Made ‘Tremendous Mistake’ : Didn’t Care About Life, Youth Says of Holdups

Accused teen-age bank robber Mark Berman of Tarzana testified at a pretrial hearing Tuesday that he committed armed robberies because, “I really didn’t care whether I was living or whether I was dead.”

Stammering and hesitating during more than an hour’s testimony in Sylmar Juvenile Court, Berman, 17, asked Judge Burton S. Katz not to order him to trial in adult court.

“I am very upset and very shocked that I could go out and ruin my life and terrorize other people’s lives doing what we did,” Berman said. “I don’t know 100% why I was involved in this.

‘Tremendous Mistake’

“I’d like you to look at me as someone who made a tremendous mistake.”

Katz said he would rule during a final session of the hearing this morning whether Berman will be tried as an adult.

Berman and Taft High School classmate Michael Morrison, also 17 and from Tarzana, are charged with the May 23 armed robbery of more than $4,000 from Encino Savings & Loan Assn. and with stealing three cars at gunpoint in May.

Although Berman on Tuesday freely admitted committing the crimes, his testimony at the pretrial hearing cannot be used against him. Sitting with him at the defense table during the four-hour hearing were his father, attorney Martin Berman and another lawyer.

Berman testified that he carried a Taser gun, which stuns people with an electrical charge, during the bank robbery. In addition, he confirmed earlier testimony that he also took a loaded handgun from his mother and that Morrison carried it during the crime.

That arrangement, in addition to the decision to purchase custom-fit police uniforms and Halloween masks as disguises, were made during at least 30 days of planning for the robbery, he said.

“We decided that I would go into the bank and collect the money,” Berman said. “Mike said, ‘Just in case anyone tries to trip you or do something to stop you, you can put the Taser gun on him to stop him. . . . We decided Mike would look more threatening with the gun.”

Morrison told him he would “shoot in the air to scare the person off” if anyone tried to interfere with the robbery, Berman said.

Although Berman said he carried the gun during all of the car thefts, he said he would not have pulled the trigger had a victim resisted. “I think I would have tried to run,” he said.

Wanted to Impress Classmate

Berman said he stole the last car on his own “to impress Mike.”

Berman said Morrison hatched a plan to rob the bank so that the youths could start an ice-cream-truck business and later expand into a fire-extinguisher business.

Berman said he was disturbed by his failing grades at school and was attracted to Morrison’s more aggressive personality “because he didn’t care about certain things . . . and I would use that to block out my bad grades.”

Responding to Katz’s questions, Berman said Morrison was “very impressed” by his own father’s history of bank robbery. The youth’s father, Allan Eugene Morrison, served a prison term for bank robbery more than 20 years ago.

Berman’s chief defense attorney, Paul Geragos, asked Katz not to order the boy to be tried in adult court, arguing that Berman would not have commited the crimes without Morrison’s encouragement.

“I’m not trying to make the other young man the bad guy in this, but there are mitigating circumstances,” Geragos said. “In no way, shape, or form would this young man have initiated this type of conduct or do any of the planning.”

Berman’s Defense

Berman’s defense throughout the two days of the hearing has been that Morrison was the driving force behind the crimes.

Berman, who described himself as “responsible and very caring about other people,” said he did not think of committing crimes until he met Morrison last year.

“I feel now that I’ve learned from the type of person that Mike is and I won’t get involved with that type of person anymore,” he said.

“I feel like I lost everything,” he told the judge. “If I stay in the juvenile system, I have a way to get it back.”

In addition to Berman’s testimony, Katz heard a report by clinical psychologist Richard LeGassick, who described the youth as “a passive, dependent boy . . . shy, quiet, and calm.”

LeGassick said Berman became friends with Morrison because he “needed to find some way to bolster a shattered self-image” stemming from his parents’ divorce.

Morrison’s pretrial proceedings have been postponed until a state Court of Appeal can rule on whether Katz’s order closing the hearings was proper. Oral argument on the closing of Morrison’s hearing is scheduled Aug. 21.

Geragos requested that Berman’s hearing be reopened to the public to speed proceedings for the youth, who has been at Sylmar Juvenile Hall since his arrest May 30.