Judge Faces Drunk-Driving Charge Under Procedure He Helped Establish

A veteran Los Angeles judge, who as a city attorney earlier in his career helped establish procedures for prosecuting drunk-driving suspects, now faces a drunk-driving charge himself stemming from a traffic accident in Beverly Hills.

According to a police report, Municipal Court Judge Edward L. Davenport was profane and abusive to officers, refused to take field sobriety tests and, at the police station, dumped a urine sample into the toilet.

When an officer cited a section of the drunk-driving law, the report said, Davenport replied, “You (expletive) twit, I wrote that.”

Davenport, 63, told the arresting officer, Gary Levitski, that he had had two whiskey-and-waters within half an hour of the 9:45 p.m. incident May 1, the report said.

Levitski said that Davenport was glassy-eyed, walked unsteadily and spoke with thickly slurred speech.

Asked by the officer to walk a straight line, the report said, Davenport lost his balance and said, “I (screwed) up. I know, I’ve seen this in court a thousand times.”

The judge then said, “I’m (screwing) up--no more tests,” and “I’ve argued drunk-driving cases in front of the Supreme Court--no tests,” according to the report.

As a lawyer in the Los Angeles city attorney’s office in 1966, Davenport successfully argued a case before the U. S. Supreme Court that established the legal basis for police to force drunk-driving suspects to give blood samples.

But Davenport’s attorney, Jacob Adajian, said that there was little proof that his client was drunk. Davenport is scheduled for a hearing Aug. 21 on the misdemeanor drunk-driving charge.

After the judge attended a dinner meeting of a legal group at Andre’s, a restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard, he was driving his wife’s 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE, according to his attorney. Police said he rear-ended a 1981 Subaru driven by Richard J. Greenstone at a stop sign near the Beverly Hills Hotel.

“I have witnesses who were with (Davenport) that evening and they said he was fine,” Adajian said.

But Greenstone, an attorney, whose car was forced into the middle of an intersection by the accident, said Davenport was disheveled, belligerent, unsteady on his feet and verbally abusive.

“I walked up to him and said, ‘Are you all right?’ ” Greenstone said in an interview. “There was no answer. I was dumbfounded. I said, ‘You hit me,’ and he retorted, ‘You hit me.’ I stepped back when I realized he was very possibly intoxicated.”

Davenport, a judge since 1968 who is assigned to the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles, could not be reached for comment. A bailiff in his courtroom said Tuesday that he was “on vacation, as of today.”

Adajian said Monday that Davenport refused to submit to the field sobriety tests because he has a bad back.

The attorney disputed a statement in the police report that the judge was allowed, as required by law, to urinate more than 20 minutes before he was asked to do so again for a urine sample. Adajian said his client was given only one chance to urinate.

“He knew that it was an improper time to take the sample so he threw it away,” Adajian said.

Under state law, drivers suspected of drunk driving have a choice of taking a breath, blood or urine test. Those who refuse to submit to one of the sobriety tests automatically have their driver’s license suspended for a year. Davenport, however, appealed his suspension before a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing officer on June 13 and his license was restored.

But Annette Heck, driver safety manager for the Los Angeles district of the DMV, said a review of the record indicated the return of the license had been in error.

An attorney familiar with the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that refusing to cooperate with sobriety tests can sometimes be a successful strategy for fighting a drunk-driving charge by depriving prosecutors of evidence.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Katherine Mader said, however, that her case, including the testimony of two pedestrians who saw the accident, would appear even more striking in the absence of scientific evidence.

“Basically, our case does not have . . . any factual or legal weakness,” she said. “Our case is just as strong, if not stronger, because of his behavior as observed by impartial, independent witnesses.”

In case of a conviction, Adajian said, most first-time offenders receive a fine, probation and are required to attend special classes for drunk drivers.

But Mader said she plans to press for a sentence of 48 hours in jail and suspension of driving privileges for the judge, who has had no accidents or moving violations in the last three years.