Magistrate Sympathetic to Artukovic’s Bail Removed

A federal magistrate who had indicated that he might release alleged Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic on bail was removed from the case Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real.

Real’s unusual intervention happened just one day before U.S. Magistrate John R. Kronenberg had planned to preside over the bail hearing in Los Angeles for the former Croatian government official, who is being held in federal custody pending extradition to Yugoslavia for alleged war crimes during World War II.

In an order removing Kronenberg from the case, Real said the bail issue should be decided instead by Volney V. Brown, the magistrate who presided over Artukovic’s extradition hearing earlier this year and who previously refused to grant bail to the 85-year-old Orange County man.

Brown, who had removed himself from hearing the bail motion after Artukovic’s lawyers raised the matter again last month, scheduled a hearing on the renewed bail question for 2 p.m. today.

His reasoning for turning the bail question over to another magistrate, Brown said, was that he does not think it is proper for him to consider a case on which he had already ruled. But Real said Tuesday that it was less proper for another magistrate to review the case.

“A magistrate should not sit in judgment on the rulings of another magistrate,” Real said in his order. “It is therefore ordered that the assignment of this case to Magistrate Kronenberg is hereby vacated as improvidently made.”

The chief judge, who was attending the American Bar Assn. convention in Washington, issued his order over the telephone Tuesday morning to Leonard Brosnan, the clerk of the U.S. District Court here. Real said that after Brown rules on the bail question, all other issues in the Artukovic case should be argued directly before Real as the reviewing judge in the extradition proceeding.

Real’s intervention came after a series of confusing moves after Artukovic’s original extradition hearings, which ended March 4 when Brown initially ruled that the former Croatian interior minister must be returned to Yugoslavia on war crimes charges.

Lawyers for Artukovic have contended that while they appeal Brown’s extradition order, their client, because of his failing health, should be allowed to remain with his family on bail instead of in federal custody.

Artukovic is housed in a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo. His family has claimed that his health has failed since he was moved there, and Kronenberg expressed sympathy for their bail request at a hearing June 28.

Kronenberg, one of seven federal magistrates assigned to help Los Angeles federal judges with their workloads, had been assigned to the bail question by a random drawing of his name after Brown withdrew, but Real’s action Tuesday was a clear signal from the chief judge that he regards that withdrawal as legally improper.

‘Craziest Mix-Up’

Michael d’Aquisto, one of Artukovic’s lawyers, called the situation “one of the craziest mix-ups I’ve ever seen.”

He said there was obvious confusion over the question of which magistrate should hear the matter.

D’Acquisto said he was sorry that Kronenberg was removed from the case because the magistrate had indicated that he believed that Artukovic should be released on bail for humanitarian reasons. The lawyer noted that Brown had earlier rejected bail requests.

Neither Brown nor Kronenberg had any comment on Real’s order.