Tough-on-Crime Prosecutor Ends Long Career : Courts: Billy Desmond Webb will leave his San Fernando post after run-ins with jurists and defenders over his tactics.

Billy Desmond Webb, the hard-nosed head deputy district attorney in the San Fernando Courthouse who is credited with contributing to the courthouse’s reputation for being tough on criminals, is retiring effective Jan. 15.

Webb, a 31-year veteran prosecutor, is leaving after several recent public run-ins with jurists and defense attorneys over his tough stance on crime. However, he said, those incidents were not a factor in his decision.

“I was planning to retire sometime within the next couple of years anyway,” said Webb, 65, who has been in the San Fernando office for nearly eight years. “With all the expected movement in the office, it looked like a good time to do it.”

Webb said he had not been told that he would be moved out of San Fernando, but he had a feeling that he might be transferred to another office after Gil Garcetti takes office Dec. 7.

“This office is the one I intended to be the final office I worked in for the district attorney,” said Webb, who also has worked in Huntington Park, Inglewood, Santa Monica and Van Nuys, where he was head deputy from 1977 to 1979.

Stephen Kay, director of the Bureau of Branch and Area Operations and one of Webb’s bosses, said no decision has been made on Webb’s replacement.

“He’s a real institution,” Kay said. “I’m personally very sorry to see him go. It would be very hard for anyone to step into Billy’s shoes. They are very big shoes.”

From 1979 to 1984, Webb served as director of the Bureau of Branch and Area Operations under then Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp, overseeing the work of almost 400 employees in 21 offices throughout the county.

He said this past year was particularly satisfying when he intensified what he called his “assault on drug dealers.”

“When the public defender filed his motion to recuse me and have the state attorney general’s office take over drug cases here, it was very gratifying,” he said.

In May, the public defender filed a motion to remove the district attorney’s office from prosecuting repeat drug-dealing cases, arguing that Webb’s decision to refuse to plea bargain was an abuse of discretion.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey denied the motion, but the first volley had been fired in the fight for what some court observers say was control of the courthouse.

Since then, a court commissioner accused Webb of threatening his job if the commissioner reduced a felony drug charge to a misdemeanor. Webb denied it but recently issued a memo saying he would not allow two commissioners to hear cases. He said that one did not move cases fast enough and the other was not knowledgeable enough about the law.

Defense attorneys, however, say Webb banned the commissioners because they had run-ins with prosecutors. Commissioners have the same qualifications as a judge, but they are appointed by the court and both sides in a case must agree to allow a specific commissioner to hear a case.

Despite the confrontations, Webb said he never took any of the fights personally.

Philip Nameth, supervising attorney for a group of private attorneys appointed by the court to represent defendants, said he too never took disagreements with Webb personally.

“If I had his job, I would be exactly the same way: tough on crime,” Nameth said. “He is straightforward, he is not hypocritical and he doesn’t play games.”

Bill Weiss, head of the public defender’s office in San Fernando, said Webb did his job well, maybe too well.

“I think he intimidated people and had too much influence on certain judges,” Weiss said. “From that standpoint, I’m glad to see him leave.

“But I think he is a man with strong principles, someone not afraid to speak his mind, and I respect him for that.”

Judges in San Fernando deny that Webb was overly influential.

“As an ex-D.A., his leaving is an end of an era, but as a judge here it doesn’t make any difference to me,” Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen said. “Webb doesn’t control my courtroom.”

San Fernando Supervising Judge David M. Schacter, who is being transferred to Burbank in January, said Webb’s retirement will be a loss for the residents of the North Valley Judicial District.

“He has always been interested in the safety of the public by putting criminals away,” Schacter said. “Webb is the personification of law and order.”

Webb said he is concerned that his replacement may not maintain his tough stance on repeat drug dealers.

“There are several deputies in the office that, if I am replaced with them, I know they would be just as tough on criminals as I am,” he said. “But I won’t give you any names because it could be the kiss of death for them.”