VENTURA : Legal Aide Gets Jail and Homework

A Montecito man who pleaded guilty to soliciting perjury and filing false court papers received a six-month jail sentence Tuesday--and a homework assignment.

Richard French II, operator of a Ventura legal-assistance business, was ordered to write a report explaining what paralegals and legal assistants are permitted to do under the law.

“I expect it to be a definitive analysis on this subject,” Ventura County Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones said in making the assignment.

Jones said he made the order--which he described as a first in his 13 years on the bench--because of “Mr. French’s inability to understand what his responsibilities are.”

According to court documents, the charges stemmed from advice French gave to three people who came to his business for help in forestalling evictions. The three customers--two of whom were undercover investigators from the district attorney’s office--said French told them they would have to forge the signatures of their roommates on court papers.

A mistrial was declared in December after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case. French pleaded guilty to the two charges Feb. 1 rather than face a retrial.

A presentencing report, however, said he insists he did nothing illegal and was being harassed for challenging the legal establishment.

A probation officer recommended that French serve 60 days in jail followed by three years probation, but Jones decided on the six-month term and said French should stay on probation for five years.

French and his attorney, Paul J. Kelly, had little comment on the sentence, except to call the writing assignment unusual.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim George Gibbons said it was “highly appropriate . . . an excellent idea.”