Judge in Denny Case Disputes Bias Claims by Defense Lawyers : Trial: Attorneys say jurist should not be allowed to hear the case because he is engaged to the longtime secretary of former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.

Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk said Wednesday that he is not “prejudiced or biased against, or in favor of, any party” in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial and that he knows of no facts that would require his disqualification.

Defense attorneys are seeking to remove Ouderkirk because the judge is engaged to marry Sherry Perkins, former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s executive secretary for more than seven years.

Ouderkirk disclosed his relationship with Perkins to defense attorneys last October. They and their clients agreed then that it would create no conflict of interest. Defense attorneys now say they had no idea last fall that they would be calling Reiner as a witness.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore, one of two prosecutors in the case, called the effort to remove Ouderkirk a “very obvious attempt to intimidate and embarrass and influence this judge.”

The move comes just before a scheduled hearing on “an extremely important motion on discriminatory prosecution,” she said.

Attorney James R. Gillen, who filed the papers Tuesday seeking to disqualify Ouderkirk, called Moore’s comments “totally preposterous,” insisting that he has “gone out of my way not to cause any embarrassment to Judge Ouderkirk.”

Reiner was scheduled to be the first witness in the hearing on the defense allegation that the district attorney’s office charges black defendants with more serious offenses than it does white defendants arrested under similar circumstances.

Damian Monroe Williams and Antoine Miller, both 20, and Henry Keith Watson, 28, are charged with multiple felonies, including attempted murder, in the assault on Denny last April 29. Denny was dragged from his truck and severely beaten during the early hours of riots that swept the city after not guilty verdicts in the state trial of four officers accused of beating Rodney G. King.

The trial for Williams, Miller and Watson is scheduled to begin in mid-July.

Assistant County Counsel Frederick R. Bennett, who is representing Ouderkirk, said the defense request to remove the judge “should be summarily denied without a hearing.”

Ouderkirk is a former prosecutor who worked in the district attorney’s office when it was headed by Reiner, but the judge never has had a social relationship with Reiner, Bennett said in court papers.

“If the parties had concern with the relationship, it was their duty to immediately assert it as a grounds for disqualification, or not at all,” Bennett said, arguing that the motion is untimely.

Attorney Edi M.O. Faal, who represents Miller, said in court Wednesday that he will join Gillen’s motion to disqualify Ouderkirk and will file papers containing additional grounds.

Outside court, Faal accused Ouderkirk of “acting as an advocate for the prosecution,” adding that he had privately told the judge that Ouderkirk was being unfair.

“We filed a motion to examine Reginald Denny,” Faal said. “No opposition to that motion was filed. The judge contacted Denny’s (attorneys) and sent them a copy of the motion.”

An attorney representing Denny came to court and opposed the defense’s request to conduct its own medical examination. “Based on the opposition from Denny’s attorney, the judge denied our request,” Faal said.

In a transcript of proceedings in Ouderkirk’s chambers released Wednesday, the judge admitted inviting Denny’s attorneys to be in court to determine what their position would be on the defense’s request to examine their client. Ouderkirk said his only interest was “in moving things along.”

Moore, who was also in Ouderkirk’s chambers, said in the transcript that her office had been trying to reach Denny or his lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran, with the intention of bringing them to court. Ouderkirk, she said, had done nothing “out of line” by contacting Cochran’s office because “that is exactly the way (prosecutors) intended to proceed in order to get that information before the court.”

Faal said Wednesday that Ouderkirk had, in effect, solicited testimony, and he knew of no other instance where a judge had invited counsel to court.

The motion to disqualify Ouderkirk now goes to Presiding Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills on May 4. Mills will assign the matter to a judge agreed upon by the defense and prosecution. If both sides cannot agree on a judge, Mills will refer the issue to the State Judicial Council, which will assign it to a judge from outside the county.