Trammell: Garcetti's Letter and the J.A.I.L Response
On 11/13/99 JAIL4Judges received a letter from Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti dated Nov. 5, 1999 in an envelope U.S. post-marked Nov. 12, 1999, indicating the letter sat seven days in their office before mailing. It is addressed to one of our attorneys, Gary Zerman, which reads as follows:
November 5, 2022
Gary Zerman, Esq.
Judicial Accountability Initiative Law
11304 Chandler Boulevard, Unit 207
North Hollywood, California 91603
Dear Mr. Zerman:
Your letter to the District Attorney's Office regarding the allegations against former Judge George Trammell was referred to me for a response. The Special Investigations Division, which I supervise, has the responsibility to investigate and prosecute cases involving crimes by public officials which includes judicial officers.
The results of the Trammell investigation were thoroughly reviewed by two highly-qualified and experienced prosecutors as to whether there were any provable violations of California law. Both independently derived the same conclusion that the evidence was insufficient pursuant to our filing guidelines and the burden of proof in a criminal prosecution. As a result of this analysis and the seriousness with which we viewed Mr. Trammell's provable acts, this office sponsored legislation which would make his conduct a felony violation of state law. Although the bill was enacted, the legislature unfortunately reduced the possible sanctions to a misdemeanor.
Very truly yours,
GIL GARCETTI
District Attorney
By CLIFFORD L. KLEIN
Head Deputy District Attorney
Special Investigations Division
(213) 974-3880
The letterhead provides the following address:
Criminal Courts Building
210 West Temple Street Los Angeles
CA 90012-3275
WEBSITE: http://www.co.la.ca.us.da
On its face, to the novice, this letter would sound quite convincing of acting in good faith. When this letter was brought to the attention of Gary Zerman, he stated that this was a total evasion of what he had presented to D.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti. Zerman is now preparing a formal response, but here are his observations.
First off, Zerman said, Garcetti asks us to believe that he has made a through investigation regarding the criminal conduct of ex-Judge Trammell. That simply is not true. We have provided Garcetti with another female witness against Trammell who has stated that Gil Garcetti has failed to call or contact her regarding her offer of testimony.
Some of you may have seen the October 28th 20/20 expose on ex-Judge Trammell, and his unbelievable defense story of why he had sex with a defendant before his court. (He said that he did it out of fear for his life.)
Even though Mr. Garcetti admits that the "provable acts" against Mr. Trammell were serious, he places much of the blame on his office's "filing guidelines" as a reason not to proceed with prosecution. (I believe the evidence included Trammell's pubic hair off the bed sheet, and intimate taped phone conversations the woman secretly recorded by leading him on.)
According to Garcetti, we are to find fault with the California Legislature. (We might note here, Trammell once worked for the D.A.'s Office, and Trammell's daughter currently works for Garcetti.)
Now, we have produced another woman in a separate incident involving criminal conduct of Trammell who has never been questioned by D.A. Garcetti. How does Garcetti answer our concerns on this? Not a word!
As a background, on October 20th we held a public demonstration in front of Gil Garcetti's Office, 210 West Temple, Los Angeles. Much media was present and we received channel 2 and 9 coverage, with media interviews following. During that demonstration, Gary Zerman went into the building and served a notice upon Gil Garcetti and the County Grand Jury with seven days to respond.
The above letter is Garcetti's "response." We have already planned another demonstration, which will take place Wednesday, November 17th, same location, to start at 10:30 a.m. We will have plenty of signs and again invite the media. We invite every person and every organization concerned with unaccountability of the government and the judiciary to be present. For further information, please contact Dave Silva, (818) 897-7767.