Judge Tosses Out Indictment From 2000 Grand Jury

A Santa Barbara judge has thrown out the indictment of an accused murderer after ruling that the 2000-2001 Ventura County Grand Jury was too male-dominated and not reflective of the county’s population.

The decision could affect three other murder indictments handed down by the same grand jury and a drug-and-racketeering indictment against local Hells Angels members and their associates.

The ruling comes from a Santa Barbara County judge because Ventura County’s 24 judges hand pick the grand jury. Attorneys said they hope the decision will result in an overhaul of that selection process, viewed by some as antiquated and unrepresentative of women and minorities.

“The ruling essentially recognized the fact that the grand jury has been predominantly old, white and male for many years and does not reflect a fair cross-section of Ventura County,” said Deputy Public Defender Brian Vogel, who brought a motion challenging the grand jury on behalf of his client, Michael Schultz.

The grand jury indicted Schultz, 32, on murder charges in October 2000. Prosecutors allege he raped and strangled Port Hueneme resident Cynthia Burger, 44, at her home in 1993. They are seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin this week. But the ruling late Friday by Superior Court Judge Frank J. Ochoa effectively kicks the case back to the arraignment stage.

On Monday, Ventura County prosecutors said they would not appeal Ochoa’s ruling but will proceed to a preliminary hearing for Schultz. The hearing is set for Feb. 14.

“Without conceding that the decision from the Santa Barbara court was factually and legally correct, we have decided not to seek review of Judge Ochoa’s decision,” Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said in a prepared statement.

“We have previously alerted both the Board of Supervisors and the Superior Court of our concerns over the method of impaneling the grand jury,” he said. “We will work with the board and the court to revise the grand jury process in future criminal indictment proceedings.”

In Ventura County, volunteers apply to serve on the grand jury and are selected by county judges for a one-year term.

Only 49 people applied to serve on the 19-member Ventura County Grand Jury in 2000. Of those, 38 were white and 13 were female.

In a 30-page ruling, Ochoa concluded that the grand jury pool did not represent a fair cross-section of the community as required by state and federal law.

Specifically, he found that while women constituted 51.1% of the county’s jury-eligible population, they represented only 26.5% of the grand jury pool. And Ochoa found the disparity was not uncommon.

“The disparate representation of women in Ventura’s grand jury pool was consistent throughout a five-year period,” Ochoa wrote. “From 1995 to 2000, there were a total of 333 grand jury pool members in Ventura. Only 99 of 333 were women.”

Ochoa found there was no intentional discrimination. He cited the jury commissioner’s testimony from a December hearing about efforts made to get a more representative jury pool, including soliciting names from women’s and Latino organizations.

But he found the grand jury selection system “defective” nonetheless and ordered Schultz’s indictment set aside.

“Although this exclusion was not purposeful,” he wrote, “it was the result of an improper feature of the jury-selection process.”

In addition to Schultz, the 2000-2001 grand jury indicted skinhead gang members David Ziesmer and Michael Bridgeford, and their friend, Bridget Callahan, on murder charges for allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old Ventura girl to death in October 1998. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the two men.

The same grand jury also indicted Hells Angels leader George Christie Jr. and nine Hells Angels members and associates whose cases are pending in Ventura County Superior Court.

Westlake Village defense attorney Richard Loftus, who represents Ziesmer and one of the indicted Hells Angels members, said he intends to review Ochoa’s ruling and decide how to proceed.

Times staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this story.