Newspaper: Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Publication Date: Friday, April 30, 2004

 

Page No.: 7

 

Headline: END OF THE MONTH: Judge John D. Harris Faces May 24 Hearing on Misconduct Charges...McKay, Crispo, and Ouderkirk Retire From Los Angeles Superior Court...Ballots for Two Commissioner Spots To Be Counted Today...Bill to Limit State Agencies’ Hiring of Outside Counsel Advances

 

Byline: --

 

Body:

•Judicial Elections

There will be five Los Angeles Superior Court runoffs on the November ballot:

Office No. 18—Superior Court Referee Mildred Escobedo and Deputy District Attorney Pat Campbell are seeking the seat being vacated by Judge Marcus Tucker. Campbell’s campaign consultant is Fred Huebscher.

Office No. 29—Deputy Attorney General Gus Gomez and Deputy District Attorney Lori Jones are in the runoff for the seat being vacated by Judge Richard Hubbell. Gomez has Parke Skelton as his campaign consultant, while Jones’ campaign is being run by Huebscher. 

Office No. 52—Deputy District Attorney Laura Priver and Workers’ Compensation Judge John Gutierrez are in the runoff to succeed Judge Nancy Brown, who retired Jan. 31. Huebscher is Priver’s consultant; Gutierrez has retained Icon Imaging.

Office No. 53—Deputy District Attorney David Lopez is in the runoff with Superior Court Referee D. Zeke Zeidler for the seat being vacated by Judge Rose­mary Shumsky. Zeidler is being represented by Cerrell Asso­ciates Inc.

Office No. 69—Superior Court Commissioner Donna Groman and Deputy District Attorney Judith L. Meyer are in the runoff to succeed Judge James Wright.  Meyer’s consultant is Cerrell Associates; Groman’s is Evelyn Jerome.

•Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

John D. Harris

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Harris, a court commissioner and judge for nearly 30 years, faces a May 24 hearing on misconduct charges brought by the Commission on Judicial Performance.

The CJP, in a formal notice made public Feb. 19, accused Harris of seeking to establish personal relationships with sexual assault victims, making inappropriately personal comments to jurors, attorneys, and court staff, throwing a file at a deputy city attorney, and lying during an investigation into his conduct.

The special masters who will conduct the hearing are Court of Appeal Justice Eileen C. Moore of the Fourth District’s Div. Three, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Morris, and Ventura Superior Court Judge Henry J. Walsh.

The CJP alleges that after two felony sexual assault trials in 2000, Harris met in chambers with the victims and sought to initiate personal relationships. One of the victims was only 16 years old, the notice of charges points out, and the Court of Appeal cited the meeting in ordering the defendant resentenced by a different judge.

On eight occasions in 2002 and 2003, the CJP claims, the judge made comments to or about female attorneys, court staff members, or jurors that were inappropriately flirtatious or sexual. The comments included invitations to have lunch, a remark that a staff member was “cute,” and thanking a lawyer for not challenging an attractive female juror because “[a] judge has to have something to look at during trial.”

The most recent incident, the CJP alleges, took place in October, after the judge had already been notified that he was being investigated. Harris remarked to a female security officer screening visitors for weapons at the South Gate courthouse, “Let’s go to chambers so you can search me,” the CJP’s notice asserts.

The file-throwing incident, the CJP alleges, took place in October 2002 and involved Deputy City Attorney Chadd Kim. After the incident, the judge “continued to be abrupt and impatient with Ms. Kim,” and he later exhibited anger when Kim filed a peremptory challenge preventing him from hearing another case, the commission claims.

Harris also recommended women to a male deputy city attorney for dates and failed to disqualify himself or disclose their relationship when the lawyer appeared before him, the CJP said.

The CJP said Harris lied when he stated, in his response to a preliminary investigation letter sent to him in August, that he had never been “counseled, criticized or reprimanded” concerning his conduct by court officials.

In fact, the CJP alleges, Judge Carol Rehm Jr., then the Criminal Courts assistant supervising judge, spoke with Harris in December of 2002, advising him of concerns about his “interactions with young, female attorneys.”

Four months later, the notice relates, Harris met with Presiding Judge Robert A. Dukes, Assistant Presiding Judge William McLaughlin, then-Criminal Courts Supervising Judge Dan Oki, and Rehm to discuss the complaints about his conduct again. At that time the judge was told he would be transferred to South Gate, the CJP said.

Harris filed an answer denying the allegations March 3. He is represented by Long Beach attorney Edward P. George Jr., who has said the allegations are founded on misinterpretations of Harris’ behavior.

Patrick B. Murphy

Former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

State Bar Court Judge Robert Talcott has recommended that Murphy, who resigned from the bench while on the verge of removal in 2001, be disbarred. Murphy did not petition for review of the recommendation by the December deadline.

Talcott recommended in November that Murphy’s right to practice law be lifted due to the ex-jurist’s “egregious” misconduct in collecting a judicial paycheck for 120 weeks while on sick leave between 1996 and 2001.

Murphy had asked to enter the State Bar Court’s diversion program for lawyers with mental health or substance abuse problems but failed to appear at a hearing to determine his eligibility for that program or for trial on the disciplinary charges. His default was entered and as a result he was placed on involuntary inactive status Aug. 9.

He was also suspended Sept. 16 for failure to pay his bar dues.

Talcott’s findings largely tracked those of the Commission on Judicial Performance, which censured Murphy and barred him “from receiving any assignment, appointment, or reference of work from any California state court.”

Talcott noted that Murphy was absent from Sept. 20, 1999, until April 3, 2000; stopped working for good as of June 8, 2000; and resigned on May 4, 2001. He chronicled  Murphy’s activities during the time he was supposedly too sick to work: teaching one or two night law classes a week, serving as an instructor at a Citizen’s Police Academy in Baldwin Park, completing pre-med physics and chemistry courses at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, and attending classes at a school of medicine on the island of Dominica in the West Indies from January to April of 2000.

Talcott rejected Murphy’s claim that he was indeed ill, suffering from various maladies including a “phobia” regarding judicial service. The medical evidence did not support that contention, the State Bar Court judge said.

Talcott also found that Murphy lied to Rolf Treu, then the presiding judge of the Citrus court, about the state of his health.

•Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Federal Courts

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There are two vacancies on the 28-judge court, which is again the subject of legislation designed to divide it.

A Senate subcommittee held a hearing April 7. Testifying in favor of a split were  Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, and Ninth Circuit Judges Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain and Richard Tallman, while Chief Judge Mary Schroeder and Senior Judge J. Clifford Wallace, a former chief judge, urged that the status quo be maintained.

Ensign and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, recently introduced a bill, S. 2278, that would split the circuit in three. The Ninth Circuit would consist of California, Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands; the Twelfth Circuit would include Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana—it would hear cases in both Phoenix and Las Vegas—and the Thirteenth Circuit would be made up of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon.

Other bills, one pending in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives, would divide the circuit into two.

On April 1, on a party-line vote of 10-9, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of William G. Myers III to succeed Judge Thomas G. Nelson.

Myers, who was nominated on May 15 of last year, resigned Oct. 10 as solicitor of the Department of the Interior and now practices law in Boise, Idaho. He has drawn opposition from native American activists and environmental groups.

A majority of the members of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary found Myers qualified, with at least six members voting him not qualified.

His opponents claim that he holds extreme pro-business views, and that he slanted his legal opinions while in the solicitor’s office to favor interests for which he did legal and lobbying work while in private practice.

He is supported by Idaho’s Republican congressional delegation and by many prominent figures in the state, including Cecil Andrus, a Democrat who is a former governor and served as secretary of the interior under President Carter. His supporters say he holds mainstream, balanced views on environmental and other issues.

Republican senators tried in November to move the nomination of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl for the other vacancy, but a cloture vote failed by  53-43, seven shy of the necessary 60-vote majority.

The Judiciary Committee on May 8 of last year approved Kuhl, who was rated well-qualified by at least two-thirds of the ABA committee, on a party-line vote of 10-9. Kuhl was tapped by Bush in 2001 to succeed Judge James Browning, who took senior status Sept. 1, 2000.

A third vacancy will be created when Judge A. Wallace Tashima takes senior status June 30.

U.S. District Court

The Senate Judiciary Committee sent the nomination of former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George Schiavelli to the Senate floor yesterday on a voice vote. The onetime presiding judge of the Superior Court Appellate Division was nominated Jan. 20  to succeed Judge Lourdes G. Baird, who is to take senior status May 12. Schiavelli was unanimously rated well-qualified by the ABA committee and had a confirmation hearing April 8.

Judge Robert J. Timlin is to take senior status Feb. 1, 2005.

State Courts

California Supreme Court

There are no vacancies, but one would be created if the Senate confirms Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to which she was nominated July 25 of last year.. Brown cleared the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote of 10-9, but an attempt to invoke cloture and force an up-or-down vote on her nomination failed on Nov. 14. The vote was 53-43 in favor of cloture, seven short of the required three-fifths majority of the entire Senate.

A majority of the American Bar Association’s evaluating committee rated Brown “qualified” for the position, with at least six of the 15 members voting her “not qualified.”

Court of Appeal

This District (Second District)

Presiding Justice Charles Vogel of Div. Four retired Jan. 31.

Third District

Justice Daniel Kolkey resigned Nov. 17 to return to private practice.

Sixth District

Justice William Wunderlich is to be sworn in today as a U.S. magistrate judge based in Yosemite National Park.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

There are seven vacancies.

Judges John Ouderkirk and Lawrence Crispo retired April 5, Judge Chesley N. McKay retired April 1, Judge Margaret Hay retired March 31, Judge Alan Haber retired Feb. 9, and Judge Nancy Brown retired Jan. 31. Judge Dale Fischer joined the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Nov. 17.

Commissioners Hugh Bobys and Daniel Calabro retired March 31. Ballots to select replacements for them are to be counted today.

•Legislation of Interest to the     Legal Community

The following legislation of interest to the legal community was acted upon in April:

•AB 2038, by Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-La Mesa, which would establish provisions for the issuance of civil bench warrants in noncriminal actions. The bill was approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on an 8-2 vote April 27 and was referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

•AB 2057, by Assemblyman Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, which would prohibit parties in a civil action from stipulating to the use of an unlicensed shorthand reporter except in circumstances in which a licensed shorthand reporter is not otherwise required by law. The bill was approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 10-0 vote April 27 and was referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

•AB 2271, by Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Bakersfield, which would exempt prison guards employed by the Department of Corrections from being summoned for jury service. The bill passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 7-3 vote April 27 and was sent to the Assembly floor.

•AB 2371, by Assemblywoman Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, which would place several new restrictions on contingency fee attorneys and would allow a client to rescind a contingency fee contract within three business days. The bill failed passage from the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 2-8 vote April 20, but was given an opportunity to be brought back at a later date.

•AB 2391, by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, which would prohibit state agencies from contracting for outside legal services if the hourly rate exceeds by more than 200 percent the rate billed to the state by state-employed attorneys. The bill was approved by the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee on a 8-1 vote April 21.

•AB 3079, by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which would make several changes designed to give the courts more flexibility to use the services of subordinate judicial officers. The bill was approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 10-0 vote April 13 and was sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

•SB 749, by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Norwalk, which would establish the Court Facilities Architecture Fund for construction, repair and improvement of California’s court facilities. The bill was amended with technical changes April 22 and was referred to both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee.

•SB 1225, by Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Carlsbad, which would revise the duties of a court commissioner. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 7-0 vote April 27 and was sent to the Senate floor, where it was placed on the “consent” calendar for non-controversial bills.

•SB 1305, by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, which would require the Judicial Council, within its existing budget, to establish a unit in the Administrative Office of the Courts to focus on improving the courts’ handling of civil and criminal elder abuse cases. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 5-1 vote April 20 and was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a May 3 hearing.

•SB 1490, by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would keep the State Bar’s annual dues at their current level through Jan. 1, 2006. On April 21, the bill was scheduled for a May 4 hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

•SB 1801, by Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, which would prohibit state agencies from charging special fees for use of credit cards to pay for any service or obligation, including State Bar dues. The bill failed passage from the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 3-4 vote April 20.

•SB 1914, by the Senate Business and Professions Committee, which would require people licensed by the state Court Reporters Board to notify the board of any misdemeanor conviction. The bill, which makes many other changes to state boards, was approved by the Senate Business and Professions Committee on a 5-0 vote April 19, and was set for a May 3 hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee.