Stephen G. Larson

Larson has the advantage of working as a lawyer who was a U.S. district judge in the Central District from 2006 to 2009.

In November, he secured a $65 million settlement for a longtime client, developer Jeffrey Burum, and his Colonies Partners LP investment group on malicious prosecution claims against San Bernardino County for an allegedly retaliatory investigation, indictment and criminal prosecution on bribe-taking charges. Colonies Partners LP v. County of San Bernardino, 5:18-cv-00420 (C.D. Cal., filed March 1, 2018).

The case, its origins and ultimate outcome spanned well over a decade. San Bernardino County prosecutors claimed that Burum in 2006 bribed officials to obtain a $102 million settlement over the county’s takeover of flood control easements. Larson successfully defended Burum at his eight-month criminal trial in 2017—Burum was found not guilty on all charges—then came back with the civil rights suit.

“We were successful on everything,” Larson said, including on numerous trips to appellate courts, on obtaining an adverse inference jury instruction sanction against the county for spoilation of emails by a former district attorney and on the defeat of summary judgment when U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal of Riverside found ample defense grounds for its fabrication of evidence, First Amendment retaliation, malicious prosecution and conspiracy to deny civil rights claims.

Despite his deep familiarity with the law, Larson had never appeared as counsel in a military court martial—until last year when he faced an all-officer judge, prosecution and jury and successfully defended a U.S. Air Force major, an oral surgeon accused of performing unauthorized surgery on his own mother.

The trial was held at Edwards AFB near Lancaster. The officer, who has returned to active duty and whom Larson declined to name, was charged with dereliction of duty, false statements, larceny and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

“It was the only jury trial I had during Covid,” Larson said.

“We didn’t have what looked like a normal jury. There were officers in uniforms and short haircuts and masks, very spit-and-polish and serious and somewhat daunting. The judge was a colonel. I felt a little fish-out-of-water.”

The defendant admitted what he’d done, and Larson had some legal arguments. “But I appealed to their sense of humanity. Everybody has a mother.” After three hours of deliberation, the verdict was not guilty.

“You become close to the people you represent in their time of need,” Larson said. “It’s the reason I became a lawyer.”

--John Roemer