Appeal Court Hears Bid to Open Tarzana Teen’s Hearing

An attorney seeking to have pretrial hearings for a Tarzana teen-ager accused of bank robbery opened to the public told the state Court of Appeal Wednesday that the Legislature altered a statute so that reporters would be able to cover such Juvenile Court proceedings.

But five attorneys arguing against opening the proceedings said the public often is excluded from adult-court preliminary hearings and that minors should have the same protection from pretrial publicity.

Dan Marmalefsky, an attorney for the Daily News, petitioned the court to order open pretrial proceedings in the case of Michael S. Morrison, 17, who is charged with the May 23 armed robbery of Encino Savings & Loan and with three armed car thefts.

Marmalefsky cited a new statute that requires Juvenile Court proceedings involving serious charges, including armed robbery, to be open to the public under the same standards that apply to trials.

More Accountability

“There was a strong desire on the part of the Legislature to make juveniles more accountable,” Marmalefsky said during a two-hour session before a three-judge division of the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles.

Legislators “wanted to give the public a better understanding of what happens in Juvenile Court,” he said.

Marmalefsky asked the court to hear his case after Juvenile Court Judge Burton S. Katz ordered the public excluded from fitness hearings for Morrison and co-defendant Mark D. Berman, also 17 and from Tarzana.

Berman’s attorneys later requested that his hearings be reopened. After a fitness hearing was held for Berman, Katz ordered him tried as a juvenile. Berman then pleaded guilty to several of the charges against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 17.

But Morrison’s attorney, Roger Diamond, insisted that hearings for his client remain closed, saying that publicity might prejudice a jury if Morrison were ordered to stand trial in adult court. A Juvenile Court trial is decided by the judge.

Diamond argued that reporters should not be allowed to publish pretrial confessions by youths testifying in their own defense at fitness hearings.

“Juveniles are encouraged to take the stand and confess,” he said. “It’s part of the rehabilitative process.”

The appeal court has 90 days to rule.