End of the Month

Trial of State Bar Charges Against Carmen Trutanich Set to Begin…State Bar Dues Bill and Judicial Elections Reform Bill Are Signed Into Law…Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Michael L. Schurr Retires

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Carmen Trutanich
Former Los Angeles City Attorney

A pretrial conference is set for Nov. 13 in the disciplinary matter of Los Angeles’s former city attorney, with the trial set to get underway that day.
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 when he “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.
Trial dates are set for Nov. 13-17 and Nov. 28-30.
Trutanich is now an attorney with Tucker Ellis LLP.
He is represented by ethics lawyer David C. Carr of San Diego.
Trutanich has reportedly unsuccessfully sought appointment to the Los Angeles Superior Court and the San Diego Superior Court.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There are four vacancies on the 29-judge court. Judge Harry Pregerson took senior status Dec. 11, 2015; Judge Barry Silverman took senior status Oct. 11; and Judges Richard Clifton and Diarmuid O’Scannlain took senior status Dec. 31. Senior Circuit Judge John T. Noonan, Jr. died April 17.
There is one nominee. Ryan Wesley Bounds, assistant United States attorney for the District of Oregon, was nominated this month to assume the seat vacated by O’Scannlain.

There are five vacancies. Judge Audrey B. Collins retired 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 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 two months ago. No replacement has been named.

Second District

Presiding Justice Paul A. Turner of Div. Five died May 18.
There is a prior vacancy in that division, due to the retirement of Justice Richard Mosk, who left the court March 30 of last year and died 18 days later. There are also vacancies in Div. Two, due to the Jan. 31 retirement of Presiding Justice Roger Boren; Div. Three, due to the Oct. 5, 2015 retirement of Justice Patti S. Kitching; and Div. Seven, due to the retirement of Justice Fred Woods on March 31, 2015.
Among those whose names have been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Gail Ruderman Feuer, Ann H. Egerton, Rita Miller, Richard Rico, Helen Bendix, Ann Jones, and Sanjay Kumar; Los Angeles attorneys Kent Richland and Bradley Phillips; Ventura Superior Court Judge Tari Cody; and Southwestern Law School Professor Christopher Cameron.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael J. Raphael, who was scheduled to end his latest pro tem stint today, has had his tour of duty in Div. Five extended for the balance of the year. Remaining onboard through Nov. 30 will be Orange Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning and Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Kerry R. Bensinger, Halim Dhanidina, and Natalie P. Stone, as well as retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr will sit pro tem from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

Fourth District

Justice Alex McDonald of Div. One died Sept. 8.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Judge David S. Wesley—a former presiding judge—retired effective Aug. 31. Three other judges retired recently: Leland H. Tipton on July 31, Lloyd Nash on March 3, and David Minning on April 6.
Vacancies that remain to be filled from last year were created by the retirements of Judges Soussan Bruguera Dec. 15, Sally Meloch Dec. 10, Steven Van Sicklen Nov. 1, and John Henning Sept. 8.
Among those whose names have been sent by the governor to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are West Los Angeles attorney Mark DiMaria; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Tracee May-Brewster; Altadena attorney Cynthia Cannady; Deputy Public Defenders Jose Colon and Lisa Brackelmanns; Bakersfield attorney Bernard Barrman Jr.; Century City attorney Jonathan Rosenbloom; Deputy District Attorneys Kerry White, Candace Foy Smith, Leonard Torrealba, and Kathleen Tuttle; retired Deputy District Attorney Brentford Ferreira; Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney—and former city attorney candidate—Michael Amerian; attorney/mediator Michael Diliberto; former Superior Court Referee Stephanie Davis; Los Angeles attorneys Angel Navarro and Lisa Mattern; Superior Court counsel Brett Bianco; Beverly Hills attorney Edward Tabash; South Pasadena attorney Mark S. Priver; Court of Appeal staff attorney Kenneth E. Roberson; Superior Court Commissioners Karin Borzakian, Timothy Martella, Pamela Davis, Collette Serio, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Robert Kawahara, Alan Rubin, Emma Castro, Jane Godfrey, Sharon Lewis Miller, Mark Zuckman, Dennis Mulcahy, Terry Truong and Kenneth Taylor; State Bar Court Judge Richard Honn; Deputy County Counsel Julie Ann Silva; Glendale attorney Kenneth Wright; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Wesley Hsu.
Commissioner Michael L. Schurr retires today.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

The following bills were signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown:

•AB 360 by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, which would require the State Bar to coordinate legal aid programs for indigent veterans.

•SB 6 by Sen. Ben Hueso, D-El Centro, which, as amended, would create the Expanding Due Process Act, and would, among other things, appropriate $12 million to pay lawyers to represent immigrants, other than those convicted of violent felonies, facing removal from the United States.

•SB 29 by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, which would prohibit local governments from contracting with private entities to detain immigrants facing deportation.

•SB 36 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, which would authorize the State Bar to impose 2018 and 2019 dues in the same amounts as in 2016. The bill would also replace the current 19-member Board of Trustees with a 13-member board consisting of seven attorneys and six public members, and spin off the State Bar sections into a separate organization.

•SB 235 by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, which would regulate the use of ballot designations by judicial candidates.