JUDGES' PARTY TIME ENDS AUDIT: MONEY FROM 'SLUSH FUND' SHOULD HAVE GONE TO COURTS ACCOUNT.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Party time for Los Angeles judges - golf tournaments, dinner cruises, horse races, baseball games and theater events - partially funded by fees that should have gone to the court system has finally ended.

For decades, Los Angeles County's judges have treated themselves to the lifestyles of the rich and famous with money in an obscure fund created in 1960. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were funneled into what became an entertainment fund from fees judges charged for conducting child custody training seminars and ``walk-through'' programs for new attorneys.

Now the long-awaited audit of the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Association fund reveals that some of the proceeds used for entertainment events should have been deposited to the court's account, not what critics call the judges' ``slush fund.''

But the independent audit, ordered by Presiding Judge James Bascue in February 2001, found there was no practical way to determine how much money was deposited to the fund in 1960 and recommended the court not seek to recoup the money. It also found the judges were not improperly influenced in legal cases by the money from lawyers.

The association's board of directors voted 3-0 in December to turn the nearly $60,000 left in the fund over to the court and end the practice of accepting contributions from lawyers and others and only use judges' $10-a-month association dues for group events, Court Counsel Frederick Bennett said. Bascue declined to be interviewed.

``My gut reaction is very simple,'' said taxpayer advocate and Beverly Hills attorney Richard I. Fine. ``This is a typical misuse of funds case. Should the taxpayers pay for judges to go on (ocean) dinner cruises? Should the taxpayers pay for judges to have golf tournaments?

``Should the taxpayers pay for retirement parties? Should the taxpayers pay for wine and cheese get-togethers? An accounting should be done and deduct the amount of dues judges paid from the amount of money paid for events and the difference is the amount the association has to pay back to the court.''

Bennett said the court made the right decision in December to ensure the proper separation between the court and the judges' association accounts, but it did not want the money repaid because of the difficulty separating funds commingled together for decades.

``They froze all the funds and relinquished all rights to them and started with new funds entirely from volunteer contributions from judges,'' Bennett said. ``Things that occurred in the past, when placed in a historical perspective, were understandable and appropriate, but probably not done in the best way.

Bennett said the county's court system is the world's largest with about 600 judicial officers located in more than 60 different courts and the entertainment events they participate in are appropriate government activities.

``It's an important thing in this unusually diverse group to have a number of activities to bring them together. It looks like there is about eight or 12 of the events a year. Maybe it's a golf tournament, a dinner dance, a wine and cheese tasting - whatever it is that brings them together so they become better team players.''

The Daily News disclosed abuses by judges in the so-called ``coffee and flowers fund'' a year ago. Judges use it for a variety of purposes, including harbor cruises, retirement dinners and to pay for 14K gold cuff links as retirement gifts and flowers for deceased judges.

In August, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, called for a state audit into whether judges operated the special account partly supported by child custody and support cases as a slush fund for their own benefit.

The state auditor questioned whether she had authority to conduct the audit of a private judges association. On March 19, Kuehl wrote a letter to Bascue asking for a copy of the independent audit he ordered. The Daily News obtained the audit last week.

Among its findings was that judges' fund records showed a large number of checks from judges were made out to ``Cash.'' The audit also found the fund has a large number of checks written by attorneys and others as program fees for attending training seminars judges sponsored, including the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Kuehl was vacationing in Hawaii and could not be reached for comment.

The National Organization for Women had asked Kuehl to call for the inquiry because of concerns that funds from attorneys and clients involved in child custody and child support cases were improperly influencing cases before the judges.

The fund, which the audit by the Los Angeles accounting firm of Simpson & Simpson showed took in $101,097 in 2000, was operated under the county's tax identification number without filing tax returns until the association incorporated in 1997.

Details of the fund, supported by lawyer contributions, court monitors and legal seminar fees put on by judges, emerged out of a legal battle between the judges association and a group of parents who claim they were victimized by the family court system because of the financial interests of the judges.

La Crescenta resident Marvin Brier, a 63-year-old retired bank computer analyst who spent several years and $100,000 investigating the fund while helping his daughter regain custody of her 13-year-old son, said the audit shows collusion between lawyers and judges in family court cases.

``I'm stunned,'' Brier said. ``Basically, the lawyers bought this stuff for the judges and then they got favorable judgments. The judicial canons and state bar ethics strictly prohibit this.

``I think all the people who lost children in the family court system have a right to go back and look at who gave money to the association in their cases. My daughter lost legal custody of her son and we attribute this to the money. We regained custody by using this evidence in various court cases.''

Irene Jensen, 47, who maintains residences in the San Fernando Valley and Salt Lake City, said she hasn't seen her daughter in 19 months.

``We are paying for these judges to have a good time on our misery,'' she said. ``Where is my money going? In the last nine years, I've spent well over $100,000 fighting for my daughter's life. Does this mean my money helped these judges go on cruises?''

Bennett said the audit puts to rest speculation that money from inappropriate sources exerted improper influence on the judges.

``All those things were reasonably found not to have a basis,'' Bennett said. ``The complaints, whether real or imagined, justified or unjustified, have caused the court to look at this very closely and they have come up with a structure that is a much better one for accomplishing these purposes.''

Fund expense records for 2000 showed money was used for golf tournaments at El Caballero Country Club, Brookside Country Club and Braemar Country Club, Fantasea Charters & Event Production ocean dinner cruises out of Marina del Rey, Los Angeles Turf Club, Inc., horse races and tickets for L.A. Dodger games and the Lion King theater production.

One entry in December 2000 for former Presiding Judge Victor Chavez's retirement dinner at the Omni Hotel lists a dinner price of $17,664 and includes a Stone Canyon/Starlite Limousine charge of $258.

``I've not been able to track down what the limousine was used for, although the speaker at the dinner was a very famous comedian - Shelly Berman,'' Bennett said. ``I think there were 1,000 people at that event. There were lots of politicians and the chief justice of the California Supreme Court.''

The audit found the association's funds consisted of annual dues from judges, attendance fees to golf tournaments, dinners, luncheons and other special events and participation fees for training workshops and ``walk-through'' programs for new attorneys, where judges provide presentations to assist new attorneys in becoming familiar with the courts.

Program fees were collected from attorneys and others who attended these events. These fees were either collected by the judges' association or the Los Angeles County Bar Association, which remitted the program fees to the association, according to the audit.

For Jan. 1, 1992, through Dec. 31, 2000, the total receipts and expenses for workshops amounted to $278,799, the audit found. However, the expenses did not include any administrative expense and the judges and staff time spent in preparing and hosting the ``walk-through'' programs so the auditors were unable to determine the total expense for the workshops.

In March and September 1995, the court hosted two child visitation monitoring training workshops. According to judges' association records, the association took in $15,350. The expenses did not include any administrative expenses and the judges and staff time spent in preparing and giving the workshops.

In a Dec. 13 memo to Bascue, court Executive Officer John A. Clarke wrote that while steps need to be taken to ensure that receipts and expenditures related to court seminars and training programs are handled through the court's budget rather than through the association, it's not practical to seek recovery of the funds.

``Since the association acted as a nonprofit organization performing legitimate governmental activities on behalf of the court, these funds were expended in furtherance of legitimate government activities,'' Clarke wrote. ``There is no federal or state tax liability or obligation for the court to file tax returns for periods prior to the formal incorporation of the association.''

In a memo to Clarke, Bennett wrote that neither the county auditor-controller nor the independent auditor found any inappropriate activities that should be reported to other agencies.

Bennett wrote the remaining unencumbered funds that can be traced to the training programs are relatively small and there may be no practical way to determine the amount of the excess over the ``legitimate, but difficult to calculate administrative overhead expenses that should have been deposited to the court's account.

``Both the Los Angeles County auditor-controller and the auditing firm of Simpson & Simpson determined that because court staff time and facilities were used to conduct a number of training seminars and programs sponsored by the association, proceeds from those events should have been deposited to the court's account rather than to the association.''

FUN AND GAMES

Here are some of the entertainment expenses revealed in an independent audit of the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Association.

--$12,675 for dinner with Fantasea Charters on Sept. 12, 2000. The group also spent $1,000 with Fantasea on March 3, 2000.

--$8,425 for various event coordinators from Jan. 20, through Dec. 2, 2000.

--$4,189 to Kensington Caterers for a family law seminar on Jan. 26, 2000.

--$3,409 for unspecified retirement gifts from Paris Designs on March 13, 2000.

--$$1,718 for golf and $843 for prizes at El Caballero Country Club. $1,134.35 was spent the same day for food at the Braemar Country Club.

--$2,450 for golf at Brookside Country Club on Oct. 30, 2000.

--$2,424 for a holiday reception at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Dec. 11, 2000.

--$1,676 for coffee service from Golden West Service from Jan. 3 through Nov. 20, 2000.

--$1,505 for Dodger Night on March 13, 2000.

--$775 for an unspecified gift from I. Martin Imports on Dec. 4, 2000.

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FUN AND GAMES (see text)