MOORPARK : Las Vegas Pickets to Be Charged in Attack

Nevada prosecutors said Thursday that they will file more than 40 charges against seven pickets implicated in the videotaped beating of a Moorpark couple outside the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas last month.

The charges range from misdemeanor battery to felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, coercion and inflicting substantial bodily harm, said Clark County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ulrich Smith.

Smith, who said he would present the proposed indictment to the grand jury Thursday, declined to name the five men and two women he will recommend for prosecution. If the grand jury returns indictments, Smith said, arrest warrants would be requested.

The seven allegedly beat Gail and Sean White of Moorpark as they left the Frontier Hotel on April 25. The Culinary Union Local 226 has been striking the hotel since September, 1991.

Smith said the couple would be called to testify before the grand jury.

Union spokesman Sam Singer said the seven people involved in the incident--who allege that the Whites provoked them with racial epithets--have been removed from the picket line and will cooperate with authorities.

Frank W. White, a Simi Valley attorney hired to represent the Moorpark couple, said his clients are pursuing a civil suit against the union and the individuals who allegedly participated in the beating.