The Region - News from Sept. 14, 1986

A judge has temporarily barred the state Senate from using taxpayer funds to pay for legal fees and a libel suit settlement against former state Sen. John Schmitz of Orange County. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Victor Campilongo halted payments until a Sept. 25 hearing in a lawsuit brought by San Francisco Supervisor Quentin Kopp. Schmitz, a community college teacher, agreed last month to pay a $20,000 settlement to Los Angeles feminist attorney Gloria Allred after she sued him over a 1981 news release labeling her a “slick butch lawyeress.” The Senate Rules Committee had voted to pay the settlement, plus accrued legal fees estimated as high as $30,000. In 1982, a taxpayers’ group sued the Senate, but a judge ruled that former legislators are entitled to a state-paid defense when sued for actions that occur in the course of their duties.