U.S. to Appeal Sentences in Judicial Corruption Case

In a rarely used legal tactic, federal prosecutors today will ask that the sentences given in a judicial corruption case to two former Superior Court judges and a prominent attorney be increased because they are too lenient.

Prosecutors will file an appeal to the sentences of the former judges, G. Dennis Adams and James Malkus, and litigator Patrick Frega by District Judge Edward Rafeedie, attorneys close to the case said. The prosecutors will argue that the sentences should be increased because the case is being watched by judges and lawyers nationwide to gauge the government’s seriousness in punishing corruption in the courts.

The three were convicted in October 1996 of conspiracy to trade gifts for judicial favors, but Rafeedie gave them the lightest possible sentences and allowed them to remain free while appealing their convictions. They are still free today.

The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego took the unusual step of asking the U.S. solicitor general--the Department of Justice official who represents the government at the Supreme Court--for permission to appeal Rafeedie’s sentencing to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jerry Coughlan, one of the defense attorneys in the case, reacted angrily to the government’s decision to appeal the sentences.

“They were out to get people in a witch hunt, and it continues,” he said.

The three were convicted of a conspiracy in which the judges secretly accepted more than $100,000 in gifts from Frega and gave inside information to him while he was handling multimillion-dollar civil lawsuits in their courts and those of other San Diego judges.

Rafeedie sentenced Malkus to 33 months in prison and Adams and Frega to 41 months each. Prosecutors had asked for sentences ranging from seven to 14 years for each.

A fourth defendant, former Superior Court Judge Michael Greer, pleaded guilty and acted as the government’s chief witness. Rafeedie, at the request of prosecutors, sentenced the gravely ill Greer to probation.