Prosecutors Defy D.A. Order : Superior Court: Some deputy district attorneys refuse to sign affidavits swearing they believe Lawrence Storch is biased.

In a rare act of defiance, some Ventura County deputy prosecutors are refusing Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s order to sign forms preventing the longest-serving Superior Court judge from hearing criminal cases.

The forms--affidavits--require deputy district attorneys to swear that they believe Judge Lawrence Storch is biased.

Some prosecutors said they do not believe the judge is unfair and do not want to attach their names to the protest against Storch.

“Absolutely not,” Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris said when asked if he would sign one of the affidavits.

“I’ve been in front of him for 15 years and he’s always been fair to me,” said Kossoris, whom Bradbury has described as the “top gun” among his deputies. “And I won’t sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that he is prejudiced when he’s always been fair to me.”

Because some deputies have declined to sign the affidavits, their supervisors have been forced to sign in their place in order to have Storch disqualified from cases. Under the law, each side in a case gets one opportunity to disqualify a judge by simply alleging bias, without having to prove it.

It was not clear Tuesday how many times deputy prosecutors have refused to sign the affidavits. Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell, the felony division chief who has such information, could not be reached. Officials in the district attorney’s office refused to give the figure or to talk about their dissatisfaction with Storch.

But prosecutors did bar Storch, a 20-year jurist, from two cases on Tuesday--involving suspects accused of child molestation and robbery.

The molestation case is being handled by Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrice D. Koenig. But the affidavit was signed by her supervisor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth. Koenig declined to comment and Henke-Dobroth could not be reached.

The refusal by some prosecutors to toe the line is unusual in the district attorney’s office, where deputies usually are loath to criticize office policies.

Ventura County Public Defender Kenneth I. Clayman applauded the front-line prosecutors who refused to sign the disqualification papers.

“I think that they’re acting in the highest tradition of good lawyering,” Clayman said. “They’re expressing their conscience on what they think is appropriate.”

Still, some deputy prosecutors say they plan to abide by the directive to keep Storch off criminal cases.

Storch has declined to comment on the issue.

Prosecutors began using affidavits to ban Storch from hearing any new criminal cases after the judge granted a defense attorney’s request to alter the verdict in a murder case.

Storch voided a first-degree murder conviction for Todd Love of Newbury Park and convicted Love of second-degree murder, saying the evidence did not support the more serious charge. His decision shaved 10 years off Love’s prison term, outraging some prosecutors.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael K. Frawley, who prosecuted Love, said he believes Storch made a wrong decision in that case and is glad Bradbury has decided to bar the judge from hearing any new felony cases.

“I support Mike Bradbury’s position and would abide by it,” Frawley said. “I am confident that everyone will abide by it.”

Several deputy prosecutors, who who declined to be identified, said they had not decided whether they will sign affidavits charging Storch with bias if they get a case assigned to the judge.

“I think it’s stupid and so do most of the prosecutors in this office,” said a longtime deputy prosecutor.

Another said it appears that some of the office’s most senior attorneys feel comfortable leaving their names off the affidavits against Storch, while some prosecutors with less tenure are following Bradbury’s directive.

Like Frawley, some of those who plan to sign the affidavits said they believe Storch is too lenient.

“I’m not going to refuse that order,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim G. Gibbons said.

Gibbons accused the public defender’s office of being hypocritical for faulting prosecutors on the issue. He said public defenders tend to file more disqualification affidavits against judges in Ventura County than prosecutors.

Clayman acknowledged that his attorneys do not hesitate to use affidavits to remove a judge from a case. But he said he has never directed his attorneys to systematically disqualify a judge, as the district attorney’s office has done in the Storch matter.

“I don’t tell anybody to affidavit anyone,” Clayman said.