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Panel Deadlocks in Molestation Case, Cites Police Entrapment
By Matthew Heller - Daily Journal Staff Writer
RIVERSIDE - The mother was "Helen," the 13-year-old daughter was "Pamela" and their correspondent was a Riverside man interested in being the girl's "special teacher" in the ways of love.
When Robert Lee L*** went to a motel to meet his would-be pupil, he was arrested as part of an undercover sting operation, Helen and Pamela actually were the fictitious creations of a San Bernardino County sheriff's detective who answered an ad that L***, 50, placed in a swingers magazine.
But L*** fate was left undecided Tuesday as a Riverside Superior Court jury, partially accepting an entrapment defense, deadlocked 6-6 on a charge of attempted child molestation and Judge Christian F. Thierbach declared a mistrial.
"The jurors were upset by what they felt was police misconduct that amounted to entrapment," said defense attorney Paul Grech of Riverside.
Grech pointed in particular to a "letter of sincerity" that Detective Michael DiMatteo, posing as Helen, sent L***, assuring him that he was not a police officer and any crime would go undetected. "This was a man with no predisposition to commit a crime," he said.
Deputy District Attorney Karen A. Gorham argued there was no entrapment because L*** expressed his interest in having sex with Pamela before he received DiMatteo's guarantee. "A normal law-abiding person would not commit a crime even if they think it will go undetected," she said after the trial.
A decision on a retrial of People v. L***, RIFO88322, will be announced June 30. "Preliminarily, it looks like we are going to retry it," Gorham said.
DiMatteo, who investigates crimes against children, contacted Laws in July after seeing an ad in West Coast Swingers magazine while reviewing adult material. The ad featured a photo of L*** naked from the waist down and sought a sexual partner. "Younger lady preferred but age open."
As Helen, the detective told L*** that she" had been introduced to sex at 13 by a special teacher. "I have always thought it was a shame to leave such important matters…to some pimple-faced teen-age boy in the back seat of a car at some drive-in movie," she wrote.
According to DiMatteo's testimony, L*** acknowledged Pamela's age in subsequent letters and promised he would be gentle with her. "I've never had sex with a 13-year-old, but I'm anxiously looking forward to being your 'special teacher," he said.
L*** was arrested in September as he entered the motel room where he had arranged to meet Pamela. Police found condoms and lubricants in his pants pocket.
Undercover sting operations against child molesters, often conducted through the Internet, have become a staple weapon of law enforcement. But during L*** weeklong trial, the defense contended that DiMatteo crossed the entrapment line by using the letter of sincerity.
"(That) was definitely police misconduct," Grech said. "The law's clear on that issue"
Gorham stressed that the jurors voting for guilt "were very adamant it was not entrapment." But she also recommended the police agencies avoid using letters of sincerity. " I don't think it's necessary," she said.
Ex-CHP office acquitted
By Mike Kataoka • The Press-Enterprise
A Riverside jury deliberated about 90 minutes yesterday before acquitting a former Riverside-based California Highway Patrol officer accused of felony workers' compensation fraud.
The not-guilty verdicts on eight counts brought tears to the eyes of Donald Vickers Whitted, 39, of Loma Linda, and a triumphant "yes!" from one of his supporters in the audience.
Whitted embraced his attorney, Paul Grech, and shook hands with the jurors as they filed out of the courtroom to end a three-week trial. Whitted's first trial earlier this year resulted in a hung jury leaning toward acquittal.
Whitted declared yesterday the "happiest day of my life" and said he would appeal for reinstatement as a Highway Patrol officer. Jurors reached outside the courtroom declined to comment.
The 13-year CHP veteran was charged with eight felonies for allegedly filing a false workers' compensation claim after he injured his knee in 1992. He was fired while his trial was pending.
The claim attributed his injury to running, an approved fitness activity for CHP officers covered by workers' compensation. Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Plowden contended that the injury actually occurred during a church league basketball game so Whitted was ineligible for the benefits he collected.
The multiple felony counts reflected Whitted's alleged false statements about his injury to various doctors who treated him.
Plowden said outside of court that he expected lengthier deliberations considering the volume of evidence presented a the three-week trial.
"I think there was a lot of sympathy toward the defendant because he was a police officer who was well-liked and well-respected," the prosecutor said.
Plowden suspected that jurors knew Whitted had lost his job and had been tried before, even though those facts were not before them, so thee may have been a feeling he had been punished enough.
The evidence clearly showed that Whitted would have been unable to play basketball had he injured his knee while jogging earlier that day in October 1992, Plowden said.
Defense attorney Grech said despite an aggressive prosecution by Plowden, "I think they reached that verdict because he's innocent."
Grech said his client received $4,000 in disability payments. The criminal case was filed after Whitted's ex-wife tipped off authorities that he may have defrauded the workers' compensation system.
"This case was based on the complaint made by a vindictive ex-wife," Grech said.
Whitted, who was free without bail while the case was pending, said he has not been able to find work since he was fired by the CHP.
In early March, no more than four jurors believed Whitted was guilty of any of the eight counts.
Woman cleared in father's death
By Tim O'Leary • The Press-Enterprise
In a rare move, a Riverside County Superior Court judge Thursday dismissed the case against a Temecula woman who was charged with killing her father by failing to provide adequate home health care.
The trial had sparked debate among national elder abuse on caregiver support groups on whether relatives should be prosecuted if something goes awry when they care for loved ones at home.
Rather than let a jury deliberate, Judge Edward D. Webster granted a defense motion to dismiss a second-degree murder charge filed against Adrienne Powers. Such motions are routinely denied in criminal cases.
Webster said there was not enough evidence presented to conclude that Powers caused the March 1996 death of her 76-year-old father.
He ordered her released from county jail, where she has been imprisoned for more than two years. The ruling prevents prosecutors from filing new charges in the case.
"I always believed this day would come but is took sheer determination and the artistry of my defense attorney, Paul Grech," Powers said as she was released from jail.
After the ruling, prosecutor Jeanne Roy said, "The judge was wrong. I think the evidence was there to support a case of murder, but more so, that decision should be in the hands of the jury."
Prosecutors alleged that Powers provided poor care for her father, Walter Eggleston, which led to his hospitalization for bed sores, malnutrition, dehydration and other problems. He suffered a fatal heart attack three months later.
The 56-year-old single mother said she did her best to care for her dad while stretching her limited income and caring for teen-age children. She said she struggled to honor her father's desire to remain with her instead of being placed in a nursing home.
Sacramento law professor said Webster's ruling was a rare instance of a judge sidestepping a jury and determining that the prosecution had not proved a cause of death.
"It's very unusual for a judge to direct a verdict of acquittal and take it away from a jury," said Joshua Dressler, a professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. " It raises textbook issues future law students have to think about."
The key issues centered around how Eggleston died and whether caregivers should be held responsible for the death of someone under their care, Dressler said. Assigning blame could have a chilling effect on adult children who are contemplating caring for their parents at home instead of placing them in a nursing home.
Roy said the ruling did not shake her belief that the proper charges were filed against Powers in September 1996. The second-degree murder charge, which carried a prison sentence of 15 years to life, replaced an elder abuse count filed against Powers eight months earlier.
"If I thought, for one second, this was not a murder case, I would not have been in there (court), ever," she said. Our position is, this is, was, a murder and, if we had to file it again today, we'd file murder."
Grech, a Riverside lawyer, said a murder charge should not have been filed in the case. He said Powers believed so strongly that she was innocent she refused to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter before the trial.
If a plea bargain had been struck, he said, Powers could have gotten out of jail soon or perhaps would have been released already on the basis of time she had spent behind bars.
"I think she was confident that the case would end up the way it did," Grech said. "I'm pretty confident that, if the jury had been given the case, they would have reached the same conclusion."
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