Former Judge Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribes

In a case that exposed corruption at the top of the San Diego legal system, a former judge pleaded guilty Monday to taking $75,000 in bribes from an attorney to provide “favorable treatment and assistance” in more than 40 of the attorney’s cases, worth millions of dollars.

In a plea bargain, former Superior Court Judge Michael Greer, 61, who once enjoyed a statewide reputation as a respected jurist, said he believes that two other former judges, James Malkus and G. Dennis Adams, also were receiving bribes from the same attorney, Patrick Frega.

“This is an agonizing day for the individuals and for our community that honored and trusted them and which they so thoroughly betrayed,” said U.S. Atty. Alan Bersin, who led the investigation. “Today’s events reaffirm the accountability of public servants to the people and the truth.”

The guilty plea was made in the Los Angeles court of U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie. All 11 federal judges in San Diego disqualified themselves because they know the former Superior Court judges.

Asked by Rafeedie how he pleaded to the lone count of bribery, Greer said in a strong, clear voice: “I plead guilty, sir.” However, Greer’s voice frequently turned husky and he leaned against a lectern as the judge went over the plea agreement.

Three times, Greer’s attorney, Robert S. Brewer Jr., turned to Greer and whispered, “Are you OK?” Each time, Greer, who has been ill, nodded.

Along with Greer’s guilty plea, a San Diego car dealer pleaded guilty to obstructing justice by not providing documents to the state Commission on Judicial Performance about sales and repairs of cars owned by the judges. The dealer said he had done so on the advice of Frega.

The commission in 1991 began probing the relationship between Frega and a dozen judges but quickly focused on Greer, Malkus and Adams. That led to Greer and Malkus taking early retirement and Adams being removed from office by the California Supreme Court.

Car dealer James J. Williams Jr., in his plea bargain, said that Frega, his attorney in a lender-liability case against Security Pacific National Bank, told him to “take care” of Greer, Malkus and Adams.

In all, Frega paid $65,000 to buy and repair cars for the judges and their families, prosecutors said.

Adams, sitting without a jury, awarded Williams $7 million in his lawsuit against Security Pacific. Greer helped coach Williams for his testimony in the case, according to documents that Rafeedie read aloud Monday in court.

No criminal charges have been made against Malkus, Adams or Frega, but their indictments are considered imminent. Through their attorneys, they have insisted that they are innocent.

Dennis Riordan, a San Francisco attorney representing Frega, said that, if indicted, his client plans a vigorous defense. He said he is not surprised that Greer, who has a heart condition and severe diabetes, would plead guilty and provide the kind of information prosecutors were seeking.

Greer disappeared for two days in January before being found in Hemet after an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

“His doctors said, ‘If you go to trial, you’ll die,’ ” Riordan said. “He made the right decision for himself and his family. But we still don’t think that Judge Greer has done anything corrupt or that Pat did anything corrupt.”

Noting that Williams will pay a $500,000 penalty, Riordan said that if federal prosecutors thought the $7-million verdict in Adams’ court “was a corrupt verdict” they would have sought to have him forfeit the entire $7 million.

However, for a judge to be convicted of bribery, it need not be proved that his actions caused a verdict to be “fixed,” according to legal experts. By taking money or other inducements to do something in a case, a judge can be convicted of bribery even if his actions did not influence the verdict.

The corruption investigation by the federal prosecutors has been the talk of San Diego for months, despite extraordinary attempts by Bersin and by Assistant U.S. Attys. Phillip L.B. Halpern and Charles G. La Bella to keep the investigation confidential.

Some San Diego lawyers have grumbled that federal prosecutors were raking over incidents that might, at worst, show an unacceptably chummy relationship between Frega and the former judges and for which the latter already had been punished with public humiliation and the loss of their judgeships.

The scope of the conduct outlined in Greer’s guilty plea seemed to blunt that criticism.

“I’m shocked to the bottom of my shoes at the enormity of the corruption,” said longtime San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre, who admits he had been skeptical about the federal probe. “You hear about this in other places but never dream about it in San Diego.”

Greer admitted providing a “wide range” of assistance to Frega, who was once named trial attorney of the year by his San Diego peers. Much of his caseload involved representing plaintiffs against insurance companies and manufacturers.

The help allegedly provided by Greer included deciding discovery motions and settlement conferences, sending cases to judges that Frega requested and even helping to coach witnesses on what to say. As presiding court judge in 1988 and 1989, Greer had the power to direct cases to certain judges.

Greer, who retired in 1993 as the state investigation intensified, could face up to 10 years in prison. But prosecutors made clear that they will recommend to Rafeedie that Greer be sentenced only to probation.

Greer “has expressed a desire to provide substantial cooperation to the government in the investigation and prosecution of others,” according to the plea agreement.

Greer, who began law practice in the early 1960s as a young prosecutor in the same Los Angeles federal courthouse where he entered his plea, slipped out of the building Monday via a loading dock. He declined repeated requests for comment.

Through lawyer Brewer, Greer’s family issued a statement that said the former judge had “accepted responsibility for a lack of judgment in his dealings with one attorney.”

Williams, 49, who owns two San Diego car dealerships, agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and $250,000 to the judicial commission for the cost of its investigation.

Williams also could face 10 years in prison. But, as in Greer’s case, prosecutors agreed to request probation in exchange for his cooperation.

Rafeedie set sentencing for both Greer and Williams for Sept. 16.

Documents indicate that the scheme began as early as 1985 and ended in 1992. Greer, in the court documents, said that “Frega admitted to Greer on several occasions that at Adams’ request, Frega paid various personal expenses of Adams.”

Appointed to the bench in 1977 by Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., Greer had a reputation for legal acumen. He frequently had been lauded for his work on implementing the “fast-track” system for civil litigation, which spread statewide and speeds the time it takes to get a case to trial, and for being an expert on the state’s complex sentencing procedures.

“It’s a tragedy for him, his family and the courts,” said Justice Richard Huffman of the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego, a friend of Greer for two decades.

“Any time a judge, retired or sitting, pleads guilty to bribery,” said retired San Diego appeal court Justice Ed Butler, “it adds to the erosion of confidence in the judiciary by the public--all of which strikes at the heart of the democratic system because it’s the court system to which we turn to resolve our conflicts, to govern our lives.”

Butler, a longtime friend of Greer, added: “I can’t understand what blind spot may have caused him to do this.” Greer was Butler’s campaign manager when he ran for mayor in 1971 against a young state assemblyman named Pete Wilson.

The admissions “don’t at all sound like the man I knew, who was honest and fair to everyone,” said Virginia Nelson, a former president of the San Diego County Bar Assn.

At the heart of the scandal is Frega, a former Marine, a ferocious litigator and a martial arts expert.

In 1989, Malkus awarded $3.2 million to Frega’s clients after a traffic accident that killed one person and left another paralyzed.

When a reporter did a story about a lawyer who got clients through massive television advertising, Frega wrote to the reporter: “Please accept the sincerest thanks of advocates who believe and strive to practice a noble calling; you have helped us police our profession.”

When the investigation was first begun by the state Commission on Judicial Performance, it looked like a case of judges unable to refuse gifts from a friend who tried cases in their courts--not unlike San Diego City Council members who, with some limits, can accept gifts from people with business before them as long as the gifts are disclosed.

Disclosure forms filed by the judges showed Frega gave $1,520 in gifts to Greer over five years, $450 to Malkus in 1985 and $1,400 to Adams from 1987 to 1989. The gifts to Greer, as disclosed on the state-mandated forms, included a golf bag, a sweater, lunches and fruit baskets.

After Greer retired, he admitted failing to disclose a $10,000 loan from Frega. Until recently, Greer and Malkus have worked as private judges for a settlement service.

Greer agreed Monday to immediately relinquish his license to practice law.