillside.

OSTROWSKI, Linda

April 26, 1960 - September 17, 2019

ORTEGA, Christine A.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Christine Ortega on September 17, 2019. Christine Alice Duron Ortega was born on April 26, 1960 in Whittier, CA. She resided in Pico Rivera and Whittier the majority of her life. Christine worked many years with the El Rancho Unified School District as a librarian and media technician. During that time, she also served two terms as their CSEA union president. Christine was happiest when she was helping students in her library at Burke Middle School in Pico Rivera. She was an avid reader with an incredible zest for life. Christine was predeceased by her parents, Fernando and LaRene Duron. She is survived by her sons, Gabriel and Jonathan Ortega, and her siblings, Annette and Paul Duron. There will be a rosary at White Emerson Mortuary in Whittier at 7pm on Monday, October 7. A funeral mass will be held at St. Mary’s in Whittier at 11:15am on Tuesday, October 8. A celebration of life will take place at the Whittier Doubletree directly after mass. Donations can be made to the American Diabetes Association or the charity of your choice.

April 16, 1934 - September 19, 2019

LAWSON, Ann E.

A life-long Angelena, Ann was active in many organizations: Friends of Atwater Village; The Autry Museum; Grindelwald Ski Club and more She was a fan of the Lakers and Angels and supported the LA Philharmonic and other cultural organizations. A devoted member of Holy Trinity Church L.A., her Mass will be at 2 PM 10/3/19.

Mount Sinai Memorial Parks - Simi Valley 800-600- http://www.mountsinaiparks.org

KIVO, Steven A.

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August 14, 1918 - September 27, 2019

SNITZER, Thomas Louis

T. Louis Snitzer, son of Marie Donahue and Louis A.Snitzer, and older brother to Miriam and Jimmy Snitzer, died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on September 27th. He was 101.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and growing up in Queens, New York and later Los Angeles, he attended both Brooklyn Technical High and Beverly Hills High School.

He attended UCLA where he met his future wife, Patricia Pacht, and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Electrical Engineering.He was commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy and served with the Sea Bees in Okinawa, Japan during World War II. Following the war he worked atDouglas Aircraftbefore going into business as a manufacturer’s representative. He also served on the Board of Directors of Westdale Savings and Loan.

He was a dedicated and devoted family man, an early environmentalist and an avid traveler. He and his wife Patricia were the oldest members of the International Bamboo Society and the earliest members of the Yosemite Association, laterto becomethe Yosemite Conservancy.

He will be remembered for his engaging personality, his pragmatic optimism, his wide-ranging interests, his curious and analytic mind and his abiding sense of humor.

He is survived by his wife of 77 years, Patricia, his children Judy Reilly and Jim Snitzer, his grandchildren Kate Reilly and Jamie Reilly, and his great- grandchildren,Odessa MayBiddle Reilly and Ogden Day Biddle Reilly.

The family would like to thank friends and caregivers for their support throughout the years.

May 15, 1932 - September 27, 2019

SAVANT, Barbara Ann

Whether you were visiting the local grocery store or filling up at the corner gas station, if you were with Barbara, the attendants would greet her by name and give you both a big smile. Barbara was just that kind of lady. Everyone she met was her friend, and she is remembered for her generosity and unsolicited acts of kindness. Barbara Ann Kirsch was born on May 15, 1932, the oldest of three children to Paul and Marie Kirsch in Los Angeles, California. She passed away on Friday, September 27,2019, peacefully in her Marina del Rey home, surrounded by her loving family at the ageof87. She joins her loving husband, Dr. Clement Joseph Savant, Jr.; her parents Paul and Marie Kirsch; her brother and sister, John Kirsch and Bridgette Kahn; her two sons Paul and Mark Savant; her granddaughter Amber Savant; and many other family and friends. She leaves behind her three daughters, Cristina Kemper and her husband Jerry, Babette Zuspan and her husband Jeff, and Suzanne Savant Reid; eightgrandchildrenRichard Gunn and wife Susan, Michelle Maas and husband Alex, Jeffrey and Nicolas Zuspan, Ian Reid and wife Yetta, Christine Olmstead and husband Joel, Aaron and Heather Savant. Her four great-grandchildren are Cal, Theo and Johnny Reid, and Luca Maas; and her closest ally, Sweetie, her adopted cat. A private mass and funeral will be held at Holy Cross Cemetary. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send a donation to The Humane Society at their website (https://www. humanesociety.org/) and remember to do some random act of kindness today, in her name.

It took two hours, a plane
and six officers to track
down a suspected stalker af-
ter he fled into an elaborate
corn maze in Petaluma, Cal-
if., over the weekend.
Police began searching
for Ryan Kenneth Watt, 29,
of Petaluma on Friday eve-
ning after his ex-girlfriend
reported Watt had violated a
restraining order by texting
and calling her, the Pet-
aluma Police Department
said.
Officers looked for Watt,
whom they described as a
transient with a history of
stalking behavior, at a home-
less encampment but
couldn’t find him. Police vis-
ited the camp again the next
morning and spotted Watt
just before 9 a.m.
Watt ran across a nearby
freeway and into a corn maze
in the 400 block of Stony
Point Road that was being
prepped for Halloween-sea-
son visitors and had not yet
opened, police said.
Officers set up a
perimeter around the corn

maze, called the California Highway Patrol for backup and deployed a fixed- wing aircraft to circle the field. The Petaluma Pumpkin Patch touts its corn maze as challenging, typically taking 45 minutes to complete. For $7 in the daytime and $10 in the evening, visitors can get lost in the 4-acre maze with 10-foot cornstalks and just one way in and out. “I’ve been to that maze myself, off-duty, with kids,” Lt. Ed Crosby of the Pet- aluma Police Department told the Santa Cruz Sen- tinel. “It’s a great place to hide. It’s very narrow. It takes a long time to get through it.”

Police combed the maze methodically, covering every inch, but still couldn’t find Watt. “The aircraft didn’t see any movement,” Crosby said. “We were getting ready to close it down.” Then one of the officers noticed a chicken coop about 20 feet from the edge of the maze. An officer kicked the door in and found Watt hiding inside. He was arrested without incident just before 11 a.m., police said. Investigators had been monitoring Watt even before his ex-girlfriend reported him Friday. Police said he has a history of showing up uninvited at the woman’s home and at her son’s school, hacking her social media accounts and texting her while she is with friends to say he’s watching her. Watt was arrested Sept. 21 for prowling in the back- yard of a home, according to police. He was being held in cus- tody in lieu of $250,000 bail and was expected in court Tuesday morning.

Stalking suspect evades police in corn maze

By Alejandra
Reyes-Velarde

THE PETALUMAPumpkin Patch says its corn maze is challenging. A man ran into the maze and evaded police for 2 hours before he was found in a chicken coop.

Petaluma Pumpkin Patch

‘I’ve been to that

maze myself,

off-duty, with

kids. It’s a great

place to hide.’

— Lt. Ed Crosby, Petaluma Police Department

A former wrestling coach
at a Sun Valley high school
convicted of sex-related
charges involving nine chil-
dren was sentenced Tues-
day to 71 years in state pris-
on, prosecutors said.
Terry Terrell Gillard, 58,
of Sylmar, was found guilty
of 37 felony counts and 10
misdemeanor charges in-
volving seven boys and two
girls.
Jurors convicted him in
May of three felony counts
each of committing a lewd

act on a child, committing a lewd act on a child of 14 or 15 and oral copulation of a per- son under 18, along with 28 felony counts of procuring a child to engage in a lewd act. He also was convicted of 10 misdemeanor counts of child molestation. Gillard met his victims through his role as a wrestling coach at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, where he was also a campus aide, and his work at the Boys and Girls Club, prosecutors said. A young female wrestler told the court at Gillard’s sentencing of the agony she felt seeing her abuser again. “I’ve been struggling to learn how to live without the constant dread of seeing you again,” she said. “I’m dis- gusted with myself because

of how I foolishly trusted you.” Another of Gillard’s victims said he had been lured with the promises of wrestling wins. “I knew something was wrong, and the day the event happened in the back of the Mitsubishi, it was shocking,” he said. “You always told me I was the only one who could be trusted. I could never snitch.” During the trial, jurors heard testimony that Gillard sexually abused young wrestlers as far back as 1991, when he directed an 11-year-old boy to have sex with a woman in the coach’s Cadillac while he watched. He then also engaged in a sex act with the minor, prosecutors said. More recently, Gillard di-

rected young wrestlers be- tween 2014 and 2017 to engage in sexual acts while he watched in his vehicles or in a van owned and maintained by the Boys and Girls Club, according to court records. The victims were be- tween the ages of 11 and 17 at the time of the offenses, Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathy Lee said. Three of the victims have sued the former coach, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Boys and Girls Club of San Fernando, alleging that the institutions had prior knowledge of Gillard’s misconduct and should have removed him from having contact with children.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Former wrestling coach gets 71 years

The Sylmar man was

found guilty of 37

felonies for sex crimes

against nine children.

By Richard Winton

few bad individuals who have attempted to under- mine a fair testing environ- ment.” Singer ran a similar scheme out of a public high school in Houston, prosecutors allege, but on a smaller scale than at Dvorskiy’s school. Niki Williams, a teacher at Jack Yates High School, pocketed bribes and allowed Riddell to take exams for the children of Singer’s clients or correct their answers after- ward, according to an indict- ment charging Williams with conspiracy to commit racketeering. She has pleaded not guilty. Singer was arrested in September 2018, cooperated with investigators, and pleaded guilty to four felonies in March. Riddell pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, and is cooperating with the government. Both men are awaiting sentencing. Dvorskiy, who was arrested March 12, had initially pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy. His rever- sal on Tuesday follows a number of guilty pleas, from 15 parents, five university coaches and an accountant who have admitted conspir- ing with Singer. If prosecutors determine Dvorskiy furnished them with useful information, they have agreed to recom- mend a sentence below the range laid out in his plea

administer their exams, re- sponsible for returning filled-out SATs and ACTs to the testing agencies and cer- tifying they had been com- pleted honestly, prosecutors said. His cooperation is likely to bolster the government’s argument that Singer’s clients knew Dvorskiy was act- ing as an agent of the College Board and the ACT, and knowingly conspired with Singer to deprive the testing agencies of Dvorskiy’s hon- est employment. Of the 19 parents who are fighting the government’s al- legations, eight are accused of paying Singer to rig their children’s exams at Dvorskiy’s school. The College Board didn’t immediately respond to a re- quest for comment. ACT re- ferred to an earlier state- ment that condemned “the

from the Westside of Los An-
geles, Silicon Valley, Man-
hattan and elsewhere — to
register their children to
take their SAT or ACT ex-
ams at Dvorskiy’s school.
There, Mark Riddell, Sing-
er’s Harvard-educated ac-
complice, would correct the
children’s answers after they
took the test, or tell them
which answers to fill in.
In a call recorded by the
FBI, Singer explained the
test-rigging scheme to Gor-
don Caplan, co-chairman of
an international law firm.
Caplan worried his resi-
dence — he lives in Green-
wich, Conn. — could raise
flags if his daughter took her
ACT in West Hollywood.
Wouldn’t the testing
agencies wonder, Caplan
asked, “Why the hell is some-
body living in Greenwich
taking it out in California?”
Make up a reason for be-
ing in Los Angeles, Singer
told him.
“ ‘We’re going to a — a bat
mitzvah,’” Singer in-
structed Caplan to tell the
testing agencies. “Or, ‘We’re
going to a wedding. We’re go-
ing to be gone that week-
end.’ ”
Caplan’s daughter took
her ACT exam at Dvorskiy’s
school in December 2018,
where it was fixed by Riddell.
Caplan pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to commit fraud
and will be sentenced Thurs-
day.
From October 2018 and
continuing through Febru-
ary, federal agents staked
out Dvorskiy’s school on the
corner of Fountain Avenue
and Crescent Heights Boul-
evard, watching Singer’s cli-
ents drop off their children
at 7 a.m. Saturdays and pick
them up around noon.
Singer charged his clients
$15,000 to $75,000 to fix a test,
of which Dvorskiy and Rid-
dell would receive a cut.
Dvorskiy typically took
$10,000 per test, prosecutors
say.
Dvorskiy was paid by the
College Board and ACT to

deal, which calls for 24 to 30 months in prison. He has also agreed to forfeit the $149,540 prosecutors say he reaped from the scheme. In addition to Caplan, Agustin Huneeus, a Bay Area vintner, will be sentenced this week. Both men have acknowledged paying to rig their daughters’ exams at Dvorskiy’s school. Three parents have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two weeks to four months: Felicity Huff- man was given 14 days; Dev- in Sloane, four months; and Stephen Semprevivo, four months. Caplan’s attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge In- dira Talwani to spare him prison when he appears before her Thursday. Prose- cutors want Caplan impris- oned for eight months. Huneeus’ attorneys said a punishment of two months in prison would be fair for the vintner, who has admitted paying Singer $50,000 to rig his daughter’s SAT and agreeing to pay an addi- tional $250,000 to have her admitted to USC as a sup- posed water polo recruit. Prosecutors say Huneeus should be jailed for 15 months. He will appear before Talwani on Friday. Eighteen parents have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. A 19th, Xiaoning Sui, was arrested last month in Spain; prosecutors are now pursuing her extradition.

PARENTS PAID$15,000 to $75,000 to fix a test at the West Hollywood College Preparatory School, with Igor Dvorskiy receiving a cut, prosecutors say.

Gina FerazziLos Angeles Times

School’s

director

to plead

guilty

[Admissions, from B1]

CONSULTANTWilliam “Rick” Singer is cooperating with authorities in the admissions scandal.

Scott EisenGetty Images

Los Angeles Times - 02.10.2019

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