A defense attorney called Monday for the judge in the “Grim Sleeper” serial murder case to be disqualified, bringing pretrial proceedings to a halt.
In a move that Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman called “pretrial by ambush,” defense attorney Louisa Pensanti filed a motion Monday morning seeking to have Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy removed from Lonnie David Franklin Jr.’s case.
Discussing her motion with City News Service outside the courtroom, Pensanti said Kennedy had met separately with prosecutors to discuss allegations made by one of the defense attorney’s associates and then inappropriately spoke out in open court.
Last year, Kennedy asked Franklin — who’s charged with murdering nine women and a teenage girl — to consider whether he wanted to continue to have Pensanti represent him.
Kennedy’s concerns apparently arose from allegations brought by Oscar Bridges, a convicted child molester now charged with stabbing a man to death in a South Los Angeles motel room. Bridges, who was a client of Pensanti’s and later worked in her office, accused Pensanti of illegally soliciting the Franklin death penalty case, which she took on pro bono, according to the L.A. Weekly.
Pensanti later brought on defense attorney Seymour Amster, who is qualified to handle death penalty cases, as co-counsel. On Monday, Amster brought along a third attorney who he said would assist in the case.
When asked why she had waited until now to file her complaint, Pensanti told City News Service that she had first sought recourse “through another channel.”
Silverman, meanwhile, threatened to seek sanctions for the last-minute filing without notice to her office.
“It is unprofessional,” the prosecutor told the judge.
Kennedy said she could take no further action in the death penalty case until a hearing is held before another judge to determine whether Kennedy herself would be disqualified. That hearing must be held within 10 days, according to Kennedy.
Franklin, who has remained jailed since his arrest nearly five years ago, is accused of murdering nine women — mostly in their 20s — and a 15-year-old girl whose bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins in and around South Los Angeles, Inglewood and unincorporated county areas.
The assailant was dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” because of the apparent 13- year break between the killing sprees — which occurred between 1985 and 1988, and 2002 and 2007.
Franklin is also charged with the attempted murder of another woman.
Detectives said after Franklin’s arrest that they were also investigating whether the former city employee might be connected to the disappearances or deaths of eight other women whose photos were found in his home near 81st Street and Harvard Boulevard.
The families of the victims have appeared in court repeatedly and spoke out in court last month to protest delays in the case.
“I just wanted to know when will justice be served for our families?” Sherry Ware Costa asked in February. Costa’s niece, Barbara Ware, was among the 10 murder victims. “All we’re asking for is justice, simple as that.”
After listening to the relatives’ pleas in February, Kennedy set a trial date of June 30. If a new judge is appointed, further delays may result.
— City News Service