August
31,
2001

A report on where
things
stand



CJP Orders Couwenberg Off Bench...Superior Court Judges Perez, Charvat Slate Retirements...Bill on Pro Bono Efforts by Law Firms Working for State Advances



Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny


Patrick Couwenberg
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

The Commission on Judicial Performance ordered on Aug. 15 that Couwenberg, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge since 1997, be removed from the bench. The ruling is final unless review is granted in the discretion of the Supreme Court, and Couwenberg is barred from sitting pending action by the high court.


COUWENBERG

The commission found that Couwenberg misrepresented his educational and military backgrounds to various sources, including the governor who appointed him and the commission itself.

Couwenberg's lawyers said the judge deserved an opportunity to remain in office. They argued that his statements were not malicious, but were the product of a psychological impairment, and presented testimony before a panel of special masters from both prosecutors and defense attorneys attesting to the judge's fairness and competence.

Couwenberg admitted that he falsely claimed to hold a master's degree in psychology and made false claims of military experience, including an award of a Purple Heart, in Vietnam.

The commission found that he also lied to the CJP staff, in sworn testimony, by claiming to have participated in covert operations with the CIA in Southeast Asia in 1967 and 1968. Couwenberg testified that those claims are true, although he no longer maintains he was with the CIA and says he doesn't know what agency he was working for.

A CIA official testified that Couwenberg wasn't working for that agency and that it's highly unlikely that any other agency would have recruited Couwenberg for operations in Laos because no such missions were authorized.

Couwenberg claimed that some of his misstatements were intended to be humorous. Other statements, he claimed, were typed onto official forms by his wife, based on statements he had made to her 20 years earlier, a claim the commission found lacking in credibility.

A psychiatrist testified that the judge suffers from "pseudologica fantastica," a symptom of low self-esteem rooted in the judge's early childhood in what is now Indonesia followed by difficult relocations, first to Holland and then to the United States.

The doctor said that the condition causes Couwenberg to mix fact and fantasy, but that it is treatable with therapy and doesn't render him unfit for judicial service.

The commission, however, largely agreed with a psychiatrist called by commission lawyers at the masters' hearing. Psychological testing data, Dr. James Rosenberg said, doesn't show that the judge's "repetitive lying" as an adult is due to childhood trauma, nor that he suffers from any recognized mental illness.

 


James Simpson
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Simpson, who became a Glendale Municipal Court judge in 1994 and joined the Superior Court through unification last year, has applied for disability retirement.


SIMPSON

Simpson has been under preliminary investigation by the Commission on Judicial Performance, and the investigation is apparently still open.

The investigation centers on charges that Simpson attempted to influence court commissioners in their handling of traffic cases involving friends of the judge.

The judge, who is currently on extended medical leave, is also accused of bringing his dog into court at the conclusion of jury trials and introducing him as the "low-budget bailiff."

Other allegations are that Simpson discussed personal business on the telephone while court was in session, and that he stood in his chambers bathroom "urinating with the door wide open" after giving his court clerk permission to enter.


Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments



Ninth Circuit

President Bush on June 22 nominated Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl and Hawaii attorney and Republican activist Richard R. Clifton to the Ninth Circuit.

The nominations were returned to the president on Aug. 3 when a disagreement over other nominees resulted in the Senate returning all pending nominations. Senate rules require that all pending nominations be returned to the president prior to a recess absent unanimous consent, but Bush is expected to resubmit all of them.

Kuhl, 48, is a six-year veteran of the Superior Court bench. She previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith, and worked in the office of the solicitor general during the Reagan administration.

There are three vacancies on the 28-judge court. Judge James Browning took senior status Sept. 1 of last year. Previous vacancies resulted when Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall took senior status Aug. 31, 1997 and when the late Judge Charles E. Wiggins took senior status Dec. 31, 1996.

President Clinton's nominees for the Hall and Wiggins seats, attorneys Joseph Duffy Jr. of Honolulu and Barry Goode of San Francisco, never received confirmation hearings.

 
Central District of California

Judge J. Spencer Letts took senior status Dec. 19, creating a fifth vacancy.

Earlier vacancies resulted from the elevation of Judge Richard Paez to the Ninth Circuit in March of last year, Judge William Keller's taking senior status Oct. 29, 1999, and the retirement of Judge John Davies and Judge Kim Wardlaw's elevation to the Ninth Circuit, both of which occurred in July 1998.

A procedure for naming successors was announced by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Judiciary Advisory Committee chair Gerald Parsky.

Parsky, an attorney and investment banker, was President Bush's state campaign chair. The committee will have four subcommittees, one for each district.

Under an agreement between the White House and the two Democratic senators, three members of each subcommittee were chosen by Parsky and three by the two senators. The subcommittee, by majority vote, will recommend three to five people for each vacancy, and Parsky will review the choices and advise the president.

The Central District subcommittee is chaired by retired Presiding Court of Appeal Justice Elwood Lui, chosen by Parsky. The other Parsky selections are attorneys Thomas Malcolm of Irvine and Robert Bonner of Los Angeles, while Boxer picked Burlingame attorney Joseph Cotchett, Feinstein chose Los Angeles litigator Holly Fujie, and the two senators jointly chose Santa Ana trial lawyer Wiley Aitken.



Stanley Mosk, the longest-serving California Supreme Court justice in history, died June 19 at age 88.

Gov. Davis has asked the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation for its views on four prospective appointees to the seat-U.S. District Judge Carlos Moreno, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis Perluss, and Court of Appeal Justices Stephen Perren of this district's Ventura-based Div. Six and Dennis Cornell of the Fifth District in Fresno.


First District

Presiding Justice Gary Strankman retired from Div. One July 31.

Presiding Justice Daniel Hanlon retired from Div. Four Dec. 31.

Justice Herbert W. Walker retired from Div. Three at the end of March.

Div. Five also has a vacancy, a new position as a result of Senate Bill 1857, which took effect Jan. 1.

This District (Second District)

Justice Ramona Godoy Perez of Div. Five died June 6.

Justice Richard Neal retired from Div. Seven Feb. 9.

All four seats in Div. Eight, created by SB 1857, are vacant.

Third District

There is one vacancy, a new position created by SB 1857.

Fourth District

There are four vacancies-one in Div. One, one in Div. Two, and two in Div. Three-in new positions created by SB 1857. There is a second vacancy in Div. One as a result of the May 16 death of Justice Don Work, but an Oct. 3 confirmation hearing has been set for San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell, nominated by the governor on Aug. 29 for Work's seat.

There is a third vacancy in Div. Three resulting from the June 1 retirement of Justice Thomas Crosby.

Fifth District

There is one vacancy, a newly created position under SB 1857.

Sixth District

There is one vacancy, a newly created position under SB 1857.

Presiding Justice Christopher Cottle is retiring today.


Los Angeles County

Judge Kurt J. Lewin retired this month, bringing the number of vacancies to 20, not counting the seat of Judge Patrick Couwenberg. The Commission on Judicial Performance's Aug. 15 removal order bars Couwenberg from sitting, but his seat cannot be filled while possible state Supreme Court review is pending.

Judge Stephen O'Neill died July 10 and Judge Ronald Cappai July 17.

Four judges retired in May-Paul Metzler on May 1, Richard Kalustian May 8, Arnold Gold May 21, and Kenneth Chotiner May 31.

Judge Patrick Murphy resigned May 4.

Two judges retired earlier this year-Thomas Schneider on Feb. 6 and Harvey Schneider April 16.

Seven judges retired last year and have not yet been replaced-Roy Carstairs July 24, George Schiavelli July 31, Donald Pitts Aug. 31, Glennette Blackwell Sept. 30. Richard Berry and Thomas P. Allen Oct. 1, and William McVittie Dec. 4. Kathryn Doi Todd and Robert Mallano were elevated to the Court of Appeal on Aug. 18 of last year.

There is also a newly created position under SB 1857. Judge David Perez is retiring Oct. 5.

Judge Richard Charvat is retiring Oct. 23.

The court is temporarily without the services of Judge Thomas Willhite, assigned to the Court of Appeal's Div. Five through Sept. 30, and Judge Laura Matz, assigned to Div. Two through Oct. 31.

There are four commissioner vacancies as a result of Norman Tarle and Allen Webster Jr. receiving judicial posts in April, Ulysses Burns retiring June 4 and Anthony Luna retiring July 5.




Bills Affecting the Legal Community


The following bills were acted upon in August, or in the closing days of July:

•AB 145, by Assemblyman Robert Pacheco, R-Los Angeles, which would authorize the courts to accept credit card payments for the deposit of bail for any offense not declared a felony or for any court-ordered fee or fine. The bill was signed into law by the governor July 28.

•AB 732, by Assemblyman Howard Wayne, D-San Diego, which would provide that statutes pertaining to the recovery of attorney fees following the rejection of a settlement offer do not apply to any enforcement action brought by the attorney general, district attorneys or city attorneys. The bill was signed by the governor Aug. 6.

•AB 830, by Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, D-Saratoga, which would require the state Department of Aging to create a task force to study whether the state should establish a statewide telephone hotline for seniors who need legal advice. The bill was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 10-0 vote Aug. 23, was amended Aug. 27 to increase the proposed task force's budget from $50,000 to $100,000, and was sent to the Senate floor.

•AB 913, by Steinberg, which would require that any contract with the state for legal services which exceeds $50,000 must certify that the contracting law firm agrees to make a good faith effort to provide a minimum amount of pro bono services per year, using a formula based on the number of attorneys in the contracted firm. With amendments to clarify the definition of "good faith effort," the bill as approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 5-0 vote Aug. 23, and was sent to the Senate floor.

•SB 475, by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Montebello, which would require the Judicial Council to collect information on the use of referees in discovery matters, whether the referees were appointed upon agreement of the parties or without their consent. The bill passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 9-1 vote Aug. 22, and was sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee after undergoing amendments Aug. 27.

•SB 479, by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, which would require the State Bar to administer a diversion program to facilitate treatment and recovery of lawyers due to abuse of drugs or alcohol, or due to mental illness. The bill would authorize the State Bar to increase its annual fees $10 per lawyer to cover the costs of the program. The bill was signed by the governor July 30.



 

 

 


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