Lawyer Faces Disbarment in Bribe Case Involving DMV

An attorney for the State Bar of California today will seek the disbarment of a Torrance lawyer who is accused of slipping $100 bills to a former hearing officer for the state Department of Motor Vehicles to influence the officer’s decisions.

The State Bar’s case against attorney Barry G. Sands, 44, was presented last month during a hearing in which the former DMV officer, Michael R. Tarrish, testified that Sands on four occasions gave him $100 bills rolled up in matchbooks.

“Tarrish testified that following lunches he had with Sands, Sands handed him matchbooks, saying ‘Mike, you forgot something,’ ” said State Bar examiner Gail A. Andler, who is acting as the prosecutor in the Sands discipline case.

During the proceeding, Tarrish told a State Bar hearing officer that Sands “slipped the matchbook into Tarrish’s hands or his coat pocket,” Andler said. “Tarrish opened them up and there was a $100 bill in the matchbook on each occasion.”

Tarrish also testified that Sands bought him lunch at least four times.

At the time, DMV records show, Sands was representing clients who had or were about to appear before Tarrish. As a DMV hearing officer, Tarrish had wide latitude to decide whether the licenses of errant drivers would be revoked or suspended.

Andler said that retired Superior Court Judge Denver Peckinpah, who presided over Sands’ hearing, concluded that the charges against the attorney were substantiated and then scheduled arguments on the appropriate punishment for today.

The State Bar’s chief trial counsel, James A. Bascue, said his office is seeking to strip Sands of his right to practice law because, “This particular case is an example of conduct that is seriously detrimental to the administration of justice. . . . I feel disbarment is the appropriate sanction.”

But Sands’ lawyer, Robert Aitken, disagreed. “I think that disbarment is not the appropriate discipline, based on the circumstances involved in this case,” he said.

Under cross-examination, Aitken said, Tarrish testified that he considered the money he received from Sands to be loaned. However, Tarrish conceded that he never repaid Sands any money, Aitken said.

Sands, a 1965 USC graduate, received his law degree from San Fernando College of Law 18 years ago. He has admitted violating rules of professional conduct in three other, unrelated matters, according to State Bar records.

Tarrish was fired by the DMV in January, 1987, and was later placed on probation for three years after he pleaded no contest to a single charge of accepting a bribe.