Ex-Compton Mayor Awarded $678,572

A judge Tuesday awarded former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley $678,572 in legal fees. But in the next breath, she postponed payment of the award until it is reviewed by a higher court--the same court that blocked her earlier decision declaring Bradley mayor.

Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin ruled in Bradley’s favor in a contested election last June, but did not at the time order the city to pay his legal fees.

“I want to make sure that this order sends a clear message to the Court of Appeal that I’m making a determination that Bradley was the successful party,” Chirlin said, explaining her ruling to a host of attorneys. “But I don’t want [the award] paid until the appeals court has had an opportunity to review and rule on the merits of the case.”

Though the ruling clarified Chirlin’s position on who should pay Bradley’s legal bills, it further clouds the ultimate outcome of an election contest now in its eighth month.

Bradley, a two-term incumbent, was outpolled by Eric Perrodin in June, but contested the election. Chirlin reversed Bradley’s loss in February, citing ballot irregularities and other problems.

Days later, the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal stayed Chirlin’s ruling and reinstated Perrodin, pending a final outcome of the case.

Within hours of that stay, the Compton City Council, which has three members aligned with Bradley, voted to reimburse Bradley for nearly $1 million in legal fees.

The council’s vote sparked a lawsuit by a Compton resident, Margaret Mitchell, seeking to block payment of those fees.

That suit prompted Tuesday’s hearing in downtown Superior Court, where Mitchell’s attorney appeared before Chirlin, along with lawyers for Bradley, Perrodin, Councilwoman Melanie Andrews and the city of Compton, each seeking a ruling tailored to their client’s interests.

Frederic Woocher, Perrodin’s attorney, asked Chirlin not to award any fees before a final ruling from the appeals court on whether Perrodin or Bradley is mayor.

“The City Council is champing at the bit to pay the money [to Bradley],” Woocher said. “The fix is in.”

Bradley Hertz, Omar Bradley’s attorney, sought an outright award of the fees he incurred trying to reclaim the mayor’s office, mentioning “private school bills” among other reasons. He also urged Chirlin to exclude Mitchell’s attorney from intervening in the appellate process.

“I don’t think Margaret Mitchell as a private citizen has standing to intervene,” he said. “They don’t have a seat at the table.” The judge declined his request.

The increasingly convoluted case has even election-law specialists scratching their heads; at one point the opposing attorneys huddled to try to interpret a section of the state’s elections code.

Woocher called the case “tremendously complicated.”

“You’ve got a city here that is not defending itself against charges because new people have taken over and switched positions, and you have a court of appeal that has told the trial court judge she may have been wrong, and yet she’s still making rulings,” he said.

Councilwoman Andrews, who supports paying Bradley’s legal bills, forcefully denied that the “fix was in” to pay Bradley’s fees. She said that under normal circumstances, the City Council would approve--and the city attorney then review--such payments.

But in this case, Andrews said, the city attorney never got that chance because of the legal wrangling between Perrodin and Bradley.

If the usual process had been followed, she told the judge, the city attorney might have recommended paying Bradley’s attorney less than he stands to gain now.

Andrews also noted that Compton had spent more than $1 million defending Perrodin against Bradley’s election challenge.

If people found fault with spending public money to defend Bradley, they should also object to spending public funds on Perrodin, she argued, with a reference to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”

“It appears that all pigs are equal,” she said. “But some are more equal than others.”

Involved attorneys estimate the appellate court will hear the case in three to four months.