Juvenile Case : Judge Eases His Pretrial Media Ban

A Juvenile Court judge Tuesday reversed one of his orders limiting media access to pretrial proceedings for two Tarzana youths accused of armed bank robbery.

Judge Burton S. Katz called “over-broad and unlawful” his order forbidding reporters from contacting any person attending hearings to determine whether 17-year-old Taft High School students Michael Morrison and Mark Berman should be tried as adults. But Katz also stood by his order closing the hearings to the public, including reporters.

“I’ve taken more intrusive means than was necessary” to protect the youths’ rights to a fair trial, Katz said of his order prohibiting reporters from talking to participants in the case. “It would have an unnecessarily chilling effect on the reporters’ First Amendment rights to gather information.”

The reversal, however, “does not mean the court is encouraging the press to contact the participants,” Katz said, responding to an argument by Morrison’s defense attorney, Roger Diamond, that reporters would try “cajoling and nudging information out of us” without the order.

Won’t Reconsider Other Orders

Katz refused to reconsider two other orders. One closed the pretrial fitness hearings to anyone other than participants in the case. The other forbade participants in the proceedings from talking about them with anyone not connected with the case.

Morrison and Berman are charged with the May 23 armed robbery of more than $4,000 from Encino Savings and Loan Assn., and with stealing three cars at gunpoint from May 16 to May 29.

Morrison has also been charged with the Jan. 3 armed robbery of $1,200 from Barclays Bank in Tarzana.

Berman is scheduled to enter a plea to the charges and appear at a fitness hearing on July 15 to determine whether he should be tried as an adult. Morrison, who pleaded innocent, is scheduled to appear at a fitness hearing on July 29.

Both youths are in custody at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

Katz last week granted Diamond’s motion to close the hearings, saying that pretrial publicity might prejudice any jurors who would hear the case if the youths were tried as adults. If they are tried as juveniles, the case will be decided by a judge.

Coverage Called ‘Inaccurate’

Diamond called news reports of the case “extensive, overwhelming, and inaccurate.”

The state Court of Appeal on Thursday issued a temporary stay of Katz’s orders after an attorney for the Daily News, Dan Marmalefsky, filed an emergency writ arguing that the orders violated the United States and California constitutions.

An attorney for the Los Angeles Times, Jeffrey S. Klein, filed a letter in support of Marmalefsky’s petition.

The appeal court ordered written arguments submitted by Monday, July 8, the date Berman’s fitness hearing was to take place, but gave no indication when they might rule.

Berman’s defense attorney, Paul Geragos, said Berman may be willing to have his fitness hearing open to the public if the court has not ruled by the time it is held.

“All these considerations are being made at the expense of my client’s liberty,” Geragos said. “If push comes to shove, we feel that we may want to go forward rather than exact that price on my client.”

Marmalefsky said Katz’s order closing the hearings violates an 18-month-old state law allowing the public access to Juvenile Court proceedings involving certain felony offenses. Both Marmalefsky and Katz said in court Tuesday that the appeal of the closure order is the first legal test of a judge’s attempt to close a hearing since the law was enacted.

Judge’s Authority Key Issue

Katz said he reversed his order prohibiting reporters from contacting participants in the proceedings in part to avoid clouding what he said was the central issue. He said that issue is how much authority a judge has “to balance the interest of the minor to achieve a fair hearing in this matter with the public’s right of access.”

The judge said he believes pretrial testimony about the youths’ relationships with family and friends, their psychiatric histories and maturity levels would prejudice potential jurors.

“If the pretrial media coverage were to continue, it probably would take some six weeks just to find 12 impartial people” to serve as a jury, Katz said. “That enormous cost to taxpayers is something the court should consider at all phases of proceedings.”