Uncourtly Manner Trips Up Impostor

Defendants trying to get a trial postponed in Judge Michael S. Luros’ court be warned--your best bet is to be yourself.

Luros, a San Fernando Municipal Court judge, was not amused Friday morning when the defendant in a joy-riding case, Steven J. Sheridan, 26, tried to get the case delayed by posing as an attorney. Sheridan claimed to be his fictitious brother, Michael Sheridan, “appearing for the defendant because the defendant is in England on business and requests a continuance.”

Made suspicious by Sheridan’s rumpled attire, lack of a business card and confusion about legal terminology, Luros spent several minutes questioning the man about his legal education. Sheridan told the judge his name was actually Michael A. Rogers but continued to insist he was a lawyer.

When Sheridan then began telling the judge about his sideline as a movie producer, Luros found the man in contempt of court and gave him five days in jail.

“I’m not trying to be evil or harsh,” Luros said after the contempt finding. “It was an affront, not to me personally, but to the court as an institution . . . He was trying to make a sham of the entire court system.”

Luros revoked Sheridan’s “own recognizance” status, ordered him held in lieu of $10,000 bail and had Sheridan’s joy-riding case transferred to another courtroom for trial on Monday.

Sheridan might have been better off sticking with his real lawyer--his father, Thomas R. Sheridan, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California.

The elder Sheridan appeared before Luros Friday afternoon to try to persuade the judge to reduce his son’s contempt penalty to the five hours he spent in the bailiff’s custody awaiting the afternoon hearing.

But Luros, calling the son’s performance “not an unsophisticated raving,” refused. “You just can’t do certain things and then come in later and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Luros told the Sheridans. “I don’t engage in charades. I don’t sentence people in front of the crowds and then substantially alter what I’ve done.”