Supervisors Pick Ex-Judge for Sheriff’s Dept. Inquiry

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday appointed a retired judge as special counsel to investigate use of excessive force by sheriff’s deputies and ways to cut litigation costs that have soared to almost $34 million over the last four years.

James G. Kolts, a former deputy district attorney who served on the Los Angeles Superior Court for 20 years before retiring in 1989, was selected to review Sheriff’s Department policies dealing with use of excessive force, including handling of citizen complaints, training and discipline of deputies.

Kolts was asked to complete his report by July 15.

Sheriff Sherman Block said he had no objection to the inquiry, even though he has appointed his own citizens panel to recommend Christopher Commission-type reforms in the 8,000-member department.

“I have no concerns so long as it is an honest, objective evaluation,” Block said following the supervisors meeting. “He’ll find that overall the men and women of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department do an outstanding job. He’ll find that there have been some deficiencies that have been detected in our own evaluations.”

At a press conference, Kolts, 67, said his first task will be to recruit a staff that may include an accountant, an educator and a psychologist. Among other things, Kolts said, his inquiry will examine the sensitivity of deputies toward the 2.5 million people they serve in 42 cities and unincorporated areas.

Emphasizing that he has not prejudged the department, Kolts said, “I do not wish to be cast in an adversarial position to Sheriff Block. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is a fine policing agency, and it’s not my job to make their mission any more difficult nor to pick apart their procedures.

“I see this as being cast as a win-win situation,” Kolts said, adding that he will seek public comment.

Supervisor Ed Edelman last week proposed hiring a special counsel after Block refused to allow the supervisors to appoint members to the citizens panel formed by the sheriff. Critics have said the committee lacks independence.

Edelman, in an effort to convince Block that Kolts would come to the job with an open mind, remarked that the retired judge “happens to be a Republican” appointed to the bench by former Gov. Ronald Reagan. Block is a Republican.

“He’s not going to conduct a witch hunt, but he’s not going to whitewash” problems in the Sheriff’s Department, said Edelman who declined to say who recommended Kolts to him.

Block said of Kolts, “Based on all I know of him, he will do an objective evaluation.” But the sheriff said he would withhold judgment until he sees who Kolts hires for his staff. Kolts will be paid about $650 per workday.

A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union--which has called for increased scrutiny of the Sheriff’s Department after several controversial shootings--said the group supported hiring of a special counsel but did not know enough about Kolts to comment on him.

Kolts said that as a deputy district attorney he prosecuted--unsuccessfully--the late County Assessor Philip Watson on bribery charges in 1967. Kolts said his most famous case as a judge involved a member of the Charles Manson family whose name he could not recall.

The Manson follower was Steve Grogan. In 1971, Kolts overruled a jury’s death penalty recommendation for Grogan, who was convicted in the beheading of Donald (Shorty) Shea. In imposing a life sentence, the judge said Grogan was of “limited intelligence” and was only 16 when he came under the influence of Manson.

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney, said Grogan, who was paroled in 1985, is the only Manson family member to be released from prison after being convicted of murder.

Among those who applied to be special counsel was attorney Melanie Lomax, the outspoken former president of the Los Angeles Police Commission who was the subject of controversy when she gave legal memos to a civil rights group seeking Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ removal.

The 4-1 vote came after supervisors met with Block in a closed-door session that was criticized by Supervisor Gloria Molina as a possible violation of the state’s open meetings law.

Molina argued that the law allows private meetings of government bodies only for discussion of specific litigation and personnel matters.

But County Counsel DeWitt Clinton said the private meeting was legal because supervisors discussed litigation alleging brutality by sheriff’s deputies.

Edelman said the supervisors have a stake in sheriff’s operations because court awards and settlements must be funded out of the $12-billion county budget. Court judgments have increased annually, from $635,000 in 1988 to $9.1 million this year through last Sept. 30. Settlements have averaged $3.5 million a year over the last three fiscal years.

Supervisors Tuesday approved an additional $1.8 million in settlements for three cases alleging use of excessive force by deputies, bringing the total for lawsuits and settlements since 1988 to nearly $34 million.

“This is not anti-law enforcement,” Edelman said. “It is an effort to make our law enforcement better, with the confidence of the citizens” it serves.

Block disputed critics who say the department no longer has the public’s confidence.

“Based on my meetings throughout this community,” Block said, “if a vote were taken today as to the level of confidence in the Sheriff’s Department, it would be overwhelmingly positive.”

Supervisor Mike Antonovich cast the lone vote against appointment of a counsel, calling the hiring “an assault on law enforcement.”

“The men and women (deputies) on the street ought to be commended for what they have to put up with daily to protect the law-abiding,” he said. Of the 113,482 arrests made by sheriff’s deputies last year, Antonovich said, “99.87% did not result in any legal action” against the department.

The supervisor said liability costs are not just up for the Sheriff’s Department, but other county departments as well. “The problem is tort reform,” he said.