2 Judges, Lawyer May Be Resentenced in Gifts Case

A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the mail fraud convictions of two ex-judges and an attorney at the center of a gifts-for-favors scandal that shook San Diego’s once close-knit legal establishment.

But the court threw out federal conspiracy racketeering convictions for the three because of an erroneous jury instruction by the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie. That decision will probably mean reduced sentences for ex-San Diego Superior Court judges James Malkus and G. Dennis Adams and onetime San Diego “lawyer of the year” Patrick Frega. Prosecutors had already complained that the sentences were too light.

The decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena vindicates the controversial legal theory put forth by federal prosecutors--that there need be no showing that Frega “bought” a specific judicial ruling with a specific gift to the jurists.

The court cited a ruling in another case that “the crime is complete when the payment is corruptly given with the intent to influence the judicial officer . . . whether or not it ever does.”

Frega, known for a slashing courtroom style on behalf of plaintiffs suing large corporations, lavished more than $100,000 in gifts from 1983 to 1992 on Adams, Malkus and a third ex-judge, Michael Greer, who pleaded guilty and was the prosecution’s star witness.

Among the gifts were cars for the judges and their families, trips, computers, a ghostwriter to help Adams write a war novel, a double bed for Adams and his then-girlfriend, athletic club memberships and job assistance for the judges’ college-age children. The judges helped Frega prepare his cases and made rulings on his behalf.

Attorneys for Adams and Malkus argued that it was never proved that the gifts influenced either judge to make a ruling that was not justified on legal grounds.

In October 1996, a federal jury convicted Adams, Malkus and Frega of multiple counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Rafeedie sentenced Frega and Adams to 41 months and Malkus to 33 months, the lowest possible sentences allowed by federal guidelines. The three have been free pending appeal. Greer was given probation.