Judge in Citron Sentencing Hard to Gauge

LOS ANGELES —  In eight years on the bench, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger has made a reputation as someone who can hand down the harshest of sentences but also show compassion for contrite criminals.

Those searching for clues in the cases Czuleger has handled will find a judge who surprised prosecutors when he fined a drug dealer $2 million more than they recommended but was more lenient than expected with a former museum director convicted of swiping and selling artifacts.

His track record likely will be scrutinized now that Czuleger, 44, has been chosen to decide the fate of perhaps Orange County’s most notorious public official: former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron.

Citron has pleaded guilty to six felony charges of fraud and misappropriation of public funds in connection with the collapse of the investment portfolio he managed for the county and nearly 200 other public entities. The collapse caused the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history.

Czuleger’s selection, which came after Orange County’s presiding judge cited potential conflicts of interest and disqualified the entire Orange County bench from hearing the matter, has left many guessing about the punishment Citron might receive at his Feb. 23 sentencing.

Will the judge send the former treasurer to state prison? Or will he heed a probation officer’s report and sentence the 70-year-old to a brief stay in County Jail?

Citron’s attorney, David W. Wiechert, recently told a court that a probation report will recommend the former treasurer be spared a term in state prison and instead receive a year or less in the county lockup--plus probation.

A random review of some of Czuleger’s recent sentences revealed that the judge carefully evaluates probation reports, but unlike some judges, does not feel compelled to follow them.

None of 20 colleagues, defense attorneys and prosecutors interviewed were willing to predict how Czuleger would decide the Citron case, other than to say he would deliver a fair sentence.

Nora M. Manella, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, described Czuleger as the perfect choice. Manella and Czuleger worked together as federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and later as Superior Court judges, before Manella was selected for her latest assignment.

“He is not going to come into this case looking for a particular result or an angle, because he doesn’t have some other agenda,” Manella said. “He’s going to look at the facts, give it an intellectually honest opinion, then make his decision.”

Loyola Law School professor Laurie L. Levenson, who also worked with Czuleger in the U.S. attorney’s office, agreed the judge is not easily swayed.

“He can be very tough, but he is not going to get swept up in the public nature of this case,” Levenson said, referring to the daily publicity of the county’s bankruptcy.

“He’s going to look at the harm done and the defendant’s culpability. He’s going to say: ‘I need to know enough to be comfortable that he is not deserving of prison time.’ ”

While Czuleger probably is best known for his minor involvement in the case of O.J. Simpson--he handled several motions--his recent sentences offer a better glimpse into the judge’s sentencing philosophy--and how he might deal with Citron.

In 1991, Czuleger fined a 27-year-old drug kingpin more than $3 million and sentenced him to the maximum term of 23 years in state prison on charges stemming from the second-largest seizure of cocaine and cash in California. The fine--the largest ever in a trial in the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building--even surprised prosecutors.

“We asked for a fine of more than $1 million, but the judge kept going,” Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Grosbard said.

But the judge’s sentences don’t always please the district attorney’s office.

One example involved Patrick Houlihan, the former director of the Southwest Museum who was convicted in 1993 of taking 20 items from the museum collection and secretly selling or trading them.

A probation report recommended that Houlihan receive prison time. But the judge sentenced Houlihan to serve 120 days in County Jail and ordered him to pay $70,000 restitution. The museum director also was placed on five years of probation and directed to do 1,000 hours of community service.

“You have done a lot of good things in your life,” Czuleger told Houlihan, who is widely credited for making improvements to the Mt. Washington museum, which specializes in Native American art and artifacts. “On the other hand, you never admitted that you screwed up.”

George W. Buehler, a Los Angeles attorney who represented Houlihan, had pleaded with the judge to spare his client any prison or jail time.

“The judge listened to what he was told but he made his own judgment,” Buehler said.

But the sentence riled Deputy Dist. Atty. Alexis de la Garza, the prosecutor in the case.

“White-collar crime isn’t treated the same,” she said. “If someone off the street was found guilty of stealing $70,000, they would go to state prison, and not just for four months.”

Last month, Czuleger was called upon to sentence six defendants who pleaded guilty to possession of a kilogram of heroin for sale. Among the six was Pablo Barajas Chavez, a 25-year-old parking lot attendant represented by Garden Grove lawyer Lazaro J. Machado.

A probation report recommended the maximum term of eight years in state prison, Machado said. But the defense lawyer pleaded with the judge for leniency. His client, he said, was a father of two who was peddling drugs to raise money for his family. Czuleger sentenced Chavez to six years in state prison.

“The court finds that defendant’s acceptance of responsibility and show of remorse is a substantial factor in mitigation,” Czuleger said in court documents.

Defense attorney Harland W. Braun, who a few months ago successfully defended a Glendora doctor facing rape charges in Czuleger’s court, said the judge is known for being impartial.

“Most judges are running dogs for the D.A.’s office, [but] Czuleger is not,” said Braun, a former deputy district attorney and a lawyer for one of the police officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King.

People who know Czuleger say he honed his analytical skills during his eight years in the U.S. attorney’s office.

Although Czuleger would not agree to be interviewed for this article, he told the Los Angeles Daily Journal how his father ran an appliance store in Redondo Beach and aspired to attend law school but never made it.

Czuleger fulfilled his father’s ambition when he graduated from Loyola University School of Law in 1976. He later was hired by the U.S. attorney’s office, where his superiors relied on him to prosecute major murder trials and white-collar crime cases, including one of the nation’s biggest defense industry fraud cases against General Dynamics.

In 1988, Czuleger was appointed to the Municipal Court bench by then-Gov. George Deukmejian, who promoted him to Superior Court only two years later.

On the Superior Court bench, Czuleger quickly became known as “an absolute straight arrow,” Manella said.

He required attorneys to show up for trial at 8:30 a.m., and he insisted they speak only from the podium, as lawyers are required to do in federal court.

He also promptly returned the potted plants and boxes of chocolate that defense attorneys routinely drop off in courtrooms during the Christmas season, Manella said.

“He didn’t want to give the slightest notion that he could be compromised,” Manella said.

Defense attorneys who were wary of the judge’s background as a government prosecutor say they were relieved to learn he was a fair judge.

“He’s not a rubber stamp,” said Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Mick Bodek, who appeared numerous times before the judge. “He’s not a soft touch either.”

Czuleger has been in high-profile situations before. During the Simpson case, he resolved disputes over the grand jury investigations of Simpson and his longtime friend Al Cowlings.

In one decision, Czuleger granted Simpson’s house guest, Kato Kaelin, a few days to confer with his counsel during grand jury testimony. In another, the judge jailed a witness, John Dunton, for contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury. The witness spent a month in jail before being released--without testifying.

And Czuleger also adjourned a hearing when Simpson’s prosecutors refused to supply him a list of questions for the defendant’s friend, Robert Kardashian, about his handling of Simpson’s luggage.

James A. Bascue, the supervising judge of the criminal courts in Los Angeles, said he picked Czuleger to handle the Simpson motions because, as a former federal prosecutor, Czuleger had more knowledge about grand juries and complex cases than many of his colleagues.

When Bascue was asked to find someone to sentence Citron, he summoned Czuleger again.

“He was an obvious choice,” Bascue said.