officers - The Black Vault

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; LARRY DAVIS I LosAngclcs'l'tmcs
.iudge-Ronald Sohigian's temporary
restraining order allows Chief
Qaryl F. Gates to return to work.
Of interest because it had advised
the Police Commission, the chief
and the council at various times
throughout the King affair.
Meanwhile, the Police Commission
hired a private attorney, Hillel
Chodos, to represent it at the
hearing, even though the city attorney
had lawyers present.
"They're not just settling a
case," Chodos told the judge. "The
chief and the city attorney have
gotten together and agreed that
you should make an order directed
at the Police Commission. . . . The
power to decide how to run the
P.olice Department belongs to the
commission and the City Council
does not have the power under the
[City) Charter to override the Police
Commission."
• But Senior Assistant City Atty.
F.red Merkin claimed he was rightft;Jlly
representing the Police Commission
and that ·chodos did not
belong in the courtroom.
·"His clients are interlopers,"
Merkin told the judge. "They have
no standing."
-'The judge said he needed time to
sort out the conflicting claims.
:.rm simply trying to make a
distinction between the rights of
the parties here," said Sohigian,
who ordered the attorneys to file
briefs before the April 25 hearing.
At that time, the judge said, he will
consider whether to make his restraining
order permanent.
At cine point during Monday's
hearing, Sohigian questioned
whether it was necessary to have
Gates on leave while an investigation
continued into the King beating.
He likened Gates to federal
court judges who retain their seats
while impeachment proceedings
are brought against them in ~ongress.
______ .
"Does anybody really need to
have the chief of police on
administrative leave, particularly
when the· investigation will be
sealed from Gates' ability to control
it?" Sohigian said. ". . .It isn't
as if having him around is going to
· let him poison the waters."
Gates himself was not at the
hearing, but he did make an afternoon
visit to Parker Center,
dressed in civilian garb.· In brief
remarks to reporters, he attempted
to defuse some of the tension that
has gripped the city for the past
month.
"I think it's time to cool it,"
Gates said. "Let's get together.
Let's get this city back together."
Meanwhile, Mayor Tom Bradley,
who last week publicly called on
Gates to resign, issued a terse
statement in which he also sought
to calm tempers. "Now maybe
· everyone can give a rest to the
rhetoric that has monopolized the
airwaves over the last few weeks,"
Bradley said.
None of the three police commissioners
who voted to place
· Gates on leave was at Monday's
court hearing. Reached afterward, ,
commission Vice President Melanie
Lomax said: "The fact that the
judge made the decision today
doesn't mean that this will be a
final determination. . . . I believe
as much today as I believed last
week that the Police Commission
did the right thing."
Sohigian's ruling capped a day of
intense legal maneuvering on the
: part of lawyers for Gates, the City
· · Council, the commission arid the
civil rights groups. All weekend
long, they had mapped their different
strategies.
On Monday morning, as threatened,
lawyers for Gates filed suit.
They claimed that the chief's constitutional
rights to. due process
had been violated and said the
commission ignored the !State's
open meetings law by convening in
secret to decide Gates' fate.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the
civil rights groups filed what they
called a "taxpayers' suit" in which
they claimed that the coun~il illegally
attempted to .usurp~ authority
of the Police Commission to
prove who is' "boss in the city of
Los Angeles."
In other developments, Lt.
George Aliano, president of the
Police Protective League, said the
police union has scheduled a general
membership meeting Thursday
and Friday to discuss a possible
effort~ ~ecall Mayor Bradley .
Aliano, whose union represents
8,100 of the· Police Department's
8,300 members, said he will also
suggest "lawful, off-duty" picketing
and a work "slowdown." But he
said he did not favor a strike or a
slowdown because they might anger
the publi~. .
Meanwhi~:: Bradley-who has
come under fire for calling on