Rules Panel OKs $10,000 for Ex-Senator’s Defense

SACRAMENTO — In an unusual action, the state Senate Rules Committee has approved spending $10,000 in taxpayer funds for the defense of a retired colleague who is being sued for alleged violations of political reform laws.

The committee voted 3 to 0 Thursday to help finance the defense of former state Sen. Cecil Green, who is accused in a civil lawsuit of failing to properly report campaign contributions and the sale of an airplane.

Green, who retired from the Senate last year, asked for the funds based on a law that obligates government entities to help defend employees and former employees in civil cases arising from their employment.

The last time the committee agreed to pay the legal defense costs of a colleague was in the early 1980s, when then-Sen. John C. Schmitz of Corona del Mar was sued by attorney Gloria Allred for libel. The committee authorized spending about $30,000 to defend Schmitz.

In Green’s case, the committee agreed to pay $10,000 to defend him for allegedly failing to properly report the sale of his interest in an airplane before his election to the Senate in 1987. The committee will not pay to defend Green against another part of the lawsuit that alleges he improperly reported campaign finances from 1989 to 1992.

A committee source who asked not to be identified said Green had been “bled dry” by a long series of lawsuits brought by longtime political foe Walter E. White of Downey, a self-styled citizen litigator.

The latest lawsuit was filed by James C. Griffin of Downey, whom Green identified as a “cohort” of White.

Griffin’s lawyer, Gary R. Odom, was unavailable for comment.