Judge Is Assigned to Enforce Police Reform

A U.S. District Court judge known for being well versed in police issues was assigned Friday to oversee implementation of a wide-ranging federal consent decree on reforming the Los Angeles Police Department.

Federal Judge Gary A. Feess Jr., 52, was randomly picked to handle the decree after city and federal officials filed the 114-page document at the Spring Street courthouse shortly before 4 p.m. on Friday.

Coincidentally, Feess, who has worked on previous police reform efforts, is the judge city negotiators were hoping would be assigned to the case.

“I think Feess is a good judge,” said City Atty. James K. Hahn, who walked to the downtown federal courthouse with city and federal attorneys Friday to oversee the filing. “He’s even-handed, and he knows the issues.”

Although Feess is one of the newest members of the Los Angeles federal bench--President Bill Clinton appointed him last year--he currently oversees pretrial proceedings in all Rampart-related civil rights cases. Nearly 100 such lawsuits have been filed to date, with more expected in the coming months.

“He’s the perfect pick for this assignment,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School who worked under Feess when he headed the major fraud section in the U.S. attorney’s office.

“He’s been on the Christopher Commission, he’s an experienced judge, he’s smart, he listens well, he’s fair and he’s not intimidated.”

But other people have an opposite view of Feess. His actions in the Rampart civil litigation have been criticized by one civil rights lawyer involved.

Attorney Stephen Yagman recently questioned Feess’ dismissal of Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti as a defendant in some Rampart cases without disclosing that Feess’ wife, Deborah Kranze, is a prosecutor in Garcetti’s office.

“He is part of an entire system that has let the LAPD have its way, and he’s not tough enough to stand up to the LAPD,” Yagman said.

Feess has not responded directly to Yagman, though he subsequently issued a notice saying he would not disqualify himself because of his wife’s employment and inviting any lawyers who disagreed to file a formal motion to remove him.

A former federal prosecutor and a former Superior Court judge, Feess is intimately familiar with the workings of the Los Angeles Police Department. He served as deputy general counsel to the Christopher Commission, which investigated the department after the Rodney G. King beating.

Feess won praise from civil rights lawyers when he ordered police officials to provide access to political protesters for demonstrations outside the Democratic National Convention at Staples Center in August.

Addressing police fears of rioting and violence, Feess declared, “you can’t shut down the 1st Amendment” for fear of “what might happen.” Law enforcement agencies, he declared, must balance security concerns with free speech rights.

Dan Tokaji, an ACLU attorney who appeared before Feess in the Democratic National Convention case, said he was impressed by the judge’s “consummate fairness, his thorough analysis of the law and his willingness to hear both sides out.”

And after issuing his ruling, Tokaji said, Feess took pains to encourage both sides to compromise.

Feess also issued a novel ruling in a Rampart lawsuit, allowing the daughter of a police shooting victim to sue over allegedly being denied access to her father while he was in prison on trumped-up charges. Previously, courts granted such claims only to parents deprived of contact with their children.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who reluctantly signed the consent decree on Friday, said he was “fine” with the assignment of Feess. However, he still had reservations about the settlement.

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Riordan said.

Councilman Mike Feuer said he was eager to move ahead with implementing the decree. One of the first steps will be finding an outside monitor to oversee the reforms.

“Obviously we need to be moving quickly to select a monitor who is fair and has good knowledge of the department,” Feuer said.

The City Council voted Thursday to ratify the consent decree after months of negotiations with federal officials who alleged that the LAPD routinely engaged in a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations against suspects.

The decree includes dozens of measures aimed at overhauling the department. They range from strengthening its internal affairs union to setting up a computer tracking system to identify problem officers.

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Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this story.