Reiner Proposes New Black Judge for Denny Case

Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, under fire for removing a black judge from the racially charged case of three men accused of beating motorists during the Los Angeles riots, Thursday proposed transferring the case to another African-American jurist.

In a letter delivered Thursday afternoon, Reiner asked defense attorneys to join him in requesting that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Donald Pitts, a black judge who works in Compton, be assigned to the trial of three men accused of attacking truck driver Reginald O. Denny and other victims on the first night of the riots.

Lawyers for two of the three defendants tentatively accepted the offer. A third lawyer, James R. Gillen, said he will meet with a representative from Reiner’s office to discuss the matter. But Gillen accused the district attorney of “judge shopping” and “politically motivated tactics.”

The district attorney’s proposal was the latest twist in a courthouse furor that has embroiled Reiner in withering criticism this week. On Tuesday, prosecutors removed Superior Court Judge Roosevelt F. Dorn, who is black, from the Denny case. The move angered defense lawyers and erupted into charges of racial insensitivity after Dorn publicly accused Reiner’s aides of lying about their motivations for the judge’s removal.

Aides to Reiner said the new proposal is an effort to reassure the community that the defendants are being treated fairly.

“This is something that we’re offering to the defense and to the community to ensure that it’s handled by a judge that the community feels comfortable with,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney. “We’re trying to put the focus back on the criminal case and not on this other issue.”

Even if Reiner and the three sets of defense attorneys agree that Pitts should hear the trial, the decision rests with Judge Cecil Mills, the supervising judge in the Superior Court’s criminal division. Mills was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Reiner, who is running for reelection, added that if Pitts were not acceptable, he would be willing to have the case transferred to any judge who works in the South-Central District, based in Compton.

Georgiana Williams, mother of defendant Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, welcomed Reiner’s move: “We’re just going to praise the Lord. . . . I think Ira Reiner’s conscience has whipped his hind parts, and he’s made the right decision.”

The office of lawyer Edi M.O. Faal, who represents Williams, accepted Reiner’s offer in writing Thursday. Earl C. Broady, the lawyer for Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson, said he too favored the idea. Gillen represents the third defendant, Antoine Eugene Miller.

Williams, Watson and Miller, all of whom are black, are charged with beating Denny and other motorists at the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues during the opening hours of the riots on April 29. All three men face charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and torture in the Denny beating, as well as lesser charges for the other attacks.

Dorn had been handpicked to preside over the case, but prosecutors exercised their right to have him removed. Under court rules, lawyers for each side in a case are allowed to remove one judge without cause. Such challenges are common, and reasons for them are almost never given.

After prosecutors removed Dorn, aides to Reiner explained that they preferred that the case go to a judge with a less crowded calendar and more secure courtroom.

But in an angry news conference Wednesday morning, Dorn disputed those claims. Dorn’s rebuttal prompted a new explanation from Reiner, who said that prosecutors removed the judge because previous challenges to Dorn’s temperament suggested that he was unfit to handle a case as volatile as the Denny trial. Reiner added that the earlier explanation--offered by Gibbons--had been made in an attempt to spare Dorn’s feelings.

Although Dorn did not accuse Reiner of removing him because he is black, that allegation was raised by Gillen, and Dorn referred to it during his news conference.

Supporters of the defendants have long charged that police and prosecutors in the case are racially biased. Some supporters said Reiner’s decision to remove Dorn--coupled with the district attorney’s admission that his staff initially did not tell the truth about the reasons for that challenge--reinforced their claim of prejudice.

On Thursday, City Councilman Nate Holden joined the critics of Reiner’s move and expressed his support for Dorn.

“At a time when we are attempting to rebuild and heal our community, we don’t need another controversy of this magnitude thrown upon the community,” Holden said in a statement. Because Dorn is the only black judge who hears criminal cases in the downtown Superior Court building, Reiner’s move sent the wrong signal, Holden added.

As Reiner invited defense attorneys to join him in the new proposal, aides insisted that a misunderstanding had led to the controversy.

District attorney spokeswoman Gibbons said prosecutors had originally understood that if they challenged Dorn, the case would be transferred to Superior Court Judge George Trammell, who is white. That happened, and Trammell was removed by defense lawyers.

But Gibbons added that prosecutors believed that when Trammell was disqualified, the case would have then been sent to Pitts in Compton--once again placing the case under a black judge. Instead, it was assigned to Superior Court Judge John H. Reid, a white Republican who is a former prosecutor.

“It was our clear understanding that, in the event both prosecutors and defense attorneys exercised their peremptory challenges,” the case would be assigned to Pitts, Reiner wrote in his letter to the defense lawyers.

Reiner did not mention that proposed sequence of events during his news conference Wednesday. And Gillen, in his letter to Reiner, called that statement “totally outrageous and beyond the realm of reality.”

Pitts has served on the Superior Court bench since 1984, when he was appointed by then-Gov. George Deukmejian. He is a highly respected jurist and spent 13 years as a court commissioner before being elevated to the Superior Court.

If Pitts gets the case, prosecutors said they would still like to see it tried in the downtown courthouse, where there are high-security courtrooms. Pitts was not available for comment Thursday.