Friday, June 8, 2012
Page 11
SNIPPETS (Column)
Berger Opens Fire on Trutanich as Candidate for Reelection
Deputy District Attorney David Berger, one of the most vigorous critics of Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich in his erstwhile role as a candidate for Los Angeles district attorney, yesterday signaled that he will be unrelenting in his derision of the office-holder as he pushes for reelection.
Berger came in fourth in a five-person race for city attorney in 2009; endorsed Trutanich in the run-off; became a special assistant to him after Trutanich assumed office; then abruptly departed from that post and became a vocal detractor. He is rumored to be considering a return match next year.
On his Los Angeles Dragnet website, Berger notes in yesterday’s posting that Trutanich says he will run for a second term as city attorney, and comments:
The LA Times reported that Trutanich told reporters from LA Weekly and other media outlets that he blamed his loss on media “onslaught.” On Wednesday, however, he took a more conciliatory approach, saying he was “humbled” by his third-place finish and bore responsibility for his campaign’s problems.’
Trutanich doesn’t get it. He is finished in LA politics. The same group of people who expressed their utter disgust for his thuggish boorish bullying and lying are not going to forget why they voted ‘A.B.C.’ on Tuesday. We might have short memories in Los Angeles, but not that short.
But as arrogant and egocentric as Trutanich is, he must also know that when 77% of voters believe him to be unfit for public service, the chances of turning that negative to a positive are next to nothing. The likely reason for his announcement could have more to do with the need to try make himself look like less of a laughing stock in the last year than he has as City Attorney. It will not work.
If Trutanich ever steps foot in a courtroom or the Council Chamber again, he does so as deeply damaged goods. A man with no credibility and no viability. A man whose word has no value and whose reputation is in tatters. A man that will have to look down at the ground as he walks, in order to avoid making eye contact with 77% of the people around him who will be sneering, sniggering and rejoicing in the fact that they brought him to his knees on Tuesday night.
Trutanich signed a pledge in 2008 that if he were elected and ran for another office before that term ended or, if reelected, the next term expired, he would take out an ad in daily newspapers confessing, “I AM A LIAR”—which he did not do. He also promised to make a certain financial contribution.
Berger scolds:
“LA’s Best After School Program is still waiting for the $100,000 personal check that you promised them[,] Trutanich. Losing the DA race in an even more humiliating a way than we could have hoped for does not eradicate that debt. Pay up, shut up and get the hell out of City Hall….”
•The Individual Rights Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. will hear a talk June 19 on “Individual Privacy versus Public Access: Recent Developments in Rights of Litigants and Public Employees.”
An announcement dispatched by e-mail yesterday says:
“This program will explore public policy and recent developments pertaining to media and public access to court hearings, police records and other information collected or maintained by government entities. It will also cover the impact of these developments, as illustrated by the competing issues behind the privacy claims of minors and public employees versus media and public access rights.
Speakers will be Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Margaret S. Henry, a Dependency Court judge; attorney Gary Ingemunson of the Los Angeles Police Protective League; Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times editor-at-large; and William W. Patton, a professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa.
Dinner is slated for 6 p.m. and the program for 6:30 p.m. The venue will be LACBA’s headquarters on the 27th floor at 1055 West 7th Street.
The cost, including the meal, is $25 for CLE+ members and law students, $35 for LACBA members, and $50 for others. Reservations are available by telephoning (213) 896-6560.
One and a half hours of MCLE credit will be given.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company