Garcetti Withstands Critic’s Onslaught at Job Hearing

It was to be, in the little guy’s eyes, a real-life version of the courtroom showdown between actors Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men.”

And indeed there was plenty of drama and tension Monday when the little guy, a dapper young deputy district attorney named Kevin Greber, grilled his powerful boss, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, during an unusual Civil Service hearing.

Garcetti had been called to the stand to respond to Greber’s charge that the D.A. unfairly punished him for publicly criticizing Garcetti’s office over the O.J. Simpson trial. Like many prosecutors, Greber had taken issue with salary bonuses awarded to members of the Simpson prosecution team.

At one point during Garcetti’s three hours on the stand, punctuated by verbal jabs and angry looks on both sides, Greber blew his boss a sarcastic kiss.

“He’s being cute so I’m being cute right back,” Greber told hearing officer Philip R. Levine.

But Garcetti did not crack. He did not, as in Greber’s movie scenario, yell out “You can’t handle the truth!” and confess to misdeeds.

Instead, he kept his cool, repeatedly rejecting the charge that he denied Greber a promotion and initiated an internal investigation of the 31-year-old attorney in retaliation for Greber’s criticism.

The hearing began with testimony about Garcetti’s 1995 decision to award lead Simpson prosecutors William Hodgman, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden a total of $43,000 in bonuses.

Garcetti was addressing a seminar for county prosecutors in December 1995 when Greber sharply criticized him from the audience about the bonuses.

But Monday, Garcetti maintained that he didn’t know Greber by name that day. Greber only came to his attention two weeks later, Garcetti said, when the D.A.’s office launched an internal affairs investigation into allegations that Greber had flashed his badge to police officers during two separate traffic stops to try to avoid speeding tickets.

Greber called the incidents “a misunderstanding,” but he was nonetheless suspended for five days over the incidents.

Greber was denied promotions in 1996 and 1997. Garcetti’s attorney said Greber was passed over because of the internal affairs investigation and because he mishandled a previous three-strikes trial.

In his effort to show why Garcetti had a vendetta against him, Greber produced dozens of newspaper articles that quoted him harshly criticizing Garcetti.

And he noted that he asked the State Bar Assn. to investigate Garcetti after the grandson of one of Garcetti’s biggest campaign contributors was offered a lenient plea bargain in 1995. The State Bar Assn. found no wrongdoing.

But Garcetti would not bite. He said he held no personal vendetta against Greber--although he was certainly conscious that Greber had supported Garcetti’s rival, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lynch, in the November 1996 election.