Countywide : D. A. to Keep Staff Off Criminal Juries

Ventura County prosecutors no longer would be allowed to serve on criminal juries under a policy tentatively approved Tuesday by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

The policy was drafted less than two weeks after a prosecutor served as foreman on a Municipal Court jury that convicted an Oxnard man of being under the influence of heroin.

Judge Steven Hintz, who allowed Deputy Dist. Atty. Terence M. Kilbride to sit on that jury, granted a new trial Friday to William Lopez, 28. Hintz made his ruling not because of Kilbride’s jury service, but because he said the trial prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kent Baker, violated Lopez’s constitutional rights by asking whether he had refused to waive his rights to an attorney when he was arrested.

Bradbury said the new policy is “based on our conclusion that there is a conflict of interest in that case and in all future cases.”

Under the new policy, any prosecutor called to jury duty must tell the judge about the policy and ask to be excused. If the judge refuses, the trial prosecutor should ask the defense attorney to excuse the prosecutor-juror. And if the defense refuses, the trial prosecutor should move to excuse the prosecutor-juror from the panel, the policy says.

The Ventura County public defender’s office already has a policy forbidding deputy public defenders from serving on juries in cases that it represents, Assistant Public Defender Jean L. Farley said.

About six months ago, Farley said Deputy Public Defender Susan Olson was excused from the trial of a man who was being represented by a colleague, Stewart Spivak, now a private attorney.