Vista judge criticizes DA's office

A veteran North County judge who last month openly criticized the District Attorney’s Office for not following rules for turning over evidence to defense lawyers is now being called biased by prosecutors who want him off the case.

A court hearing on the simmering conflict between longtime Superior Court Judge Harry M. Elias and prosecutors is scheduled for this morning in Vista, days after the District Attorney’s Office ended a months-long boycott against a judge in downtown San Diego.

The dispute with Elias, a former prosecutor who has been a judge since 1990, goes back to comments he made at a hearing in December.

Sounding more than a little perturbed, Elias said then that prosecutors in Vista were not following rules for turning over relevant material to the defense, as required, in some cases.

He implied that some judges believed it to be “deliberate and intentional” — and that the stature of the office is plummeting.

According to a hearing transcript, Elias said to prosecutors that “you need to be concerned about the reputation of the office, because it’s not good.”

“It’s clearly not good among the defense bar,” the judge continued.

He went further, saying the reputation “was not good among judicial officers, many of whom were colleagues to people you still work with.”

The December hearing was unusual in that a colleague of Elias, Superior Court Judge Dan Goldstein, who is also a former prosecutor, was present in the courtroom, as were Summer Stephan and Garland Peed, the top two supervisors of the District Attorney’s Office in Vista.

In court papers filed in preparation for today’s hearing, Deputy District Attorney Katherine Flaherty said Elias’ comments show that he can’t be impartial — and that in order to protect their rights to a fair hearing, he has to step down.

“The court’s comments in this case reflect a clear mindset of bias and prejudice against prosecutors in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office,” Flaherty wrote. “… There can be no impartial ruling from a judge who believes that prosecutors deliberately and intentionally violate the constitutional rights of defendants by failing to provide discovery.”

Neither Flaherty nor defense lawyers Sherry Stone or Kathleen Cannon would comment on the case. Both sides will be in court this morning in front of Elias.

The filing is stirring interest in the Vista courts among defense lawyers, several of whom said they were taken aback by the harsh tone against Elias.

The filing also came as the boycott of Superior Court Judge John Einhorn in San Diego was ending. The reasons for prosecutors’ blanket boycott of Einhorn, lasting from September until Monday, were never revealed by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

Dumanis was criticized by defense lawyers and some judges, who said she was trying to bully the bench with the tactic.

At issue in the Elias matter is whether prosecutors had turned over to the defense information about a pawnshop receipt in a case dealing with the theft of two bicycles. Forensic analysts with the District Attorney’s Office were able to match six fingerprints in the case to the defendant, Kenneth Bowles, but found that one print on a receipt with his name was “inconclusive.”

Bowles’ defense lawyer said that information about the inconclusive print was omitted from a report and that such an error is critical enough to dismiss the case.

Prosecutors vigorously argue that the information was available to the defense lawyer as part of court exhibits and also came out during testimony. They also say there is no requirement to turn over information that is inconclusive.

Elias said at the hearing that he doubted that legal position. He postponed a decision to allow both sides to file briefs on the issue.

Prosecutors contend now that Elias abandoned his neutrality; bullied the prosecutor, Vanessa Du Vall; and conducted “what amounted to a ‘lynching’ ” of Du Vall.

This is not the first Vista case in recent months involving disputes about turning over information to the defense. In October, three men accused of raping a woman pleaded guilty to lesser charges after defense lawyers complained that tape recordings of the woman’s statements were not turned over until three weeks before trial.

In December, a man facing charges of mayhem and domestic violence pleaded guilty to lesser charges after Cannon received a DNA report just before trial on a knife found at the crime scene. She said the report supported her client’s defense and that it had been completed in May, but not turned over.

Will CA charge Manslaughter for death to a fetus in future

California DUI charge for death of unborn child considered
A New Year's Day accident around 3AM in the San Diego area took the life of a 6-month's pregnant woman and her unborn child.

Authorities have charged the suspect, 40-year-old Joseph Antony Venegas, with gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of DUI causing injury. Arraignment for Venegas has been postponed because the driver was in medical isolation; he was only arraigned last Friday on the charges.

21-year-old Elaina Luquis-Ortiz and her unborn child, Romeo Fransisco, were both killed and two others were injured. Venegas was not charged in the death of the fetus, which is possible though not uniformly enforced in the state of California. The decision on this matter is pending.

Luquis-Ortiz was traveling home with her husband from a New Year's Eve party when they were called to assist another driver with a flat tire. She pulled her own car behind the disabled vehicle to await further assistance. At that point, a much larger Chevrolet Tahoe struck the parked car.

Luquis-Ortis died at the scene nearly immediately upon impact. The other passengers, who she was assisting, suffered serious injuries.