Kolts Starts Deputies Probe in Christopher’s Shadow : Sheriff’s Dept.: Retired judge’s investigation will be compared to review of LAPD after Rodney King beating.

James Kolts, the retired Superior Court judge plucked from obscurity last week to investigate allegations of brutality by sheriff’s deputies, has a tough act to follow.

The respected but little-known jurist, who spent 20 years on the bench and 17 years in the district attorney’s office, must labor in the long shadow of Warren Christopher, the prominent former statesman whose analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department earlier this year has come to be considered a law enforcement bible.

The beating of motorist Rodney King by four Los Angeles police officers, captured on videotape by an amateur photographer, stunned the city and the nation. A horrified public demanded action and answers. And Christopher, the former deputy secretary of state who now heads one of the city’s biggest law firms, provided both.

Kolts faces a similar mission--to investigate a law enforcement agency accused of widespread use of excessive force. But the circumstances and the men in charge are so different that some are questioning whether Kolts can meet the standard set by the Christopher Commission.

Kolts draws praise from defense lawyers and prosecutors--a quality that should serve him well as he tries to win the confidence of both law enforcement personnel and their accusers. “Experienced, level-headed, great presence, good sense of humor, sharp, articulate,” is the way one former colleague described him.

But Kolts lacks Christopher’s name recognition and his political influence. Missing as well is the sense of urgency that compelled more than 100 top-notch lawyers and accountants to donate a staggering 25,000 hours of their time to the Christopher panel.

“The shock and the emotions surrounding the Rodney King affair led to an outpouring of civic duty,” said Mickey Kantor, a Christopher Commission member. “But that’s in the past now.”

Kolts’ assignment is no less demanding. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the region’s second-largest law enforcement agency with jurisdiction in 42 municipalities and all the county’s unincorporated neighborhoods, stands accused of costing taxpayers millions of dollars in the settlement of lawsuits. Over the past four years, plaintiffs in suits against the Sheriff’s Department have won more than $32 million--money that could be used to finance mental health programs, or other social services that have fallen victim to budget cuts.

Among the questions being raised: Will Kolts have the charisma, the independence and the financial backing from the Board of Supervisors to repeat Christopher’s achievement? Will he get the cooperation he needs from Sheriff Sherman Block, who has already appointed his own citizens panel to investigate allegations of excessive force? And will he be able, as Christopher was, to remain above the fray, detached from the political bickering that will inevitably surround his work?

“One person, even if they have several staff, cannot possibly duplicate what the Christopher Commission did with over 100 lawyers,” said Julian Nava, the former U. S. ambassador to Mexico who is now co-chairman of Block’s citizens group. “In some ways, it’s almost comical to appoint a one-person Christopher Commission.”

Said Superior Court Judge Richard Byrne, who was presiding judge when Kolts retired in 1989: “It would be unfortunate if Judge Kolts were held to the same kind of standard of performance (as Christopher). Warren Christopher is the managing partner of a very large law firm and has at his disposal resources that are very difficult to match. But Judge Kolts is not affiliated with a law firm, he doesn’t have that kind of support staff, so his work is going to be dictated to a great extent by what the Board of Supervisors gives him.”

Kolts says he plans to hire five or six people who have experience either as prosecutors or working with police, although he acknowledged that his task is so immense that he will have to rely on some voluntary work, as did the Christopher Commission.

He also said he is well aware of the hurdles--both technical and political--that lie ahead.

“I feel that it’s going to be very difficult to produce a product that is going to make very many people happy,” he said. “The subjects we have to get into are calling for gut responses, and you have people at both ends of the spectrum feeling very strongly about these matters. To pick a course through the mine field will be almost impossible.”

As was the case with the Los Angeles police, tensions between sheriff’s deputies and members of the minority community are high. Emotions flared once again Friday, when a grand jury decided not to indict five sheriff’s deputies in four fatal shootings that took place over the summer. Two county supervisors said the decision makes Kolts’ work all the more necessary to restore public confidence.

Two factors will be crucial to Kolts’ success: the quality of his staff, and the level of cooperation from Block and his top aides. During the Christopher Commission inquiry, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates decreed that his department would provide any interviews or documents the panel sought. The result was that the commission never had to use its subpoena power, and some of Gates’ top-ranking officers provided the most frank--and damaging--testimony.

Christopher’s staff included former prosecutors and lawyers who had represented police officers. These attorneys inspired confidence among the rank-and-file officers they interviewed. Many gave their time simply because Christopher was in charge of the effort--or because he called their bosses and asked for help.

“Jim Kolts is a personable man and he has a lot of friends in government,” said John Arguelles, the retired state Supreme Court justice who served as vice chairman of the Christopher Commission. “Now it will be a question of his having to activate all those contacts and see whether or not he can assemble the type of expertise (that the Christopher Commission had). . . . I think he has the capabilities of giving it direction but the secret to this is going to be a competent staff.”

Kolts also must figure out how to work with Block’s 25-member citizens panel. Nava, the group’s co-chairman, said he intends to ask the panel to cooperate--and possibly join--with Kolts, as the Christopher panel did with one appointed by Gates. But the Block committee already has refused to allow the Board of Supervisors to participate in its work, and Nava said he is unsure how the group will respond to the idea of working with the board’s appointee.

The supervisors have asked Kolts to review Sheriff’s Department policies on the use of excessive force as well as the handling of citizens complaints, training and discipline of deputies. He is to complete his report by July 15--a short time frame for the amount of work, Arguelles said.

The 67-year-old Kolts, who now adjudicates private legal disputes, will be paid $650 a day. Although the county has agreed to pay for assistants, Kolts’ budget remains unclear. While Supervisor Mike Antonovich proposed a spending cap of $500,000, board members decided to leave Kolts’ expense account open-ended. He now must negotiate the details with the county counsel’s office.

The moving force behind Kolts’ selection was Supervisor Ed Edelman, who last week proposed that the county hire a special counsel. This came after Block refused to allow the board to appoint its own members to his citizens panel.

The possibility that the county’s effort might be overshadowed by the Christopher Commission’s work was not lost on Edelman. During his search for candidates, Edelman said he spoke to some former commission members, as well as some of the panel’s staff attorneys--all of whom said they were too exhausted from the first effort to serve again.

“That’s why I went with a retired judge,” he said. “To try to duplicate the Christopher Commission approach, I think, is not possible. You are not going to get attorneys to give their time again free, and I don’t know of another Warren Christopher.”

He said he picked Kolts--whom he had never met--after talking with dozens of lawyers and judges, although he would not say who. “He seemed fair,” Edelman said of Kolts. “He didn’t seem to be pushing his own agenda.”

Edelman, a Democrat, emphasized that Kolts, like Block, is a Republican.

He also said he was impressed with Kolts’ experience as a prosecutor. The retired judge was considered one of the stars in the district attorney’s office, according to Richard Hecht, who now directs the office’s branch operations.

“Professionally, he was a superior trial lawyer,” Hecht said. “He handled a lot of complex major fraud cases and he was among the best.”

Kolts was appointed to the Superior Court bench in 1969 where he handled criminal matters for five years before switching to the civil courts.

Those who know Kolts say he is fair, thorough and decisive, with an easy-going open manner and a keen sense of humor. His views are largely conservative--for instance, he is a strong advocate of the death penalty.

“He’s not wishy-washy, like a lot of judges are, and he is not really afraid of anyone,” said defense attorney Harland Braun. “He was very fearless and he didn’t worry about what other people thought of him and whose ox got gored.”

That thick skin may serve Kolts well in his new appointment.

Already, he has critics. Gloria Romero, who heads a coalition of 20 groups that called for an independent investigation of the Sheriff’s Department, has complained that Kolts’ cousin, Raymond G. Kolts, is a former partner in a law firm that defends the Sheriff’s Department. “It’s too chummy,” she said.

Kolts said he has never had legal business with his cousin, who left the firm more than five years ago.

At least one civil rights lawyer said Kolts is not the right person for the job, primarily because he has not handled cases involving allegations of police brutality.

“My feeling is that he has absolutely no credentials in this area, either positive or negative,” said attorney Carol Watson, who is well known for representing victims of police abuse. “It takes a number of years to find out where the documents are and where the evidence is hidden. . . . It seems to me that the effort should tip in favor of using a person who knows where to look.”

Yet others say Kolts’ detachment from the issue, as well as his relative anonymity, may be a plus.

“The fact that nobody knows him could work in his favor,” said Joseph Cerrell, a political consultant who has worked on numerous Los Angeles County judicial campaigns. “It means there are no enemies out there or old controversies that could tarnish him. He can say, ‘I was above the fray,’ and no one can dispute it.”