4th LA judge tries to tame sex harassment defendant

LOS ANGELES -- Having huffed and puffed his way into blowing down decorum in previous trials, Hologram USA Inc. CEO Alki David finally seemed to hit a brick wall Friday.

Michelle Williams Court is the third Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in as many months to oversee a sexual harassment trial against the bombastic billionaire brought by a former employee and the fourth in 2019.

Court told David she had extensively reviewed reports from previous trials in which he was involved and recalled a laundry list of court violations he routinely committed in prior courtrooms and her own. Again and again, she said, David violated requests from the court and its written orders, screamed vulgarities, and verbally attacked members of the audience or opposing counsel.

Warning David she could potentially revoke his ability to represent himself and even ban him from the courtroom, Court asked David whether he could refrain from such behavior as they prepared to move into jury selection for the latest trial.

"Yes," David answered, pausing a moment. "But in this forum -- absolutely not."

He decried Allred, Maroko & Goldberg LLP, the law firm that has represented three of the four sexual harassment claimaints against David this year, as an "evil cottage industry." A fourth case, which ended in a mistrial, was brought by Lisa Bloom, the daughter of firm partner Gloria Allred.

His ire even turned toward his former attorney, Ellyn C. Garofalo, a Venable LLP partner who represented him in the most recent trial, which ended in a $4.35 million verdict in the plaintiff's favor. David reasoned he lost the case because rather than represent himself he'd deferred to attorneys, who had their "hands tied."

He also questioned why Garofalo, who was present in court Friday as counsel for Hologram USA and David's other business entities, told him Allred, Maroko & Goldberg committed an apparent forgery when submitting its trial exhibit list. While Garofalo called out the alleged forgery in a response filed earlier this week, she dropped requests for a court response to the misconduct Friday, upsetting David.

As he yelled, the Hologram CEO at one point turned to the audience and gestured at plaintiff Miryam Khan, who accused David of repeated instances of workplace sexual harassment in a complaint filed in May 2017. A few moments later Khan stormed out of the courtroom and could be heard weeping in the halls.

"Mr. David," Court said five times, until she eventually caught his ear. "What just happened cannot happen in this courtroom again."

Restating the plaintiff's belief that the court should grant terminating sanctions and enter a default judgment against David for his behavior, Allred Maroko & Goldberg attorney Dolores Y. Leal questioned the value of continuing under the notion that David would be able to maintain his composure once a jury was selected.

"He will not listen," Leal said, recalling David had been apparently moved by sanctions imposed on him in previous trials by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judges Christopher K. Lui and Terry A. Green. "He doesn't care."

But citing, as Green and Lui had before her, the importance of upholding fairness to both sides of the dispute in spite of the difficult circumstances, Court declined the request for terminating sanctions. Mahim Khan v. Hologram USA Inc., BC654017 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed March 14, 2017).

Indicating she devised a strategic approach to handling David based on the prior trials, Court seemed to be doing her best not to indulge any of his eccentricities. When David would loudly and dramatically interject into discussions in violation of court rules, Court remained unfazed and responded plainly, reminding David of her warnings about barring his self-representation.

At least in early rounds, the strategy appears to be working. While he indicated he would remain throughout the day as his own attorney for voir dire of potential jurors, he did not return after the court's lunch break.