Ex-Deputy D.A. Can’t Testify, Judge Rules

A federal judge Wednesday tentatively ruled that a retired Orange County deputy district attorney will not be allowed to testify about what he alleges was a pattern of improper pressure placed on local prosecutors by members of Sheriff Brad Gates’ office.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gadbois announced that he felt the testimony would not be relevant to a lawsuit against Gates now being tried in Los Angeles. In that case, a private investigator is charging that members of Gates’ office harassed him and orchestrated a criminal prosecution against him because he was a political opponent of the popular sheriff.

Lawyers for private investigator Preston Guillory are also trying to show that Gates has improperly used his office to harass political foes.

Gates’ lawyers have flatly denied both claims, contending that two independent investigations concluded that Guillory was appropriately prosecuted for carrying a concealed weapon and impersonating a police officer. Guillory, however, was later acquitted of the charges.

Guillory’s cause appeared to receive an unexpected boost last year from Nick Novick, a now-retired county prosecutor who lost a bid in 1986 to unseat Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks.

But Gates’ lawyers have also argued that Novick’s allegations are irrelevant.

Novick, a deputy district attorney from 1970 to 1986, said in a sworn pretrial statement last year that Gates’ assistants regularly sought, with improper motives, to launch or halt criminal prosecutions, according to documents contained in the court file.

Novick mentioned several cases, including one that involved a drunk driving suspect who had displayed the identification of a deputy sheriff when arrested.

Novick testified that the 1984 suspect, John Cuzzupoli, eventually told investigators that the identification card had been loaned to him by Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Johnson. The two were best friends, and Cuzzupoli, who was under age, said he wanted to be able to buy drinks at a south county restaurant, according to Novick.

Because he was in charge of the prosecutor’s office in South Orange County Municipal Court, Novick decided to file charges against Cuzzupoli for drunk driving and illegal possession of the identification.

In the deposition, Novick said he received a telephone call from Undersheriff Raul Ramos, Gates’ top aide, requesting that the charge involving the identification not be filed.

When Novick asked why, Ramos said that Johnson had been suspended and that he believed that was punishment enough, according to Novick.

“I said it’s going to be filed,” Novick said in the deposition.

“His (Ramos’s) comment then was, ‘Well, you know, we have an understanding with your office. If we want something filed or we don’t want it filed, we have reasons for that. And when we make that request in your office, everybody goes along with it.’ ”

“My reply,” Novick testified, “was, ‘Mr. Ramos, I’m in charge down here. I don’t play the game that way. And this case, as far as I am concerned as long as I am the deputy D.A. in charge down here, is going to be filed.’ ”

Novick said that was the end of the conversation, but he added that it was not the only time he had received what he considered to be an unusual request from members of the Sheriff’s Department.

“My experience is, in prior instances and in instances subsequent to this in south Orange County, I had requests made of me to file or not to file certain cases by captains, lieutenants and other people in the sheriff’s office where there was no reason why the case--if the request was don’t file it, there was no reason not to file it,” Novick said.

“If the request was (to) file it, there were all the reasons not to file it,” Novick continued. “The requests by the sheriff’s office were made on reasons other than the legalities and the facts of the case.”

Eventually, the Cuzzupoli case was assigned to the state attorney general’s office for evaluation because the suspect’s mother was an employee of the Orange County district attorney’s office, Novick’s employer.

The outcome of the case, however, could not be immediately determined by The Times.

Novick could not be reached for comment.

On Wednesday, one of Guillory’s lawyers, Meir Westreich, suggested in court that his client’s 1985 prosecution was motivated by a desire by sheriff’s officials to force him to drop a different lawsuit against Gates. In that suit, Guillory had claimed that Gates denied his application for a permit to carry a concealed weapon because Guillory supported Gates’ political opponents. The case, filed in 1978, remains pending.