2 in D.A. Race May Have to Drop Murder Cases

Retiring Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury plans to remove the prosecutors running for his seat next year from four pending murder cases, concerned that campaigning could interfere with upcoming trials and court hearings.

Candidates Greg Totten and Ron Bamieh expressed disappointment at the prospect of being removed from cases they have spent years getting ready for trial.

And Bamieh lashed out at his boss, who is helping run Totten’s campaign, suggesting Bradbury was punishing him for running against Totten.

“I am a trial attorney--that’s what I do,” Bamieh said. “I’m not a calendar deputy. I’m not a paper pusher.”

But Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes, who supervises the major crimes unit, said no one was trying to punish Bamieh.

Holmes said the same procedure was followed in 1978, when the last contested race for district attorney in Ventura County was held.

He said Totten and Bamieh have death-penalty murder cases scheduled to go to trial before the March 5 primary, and that Bradbury felt it was in the best interest of those cases for other deputies to take over.

“It is the proper thing to do,” Holmes said. “Our cases are more important than we are.”

On Wednesday, Bradbury sent a memo to both candidates.

“In order to avoid any suggestion this process might negatively impact those cases, it is my intention to reassign your homicide cases to other prosecutors,” the memo reads. “Unless either of you has a reason you would like to bring to my attention why this decision would not be in the best interest of these cases, the reassignment will be made next week.”

Totten, the chief assistant district attorney, is currently lead counsel in a case against Michael Schultz, 32, who is accused of raping and strangling Cynthia Burger, 44, in her Port Hueneme home in 1993. Schultz could face the death penalty if convicted. A trial date is set for Nov. 15.

Totten said he has spent years working the case and would be disappointed if he did not take it to trial.

“I want to stay on it,” Totten said this week. “But I was told by the district attorney he doesn’t believe deputy D.A.s should handle cases while campaigning.”

Bamieh, a senior deputy district attorney, is assigned to three murder cases.

He is prosecuting David Ziesmer, a 28-year-old skinhead gang member who could face the death penalty if convicted of beating 17-year-old Nichole Hendrix of Ventura to death in October 1998.

Bamieh also is prosecuting Ziesmer’s alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Bridget Callahan. Both are to stand trial in February.

“There’s no one in the office who knows more about skinheads,” Bamieh said Thursday. “It just bothers the hell out of me that I won’t be able to finish the job I started.”

Bamieh also is prosecuting 32-year-old Richard Geise of Ojai in the fatal shooting of a grocery clerk at Central Market in Ventura in April. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 5.

Tentatively, Totten would continue his job as an administrator. Holmes acknowledged that supervisors did discuss moving Bamieh to a calendar assignment, which involves setting felony cases for trial.

But he stressed that Bradbury’s decision is not final.