New Presiding Judge : Trammell Not a Stranger to the Limelight

Since his appointment in 1971 to the Los Angeles Municipal Court bench, Judge George W. Trammell has been repeatedly thrust into the limelight.

Over the years, Trammell, 49, has battled with Los Angeles police and the city attorney’s office over the shredding of citizen complaint records. He has declared that closed preliminary hearings and the court’s old jury selection system were unconstitutional. And he has presided over what he termed at the time the longest jury trial in the history of American jurisprudence--the 54-week Sylmar tunnel explosion case that concluded in 1973.

“I have never asked for any case and I can’t tell you why I seem to have gotten the controversial cases,” reflected the stout Long Beach native Friday. “But I’ve proved that I’m not afraid to handle a case that’s a hot potato.”

Perhaps then it is no surprise that Trammell is again at center stage these days, embroiled in a drama that might be entitled “Dueling Judges.”

Last Wednesday, by virtue of his position as assistant presiding judge of the 80-judge Municipal Court, Trammell was declared the court’s presiding judge when his colleagues voted to oust Judge Maxine F. Thomas from the post. Thomas, who has been accused of ignoring her job while she campaigned for a Superior Court post, unexpectedly asserted the next day that she was still the presiding judge because the recall ballot was unfair.

Trammell has reacted to the unique situation with a mixture of restraint and toughness.

Rather than immediately ordering Thomas removed from her office, Trammell told her to vacate the office on Monday, explaining to reporters that this would give her more time to reconsider her unconventional response to her sudden ouster.

“Hopefully over the weekend,” he said, “some of her friends and advisers will talk to her and maybe Monday she’ll have a different point of view.”

On the other hand, Trammell moved forcefully when he learned that Thomas was considering taking the presiding judge’s bench Friday morning. Saying that he wanted to avoid a courtroom confrontation, Trammell ordered marshals to deny Thomas entry to the Division 1 courtroom through the judge’s entrance.

“I am not going to have some marshal drag her off the bench,” he noted later. “But keep in mind, I’m the presiding judge and I’ve unassigned her from (that courtroom).”

Indeed, if fellow jurists might have preferred that Thomas be succeeded by a low-key or chummy individual, Trammell is not their man. Never shy about publicity, he is viewed by many in court circles as independent and tough-minded--but by others as abrasive and egotistical.

“I’ve been very impressed since he’s been assistant presiding judge in the manner in which he handles administrative matters,” said Municipal Judge Kenneth L. Chotiner. “He seems to be a nonconfrontational person.”

Jeffrey Jonas, head deputy of central trials in the district attorney’s office, sees things somewhat differently. Trammell, he said, is “intellectually astute--but sometimes his intellectualism gets in the way of good common sense.” Even though the judge has differed with the district attorney’s office, Jonas added, he is flexible when challenged with facts.

Thomas, for her part, claims that Trammell is a power-hungry individual who engineered the drive to oust her from the one-year post which her fellow judges elected her to in January.

Trammell does not deny assisting in the recall effort, but says he participated because of his dissatisfaction with Thomas’ performance, not for his own ends.

Since the assistant presiding judge traditionally is elected to the chief’s spot for the coming year, Trammell said: “It’s just ridiculous to think I would want for some self-satisfaction to become presiding judge a few months early. . . . Maxine Thomas was removed because of Maxine Thomas, not because of George Trammell.”

But now that he has taken over the supervisory post, Trammel said, he will take an activist role in pushing the Board of Supervisors to hire new judges and build new courtrooms to handle the court’s heavy workload.

Handled Murder Cases

Trammel, whose father served as Long Beach’s city attorney, is a 1962 graduate of USC Law School. As chief trial deputy of the district attorney’s Long Beach branch office, he handled several major murder cases. After eight years as a prosecutor, Trammell was appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan.

Within a year, Trammell was assigned to the Sylmar case, in which the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Co. and three of its employees were tried for negligence and safety violations in the deaths of 17 employees during the construction of the tunnel. Turmoil abounded, with the defense unsuccessfully seeking to disqualify Trammell in mid-trial for being “biased and prejudiced,” and with Trammell publicly accusing two of his fellow judges of trying to influence his decisions in the case.

Several defendants were eventually found guilty but their convictions were reversed by an appellate court, which cited several errors by Trammel. However, they ultimately pleaded no contest instead of going through another trial.

In a court that deals more often with drunk driving and small claims, Trammell has made his share of sweeping rulings. After he declared municipal jury panels discriminatory against Latinos, the court moved to change its practices and use Superior Court jury panels. And although his rulings opening preliminary court hearings to the public were reversed on appeal, the Legislature later rewrote the statute to open such sessions.

Moderate Conservative

While Trammell labels himself a moderate conservative and a personal friend of Gov. George Deukmejian, he has made his share of rulings and statements that have aggravated law enforcement agencies.

Trammell was blasted by police and city attorney officials in 1977 when he ruled in what was described at the time as “a scorching opinion,” that the city attorney’s office improperly approved the shredding of tons of citizens’ complaints accusing police officers of brutality.

Three years ago, Trammell received a harsh letter from Sheriff Sherman Block after he stated in open court about a deputy’s testimony, “If ever I saw a guy I didn’t believe, that’s him.” Wrote Block, “To make unsubstantiated statements concerning . . . testimony in open court is, in my opinion, an arrogant abuse of your legal mandate.”

Trammell, though, does not back down easily. And he maintains that it is unfair to say that he has rendered controversial decisions.

“They were controversial cases,” he said, “on which I rendered decisions.”