Defendants Assail Judge Over Decision to Make Wife Testify at Trial

The trial of two brothers accused of shooting an armored car guard in Glendale took two bizarre turns this week, with the wife of the alleged triggerman testifying against her husband and the defendants angrily accusing the judge of violating their rights.

On Tuesday, in the presence of the jury, defendant Alfred Anthony Giordano, 26, jumped to his feet, pointed a finger at Pasadena Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling and said he would refuse to participate in his trial. His brother, Peter Paul Giordano, 31, also stood up and shouted at the judge before jurors were escorted from the courtroom.

“You are violating our constitutional rights by making your own laws,” said Alfred Giordano, apparently refering Smerling’s ruling that required Giordano’s wife to testify.

Bailiffs restrained the brothers, leading them back to a holding cell as Alfred Giordano’s wife, Kimberly Giordano, tearfully left the witness stand and three of Alfred Giordano’s children, sitting in the back of the courtroom, began to cry.

The brothers refused to return to the courtroom Tuesday, and their defense attorneys asked the judge to declare a mistrial because of the outbursts. Smerling denied the motion but recessed the proceedings for the day, allowing the attorneys time to calm their clients.

Wednesday morning, Alfred Giordano resumed his place at the defense table but Peter Giordano again refused to take part in the trial. The judge ruled that the trial would continue in his absence.

Kimberly Giordano testified Wednesday that at 2 a.m. on a night shortly after the December, 1987, shooting, she helped her husband look for a gun buried in her back yard. Under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Joanne Glidden, Kimberly Giordano said that when she and her husband were unable to find the gun, Alfred Giordano said, “Well, if we can’t find it, the police can’t find it.”

Kimberly Giordano was a key witness for the prosecution in a preliminary hearing last year. At the time, she and Alfred Giordano were divorced. At that hearing, she testified that Giordano told her days after the shooting that he had shot an armored car guard.

The Giordanos have since remarried. In a pretrial hearing two weeks ago, she testified that the investigating officer in the case, Joseph Jiminez, had sex with her and coerced her to implicate her husband.

Glendale Police Sgt. Dean Durand said an internal investigation is being conducted into the allegations. A police officer assigned to the investigation was in court this week to hear Kimberly Giordano’s testimony.

On Tuesday, she testified that she helped Alfred Giordano saw down an Uzi-type weapon in the days before the shooting. Wednesday she testified that the morning after their unsuccessful search for the gun in her back yard, her husband asked her to rent a metal detector to look for the gun.

Kimberly Giordano’s testimony continued Wednesday afternoon.

Guard Paralyzed

The brothers each are charged with attempted murder and attempted robbery in the shooting, although Alfred Giordano is believed to be the gunman. The armored car guard, Howard White, was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot five times with a military-style 9-millimeter, semiautomatic Uzi.

White was shot when he and the driver of a Sectran Armor Transportation Co. vehicle were making a delivery to the Valley Check Cashiers at 6344 San Fernando Road. White was carrying an empty money bag at the time of the robbery.

The outburst by Alfred and Peter Giordano on Tuesday was apparently touched off when the judge denied a motion by Alfred Giordano’s attorney, Robert Swanson, to bar the testimony of Giordano’s wife. Smerling had ruled in a pretrial hearing two weeks ago that Kimberly Giordano is not protected from testifying since she and Giordano were divorced when she testified against him at the May, 1988, preliminary hearing.

The Giordanos are being held at Los Angeles County Jail. If convicted, each could be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.