Lawyer Indicted in Solicitation of Perjury Case

Pasadena defense lawyer Rayford Fountain has been indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on charges that he asked two jailhouse informants to give perjured testimony at a murder trial.

The indictment, returned on March 9, was revealed Wednesday, after Fountain surrendered for arraignment before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David A. Horowitz.

Fountain, who was indicted on one count of perjury, three counts of solicitation to commit perjury and one count of bribing a witness, could not be reached for comment.

His attorney, Edward Rucker of Pasadena, said his client has practiced law here for 24 years, and has “earned a reputation of the highest integrity from the bench and his colleagues.”

“We’re quite confident, once the full facts are litigated, Mr. Fountain will be vindicated and his reputation restored,” he said.

Fountain, 50, is accused of asking the two informants to give perjured testimony at the murder trial of his client, Harles E. Hamilton, 28. Neither informant did so.

Hamilton has been tried three times for the 1984 murders of Pasadena attorney David Goldman, 77, and his wife, Bertha, 74. All three proceedings ended in mistrials after juries deadlocked.

According to authorities, the Goldmans were bludgeoned to death after they reportedly surprised two men who were ransacking their Altadena home. An alleged accomplice of Hamilton, Calvin Dean, 28, shot and killed himself a week after the murders as Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest him.

Last February, while the third Pasadena Superior Court jury was deliberating the fate of Hamilton, an independent lawyer was conducting a search of Fountain’s law office.

The independent lawyer, or “special master,” had been directed to conduct the search by Deputy Dist. Atty. Lonnie Felker to preserve the privacy of Fountain’s client records. The lawyer collected documents while sheriff’s and district attorney’s investigators observed.