BRIEFLY : LONG, SLOW PURSUIT ENDS IN CALM ARREST.

HOLLYWOOD - A slow-speed police chase that began in Hollywood, led to the San Gabriel Valley and ended in Hancock Park resulted in the arrest Wednesday of a man who said he refused to stop because he feared a police beating.

Timothy Yip Matias, 33, of Monterey Park repeatedly slowed the white 1994 stretch-cab Chevrolet pickup, leaned out the window and talked with officers, but then drove off again.

``I don't trust them. They're going to beat me up,'' Matias told a photographer who walked up to the truck.

At one point, an officer handed him what appeared to be water, while another kept a gun on him.

Matias finally stopped at Third Street and McCadden Place and surrendered.

It all began about 1:35 p.m. when officers in Hollywood tried to stop the truck for an unspecified reason, said Sgt. G.A. Romo of the Los Angeles Police Department.

From Hollywood, Matias got on the Hollywood Freeway and drove south to the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway. California Highway Patrol officers joined the pursuit while Matias was on freeways.

The truck never traveled faster than about 50 mph before it left the freeway at Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park.

- City News Service

Two teen-agers held in cell-phone threats

Two Van Nuys teen-agers were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of using a stolen cellular telephone to make bomb threats to the California Highway Patrol's communications center in Los Angeles, officials said.

Larin Lor, 18, was booked into the Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of possession of stolen property, CHP officials said. A 15-year-old boy, who police did not identify because he is a juvenile, was detained at Sylmar Juvenile Hall on suspicion of making a false bomb threat, officials said.

The stolen cell phone was used to make several false 911 emergency calls and three threats to the CHP's communications center June 27, said CHP Officer Rhett Price, a department spokesman.

The bomb threats prompted an emergency evacuation of the center for about an hour, he said.

Phone records led investigators to a Van Nuys store where the two suspects were located. Lor made admissions that led investigators to the phone and the 15-year-old later confessed to making the bomb threats, Price said.

- Daily News

Girl's flesh-killing infection treated

NORTHRIDGE - An Oxnard girl stricken with flesh-killing bacteria was awake and recovering from surgery Wednesday after doctors covered her wounds with cadaver skin.

The 11-month-old girl, identified only as ``Baby Rosa'' at the request of her parents, was listed in critical but stable condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Although doctors last week had to remove 20 percent of her skin and fatty tissue to stop the infection, she now appears to be healing.

``She's coming along really nicely,'' said Dr. Hooshang Semnani, head of pediatric critical care at the hospital.

Doctors initially kept the child unconscious, so she wouldn't aggravate her wounds, but allowed her to wake up and move around Wednesday.

- Daily News

Pay hike rejected for panel director

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to reject a proposal by the Police Commission to increase the salary for the commission's executive director by 51 percent, not buying the claim that the higher pay is necessary to attract good candidates for the job.

One council member noted that the Police Commission received 13 applications for the job and is scheduled today to select the finalist.

``It certainly doesn't seem the salary was an issue in attracting good candidates,'' said the council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity after the closed-door session.

The Police Commission had asked the council months ago to increase the salary range of $90,000 to $113,000 to a range of $136,000 to $151,000, to better reflect its importance and attract more qualified candidates.

- Daily News