Younger Dropped From Suit Filed in Farr Case
Thursday, May 23rd, 1974
LOS ANGELES, May 23 – State Atty. Gen. Evelle J. Younger was dismissed Wednesday as a defendant in the $24 million libel suit filed by Irving Kanarek and Paul Fitzgerald, two attorneys in the 1970 Charles Manson murder trial.
The lawyers claim they were defamed because Times reporter William Farr said he obtained transcripts from two of the six trial lawyers who were under a court gag order, but did not specify which two.
Remaining defendants are Farr, The Times, CBS, Inc. and KNX News Radio, and other trial lawyers Daye Shinn and former Dep. Dist. Atty. Vincent T. Bugliosi, who is now a candidate for attorney general.
The remaining two attorneys, Dep. Dist. Attys. Donald A. Musich and Stephen R. Kay, were named defendants “as interested parties whose interests are affected” after they refused to join Kanarek and Fitzgerald as plaintiffs.
Younger, Bugliosi and Shinn were accused with Farr of conspiracy “to keep secret … the fact that … Bugliosi … and Shinn were and are the attorneys who unlawfully furnished information and swore falsely regarding the same;” and conspiracy to refuse to clear Kanarek and Fitzgerald of suspicion of giving the transcripts to Farr and of suspicion of perjury.
Superior Judge Jerry Pacht held that Younger was immune from the conspiracy accusation whether he was sued in his capacity as attorney general or as Los Angeles County district attorney, the position he held from Dec. 7, 1964, to Jan. 3, 1971.
He also agreed with Dep. County Counsel Robert B. Reagan that Younger, did not commit any civil wrong because the law does not require him to publish results of an investigation his office reportedly made into the transcript transfer.
“Younger has no duty to make known his investigation simply because somebody brings a lawsuit,” Pacht said.
Pacht took under submission legal objections by Bugliosi that seek dismissal of the suit against him.
No ruling on Bugliosi’s request is expected until after the June 4 primary election.
The Bugliosi document, prepared by his attorney and campaign treasurer, Michael Heaman, claimed the libel suit does not establish that Bugliosi knowingly conspired to commit any wrongful act.
Heaman wrote that Bugliosi “vehemently and categorically denies” the suit’s claims that he violated a criminal court gag order, kept the violation secret, committed perjury, and concealed the perjury to defame Kanarek and Fitzgerald.
Even if the allegations of criminal wrongdoing were true, Heaman said, they could not be used to recover civil damages. He said the suit never established that any civil wrong was done.
The Los Angeles County Grand Jury has appointed Theodore Shield as special prosecutor to pursue possible perjury charges against the two attorneys who gave Farr transcripts on which he based a story about Manson family plans to murder celebrities. All six of the trial attorneys have denied under oath that they gave Farr the information.
Farr spent 46 days in jail for refusing to name the two attorneys and is now free pending appeals of his continuing contempt sentence.
In other civil litigation involving Bugliosi Wednesday, Superior Judge Charles H. Church refused to authorize shortcuts which would have allowed attorney George V. Denny III to question Bugliosi under oath before the June 4 primary.
“I will not permit the court to be used for political purposes,” Church told Denny.
Denny has sued Bugliosi and Heaman for nearly $150,000 for slander because they termed him a “liar” and a “hatchet man.” Denny said the comments came after he conducted a press conference concerning “Bugliosi’s unfitness to be a candidate for the office of attorney general … based on detailed charges that said Bugliosi was a liar, perjurer, a fabricator of false statements and evidence and a payer of hush money to cover up his misdeeds.”
Denny sought to advance the taking of Bugliosi’s deposition in the suit, he said, in order to prove his claims before the election that Bugliosi is unfit for public office.
By MYRNA OLIVER
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