Contempt Action Urged After Lawyer, Murder Suspect Meet

Ventura County prosecutors want a local attorney held in contempt of court after she spent three hours last month meeting with murder suspect Justin Merriman at the County Jail.

Merriman is prohibited by court order from seeing any visitors other than his criminal defense lawyers after he allegedly conspired to threaten and kill witnesses in his death-penalty case.

Ventura attorney Tamara Green, who represents Merriman’s mother in a related conspiracy case, is accused of violating that order by meeting with the 27-year-old defendant Jan. 29.

Green says she met with Merriman to discuss a potential medical malpractice lawsuit against the county for various health problems he has suffered while in jail. She says they did not talk about the murder case.

But prosecutors say Green had no business talking to Merriman about anything. They filed a motion Wednesday asking Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. to authorize contempt proceedings.

The motion contends that Green knew about the court order barring jail visits, violated it and then offered various explanations for her “suspicious” actions.

From her law office Thursday, Green called the allegations absurd and vowed to fight them at a hearing next week.

“The notion that I would run out and tamper with witnesses or that I am a co-conspirator is an absolute insult,” Green said.

She called the seven-page brief filed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh a ploy to prevent her from preparing for Beverlee Sue Merriman’s conspiracy trial, which is set to start March 7.

Bamieh rejected the suggestion that his office was trying to portray Green as a co-conspirator. He said the contempt motion was brought simply because Green violated a court order--one intended to protect witnesses in a criminal case.

“I have an ethical duty as an officer of the court to notify the court of a potential violation of the court’s order,” Bamieh said. “And that is what we have done.”

Beverlee Sue Merriman, a 52-year-old bookkeeper and Ventura resident, was indicted by the grand jury last year for allegedly conspiring with her only son to intimidate witnesses in his case.

Justin Merriman is facing charges of rape, murder and related offenses in the 1992 slaying of 20-year-old Santa Monica College student Katrina Montgomery.

According to one witness, the defendant stabbed and bludgeoned Montgomery after raping her, then slit her throat and forced two members of his white supremacist gang to help dispose of the body.

Prosecutors, who have also charged Justin Merriman with raping two other women in 1994 and 1995, are seeking the death penalty. He is being held without bail, and a trial is set for March 27.

Four months after Merriman was charged with murder, he was indicted on conspiracy charges for allegedly plotting with his mother and two other women to prevent witnesses from testifying.

He was later caught on videotape talking to his mother during jail visits about certain witnesses. Prosecutors sought a no-contact order to cut off his communications with anyone but his lawyers, and O’Neill signed the order on Sept. 20.

Bamieh then turned his attention to Beverlee Sue Merriman and sought a bail increase to keep her away from witnesses. She has been held on $2-million bail since October. If convicted on conspiracy charges, she faces up to seven years in prison.

With less than two weeks before the start of trial, Green says the contempt motion has pulled her focus away from her client’s case.

“It’s a matter of an attorney fighting for her own life the week before she has to fight for the life of her client,” said Green, who has practiced civil law in Ventura County for 12 years.

As for the allegations in the motion, Green contends that she was contacted by Justin Merriman’s defense team and told that he wanted to speak with her about filing a civil lawsuit.

Green said Justin Merriman’s attorney, Willard Wiksell, told her in late January that his client wasn’t getting appropriate medical care for internal bleeding and dental problems and needed her help. Green worked on a medical malpractice case for another inmate who died last year after allegedly being refused proper treatment.

“I was surprised,” she said. “I said, ‘Sure. Why not? When can we all go?’ . . . They said, ‘You can go on your own. You’re an attorney.’ ”

Green felt there was no problem seeing Justin Merriman, she said.

“At that very moment I became in my mind an agent of his lawyer,” she said. “Every criminal defendant in jail has a right to speak with a lawyer. . . . I take serious personal issue with the idea that I fall into the category of ‘visitor.’ ”

But Bamieh’s motion states that Wiksell denied ever talking with Green. It also states that Green has changed her story three times, drawing suspicion to her actions.

Wiksell could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

“At first glance,” Bamieh writes, “Ms. Green’s visitation of her client’s son at the Ventura County jail may appear relatively harmless.

“However, to those who know how dangerous and manipulative Mr. Merriman and his mom are,” the prosecutor wrote, “Ms. Green’s contemptuous actions are startling.”

The matter is set for a hearing Tuesday morning.

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Wilson is a Times staff writer. Piccalo is a Times Community News reporter.