KOCE sale heads back to courtroom
An appellate court has accepted two petitions, one from the Daystar
Television Network and one from the Coast Community College District,
asking for rehearings on the sale of KOCE-TV.
Earlier this month, the network and the district filed separate
petitions regarding the June 23 decision by the Fourth District Court
of Appeal to nullify the sale of the station to the KOCE-TV
Foundation. Daystar filed a petition on July 8 demanding that the
court award it immediate ownership of the station; 11 days later the district asked the judges to reconsider their ruling.
On Monday, Deputy Clerk Orlando Duarte confirmed that the court
had accepted both petitions. It remains to be seen whether the judges
will call for a court rehearing on either petition or simply issue a
second opinion.
“I don’t know what it means, if they’ll change their minds
entirely or just clean up their opinion, but they’ll take a second
look at it,” said Milford Dahl, attorney for the college district.
“It seems to me you have everything to gain, nothing to lose by the
rehearing.”
With the petitions granted Monday, the appellate court will now
have 30 days in which to file a second opinion or call for a hearing
date, deputy clerk Toni Cajigal said.
While awaiting the determination of its fate, KOCE remains under
the ownership of the foundation, which acquired it last November
after the district named it the highest responsible bidder. Judge
David Sills, in his June 23 opinion, ruled that Daystar was the
rightful winner of the station because it had made the highest offer
in cash, but he stopped short of ordering immediate transfer of
ownership to the televangelist network.
“I think the court pretty much set forth its views on the sale of
the station to begin with, and I wouldn’t think that it would make a
180 from that and reach an opposite result,” said Cameron Totten, one
of Daystar’s attorneys.
If the court awards the station to Daystar, the district and
foundation would face considerable difficulties undoing their sale
from last year. Board members say the district has spent much of the
foundation’s $8 million down payment, and the foundation has owned
the license to KOCE since last November.
To cancel the sale to the foundation or to sell the station to
another bidder, the district would have to reclaim ownership of the
license. Neither the district nor the foundation desires, or knows
how, to carry out such an action under the current circumstances.
“I don’t think that will be their ruling [on Daystar’s petition],”
said trustee Jerry Patterson, “but we’ll have to face that when it
comes -- if it comes. I think the court is unlikely to ask for more
than can be done.”
Totten said he did not believe that the appellate court could undo
the actions of the Federal Communications Commission, which granted
the license to the foundation, but surmised that the court could
order the parties to transfer ownership. The issue of the down
payment, he said, was up to the district and foundation.
“A lot of it has been spent, but they’re going to have to come up
with the money unless the foundation wants to just waive it,” Totten
said.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Communications Commission did not
return calls seeking comment.
* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)
966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.
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