Judge Davis Presses Bias Claim : City Attorney Withholds Domestic Violence Data

The San Diego city attorney’s office is refusing to turn over records of its domestic violence prosecutions to attorneys for San Diego Municipal Judge Joseph Davis, who is accused of beating his pregnant girlfriend during a quarrel last year.

Davis and his lawyers contend that the judge has been singled out for prosecution because of his conflicts in the past with the city attorney’s office and his judicial philosophy. The city attorney is pursuing the case despite the woman’s refusal to cooperate with prosecutors.

In court papers filed this week, however, city prosecutors say Davis’ lawyers have no grounds for their claims of vindictive prosecution and thus no right to undertake a wholesale review of similar cases to see whether Davis has been treated differently from other defendants.

Davis also has been accused of berating--in court--the officer who arrested him.

Prosecutors also reject the defense attorneys’ contention that the misdemeanor battery charge against Davis should be dismissed or, in the alternative, that the city attorney’s office be barred from acting as the prosecutor in the case.

“Clearly, ample evidence exists supporting the decision by the city attorney’s office to institute criminal proceedings” against Davis, Deputy City Atty. Loraine Etherington said in a written brief.

“Ironically, a decision to not prosecute the defendant would have created just as much controversy. The people submit that a stronger case would be made for discriminatory enforcement had the city attorney’s office not prosecuted the defendant.”

The case has become increasingly rancorous. City prosecutors intend to fight efforts by Davis’ attorneys to take testimony at a hearing Monday from City Atty. John Witt and six of his deputies, according to Chief Deputy City Atty. Stuart Swett, one of the prosecutors who has been subpoenaed.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are joining in criticism of Davis for an alleged courtroom outburst against the police officer who arrested him on the battery charge.

The San Diego Police Department filed a formal complaint last month against Davis with the state Commission on Judicial Performance, charging that he denigrated the credibility of Officer Edward Rosenbloom in the alleged incident Dec. 15.

When Rosenbloom appeared in Davis’ court to testify in a case that day--about three weeks after he arrested Davis--the judge disqualified himself from the case. But first, police and city prosecutors say, Davis told Rosenbloom: “You have no credibility in my courtroom.”

Capt. Jim Malloy, a police spokesman, said the alleged statement could reduce Rosenbloom’s effectiveness as an officer.

“Every time this officer goes into a courtroom and testifies on a case, if his credibility or his ability to testify truthfully has been affected without reason, that has a very dramatic effect on his performance as an officer,” Malloy said Friday.

Although the city attorney’s office is not a party to the official complaint, Swett said he believed the judge’s alleged comment was inappropriate. “I don’t think a judge should say something like that,” said Swett, adding that a deputy prosecutor heard Davis make the remark.

Jan Ronis, one of Davis’ defense attorneys, said the judge denied making the statement.

“It just shows how vindictive everybody is being toward Judge Davis,” Ronis said Friday. “The city attorney’s office seems to be after him. The police are after him.”

Neither police nor Davis have been contacted by the judicial commission about the complaint, according to Malloy and Ronis. The commission, if it finds a complaint warranted, can rebuke, censure or recommend the removal of a judge.

In motions filed earlier this month, Ronis and co-counsel Patrick Q. Hall said Deputy City Atty. Casey Gwinn, who signed the battery complaint against Davis, had a series of angry courtroom exchanges with Davis during a trial in a traffic case.

They also alleged that “numerous” city prosecutors “have become emotionally upset and angry with Judge Davis’ rulings.” According to the defense lawyers, the city attorney’s office repeatedly has sought to have cases transfered out of Davis’ court because of disagreement with his judicial tendencies.

Swett, they claimed, has said he believes Davis--a 1980 appointee of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.--is “an anti-prosecution judge.”

Prosecutors insist the case against Davis is being pressed solely because there is evidence he beat his pregnant girlfriend, Anna Monica Garcia, during a quarrel Nov. 23. They repeatedly have denied that personal or professional animosity has anything to do with the charge against the judge.

“There is no evidence that the office of the city attorney, or (Deputy City Atty.) Gwinn in particular, ‘went after’ the defendant to ‘get him’ for some offense,” Etherington said in her brief.

Added Swett: “The defense is attempting to put the city prosecutor on trial, instead of the defendant.”

One mystery heading into Monday’s hearing is the role, if any, Garcia will play.

Prosecutors say in their court filings that they have been unable to contact her since Davis was charged last month.

Ronis repeatedly has told reporters that Davis and Garcia reconciled and again were living together in Davis’ Tierrasanta home. On Friday, however, Ronis said that Garcia, while “on good terms” with Davis, no longer lives with him.