BRIEFLY : SETTLEMENT PROPOSED IN DEATH OF DEPUTY.

Los Angeles County should pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit by the parents of a sheriff's deputy who was shot in the line of duty and died in 1992 at King-Drew Medical Center, the county Claims Board ruled Monday.

Deputy Nelson Yamamoto was shot in the back, abdomen, thigh and foot March 29, 1992, and taken to King-Drew, where he underwent nearly eight hours of surgery.

He developed adult respiratory distress syndrome in the hours after the surgery, and doctors gave two different drugs to deal with the problems.

The Claims Board decision was an economic one, because of the likelihood that the county could spend far more defending a difficult case with an extremely sympathetic victim, said chairwoman Nancy Singer. The recommendation will go before the Board of Supervisors next month for final approval.

?13Daily News

Man found near site of fatal forest crash

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - A man whose pickup truck crashed down an embankment Saturday in the Angeles National Forest, near where two members of a family of four died in a similar wreck last week, was rescued Monday.

The victim of the latest crash, which occurred at mile marker 26 on the Angeles Crest Highway, was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.

On April 18, a car occupied by a man, a woman and their two children tumbled off the roadway and into a ravine in the same general area. The couple died, but their children survived.

?13City News Service

Sewage spill prompts closing of beach area

PACIFIC PALISADES - County health officials ordered a two-mile stretch of beach from Topanga Canyon to Chautauqua boulevards closed Monday, after an undetermined amount of raw sewage spilled into the ocean.

Jack Petralia, director of environmental protection for the Department of Health Services, said a city sewage pumping plant failed, causing the spill at Sunset Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades.

He said the area probably would remain off-limits for 48 to 72 hours. Tests must be done on water samples until the bacteria count meets safety levels, he said.

Petralia said swimming in the water could cause a skin rash, diarrhea and intestinal problems.