Deals Shift Justice Into High Gear

Justice moves swiftly in Judge David Horwitz’s courtroom. Under the fluorescent lights, amid the wood paneling, cases are negotiated, deals made and guilty pleas taken en masse.

Defense attorneys know that in Division 50, the “early-disposition” courtroom of downtown Los Angeles, prosecutors make the best offers and the judge hands out the lightest sentences. But to get a deal, a defendant must plead guilty before his attorney has had a chance to thoroughly evaluate the evidence.

Early disposition--more commonly known as plea bargaining--is a fixture of the criminal justice system. Without it, Los Angeles County courts would grind to a halt, overburdened by the expense and time needed to try every case.

But now there is a renewed push to increase the number of early plea agreements around the county as the Superior Court tries to close a $57-million deficit. Court officials want to set aside more courtrooms like Division 50, devoted entirely to settling cases shortly after the initial arraignment.

Supervising Criminal Judge Dan Oki met last week with prosecutors and defense to begin setting uniform guidelines so more cases will be resolved swiftly. “If we’re able to resolve cases earlier and quicker, it has extreme benefits for the county,” Oki said.

Early dispositions--common in cases of drug possession, forgery, burglary and welfare fraud--ease courtroom congestion, reduce the jail population and save time and money. They also allow lawyers to focus on trying more serious, violent cases.

One case that recently was settled successfully in Division 50 was that of a defendant who had faced three years in state prison on a grand theft charge for stealing $200,000 from his girlfriend. In the plea deal, the defendant received five years’ probation and 1,000 hours of service for Caltrans. His girlfriend recovered about $78,000 of what had been stolen, and he was ordered to repay the remaining balance.

Reluctance to Settle

Yet as the dust from the Rampart corruption scandal continues to settle, the push for plea bargains raises concerns about defendants who plead guilty early to avoid the risk of harsh sentences later. And a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that requires defendants to give up their right to certain information if they don’t go to trial has made defense attorneys more reluctant to settle cases early.

At the same time, plea bargaining can be controversial among victims’ rights advocates. They sometimes accuse prosecutors of offering lenient plea bargains to felons, including potential third-strikers and defendants charged with violent crimes. Because roughly 96% of cases in Los Angeles County are settled before trial, the majority of felons receive lighter sentences than the maximum allowed under the law. Often, that means defendants who agree to plead guilty early are placed on probation instead of behind bars.

State law prohibits plea bargaining in serious felonies, such as murder, attempted murder, rape or kidnapping. But the law allows for exceptions if there isn’t enough evidence to prove a case, if the sentence would not be substantially different or if testimony of a key witness is not secure.

The case of Armando Garcia, a Catholic school math teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing seven boys, was handled through the downtown early-disposition court. Though Garcia faced the possibility of life in state prison, the district attorney’s office offered him a deal of one year in county jail. Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Katz said at the time a trial would have been risky because some of the victims were “extremely uncomfortable” about testifying.

Horwitz sentenced Garcia to county jail, ordered him to register as a sex offender and allowed him two weeks to surrender. When that date came, Garcia didn’t show up in court and the judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Police are still looking for him.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office filed 56,405 felony complaints and secured indictments of 39 defendants last year. With only 275 criminal courtrooms in the county, attorneys and judges have to decide which cases to negotiate and which to try. Only 2,206 defendants had jury trials last year.

About 80% of the cases settled downtown in 2001 were not resolved until the preliminary hearing stage, when a judge determines after a mini-trial whether there is enough evidence for the accused to be tried. At that point, police officers have already issued subpoenas to witnesses, attorneys have prepared their cases, and defendants have spent weeks--or months--behind bars.

“That’s a huge expense and inconvenience for law enforcement,” Oki said.

Among the biggest supporters of early plea deals is the sheriff’s department. If more cases move through the system quickly, fewer sheriff’s deputies will have to testify and fewer defendants will have to be housed in jail and transported to court.

“We have a very vested interest in this,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Rich Martinez.

Defense attorneys stress that they will agree to an early plea bargain only if it’s in a client’s best interests. That’s not always the case, they said, pointing to the nearly 150 criminal convictions that were overturned because Rampart Division officers had planted evidence or lied in court. Many of those defendants had said they were innocent but agreed to plea bargains for fear that jurors would not believe them.

“We’re asking people on a daily basis to give up their most precious commodity--their freedom,” said Chief Deputy Alternate Public Defender David Carleton. “We don’t ask people to give up their freedom lightly.”

In the June Supreme Court ruling, justices ruled unanimously that before the trial stage of a case, defendants are not entitled to information that could be exculpatory or could be used to impeach prosecution witnesses. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley issued a memo last month instructing his deputies to continue providing exculpatory information to defense attorneys as early as possible. But Cooley said that impeachment information should not be given to the defense until after a preliminary hearing.

Assistant Public Defender Adolfo Lara said the high court’s decision could be a “major stumbling block” to early dispositions. “If that disclosure is not made, we’re operating in the dark,” he said. “We cannot proceed.”

According to the California Rules of Court, a judge can impose a lighter sentence if the “defendant voluntarily acknowledged wrongdoing ... at an early stage of the criminal process.” But defense attorneys say they often need more time to investigate a case or to gauge the strength of the prosecutors’ evidence.

Cases sent to the early-disposition court generally are ones in which defense lawyers indicate that a plea deal is likely. Deputy Dist. Atty. Priscilla Musso reviews each case in Division 50 by analyzing the facts, contacting the victim and checking the defendant’s prior record. Then she jots down an offer for what she believes the case is worth. “But it’s all negotiable,” she said.

Defense attorneys read the offers and hammer out deals with Musso. Then, with the guidance of their attorneys, the defendants decide whether to accept a deal or take their chances at trial.

“The notion of trust is imperative,” Carleton said. “It’s extremely difficult to walk into a lockup and say, ‘Hi. I’m your attorney. Do you want to plead guilty today?’ ”

Earlier this month, Musso sat down to discuss a case with Deputy Alternate Public Defender Gabrielle Gopin. Her client Ronald Anderson had been charged with possession of drugs for sale and faced a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison. Musso offered three years.

A Good Deal

Gopin knew it was a good deal, because Anderson had prior convictions for burglary, forgery, grand theft and drug possession. But she asked for something better--probation and drug treatment, allowed for some offenders under a new California law.

Musso shook her head. “No, not on these facts.” Besides, he’s got a prior record “lengthy as all get-out,” she said.

Gopin nodded and took a deep breath. “OK. I didn’t think so. I’ll go back and talk to him.”

About 15 minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy led Anderson out to a bench at the side of the courtroom. He had decided to take the deal. Horwitz sentenced him and sent him on his way. Altogether, Anderson’s case was in the justice system less than a month--a quarter of the time of a typical felony case.

The key to success in early-disposition courts, Oki said, are judges and lawyers with experience and the willingness to negotiate. In July and August, Horwitz either settled or dismissed 569 cases, compared with the 40 that were resolved in the early-disposition courtroom during the same time last year.

As more cases are sent to such courtrooms around the county, prosecutors say they need to ensure that they are continuing to pursue justice, not just churning out pleas.

“This is not a sausage factory--even though it looks like one,” said Asst. Dist. Atty. John Allen. “But if we can get to a just result quickly, why don’t we?”