Defense Challenge to Ticket-Fixing Charges Against Judge Rejected

A legal challenge to a key element of the ticket-fixing case against Beverly Hills Municipal Judge Charles D. Boags was rejected Thursday by the specially appointed judge hearing the case.

Retired Torrance Municipal Judge Mark Wood dismissed defense arguments that an obstruction of justice charge against Boags should be thrown out because it is an illegal intrusion by prosecutors on the discretionary power of the state judiciary.

Wood also turned down a request by defense lawyers Richard G. Hirsch and Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. to call witnesses to support their contention that dismissing or suspending fines on parking tickets is a common practice in Beverly Hills.

‘Completely Immaterial’

“My initial feeling (is) that what other judges do . . . is completely immaterial,” Wood told the lawyers.

Arguments on additional challenges to the three misdemeanor charges filed against Boags, 57, are to be heard Thursday before Wood in Beverly Hills Municipal Court.

Outside the courtroom, Cochran said of the judge’s decision: “We’re disappointed but undaunted. We’re going to go forward.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Healey, who is prosecuting Boags, said: “There is not a lot of precedent for having a judge as a defendant and thus far I am impressed with the fact that the judge (Wood) has seen his way clear to come up with the right decisions on these unusual questions.”

During Thursday’s hearing, Boags sat at the counsel table with his attorneys. Because the charges against him are misdemeanors, he remains on the bench but has been restricted to hearing civil cases.

Boags was charged in January by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office with conspiring to obstruct justice, failing to remove himself from a case as required by law, and presiding over a case in which he had a financial interest. If convicted, Boags could face up to a year in Los Angeles County Jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

The district attorney’s office alleges that Boags improperly suspended fines on 207 parking tickets issued to cars driven by his son or his son’s high school friends, many of whom were members of the Beverly Hills High School football team.

2 Cars Registered to Boags

One hundred forty-five of the tickets were issued to a 1984 Honda and a 1981 Volkswagen registered to Boags. The remaining 62 tickets were issued to cars registered to nine students at Beverly Hills High School or their families. All but two of the tickets were handed out in 1985 and 1986.

When the charges were filed, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner told reporters: “What Judge Boags was doing, stripped down to its essentials, was fixing tickets for his son and fixing tickets for his son’s friends. . . .”

However, Cochran and Hirsch argued Thursday that Boags was not fixing tickets. Under California law, a judge has the discretion to suspend fines on parking tickets, they said. Prosecuting Boags for doing that violates the constitutional principle that the powers of the judicial branch of government are separate and independent of the executive branch (in this case, the district attorney’s office).

Healey argued that the effect of systematically suspending fines on tickets issued to Boags’ son and his friends was to knowingly conspire to interfere with the administration of parking laws in Beverly Hills.

Next week, Wood will consider arguments that none of the charges filed against Boags outlines a specific violation of law and that two of the three charges are so vague that an adequate legal defense is impossible.

Healey has disputed both claims.

If they lose, Cochran and Hirsch said they may appeal Wood’s decisions to the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Boags, who served more than 20 years in the office of the Los Angeles County public defender, was appointed to the bench in 1979 by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.