POLICE FILES - March 23, 2000

--Compiled by Eron Ben-Yehuda

A Huntington Beach woman and Olympic gold medalist is scheduled to attend

a court hearing Friday on charges that she participated in a conspiracy

to ship prescription cough syrup with codeine, said an official from the

district attorney’s office.

Linetta Wilson, 32, was charged along with another woman with helping to

send 132 bottles of Phenergan from a Federal Express office in Irvine to

an address in Kimble County, Texas, said Tori Richards, an Orange County

District Attorney’s office spokeswoman. The syrup is used for dipping

marijuana cigarettes, increasing the high users feel, she said.

Wilson and Andrea DeWitt, 24, of Santa Ana both pleaded not guilty at

their arraignment last week, she said. They are being held at Orange

County Jail on $100,000 bail. If convicted, the women could each face 10

years in prison, she said.

As a member of the 1,600-meter women’s relay team, Wilson helped capture

the gold medal in the 1996 Summer Games.

Fiery freeway crash proves fatal

A traffic accident on the San Diego Freeway in Fountain Valley claimed

the life of a 19-year-old man Saturday, a highway patrol officer said.

At about 6 a.m., Josue I. Velasquez of Culver City was traveling

southbound at 90 mph in his 1991 Chevy pickup, said California Highway

Patrol Officer J.E. Langager. The speeding truck’s left front tire was

flat with the wheel shooting sparks as the pickup approached a

slow-moving van in the fast lane, he said.

The driver swerved to avoid the van, lost control and struck the concrete

center divider. The car then veered right across all lanes before diving

into a bushy embankment near the Magnolia Street overpass, he said.

Velasquez suffered fatal injuries after being partially ejected from the

truck, which then burst into flames, he said.

Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley firefighters rushed to the scene and

extinguished the blaze, he said.

The same car is suspected of being involved in a number of earlier

hit-and-run accidents, he said.