Conflict Over Gates Reinstatement Goes to State Appellate Court : Government: At issue is whether the City Council or the Police Commission controls the Police Department.

The task of deciding whether Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates should remain in office pending an investigation reached the state Court of Appeal on Friday, with lawyers for the City Council and the Police Commission tangling over who should control the Police Department.

In documents filed with the appellate court, the city attorney’s office described the Board of Police Commissioners as a “dissident arm of city government” that has illegally hired a private attorney to defend the commission’s recent vote to place Gates on a 60-day furlough.

The accusations came in response to a petition filed Thursday by the Police Commission, which wants the appeal court to dissolve a temporary restraining order that returned Gates to active duty earlier in the week.

At stake is what the commission’s private lawyer, Hillel Chodos, called “a constitutional crisis” in city government arising out of the March 3 police beating of Altadena resident Rodney G. King in Lake View Terrace. The assault, captured on videotape by an amateur cameraman, has provoked public outrage as well as calls for Gates’ ouster.

What began as a squabble over who has the authority to discipline the chief--the commission or the City Council--on Friday became a question of whether the Police Commission even had the power to hire its own attorneys.

Normally, the city attorney’s office represents the commission on legal matters. But in this case, the commission has hired Chodos because the city attorney’s office is working on behalf of the City Council to keep Gates on the job.

The result has been confusing, at best, with two lawyers appearing in court, both claiming to represent the Police Commission.

“It is strange indeed for any court to receive papers from two different lawyers, each of whom claims to represent the same client, but each of whom requests diametrically opposite orders from the court,” Senior Assistant City Atty. Frederick Merkin said.

Chodos could not be reached for comment. But in a 30-page brief filed with the appellate court, he said Gates and the City Council “collaborated” with the city attorney to circumvent the Police Commission.

Chodos was particularly critical of Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian, who issued a temporary restraining order Monday, putting Gates back to work pending another hearing on the matter scheduled for April 25. Chodos accused the judge of aligning himself with the City Council and Gates, and against the Police Commission.

“At a time when caution should have been the watchword,” Chodos wrote, “the Superior Court jumped into the fray and disrupted the status quo by granting a temporary restraining order reinstating Chief Gates to active duty.”

“The Superior Court,” he added, “not only abused its discretion but seriously damaged the ability of the civilian board charged with supervising and managing the Police Department.”

But Gates’ attorney, Harry G. Melkonian, had harsh words for Chodos, whom he referred to as the commission’s “purported lawyer” and an “interloper.”

Beyond that, Melkonian chastised the commissioners for moving to oust Gates in a secret meeting held “behind closed doors illegally and unethically.”

The political turmoil erupted April 2, when the commission decided in executive session to place Gates on a 60-day leave of absence pending an investigation into the King incident.

Gates responded by threatening to sue the city for monetary damages, but the City Council voted to settle the suit even before it was filed by allowing him to return to work.

On Monday, attorneys for Gates tried to have Sohigian sign off on the settlement. Instead, the plan fell apart when a coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit that day declaring the arrangement a “sham settlement.”

The debate hinged on what would appear to be conflicting mandates in Los Angeles’ 66-year-old City Charter: The Charter allows the commission to remove, discipline or suspend the police chief, but the City Council has authority to settle lawsuits.

In a decision that one attorney involved in the case called “Solomonesque,” Sohigian temporarily reinstated Gates, but asked all sides to return later for a fuller hearing.