BRIEFLY : CONVICTED EAR-BITER SEEKS NEW LAWYER.

VENTURA - Sentencing for a man convicted of biting off part of another's man's ear during a bar fight was delayed Monday as the defendant sought yet another attorney to handle his case.

After he was convicted in March of mayhem and other charges, Kenneth R. Barber, 29, of Thousand Oaks won a request to replace his defense lawyer. But Barber, who faces more than nine years, is citing unspecified differences with his latest court-appointed attorney, Mandee Sanderson, who is in the process of seeking a new trial.

Superior Court Judge Arturo Gutierez set a hearing on Barber's request for new counsel on Thursday and postponed his sentencing until June 9.

Barber was convicted March 8 of mayhem, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and a special allegation in a September attack outside the British Pub and Grub in Thousand Oaks.

- Daily News

Rancher who sued government dies

VENTURA - Francis Gherini, who won a battle with the federal government after it seized his Santa Cruz Island ranch land for a park, has died at age 84.

Gherini died April 27 from injuries he suffered the previous week when he collapsed and hit his head on a driveway.

Gherini, who lived in Ventura, was patriarch of a family that since 1880 had owned thousands of acres of land on Santa Cruz Island, 20 miles off the Ventura County coast.

In 1980, the island was designated to become part of a five-island national park chain. In the early 1990s, the National Park Service bought out Gherini's three siblings. But he rejected a $4 million offer for his 6,300 acres, contending it was worth $14 million.

He sued after the government condemned and seized the land in 1997, and a federal jury awarded him $12.7 million in February.

- Associated Press