All-Night Talks Fail; Gates Fight Back in Court

After all-night efforts to settle the dispute between Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, the city attorney and the Police Commission failed, a phalanx of attorneys returned to court Thursday in an ongoing battle to determine who controls the Los Angeles Police Department.

But despite 3 1/2 hours of esoteric argument--drowned out at times by demonstrators chanting “Take the Gestapo chief out!”--the hearing did not resolve the politically charged attempt by the Police Commission to put Gates on a 60-day furlough in the wake of the Rodney G. King beating.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Sohigian, who ordered another hearing for next Wednesday, questioned whether he even should decide the issue.

“The question is whether the judiciary ought to intervene in certain kinds of disputes,” the judge said. “The judicial branch should not be placed in a position of running the government.”

Nonetheless, Sohigian is being asked to decide whether the elected City Council or the civilian Police Commission appointed by the mayor has ultimate control over the Police Department and its chief. The outcome could reshape traditional interpretations of Los Angeles’ 67-year-old City Charter and, the city attorney’s office holds, “revolutionize” the structure of city government.

The problem that confronts Sohigian combines two sets of authority: the City Council is empowered to settle lawsuits, but the City Charter allows the commission to hire, discipline and fire the police chief.

The current conflict began April 4, when the commission met in executive session and voted to put Gates on an involuntary leave pending an investigation of use of excessive force by Los Angeles police officers. Gates threatened to sue the city for monetary damages, and the City Council hurriedly voted to settle that lawsuit even before it was filed, thus allowing Gates to return to work two days later.

Legal and political maneuvering has proceeded on two tracks: one conducted inside the cavernous county courthouse, the other in closed-door conference rooms and over car phones.

Since Friday, there have been behind-the-scenes negotiations at City Hall and private law firms’ offices trying to settle the volatile case out of court.

By Tuesday, a settlement appeared near. Under a plan privately proposed by Police Commission President Dan Garcia, the commission would abandon its attempt to place Gates on paid leave. In return, the council would appropriate $150,000 to the commission to pay for its investigation.

The council, meeting in executive session, refused to sign off on the proposed agreement after some members said they did not support an investigation of Gates.

On Wednesday night, on the eve of the court hearing scheduled by Sohigian, negotiations resumed between Gates’ attorneys and representatives of Mayor Bradley--who is fighting for the independence of his commission--and another proposed agreement was faxed to interested parties.

But even these talks broke down early Thursday after negotiators felt they could not persuade the council to agree to an investigation of Gates.

Among other things, the newest proposal called for Gates to make a personal plea to the council to appropriate money for the commission’s investigation and, in return, the commission would take no action against Gates for 90 days.

After studying the proposed settlement, however, three commissioners--Melanie Lomax, Stanley Sheinbaum and Sam Williams--voted to reject it, primarily, they said, because they were not represented at the talks and had misgivings about the continued resistance of some council members to the commission investigation. Garcia was out of the country Thursday.

Each side blamed the other for the failed settlement.

Gates’ attorney, Jay Grodin, said: “Lomax didn’t approve of it.”

But Lomax, contacted late Thursday, said: “These charges that I am responsible for the failure of the settlement are nonsense, total politics and completely untrue.”

On that note, with bitterness on all sides but negotiations still alive, the battle continued in the courtroom.

There, attorneys for Gates, the city attorney’s office, Police Commission and a coalition of civil rights and community groups--which want Gates ousted--sought to persuade Sohigian that each should have a say in Gates’ short-term fate and the long-term future of the Police Department.

Is the city of Los Angeles a single “municipal corporation” exclusively represented by the city attorney or an aggregate of diverse departments with separate interests, he wanted to know. Should separate city agencies work out their disputes or bring their internecine warfare to the courtroom? Should the California Supreme Court be the final arbiter in inter-governmental squabbles?

“I’m testing everything that is said to me . . . by pushing it, turning it around in my mind, challenging it,” Sohigian said.

One of the issues that Sohigian must decide is who should legally represent the Police Commission in the dispute--the city attorney’s office or a private lawyer who has been retained by the commission.

Senior Assistant. City Atty. Frederick Merkin held that his office has the sole right to represent city agencies and branded commission lawyer Hillel Chodos as “an interloper.”

But Chodos argued that Merkin should be excused from the case because he has advised the commission, the City Council and Police Department in the past, resulting in a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, Gates’ lawyers, Grodin and Harry Melkonian, continued to argue that Sohigian should simply sign off on a proposed settlement reached with the City Council earlier this month that would overturn the commission’s action removing Gates or issue a permanent injunction.

The civil rights coalition, which includes the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, vowed to fight any settlement or attempt to undo the commission’s action.

“We want to return this matter to the fundamental problem of police brutality, which continues as we all know,” said Mark Ridley-Thomas, a coalition spokesman. “Had we not been here, the matter would have been a slam-dunk for Gates.”

All sides agreed that Gates should stay on the job until the issues are resolved.

As the attorneys sparred in measured tones, dozens of anti-Gates demonstrators outside the courtroom carried placards and chanted, “Take the Gestapo Chief out,” “The whole world is watching,” and “Ho, ho, ho, Gates must go.” Sheriff’s deputies arrested two women from the Revolutionary Communist Party who rap-sang obscenities and danced in the courthouse corridor. They were booked for misdemeanor disorderly conduct at Sybil Brand Institute for Women, authorities said.

After Thursday’s hearing, Gates’ attorneys said they were disappointed at the breakdown of the settlement talks but “delighted” that he was staying in office.

“We’re absolutely delighted,” Melkonian said. “He’s still in office, he’s going to be in office at least through the remainder of these hearings. And when the end of these hearings comes, he’ll be in office for good.”

He warned, however, that the chief may sue the city for mounting legal fees and other damages that could exceed “seven figures.”

The coalition’s Ridley-Thomas saw the outcome differently.

“This gives us more opportunity to build a better case,” he said. “It also means Chief Gates is not off the hook, he is not free and clear.”

Also contributing to this story was Times staff writer Jane Fritsch.