Agran Urges New Carmona Trial

Attacking an arrest by the Police Department he oversees, Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran has urged a judge to overturn the controversial robbery conviction of Arthur Carmona.

In a letter to Judge Everett W. Dickey, the councilman outlined evidence that he said shows Irvine police wrongfully arrested Carmona for a 1998 robbery.

Dickey has scheduled a hearing for today to determine whether Carmona should be granted a new trial.

Agran wrote the letter on city stationery in his capacity as a council member, saying he is concerned “because of the city of Irvine’s involvement in this case.”

Agran said he took the step even though it might offend the Police Department and could end up hurting the city in future litigation.

He called a potential lawsuit by Carmona “a problem which pales when compared with the continuing travesty of an innocent young man spending even one more day in prison.”

Irvine police arrested Carmona, then 16, in 1998 after witnesses said he resembled a gunman who robbed a juice bar in that city. Prosecutors charged Carmona with that robbery and an earlier robbery of a Costa Mesa restaurant.

Prosecuted as an adult, Carmona was convicted of both robberies and sentenced by Dickey to 12 years in prison.

Earlier this year the 4th District Court of Appeal ordered Dickey to consider granting Carmona a new trial based on evidence his lawyer failed to present at the trial.

The hearing today follows a two-year campaign by Carmona’s supporters who insist the case against him was flimsy. Prosecutors based the case on witness identification--since recanted--without physical evidence such as a gun or fingerprint.

Agran echoed some of those criticisms in his letter, noting that police officers placed a ball cap worn by the robber on Carmona’s head before witnesses viewed him. That step tainted the identifications, Agran wrote.

The councilman also asked Dickey to consider that prosecutors never linked Carmona to a 33-year-old man who pleaded guilty to acting as the getaway driver in both robberies.

In an interview, Agran said he never before has involved himself in a criminal case investigated by the city’s Police Department. He said he does not mean to sound critical of the department but wanted to do all he could to help Carmona.

“The total case against Arthur Carmona consists only of a highly questionable cross-racial identification, which I now believe to be a tragic case of mistaken identification,” Agran wrote.

“It was something I put together after a number of weeks and a great deal of thought,” Agran said. “In my view, it was a tragic instance of a systematic failure, not the failure of any one person.”