Court of Appeal Backs Open Hearing for Teen

The state Court of Appeal has ruled that a Juvenile Court judge may open pretrial hearings to the public and reporters in the case of a Tarzana teen-ager accused of the armed robbery of an Encino savings and loan, a defense attorney for the youth said Saturday.

Attorney Paul Geragos said he will ask Judge Burton S. Katz on Monday to resume proceedings for his client, Mark Berman, 17.

Berman and a Taft High School classmate, Michael Morrison, 17, of Tarzana, were accused of a $4,000 holdup May 23 at Encino Savings & Loan Assn., and of stealing three cars at gunpoint. Morrison also is charged with the Jan. 3 armed robbery of $1,200 from Barclays Bank in Tarzana.

Geragos said that, if Katz grants his request, the result will be separate hearings for the teen-agers. The hearing for Berman alone could resume Monday or Tuesday, he said.

The hearings, to determine whether the youths should stand trial as adults, had been stalled pending a Court of Appeal hearing scheduled for Aug. 21 on whether the press and public could be barred.

Katz had closed the hearings after Morrison’s attorney, Roger Diamond, argued that pretrial publicity might prejudice jurors.

Katz rejected a request by Geragos on July 15 for an open hearing for Berman alone, saying no action would be taken until the appellate court reviewed the issue. The appeals court ruling on Friday clarified Katz’s authority to resume a hearing for only one of the teen-agers with reporters and the public allowed to attend.

Geragos had joined with Morrison’s attorney in the original motion to bar the public and press.

But on Saturday, he said that Berman wanted to move ahead because the press had already disclosed details of the robbery, and he was sitting “in limbo” at Sylmar Juvenile Hall during the legal maneuverings.

Geragos said he changed his mind about excluding reporters because “the press had done all the damage they could do, and there wasn’t anything else they could do.”