Penn’s Request for New Lawyer Halts His Murder Trial

A note handed to the judge asking that Sagon Penn be granted a new attorney halted the trial of the accused police killer Tuesday.

The note stunned the courtroom of Judge Earl H. Maas Jr. on the second day of the murder trial. It asked that flamboyant San Diego lawyer Milton Silverman replace Robert Slatten as Penn’s defense attorney.

Maas indicated that he would approve the change of lawyers and delay the start of the trial until Jan. 13. But he agreed to let Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter argue against the change, at a 10 a.m. hearing today, before making a final decision.

“I don’t think it’s timely,” said Carpenter, who added that he has arranged for 90 people to testify in coming weeks. “We were there to select a jury. If you can change attorneys now after the trial has started, what’s to prevent you to change attorneys and get a new trial during jury deliberations?”

Carpenter said the request by Penn, who is charged with killing one police officer and injuring another after police stopped his truck March 31, came as a complete surprise.

When Carpenter vigorously opposed Penn’s request, Maas responded by saying, “Do you wish to try this over again if it’s reversed on appeal?”

Maas first learned of Penn’s wishes to hire a new attorney when Penn’s mother, Peggy Barnes, scrawled a one-page note and handed it to the judge.

The note said in part: “I have known for several months that Sagon did not want Mr. Slatten for his lawyer. Sagon did not hire Mr. Slatten. This was done by Thomas Penn (Sagon’s father). Thomas Penn did not raise Sagon. I have raised him for 20 years. I know Sagon asked Mr. Slatten to contact Mr. Silverman for him and Mr. Slatten said Mr. Silverman didn’t do criminal work.”

Thomas Penn said outside the courtroom that he did not know what his ex-wife was doing. “I’m as surprised as anyone else,” Thomas Penn said.

Slatten, also a San Diego attorney, said in a telephone interview that his client’s request for a new attorney “was news to me.”

In her note to the judge, Barnes said that her son had tried Tuesday morning to hand a note to the judge’s bailiff stating that he no longer wanted to retain Slatten. “I found out that Mr. Slatten got ahold of this letter and called in my former husband Thomas Penn to the cell where Sagon was,” Barnes wrote. “Tremendous pressure was put on Sagon not to do this.”

Sagon Penn, 23, is charged with murdering Officer Thomas E. Riggs, 27, and attempting to murder Officer Donovan Jacobs, 29. He is also charged with attempting to kill Sara Pina-Ruiz, 33, a civilian observer who accompanied Riggs on patrol.

Silverman is widely regarded as one of the most successful criminal defense attorneys in California.

“He is tenacious, very creative, extremely clever and aggressive,” said San Diego defense attorney Elizabeth Semel.

Among the dozens of highly publicized cases Silverman has tried during his 15-year career, several stand out. He won a $32.6-million jury award in 1983 against the Hare Krishnas for allegedly brainwashing the 15-year-old daughter of a San Diego couple and hiding her from her family in 1974 and 1975. The award is believed to be the largest against a religious organization in California history. It was only Silverman’s second civil case to go to trial. He won $1.4 million for his client in the first case.

Silverman, 40, gained national attention in 1974 when he convinced a jury that a woman accused of hiring someone to kill her husband did it unknowingly under hypnosis. He wrote a book about that case, called “Open and Shut.”

In 1982, Silverman defended lawyer and one-time San Diego school board candidate Robert Nevill, who was accused of murdering his wife after he discovered she was having an affair. Nevill was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison.

One of Silverman’s bigger victories involved the case of Susan Driscoll, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity after the 1976 killing of her husband and two children. Driscoll was released from a state hospital in 1982.

Silverman, who appeared in court Tuesday, gave the same reason for agreeing to take Penn’s case that he gave in the Hare Krishna case two years ago: “I think it’s the right thing to do.”

He added: “First of all, Sagon Penn wants me. Secondly, I think that the community should have a trial where the facts are fully and completely aired . . . and I think it’s important that this community have a sense that however it comes out, it comes out fair and square.”

Penn’s case has become a rallying point for blacks in Southeast San Diego who charge that they have been the victims of repeated harassment and abuse by white police officers. Several witnesses have testified that Jacobs directed racial slurs toward Penn, who is black, and hit him repeatedly before the 23-year-old karate expert grabbed the officer’s revolver and began shooting.

Those arguments were rejected at a preliminary hearing by Superior Court Judge J. Richard Haden, who denied a defense motion to toss the case out of court. Haden called the case “truly a tragedy for all of San Diego.”

Penn’s mother, Peggy Barnes, said her son wanted Silverman from the start because of his excellent reputation, but her ex-husband preferred Slatten.

“I just helped him out,” Barnes said in explaining why she wrote the letter Tuesday. “I just had to because this is what he wanted. It is Sagon. He is the one in jail. He can choose anyone he wants. It is his wishes, not ours.”

Slatten’s attorney fees were paid by community leaders who had raised nearly $10,000 in Penn’s behalf. Penn reportedly told Maas that he had no money to pay for a lawyer during a meeting Tuesday in the judge’s chambers that included Penn’s mother and father, Slatten and Silverman.

If Maas approves Penn’s request, Silverman’s fees presumably would be paid by the county.

Penn’s decision to dump Slatten apparently did not stem from any serious problems the defendant had with the defense attorney, according to a lawyer knowledgeable about the case.

“The law requires there not be a fundamental breakdown in confidence between a lawyer and his client and that can be with perfectly capable lawyers,” said the lawyer, who asked not to be named. “It happens to all of us.