Attorney’s Suit Against Judge Reinstated

A public defender’s suit against a Los Angeles judge who told police to haul the lawyer into a Van Nuys courtroom was reinstated Friday by a federal appeals court in San Francisco.

If Superior Court Judge Raymond Mireles ordered officers to use force against attorney Howard Waco, Mireles was acting outside his “judicial capacity” and would have lost a judge’s usual protection from damage suits, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

In June, the state Commission on Judicial Performance publicly reproved Mireles, a 1985 appointee of Gov. George Deukmejian, for the incident. The commission, in findings that are not binding on Waco’s suit, said Mireles had not intended officers to use force on Waco but made careless remarks that “appeared to authorize their use of force.”

Waco, a 23-year veteran deputy public defender, had a client scheduled for a hearing in Mireles’ Van Nuys court one morning in November, 1989, but the client apparently was not on the bus from the jail.

That afternoon, while Waco was waiting in another judge’s courtroom, two policemen pulled him out and brought him to Mireles, saying that they were acting on the judge’s orders.

Mireles later said he was joking but the officers apparently took him seriously. They dragged Waco backward out of the neighboring courtroom and down the courthouse corridor, then hurled him through the courtroom door, bruising his leg.

The incident prompted the entire public defender’s office to refuse for a time to try cases before Mireles--an action unprecedented in the office’s 75-year history.

According to the state commission, the judge had shown exasperation at Waco’s absence and told the officers to bring “a piece of” or “a body part” of Waco to court. When the lawyer was forcibly delivered to the courtroom, the judge made no inquiries and appeared to ignore Waco’s attempt to discuss the officer’s actions, the commission said.

Waco filed a $440,000 federal civil rights suit against Mireles, the two police officers and the city of Los Angeles.