Billionaire’s unruly behavior won’t prompt mistrial — for now

Though the weekend break appears to have momentarily quelled calls for a mistrial in the sexual harassment case against Alki David, Los Angeles County Superior Court isn't likely to be rid of the uncontrollable billionaire anytime soon.

Jury deliberations are expected to begin Tuesday, following the conclusion of defense counsel Ellyn C. Garofalo's case-in-chief Monday. On Friday, Garofalo expressed an interest in a new trial, following a courtroom commotion she worried could have tainted the jury against David.

The incident took place on Thursday, after a court bailiff attempted to remove David from the courtroom after repeatedly and loudly interrupting from the audience with profane outbursts. The confrontation escalated following David's ejection from the courtroom, and David could be heard loudly screaming through the door in protest.

But Garofalo said her bigger concern was the number of unrelated court bailiffs who entered the court throughout the day and the potential inferences a jury might make about the actions taken against David.

By Monday end, Garofalo indicated she was backing off from her calls for a new trial -- at least for now. Likely to establish some grounds to challenge a potentially adverse jury decision, though, she said her attitude might change if it was found the incident truly did have a negative impact on the jury's attitude towards David.

"I can't tell the court what impact it had, which I would have to know in order to support a mistrial," Garofalo said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green opined that Garofalo wasn't the only one sailing through uncharted territories. In his 47 years in law, Green said, he's never seen such flagrant disregard for courtroom decorum.

"That includes many capital cases," Green said, dealing with "really horrendous and emotional" issues. Comparatively, he said, "people acted like perfect ladies and gentleman."

Green repeatedly chastised David's behavior away from the eyes of the jury, most recently Monday, after David called plaintiff Lauren Reeves a "lazy drunk cow" during examination from his own counsel. But Green refrained from dressing David down in front of a jury, he explained, because of the impact such an intervention would have.

"This is a problem that has no solution in the case law that I've seen," Green said. "That's a challenge because I owe Mr. David the same, fair trial that I owe Ms. Reeves. And hopefully, I deliver on that."

Knowing of David's antics from two previous trials in the courthouse, Green said he consulted with his colleagues to identify the best methods for counteracting them. He also said he wanted to set something of a standard for dealing with the problem, given David's expected to return to the court to deal with other claims against him.

The threat of sanctions had been shown to have no effect on the billionaire, he said, and attempts at cajoling, commands and comedy proved to have similarly limited results.

"I've never seen this before. And despite me rehearsing the night before in my head how I will respond to any particular circumstance, I've never seen anything like this," Green said.

Expressing dissatisfaction with Green's comparatively zen-like approach, Goldberg vented an uninterrupted list of frustrations created by David and Garofalo following the jury's dismissal.

"He got to spew on. ... It's offensive that this man has been allowed in this court to say to me the things he's said," Goldberg said, recalling how just last week David had threatened -- while on the witness stand -- to physically fight him.

"I get that you don't want to prejudice him -- I get the reasoning -- but there's a point at which somebody deserves to be lectured in front of a jury," Goldberg said.

But with nothing standing before the case and the jury except for final arguments Tuesday, Goldberg acknowledged he, too, was at a loss to identify an adequate remedy for the situation.

"Having said all that, what's done is done, and the record is the record," Goldberg said.