Former Court Commissioner’s Cocaine Charge Is Dismissed

A felony cocaine possession charge against former North Municipal Court Commissioner Robert K. Tuller Jr. was dismissed Friday after a judge determined that he had gone “far beyond” the requirements of a drug diversion program for first-time offenders.

Tuller, in his first public statement since his arrest in May, said he believes that he is free of a cocaine problem now.

“The Betty Ford Center saved my life,” Tuller said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carl Armbrust told Central Municipal Judge James M. Brooks that while he was skeptical of diversion programs, Tuller had met the requirements needed to satisfy a dismissal of the charge.

The court requires a defendant to attend a minimum of 26 drug diversion sessions. Tuller’s records show he has completed 311.

The dismissal of the charge clears Tuller’s record and eliminates almost all likelihood that the California State Bar would take any disciplinary action against Tuller, Armbrust said.

Tuller, 47, was arrested May 11, 1990, in an Anaheim hotel room with a vial of cocaine in one hand and a blowtorch in the other. He had bought $100 in cocaine from a police informant, who told police about Tuller several months before.

Less than a month after his arrest, Tuller was forced by the North Municipal Court judges to resign his commissioner’s post. The judges had appointed him in 1986.

In August, Central Municipal Judge Gary P. Ryan offered to dismiss the charge if Tuller successfully completed a drug diversion program, a standard practice for first-time arrests. Besides treatment at the Betty Ford Center for drug rehabilitation in Rancho Mirage, Tuller was involved in weekly group therapy sessions at the St. Jude Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Fullerton and Narcotics Anonymous.

Armbrust had opposed allowing Tuller to enter the diversion program. “I think if you’re caught possessing an illegal substance, you should be punished,” Armbrust said. “You should go through diversion on your own as well as be punished.”

Tuller, who has been practicing law, said Friday that publicity has impaired his ability to build a practice, but that he’s working at it.