Judge Orders St. John Held for Mental Test : Courts: Incarceration is postponed pending appeal of her embezzlement conviction, which could take a year.

Juanita St. John--a longtime friend and business associate of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley--was ordered Friday to state prison for a 90-day evaluation that includes psychiatric testing, but the order was postponed pending an appeal of her conviction for felony embezzlement and tax evasion.

The decision by Superior Court Judge Michael Harwin to delay St. John’s sentencing came after defense attorney Victor Sherman delivered an impassioned plea on his client’s behalf. Sherman described St. John as a woman with severe emotional problems and a husband who has Alzheimer’s disease and is completely dependent on her.

Despite Sherman’s remarks, Harwin said he believes St. John ought to spend some time in jail because she had violated the public trust. Although St. John faces a maximum term of four years in state prison, Harwin said he thought 90 days in County Jail would be appropriate.

“I still don’t see any remorse from the defendant,” the judge said. “She says that she used poor judgment, made poor decisions. . . . Well, those things may all be true, but in essence she took money that was not hers.”

Friday’s ruling leaves the St. John case in a state of flux. St. John is free on her own recognizance and no sentence will be imposed until after the appeal is decided, which her lawyer said could take more than a year. If the appeal is turned down, St. John would surrender for the 90-day prison evaluation to determine if she is suitable for incarceration.

Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office must still determine if there will be a retrial on the central allegation in the case--that St. John stole $178,000 from a city-funded trade group. The judge ordered prosecutors to make a decision by May 14.

St. John was convicted in September of stealing $5,000 from Global Alert, a UCLA-based anti-genocide group for which she served as treasurer, and of two counts of filing false state tax returns involving $125,000 in unreported income.

The jury could not reach a verdict on another tax evasion count. A mistrial was declared on that allegation, as well as on the charge involving the city’s nonprofit Task Force for Africa / Los Angeles. St. John was the executive director of the task force, which was a pet project of Bradley, who testified in St. John’s defense.

The case grew out of an ethics controversy surrounding the mayor, who helped secure city funding for the task force and served on its board. St. John hired Bradley’s daughter immediately after city funding began for the task force, and Bradley hired St. John’s daughter to work in his City Hall office.

St. John steadfastly maintained her innocence during the trial, which centered on allegations that she had used task force funds to pay her home mortgage and other debts.

On the day she was convicted, St. John was hospitalized for an apparent suicide attempt. Since then she has remained under a psychiatrist’s care, and during Friday’s hearing defense attorney Sherman told the judge that she had recently been hospitalized again. He would not elaborate afterward, saying, “That is between her and her doctor.”

After Friday’s ruling, St. John emerged from the courtroom smiling broadly. She was accompanied by Sherman, her psychiatrist and a group that apparently included friends and relatives.

“We’re very satisfied . . . ,” Sherman said. “We’ll come back for sentencing after the appeal is over and I’m hopeful at that time (the judge) will modify the sentence down to straight probation.”

As Sherman answered questions directed at St. John, she stood silently by his side. She spoke up only once, briefly, before a member of her entourage gently put his hand on her arm to silence her. Asked why she would not speak for herself, she turned to Sherman and said, “He speaks well for me.”

During Friday’s hearing, Sherman told the judge his client deserved probation. He cited her fragile mental health, her husband’s condition and her 25-year career in public service and charity work. He also noted that she and her husband had donated $40,000 of their own money to fund a Nigerian art festival in Los Angeles--money he said was never repaid.

“If there’s a plus and minus to be determined in this case,” Sherman said, “they have given much more to the people of this community than Juanita St. John is alleged to have taken.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Licker argued for a 16-month prison term, saying St. John showed no remorse for her actions and should not be exonerated because of her charity work.

“Those are all worthwhile projects,” Licker said. “But the one project that she left out was the project that she engaged in to fund her lifestyle when she ran out of money and to keep the creditors from taking her home, and that’s what this trial was all about.”