Attorney Tackles Cases Few Care to Touch

‘He’s the best there is when it comes to child molest cases. Everybody hates him, but his results are the best.’

--Ron Talmo,former partner

Some days, Paul J. Wallin feels a faint fear. Those days, the Tustin defense attorney has spent all day in court trying to show that a small child is lying. He may have repeated the same questions in various ways. What did he do? Tell us. Show us. Where? What do you call it? How many times?

If after seven hours he cannot break her story, the fear grows. He could be wrong. Then Wallin--a specialist in defending accused child molesters--said he goes home to his wife and three children and weeps.

But then, in order to maintain his belief that his client has been falsely accused and to win the case, Wallin said he wills his doubt away. “I can convince myself,” he said. “I’ll just say, ‘He is not guilty. I have no reason to believe he is guilty. He is not guilty.’ ”

Over the past decade, Wallin, 35, has used his will, his in-house investigator and persistence to build a reputation as Orange County’s most aggressive, most thorough and most successful defender of alleged child molesters.

“He’s the best there is when it comes to child molest cases,” said former partner Ron Talmo, now a professor at Western State Law School. “Everybody hates him, but his results are the best.”

While acquitted clients see Wallin as a hero, detractors within the legal community view him as a self-promoter who may have built a career at the expense of child victims or of the accused who don’t know where else to turn.

Reported investigations of sexual child abuse rose in California from 5,433 in 1979 to 22,054 in 1986 due to the higher profile that child abuse issues have taken in recent years and changes in reporting laws, according to the state Department of Justice. About 150 cases of felony child abuse are filed in Orange County each year.

Some attorneys say they avoid child molestation cases because they are depressing, sordid and fraught with emotion. Wallin said he takes 40 cases a year and turns away 40 more. He claims he has lost none of his last 20 jury felony trials.

In 1984, a jury did convict three of his clients accused of molesting three girls, the stepdaughters and adopted daughter of one of the suspects. But the judge overruled the jurors’ verdict, indicating that he had not believed one of the alleged victims. (The case, involving Larry Meyerson, the girls’ father, his father, Sidney Meyerson, and family friend Robert Sonnickson, will be retried as three separate cases.)

Wallin has also represented:

- Doyle Craig, 35, of Anaheim, a Los Angeles police officer charged with molesting eight young boys he had befriended while on duty. Criminal charges were dismissed in May after a judge ruled the boys could not testify. The prosecutor called it a “technicality.”

- John Roseman, a Fullerton elementary school principal, charged in 1983 with molesting a 5-year-old student. Charges were dismissed as the trial was to begin when Wallin disclosed Roseman’s side--that he had only changed the girl’s pants because she had wet them.

- William Gillett, an Orange schoolteacher arrested and accused in 1984 of fondling several junior high school students. Wallin’s investigation revealed his accuser sought revenge for a low grade. Charges were never filed.

Gillett quit teaching, but Wallin’s practice soared after the subsequent publicity, which included an appearance on the “Today Show.”

A graduate of UCLA and Pepperdine University School of Law, Wallin decided to specialize in child molestation cases in 1981. He had represented two teachers and calls began pouring in, he said. In addition, the Orange County district attorney was about to form a sexual assault/child abuse unit. Unless he limited his practice and hired his own investigator, he decided, he would be at a disadvantage.

Of the 200 accused child molesters he has represented since then, about 50 have been educators, doctors or lawyers, he said.

Wallin said he accepts two types of clients: those who insist they are innocent in cases where there is no overwhelming evidence to show they are lying, and those who admit they did it and sincerely want therapy. He does not represent clients with prior records.

“My clients go from zero, no record, to the biggie,” he said. In some circumstances, a convicted child molester could spend more time in prison than someone convicted of murder.

Charges $20,000 to $50,000

Wallin may charge anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 to take a case to trial, he said. But he’s in it for the stakes, not the money, he contends. “It’s the idea a person’s life is on the line.”

One former client sees Wallin--and his in-house investigator, Cheryl Geerlings--as saviors who rescued him from “the worst possible nightmare.”

“I feel they saved my life. Literally,” said David Colbert, 43, an Oakland teacher who was accused two years ago of publicly fondling four 7th-grade students. “Until Paul came into the case, I was totally devastated. Thoughts of suicide entered my mind. But I thought, why should I? I’m innocent.

“It seemed so futile to me. The union attorney was saying, ‘You’ve got four girls saying you did it. It doesn’t look too good. The worst you could get is nine months in Santa Rita, the county jail here, and you could do that standing on your head.’ I knew it would take a lawyer who believed in my innocence to fight for me.”

Wallin put Geerlings on the case. She flew to Oakland, tracked down one of the girls and said she told her, “I know you’re lying. It’s time to come clean.” The girl confessed they made up the charges because Colbert was “too strict.” The district attorney dismissed the case and the local newspaper carried a story with the headline, “Teacher’s Life Ravaged By False Sex Molestation Charges,” Colbert said.

Colbert regained his teaching job, but is now $15,000 in debt. To pay his legal fees, Colbert sold all his stocks and bonds, took out loans on his house and credit cards. But Wallin’s $32,000 bill was “worth every cent,” he said. “You get what you pay for. . . . The facts spoke for themselves, but I needed a professional to find the truth. People up here were not eager to find the truth.”

Another former client from Orange County, acquitted of molesting his two daughters, said he still owes Wallin $10,000. He is paying off his debt by working on immigration amnesty cases in Wallin’s office.

In his office, Wallin keeps a scrapbook with newspaper articles about his cases, pictures of his appearance on the “Today Show,” letters from judges and lawyers who saw him on the “Today Show,” and flyers advertising his seminar for teachers on how they can protect themselves from accusation. (His basic advice: avoid being alone with children, or keep the door open.)

On his desk and walls are 36 pictures of his children. He devotes off hours to them--coaching his sons’ T-ball and soccer teams--partly because his own childhood lacked attention and affection, he said. His father was away from home as he grew up and, when he was 13, a brother died and his mother blamed him for it.

It saddens him to see children separated from parents, which he said may be a reason he drives himself at work.

“They tell you in law school, don’t personalize the case. That’s the first rule I’ve broken, and I think it’s the reason I’m successful. They tell you you have to have a massive distance between you and your client. I sense it leads to arrogance and a lack of compassion if you totally separate yourself.”

Wallin does not drink and said he is too busy to socialize with other lawyers and judges.

He often works from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. and said that he drives his staff equally hard. His one fault, he said, is being a perfectionist. He runs three miles a day, six days a week. He attends every UCLA football game, home or away. He talks at 60 m.p.h.

Winning keeps him going, he said. When he wins, Wallin has not hesitated to criticize prosecutors publicly for “garbage cases” or “witch hunts.”

They, in turn, question his tactics--mostly in private.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Nina R. Brice said Wallin uses a “disrespectful, belittling” tone on witnesses and in one case goaded a teen-ager to the point of tears. “She told him very frankly how she felt about him.”

Describe the Taste

Wallin once asked a 14-year-old girl who said his client forced her into oral copulation to describe the taste of semen, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan C. Sturla. When she replied she didn’t know, he said Wallin persisted: “Aw, come on, was it salty? Was it sweet?”

“It’s absolutely brutal to treat children that way. I’m sure it makes them want to throw up their hands and say it’s not worth it. I’m sure that’s part of the strategy.”

The case against the girl’s teacher was eventually dropped, he said.

“For the child he is a barracuda,” said Joy Borzellino, a juror on the Meyerson/Sonnickson case. “I saw young girls on the stand who had been victimized all their lives and an attorney who victimized them further. . . . At one time, he made one of the girls actually draw the genitalia of the grandfather. We didn’t know (the point of the drawing) other than to humiliate or demean the poor girl.”

On the other hand, juror Roberta Holzinger said Wallin’s expertise and intelligence persuaded her to vote to acquit a father accused of molesting his 5-year-old daughter. “Each claim they made, he investigated thoroughly. He went to every extreme,” she said.

Tub Was Measured

When prosecutors claimed the father and the girl bathed together, he had the tub measured and photographed to show they could not both fit in, she said.

She and other jurors felt so sorry for his client, whose parents had mortgaged their house for his defense, that they sent him Christmas cards, she said.

“Certainly he had to get tough with the little girl, but his client’s life was at stake,” she said. Wallin denied he is intentionally hard on child witnesses. But he said he is tougher on them in preliminary hearings. “I can be more direct in terms of getting information. . . . I don’t have to use that honey, sweetheart, dear, type language when I’m in a prelim that I want to use in front of a jury.”

There is nothing wrong with “vigorously” cross-examining alleged victims of child molestation, according to Marshall M. Schulman, a former prosecutor and now a lawyer in private practice specializing in criminal defense cases. “Basically, that’s the way it should be done. If you can’t, you shouldn’t represent people.”

Cases Are Difficult

Even though an estimated 90% of the Orange County district attorney’s child molestation cases end in guilty pleas or verdicts, prosecutors say such cases are difficult because children are less believable than adults. Young children may be fantasizing and preteens--in this era armed with specifics of sexual practices--can make convincing false accusations, Schulman said. But Wallin said that the generally hostile attitude to anyone accused of molesting children makes winning a jury trial extremely difficult.

The past five years have seen several new victim protection laws, including Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning suspects from attending pretrial hearings in child molestation cases.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when the court holds the accused has no right to confront his accuser,” Wallin said. “They’re making more and more fences we have to leap over to protect the rights of the accused.”

The defense also is precluded from seeing records of an alleged victim’s therapist, Wallin said. “A kid could recant to the therapist and we have no access, and the therapist can’t reveal it. Therefore, a wrongly accused person could go to prison.”

Could Not Be Fair

In his last Orange County trial, 20 of 80 potential jurors for a case of alleged oral copulation and sodomy told the judge at the outset they could not be fair, he said. “Isn’t that frightening? That’s 25% that had the guts to tell the truth. How do I know how many other people felt the exact same way? How can you get a fair trial when that percent of prospective jurors tell you we don’t care what the evidence is, but just because of the nature of the charges, we can’t give you a fair trial?”

Male jurors are best for the defense because they identify with the defendant, Wallin said. Lately, however, he said he has had good results with elderly women who may see themselves as the mother of the defendant, when the defendent is in his 30s and 40s. Younger jurors may identify with the victim’s parents. “Remember, when they were growing up, this was not talked about, whether it was happening or not. They find it extremely difficult to comprehend it could even happen (in our society), yet alone that this cute, innocent man did it. “

In court, he said he uses language understandable to 8th-graders. “Jurors aren’t that intelligent sometimes. You need to bring it home.” Wallin’s staff analyzes child witnesses’ statements and uses a word processor to ferret out inconsistencies. Charts are made. The child’s statements are listed under the title, in red, “Lying.” The defendant’s are listed under “Truth.”

Arousal Test

He may have his client undergo a sexual arousal test in which responses are measured to stimuli, such as pictures of nude children. The tests are dramatic and impress lay people, but are not considered reliable enough to be accepted in court. To make sure jurors hear about the test, he said he will have his client attend therapy and then call the psychologist as a witness. The psychologist will then mention the test as a reason for concluding his client has no propensity to molest children, he said.

Wallin denied that he calls reporters to publicize his cases for his own benefit, as his critics have said. “I don’t need the press,” he said. “Everybody who gets arrested for child molest calls me. . . . When I do have the press involved, it’s only to benefit my client.” It’s unfair, he said, that charges and arrests receive more publicity than exonerations.

In particular, prosecutors complained that Wallin attempted to gain publicity for himself in the case of John Roseman, the Fullerton teacher, by not revealing earlier that his client had only been helping a child with soiled pants. It would be contrary to normal strategy to open his hand early and give an advantage to the prosecution, Wallin said.

Besides, he added, “I wasn’t 100% positive the mother was going to admit it.” She said she would not talk to him because the deputy district attorney on the case had told her not to, Wallin said. “If that’s true, who really caused the problem? (The D.A.) by telling the mother not to talk to us!”

Wallin said there is no slackening of accused child molesters who call him. But because the work is exhausting, he recently cut back, now accepting half rather than three-quarters of the potential clients who call.

There is an emotional toll as well, Wallin said. He is unsure how much longer he will continue his specialty.

Criticism by colleagues also hurts, he said. “I don’t perceive myself as having enemies. . . . I think I’m a very honest person. I think people who have a bad impression of me, they don’t know me, that’s all.”