STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Dr. Wayne Herbert Fleenor, a former El Centro physician charged with the felony beating of his wife, failed to appear in Superior Court this morning for a sanity hearing before a jury.
Judge Victor A. Gillespie immediately signed a bench warrant for Dr. Fleenor’s arrest and ordered that an all points bulletin be issued for his apprehension.
Dr. Fleenor’s bail of $12,500 was ordered forfeited.
The jury was asked to come back at 2 p.m. this afternoon on the chance that Dr. Fleenor would be picked up by then.
The physician, a bone specialist, was arrested Aug. 28 after he allegedly twice beat his wife. At the time of his arrest he allegedly said he had done so because he suspected her of being involved in a plot against his life.
Dr. Fleenor had been dropped from the staff of El Centro Community Hospital last January, on the grounds, according to the hospital, that he “had medical problems.”
40 years ago
PLASTER CITY — Two physicians from New Orleans escaped serious injuries Saturday when their single engine aircraft was forced down in a remote desert area north of here.
A Federal Aviation Administration officer in San Diego today said Dr. R. Dean Coddington and Dr. Robert Dahmes were en route to Tucson on the first leg of a return trip to New Orleans when a mechanical malfunction caused their Piper Cherokee to lose altitude.
The malfunction was described as a “thrown piston rod,” which reportedly resulted in the loss of the aircraft’s oil pressure.
Within minutes after the craft had been forced down, air and ground rescue teams were searching for the two men.
Members of “Los Exploradores,” who were the first to reach the injured men, said both passengers suffered facial cuts but no major injuries. An FAA spokesman said it was a miracle the men survived.
30 years ago
MEXICALI — A series of newspaper articles alleging that this city’s jail warden has been forcing well-to-do prisoners to pay him thousands of dollars in American money in exchange for certain privileges has prompted an investigation by authorities here.
“The city has orders from the mayor to oust whoever may be responsible” for the alleged improprieties, City Clerk Javier Lopez Guerrero said in an interview Friday.
“We are holding talks with the warden so that he can tell us what’s going on. But so far, no official charges have been made.”
The allegations against Mexicali jail warden Leopoldo Carrasco Canseco appeared in a series of articles last week in La Voz de la Frontera, a local daily. The stories were based on interviews with Reyna Gil de Beltran, wife of Mexicali jail inmate Nicolas Beltran, and on a hand-written letter signed by two other prison inmates.
Repeated attempts to reach Gil de Beltran by phone were met with recordings saying her telephone service was temporarily disconnected for repairs.
In an Oct. 22 interview, Gil de Beltran told La Voz her husband was prohibited from playing sports and was allowed only two days each week to communicate with his family after she refused to pay Carrasco $1,000 in American money.