1956 for me was memorable. Left private practice, became a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County, met my future wife in March, and got married in December (still together going on 60 years) and new and exciting things to encounter.
LA County is huge with its center, downtown, and it grows out to Whittier, Norwalk and other cities miles to the North, to Santa Monica and other beach Cities to the West, including Venice, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach to the South of Santa Monica and North to Malibu to Ventura County to the North, All on the Western Side of the County. to the South, the County extends to the Long Beach and LA Harbors, and to the North all the way to Pasadena, across the Pacific Coast mountain range as well as the San Gabriel Mountains and across to the valleys and desert. Also to the North on the Northwest side of the County across the Pacific Coast range containing part of Hollywood into the San Fernando Valley (a huge area by itself, up through the Tahachapi Mountains into the high Mohave Desert and the Cities of Palmdale and Lancaster.
The general population was about 5 and 1/2 million then. There were huge open spaces, and the DA’s Office had to cover the whole area,with a main office on Spring Street Downtown called the Hall of Justice and branch offices like little DA’s Offices spread out in Pomona, Pasadena, Norwalk, Santa Monica and Long Beach. The Branch Offices included within their areas Area offices called judicial districts each such as Beverly Hills and was populated by DAs . In 1956 the prosecutions were divided. The main Office handled all misdemeanors except those occurring in LA City where the City attorney’s prosecutors did the misdemeanors, such as DUIs, simple assaults without serious injuries and those cases designated as misdemeanors. The area offices would handle misdemeanors where the local City Attorney chose not to get into the prosecution business such as the Torrance City attorney did prosecute for those misdemeanors incurring in its City, but most misdemeanors were handled by the DA Area Office. I am setting the system out to explain to the reader what I was doing in my DA career from the main office to the East LA,and then the Huntington Park area offices to the Santa Monica Branch Office, back to the LA main office trial Department.
Not everyone knows the difference between crimes. Crimes in the State of California are set out in various codes by statute, mostly in what is known as the Penal Code and are defined by what penalty can be imposed; any offense where the designated penalty is State Prison even though the defendant has his/her sentence suspended and is paced on probation, is a Felony. All others where the designated penalty is County Jail or a fine is a misdemeanor. In 1956 there were two types of Courts dealing with criminal prosecutions, Superior Courts where felonies were prosecuted, and Municipal Court and actually Justice Courts presided over by a Justice of the Peace. So then there were two types of judges. The Felony judges dealt, of course, with felonies and their courts were and still are called Superior Courts, and the Municipal Courts dealt with misdemeanors committed within their designated city areas. The judicial system later changed to one court, Municipal Courts were eliminated and all the Municipal Court Judges became Superior Court Judges by State constitutional amendment, receiving an increase in pay and responsibility.
I opposed the merger and still do. Not all judges are what the general public thinks they are: wise old sages. Judges are generally in the first instant appointed by the governor. They aren’t always as bright and hard working as required, and they sometimes carry their bad habits, general political philosophy and prejudices with them when they become part of the judiciary. By having the two court system one gets a chance to see a judge at work in the lower court and evaluate how that judge would preside over a higher trial court. In addition the change included an over sight by the Chief Justice of The State Supreme Court, an intimidating factor in a judge’s daily life. It hasn’t been done to my knowledge, but under the new one-court by district system the Chief Justice has the power to transfer a judge he/she doesn’t like from as an example San Diego to Humboldt. Doesn’t really matter now as what’s done is done. Just venting a little.
In order to appreciate what I am going to set out in the future, the different court systems, Federal and State and my ventures into out of state or area cases a little history is needed.
So here goes,
Our Criminal Justice System starts with the settlers back in the 1600s with the colonization of America. As you know, in the beginning of our Country there were 13 colonies founded and populated by the English King under a charter system. After defeating the French, the settlers got together, fought the Revolution, won and then confederated, convened and agreed to a Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land. So think of the various States like different countries that ceded power to central Federal power setting out what powers were given to the central powers and those not given are reserved to the independent States. So in that formation, Congress declared among other things a body of criminal offenses all with supposedly a tie to some federal activity such as US Banks or the use of the Postal system or some connection, even if remote to federal activity. An example would be a case of Murder where the accused is prosecuted in a State Court or convicted, sentenced to life and then paroled, the Federal Govt. could grab the guy and prosecute hither for a violation of the victim’s civil rights.The Constitution in the 5th amendment prohibits a person from being prosecuted twice for the same offense However that means if the person was found either not guilty in a Federal prosecution the Feds can’t go after him/her a second time. But, that is jurisdictional and if the conduct is also a State crime, then they State can go after the person for the same conduct. What I am talking about is jurisdiction.
You have probably heard the terms Jurisdiction and venue, and many are confused by the terms proper jurisdiction or proper venue. Let me explain:
Jurisdiction means power to act on a set of circumstances, that is if the Court does not have jurisdiction to act, it cannot act on a cases someone asks the court to rule on. No Jurisdiction. Venue is the proper area for a court to act. For an example, a felony such as robbery occurred in Beverly Hills, but the DA decided to file the case in San Francisco, the Superior Court located in the two areas have jurisdiction on the subject matter but Venue that is the proper court by law is in a County preferably in Beverly Hills preliminarily and then Santa Monica Branch Office. I actually had a case where one of the defendants I was prosecuting had previously been convicted years earlier of an armed robbery of a US post office. He was tried and convicted of the robbery and sent to San Quenton State Prison fo 5 years. He was eventually released from State Prison but did not make it out the door. The Feds picked him up, prosecuted him for the same postal robbery and he ended doing another 2o years, most of it in Alcatraz
Two separate jurisdictions and in effect two crimes but one set of actual acts for the robbery but his crimes were against to different entities, the State of California where he committed crime against the peace and welfare of the people of the state of California on one hand and a crime against the United States.
I pause to tell you about Willard Winhaven and his partner in crime, Ernie Lopez. Willard did 20 years in Federal prison for the Postal robbery where he went for the first time in Alcatraz. Once released he and Ernie met. Ernie had a plan to get some weapons, get full face masks and rob a bank messenger of the receipts of a discount store located on South Sepulveda Blvd in West LA. The plan didn’t work out so well for the two of them. They stopped and prevented the messenger from leaving, grabbed the money bag, but all hell broke out as the messenger wasn’t making it easy. Shots were fired, an off duty LAPD Officer tried to intervene and got shot in the leg, an assistant manager of the store came out to the parking lot got shot and killed. The bad guys managed to get out of the area but were followed by a passing driver which caused the two robbers to stop their car and aim and shoot the pursuer through the windshield hitting him just below the eye. The victim survived, but the bullet could not be removed. Both were convicted of the murder, the attempted murders and the robbery and sentenced to death. When I was arguing to the jury, and asking for a death verdict, Winhaven burst out “you should get death!” I looked at the jury and said ” See, he still wants to kill.” Winhoven died on Death Row. Ernie Lopez got the benefit when the California death penalty at the time was declared unconstitutional due to so-called vagueness; his sentence was reduced to life, and because the death penalty did not have an alternative of life without parole he was eventually released on parole, met up with a guy named Vlahovitch, a co defendant on a case where I represented one of the defendants, a capital murder case. Vlahovitch, my client and another defendant had already been convicted of 1st degree murder, sentenced to death, reversed be the State Supreme court as to penalty only. Vlahovitch and the other defendants after my work on the case ended up with life, being just minutes from execution. Ernie and Vlahovitch the last I heard teamed up as enforcers for a bail bondsman collecting money owed.
You might want to Google People v Winhoven 60 Cal 2nd 223 for a complete story of the Winhoven Lopez case. Rereading it, I found it fascinating
I will go into the Vlahovitch case later in this blog, as to this day, I believe my client innocent and I can’t wait to tell you why, but that is still way down the road.
Marshall Schulman
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