Ito’s Attempt to Control Brings Chaos to Trial

Let history judge when the “trial of the century” went wrong.

Maybe it was even before the trial began--perhaps at the moment last June when Los Angeles Police Cmdr. David Gascon went on national television to announce that the cops had managed to lose the era’s most famous murder suspect, O.J. Simpson.

Maybe it was when Judge Lance A. Ito tiptoed around prospective jurors during voir dire, treating them with such deference that they evolved into a jury of spoiled brats.

Personally, I thought the trial began spinning totally out of control at midafternoon Thursday in an incident that revealed much about Judge Ito, his conduct of the proceedings and the hidden courthouse political forces involved in the Simpson murder trial.

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It occurred when the judge’s high-tech system, designed to block the press’s access to the private conferences he has with lawyers and jurors, failed and his conversation went out to millions.

One of the complaining jurors was giving an ultimatum: Get rid of some of those sheriff’s deputies or I won’t play on your team. The threat was being delivered behind closed doors, with a court reporter transcribing the proceeding on a stenotype machine. Transcripts of closed-door hearings aren’t supposed to go to the media, but through a technical foul-up, part of this one did.

The failure was a perfect symbol of Ito’s mistaken belief that he could control a trial that would tax the talents of an older and more experienced jurist.

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The juror’s unusual, and impertinent, threat to a judge seemed to be a sign that the trial was breaking down. This feeling was reinforced a few minutes later when reporters began hearing rumors that Ito had surrendered and was going to dump some sheriff’s deputies because they had been rude and unfair to jurors.

Book author Joe Bosco was among the first with the rumors, and was quickly put on the air by KTTV Channel 11’s Jane Wells, who, like the rest of the media, was suffering from severe information deprivation. With rumors flying, court spokeswoman Jerrianne Hayslett came up to the increasingly confused pressroom with a message from the judge.

She said that Ito was still conducting his inquiry into juror complaints, but that there had been no “finding of misconduct.” Asked if any deputies were being replaced as juror guards, however, she said, “I have no idea.”

It was soon confirmed that Ito had dumped three guards. But the judge’s action only made his troubles worse. For in trying to satisfy a few intransigent jurors, the judge had antagonized Sheriff Sherman Block, a man so powerful that he scarcely recognizes Los Angeles County’s other branches of government, the judiciary and the Board of Supervisors. When anyone questions the sheriff, he points to the election returns, always top-heavy in his favor.

The sheriff had called a news conference at his headquarters near Monterey Park, at the edge of the San Gabriel Valley suburbs, several miles from the Downtown Criminal Courts Building. There was meaning in the geographical divide. Block has great political support in these suburbs. The county’s judges, also elected, know this and tend to pay attention when Block speaks.

In addition to criticizing the judge at his news conference, Block showed that his political antenna is as sensitive inside the jury as it is in most of Los Angeles County. He predicted that the “overwhelming majority of jurors will be upset” by the judge’s action. That turned out to be the best prediction of the day.

Friday morning, 13 of the jurors and alternates mutinied. They wanted their deputy pals back. And, interestingly, their anger cut across racial lines, just as Block had said it would.

Most analysts have been looking at this jury in simple black-white racial terms. Their analysis was simple: One or more black panelists would automatically give Simpson a not guilty vote to ensure a hung jury.

Block, the veteran of L.A.’s suburban-oriented politics, apparently saw things in a more complex, and real, manner. Middle class Angelenos--African American, Latino, Asian American and white--lean strongly toward supporting cops, despite a long history of police abuses of minorities.

The sheriff turned out to be in the county’s mainstream, leaving Ito off somewhere by himself.

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It’s doubtful that his fellow judges enjoy seeing Ito dangling alone. The county judges don’t want a Simpson case breakdown.

A messy end to the Simpson trial would be a national embarrassment for the county bench. Moreover, the judges are engaged in fierce competition for appropriations in a county in deep financial trouble. Pity the presiding judge asking the county supervisors for more money after a Simpson fiasco.

Finally, every county judge is a politician. All of them face reelection in political campaigns, and many are ambitious for higher political office.

Even though judges are supposed to be masters of their courtroom, Ito most likely will be getting advice from colleagues who are more experienced and have more political clout. I doubt if they want Ito to bring them down with him.

Maybe one of the other judges will have a bright idea. If the “trial of the century” is saved, it may be done in the old-fashioned back rooms of the county courthouse.