D.A. Draws Fire Over Ex-Convict’s Sentencing

Only months after receiving probation in connection with a shooting case that could have sent him to prison for years, a beaming Brian Patrick Ballou on Thursday received a 16-month sentence--on new gun and drug charges--under another plea agreement with the office of Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti.

Ballou, 27, whose father, Robert Ballou, a politically connected attorney, helped him obtain a lenient plea bargain last year in another gun case, has been described in probation papers as a “community terrorist” and a “time bomb.”

Yet in earlier cases and again Thursday, the reputed gang member avoided stiff punishment through plea bargains that have come under fire by some of Garcetti’s own prosecutors. Indeed, critics say, Ballou’s cases have received an unusual degree of attention from the highest levels of Garcetti’s office, and Ballou has gotten help from some of his father’s longtime friends, who include Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. .

And even though officials insist that they have not played any special role in Ballou’s cases, the handling of his prosecutions has raised questions.

In back-to-back court appearances Thursday in downtown Los Angeles, Ballou first pleaded no contest to violating probation for carrying weapons as an ex-convict and then, before a second judge, was sentenced for drug and weapons charges resulting from the same March 31 arrest that led to his probation violation.

By earlier agreement, Ballou was given the low term for both cases, and the 16-month prison sentences were ordered to run concurrently. With credit for his time already served in County Jail, Ballou faces about 14 months in prison and could be out in half that time.

Defense attorney Robert McNeill called the sentence fair. Garcetti’s spokeswoman declined comment. But a former prosecutor and the president of the county Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys expressed outrage.

“I think Gil Garcetti owes the public an immediate explanation for this terrible disposition,” said the association’s Albert MacKenzie.

“If you look at what we are doing to some defendants on the three-strikes law--people who have committed petty thefts or were caught with small amounts of dope who are going away for 25 to life--and you look at this case, this horrible sentence just shocks the conscience,” MacKenzie said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Grosbard, who once prosecuted Ballou, also voiced anger.

“They could have gotten three years state prison without blinking an eye,” Grosbard said of Ballou’s most recent sentence. “And considering the danger of this individual, it is is hard to understand why they would have agreed to a sentence that would have him back on the streets in eight months.”

Ballou was arrested six weeks ago by Los Angeles police after they stopped him for driving with a burned-out taillight and learned he was on probation. In a search, officers found that Ballou had a small amount of marijuana, and in a search of his home they found more marijuana and weapons.

Ballou’s latest court appearances come only a few months after he was allowed to plead no contest to possession of a firearm in connection with a 1996 shooting of a stranded motorist in Baldwin Hills.

He was initially booked on charges including suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon that could have sent him to prison for up to 17 years. Ballou’s eventual plea agreement allowed him to serve four days in jail and go on probation.

The plea bargain stemming from the 1996 shooting so troubled Grosbard, Ballou’s onetime prosecutor, that he denounced it in court and urged his supervisors to file more serious charges. But after the case was reviewed at the top levels of Garcetti’s office, the plea agreement was allowed to stand and Grosbard was taken off the case.

Before his client was sentenced Thursday, McNeill disputed the notion that Ballou has been given special treatment.

Said McNeill: “There are a lot of cases that come through the system that need to have a second look, and the Bryan Ballou cases is no different than any of them.”

Garcetti’s spokeswoman referred questions about the case to Deputy Dist. Atty. Jane Blissert, who called Thursday’s sentence “appropriate.”

“I am aware this defendant has a history, but I was not involved in it,” she said.

“What I know is what he has been previously convicted of. I know what he is on probation for. And in my opinion, it is an appropriate sentence.”