Lawyer’s Killer Reportedly Had History of Instability

The gunman who killed his attorney and then committed suicide in the Los Angeles County Law Library had a history of mental problems and had threatened a deputy city attorney with a stun gun only last month, authorities said Tuesday.

James Sinclair, 62, repeatedly shot his hastily hired attorney, Michael Louis Friedman, 38, Monday as Friedman used a photocopy machine in the library. The two were to appear in civil court that afternoon for the start of trial in a suit that Sinclair had filed against the city. He claimed that he suffered psychological troubles after he was detained by police in 1988.

Sinclair fired three or four times at Friedman, saying, “Attorneys have ruined the world,” and, “Attorneys have done enough damage to the people,” according to witnesses.

Deputy City Atty. Eskel H. Solomon said he had met with Friedman for three hours Friday and warned him that psychological evaluations concluded that his client was unstable.

“He told me he could handle it,” Solomon said.

Early last week, Deputy City Atty. Ruth Ebner, who had worked on the case, filed court papers saying that Sinclair had pointed a stun gun at her during a meeting in her office on May 14. She described him as dangerous and as having a “history of mental imbalance,” according to court documents. At the time he was representing himself in his case. Sinclair was forcibly removed from her office and was found to be armed with a tear gas spray.

To ensure the safety of any city attorney assigned to the case, Ebner requested that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathryn Doi Todd appoint an outside attorney to handle pretrial matters for Sinclair and asked for increased court security during all proceedings. As a result of the confrontation with Sinclair, Ebner was removed from the case.

Todd, who heard the motion Friday, said she ordered Sinclair not to appear in her courtroom with any weapons, including tear gas spray and stun guns. A sheriff’s deputy was called to monitor the proceedings. But because Sinclair had shown up with an attorney, the request for a court-appointed attorney was moot.

Officials in the city attorney’s office said that after learning of the confrontation, they took sufficient precautions to protect the attorneys’ safety.

“All of us were absolutely stunned,” Todd said after learning of the murder-suicide that took place moments before the two were to appear in her courtroom. “This was a great tragedy.”

Solomon, who was assigned to represent the city in the case, said that a psychological examination conducted for the trial showed that Sinclair was a “very, very unstable individual” who suffered from delusions and feelings of persecution.

Sinclair’s mental health was to have been a cornerstone in Solomon’s arguments to show that “nothing this man ever alleged was remotely true.”

Friends and relatives of Friedman, who had a private practice, did not know how Sinclair had hooked up with the young attorney.

“Michael probably took the case because he was the kind of person who took cases that no one else wanted to represent,” said one of his sisters in Houston, who asked that her name not be used.

Many of his relatives live in Texas, where he was raised and where he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He is survived by three sisters and his parents.

Friedman was defending Sinclair in a case that involved a fight at the Terminal Annex post office on Dec. 13, 1988. Sinclair was detained by police after he assaulted two post office patrons with a stun gun after an argument.

In court papers, Sinclair said he had been carrying a large sum of money when he was “attacked by street people” and “harmlessly scared them off.”

He was detained by two Los Angeles police officers but was not arrested because he was licensed to carry tear gas spray and a stun gun. Sinclair claimed in court records that he was wrongfully arrested and suffered psychological troubles and “excruciating muscle spasms” as a result of the incident with police.