Sobek Prosecutor Has Other Big Cases on Resume

No one can say prosecutor Stephen Kay lacks credentials to try the “big case.”

Just ask Charles Manson or Lawrence Bittaker, two of the most notorious multiple-murderers in the annals of Los Angeles crime.

Both were convicted by Kay, a 28-year veteran of the district attorney’s office, who will prosecute the photographer accused of murdering former Raiderette Linda Sobek.

Though an administrator for 14 years, Kay said he took on the case after working on the investigation with Hermosa Beach police over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

“The interest in having me take the case came from me and not anybody Downtown,” Kay said.

And as long as the case stays in Torrance, where he is head deputy, Kay said he expects to see it through.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti “was not personally involved in assigning the case,” said his spokeswoman, Suzanne Childs.

But the decision on where to try the case rests with Garcetti. He told reporters Monday he saw no reason to transfer the case Downtown, as he was criticized for doing with the O.J. Simpson trial.

Kay, 52, is a prosecutors’ prosecutor. Named trial deputy of the year by his peers in 1991, his assignment to a high-profile case is certain to be popular.

“He’s one of the most principled and most respected deputies in the office,” said Richard W. Hecht, a retired district attorney administrator.

Honest, decent and nice are words that frequently crop up to describe Kay, a straight-arrow father of three who lives in the South Bay.

“It’s nice to see somebody who’s spent most of his career training other deputies be put back in court to practice those skills he’s been teaching others,” said Peter Bozanich, head deputy in the Compton office.

Another plus for Kay: Unlike some thrust into the public eye, he’s accustomed to media attention and respects reporters. “I’ve always gotten along with reporters,” Kay said. “My mother was a reporter.”

A graduate of Claremont Men’s College and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, Kay joined the district attorney’s office in 1967. He was brought in to assist Vincent Bugliosi in the Manson trial.

Kay did not forget about Manson after the prison door clanged shut. He became the keeper of the flame in the office--the first prosecutor to attend parole hearings at state prison.

The prosecutor said he has testified 48 times against granting parole to Manson and his followers. “I’m 48 and 0,” Kay said proudly. “These are people who tried to destroy our society.”

Kay said the Manson case was not his most grisly. That distinction goes to the 1980-81 trial of Lawrence Bittaker, who with a companion audiotaped the prolonged torture of one of five teen-age girls they had kidnaped.

With its mountain search and young woman victim, Kay said the Sobek case “just struck me with a lot of similarities” to the Bittaker case. He declined to elaborate.

In his last trial in 1981, Kay recalls, he convicted a burglar without having a victim testify--something others told him could not be done.

Kay rose in the supervisorial ranks of the office over the years. Under former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, Kay was on the executive staff, where he supervised Garcetti--who then had the job in Torrance that Kay holds now.

After being elected, Garcetti dispatched Kay to run the Compton office, a lower-level assignment. In June, he was transferred to Torrance.

Although it is highly unusual for a head deputy to try a case, there is precedent set by Garcetti himself. Just before launching his successful bid to become district attorney, Garcetti tried a murder case in Torrance. He lost.

* Times staff writer Paul Feldman contributed to this report.