Law Is Central Issue, Davis Insists : Fiedler Lawyer Attacked for Views on Political Practices

State Sen. Ed Davis lashed out Friday at Rep. Bobbi Fiedler’s chief counsel for saying earlier this week that if the Fiedler case goes to trial, the jury will “have to learn about politics” to help it understand that Fiedler and aide Paul Clarke have violated no law.

Defense counsel Harland Braun made the statement Wednesday after he let the news media listen to the secretly recorded tapes that had led to the indictment of Fiedler and Clarke for allegedly offering Davis a $100,000 campaign contribution to get him to quit the Republican U.S. Senate primary.

“Harland Braun said that he has to educate the jury as to politics,” Davis said at a Burbank press conference. “I would say to you that Mr. Braun, as a lawyer, as an officer of the court, has a responsibility to educate the jury about the law--the law, the law, the law. Not politics.”

Braun contends that one of the flaws of the Fiedler case is that the county grand jury that brought the indictment did not understand how political campaigns work and thus erroneously concluded that Fiedler and Clarke had broken a state law that makes it a felony to pay a politician to quit a race.

The defense lawyer said that taped conversations in which Fiedler and Clarke talk about raising money for Davis could look bad to a jury that does not understand politics. But one of the things that keeps the two-party political system from factionalizing, Braun said, is the tradition of candidates helping rivals in their own party retire their campaign debts.

Davis also blasted statements by Republican legislators on Thursday that both Davis and Fiedler were tainted by the case and should get out of the Senate race for the good of the party.

Davis said he would not quit the race. Instead, he said, his critics ought to be the ones resigning.

“Any politician who puts his party above the law isn’t fit to hold public office,” he said. “I think they should resign today. It makes no difference whether the Republican Party is ahead or the Democratic Party is ahead. What is really important is that we have a reverence for the law.”

Davis campaign manager Martha Zilm, who at the behest of prosecutors wore a hidden microphone to secretly tape conversations with Fiedler and Clarke, was also at the press conference but refused to discuss the case.

Confirming that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) recently frisked him in a restaurant to see if was wearing a microphone, Davis laughed and said, “I jokingly got up against the wall and let Willie pat me down. . . . It was a joke.”

But, he was asked, would it be seen as a joke by other politicians?

“I don’t care if it is taken that way by other politicians,” Davis replied testily. “If other politicians have something to worry about, say about a Moriarty case, or a case like this . . . it’s not my problem.” He was referring to the continuing statewide political corruption probe involving fireworks magnate W. Patrick Moriarty.

Davis Asked Clarification

On one of the tapes played Wednesday, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert I. Garcetti is heard saying that Davis had asked him to call Zilm to clarify something in the investigation.

Davis, the former Los Angeles police chief, was asked how much he had to do with the investigation.

Davis replied: “At one point, the lawyers and investigators wanted me to consider going in and gathering evidence. . . . I said, ‘I’ll do anything you want, I believe in cooperating with the authorities, but I want you to think about this: If I am the one who gathers that evidence, what will happen in court? You’ll have a Roman circus with a former chief of police gathering evidence against someone who is a political opponent.’ And they made a decision not to use me.”

Davis said he could not recall having the conversation with Garcetti that was referred to on the tape.

Probe Criticized

Noting that he has been a maverick in the state Senate, Davis said he was not surprised that he was being criticized by some politicians for instigating the investigation of Fiedler. The probe began after a Davis supporter told Zilm that a Fiedler contributor had inquired about getting Davis out of the race.

“I knew from the moment this investigation started,” Davis said, “that there would be these kind of reactions because not everyone believes in enforcing the law. D.A.’s and the police tend to do it because they do it professionally and they have ethics about it. But a lot of our citizens get very complacent, particularly about politics. You make an assumption that politics is crooked, right? I think that’s terrible in a democracy.”

Davis’ press secretary Eric Rose said that the senator will confront the criticism of him in future campaign speeches.

Don Dornan, who makes Fiedler’s television commercials, said Friday it was Fiedler who was keeping her campaign’s spirits up--”She’s carrying the load.”

Conceding that fund raising will be difficult for Fiedler in the next few weeks, Dornan said, “We have to hope that campaign donors will say, ‘Let’s wait and give Bobbi a chance.’ ”

Dornan said he would not rule out making a commercial for the Senate campaign in which Fiedler confronts the indictment head-on “and then says, ‘now it’s behind me and I want to talk about the issues in this Senate campaign.’ ”