End of the Month

Governor Fills Two Court of Appeal Vacancies in This District and Places Seven on Los Angeles Superior Court…James Rogan to Become Pro Tem on Court of Appeal…Mark Bennett Gets Ninth Circuit Nomination

Judicial Elections

The primary election will be held June 5.
Two Los Angeles Superior Court judges drew challenges: Malcolm Mackey, a judge since 1979 (on the Los Angeles Municipal Court and since 1989 on the Superior Court) and Kristin S. Escalante, appointed Dec. 22. Mackey’s opponent is Woodland Hills attorney Anthony Lewis. Escalante’s challenger, state Administrative Law Judge Klint James McKay has said he will not file his nominating petition.
There are 10 open seats on the ballot. Some candidates have taken out papers for more than one seat, but will have to make a selection by March 9 when nominating papers are due. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. DeJute took out papers for two seats, but has decided to run for neither. Below are candidates and the seats for which they have taken out papers, with omissions where a candidate has filed for multiple seats but has indicated which seat he or she will seek.
Office No. 4: Deputy District Attorney Alfred A. Coletta, Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney Matthew Schonbrun, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Veronica Sauceda.
Office No. 16: Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney Patricia (Patti) Hunter, Redondo Beach/Hermosa Beach Senior Deputy City Prosecutor Sydne Jane Michel, Deputy District Attorney Hubert S. Yun.
Office No. 20: Deputy District Attorneys Mary Ann Escalante and Wendy E. Segall.
Office No. 60: Deputy District Attorneys Tony J. Cho and Ben Colella and Deputy Public Defender Holly L. Hancock.
Office No. 67: Former Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Onica Valle Cole, Deputy District Attorney Dennis P. Vincent. State Bar Court Judge Maria Lucy Armendariz, and private practitioner Michael P. Ribons.
Office No. 71: Superior Court Commissioner Danielle R. A. Gibbons and Deputy District Attorney David Berger.
Office No. 113: Deputy District Attorneys Javier Perez and Steven Schreiner; Schonbrun and Ribons.
Office No. 118: Deputy District Attorney Troy Davis, criminal defense attorney David D. Diamond, and Michel.
Office No. 126: Senior Deputy Los Angeles County Counsel Rene Caldwell Gilbertson, private practitioner Shlomo Frieman. Deputy District Attorney Ken Fuller.
Office No. 146: Deputy District Attorney Emily Theresa Spear, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Armando Durón, and Diamond and Michel.

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Philip Layfield
Suspended Attorney

The State Bar Office of Chief Trial Counsel filed disciplinary charges against Layfield on Sept. 20 alleging that the attorney misappropriated more than $3.4 million from his clients, and a trial was set for Jan. 24. Layfield did not show up.
He was notified by mail, sent both to an address in Florida and Utah:
“Because you failed in appear at trial, the court has entered your default and deemed the facts alleged in the notice of disciplinary charges admitted. Except as ordered by the court, you may participate in these proceedings only if the court sets aside your default. If you fail to timely move to set aside your default, this court “ill enter an order recommending your disbarment without further hearing or proceeding.”
Layfield acknowledges moving funds from the attorney-client trust account to his erstwhile firm’s general fund, but insists he thought there was enough money in the coffers to cover the clients’ shares of settlements. He ascribes blame to others, including the State Bar’s prosecutor.

Delia M. Metoyer
Deputy Public Defender

She is contesting discipline imposed on Sept. 15 based on client abandonment, failure to obey a court order, and failing to report a sanction imposed on her. Oral argument is scheduled for April 11.
Metoyer was placed on probation for one year and ordered suspended from law practice for one month.
She became emotionally upset when, after announcing ready in a case on Jan, 15, 2015, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hunter declined to release her to go to a previously unmentioned doctor’s appointment the next day. The judge let her use the private bathroom in her chambers to compose herself but Metoyer fled, with the judge, the prosecutor, three witnesses and her client waiting in the courtroom and prospective jurors in the hallway.
A supervisor in the Public Defender’s Office eventually contacted the judge and secured her agreement to allow Metoyer to take the following morning off to have an MRI, but Hunter ordered that Metoyer return to the courtroom immediately. She refused to go there, and another lawyer was sent.
On April 10, 2015, Hunter imposed sanctions on Metoyer in the amount of $1,500. Metoyer did not abide by the statutory obligation to report to the State Bar any sanction of $1,000 or more.
The county paid the sanction, as well as the costs of an appeal to the Court of Appeal, which failed, and paid her attorney fees in the State Bar proceeding.

Carmen Trutanich
Former Los Angeles City Attorney

Proceedings in the disciplinary matter of Los Angeles’s former city attorney have started and stopped repeatedly, with one trial continuance after another. A pretrial conference had been scheduled for March 12, but the proceeding has been stayed and a status conference is set for Sept. 24.
Trutanich, as the deputy district attorney prosecuting a capital murder case in 1985 and 1986, put on a witness who testified that she witnessed defendant fatally shooting a victim from a van. The witness said she was in a station wagon being driven by one Jean Rivers.
The Office of Chief Trial Counsel is alleging that Trutanich “knew, or was grossly negligent in not knowing” that the testimony was false insofar as the identity of the driver, whose actual name was Arlene McKay. In failing to divulge the driver’s true identity, as well as her home address, Trutanich breached his constitutional obligation of making disclosures to the defense of potentially exculpatory evidence, as required by Brady v. Maryland (1963) 373 U.S. 83, it is asserted.
The initial notice of charges was dated Feb. 9. An amended notice was filed July 10.
The current charges are that Trutanich:
•By committing a Brady violation, ran afoul of Business and Professions Code §6068(a) (duty to “support the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state”).
•Suppressed evidence “in willful violation of Rules of Professional Conduct, rule 5-220.”
•Committed “an act(s) of moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption in willful violation of Business and Professions Code, section 6106.”
•By “intentionally or with gross negligence” failing to correct the testimony, “committed an act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption in willful violation of Business and Professions Code §6106.”
Trutanich—who served as city attorney from 2009-13 and is now at Tucker Ellis LLP in Los Angeles—is also charged with allowing a police detective to testify falsely at a pretrial hearing in the same murder case. Trutanich has repeatedly denied the charges.
He is represented by ethics lawyer David C. Carr of San Diego. The Office of Chief Trial Counsel has three lawyers assigned to the case: Senior Trial Counsel Eli D. Morgenstern, co-counsel Edward O. Lear and deputy co-counsel Caitlin Marie Elen.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There are five vacancies on the 29-judge court.
Judge Alex Kozinski retired Dec. 18 in light of sexual misconduct allegations uncovered by the Washington Post and following Chief Justice John Roberts’ assignment of the task of investigating the charges to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge Harry Pregerson took senior status Dec. 11, 2015 (and died Nov. 25 of respiratory disease, at the age of 94).
Judge Barry Silverman took senior status Oct. 11, 2016; and Judges Richard Clifton and Diarmuid O’Scannlain took senior status Dec. 31 of that year.
There are two nominees. Ryan Wesley Bounds, assistant United States attorney for the District of Oregon, was nominated Sept. 7 to assume the seat vacated by O’Scannlain, and Mark J. Bennett, former attorney general of Hawaii was picked Feb. 15 to replace Clifton.
There are two upcoming vacancies. Judge Richard C. Tallman is set to assume senior status on Friday and Judge N. Randy Smith is scheduled to do the same Aug. 11.

There are six vacancies. Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell died Oct. 8 at the age of 52. Judge Audrey B. Collins resigned Aug. 1, 2014 to join the state Court of Appeal; Judge Margaret Morrow took senior status Oct. 29, 2015 and subsequently left the bench to become president and chief executive of Public Counsel; Judge Dean Pregerson (son of the late Judge Harry Pregerson) took senior status Jan. 28 of last year; Judge Christina A. Snyder took senior status Nov. 23 of last year; and Judge George H. King retired Jan. 6.
There are no nominees to replace them.

Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar retired Aug. 31. No replacement has been named.

Second District

Div. One: There was a vacancy created by the elevation of Justice Elwood Lui to the post of presiding justice of Div. Two. It was filled yesterday with appointment of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Helen Bendix. It is subject to confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments comprised of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and the district’s senior presiding justice, Arthur Gilbert of Div. Six.
Div. Five: Presiding Justice Paul A. Turner of Div. Five died May 18. Yesterday’s appointment of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl H. Moor to the post of an associate justice in the division fills a vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Richard Mosk, who left the court March 30, 2016 (and died 18 days later). It is subject to confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments.
Div. Seven: No nomination has been made to fill the vacancy due to the retirement of Justice Fred Woods on March 31, 2015.
Divs. Two, Div. Three, Four, Six, Eight: There is no vacancy. Assigned to the Court of Appeal as pro tems, starting tomorrow, are Orange Superior Court Judge James Rogan and Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Laura A. Matz. The assignment of retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman to Div. Two ends today, and tomorrow a new assignment commences on Div. Three. Rogan, a former Glendale Municipal Court judge and former Assembly minority leader, was the member of the House of Representatives primarily responsible for gaining the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
Continuing their stints as pro tems are Bendix, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning and Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Brian S. Currey, Halim Dhanidina, Gail Ruderman Feuer, Henry J. Hall, Dorothy C. Kim, and Anthony J. Mohr.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

The court has seven fewer vacancies, with yesterday’s appointments. (See story on Page One.)
Attorneys for public agencies gaining judgeships were Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney Michael R. Amerian, Deputy Los Angeles District Attorneys Armenui A. Ashvanian and Danette J. Gomez, Deputy Federal Public Defender Ashfaq “Ron” G. Chowdhury of the Central District of California, and Kimberley Baker Guillemet, director of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Reentry.
Private attorneys who were appointed are Joseph M. Lipner, a partner at Irell and Manella LLP, and Audra M. Mori, managing partner of the Los Angeles Office of Perkins Coie LLP. Jerry B. Marshak was elected by the judges of the court on Jan. 31 as a commissioner, and he took the oath Feb 16.
Judge Ross Klein died Feb. 6.