Earlier Testimony OKd in Shooting Case

A judge ruled Friday that prosecutors can use previous testimony by a woman now refusing to testify against a man accused of shooting her because he thought she was dealing drugs outside his former Pacoima home.

The ruling by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab means prosecutors can continue jury selection in the trial of Joseph Calvin Grant, 58, of Pacoima.

“We can’t have this guy shooting up the streets,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold S. Lynn said. Grant is charged with assault with a deadly weapon in the Nov. 8, 1987, shooting of Lelatta Parks, who invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination Thursday in refusing to testify against Grant.

Schwab denied a defense motion Friday to bar prosecutors from using Parks’ testimony at Grant’s preliminary hearing in February, when he was ordered to be tried on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

During the preliminary hearing, Grant’s lawyer, James E. Blatt, had asked Parks if she was a drug dealer, and Parks had said no. But Parks was charged Aug. 5 with possession of drugs for sale. She pleaded guilty and on Sept. 8 was given a suspended 180-day jail sentence plus three years on probation.

On Friday, Blatt told the court that he thinks Parks is refusing to testify to avoid perjuring herself. Blatt is expected to argue that Grant fired his weapon only to scare Parks and to defend his community from drug dealing.

At the preliminary hearing, Parks testified that she was standing outside a car talking to someone inside when she felt “a sting” in her right shoulder. She turned and saw Grant in a bathrobe in his front yard with a gun in his right hand. Parks testified that Grant said to her, “Don’t be selling no drugs in front of my house.”

Parks’ refusal to testify means she will not have to face questions about whether she was dealing drugs on the day of the shooting. She also will avoid having to make any admission that could result in her being found in violation of her probation, said her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Marc A. Hentell.

State law allows the use of prior testimony if a witness is “legally unavailable,” a category that includes death, serious illness or the invocation of the constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Grant is free on $2,000 bail.

A second assault charge against Grant was dismissed in August. He had been charged in the June 11 shooting of Marlon Clark, 26, who Grant said was dealing drugs in his neighborhood.

That charge was dropped because Clark failed to appear to testify at Grant’s preliminary hearing.