Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.

Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.

But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.

"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.

Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.

Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)

Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.

Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.

"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."

In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:

—Previous violent or aggressive behavior

—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse

—Guns in the home

—Use of drugs or alcohol

—Brain damage from a head injury

Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.

Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.

Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.

According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.

Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.

Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.

And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.

All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.

Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.

Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.

Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.

___

Online:

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Unwrapping a new life in a new world

DALLAS — It was our first Christmas in America, a family of six squeezed into a two-bedroom apartment, donated jackets unpacked, cloth diapers stacked and a starry blue book from Hallmark creased on the page of a carol.

"Joy to the World."

The lyrics rang in my head, a jingly song of a wonderland that helped us master English — the opening act in the saga of refugee life.

In the thick of winter, we tumbled into foreign holiday traditions, not sure why folks would prefer rice stuffed inside a roasted bird, why gifts would change hands at a "white elephant," why popcorn would be strung around a prickly tree.

Manger. Midnight. Merry. Faithful. What did it all mean?

My father borrowed an English-language dictionary, and we searched.

The year was 1975, in the aftermath of war when thousands of Vietnamese fled to the United States. Rumpled and wide-eyed, we squeezed into our new home where the red logo of a Target store glowed through our windows in the fading light.

Bo — "Dad" in Vietnamese — worked odd jobs and, some days, as an aide at a Montessori. Ma cared for a toddler son and baby girl while gratefully sorting through boxes of rusty housewares we'd been given.

My sister and I enrolled at St. Rita, a Catholic parish in North Dallas, free for low-income families. I remember our stiffly ironed uniforms and the paleness of the boys who used words like "Holy Spirit" and "spurs" and doodled in their spiral tablets between prayers.

I picked up more nouns and verbs when class ended, as we combed used picture books and memorized the bouncy Christmas tunes blaring from eight-track tapes.

Coming from Saigon, where we did not celebrate on Dec. 25, we turned to those around us for guidance. One teacher gave me twinkling dots she called glitter to decorate a red felt stocking with our names. "A-n-h is not easy to remember," she advised, in what would become a familiar refrain. "Change it to A-n-n."

Inside the school on Inwood Road, another teacher with a loud drawl read us stories about creatures transforming to life in cold weather, dancing before melting, and I retold them to my little brother, explaining to him that Ma might buy us hand socks called "mittens."

When the first snow fell, sparkling in the thin air, we rushed to peer through our patio door. "Bo," we asked, "what is it?"

We bundled up in coats, marveling at fabric that could keep skiers (another new word) dry, filing outside, scooping the icy powder with our fingers to taste. My mother stayed inside, attending to our baby sister Lin, born at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the first in the family to be a U.S. citizen.

At night, the eaves of our housing complex lit up in multicolored lights.

::

Along Montfort Drive near the Galleria shops, an archway framing a sand-colored building leads straight to the stairs. I climbed them, and knocked at the door. Apt. 204. I hadn't been here in more than 35 years.

Tony Villalobos lives in our old home now with his wife, son, a brother-in-law and the brother-in-law's entire family. He is from Honduras, an immigrant as we were. His neighbors are newcomers, too — from Mexico, Costa Rica, Kenya.

In the same corner of the living room where Bo first propped up a tiny Christmas tree, there was a slim plastic fir bearing red tinsel. His 2-year-old son, David, scooted around on a Big Wheel, then grabbed his father's cellphone, wiggling to J. Lo and Zoe, a Mexican psychedelic band.

There's no need for the boy to practice English yet, Villalobos said. "In this country, unlike my country, we can speak any language we feel comfortable with, even when we are older."

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Russian Prosecutor Seeks Acquittal in Magnitsky’s Death

MOSCOW — A prosecutor unexpectedly pressed Monday for the acquittal of the only official to be tried in the case of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer whose death in prison three years ago generated an international furor over Russian human rights abuses.

The prosecutor’s turnabout, made in his closing argument, came as the Russian government has been moving aggressively to retaliate against the United States for adopting a law named for Mr. Magnitsky that will deny travel and investment access to Russian citizens accused of violating human rights.

Mr. Magnitsky was representing a London investment firm, Hermitage Capital, when he was arrested in November 2008 as he tried to expose a huge government tax fraud. He died, still in detention, nearly a year later. His supporters — including the firm’s founder, William F. Browder, once among the most prominent foreign investors in Russia and now a sharp critic of the Russian government — blamed the authorities for his death, saying he was denied proper medical care.

An investigation yielded charges against two people, both doctors: Larisa Litvinova, who oversaw Mr. Magnitsky’s treatment during his last weeks, and Dmitri Kratov, formerly the chief medical official of the prison where he was held for the last four months of his life, Butyrskaya. This year, prosecutors dropped a charge of professional negligence against Dr. Litvinova, saying the statute of limitations had run out.

On Monday, the prosecutor, Konstantin Bokov, urged the court to acquit Dr. Kratov. “There is no cause-and-effect relationship between Kratov’s actions and Magnitsky’s death,” Mr. Bokov said, according to Russian news services. “I request his acquittal.” A verdict is expected by the end of the week.

A lawyer for Mr. Magnitsky’s family, however, told the court that Dr. Kratov signed prison records declaring Mr. Magnitsky fit to remain imprisoned despite his repeated complaints about needing medical care, and that Dr. Kratov knew that Mr. Magnitsky was suffering from acute pancreatitis and gallstones in the days before his death.

The lawyer, Nikolay Gorokhov, blamed President Vladmir V. Putin for the prosecution’s move, noting that Mr. Putin at his annual news conference last week angrily brushed off a question about why Russian officials had not thoroughly investigated Mr. Magnitsky’s death. Mr. Gorokhov accused the authorities of failing to carry out a thorough investigation or a fair trial, and said important evidence and witnesses were suppressed.

After President Obama signed the Magnitsky Act this month, Russian officials proposed blocking American adoptions of Russian orphans and imposing sanctions on American judges and others who fail to halt or punish abuse of Russian adoptees.

Mr. Putin was pressed about the adoption ban eight times at his news conference. He would not say if he would sign the ban, but he said that Russia had to retaliate and that it was hypocritical of the United States, accused of abuses around the world, to criticize Russia on human rights.

“I don’t know the details, but I know anyway that Mr. Magnitsky died not from torture — nobody tortured him — but from a heart attack,” Mr. Putin said, adding that the only question was if he was given help in time.

But he quickly moved on to attacking the United States. “Do you think people don’t die in American prisons?” he asked. “Come on. And so what? Shall we play it up?”

Mr. Putin also pointed a finger at Mr. Browder, of Hermitage Capital, who was barred from Russia without warning in 2005, for making a mission of seeking justice in Mr. Magnitsky’s case.

“Besides, this Mr. Magnitsky, as is known, was not some human rights champion; he did not struggle for human rights,” Mr. Putin said. “He was the lawyer of Mr. Browder, who is suspected by our law enforcement of committing economic crimes.”

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Jack Klugman, Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E. Star, Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

12/24/2012 at 07:35 PM EST

Jack Klugman, The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E. star beloved by TV, movie and theater audiences for five decades, died in Los Angeles on Monday, one of his sons told the Associated Press. He was 90.

"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman said of his father, who had lost his voice to throat cancer in 1980 and then taught himself to speak again through breath control.

With Tony Randall on ABC's adaptation of the smash Neil Simon play and movie of the '60s, Klugman played sloppy Oscar Madison from 1970 to 1975 to Randall's Felix Unger, and though they really were an odd couple, offscreen they were adoring friends. Randall died in 2004.

Born in Philadelphia, Klugman started acting in college, and his film credits included the all-star courtroom drama 12 Angry Men. On Broadway he starred as the love interest Herbie in the original production of the quintessential backstage musical, Gypsy, with the legendary Ethel Merman.

Klugman's wife, actress-comedian Brett Somers, costarred on The Odd Couple as his ex-wife Blanche. According to the AP, they married in 1953 and had two sons, Adam and David, and had been estranged for years at the time of her death in 2007.

Besides their sons, Klugman is survived by Peggy Crosby, whom he married in February 2008.

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.

Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.

But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.

"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.

Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.

Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)

Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.

Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.

"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."

In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:

—Previous violent or aggressive behavior

—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse

—Guns in the home

—Use of drugs or alcohol

—Brain damage from a head injury

Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.

Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.

Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.

According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.

Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.

Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.

And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.

All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.

Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.

Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.

Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.

___

Online:

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Husband sets wife on fire during fight with child nearby, police say

A Fresno man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic violence after he allegedly set his common-law wife on fire Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man apparently "became emotional" while discussing his relationship with the woman in a car in southeast Fresno, police Sgt. Steve Crawford told the Fresno Bee. The man allegedly threw gasoline on the woman and lighted her on fire.

When police arrived, Crawford said, the woman was rolling on the ground to put out the flames. The vehicle was also on fire.

The woman was taken to an area hospital with minor injuries, Crawford said. The couple's 2-year-old boy, who was near the car when the fire began, was not hurt.

The suspect's name has not been released by authorities.

ALSO:

Full coverage: Connecticut school shooting

Rain, chilly temperatures expected for Southern California

Jenni Rivera's generosity to needy honored; memorials planned

-- Kate Mather

Follow Kate Mather on Twitter or Google+.

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Citing Broken System, Critics Fight Russia’s Adoption Ban

MOSCOW — The orphans’ faces can be called up on screen, their photos the size of postage stamps, along with a few data points and a note about their personalities, often just a word or two.

Kirill P., age 6, from Rostov in the south — hazel eyes, brown hair — wears a sweatshirt with dragons on it and is described simply as “sociable.” Angelina F., 16 months, from Khabarovsk in the Far East — gray eyes, brown hair — is actively developing an interest in her surroundings and “responds to any caring and affection.”

Maksim N., who just turned 11, is “mobile, restless, outgoing, likes to play games.” This is Russia’s “federal database of orphans and children without parental care,” a publicly available electronic repository of the forlorn and forgotten — more than 118,000 of them.

Child-welfare advocates say that it is orphans like these who are likely to be hurt most if Russian lawmakers succeed in banning adoptions by Americans — a move intended as retaliation for American criticism of Russian rights abuses. The advocates say a ban would end up further fraying a disastrously overwhelmed foster care and orphanage system here.

“Members of Parliament today say, ‘Russia Without Orphans,’ ” said Boris L. Altshuler, the chairman of the advocacy group Right of the Child who also serves on a Kremlin advisory panel, his voice sputtering in anger as he described the incongruous slogan of a bill that would make it harder to find homes for the children. “They know the slogan. The motto is very good, but there is nothing in their minds behind it.”

The bill’s rapid advance, in less than a week, has ignited an emotional debate here, with critics of the ban using the moment to focus attention on Russia’s troubled child protection system, even as supporters say they are trying to keep children out of foreign hands.

More than 650,000 children are living without parental supervision in Russia, according to statistics maintained by the Ministry of Education and Science, with more than 500,000 in foster care and more than 100,000 in orphanages — including the children in the federal database, which is available to prospective adoptive families, even though some of the children are not eligible for adoption.

By contrast, the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States has reported only about 400,000 living without parents, and only about 58,000 living in institutions or group homes, in a country with a population more than twice Russia’s.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Altshuler described the proposed adoption ban as the latest in a long series of bad policy decisions related to housing, education and social services, resulting in a system that actually encourages parents in financial trouble to cede custody of their children to the state, at least temporarily.

While more Russian children are adopted into homes in the United States each year than any other foreign nation, the overall numbers are relatively small — fewer than 1,000 out of 3,400 international adoptions in 2011. More than 7,400 were adopted by Russian families that year, according to the education and science ministry.

Still, Mr. Altshuler said a ban would be devastating. Some of Russia’s orphanages are badly overcrowded, with children institutionalized throughout their young lives, and many are ill-equipped to deal with the wide array of physical and mental problems common among the children, including fetal alcohol syndrome and congenital disabilities.

“A thousand kids per year will not go to the United States and will stay in Russian institutions with all the tragic consequences,” he said. As for members of Parliament, he said: “They are cannibals. They kill the country and they kill the children.”

Supporters of the ban say the United States government has not done enough to protect adopted Russian children and has not lived up to an agreement on heightened oversight that went into effect on Nov. 1. Though there is a strong nationalist streak in their arguments, occasionally ugly cases have generated international attention: including a 7-year-old boy sent back to Russia alone by his adoptive mother in Tennessee in 2010.

Yekaterina F. Lakhova, a member of Parliament and sponsor of the ban, said that years of working on child welfare issues led her to conclude that the international adoption process is overly profit-driven, and she said Russians should take care of their own.

“If the country is self-sufficient, if it believes in itself, you have to do it here,” Ms. Lakhova said, in an interview published by the news site PublicPost. “No normal, economically developed country gives away their children. I am a patriot of Russia.”

In many ways the insistence by some officials that Russia should handle its own child welfare echoes efforts by President Vladimir V. Putin to restore Russia’s standing as a world power after the decline following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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Sandy Hook Shootings: How to Cope

By Howard Breuer

12/23/2012 at 06:00 PM EST

State police personnel lead children to safety away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School

Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee/Reuters/Landov

The Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 innocent children and six heroic elementary school faculty members were gunned down last Friday, is particularly difficult for people – even those thousands of miles away from Newtown, Conn. – to process, according to mental health experts.

"This tragedy is so deeply affecting the national psyche, reminding us of 9/11, because of its assault on Norman Rockwell's vision of America," psychiatrist Carole Lieberman tells PEOPLE.

Friday was proclaimed a national day of mourning for those lost a week ago, with a moment of silence called for at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, as 26 churchbells rang in Newtown and elsewhere. In addition, First Lady Michelle Obama sent an open letter of condolence to the town, saying the entire nation "is holding you in our hearts."

But how do those directly involved with the tragedy find the strength to cope?

To do that, family members who lost loved ones need immediate counseling and to maintain their normal routines. They also need to draw support from other affected families who can relate to what they're going through, says Dr. Stephanie N. Marcy, a psychologist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

"I think the people on the ground are feeling a sense of hopelessness because there is no way to justify what happened," Marcy says. "They need to be around other people who have experienced and understand it. If you were all involved together, you can empathize and grieve together."

In many of these families, the remaining children might have survivor's guilt, she adds.

"They rethink what they did that day and wonder if they in some way contributed to the death of a sibling, or they wonder, why did I survive?" Marcy says.

Therapists will need to explain to kids who lost a sibling that their "false belief that they should have been able to prevent it is not correct," adds Marcy.

Children at Sandy Hook may also have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and will need therapy, Lieberman says.

What to Tell Children

And what do parents whose children were not involved in the tragedy tell their own youngsters about what happened? That, Marcy says, depends on how old they are and how much they know already.

"Kindergarteners and first graders don't need to be told about it unless you think they will hear it somewhere else. For older kids, you have to get to know what they know, answer any questions they might have, and be truthful – but don't say too much," Marcy says. "Say that a person who was having problems, that was sick, went into a school and injured some people for no particular reason. Tell them it would never happen at their school."

"Yes," she adds, "it could happen anywhere. But there's no point in letting your child think that, [because] they may be flooded with fear."

For the adults and children across the country who have been vicariously traumatized, Marcy says, "We need to regain our sense of control, because this type of event makes us feel completely helpless."

Lieberman adds that Americans "are also feeling a generalized anxiety, a fear that no place is safe anymore. They need to talk to friends and family, get involved in championing causes that make society better, to volunteer for charities, and to get psychotherapy if the sadness and anxiety persist."

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Acton man who built 'Phonehenge West' receives 539 days in jail

An Acton man convicted of building-code violations who failed to repay thousands of dollars he owed Los Angeles County for demolishing the elaborate structure he dubbed "Phonehenge West" was sentenced this week to almost 18 months in jail.

The jailing of Alan Kimble Fahey marked the end of a more than 20-year saga that pitted the retired phone technician against county code enforcement officials and led him in and out of court for the last five years.

Prosecutors argued that Fahey showed a deliberate disregard for authority and had no one but himself to blame for his fate. But Fahey's supporters insisted that he was unfairly punished for what they described as a "victimless crime."

Fahey, who failed to obtain the proper building permits to construct Phonehenge, was facing six years in jail for 12 misdemeanor counts of building code violations, according to Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office. But on Wednesday, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Daviann L. Mitchell sentenced Fahey to 539 days in jail.

Pleading financial hardship, Fahey had repaid only $1,250 of the $83,488 he owed the county. Mitchell questioned Fahey's inability to pay, charging that he had made false statements to the court about his financial status and had "knowingly and willfully disobeyed" the terms of his probation, Gibbons said.

Restitution to the county would now have to be resolved in civil court because the criminal case was over, Gibbons said.

Fahey's attorney, Jerry E. Lennon, said that given the nonviolent nature of his client's offense and his documented heart condition, Fahey would probably be eligible for early release.

Fahey spent about 30 years erecting Phonehenge — a 20,000-square-foot labyrinth of interconnected structures, some made from telephone poles. County code enforcement officers argued that the creation wasn't structurally sound and was a fire and earthquake risk, and therefore had to come down.

But Fahey's supporters called Phonehenge a "work of art" worthy of preservation. Many accused county officials of being too aggressive in its code enforcement and of "stifling creativity."

"It's very difficult because your chances of winning against them are very slim," said Fahey's wife, Pat. "People will look at us and say, 'I'm not going to take a chance.'"

ann.simmons@latimes.com

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At Western Wall, a Divide Over Prayer Deepens

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

Members of Women of the Wall prayed this month while wearing tallits, fringed prayer shawls, and tefillin, leather prayer boxes, both of which Jewish men are told to wear.

JERUSALEM — The face-off at the security gate outside the Western Wall one Friday this month was familiar: for more than two decades, women have been making a monthly pilgrimage to pray at one of Judaism’s holiest sites in a manner traditionally preserved for men, and the police have stopped them in the name of maintaining public order.

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

Bonna Devora Haberman, 52, of Women of the Wall, was confronted by the police this month after trying to bring in her prayer shawl.

But after a flurry of arrests this fall that set off an international outcry, the women arrived for December’s service to find a new protocol ordered by the ultra-Orthodox rabbi who controls the site. To prevent the women from defying a Supreme Court ruling that bars them from wearing ritual garments at the wall, they were blocked by police officers from bringing them in.

“How can you say this to me?” demanded a tearful Bonna Devora Haberman, 52, a Canadian immigrant who helped found the group Women of the Wall in 1988. “I’m a Jew. This is my state.”

The officer was unmoved. “At the Western Wall, you can’t pray with a tallit,” he said, referring to the fringed prayer shawl in Ms. Haberman’s backpack. “You can’t go in with it.”

After years of legislative and legal fights, the movement for equal access for people to pray as they wish at the site has become a rallying cause for liberal Jews in the United States and around the world, though it has long struggled to gain traction here in Israel, where the ultra-Orthodox retain great sway over public life.

This has deepened a divide between the Jewish state and the Jewish diaspora, in which some leaders have become increasingly vocal in criticizing Israel’s policies on settlements in the Palestinian territories; laws and proposals that are seen as antidemocratic or discriminatory against Arab citizens; the treatment of women; and the ultra-Orthodox control over conversion and marriage.

“When my kids start expressing frustration with Israel as a society because what they hear and see from a distance is not welcoming to them in their religious practice — that’s not good for the Jewish people, let alone for the state of Israel,” said Rabbi Steven C. Wernick, the director of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, an American immigrant who runs Kol Haneshama, a leading Reform synagogue here, said Women of the Wall “is an issue that really brings out the gap between Israeli Jews and American Jews.”

While more than 60 percent of Jews in the United States identify with the Reform or Conservative movements, where women and men have equal standing in prayer and many feminists have adopted ritual garments, in Israel it is one in 10. Instead, about half call themselves secular, and experts say that most of those consider Orthodoxy as the true Judaism, feel alienated from holy sites like the Western Wall, and view a woman in a prayer shawl as an alien import from abroad.

(Jewish law requires only men to pray daily, and it prohibits women from dressing like men.)

“Secular Israelis do not see this as their problem; to them it’s a bunch of crazy American ladies,” said Shari Eshet, who represents the New York-based National Council of Jewish Women here. “It’s embarrassing for Israel, it’s embarrassing for Jews, and the American Jewish community is beginning to understand that it’s a slippery slope here.”

The increased agitation around the wall is part of a broader clash over Judaism and gender that has roiled Israel in recent months. Women have won lawsuits against segregation on buses and sidewalks imposed in religious neighborhoods. But a bus line recently stopped accepting advertisements with images of people after religious vandals routinely blacked out women’s faces in the name of modesty.

In January, speakers at a conference on health and Jewish law canceled their appearances because women were barred from the podium — a demand of the most Orthodox — while the chief rabbi of the air force quit after religious soldiers were not excused from events where women sang.

These controversies concern the imposition of Orthodox doctrine in secular spheres. More complicated are questions of how Judaism itself should be practiced. This spring, the Supreme Court ruled that the government must pay the salary of a Reform rabbi along with hundreds of Orthodox ones. A small group of Jerusalem restaurants has been seeking an alternative kosher certification system to the one run by the government’s rabbinical council.

“The next chapter of what it means to be a Jewish state is being defined right now,” said Elana Sztokman, the director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, who is writing a book that includes a chapter about Women of the Wall. “We have to figure out what does Israel want, what role do we really want religion to have in this state? And it’s happening on the backs of women.”

Women of the Wall began in December 1988, when tourists attending a feminist conference decided to take a Torah scroll they had brought from the United States to a prayer service at the Western Wall, a remnant of the retaining wall that surrounded the ancient Temple Mount. The group has since returned 11 times a year to pray on Rosh Hodesh, the first day of the Hebrew month, an occasion embraced by Jewish feminists.

Irit Pazner Garshowitz and Myra Noveck contributed reporting.

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