2 Witnesses in Merriman Trial Held in Contempt

Two witnesses affiliated with white supremacist gangs were held in contempt of court Monday and fined thousands of dollars for refusing to answer questions in the conspiracy trial of Beverlee Sue Merriman.

Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger threatened to hold Harlan Romines and Brandon Sprout, both state prison inmates, in contempt every day of Merriman’s trial if they continue to keep silent.

Prosecutors intended to question the two men about letters they received last year that, the prosecution contends, may have been part of a plot between Merriman and her 27-year-old son to intimidate witnesses in his murder case.

Several witnesses have been reluctant to testify for fear of retaliation. But Sprout and Romines are the first to flatly refuse to answer questions posed by the prosecution.

After shuffling into court with chains around his ankles and jail blues draping his beefy frame, Romines spelled his name for the court clerk, then stiffened his back and shut his mouth.

“I refuse to answer any questions,” he repeated.

After ordering the jury to leave the courtroom, Cloninger asked Romines several times to reconsider, warning the witness that he was running the risk of contempt charges.

Romines wouldn’t budge.

As a member of a prison gang, he explained, his safety would be threatened if he agreed to testify.

“If I answer any questions, my life ain’t worth a penny,” he said. “I won’t jeopardize myself for any case.”

Earlier, a gang expert testified that in the state prison system informants are targeted for assault--or worse--if inmates learn they helped law enforcement.

*

Ironically, prosecutors wanted Romines, who is serving a prison sentence at an unnamed institution for a hate crime, to tell the jury about threats he allegedly made to a witness last year after learning the witness had worked as an informant in a related case.

“Did you tell [the witness] that he wouldn’t be safe in any prison yard?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh asked.

Romines would not answer that question and three others posed by Bamieh. As a result, he was held on four counts of contempt for willfully refusing to answer questions.

He was fined $4,000 and ordered to serve 20 days in jail--not that the sentence had much of an effect.

“I’m already doing a bunch of time, so what does it matter?” Romines chuckled from the witness stand.

It could matter a lot.

Cloninger has threatened to hold Romines and Sprout, who was fined $2,000 and given 10 days in jail for refusing to answer questions, in contempt every day of Merriman’s trial. Sprout is serving a prison sentence for a stabbing.

For each count, the district attorney’s office could decide to bring charges of violating a court order. That offense carries a six-month jail term.

If Merriman’s trial continues for another two weeks, and the men are held in contempt each day and charged criminally as a result, they could face several additional years behind bars, lawyers said Monday.

Outside the courtroom, Bamieh said he does not expect to encounter similar problems with other witnesses.

Merriman, a 52-year-old Ventura bookkeeper, is facing two counts of conspiracy for allegedly trying to threaten witnesses and induce false testimony.

*

She also faces a count of perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury about her son’s whereabouts eight years ago.

Prosecutors allege that Justin Merriman raped and killed 20-year-old college student Katrina Montgomery in November 1992. A member of a Ventura skinhead gang, Justin Merriman is facing criminal charges in connection with the slaying.

A judge recently stripped Justin Merriman of his jail privileges after concerns were raised that he was sending letters and making phone calls to friends in prison, and asking them to “take care” of key witnesses and informants in his case.