Judge Attacks Reiner Over Removal From Denny Case : Courts: D.A. says black jurist was pulled off trial because of temperament. He says race was not a factor.

Superior Court Judge Roosevelt F. Dorn, a black jurist who had been handpicked to hear the case of three men charged with beating motorists during the early hours of the Los Angeles riots, furiously attacked the district attorney’s office Wednesday for removing him from the case.

At an extraordinary news conference, Dorn accused representatives of the district attorney of lying when they told reporters that prosecutors removed him Tuesday because of potential problems with his calendar and because he did not have a high-security courtroom.

“Those facts are absolutely incorrect,” Dorn said. “I called this press conference to set the record straight.”

Dorn did not accuse the district attorney’s office of removing him because he is black, but a defense lawyer for one of the defendants has made that charge and Dorn referred to the accusation in his remarks. Dorn also called on the district attorney to withdraw his motion so that “the black community, the white community, the brown community, the entire area would know without question that it was not filed for any other reason.”

Dorn’s comments sparked a rare and caustic exchange with Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, who denied that race played a role in the decision to remove Dorn and said previous challenges to Dorn’s temperament suggest that he is unfit to try such a highly charged case. The accusations by both men inflamed the intense emotions around the case and supporters of the defendants used Dorn’s comments to bolster their charges that prosecutors are treating the suspects unfairly because they are black.

“It was unfortunate that Judge Dorn felt the need to call a press conference and suggest the reason we filed an affidavit against him had to do with his race,” Reiner said. “That had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Reiner said he would not withdraw the motion to remove Dorn.

Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, Antoine Eugene Miller and Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson are accused of attacking 13 people, including truck driver Reginald O. Denny, at Florence and Normandie avenues April 29. Denny nearly died in that attack, which was broadcast live on television.

All the defendants are black and their supporters have leveled charges of racism since the three men were arrested. Because Dorn is the only African-American judge who hears criminal cases in the downtown Superior Court building, many observers believed that assigning the case to him might reassure supporters of the suspects that the defendants were being treated fairly.

Cecil Mills, the supervising judge in the criminal division of the Superior Court, defended Dorn’s qualifications Wednesday and praised him as a top-notch trial judge. Mills also said he had considered the benefits of assigning a black judge to the case in arranging Dorn’s appointment.

Mills said the district attorney’s office had not objected when he informed a top official of his plan to assign Dorn to the case.

Under court rules, prosecutors and defense attorneys are allowed one chance each to have a judge removed without cause. Such challenges are not unusual, experts say.

But legal experts and supporters of the defendants in this case expressed disbelief that the district attorney’s office used its peremptory challenge to prevent a black judge from presiding over the case.

After the hearing Tuesday, Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said prosecutors did not want Dorn because his duties include hearing motions and handling other cases. Those responsibilities could prolong the riot case, said Gibbons, who also argued that Dorn’s courtroom did not have the special security that prosecutors wanted.

But after Dorn angrily disputed those statements Wednesday, Reiner acknowledged that they were not the real reason for challenging the assignment of the case. Reiner said that Dorn actually had been removed because of questions about his temperament.

“He has had a severe difficulty with a good many people who appear in his court,” Reiner said. “Given how highly charged the case was, it would be better that the judge who sits on the case not be one whose judicial temperament on the bench had been so strongly questioned by others.”

Specifically, Reiner said Dorn had infuriated the public defender’s office with his confrontational treatment of defense lawyers in Juvenile Court. For a time, the public defender’s office filed a large number of peremptory challenges to remove Dorn from cases.

A spokesman for the public defender’s office said he did not know how many challenges had been filed but added that it was “more than a handful.” He also said, however, that the rash of challenges occurred more than a year ago and that fewer had been filed recently.

In an interview late Wednesday, Dorn dismissed Reiner’s comments about his temperament as “just another attempt to cover up whatever his real reason is for taking this action.”

Reiner said his office did not raise the issue of Dorn’s temperament Tuesday because prosecutors were trying to give a “polite, non-insulting answer that would not offend the judge.”

Other attorneys confirmed that Dorn has a reputation for abrasiveness, but were surprised Reiner would consider the issue so important that he would risk the outcry from removing a black judge in a matter of such deep concern to the African-American community.

Supporters of the defendants also said they were stunned by the removal of Dorn and some said they believe it shows that the prosecutors are racially biased.

“If Southern California had any doubt about what we’re dealing with, today’s press conference by Ira Reiner should have answered it,” said Williams’ mother, Georgiana. “That was a disgrace. . . . How can anybody in America talk about apartheid in South Africa when we’ve got worse right here on our front steps?”

Moreover, Georgiana Williams said the district attorney’s actions illustrate his commitment to convicting her son and his co-defendants no matter what the cost.

“How in the hell do they expect these young men to get a fair trial?” she asked.

Mills had met with Dorn and discussed the implications of the case before arranging the assignment. Mills said he had informed the district attorney’s office and the defense lawyers of his intention to clear Dorn’s calendar while the trial was being heard.

“Roosevelt Dorn is one of the top producers that I have as a resource in this court,” Mills said. “He is an excellent trial judge and an excellent administrative judge.”

Mills said that in addition to considering Dorn’s qualifications to hear the case, he also believed that the fact that Dorn is black might have reassured the community.

“He is the only black (Superior Court) judge in this building,” Mills said. “That certainly had something to do with my effort to avoid complications that have occurred in other sensational trials recently.”

The case of four police officers charged with beating Rodney G. King was presided over by a white judge and heard by a jury that included an Asian and a Latina. Rioting erupted in Los Angeles and elsewhere after the officers were found not guilty on all but one charge.

Dorn said he agreed to take the case after discussing it with Mills.

“I said, ‘Cecil, this certainly is not a case that I would ask for, but I am concerned about my community. It was literally destroyed over the last case and I can preside over the Denny case and see that that does not happen. I’m prepared to do that,’ ” Dorn said.

After prosecutors removed Dorn from the case, it was assigned to Judge George Trammell, a white judge who is popular among many defense lawyers. But Edi M.O. Faal, the lawyer for Williams, asked that Trammell be removed, and the case was assigned to Judge John H. Reid.

Because each side had used its one allotted peremptory challenge, neither side could block Reid’s selection.

Although Reid gets high marks from many attorneys, he is a white former prosecutor and a Republican who was appointed to the Superior Court by Gov. George Deukmejian.

“He’s a good judge, but the symbolism is so bad,” said Harland W. Braun, a noted Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer. “That’s a real problem in a case like this.”

Profile: Roosevelt F. Dorn

Superior Court Judge Roosevelt F. Dorn launched a rare attack on the district attorney’s office Wednesday after prosecutors removed him from the case of three men accused of attacking motorists during the opening hours of the Los Angeles riots.

Born: Oct. 29, 1935

Education: Graduated from Cal State L.A. in 1964. Graduated from Whittier College School of Law in 1969.

Career highlights: Served as an assistant city attorney in Los Angeles until 1979, when he was appointed to the Inglewood Municipal Court bench by Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. In 1980, Brown promoted him to the Superior Court.

Military: Air Force, 1954-58

Personal: Married to Joyce Evelyn Glosson. Registered Democrat.

Profile: John H. Reid

After prosecutors removed Judge Roosevelt F. Dorn from the case and defense lawyers struck Judge George Trammell, the case was assigned to Judge John H. Reid.

Born: Feb. 26, 1948

Education: Graduated from USC in 1969. Graduated from Southwestern University Law School in 1972.

Career highlights: Served as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney from 1973 to 1986. In 1987, Reid was appointed to the Municipal Court bench by Gov. George Deukmejian. Less than a year later, Deukmejian promoted him to the Superior Court.

Personal: Married to Darlene Reid. Registered Republican.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily Journal