Learnard Shuns Limelight : Lawyer ‘Obligated’ to Challenge Trial

Normally, John Learnard does not shun public attention.

His law office at 3rd Avenue and Ash Street is a historic, 81-year-old building that served most of its dlife as a mortuary. Where the hearses once parked, now sits Learnard’s 1935 Auburn convertible, a grand roadster in which he sometimes drives through San Diego with Melvin Belli, the inarguably flamboyant San Francisco lawyer whom Learnard counts as a close friend and sometime partner.

But when one of the jurors in Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s retrial came to the old Goodbody Mortuary last week to drop a bombshell in Learnard’s lap--that a bailiff may have tampered with the jury’s deliberations--the 45-year-old lawyer was not interested in the headlines he knew would follow, he says.

“This was certainly nothing I was looking for last Friday,” Learnard said Thursday.

Rather, Learnard stated, he was concerned about doing his duty as a lawyer and an officer of the court.

“A client simply gave me information, the state Bar indicated I had certain obligations, and that was it,” Learnard said. “Frankly, it’s not a pleasant thing to do. I respect the courts and I respect the jury system, and to think this kind of thing could occur is very disturbing.”

Though Learnard said he gave no thought to the consequences of challenging the performance of court bailiff Al Burroughs--and, by implication, San Diego County Superior Court Judge William L. Todd Jr.--his wife said Learnard knew he was trodding on sensitive turf.

“He had discussed it with other lawyers, and some other lawyers told him it would be suicide to do it within the judicial system,” said Mary Learnard. “He just felt it was something he had to do.”

Richard Brown, a lawyer in Belli’s office in San Francisco, was in Learnard’s office Wednesday as he conferred with Bar officials on his obligation to alert prosecutors to possible wrongdoing during the jury deliberations.

“Mr. Learnard confided in me the tough personal decision he had to make and the tough professional decision he had to make as an attorney,” Brown said.

“He may have irreparably damaged his career in terms of trial law by coming forward,” he added. “Even though he did the right thing, it may be viewed with some distaste by the judges in San Diego County. The feeling among some judges might be that he should have come to them about it.”

Learnard said he was confident that his actions in the Hedgecock case would not damage his law career, which he recently scaled down to a one-man practice specializing in individuals’ claims for damages.

“If the judges were in the same position I was in, they’d be obligated as lawyers to report something like this, given the same information,” Learnard said.

Learnard and several confidants interviewed Thursday insisted the lawyer had no political ax to grind either for or against Hedgecock. He is a registered Independent and generally apolitical, according to Dr. Robert Herron, a San Diego physician and a friend of Learnard.

However, Learnard attended St. Augustine High School in the 1950s with J. Michael McDade, Hedgecock’s former chief of staff, and describes McDade as a friend. After hearing the juror’s story, it was McDade he called, and it was McDade who put him in touch with Oscar Goodman, Hedgecock’s defense attorney, Learnard said.

But Learnard, 5-foot-9 and an “ample” 190 pounds, said he has never met Hedgecock and had no strong feelings as to how he had wanted the mayor’s trial to conclude. “I haven’t formed an opinion about the mayor,” he said. “I’m not very political.”

What Learnard is is an experienced trial lawyer, always as the advocate for plaintiffs claiming they’ve been wronged. For several years, his practice concentrated on medical malpractice cases, though he lately has turned away from that emphasis.

In 1981, he was Belli’s co-counsel in a case that resulted in a $300,000 judgment for the parents of a 4-year-old boy who died 10 days after he was denied treatment at El Cajon Valley Hospital.

Learnard and Belli’s firm also represent the family of Leslie Landersman, a 22-year-old newlywed shot dead by Escondido police in 1983 as they were attempting to rescue her from a bank robber who had taken her hostage. Landersman’s family is suing the City of Escondido for wrongful death.

But Learnard also has been known to refuse medical malpractice lawsuits if he judges them unjustified, even though the cases might have generated big fees, Herron said.

“A lot of doctors think every lawyer is a scumbag,” said Herron, a family practitioner. “This guy is proof they’re not.”

Though the accusations brought forward by Learnard made front-page news, the lawyer insists he had no interest in garnering publicity through association with the Hedgecock case. Learnard asked a reporter not to write a story about him, and enlisted another lawyer to call and request that he not be profiled.

“I don’t want any publicity out of it,” Learnard said. “This is a very sensitive situation, and I’d just like it to go away.”

Herron said the plea for anonymity was part of Learnard’s nature. “He agonizes over wrongs,” Herron said. “If he has come forward, I’m sure it’s not for self-aggrandizement.”

Herron added: “This man is an anachronism. He’s a lawyer with a conscience.”