Attorney’s Gifts to Judges, Verdicts Under Scrutiny

The state Commission on Judicial Performance is investigating whether three San Diego County judges gave favorable treatment to a prominent local attorney who provided them gifts over several years.

Two of the San Diego County Superior Court judges awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts to clients of attorney Patrick Frega, who took the unusual step of asking that jury trials be waived in both cases so the judge alone could determine the size of the award.

The verdicts and the relationships between Frega and Judges Michael I. Greer, James A. Malkus and G. Dennis Adams are under scrutiny by commission officials who are in San Diego this week.

The commission Thursday interviewed a former Frega associate about whether Frega may have telephoned Greer, a former presiding judge of the Superior Court, to ask that a certain case be assigned to a particular judge. The attorney, George Manning, said he was at a meeting at which Frega telephoned Greer and appeared to ask for a special assignment in the case.

The two investigators from the Commission on Judicial Performance also are raising questions about a 1989 boat ride around San Diego Bay on which Greer, Adams, Malkus and Superior Court Judge Barbara Gamer were Frega’s guests along with attorneys, law clerks and others.

The Commission on Judicial Performance is charged with investigating complaints of judicial misconduct and making recommendations to the state Supreme Court, which has final authority over removing or reprimanding a judge.

One case involving Frega and Malkus has prompted Bank of America attorneys to ask the Superior Court to recuse Malkus from a tentative October, 1991, verdict in which he awarded a San Diego truck dealership $4 million.

The owner of the dealership, Norm Pressley, sued the bank over a loan it made and later recalled.

Bank attorneys thought it unusual that Frega waived a jury trial and asked Malkus to decide the case. Normally, plaintiffs seek trials by juries, which are more likely to award higher damages, Bank of America spokesman Peter Magnani said.

In 1985, Malkus reported on financial disclosure forms that Frega had given him $450 worth of gifts.

Security Pacific Bank attorneys are questioning a similar 1986 case, in which Superior Court Judge G. Dennis Adams ordered the bank to pay $5 million to a former San Diego car dealer who alleged that the bank’s fraudulent business dealings caused him to lose dealerships in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Just as in the Bank of America case, attorney Frega asked Adams to waive his client’s right to a jury trial. Frega had given Adams the use of his computer for a book collaboration, which the judge valued at $1,400.

Manning said he told the investigators of the incident in which Frega telephoned Judge Greer and appeared to ask that a case be assigned to a specific judge.

According to financial records filed by the judges, Frega gave Greer $1,520 in gifts between 1986 and 1991.

In August, 1990, Greer reported a $7,500 gift from the Los Angeles Rams football team, which paid for a one-week trip to Berlin for Greer and his wife to watch a National Football League exhibition game.

Times staff writers Leonard Bernstein and H.G. Reza contributed to this report.