O.C. Judges, Officials Rode in Lawyer’s Limo : Government: William W. Stewart, who has a contract to defend indigents, says he was not seeking influence.

A local attorney selected by Orange County judges for a lucrative contract to defend indigents accused of crimes has for years provided local judges and other officials a chauffeur-driven limousine to ferry them to fund-raisers, private dinners and sporting events throughout Southern California.

Some judges and the limousine driver said the passengers have included Superior Court Judges Myron S. Brown and Luis Cardenas, and Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez--some of the same officials who, at times, have helped oversee the county’s contract with attorney William W. Stewart over the past 15 years.

Also taking advantage of the limousine service was District Attorney Investigator Rusty Hodges.

All acknowledged being chauffeured around in the limousine, but denied there is anything wrong with what they did.

In some years, the Central Court contract, which was awarded to Stewart without competitive bidding, has been worth nearly $1 million in annual fees for his Santa Ana firm and its associates.

“The word was out: If you wanted the limousine and you had a legitimate reason and if it was available, you could use it,” said Cardenas, who recalled using the vehicle one time “a long time ago” to attend a local charity event with Stewart and his wife.

Cardenas later said he could have been a guest in the car on other occasions. He said he remembers being “impressed” that a law firm would have a limousine at its disposal.

He said he was particularly pleased to learn that Stewart’s firm would often provide the car service as a “designated driver” for attorneys, judges or others who may have had too much too drink at functions.

“Because of the drunk-driving thing, most of us tried to be careful,” said Cardenas, adding that he never had to avail himself of Stewart’s post-party service.

Stewart said he maintained a “pretty open policy” with the car, and, on most occasions, accompanied those who used it.

“I’m not trying to buy judges,” Stewart said. “There are judges who are friends of mine. I made the car available to a lot of charity events.”

The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission requires judges and other elected California officials to report gifts valued at $50 or more--including limousine services. The driver, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said the car charge was $25 per hour and--except for quick one-way trips--events typically ran two hours or more.

Neither Cardenas nor Brown, a passenger in the car on at least three occasions in the past three years, reported any such gifts on their annual disclosure statements since 1987, the earliest year the judges’ records were available.

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Both judges have presided over cases in which Stewart’s firm represented indigent clients under terms of the county contract. And Brown once chaired the Alternate Defense Committee, which wields considerable influence over indigent defense policy for the county.

Vasquez, one of five members on the County Board of Supervisors, which has routinely granted contract extensions for Stewart’s firm on the recommendation of local judges, said he was a guest in the car on two occasions. The supervisor said he paid the driver for one of the rides, a trip to Los Angeles to meet and dine with French government officials two or three years ago.

But the driver, who took Vasquez to Los Angeles, said the supervisor “did not pay me 10 cents” because it was against the firm’s policy for the driver to accept money from passengers.

Also about that time, the supervisor said he used the car on a second outing to host the wife of former U.S. Atty. Gen. Richard Thornburgh for a tour of the Orangewood Children’s Home.

Vasquez said he did not reimburse Stewart’s firm for the limousine on that occasion, but he did not consider the Orangewood outing as a gift because he was “doing county business” by trying to secure more federal funding for Orangewood.

Hodges, a key investigator in the prosecution of former Supervisor Don R. Roth on charges related to the improper acceptance of gifts, said he paid both times he used the car, once “chipping in about $20 or $30” for a trip to the airport three or four years ago, and again about two years ago to shuttle friends to a party for an office colleague.

The driver said he recalled Hodges as a passenger in the car more than twice. However, he also said that the investigator once pushed $100 in his shirt pocket after an office party to cover the group’s expenses for the four-hour outing, even though the driver was not supposed to accept payments from passengers.

“I’ve known all those guys a hundred years,” Hodges said. “My deal was I paid the driver.”

Meanwhile, Judge Cardenas said he did not consider use of the limousine to be a gift because he recalled using it for only a charity event. “It wasn’t like I was getting anything out of it,” he said. “At the time, everything was very ethical to me.”

Brown said he was typically one of several people in the car who accompanied Stewart to football games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the past three years.

The judge said he never considered the limousine rides as something he would have to disclose in annual financial statements because of his long friendship with Stewart.

“It didn’t dawn on me it was a gift . . . I don’t believe it was. He and I have been friends for years,” Brown said. Although he and Stewart have enjoyed a close relationship, Brown said he has been “careful to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” especially when Stewart or his firm had cases in his court.

While Brown served as the presiding judge of criminal matters in Superior Court between 1987 and 1989, Stewart or his associates worked frequently in Brown’s court on matters related to the indigent defense contract.

During that time, Brown said, he tried to distance himself somewhat from his old friend Stewart, until associates suggested there was no reason to avoid socializing with him because of his judicial position.

About the end of his term as criminal presiding judge, Brown said he accompanied Stewart to Las Vegas and stayed in the attorney’s hotel suite at Stewart’s expense. Again, because of the pair’s long friendship, Brown did not see the need to report the hotel stay as a gift, as required by the FPPC.

“It was a very reciprocal-type thing for us,” the judge said of their friendship. “Half the time, I would pick up the tab. . . . That concept of avoiding even the appearance of impropriety is a terribly important concept to me.

“I can’t think of anything I would do for William Stewart that I wouldn’t do for any other attorney.”

On the occasions when he was a passenger in Stewart’s limousine, Brown said it usually resulted from a brief discussion about who intended to drive to the weekend football game.

“It just happened that Bill had this car that didn’t require either of us to drive,” Brown said, adding that on one of the game days the judge provided Bloody Marys and food for the trip. “That was my contribution. I never liked limousines. It was never a perk I expected or anticipated.”

The disclosures about the firm’s car service has come during a particularly troubling year for Stewart.

In June, other judges alleged that Stewart had been subletting much of his contract caseload to other lawyers but continued to share in the contract’s profits. At the same time, the judges expressed concern about delays in resolving criminal cases because the contract attorneys were unavailable for court appearances.

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Court officials also confirmed that Stewart sometimes communicated with the county court system by telephone or fax from his former import-export business in Colombia.

Although Stewart once dismissed his critics in the judiciary as “idiots,” the concerns prompted judicial higher-ups to review Stewart’s work performance.

Although there were proposals that the judges should divide the lucrative business among several law firms, in the end they left it up to Stewart to decide whether to share the cases with other firms, or to retain the exclusivity he has under the existing contract.

Stewart said then that he would not make a change, especially at a time when his performance was being attacked.

The attorney--known in some legal circles as “Don Guillermo” because of former business interests in South America--has talked with pride of the years spent cultivating relationships with local judges, state lawmakers and county supervisors.

In all those years, though, Stewart said he has never sought special favors and has not been the recipient of any.

“He is a big-hearted kind of guy,” Judge Brown said, “and a lot of people have taken advantage of him. But I wasn’t around just because he had a limousine.”