Judge Is Ordered to Reconsider Barring of Public
In a 2-1 opinion, the California Court of Appeal Tuesday ordered a lower-court judge to reconsider his decision barring the public from a pretrial hearing for a Tarzana teen-ager charged with the armed robbery of an Encino savings and loan.
The appeal court said Los Angeles Juvenile Court Judge Burton S. Katz “committed an abuse of discretion” when he barred the public from a June hearing into whether Michael Morrison, 17, of Tarzana, should stand trial as an adult. Katz ruled that potential jurors might be prejudiced by news reports of pretrial testimony. His order was appealed by the Daily News of Van Nuys.
Tuesday’s opinion said Katz should only have closed the hearing after a showing that there would be “a reasonable likelihood of substantial prejudice to the right to receive a fair and impartial trial.” The appeal court also said the judge did not give the public and the media sufficient time to oppose his order before it was issued.
Morrison, along with Mark Berman, also 17 and from Tarzana, was accused of the May 23 robbery of $4,000 from Encino Savings & Loan Assn., and of stealing three cars at gunpoint.
Berman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the California Youth Authority, which can keep him in custody until he is 25.
Morrison is being held in Juvenile Hall pending his trial.
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