Penn Defense Could Rank With County’s Most Costly

San Diego County has paid defense attorney Milton Silverman $51,574 in legal fees and expenses for two months of pretrial work in the case of accused killer Sagon Penn.

Under an agreement with the county Office of Defender Services, Silverman is being paid the standard public defender hourly rate of $55 to represent Penn, who is charged with murdering one San Diego police officer and attempting to kill another.

Silverman received $35,035 in legal fees for work in November and December to attend preliminary hearings and prepare for the trial, which began Feb. 19 in Superior Court, according to the county auditor and controller’s office. In addition, records show that Silverman has been paid $16,539 for other expenses such as the services of his investigator and law clerk.

Penn’s defense could become one of the most expensive ever for San Diego County.

The Penn trial begins its third week Monday with jury selection continuing at a slow pace. Judge Ben W. Hamrick, prosecutor Michael Carpenter and Silverman are screening potential jurors by asking questions regarding their views on police and blacks and their knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the shootings.

Penn, 24, who is black, contends that he acted in self-defense on March 31 when he fatally shot San Diego Police Agent Thomas Riggs, 27, and seriously injured Agent Donovan Jacobs, 29, and Sara Pina-Ruiz, 34, a civilian who was accompanying Riggs in his police car. Penn alleges that Jacobs beat him with a baton and used racial slurs.

Silverman said he expects to earn “well over $100,000” by the end of the trial, which is expected to last four months.

If the $51,574 Silverman billed the county for two months of pretrial work is projected through the anticipated length of the trial, he would collect about $180,000 in fees and expenses.

By comparison, Carpenter earns an annual salary between $46,842 and $56,930 as a deputy district attorney.

Silverman said he would charge a private client a flat fee of about $250,000 to defend a comparable murder case. He said the Penn trial is a complex one because the shootings were witnessed by 39 people and police officers were involved.

The highest amount that San Diego County is believed to have paid defense attorneys in a single case is $198,198. That sum was paid to five attorneys over a period of four years to defend Watson White, who was convicted in 1983 of killing an elderly National City man during a 1981 robbery attempt.

Recently, the county paid $118,621 to attorneys C. Logan McKechnie and Stephen Perrello to defend Herman (Rock) Kreutzer, the Big Oak Ranch owner who in September was convicted of killing his son-in-law.

Judges and lawyers in San Diego County have been urging an overhaul of the current contract system that provides private criminal defense lawyers to indigents charged with serious felonies. A blue-ribbon panel of lawyers and judges has recommended that the county scrap its contract system and replace it with a quasi-public defender program. The panel is proposing that a nonprofit organization--directed by an 18-member board of trustees appointed by county supervisors, judges and the San Diego County Bar Assn.--contract with the county to represent nearly all indigents.

“From a broad general proposition, (the Penn case) could be done cheaper through our proposed system,” said M. James Lorenz, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego who is chairman of the panel. “The investigative costs are still going to be fairly exorbitant . . . but our proposal might minimize these costs to a certain degree.”

Defense attorneys emphasize that the hourly fees paid by the county are considerably less than those that lawyers receive in other cases.

“I understand the public’s concern about crime and having to pay the bill,” said Elisabeth Semel, president of the Criminal Defense Bar Assn. in San Diego. “But Milt Silverman is a premier example of a lawyer who could make a helluva lot more taking cases other than representing Sagon Penn.

“I know Milt well enough to know that he likes a challenge and he likes a high-profile case. I also know he has a commitment to . . . take difficult cases that a lot of other lawyers don’t want to take because they’re too scary or too risky. I’m sure (the Penn case) made him say, ‘Sure, I could make more money by winning another multimillion-dollar civil case, but there’s something I can accomplish here that will be good for the criminal justice system, good for a young man and also good for me.’ ”

Silverman took the case Oct. 31 when Penn said he no longer wanted to be represented by attorney Robert Slatten, who was paid about $10,000 that was raised by the Sagon Penn Defense Committee.

Penn cited “a conflict of interests” in deciding to fire Slatten, even though the trial had entered its second day of juror questioning. Penn told Judge Earl H. Maas Jr. that he had no money and wanted to be represented by Silverman, a San Diego attorney known for his success in defending suspects in prominent murder cases.

Because of its heavy caseload, the county Office of Defender Services agreed to assign the case to Silverman at its standard $55-an-hour rate.

At the time, Silverman said he agreed to defend Penn because, “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

He added: “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.”

For pretrial work performed in November and December, Silverman billed the county $35,035 for 637 hours, or nearly 80 hours per week. In addition, he has received $8,421 for private investigative work at $20 per hour; $4,176 for expert witnesses; $2,645 for a law clerk, and $1,297 for other expenses such as mileage and psychiatric examinations.

Phil Harry, deputy director of the Office of Defender Services, said he reviews bills turned in by private lawyers representing indigent clients monthly to monitor the expenses and the attorneys’ performance.

In Silverman’s case, Harry said, “The time expended for the amount of work seems to be reasonable.”

Harry’s boss, Melvin Nitz, has proposed expanding his staff of salaried lawyers to eliminate the need to pay hourly rates to private attorneys to represent indigent clients.

For the last year, San Diego County has experimented with a public defender staff of 21 lawyers to represent about 70% of the indigents accused of felonies. The remaining cases are contracted to private attorneys.

Nitz said that, unlike some states, California has not attempted to limit the amount of money a private attorney can collect from county funds.

“An attorney can’t possibly handle a case with the efficiency and exuberance with which he is supposed to attack it on (a limited fee),” Nitz said. “That’s one reason why I keep arguing for a public defender system.”