Key Ruling Expected in Case Against Judge Davis

Four witnesses testified Thursday during a pre-trial hearing in the assault and battery case against Municipal Judge Joseph K. Davis, and a decision is expected today on a defense request that charges against the judge be dismissed.

Davis, appointed to the bench in 1980, faces a single misdemeanor battery charge in the beating of his pregnant girlfriend, Anna Monica Garcia, during a Nov. 23 quarrel at the couple’s home.

His defense attorneys, Jan Ronis and Patrick Q. Hall, are seeking dismissal of the charge or removal of the San Diego city attorney’s office as prosecutor in the case. The defense team alleges that Davis has been singled out for prosecution by “vindictive” deputy city attorneys who harbor deep “personal hostility” toward the judge.

Ronis and Hall charge that Deputy City Atty. Casey Gwinn, who heads the domestic violence division and is handling the Davis prosecution, is biased against Davis because the judge once criticized him.

Moreover, the defense team argues that the city attorney’s office views Davis as an “anti-prosecution judge” and has adopted a policy of diverting certain cases involving police officers away from his courtroom.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, insist they are handling the charge against Davis no differently than other domestic violence cases.

On Thursday, the court heard testimony from a defense attorney who was present during a trial in which Gwinn was upbraided by Davis for unprofessional conduct after an unfavorable ruling. Attorney John Farrell recalled that Davis told Gwinn to “stop acting like a baby and grow up” and said he sensed “hostility” between the two men.

Gwinn also took the stand Thursday. During more than two hours of testimony, he confirmed that Davis had made statements about his behavior and called them “fair and appropriate criticism.”

Another defense witness, Municipal Judge Frederic L. Link, testified that he attended a meeting last fall with several deputy city attorneys regarding the attorneys’ concerns about Davis. Link recalled that the “thrust” of the concern was that “Judge Davis was an anti-prosecution judge.”

“They had a problem with Judge Davis, in particular with police officer testimony,” Link said. “They felt that Judge Davis for some reason was prejudiced against someone’s interest, the police, the prosecution, whatever.”

Also at issue Thursday was the willingness of Garcia to press charges. Initially, she made a citizen’s arrest of Davis and obtained a court order to bar him from their home. But since then, Garcia has denied a beating ever took place and asked that the charges be dropped. Although Ronis says the two have reconciled, they no longer live together.

In a letter sent to Gwinn and obtained by The Times, Garcia accuses Gwinn of lying about her willingness to press charges and says she believes Gwinn is “determined to press charges against Judge Davis whether or not he did anything wrong.”

“I was shocked to read where you said that you had no indication that I did not wish to go forward with the case against Judge Davis,” Garica wrote. “You lied. You know full well that I told you that I wasn’t going to file charges.”

Despite Garcia’s position, Gwinn said Thursday that the victim’s denial that a beating took place or unwillingness to press charges is no longer sufficient reasons for prosecutors to drop a domestic violence case. Before November, cases were dropped under such conditions, but since Gwinn took over the domestic violence caseload, things have changed.

“We no longer allow the victim to drop--or press--charges,” Gwinn testified. “And we no longer use that vocabulary in the city attorney’s office, because we want to let victims know that domestic violence is a crime against society.”

Final arguments in the hearing will begin at 9 a.m. before Judge James Edmunds, a South Bay Municipal Court judge handling the case because San Diego judges were reluctant to conduct a matter involving one of their colleagues.