Sidebar: judge recusal

📄 Sidebar: judge recusal — Tuesday, August 8, 1995

Address:

C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\AUG\8\SIDEBAR-JUDGE-RECUSAL.DOC

TRIAL

▲ Day 131 of 167

◀ Motion: discovery and admissibility Witness request: Walsh ▶

Date: Tuesday, August 8, 1995 • Utterances: 24

Judge Ito disclosed at sidebar that his wife had been promoted to Captain III of Internal Affairs, the commanding officer over the group relevant to a pending subpoena for Internal Affairs records. Ito proactively suggested recusing himself from ruling on that specific motion and sending it to another department, and Cochran agreed it was the prudent course.

# 1 (The following proceedings were held at the bench:)

# 2 (Discussion held off the record.)

# 3 THE COURT:

I asked you over here. We are over at the side bar. Mr. Cochran, I don't know if you are aware of this, my wife's continuing career progress, which she is now the Captain III of Internal Affairs. She was the Captain II, the chief investigator, now she is the Captain III.

# 4 MR. COCHRAN:

I knew she was in charge of Internal Affairs. I had heard that, you know. That is all I know. She is a Captain III in charge of Internal Affairs?

# 5 THE COURT:

Yes.

# 6 MR. COCHRAN:

And I have not thought about that in this mix.

# 7 THE COURT:

Yeah, because we had sort of--this water had sort of passed under the bridge long gone away, so we are coming back with Commander J.I. Davis who you know.

# 8 MR. COCHRAN:

Yes.

# 9 THE COURT:

He is the commander who is over that operations group and he is the one who responded to the subpoena duces tecum and he is the--the commanding officer of the group, Internal Affairs group. But just to let you know that that exists and you should advise your client of that.

# 10 MR. COCHRAN:

I should and we are going to be--you let us have the time over the lunch hour.

# 11 THE COURT:

That is one of the things you wanted to discuss with him.

# 12 MR. COCHRAN:

If it comes down to any kind of records or subpoena stuff, I will talk to him, we would ask J.I. We wouldn't try to subpoena your wife.

# 13 THE COURT:

One of the things that I might suggest, if in your discussions is you might want to have some other Judge rule on this particular issue.

# 14 MR. COCHRAN:

You may be right, just out of an abundance of precaution because I don't know, if there is ever an appeal, we could be criticized if we didn't, and you may be right. May I have a minute to talk to Jerry about this?

# 15 MS. CLARK:

On which?

# 16 THE COURT:

On the motion regarding Internal Affairs and whether or not they have to cough up certain records.

# 17 MR. COCHRAN:

I would like to talk to Jerry Uelmen about that. If we did, how soon would we be able to get somebody?

# 18 THE COURT:

That is a good question. I would have to farm it out to Department 100. That is something I should have thought about before. But we've had about--every time I come to court there is three completely new issues.

# 19 MR. COCHRAN:

Yes. Thank you for sharing that with us. We would like five minutes--Walsh isn't here yet.

# 20 THE COURT:

Yes, he is.

# 21 MR. COCHRAN:

Give me five, ten minutes with him and we will be ready. I will come back and give you a report as soon as possible on that.

# 22 THE COURT:

My recommendation is that we ship it to somebody else.

KEY QUOTE

# 23 MR. COCHRAN:

I can't quarrel with that. I don't think I can quarrel with that. How do you want to phrase it?

# 24 THE COURT:

Let me invite Mr. Walsh up, because it may be a scheduling issue.

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (4)

Lance A. Ito

my wife's continuing career progress, which she is now the Captain III of Internal Affairs. She was the Captain II, the chief investigator, now she is the Captain III.

The disclosure that triggers the recusal discussion — Ito's wife now commands the very unit whose records are being subpoenaed.

Johnnie Cochran

if there is ever an appeal, we could be criticized if we didn't, and you may be right.

Cochran frames recusal as appellate protection, not distrust of Ito — a diplomatic way to agree without impugning the judge.

Lance A. Ito

My recommendation is that we ship it to somebody else.

Ito himself proposes recusal on the narrow issue, demonstrating self-awareness about the conflict.

Lance A. Ito

every time I come to court there is three completely new issues.

Candid acknowledgment of the trial's relentless procedural complexity.

Evidence (1)

Informal

Subpoena duces tecum directed at LAPD Internal Affairs / Commander J.I. Davis

discussed — whether Internal Affairs must produce certain records

Notable Exchanges (1)

Lance A. Ito•Johnnie Cochran

Ito discloses his wife's promotion to Captain III of Internal Affairs and suggests a different judge handle the IA records motion; Cochran agrees without objection, citing appellate risk.

collegial, measured

Light Moments (1)

Lance A. Ito

Ito wryly notes 'every time I come to court there is three completely new issues,' self-deprecating about the trial's chaos.

Objections

None recorded

Proceeding 7248 • 24 utterances

Criminal Trial

Department 103