End of the Month

Attorney Fine, Facing Disbarment, Moves to Set Aside Contempt Finding...Judge Stotler Takes Senior Status, Creating Third Vacancy on U.S. District Court...Former Superior Court Judge Dorn Moves to Throw Out Ethics Charges

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Mervyn H. Wolf
Encino Attorney

Wolf, a lawyer for 40 years, is scheduled for pretrial conference and trial setting on five felony embezzlement counts on Feb. 5 before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bob Bowers Jr. The case was continued from Jan. 20.

Wolf is accused of having taken settlement funds from his clients in multiple personal injury, workers' compensation, and wrongful termination cases between June 2003 and June 2004. He allegedly deposited settlement checks into his clients' trust accounts, and then embezzled the funds.

Wolf was placed on involuntary inactive status by the State Bar Court July 10 of last year and faces discipline in connection with several matters. He has had extensive contacts with the disciplinary system, having been placed on three years' probation in 1995 for misconduct in three matters, suspended 45 days in 1998 for failing to comply with a condition of the earlier probation, placed on inactive status for a month in 2002 for failure to comply with MCLE requirements, and served a month on suspension in 2004 for nonpayment of bar dues.

Richard I. Fine
Attorney

Fine, an attorney since 1973, was held in contempt of court last week by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Yaffe, who found that he refused to respond to questions at a judgment debtor examination and held himself out as entitled to practice law after being placed on involuntary inactive status by the State Bar Court.

Fine has moved to set aside the judgment of contempt; a hearing on the motion is scheduled for Feb. 24.

Fine is facing possible disbarment based on State Bar Court Hearing Judge Richard Honn's finding in November 2007 that the lawyer engaged in a concerted campaign of litigation designed to harass judicial officers who had ruled against him, in particular Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Bruce Mitchell.

On Sept. 17 of last year, the State Bar Court denied, without comment, Fine's motion to dismiss the disbarment proceedings on First Amendment grounds. Fine contends the State Bar is retaliating against him for engaging in protected speech, which bar counsel disputes, saying Fine engaged in moral turpitude by continuously relitigating issues on which he had been ruled against.

Fine has since moved to reconsider that ruling, citing, among other things, the Court of Appeal's recent ruling that payment of local judicial benefits to Los Angeles Superior Court judges is unconstitutional. He contends that since the disbarment action is based, in part, on litigation of suits in which he made the same argument, his actions in those cases cannot be considered frivolous or to constitute harassment of judicial officers whom he claimed had a conflict of interest in hearing cases in which Los Angeles County was a party, while the county was paying them benefits.

He is also suing State Bar officials in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of the portion of the State Bar Act that permits disbarment for acts of "moral turpitude" that are not criminal offenses.

Roosevelt Dorn
Former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Dorn, who served on the Inglewood Municipal Court and the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1979 until his election as mayor of Inglewood in 1997, pled not guilty on July 24 of last year, to charges of conflict of interest and misappropriation of public funds. He is alleged to have personally benefited from a loan program designed to assist city employees in purchasing and improving housing within the city.

A pretrial conference and hearing on Dorn's motion to set aside the charges has been set for Feb. 24 at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There has been a vacancy on the court since Judge Stephen Trott took senior status Dec. 31, 2004. There is also a newly created position as of Jan. 21.

Judge George Schiavelli resigned effective Oct. 5, creating a second vacancy.

The Senate this month officially returned to the president the nomination of Orange Superior Court Judge James E. Rogan, a former congressman and Commerce Department official, to succeed Judge Nora Manella, who resigned to become a justice of this district's Court of Appeal.

Rogan was unable to secure a confirmation hearing because Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has a "blue slip" policy under which a hearing will be held only if both of the nominee's home state senators approve. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has previously supported all candidates recommended by a bipartisan advisory committee, opposes Rogan's nomination, in part because of his role as one of the prosecutors at the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

A third vacancy was created when Judge Alicemarie Stotler took senior status Jan. 5.

There are no vacancies.

First District

Justice William Stein retired from Div. One at the end of August. Justice Linda M. Gemello retired from Div. Five Jan. 4. Justice Douglas E. Swager retired from Div. One Dec. 31.

Second District

Justice Miriam Vogel retired July 3 from Div. One, which also has a vacancy as a result of Robert Mallano's elevation to presiding justice. Presiding Justice Candace Cooper retired from Div. Eight Dec. 31.

Third District

Justice Fred Morrison is retiring today. Justice Rodney Davis is retiring Feb. 16.

Fifth District

Justice Thomas Harris died Nov. 12.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Six newly elected judges were sworn in Jan. 5-Hilleri G. Merritt, Michael O'Gara, Thomas Rubinson, Harvey Silberman, Pat Connolly, and Michael Jesic.

They succeeded Judges Francis A. Gately, who retired Nov. 30; Michael Duggan, who retired July 22; Wendell Mortimer Jr., who retired April 30; Tracy Grant, whose term is expiring; Gibson Lee, whose term is also expiring; and Jack Hunt, who retired July 31.

The governor named seven new judges on Jan. 22-Victor Greenberg and Maren E. Nelson, who had been commissioners; Deputy District Attorney Geanene Yriarte; Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Terrell; and Los Angeles attorneys Huey P. Cotton, David S. Cunningham III and Howard L. Halm.

Greenberg succeeds Judge Michael R. Hoff, who retired July 31; Nelson fills the vacancy resulting from the death of. Judge Deanne Smith Myers Aug. 20; Yriarte succeeds Judge Alexander Williams III, who retired Sept. 15; Terrell fills a seat vacated by Judge Ray Hart, who took disability retirement; Cotton fills the seat from which Judge David M. Horwitz retired July 18; Cunningham, the son of a former Los Angeles councilman, succeeds Judge Xenophon F. Lang Jr., who retired July 29; and Halm fills a seat that has been vacant since Judge Leon Kaplan retired Aug. 1.

Remaining vacancies are a result of the retirements of Rodney Forneret Dec. 5, Kenneth Black Nov. 5, Darlene Schempp Sept. 30; and Coleman Swart and Suzanne Person Sept. 15; and the decision of the Judicial Council to convert former Commissioner Ronald Rose's seat to a judgeship. Rose was among the 17 new judges named by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November.

In addition, a newly created position on the court was to have been funded as of last June 1, but legislation designed to ease the state budget crisis postponed the effective date to June 1 of this year.

Judge Kathryne A. Stoltz, whose last day on the bench was Dec. 19, officially retires Feb. 20.
Among those whose names have gone to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court former Deputy District Attorney Christopher Darden, now in private practice; former Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Vaughn, now a managing director of the litigation and consulting firm FTI Consulting, Inc.; criminal defense specialist Steven Cron of Santa Monica; Los Angeles Assistant City Attorney Gary Geuss, Los Angeles Deputy City Attorneys Richard Kraft and Edward J. Perez; state Deputy Attorneys General Steven D. Matthews, E. Eugene Varanini IV, Victoria Wilson, Paul Roadarmel Jr., Robert S. Henry and Kenneth Byrne; Administrative Law Judge Robert Helfand, Deputy District Attorneys Steven I. Katz, Alison S. Matsumoto, Shellie Samuels, Jeffrey Gootman, John D. Harlan II and Laura Laesecke; Commissioners Henry Hull, John Slawson, Rocky L. Crabb, Michael Convey, Joel Wallenstein, Dennis Mulcahy, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Mary Lou Katz Byrne, Steven Berman, and Loren DiFrank; U.S. District Court attorney Amy L. Lew; Irvine attorney Raymond Earl Brown; Deputy Federal Public Defender Angel Navarro; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jerome J. Haig; Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Martin Joseph Murphy, Los Angeles attorneys Michael Wilner, Shan K. Thever, John L. Carlton, Adrienne Krikorian, Mark A. Borenstein, Eulanda Matthews and Lawrence P. Brennan Jr.; Century City attorney Howard S. Fredman, Pasadena attorney Warren Gilbert, Glendale attorney Mark J. MacCarley, and Westlake Village attorney Michael Nebenzahl..

Feb. 10 will be the last day of service for Commissioner Harold Vites. His official retirement date will be March 31 or April 1.

There are commissioner vacancies as a result of Silberman, Greenberg, and Nelson becoming judges.

Commissioner William Dodson is on long-term medical leave.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

The Legislature did not sit in regular session in January.