Friday, October 29, 2010
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L.A. Superior Court Ousts Public Information Officer
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Public Information Officer Alan Parachini has been placed on administrative leave and will not be returning to his post, a court spokesperson told the MetNews yesterday.
Mary Hearn, who was Parachini’s deputy, said she has been temporarily placed in charge and that Parachini’s departure “is a permanent one.” She said she could not comment further because it is a personnel matter.
The court took the action Wednesday. Reached at his home yesterday, Parachini refused to comment.
The then-56-year-old Parachini was hired in 2002 to succeed Jerrianne Hayslett, who held the post at the time of the O.J. Simpson trial, which she later wrote a book about.
Parachini had previously been a medical and arts reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Los Angeles Times, before becoming spokesman for the ACLU of Southern California, a post he held for six years.
A native of Philadelphia, Parachini graduated from the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University and began his career in journalism with United Press International in New York. One of his first UPI assignments was to cover Woodstock.
He worked as a medical reporter at the Sun-Times for five years, then came to Los Angeles where he covered health care and, later, the controversy over the National Endowment for the Arts. At the time of his Superior Court appointment, he noted he developed extensive experience working with the court while investigating the litigation track records of doctors alleged to have committed malpractice or misconduct.
Parachini became director of public affairs for the ACLU in 1991, then went in 1997 to the California Community Fund, where he was vice president of communications.
He joined Belin Communications in 2001, but said that the Superior Court job “was exactly the right position for my experience and interests” after Hayslett retired.
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