Antonovich Sought Suspect’s Release

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich wrote a letter to a judge asking that a teenage murder defendant be released pending trial.

The letter on the supervisor’s letterhead, signed “Mike,” said the defendant is “a very good student and is active in serving the Armenian community.”

Antonovich’s request, however, was unsuccessful.

The supervisor believes he was justified in writing last month on behalf of the murder defendant, said an aide, Lori Howard.

“He doesn’t think there’s anything illegal or improper in giving a character reference to someone who’s an outstanding member of the community,” Howard said. “It is unusual, but he certainly has in the past.”

It is not illegal for a public official to write a character letter, said Matt Ross, a spokesman with the state attorney general’s office.

But Antonovich’s action two years ago on behalf of campaign contributors in an unrelated civil lawsuit was called “reprehensible” by a state appellate court.

In the current case, Howard said Antonovich wrote the letter, dated June 3, after a request from the defendant’s parents, who he has seen sporadically at Armenian church functions. Howard said Antonovich was influenced by Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, who sent a letter to the court vouching for the teenager, Sayat Oruncakciel.

Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Judge Morton Rochman ordered Oruncakciel detained Thursday pending the disposition of his case.

Oruncakciel is one of six teenagers, most of them educated at private schools, who are charged in the May slaying of a 17-year-old at an Encino birthday party. Police said Abtin Tangestanifar was stabbed 11 times during a fight outside the party at a million-dollar home.

Prosecutors are seeking to have Oruncakciel and his co-defendants tried as adults.

Several judges said such letters from public officials are unusual. Presiding Superior Court Judge Robert Parkin said judges usually ignore the letters on official letterhead in the odd instances that they are sent. Public officials “shouldn’t do it, but they do it,” he said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp said it would be “improper” for public officials to use their position to get a defendant released pending trial.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, said Garcetti would not comment on Antonovich’s involvement in the case.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Belis, who is prosecuting the case, said the district attorney’s office had asked for Oruncakciel’s detention because the teenager could flee to Turkey, where he has relatives, and because of the seriousness of the crime.

Two years ago, Antonovich was found to have intervened with a judge, who was a childhood friend, on behalf of a campaign donor who was involved in a business lawsuit over which the judge was presiding.

A state appellate court found that there was enough evidence for jurors to haved concluded that “Antonovich had allowed his political supporters to induce him to attempt to influence a Superior Court judge in a pending case.”

The opinion, which the state Supreme Court left intact, overturned a judgment against the supervisor of $1.2 million in damages, but called his action “reprehensible.”

Antonovich insisted that he made the call because of the donor’s long-standing ties to his district’s large Armenian community and heartfelt sympathy for a hard-working, honest man.