Meesedemeanor : Warrant Reissued for Attorney General Over Unpaid 1980 Jaywalking Ticket

The attorney general of the United States is again a wanted man in the City of the Angels. But delicate negotiations at high levels of state government could spare the nation’s top lawman a trip to the slammer.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office Monday reissued a warrant for the arrest of Edwin Meese III, 53, of McLean, Va., head of the U.S. Department of Justice and a known associate of the President of the United States.

A spokesman for City Atty. James K. Hahn said a search of court records showed that Meese has never paid a $10 jaywalking ticket slapped on him five years ago.

An alert Los Angeles police officer nabbed Meese at 7:35 p.m. June 11, 1980, at Airport Boulevard and 98th Street, near Ronald Reagan’s California primary headquarters, said city attorney’s office spokesman Ted Goldstein. Goldstein theorized that Meese was on his way to his car when he stepped out of line.

A computer clerk discovered the warrant last week. But when the original paper work could not be located, the city attorney’s office recalled the warrant pending a further search. City officials, giving the attorney general the benefit of the doubt, speculated at the time that Meese had probably long since paid the $10 fine.

But on Monday the paper work was located, and the warrant was back in force.

Interest and Penalties

Meese is liable not only for the $10 fine, Goldstein said, but also for an additional $120.50 in interest and penalties.

And just to make sure that the 5-year-old ticket does not again escape the attorney general’s attention, officials of the Los Angeles Municipal Court have contacted Meese’s brother, who, coincidentally, is director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

George Meese “is going to act as the coordinator to ensure payment,” Goldstein said. “We don’t care who signs the check, we just want to get paid.”

The reaction in Washington was terse.

“It’s the sort of thing you set down some place and forget about,” Patrick Korten, deputy director of public affairs for the Justice Department, said of his boss’s ticket. “He was in the middle of a presidential campaign, and the minute the campaign was over, everybody just picked up and moved to Washington. . . .

“In the very near future,” Korten added, “that thing will be paid, and we’ll get on to the more weighty matters of government.”

In a letter mailed to Meese on Monday, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates struck a conciliatory tone.

“While pondering the magnitude of this case, word arrived that a good friend of yours (George Meese) had contacted the court and arranged for a proper disposition,” Gates wrote. “Extradition was never considered. . . .”

Said Goldstein: “We understand that the check is in the mail.”