Defense Asks Judge to Open Teen Suspect’s Hearing

A defense attorney for one of two suspected teen-age bank robbers Monday asked a Sylmar Juvenile Court judge to let the public attend pretrial hearings for the youth, but the judge said the proceedings would not continue until the state Court of Appeal reviews the issue.

Judge Burton S. Katz last month closed the hearings for Mark Berman and Michael Morrison, both 17-year-olds from Tarzana, after Morrison’s attorney argued that pretrial publicity might prejudice jurors. But, after protests by two newspapers, the appellate court on Friday ordered Katz to reverse his order or appear on Aug. 21 to explain why the proceedings should remain closed.

Morrison and Berman are charged with the May 23 armed robbery of about $4,000 from Encino Savings & Loan Assn., and with stealing three cars at gunpoint from May 16 through May 29. Morrison is also charged with the Jan. 3 armed robbery of $1,200 from Barclays Bank in Tarzana.

Berman’s attorney, Paul Geragos, argued Monday that Katz should void his order closing a hearing to determine whether his client should be tried as a juvenile or an adult. Such a hearing also is pending in Morrison’s case.

Geragos complained that the fight over public access to the hearings has delayed Berman’s case and left him in Sylmar Juvenile Hall since his arrest on May 30.

But Katz said it would be “uneven-handed to afford protection to one of the minors and not to the other” by risking pretrial publicity in only one case. The judge said that, even if he wanted to hold the proceedings, he is not free to do so until the appellate court issues further orders in the matter.

Katz said he wants the appeal court to decide whether an 18-month-old state law permitting public access to Juvenile Court hearings involving certain felony offenses also allows a judge to close those proceedings. His order is the first legal test of a judge’s authority to close such a hearing.