Local News in Brief : Consulate Harasser Guilty

A man was convicted of filing a false police report accusing a Mexican consular official of carrying a concealed pistol outside the consulate in downtown Los Angeles, prosecutors said Friday.

Jack Gerritsen, 52, of Monterey Park, faces up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both when sentenced July 28 by Van Nuys Municipal Judge Robert Swasey.

Gerritsen was convicted by a jury of filing false reports April 1 to police and to a 911 emergency dispatcher, both misdemeanors, the city attorney’s office said.

He is due to begin serving a six-month jail sentence July 29 for an earlier conviction for twice falsely claiming that he had planted a bomb at the consulate and making two annoying telephone calls to consular officials, prosecutors said.

Gerritsen, a former owner of a currency-exchange business, for six years has carried on an almost daily routine of picketing outside the consulate in the Olvera Street Plaza downtown. His protest stems from the nationalization of Mexican banks during devaluation of the peso, prosecutors said.