Lawyer Jailed for Contempt Is Freed, Sent to Detox Center

Brenda Keith, the 36-year-old lawyer jailed Thursday for failure to appear at a contempt of court hearing, was released late Friday and taken to a county detoxification center for treatment of what a judge described as a serious substance-abuse problem.

Superior Court Judge G. Dennis Adams ordered Keith released from the County Jail at Las Colinas and driven to a county detoxification facility. Without ordering her to do so, Adams urged Keith to spend three days in detox and seven more in treatment.

“We’ve tried to make an arrangement where she can get some help,” said Adams, who had Keith arrested Thursday after her repeated failures to appear in court. On Friday, he expressed serious concern about Keith’s health.

Keith, who has practiced criminal law based in El Cajon since her admission to the California bar in 1983, had been charged repeatedly by different judges with contempt of court for not showing up for scheduled appearances on behalf of clients.

Finally, on Thursday, Adams issued a bench warrant for Keith’s arrest without bail after she did not appear for a contempt of court hearing.

She was arrested in the San Diego courtroom of Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman, who was conducting a hearing on his own contempt of court charge against her.

According to Adams, Keith had failed to appear on the opening day of a client’s trial. Then she arrived without a lawyer for her contempt hearing a week later, and later failed to show up after Adams had given her another week.

According to Huffman, Keith had failed to appear before him for a client’s sentencing, then had failed to pay a $250 fine for contempt. Meanwhile, Huffman said, she had failed to appear for another client’s trial and had been found in contempt again.

On Friday, Keith again had no lawyer, although she was accompanied by a lawyer who said he was serving simply as an adviser. Strikingly thin, Keith was dressed in a skirt and gray blazer, and the blue plastic wristband worn by inmates at Las Colinas.

During the brief hearing, Keith told Adams she would not contest his contempt of court charge. So Adams found her guilty and scheduled her sentencing for Nov. 26, at which time he could fine her and sentence her to five days in jail.

Adams then ordered Keith released and returned briefly to Las Colinas. From there, she was to be taken to a detoxification facility under contract with the county. Though Adams did not include detox and treatment in the order, he said he had some assurance that she would cooperate.

Keith, originally from Minnesota, is a graduate of Western State University College of Law. Lawyers say she has had primarily a criminal practice. However, her El Cajon office telephone number has been changed to a number in New Jersey.

According to records on file in San Diego Municipal Court, Keith was sued last year by a law firm that formerly employed her.

The suit, filed by lawyers Robert Boyce and Carol Frausto, alleged that Keith had failed to repay $2,127.29 in loans from the office and checks from a client to the firm in payment for legal services. According to the records, Boyce and Frausto won a default judgment for the total sum, apparently after Keith failed to answer the complaint.