Political Mud Leaves Taint on Court Case

Even before George Bush waltzed into the White House on Willie Horton’s coattails, politicians tried to make crime pay campaign dividends. Now, some 11th-hour mudslinging by losing supervisorial candidate Dave Sullivan has left an annoying residue--and the potential for something worse.

A desperation mailer Sullivan sent voters just before the November election has already taken up court time in a major murder case. And defense lawyers won’t rule out making it a bigger issue. That always translates to more court costs.

Sullivan sent 2nd District voters four pages of campaign literature branding his opponent, incumbent Supervisor Jim Silva, for supporting “an accused cop killer.”

“Meet John Stephens,” the mailer said, with a huge head shot of a grim-looking defendant. Over a silhouette of a police officer, Sullivan stated:

“Jim Silva voted to spend more than $600,000 to defend an accused cop killer.” And later: “Dave Sullivan would never have voted to give a lawyer defending an accused cop killer a single dime.”

Now this hit piece has become one of many pretrial issues for attorneys for Stephens, 27, charged with the March 9, 1993, slaying of Garden Grove Police Officer Howard Dallies.

No one is saying yet that this will interfere with Stephens getting a fair trial. But lawyers on both sides are wondering how Sullivan’s campaign could have been so dumb.

“We were completely shocked when that mailer came out,” said Steve Biskar, one of Stephens’ public defender attorneys.

“If a lot of potential jurors saw it, we see that as a potentially serious problem for us.”

Prosecutors would probably object, but Stephens’ attorneys might seek a larger jury pool to help weed out some who might have received the mailer. That could mean headaches for the judge and extra costs for the court.

The worst-case scenario is Stephens’ attorneys would seek a change of venue--and they haven’t closed the door on doing that. Judges rarely grant those, especially in highly populated counties like ours. But even a change-of-venue motion could take up precious court time that ought to be devoted to other issues in the case.

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan already has allowed Stephens’ attorneys to subpoena records from Sullivan’s campaign, to determine how widespread that mailer circulated. Biskar estimates it went to 150,000 households.

It’s the kind of misleading, inflammatory propaganda usually put out by candidates running behind. Maybe Sullivan felt that way. Silva thumped him pretty handily in that race.

Here’s what really happened: Silva voted last March to give Stephens’ public defender attorneys an additional $605,000 to prepare their case.

But the mailer fails to say:

None of the county supervisors voted “no” on Public Defender Carl Holmes’ request for $605,000 for the Stephens case. The vote was 4-0, with Supervisor Todd Spitzer recusing himself because he is a reserve police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department and said he could not be objective.

Also, a “no” decision by the board would have forced the public defender’s office to drop the Stephens case. The court would then have had to turn it over to a private defense firm. Holmes contends that would have cost millions more. In one previous murder case involving two defendants, his office spent $900,000 for one of them. Private attorneys for the second defendant cost the county $4 million.

The Stephens case is enormous enough without getting sidetracked on these issues.

Holmes described the four-year Dallies investigation as the largest manhunt in the county’s history. Its voluminous files have grown to 64,000 pages of documents--including reports from two special task forces--plus 700 audio and video tapes. The public defender’s office has a small battalion of attorneys, investigators and support staff reviewing the file and tracking down hundreds of witnesses.

There’s a lesson here. When you want to take a swipe at your political opponent, stay away from pending court cases. Your mud might land in the wrong place.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers can reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.