Parole Panel Faces More Headaches

Gov. Gray Davis’ embattled parole board, stung by unprecedented attacks from the courts and Democrats in the Legislature, is bracing for even deeper turmoil.

As early as Aug. 8, the governor’s appointment of Chairman David A. Hepburn, a former Los Angeles policeman, faces possible rejection in the Senate.

And outspoken board member Thomas J. Giaquinto, who was criticized by a judge for making disrespectful comments to prisoners, Friday confirmed that he will resign.

Giaquinto, a retired San Diego Police Department lieutenant appointed by former Gov. Pete Wilson in 1993 and reappointed in 1997, has eight months remaining in his term. He is the board’s senior member.

The exit of Giaquinto and the potential departure of Hepburn create the third and possibly fourth vacancy on the controversial nine-member board. They also exacerbate a critical backlog of more than 1,300 parole hearing cases.

A study released in March by the independent state inspector general estimated that at the board’s current pace it would take eight years to eliminate the backlog, which then totaled 1,050.

Giaquinto informed Davis on Friday that for “personal reasons” he will resign the $95,859-a-year post and start retirement Aug. 9, the governor’s office said. Other sources said he was asked to step down about two weeks ago.

“We told him we want him off the board,” said a high-ranking official who asked not to be identified. “He continues to say inappropriate things [to prisoners].”

In a telephone interview, Giaquinto, 57, insisted that no one had urged him to quit. “I’m just burned out. Nobody asked me to retire. Due to health considerations, my physician advised me to resign.”

He said, however, that pressures of the job may have taken their toll. “I was a police officer for 24 years. The things I used to get commendations for, well, sometimes people are critical of now,” he said.

The panel, formally called the Board of Prison Terms, is charged with evaluating prisoners whose life sentences make them eligible for parole.

Under the law, these inmates--mostly those convicted of murder and kidnapping--may be granted a release date if they have served a minimum term and no longer pose an unreasonable danger to the public.

Over the last decade, the board has been dominated by law and order appointees who have been miserly about freeing murderers and other lifers.

But under Davis, who is empowered to overturn grants of parole, no one convicted of murder has been set free, even if he or she has met model prisoner standards.

In a 1999 interview, Davis told The Times that no murderer would be released on his watch. “If you take someone else’s life, forget it,” he said.

Davis has never approved parole for any murderer sent to him for review. Instead, he reversed the grant of parole or sent it back to the board for reconsideration.

Critics argue that the governor’s pledge represents an unlawful blanket policy against granting parole. But Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean insists that the governor examines each case individually.

Giaquinto has been a frequent target of critics who complain, among other things, that the board has been unlawfully stingy in granting release dates to qualified inmates.

The critics include Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathryne Anne Stoltz, who last year said Giaquinto displayed bias toward inmate Robert Rosenkrantz, treating him in a “demeaning” and “unprofessional” manner.

A transcript of the hearing showed that Giaquinto repeatedly referred to Rosenkrantz as “pal” and was angry that legislators had written letters supporting his release.

The judge also ordered that Giaquinto be prohibited from again sitting in judgment of Rosenkrantz, convicted of second-degree murder for the 1985 killing of a Calabasas high school acquaintance who outed him as a homosexual.

Giaquinto said Friday he meant no disrespect to Rosenkrantz, but used the word pal “in the nicest way possible from my heart” to “give him guidance that he was a pretty good programming prisoner.”

Gary Diamond, an attorney who has represented hundreds of lifers before the board, said the resignation of Giaquinto “bodes well for the fairness factor.”

“I never felt that his temperament was appropriate for the type of work that had to be done on the Board of Prison Terms,” Diamond said. “There’s a difference between being tough and abusive.”

Rowan Klein, an attorney for Rosenkrantz, said he hoped Davis will fill Giaquinto’s slot with “someone who will follow the spirit and the letter of the law, and not come into any hearing with any bias or prejudice.”

The case of Rosenkrantz, 33, a model prisoner, has been the flash point for an unprecedented convergence of executive, judicial and legislative forces in California.

Rosenkrantz was found suitable by the board for parole in 1996, an action that was reversed by an internal review. He also was denied release at subsequent hearings of the board.

In 1998, he sued, and a year later the board was ordered by Judge Stoltz to set a release date. Last April, the ruling was upheld by the state 2nd District Court of Appeal, which warned board members that they would be held in contempt if they disobeyed.

A defiant board two weeks ago begrudgingly agreed to set a parole date. Davis will review it, as he did once before when he reversed Rosenkrantz’s release.

Attorneys who represent lifers at board hearings characterize Chairman Hepburn as a tough but fair commissioner who has been known to set parole dates.

Senate President Pro Tem John L. Burton (D-San Francisco) said he, too, has heard good things about Hepburn. But he said he remains troubled over the board’s conduct and the declining number of inmates found suitable for parole.

“We’re not talking about Charlie Manson getting out; we’re talking about people who have done their time, who are not a danger. The board’s job is to set release dates, and if they’re not doing that, then we don’t need them,” Burton said.

Burton, who last spring sank Davis’ reappointment of Republican Jim Nielsen as board chairman by refusing to set a confirmation hearing, has been pressing for changes in board procedures and policies. He declined to say whether Hepburn’s confirmation is in jeopardy.

However, Hepburn, a Davis appointee who has served almost one year without confirmation, must be approved by the Senate by Aug. 8 or leave office. The Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Burton, so far has scheduled no confirmation hearing.

But Youth and Correctional Agency Secretary Robert B. Presley, a retired senator and Davis’ point man trying to win confirmation of Hepburn, said he hopes Hepburn will be approved but “not a lot of progress has been made.”

“We are cooperating where we can with the Senate Rules Committee,” Presley said, noting that the turmoil can be disruptive to the smooth administration of paroles.

“It just keeps Hepburn off balance. He doesn’t know if he is going to be here a month from now or two months from now or not. What we don’t need is a turnover of chairmen,” Presley said.