Lawyer Faces Charge of Jury Tampering

Louis “Skip” Miller, known as one of the most hard-nosed and aggressive attorneys in Los Angeles, is often hired to defend the city and its Police Department from accusations of wrongdoing.

But did he engage in wrongdoing himself--possibly tampering with a jury--in a high-profile case involving missing photos of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination?

That was the question raised Monday during a high-stakes courtroom drama of its own, as Miller found himself on trial before a State Bar of California judge.

The litigator, aided by a legal team that includes former state Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian, was fighting to avoid disciplinary action that could be as severe as losing his license to practice law in the state.

In their legal filings, Miller and his attorneys have steadfastly denied that he acted improperly. On Monday, Miller, who is 52 and works out of a Century City-based firm, had no comment.

In a day’s worth of testimony in the wood-paneled state bar courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, the state bar representative accused Miller of willfully violating the code of professional conduct by contacting a juror in a 1996 civil case in which he was representing the LAPD.

The LAPD had been accused in a $2-million civil suit of losing the valuable film negatives of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination that a high school newspaper photographer had snapped as the presidential candidate was gunned down in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in 1968.

After lawyers for the photographer, Jamie Scott Enyart, hinted darkly that the loss of the negatives was part of some assassination-related conspiracy, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn hired Miller--at $225 an hour--to make sure the city did not lose the case.

During the 1996 trial, jurors were at war with one another as they deliberated over whether the LAPD acted negligently, or with malice. The jury foreman, Robert Pinger, even wrote the judge a note saying he was concerned about juror misconduct, before asking to be excused from the jury so he could get back to his job as a schoolteacher.

The day after Pinger was excused, Miller called him and asked to meet and discuss whether fellow jurors had engaged in any improprieties that could result in a mistrial, which would help Miller’s client, the LAPD. In testimony Monday, Pinger recalled that the two met at a restaurant and discussed the jury’s deliberations.

Miller soon petitioned for a mistrial in the photo case, using a declaration from Pinger as a foundation.

The judge denied the petition, and said Miller may have acted inappropriately by talking with Pinger and that she would report the attorney to the state bar.

Enyart, now a special effects artist, ended up winning the case and a $450,600 award, which remains on appeal.

Until 1992, lawyers were permitted to discuss a pending case with jurors who had been excused from the trial. State statutes were amended in 1992 to specifically outlaw such contact with jurors discharged from a pending case.

But in his defense, Miller says that he relied on law firm associate Kevin Leichter to determine whether contacting an excused juror was legal, and that Leichter failed to notice that the law had been amended.

Leichter supported Miller’s contention during his testimony Monday. Miller is set to testify today.

Miller, a graduate of UCLA Law School who has been in practice since 1972, has represented City Councilman Nate Holden in a sexual harassment case filed against him. In other city cases, he defended Mayor Richard Riordan in various public matters and the city in a series of civil rights and police brutality cases.