Prostitute’s Story Sparked Investigation of Judge Who Resigned

The investigation that eventually led to the resignation of Harbor Municipal Judge Brian R. Carter began in 1984 when a prostitute disclosed their sexual relationship to authorities, police records released Tuesday reveal.

The prostitute, identified as Della Christine Johnson, had been arrested by Fullerton police at a hotel party. In an attempt to gain leniency, she later let police record a telephone conversation during which the judge sought a sexual rendezvous with her.

This led to an investigation by the district attorney’s office of Carter, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace A. Wade. While that investigation did not result in criminal charges, Wade’s office turned over its files to the state Commission on Judicial Performance. In January, soon after the commission sent Carter a list of his alleged improprieties, which it planned to examine at a formal hearing, the judge announced his resignation.

Carter’s resignation came amid a wider probe by the state judicial commission into alleged wrongdoings by at least five judges on the Harbor Municipal Court. The commission has announced hearings only into its probe of Carter and Judge Calvin P. Schmidt. The Carter hearing was dropped after he tendered his resignation.

On Tuesday, in response to a request by The Times Orange County Edition under the state Public Records Act, the Fullerton Police Department released for the first time its 237-page file on the arrests that led to Johnson’s critical disclosures about the judge.

Among other disclosures, the reports reveal that the woman whose cooperation with police started a chain of events that led to Carter’s resignation wasn’t even fond of him.

Johnson, who in the taped conversation expressed a genuine friendship for the judge, wrote in her diary that the 63-year-old Carter was “icky, a cigar-smoking, filthy-toothed dirty old man,” the police reports reveal.

Johnson, 25 at the time, was arrested in June, 1984, along with three other prostitutes at a party at the Griswold Hotel in Fullerton. Police said the party occupied five rooms, in which they discovered a blackjack game and craps table and saw men from the party going in and out of rooms with some of the prostitutes, the reports reveal.

Following her arrest, Sgt. R.T. Rowell wrote in one report, Johnson first mentioned Carter’s name.

“Johnson advised . . . that she would like to offer any information to the police that might assist her in the charges pending against her (for the 20/30 Club arrest),” Rowell wrote.

(Police described the “20/30” club as a “social services club.”)

Rowell said Johnson first asked if police might be interested in information about a dope dealer she knew in Buena Park.

“Johnson then indicated that she had information that might be of interest pertaining to a Municipal Court judge in the Harbor Court,” Rowell’s report states.

Although much of the Fullerton records include information from Johnson already made public, one new revelation was her claim that Carter told her that he would intervene for her in a traffic matter if a Harbor Court traffic commissioner assigned to hear the case was too severe.

The Fullerton file includes other allegations released last fall in the Carter investigation: Johnson claimed that a friend told her she could get her driver’s license reinstated in exchange for providing sexual favors for both the friend and the judge who would hear her case. Her case was heard by Judge Schmidt. But Johnson told police that Carter called her later, told her that he knew that she was a “working girl” and that he would collect for Schmidt. Part of Rowell’s report, including references to Schmidt, were edited before being released by the Police Department.

Though Schmidt has denied any impropriety, the state Commission on Judicial Performance has announced that it also plans to hold a formal hearing on allegations against him.

Rowell’s report makes the first reference to Johnson’s allegation that Carter invited her to accompany him on a boat to Catalina with a group of friends, with Carter paying her $250 for the trip in exchange for sex once a day for each of the 2 days.

Johnson’s diary, confiscated by the police following her arrest, is filled with references to that trip.

“Frankly, I find it all rather boring,” she states in sections of the diary released Tuesday. “Like I told my host, B.C. (meaning Carter), this isn’t my element. I’m glad I brought my Walkman. Keeps me company. Yuk! He just tried to kiss me! And he smokes cigars, ugh!”

Later she states: “Brian is jealous cause I’m spending more time with (another man) than him. Too bad! He’s old and icky.”

In one other reference to Carter, she states that she was worried about a new traffic arrest. “I don’t want to go back to jail again,” Johnson wrote. “Until I talk to Judge Carter, though, and find out what my maximum penalty will be, there’s no point in panicking.”

Carter, who is now in private law practice in Santa Ana, could not be reached for comment. But in the past he has refused to discuss his relationship with Johnson. His attorney, Byron K. McMillan, said Tuesday that Carter would again have no comment. Johnson has changed addresses and could not be located for comment.

After allowing investigators to tape one conversation, in which Carter asks to meet her for “love and friendship” and reminds her she “owes” him, Johnson decided against continuing her cooperation with the police. She had agreed to meet Carter at her Costa Mesa apartment the next day. Carter was placed under surveillance, and police saw him stop at a shopping center near her home and use the telephone. But the meeting never took place.

Johnson later told police that she decided not to show up after an attorney for another prostitute friend of hers advised her against it. The attorney, Al Stokke, claims he doesn’t remember the incident.

Johnson’s diaries show a confused young woman who fell in love with several different men while at the same time conducting a lucrative prostitution business. In one entry, she states her relief that her boyfriend still cares about her, and in the next paragraph discusses a client: “He’s a sweetie! $100 ea. visit.”

She also discusses how she had worked a 20/30 club party the year before her 1984 arrest and had enjoyed it. In an entry before the 1984 party, she states that “this is a big shindig --with every member of the 20/30 Club present--that’s 160 men!”

Other information released by the Fullerton Police Tuesday includes a long list of men’s names confiscated from Johnson, one of whose is Carter’s, with his home telephone number. Next to the names of several men she has drawn hearts, some of them double hearts, but none next to Carter’s name.