Court Cameras Used Properly, Judge Says

The presiding judge of the Los Angeles Criminal Courts said Monday that he is “totally satisfied” that no confidential attorney-client discussions have been improperly recorded by videotape equipment installed in 10 high-security courtrooms downtown.

But the statement by Superior Court Judge John Reid did not allay concerns in the public defender’s office that the equipment may be illegally recording confidential communications.

After warning attorneys in the nation’s largest public defender’s office to be aware that their courtroom conversations may be recorded, the office continued to press for the release of all tapes in a recent murder trial in which the issue of videotaped recordings first surfaced.

Last week, in a formal motion, the public defender’s office asked Judge Curtis Rappe to turn over all tapes in the recent trial of Roberto Gauchi, who was sentenced last month to life in prison in the murder of his stepdaughter.

The unusual request came after Gauchi’s public counsel challenged a transcript of the trial and learned that Rappe had relied on a videotape of the proceedings to make a ruling. Part of the tape with the defense showed a close-up of the defendant and his attorneys during what appeared to be a private conversation.

For years, prosecutors and defense attorneys have known that the hallways and courtrooms on the ninth floor are equipped with cameras monitored by the Sheriff’s Department, which oversees court security.

But last week’s motion raised the specter that the cameras could be recording not only routine proceedings but also confidential talks between defense attorneys and their clients. (Rappe’s courtroom is the same one in which the O.J. Simpson criminal trial was held.)

In an interview Monday, Reid said he had reviewed a videotape showing excerpts of Gauchi’s trial--a tape also seen by the public defender’s office--and had no concerns that it showed anything that might compromise Gauchi’s right to a fair trial.

To claim absolute lack of knowledge [about security cameras] is unbelievable to me,” he said.

But Assistant Public Defender Robert Kalunian said that although attorneys were “aware of the cameras . . . we were never aware of the capabilities.”