BRIEFLY : PRESTON DOING TIME FOR FAILING PROBATION.

The man who wrote ``You Are So Beautiful'' and was the keyboardist on The Beatles' hit ``Get Back'' was serving his first full day Tuesday of a three-year prison term for violating his drug conviction probation.

Billy Preston, who has another, unrelated drug case pending against him in Inglewood, was sentenced Monday by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins.

?13- City News Service

County approves finishing pipeline

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday approved the final 11-mile leg of a 132-mile oil pipeline that will run from Kern County to refineries in the South Bay.

The board had signed off previously on most of the pipeline right of way, but not the portion under Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke's 2nd District. The pipeline will carry about 130,000 barrels of petroleum daily.

?13- City News Service

Area judge trapped sick in Switzerland

A prominent California judge who nearly died after suffering severe heart problems during a business trip to eastern Europe is stuck in Switzerland because of an insurance wrangle, friends said Tuesday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin was recovering in a Zurich hospital, where she was flown after collapsing in a restaurant in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia early last month.

Friends say Chirlin's return was being delayed by an insurance dispute over the cost of her air transport and on-board medical care, which could total $25,000.

Chirlin, 49, has presided over a number of high-profile cases in Los Angeles Superior Court including civil suits against actresses Kim Bassinger and Loni Anderson.

?13Associated Press 

Sleeping pills delay twin's testimony

SANTA ANA - A woman who was supposed to testify that her twin sister plotted her murder wobbled onto the witness stand Tuesday and said she had taken sleeping pills. She was sent to a hospital.

Sunny Han, 23, has accused identical twin Jeen Han of hiring two teen-agers to kill her a year ago, according to indictments against Jeen and the boys, who are also on trial. Sunny Han said in February, however, that she had visited her sister in jail and no longer believed her guilty.

When she took the stand Monday, Sunny Han told jurors how as girls they fought violently - and still did.

On Tuesday, Sunny Han was clearly a reluctant witness.

With the jury absent, she stumbled to the stand. She wore no makeup, a sharp contrast with the put-together look of a day earlier.

Her responses were mumbled, but the court reporter helped Superior Court Judge Eileen Moore, attorneys and a television audience piece together what Sunny said:

After testifying Monday, she had a fight with her mother, broke up with her boyfriend and took sleeping pills. She said she bought three bottles of 20 pills each, but didn't say how many she had taken or what the medication was.

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?13- Associated Press

Ex-loan officer says he swindled clients

The former operator of a South Central loan company admitted Tuesday that he took money from people whose homes were in foreclosure, knowing he could not get them financial help.

Timothy Barnett, 35, faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced Thursday.