Efren Saldivar

Gretchen Hoffman April 1997: Glendale Adventist Medical Center starts an investigation into mercy killing allegations against Efren Saldivar. Feb. 28, 1998: Glendale Police receive a tip that a hospital employee has been committing "mercy killings." March 2: Hospital officials go to Glendale Police with information about the Saldivar investigation. Police begin investigating. March 6: Saldivar is fired by Glendale Adventist. March 11: Saldivar confesses to investigators that he killed as many as 50 terminally ill patients at Glendale Adventist.

Tim Willert LOS ANGELES -- A preliminary hearing for a former Glendale hospital employee accused of giving fatal drug injections to elderly patients was delayed Tuesday. Efren Saldivar, who worked as a respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, is charged with killing six patients. His hearing was delayed until Aug. 21, according to the the L.A. County district attorney's office. At Saldivar's hearing -- which prosecutors believe could take up to a month -- a judge will decide if there is enough evidence of wrongdoing to continue the case to trial.

Amber Willard GLENDALE -- A hearing is scheduled for later this week in the remaining wrongful death lawsuit against a former respiratory therapist accused of killing six patients. More than a half-dozen civil lawsuits have been filed against Efren Saldivar and Glendale Adventist Medical Center, one of the hospitals where he worked, since his initial arrest in 1998. At that time, police did not have enough evidence to hold him, officials said. Most of the handful of civil cases have been dropped after the judge ruled they were not filed in a timely manner -- there is a one-year statute of limitations on filing such cases.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- If Efren Saldivar hoped his first confession made him look like an angel, his second painted a much more diabolical picture. In his second confession, Efren Saldivar compared killing to shoplifting a piece of gum. After a while, it seemed an acceptable thing to do, Glendale Police said. The former respiratory therapist pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murdering six elderly patients under his care at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in 1996 and 1997.

Buck Wargo GLENDALE -- Attorneys for Glendale and "angel of death" suspect Efren Saldivar are preparing to do battle May 19 in Superior Court in Burbank over the release of details behind the two-year-old murder investigation. Terry Goldberg, Saldivar's attorney from Woodland Hills, filed a brief Monday to oppose Glendale's move to dismiss a subpoena of a police detective and the department's records, including reports on 20 exhumed bodies in the summer.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- Glendale probably will see a startling jump in its murder rate for 2002 due to the six patients Efren Saldivar was convicted of killing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. The former respiratory therapist pleaded guilty March 12 to killing six people while working at the hospital in 1996 and 1997. Those murders will be reported along with statistics for crimes that occur in Glendale in 2002 and could cause a sharp jump in murders over last year's numbers, police said.

Buck Wargo GLENDALE -- One of seven lawsuits filed against a former respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center will have to wait. Superior Court Judge Charles Stoll on Monday delayed any further hearings in a lawsuit filed against Efren Saldivar by the wife of Elio Palacios. Palacios, 29, a leukemia patient, died in February 1997. Superior Court Judge Charles Stoll set a Nov. 9 hearing in the case after Palacios' attorney, Richard Ferko of Woodland Hills, said he does not have autopsy results in the case.

Amber Willard BURBANK COURTHOUSE -- A Superior Court judge Friday granted the city of Glendale's request to seal documents related to the police department's "angel of death" murder investigation. Judge Carl West's approval means details of the investigation into Efren Saldivar's alleged mercy killings of terminally ill patients at a local hospital will not be made available to the media and attorneys involved in a civil lawsuit. West ordered the city, represented by Senior Asst.

Amber Willard LOS ANGELES -- The case against a former local hospital worker accused of killing patients will probably be transferred to another courtroom because of its complexity and the time it will take for attorneys to present their sides. At a hearing Tuesday morning, Judge Michael Kellogg told attorneys in the case against Efren Saldivar, accused of killing six patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, that it will probably be necessary to send the case to a courtroom designated for lengthy hearings.

Amber Willard GLENDALE -- Two civil lawsuits have been dropped against a former Glendale hospital worker accused of giving patients lethal injections of drugs, the worker's attorney said Tuesday. Efren Saldivar was arrested by Glendale Police in 1998 and allegedly confessed to killing patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center but officials have said they did not have enough evidence to charge him at that time. The wrongful death lawsuits were dropped late last month, said Terry Goldberg, Saldivar's attorney in the civil cases.

Darleene Barrientos Having solved a similar case, Glendale Police detectives are now being called on for their expertise by the media in a new case involving a nurse who recently confessed to killing several patients in New Jersey. When Charles Cullen confessed to killing about 40 patients during his 16 years as a nurse, the national spotlight was turned on the Glendale Police Department and the task force that investigated Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist who worked at Glendale Adventist Medical Center and initially admitted killing more than 50 patients.

Darleene Barrientos A Burbank judge reportedly approved a $20-million settlement Thursday in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist in Glendale who confessed to killing patients by drugging them. The families of Salbi Asatryan, Myrtle Brower, Balbino Castro and Jean Coyle will each receive $4.75 million, bringing the total to $19 million. With expected interest, the judgment will total $20 million. Judge Michael S. Mink signed the agreement between attorneys for Saldivar and the relatives of the four victims.

Gretchen Hoffman Glendale Police Chief Russell Siverling considers the retirement of long-time department veteran Capt. Jerry Stolze one of the last steps in "passing the gavel to a new generation." Stolze reminisced with Police Chief Siverling and other department veterans Thursday in a small get-together in the chief's office. A formal good-bye bash was set for Thursday night in Burbank. Although he will head back to the office one day next week for some paperwork, for all intents and purposes, Stolze ended his more than three decades of service to the agency this week.

Why put Saldivar and Orr in an otherwise good list? Regarding the News-Press Top 103, I disagree with your choice of Efren Saldivar and John Orr, even at spots 102 and 103. I wonder what your reasoning was in including them. AYSO Region 88, which is one of the finest organizations in the region enriching the lives of over 2,500 children and their families, and which I had nominated, would have been a much better choice. OSCAR A. POGARIAN La Crescenta Yousefian doesn't merit his position in Top 103 Re: Top 103. Councilman Bob Yousefian is not worthy of the position he holds.

1 Fire and police chiefs, respectively, who led Glendale through the hectic post-Sept. 11 days and terrorist scares ... both are active in many local and professional organizations ... have since taken the city to new levels of domestic preparedness, including a beefed-up Emergency Operations Center. Gray took the reins of the Fire Department Dec. 30. ... came to Glendale in December 1986 from the Pasadena Fire Department, where he started as a firefighter and served as its union president ... leading push to convert the city's fire engines from lime yellow to red ... advocate of Project Safe Place ... helped organize a fund-raising pancake breakfast following the Sept.

Gretchen Hoffman Small brush fire started accidentally LA CRESCENTA -- A slow-moving 2-acre brush fire that forced the evacuation of a La Crescenta church was apparently accidentally started by three 9-year-old boys playing with matches, according to the police report. The fire in the 5000 block of New York Avenue was reported about 4:20 p.m. Friday, and the 32 firefighters who responded had the flames contained within about 30 minutes. La Crescenta New Church, 5027 New York Ave., was evacuated temporarily, but no damage was reported.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- Now that transcripts from the Efren Saldivar mass murder case are public record, state Respiratory Care Board officials are trying to take punitive actions against four hospital employees who worked with him. Officials at Glendale Adventist Medical Center say it's about time. Saldivar was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing six patients while working at Glendale Adventist. Some of his co-workers testified they knew he was doing it. "We are very disappointed that the respiratory board did not take action much sooner, with so much information out there and this being four years after Efren's initial confession," hospital spokesman Mark Newmyer said.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- Glendale probably will see a startling jump in its murder rate for 2002 due to the six patients Efren Saldivar was convicted of killing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. The former respiratory therapist pleaded guilty March 12 to killing six people while working at the hospital in 1996 and 1997. Those murders will be reported along with statistics for crimes that occur in Glendale in 2002 and could cause a sharp jump in murders over last year's numbers, police said.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- Efren Saldivar told police he killed "sporadically" and slowed the frequency of his murders in 1997 because he was happy with a girlfriend, according to transcripts of his Jan. 9, 2001, confession to Glendale Police. Saldivar, 32, was sentenced Wednesday to six consecutive life terms in prison for killing six patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in 1996 and 1997. He also was sentenced to 15 years to life for trying to kill a seventh patient.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- Efren Saldivar's co-workers knew he was killing patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, and the former respiratory therapist even joked about it at work, according to grand jury testimony by two hospital workers. The grand jury transcripts were unsealed Wednesday. Saldivar was sentenced Wednesday to six consecutive life terms for killing six patients and 15 years to life for trying to kill a seventh at Glendale Adventist in 1996 and 1997.