Justices Reject Bid to Limit Plea Talks to Open Courtrooms

The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by the Orange County district attorney’s office that sought to force Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown to hold all plea negotiations in open court.

The high court unanimously denied a hearing on District Attorney Cecil Hicks’ appeal of a lower court’s ruling that struck down the plea-bargain policy, saying that it violated the constitutional authority of judges to supervise case settlements.

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said his office still has other matters pending before the state Supreme Court that he hoped would result in striking down a new plea negotiation policy adopted by Brown. That new policy has been adopted by some judges in county Municipal Court.

Accused of Coercion

Two months ago, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana accused the district attorney of essentially coercing the judges into adopting his policy by refusing to let his prosecutors conduct such hearings in chambers.

The appellate court ordered the judges to adopt their own policy and demanded that both the criminal defense attorneys in the county and the district attorney’s office participate in forming the policy.

Plea negotiations were almost always conducted in off-the-record, closed-door sessions in the past. But 2 years ago, Hicks ordered his prosecutors to sit in on such sessions only in open court.

Defense attorneys were upset by the lack of privacy that the district attorney’s order mandated, but the judges told the defenders that they had no choice but to follow Hicks’ policy.

But after the appellate court ruling, Judge Brown, who operates the calendar courtroom for Superior Court and conducts most of the plea-bargain sessions, set up what he considered a compromise to both sides:

- Serious felony cases, which all fall under Proposition 8, are all discussed in open court in Brown’s so-called “sweater conferences”--in which the judge sits, usually in a sweater, in the front of the courtroom with attorneys gathered around him. The sessions are in public view but out of earshot of anyone in the public seats. Brown, however, invites anyone from the public who wants to sit in on the sessions to do so; it is seldom that anyone does.

(Among other things, Proposition 8, the so-called Victims Bill of Rights, a wide-ranging initiative approved by voters, limited plea bargaining in serious felony cases.)

- Less serious felonies, considered non-Proposition 8 cases, are now discussed with Brown in chambers.

But these in-chamber sessions are still different from the old closed-door sessions that preceded Hicks’ policy. The new sessions are all on the record, meaning that a court reporter takes down everything said for a permanent record. Also, Brown invites anyone from the public to sit in on these sessions if they request to do so.

Capizzi said these sessions are still not satisfactory to prosecutors.

“We’ve been conducting the public’s business in public for 2 years, and it’s worked fine,” Capizzi said. “We’ve not had cases backlogged like some people had predicted. We see no need to change it.”