Still in Jail, No Bail, as the Days Go By

If district attorneys never fingered the wrong guy, I wouldn’t spend a minute stewing over Mike Goodwin’s fate. If I knew for a fact -- or if I thought the authorities knew -- that Goodwin orchestrated the murders of his former business partner Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, in 1988, I wouldn’t care how much he twisted in the legal wind. In fact, I’d enjoy it.

But they aren’t always right. We hear every few weeks, it seems, that someone somewhere has been released after years in prison because authorities had the wrong guy. Oops. Sorry, buddy.

The system isn’t perfect. It can’t be. But at least those misfires involve people who’ve had trials.

Now, imagine that you’re Mike Goodwin, charged in December 2001 with the Thompsons’ murders. Since then, he’s been in the Orange County Jail awaiting trial.

As long ago as November 2002 -- 11 months after Goodwin’s arrest -- a state appeals court expressed doubts that the Orange County district attorney’s office had the jurisdiction to charge him for crimes that occurred in Los Angeles County.

Last month, the court issued a unanimous three-justice opinion that said Orange County’s case against Goodwin should be dismissed. At the time, Goodwin had been in jail for 28 months.

He’s now been in jail for 29 months.

In layman’s terms, he’s still doing time for crimes a court says he shouldn’t have been charged with in the first place.

Why won’t the district attorney agree to let him post bail?

The reason is that Orange County believes he’s a flight risk and still hopes to see him prosecuted. Deputy Dist. Atty. James Mulgrew, who has until next week to appeal, says he hasn’t decided whether to ask the state Supreme Court to review the case.

In the meantime, Goodwin attorney Jeffrey Friedman filed another request this week to have Goodwin released on bail -- which the appeals court denied last month. Friedman argues he should be released immediately because the charges were brought by prosecutors who had no jurisdiction.

As Goodwin learned, that doesn’t mean you get out of jail.

Two legal balls remain airborne. First, the possible Supreme Court decision on reviewing the case if offered. Second, whether the Los Angeles County district attorney wants to prosecute Goodwin, something former Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti declined to do. A spokeswoman for current Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley says the office is “reviewing the case.”

Orange County opposes bail for Goodwin. “I find it incredibly arrogant,” Friedman says, “that a D.A. who never had jurisdiction to do anything in this case is now asking the court to keep [Goodwin] in custody while they decide whether they’re going to ask the Supreme Court to review it.”

Mulgrew says Goodwin is being treated like any other defendant while the appeals process unfolds. But when I ask about the fairness of keeping him in jail without bail, he understands what I’m asking: “Given the fact that a [Superior] court has ruled there’s sufficient probable cause that he committed the crimes, I’m less troubled by that,” Mulgrew says. “But I’m not going to say that I’m not sensitive to that, given the way the court of appeals viewed the [jurisdiction] issue.”

It could get worse: The Supreme Court can take 60 days to decide if it wants to hear the case. If it does, it would set a schedule that, theoretically, Friedman says, could keep Goodwin in jail for another two years, without bail, until it rules.

This is Orwellian.

I asked you to imagine you’re Mike Goodwin. This is your current scenario: You’re improperly charged with a double murder, but you’re in jail, 29 months older and still crossing off the days till who knows when.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.