Responds to Pressure : Blindness Doesn’t Stop Aggressive Deputy D.A.

As the judge called the attorneys to the bench, Deputy Dist. Atty. Philip Wojdak sprang from his chair and swiftly maneuvered his way around a table. For most trial attorneys, walking to the bench is a familiar routine. But for Wojdak, who is blind, it is one of many obstacles he has had to overcome.

Wearing a three-piece navy blue suit and a pair of iguana-skin cowboy boots, Wojdak, who started working at Downey Municipal Court in early June, moves about the court room with the help of a cane.

“I am under a lot of pressure to do the little things well,” Wojdak said in his small, nearly empty office near the courthouse. “Like being able to walk up to the judge’s bench and doing it well so it looks like I have control of the courtroom. Not stumbling is important.”

While other attorneys can look at the jury to study their responses throughout a trial, Wojdak relies on an assistant to describe the jury’s facial expressions.

“With witnesses it isn’t too hard because I can tell where they are coming from by their voice tone and by their interaction with other people,” Wojdak said. “I can tell when they are mumbling or looking down at their shoes, but with jurors it’s a little harder because they are just sitting there quietly.”

Wojdak uses a Braille typewriter to type case notes and keeps up with current court rulings by listening to tapes prepared and distributed by the district attorney’s office in Alameda County, but he relies on his assistant to read legal documents and help him walk the two blocks from his office to court.

Wojdak is one of about 50 blind attorneys in California, according to Manuel Urena, program manager for Services for the Blind in the Department of Rehabilitation in Sacramento.

Wojdak, 28, lost his sight at 16 for reasons doctors still don’t understand. The thought of dropping out of high school as a sophomore never occurred to him, Wojdak said. In fact, he did not even take time out to learn Braille so he could complete his lessons and graduate with his classmates.

He started his sophomore year with a 2.5, or C-plus, grade-point average, but he says that after becoming blind he had a lot of time to devote to his classes and graduated with a perfect 4.0.

Then he went to college and graduated from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in 1984. After passing the Bar exam he became a deputy district attorney in Huntington Park in March, 1985.

Variety of Cases

Wojdak says he takes on a variety of cases in Downey, including assault and drunk driving.

In his self-effacing manner, Wojdak shrugged off his accomplishments with a joke.

“I knew I had to go to college if I didn’t want to be selling pencils on the corner for the rest of my life,” he said with a grin.

But his jovial mood quickly dissipated when a colleague walked in to ask about his day in court.

“How’d it go Phil?” she asked.

“Hung jury, 8-4 for acquittal,” he replied somberly. “You win some, you lose some, I guess.”

Being sightless has not prevented Wojdak from employing a few aggressive court tactics, and he admits that being blind can sometimes have its advantages.

“In Huntington Park I was trying to show the jury what a dangerous weapon a shovel can be, so every chance I got, I would swing that shovel around and hit the ground with it--boom! boom!” he said as he stood up and banged the tip of his cane on the floor. “The judge was looking at me like ‘Maybe we should take that thing away from him,’ and the bailiff was just standing out of the way.”

Reputation for Severity

Former colleagues and judges in Huntington Park say that Wojdak’s reluctance to negotiate for more lenient sentences has earned him the reputation of being a hard-nosed lawyer.

“He was very determined to prove he could do his job and I guess that has to be admired,” said Commissioner William J. Kent. “But he is very hard-nosed.”

Head Deputy Dist. Atty. John Kildeback described Wojdak as an easy-going guy with a good sense of humor, but said that he is extremely dedicated to his job.

“He has accomplished things that most people with his handicap would have long since given up on,” Kildeback said. “The same sort of qualities that made him surmount the odds carried over into other endeavors too.”

But Huntington Park Municipal Judge Porter de Dubovay, who has handled several of Wojdak’s cases, says defense lawyers have become upset with the district attorney’s attitude on several occasions.

Alienates Some

“Unfortunately, he has a manner that alienates quite a few defense attorneys,” De Dubovay said. “I don’t know if he was trying to overcompensate for his handicap or he was just being hard-nosed, but in my career as a judge I have never seen a D.A. alienate so many people.”

Wojdak, who says he is used to being analyzed by skeptical judges and attorneys who underestimate his abilities, takes the criticism in stride.

“I’m sorry he feels that way. I don’t think I alienate people, but I don’t want to give away cases,” Wojdak said.

“If I do something badly, they attribute it to my blindness. If I do something well, they attribute it to my having to try extra hard to overcome my blindness,” he said. “Everything is relative to my not being able to see.”