Haendiges Sentenced to 3-Year Probation for Filing False Police Reports : Law: Council candidate claimed threatening acts were made against him. He resigned after winning election.

By HOWARD BLUME

July 9, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WHITTIER — Former City Council hopeful Larry Haendiges has been sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service for filing false police reports during the recent council election campaign. Haendiges had pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges.

Haendiges said he filed the false reports to gain more police protection for his family during a hard-fought election. Haendiges won a council seat in April but relinquished the position before taking office when the false reports came to light.

“This whole thing is a tragedy for him and everyone else,” said attorney James Patterson, who represented Haendiges at his recent sentencing hearing in Downey Municipal Court. Patterson added that Haendiges has agreed to pay restitution for the cost of the police investigation.

In the first false report, Haendiges claimed that a driver had tried to ram his car. The second time, Haendiges reported a prowler outside his home. The last time, Haendiges told police that an attacker shouted obscenities and then lunged at him with a knife. Haendiges inflicted superficial stab wounds with a pipe to make his story convincing.

Prosecutors dropped charges on the prowler report after Haendiges agreed to plead no contest to the other two counts. The 50-year-old Haendiges, who had no previous criminal record, had faced as much as 18 months in jail and a $3,000 fine.

Haendiges filed the false reports after receiving three legitimate telephone threats from March 31 to April 4. The first threatening call was a rambling harangue left by a woman on his answering machine. “I think you’re a low-life person and all you do is change your mind back and forth. . . . God will give you whatever you need. . . . It’s going to be hell for you. . . . You’re going to . . . die. . . . You’re a bad person. You deserve whatever you get.”

Police ultimately found the caller, who claimed that she was not actually threatening Haendiges, merely predicting that the stress of office would kill him.

Haendiges took another threatening call personally while talking with one of his campaign workers. The campaign worker remembered that Haendiges turned pale and that his hand trembled as he lay down the phone.

In the third incident, a caller said a bomb was placed in the classroom of Haendiges’ son. Police evacuated several classrooms and the gym but found no bomb.

Detectives said they are still investigating the threatening calls.

Friends said Haendiges’ initial reaction was to keep the real threats a secret. Then he became fearful that his family was at risk and filed the false reports to earn extra police protection.

The strategy worked at first. Police began making regular checks on Haendiges and his family. But police also grew suspicious and asked Haendiges to take a lie detector test. Haendiges failed the test and then confessed.

The false reports cost Haendiges his longtime dream of serving on the council. On April 21, the night he was to be sworn in, he announced his decision to decline office instead.

“What I did was wrong, but what I did, I did out of the passion of fear,” said Haendiges before a hushed overflow crowd of 250 in the council chamber. “You know me as a family man. . . . I simply wanted more protection from the police for my precious family.

“I’m human. I was afraid. I was scared.”

The council recently appointed former Whittier City School District Trustee Janet Henke to fill the vacancy.

Meanwhile, Haendiges promised to return eventually to public life. The lifelong area resident has a reputation throughout Whittier as a tireless community volunteer, having served as Chamber of Commerce president and a board member of numerous local charities.