D.A. DENIES COERCION CLAIM LAWYER SPEAKS FOR COOLEY IN COURT.Byline: Staff and Wire Services LOS ANGELES Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. - A lawyer representing District Attorney Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence ("Steve") Cooley (born May 1, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is a veteran prosecutor who was elected as Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney on November 7, 2000. He was sworn in for his second term on December 6, 2004. denied in federal court that his client coerced an inmate during a taped prison interview to give false testimony against a defense attorney accused of bribery and perjury perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. . Steven Blades defended Cooley on Monday, denying allegations that his client maliciously prosecuted Leonard Milstein, who was accused of bribing the same inmate to lie six years earlier in an Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley double murder trial. ``There is nothing in the tapes to show any coercion,'' Blades said in a hearing on a civil suit filed by Milstein. Cooley, the county's top prosecutor, is asking a U.S. district judge to reject the lawsuit. The judge is expected to issue a ruling in the next 10 days. The lawsuit accuses Cooley and Deputy District Attorney Robert Foltz of fabricating evidence, making false statements to the media and filing a false crime report. Milstein was found guilty in 1995 of perjury, bribing a witness and other charges, but an appellate court A court having jurisdiction to review decisions of a trial-level or other lower court. An unsuccessful party in a lawsuit must file an appeal with an appellate court in order to have the decision reviewed. later dismissed the convictions, saying there was insufficient evidence insufficient evidence n. a finding (decision) by a trial judge or an appeals court that the prosecution in a criminal case or a plaintiff in a lawsuit has not proved the case because the attorney did not present enough convincing evidence. . Milstein's lawyers argued that the two prosecutors went after Milstein in retaliation for his success as a defense lawyer in the case of Brad Millward, accused of killing two men in July 1987 at his isolated home seven miles east of Lake Los Angeles. At the trial in which Millward could have faced the death penalty, the defendant testified that he was being framed by drug dealers who invaded his home. They shot one man in his garage, then accidentally shot one of their companions, he said. A San Fernando jury in 1989 acquitted Milstein's client of one murder charge and deadlocked on the second. The defendant received an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. One of the defense witnesses in that trial was Albert Gutierrez, a San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. auto repair shop owner who testified against a prosecution witness. Gutierrez said the witness had been in his shop around the time of the shootings and had ammunition similar to that used in the killings. After the murder trial, Cooley visited Gutierrez in prison. Cooley later said the inmate admitted fabricating testimony at Milstein's request. Milstein was accused of offering to represent Gutierrez in two pending cases for a reduced fee in exchange for the testimony. |
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