Judged by His Peers to Be a Man of Character, Principles

You don’t often see a memorial service in a courtroom. But those who attended the service Monday for former Superior Court Judge Robert H. Green in the county courthouse in Santa Ana agreed: It was the most appropriate setting.

It was a delight to listen to the many wonderful and witty anecdotes about Green’s life and his passion for the law. I wish I’d known him better.

Green, who died on Sept. 27 at age 79, was one of Orange County’s best criminal attorneys--and its premier civil liberties defender--before he joined the bench in 1976. He gained local fame taking on cases in which constitutional issues were at stake, or hopeless cases, such as one involving a Black Panther charged with killing a Santa Ana police officer.

Working on a county contract, Green was the forerunner to what eventually became the public defender’s office. And when he retired from the bench after nearly 12 years, he joined that office. He was not only the oldest lawyer it had ever had, he was part of its first father-daughter team. His daughter, Susan, was already an attorney there.

She said at Monday’s memorial service: “My father taught me to have the courage to stand up for what I believe in, even when it’s unpopular--especially when it’s unpopular.”

That brought laughter, because it fit so well with the Robert Green her listeners had known. Fourth District Court of Appeals Justice Edward J. Wallin told me before the service about working against Green. Wallin was a federal prosecutor then, and Green was representing defendants accused of dodging selective service.

“Not a lot of lawyers wanted to take those cases,” Wallin said. “And he was just incredible to see in a courtroom.”

The anecdotes told at the Monday service went on for more than an hour, and could have gone much longer without ever losing the audience.

Defense attorney Jennifer Keller, now president of the Orange County Bar Assn., spoke about a time when, as a public defender, she had to be in several courtrooms at once. When she apologized profusely to Green for being late, he told her: “Don’t do that. Don’t apologize. The practice of law is supposed to be fun. Enjoy it.”

Keller told Green that the other two judges she had to answer to that morning might not feel that way. Keller said to Monday’s listeners: “Then Judge Green said something that would endear him to me forever: ‘They’re jerks.’ ”

Former Judge Philip Petty described working on a case with Green in Los Angeles. During an important moment in the trial, Green leaned over to talk to him and whispered: “I don’t have anything to say, I just want to scare the prosecutor.”

Carl Holmes, chief deputy public defender, brought laughter by saying “It’s nice to see all the liberals in Orange County in this one room.” Holmes recalled first hearing Green 26 years ago. “He gave the most eloquent argument I’d ever heard. Then the judge said ‘Motion granted,’ something that hadn’t been heard in that courtroom in months.”

Tom Havlena of the public defender’s office talked about Green joining his section after leaving the bench: “It was as if Laurence Olivier had offered to do summer stock in a community theater.”

In recent years Green’s health began to fail. Yet even from a residential care home, he continued to work for the public defender’s office. Law clerk Jeremy Goldman, now a deputy public defender, would take him casework there, then later would wheel Green into the courtroom when he needed to speak on a motion.

Havlena: “As I watched him rise from that wheelchair and speak so eloquently, I told myself: If I could ever be just half the lawyer that Judge Green is, I’d be twice the lawyer I am today.”

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One for Seniors: Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, one of the speakers at Green’s memorial, is known for his noon running. So is Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King.

Last weekend they decided to go head-to-head in a triathlon, which they called, “Beauty and the Beast” (not specifying who was who). It included running, bicycling and swimming near the Huntington Beach pier, and was for bragging rights and to raise money for crime victims. Carter won, and $1,400 was raised. Carter said modestly it was a close race which he “eked out for the seniors.” The real winners, he said, were the crime victims.

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The Dating Conference: Julianne Toohey is a physician at UCI Medical Center who specializes in high-risk pregnancy cases. Her special interest is domestic violence and dating violence.

Monday, after months of work, she and others from the Orange County Family Violence Council put on a conference in Buena Park on teen dating. More than 200 high school students from Fullerton and Santa Ana attended, as well as 100 high school counselors and educators.

It included skits about dating problems, including one by Susie Vanderlip of Orange, whose one-person show about alcohol abuse was the subject of a recent column.

I asked one of the attendees, Alvin Camacho, 19, if he’d gotten much out of the conference. His “Yes” was emphatic.

“That Vanderlip, she really opened my eyes to a lot of things,” he said. Camacho said he didn’t have a girlfriend--yet. “But I’m working on it. She’s here today, and if we get together, I think I’ll do better in the relationship after this.”

If Toohey reached the others like that, then she’s off to a good start for the similar conference she hopes to have next year.

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Wrap-Up: I was covering criminal trials for this newspaper toward the end of Green’s years on the bench. I remember one time when I believed he had given two defendants an astonishingly light jail sentence. Green was remarkably candid about it later: “I just hate to send people to jail. It’s just all I can do to make myself do it.”

Bar Assn. President Keller told a wonderful story along the same lines. She had an elderly client who had a myriad of personal problems, including bad health, who’d been arrested for leasing out a place where drug deals were going down.

Keller recommended to Judge Green that the man be given 90 days in the county jail instead of being sentenced to prison. Keller said Green looked at her and said: “Why would you want to send this poor man to jail for 90 days. Hasn’t he suffered enough?”

Keller: “I’d gotten caught up in just thinking about the going rate. I’d forgotten to look at my clients as human beings.”

Many in the courtroom nodded at that. That was the Robert Green they knew too.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823, by fax at (714) 966-7711 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.