Reporter’s Notebook : Judge Doesn’t Object a Bit to F. Lee Bailey’s Winning Way

The public flocked to a Newport Beach courthouse last week to watch F. Lee Bailey in action, defending Pomona surgeon Thomas A. Gionis against charges that he masterminded an attack on his ex-wife, Aissa Wayne, and her boyfriend.

The Massachusetts lawyer drew appreciative laughs and gasps of awe from the standing-room-only gallery as he used his legendary courtroom wit to argue that his client was not involved in the attack on John Wayne’s daughter and then-boyfriend Roger W. Luby.

His biggest fan of all, though, seemed to be the person sitting behind the bench: Harbor Municipal Judge Susanne S. Shaw.

During last week’s preliminary hearing, Shaw continually kidded with Bailey, asked for an autograph and at one point even led the courtroom in a round of applause for the lawyer.

The reason: Bailey had just passed the Florida state bar examination. Bailey, 55, had been licensed only to practice law in Massachusetts, although he has represented clients in 49 of the 50 states by enlisting local co-counsel.

“Congratulations for passing the Florida bar exam today,” Shaw said to Bailey on Thursday as the rest of the courtroom applauded. “We’re all real proud of you.”

Later in the same day, Shaw, 42, a former Orange County deputy district attorney, expressed sadness that Gionis’ preliminary hearing would soon be ending and Bailey would have to go home.

Shaw on Friday ordered Gionis bound over for trial in Orange County Superior Court but agreed to set bond for him at $250,000. The orthopedic surgeon had been held without bond.

“These will be some of the fondest days of my life,” she said at an early point in the hearing.

Bailey returned many of the compliments to the judge. When Shaw commented Friday that she had been “awake” during testimony of a previous witness, Bailey hastily interjected: “Incredibly alert, if I might make that observation.”

Visibly upset over the judge’s attention toward Bailey has been Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans, toward whom Shaw was far less cordial. On Wednesday, for example, Shaw admonished Evans for being “like a jack-in-the-box” for jumping up and raising objections to Bailey’s examination of a witness.

“Would you take a deep breath for me?” the judge asked a red-faced Evans.

On Friday, Shaw interrupted Evans’ closing arguments on a bail hearing for Gionis, and said: “Don’t shove it down my throat, Mr. Evans. I get the picture. Get on with it.”

The comment had been preceded by Evans’ suggestion that “we’re on notice” if bond is set for Gionis and he commits a crime.

The sensational aspect of the case also kept the judge keenly focused on the attendant media coverage. Several times, she inquired whether a particular television or newspaper reporter was present and told Bailey in court that she had just gotten a call from the television program “Entertainment Tonight,” which she said was interested in the case.

But Shaw was less benevolent toward the Orange County Register, which ran a picture of her that caused her later in the week to confront a Register photographer with the complaint that the photo had made her look like “a side of beef.”

On Friday, during a bail hearing that followed the preliminary hearing, Shaw joked in open court that the photograph should have carried the caption: “USDA.”