Judge Refuses to Disqualify Self in Stadium Trial

Superior Court Judge Frank Domenichini said Tuesday that he will not disqualify himself from the $100-million lawsuit involving the City of Anaheim, the California Angels and the Los Angeles Rams.

Rams attorney Alfred E. Augustini, who had asked the judge to disqualify himself voluntarily, immediately filed papers seeking the judge’s dismissal.

Augustini said his clients fear the Orange County trial has been tainted by events involving the courtroom clerk, who is running for county clerk, and by an endorsement of him by Angels owner Gene Autry.

The Angels are suing Anaheim and Anaheim Stadium Associates--a partnership between the Rams and the firm of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes--to prevent construction of multilevel office and garage complexes on part of the Anaheim Stadium parking lot. The development was part of a package deal the city made with the Rams to entice the team to move to Anaheim.

Domenichini now has 10 days to respond to the Rams’ move to disqualify him. A retired judge, chosen by the attorneys involved or by state Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, will decide whether Domenichini should step down in the non-jury trial.

That process could take more than two months. And the Rams, with the city’s backing, asked Tuesday that the trial be suspended until the issue is settled.

But Angels attorney William B. Campbell said a temporary suspension would allow the case “to grow stale.” In documents, he also cited a code allowing a judge to continue a trial even if one side has sought his disqualification. “Otherwise, any time a party felt it was losing a trial, it could file a statement of disqualification and buy itself a few extra months,” the Angels said in court documents.

But Michael D. Rubin, who represents Anaheim, told the judge that a trial postponement is crucial to the city. The Angels club, which is about to wrap up its case, presented its case without interruption, Rubin said. The city, he continued, would like the same “luxury.”

Ruling on Suspending Trial

Domenichini is scheduled to decide on May 22 whether to suspend the trial.

For the Angels, the whole disqualification issue is “frivolous,” Campbell said. A new judge would have to review more than 200 exhibits and more than 7,500 pages of transcripts, including testimony by 28 witnesses, he said. Many of those witnesses are in their mid-70s and have health problems, Campbell said. Some traveled from out of state, he said. To ask them to testify again would be unreasonable and maybe impossible, he said.

Bringing in a new judge, Campbell wrote, “may effectively foreclose the Angels from retrying this case.”

Campbell also said his client already has spent more than $2.3 million on the case, while Anaheim has spent about $3.1 million. Augustini said cost to his clients, the Rams, has so far exceeded $2 million.

The move to disqualify Domenichini is based on what the Rams claim is the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Picture of Autry With Clerk

Marshall F. Norris, who was the clerk in the courtroom until recently, received Autry’s endorsement in his campaign for county clerk. Although Norris received approval from all parties first, the city and Anaheim Stadium Associates said they never authorized distribution of a fund-raiser invitation with a picture of Autry shaking hands with Norris. But Autry said he, too, did not know of the invitation which reads, in part: “Gene Autry, owner of the California Angels, cordially invites you. . . .”

Angels attorneys argue that the invitation, which they did not approve, does not constitute an appearance of a conflict.

Domenichini said after the morning’s proceedings that this is the first time in his 16 years as a judge that any attorney has sought to have him removed from a case.

“To make the record clear, I do not believe that I am in any way affected by the incidents that have occurred here,” Domenichini told the attorneys. “It has not affected my impartiality. I intended, from the outset, to determine this case on the evidence and the law and that is my position and posture.”

Norris, who has been a clerk in Domenichini’s courtroom almost as long as the judge has been on the bench, has since been reassigned from courtroom responsibilities.

Long-Time Association

Noting Norris’ longtime association with the judge, Augustini argues in his statement of disqualification that Norris “has solicited support and aid for his political campaign by representing that he was requested to run for election by Judge Domenichini and other judges in the Orange County Superior Court.”

Augustini also said that it was Domenichini who suggested to Norris that he solicit signatures from employees in the law firms on a petition in lieu of paying campaign filing fees.

In an April 30 declaration opposing the disqualification move, Norris said he collected signatures after receiving approval from all attorneys involved. “I explained to all counsel that a signature on the petition was neither a vote nor an endorsement but merely allowed my name to be placed on the ballot without having to pay a statutory fee of $564,” Norris wrote.