Well, after the exams for a spot in the DA’s Office, I received a call from George Kemp, Chief Assistant DA, informing me I not only passed, but was the number one on the exam, but there was a but. He explained there were several applicants, and some of them were already working temporarily for the DA’s Office. They would like me to waive my employment to allow one of them to come up the list of several applicants, and as soon as there was another opening, I would be hired. A “no brainer.” If I said no, that would show I was not a team player and a bad start to a new career. Besides, if they did not keep their promise, I would not want to work for them anyway. The bottom line is they of course kept their promise; I was hired later and had a great career as a prosecutor.
How does prosecution work in LA? OK, first in California, the chief prosecutor of crimes is the State Attorney General. Crimes are prosecution in the name of “The People of the State of California vs the named Defendant and the titles look like “People of the State of California vs. John Doe Defendant. The Attorney General. a State elected Office, under California Law may and does delegate the power to prosecute to the elected District Attorney in each separate California County as the prosecutor of all felonies, i.e. those crimes designated with a State Prison penalty as well as misdemeanors. City attorneys can and often do if they have the staff, prosecute misdemeanors, those non State Prison crimes committed in their cities. So, like my last writing, one can easily see that in the prosecution part of the criminal justice system there are various layers of prosecutors,and also layers of prosecutors in the State System, and that is true for most states. Don’t forget the Federal Government has their own prosecutors called US Attorneys for designated judicial districts, such as in California, there are US Attorneys appointed by the then President of the US during the term of office all under the direction of the Attorney General of the US. The California Districts are: the Southern district, covering crimes committed in San Diego, Imperial, and various cities up to the Central District, which consists of LA, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange County up to the LA line. The Central includes LA County, Ventura, Santa Barbara… And then there is the Eastern District which includes the San Joaquin Valley all the way up North and in the middle of California, and then the Northern district mainly in San Francisco, but also the Bay Area and counties Northward as well.
So you get the general idea; there is a lot of overlap between the various entities and jurisdictions and venues. It works.
The LA DA’s Office in 1956 consisted of approximately 60 Deputy DAs, plus a supporting staff of investigators, stenographers and others. The way it works is there is one District attorney, and at the time I came aboard, it was Ernie Roll. He is elected. There were two political positions known as The Chief Assistant District Attorney and the Assistant District Attorney. The DA was responsible for the prosecution of Felonies, and, where needed in area and Branch Offices, misdemeanors as well as budget, payroll and all the things required of management. The actual trial attorneys were designated as Deputy District Attorneys in all Counties except San Francisco where the DA set up allowed the SF DA to hire and fire prosecutors at will and so the SF prosecutors were designated as Assistant District Attorneys, a political position. Deputy means Amanuensis, or acting in the name of the elected DA. What it means, I, as a deputy DA, is acting on behalf of the DA as if the DA was directly prosecuting the named defendant.
The main DA’s Office in LA was located in an all-purpose 9 story building covering one city block. When I say “all purpose,” I mean the following: In the basement was the Coroner’s, with its medical examiners cutting up dead bodies to determine causes of death, natural, homicide or undetermined, or also suicidal. Sometimes, in those days, there would be a coroner’s jury to confirm the doctor’s findings ( in my duties I participated in coroner’s juries. The jury generally consisted of questionable vagrants who could collect enough money to buy their next bottle) There was also in the basement for the LA County sheriff (another elected position with a slew of deputies) to store abandoned property. (once a year there would be an auction and I picked up a couple of bicycles that way) The main floor, or lobby, was the entrance, with a bank of elevators that rarely worked on time with honest to God elevator operators. The 2nd and third floor housed the Public Defender and his/her deputies. The Public Defender in every county except San Francisco is appointed by the County Governing Body known as The Board of Supervisors. The Board is responsible for the Public Defender’s budget, so the PD is somewhat at the Board’s discretion when it comes to salaries, effort and representation. San Francisco is set up where the Public Defender is elected and as a result is not beholden to or cannot be fired by its Board of Supervisors, a much better system where the Public Defender can vigorously defend an accused. (later in my career, I was appointed by the Orange county Board of Supervisors to investigate the Orange County Public Defender for action taken in the defense of a prospective indigent defendant who was arrested out of State on a murder warrant and the PD went to the State and undertook representation before the local police could interview the suspect. As a result, after my legal research, the Public Defender not only was correct, but had a duty to provide immediate representation. (From my report, the Orange County Board drafted a certificate of Commendation for my work.) I think the 4th floor was the Court Clerk’s Office where the Court files and other things such as search warrant returns were kept and staffed be Court Clerks. The 5th and 6th floor belonged to the DA’s Office. The 5th floor deputies handled filings and preliminary hearings and the 6th floor, the glory floor where we all wanted to be, consisted of the DA and his assistant DA’s office and the glamorous trial department.
Above, on the 7th floor were the municipal courts where the judges acted as magistrates (what is a magistrate? Before anyone can be prosecuted for a serious crime, the facts of the case must be presented to a Grand Jury. Why? Because the Constitution says so.) Remember the Constitution requires no person can be prosecuted unless facts have been brought before a grand Jury showing that a crime was committed and the accused did it. The proof need be only to show there is probable cause to go forward by way of indictment and prevents the government to force a person to be arrested and prosecuted at the whim of the government. This probable cause requirement applies to the State prosecution as well. There is another and probably more fair method of getting a prosecution to go forward by way of a preliminary hearing where facts in open proceedings are presented to a person known not as a judge but a magistrate. However by statute defining a magistrate in California any judge of any Court, Municipal, Superior, Appellate Justice or Supreme Court Justice can be a magistrate. So, the way it works out is on the 7th floor a bunch of municipal court judges sit as magistrates deciding whether the charges go forward or not. (we will get to detail later) On the 8th floor are the trial courts and on the 9th floor is the County Jail which houses the inmates who can’t afford bail.
OK Of course I agreed to waive my so called right to go in to the office when asked, but at that time I was still unmarried and living with my mother, Gertrude, in a unit on Sherbourne Drive in Los Angeles near Pico and Robertson. By then, my parents were divorced and events leading up to that time are a story, and a sad one which I may or may not discuss So I want to think about it as it not going to be a pleasant story.
Talk to you later
Marshall Schulman
MarshallsKnowledge© 