Besieged Lawyer Lands in Jail After a Day of Double Jeopardy

A 36-year-old lawyer was sent to jail without bail Thursday after she failed to show up for a contempt of court hearing in El Cajon, apparently because she was attending a separate contempt proceeding before another judge in San Diego.

Brenda Keith was arrested in a crowded San Diego courtroom just as Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman was imposing his own suspended five-day jail term. When Huffman finished, deputy marshals took Keith into custody on a warrant issued moments earlier by Superior Court Judge Dennis Adams in El Cajon.

Both judges and several experienced lawyers said it was highly unusual for a judge to jail a lawyer for contempt of court or for failure to appear for a hearing. Each judge said he had never jailed a lawyer before, let alone done it simultaneously with another judge.

“I don’t like pushing people around,” Adams said plaintively. “But if I can’t force people to come in and have a hearing, what can I do? . . . I haven’t sentenced her yet. I haven’t even found her guilty. I just want to have a hearing.”

Keith, who has practiced for three years as a criminal lawyer, was in the County Jail at Las Colinas on Thursday night, according to jail officials. She was to appear this morning before Adams.

According to Adams, Keith’s difficulties with him started several weeks ago when she failed to appear for a client’s burglary trial. Adams called off the scheduled witnesses and jurors, appointed a new lawyer and scheduled a contempt hearing for Keith the next week, he said.

But a week later, Keith arrived at the hearing without a lawyer, Adams said. So he postponed the proceeding one week. On the appointed day, Thursday, she didn’t show, Adams said. So he issued a bench warrant for her arrest, to be held without bail.

Meanwhile, Huffman was pursuing his own contempt charges.

In August, Huffman said Thursday, he had found Keith in contempt of court and had ordered her to pay a $250 fine by Sept. 22. According to Huffman, she had failed to appear for a sentencing hearing, apparently having concluded that the case needed to be postponed.

Then this month, Huffman said, he had found her in contempt again for what he said was her failure to appear for a trial. That time, Huffman ordered a $500 fine, payable in November, and a suspended jail sentence. Then he discovered that Keith had not paid the first fine.

So Huffman scheduled a new hearing for 8:30 a.m. Thursday to decide whether he should find her in contempt yet again for failing to pay the fine. Keith arrived late, Huffman said, and asked for a 30-day extension. Huffman gave her until Dec. 1. If she fails to pay the fine by then, she is to serve five days in jail.

In the midst of the proceeding, Huffman said, he received a note from county marshals saying they had a no-bail warrant for Keith’s arrest. So when the hearing was over, the officers took her into custody in the courtroom crowded with lawyers awaiting their own cases.

A graduate of Western State University College of Law, Keith was admitted to the California Bar in June, 1983. An official in the membership records department of the California Bar Assn. said Thursday that Keith is the subject of a complaint filed with the association in January. The official said the complaint is still pending and the details are confidential.

According to the phone company, Keith’s office phone number in the lawyer’s directory has been changed to a number in New Jersey. There was no answer at the New Jersey number Thursday.