Judge Rules Against Informant in Alliance Case

A federal judge declined Tuesday to dismiss charges in the so-called Alliance insurance fraud and legal corruption case against a local lawyer who claimed he had served as a secret informant because he had been promised immunity from prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Judith N. Keep said prosecutors had, on two separate occasions, agreed with Leonardo T. Radomile, 44, a San Diego lawyer, that he would act as an informant in the complex case. But never did prosecutors promise immunity, Keep said.

As a lawyer, Radomile knew he had to ask directly for immunity, which he never did, Keep said. And there was no reason for prosecutors to have initiated talk of immunity with him because Radomile consistently portrayed himself as a victim and victims don’t worry about being prosecuted, she said.

Radomile, who said he was disappointed with Keep’s ruling and continued to maintain his innocence, offered himself as an informant three years ago and started an investigation into a lawyers’ network that prosecutors called the Alliance. But he ended up being indicted April 24 with 17 others on mail fraud and racketeering charges.

The indictment alleges that 14 Southern California lawyers--including Radomile--and four nonlawyers defrauded insurance companies of huge legal fees by manipulating complex lawsuits to receive artificially high fees.

Radomile was not initially a target of the probe, Keep said. But prosecutors later decided that he, too, was involved, she said.

In three days of hearings last week before Keep, Assistant U.S. Atty. James Asperger of Los Angeles testified that by late 1987 Radomile “had his own agenda and was out of control.”