A judge’s perspective into the wild world of court in Van Nuys

Every lawyer and judge believes they have a good book in them. The really vain believe they have a series to share. The urge and luxury and freedom of getting that book on paper usually burns white-hot when the person retires from the law.

Thus, Matt Graham, recently retired from the California Court of Appeal, brings us an unexpected, ribald and raunchy, but soulful and insightful romp, largely from a judge's perspective, into the wild world of the superior court in Van Nuys: "Hidden Behind the Robe: A Courthouse Thriller." (Disclaimer: "Matt Graham" is a nom de plume. I know the identity of the author and am a long-time friend and colleague.)

More pulp fiction than serious drama, and that's a compliment, Graham offers a breezy read that will shock outsiders to the law, but ring all too true to those of us who have been denizens of the courtrooms of California. There's little political ax-grinding between the covers, but Graham's outsized characters and over-the-top antics make all that beside the point.

Graham reveals he is a son of the San Fernando Valley, a Cal State Northridge and Loyola Law School graduate, and a "state prosecutor" (code for deputy attorney general) who served on the superior court and then the Court of Appeal. So, he knows the legal jungle from multiple inside angles. I've followed Graham's career and was in court with him on occasion; he's one of the most sterling and skillful lawyers and jurists I encountered in 45 years in practice. That said, had I read the book not knowing his identity as the author, I would never have attributed to him this wild depiction of the Valley court. That makes this book all the more tantalizing; you'll just have to take my word for it.

The protagonist is Superior Court Judge Charles Dunning, who is the supervising judge of the Van Nuys branch court overseeing its 40 some judges, a mixed bag of tough women, egomaniacal men and doddering fools. Dunning is a modest, seasoned judge and "Leave it to Beaver" family man, who attempts to mete out fair and measured justice while keeping his deteriorating and worn out courthouse in order and his family insulated from the slings and arrows of the justice system.

The plot begins with a sexual harassment complaint brought by a reluctant junior female judge against an effete Virginia Law grad jurist, William Davis Hyde, who is renowned around the courthouse for having sex in his courtroom and chambers with court employees. (If you think that's improbable and over-the-top, I know of a judge who did just that and was discovered in flagrante delicto by his young bailiff on a Saturday morning while showing his courtroom to his parents who were visiting from the Midwest. The bailiff was transferred the next Monday. That judge carried on.)

Dunning teams up with the court's HR internal affairs investigator, Ricardo Mijares, a grizzled, retired sheriff's detective, to "catch" Hyde on camera. When the plan to bug chambers is revealed to the entire bench in an email sent by an idiot investigator, a meeting of all the judges is called by one of Hyde's few judicial allies, Jeremy Thompson, a Harvard grad. That meeting is one of the highlights of the book, portraying the ego, pettiness and sloppy habits of the various judges. Dunning effectively spars with Hyde and the meeting ends with a vague threat from Hyde.

That vague threat turns out to be at the heart of the plot. Hyde and Thompson manufacture a false claim of racism by Dunning in a 20-year-old murder case and, through Thompson's political connections, turn out a mob to protest and demand Dunning's resignation first at the courthouse and then in Dunning's neighborhood. First the local, and then national press, jump on the protest. Dunning and his family are provided police protection. Adhering to judicial ethics, Dunning cannot respond.

The day and Dunning's hide are saved by an awkward but intrepid journalism student from Dunning's alma mater, Cal State Northridge, who is assisted by a young attractive intern in the DA's Office. The student, Aaron Dawson, pings around the justice system like an out-of-round pinball until he finds himself in a prison visiting room with the alleged source of the racism complaint and learns the truth. In the meantime, the bandage on Hydes' misconduct is torn off in a scene Quentin Tarantino could hardly imagine, much less portray on film.

The story is spiced with recognizable locales, watering holes, dumpy restaurants and street vendors in the Valley. Courtroom incidents are based on actual cases Graham came across in his storied career. (I recognized a few.)

Graham is not trying to push an agenda or critique the justice system. For Dunning and the other characters, the justice system is what it is -- a human institution with all the foibles and flaws people bring to it, held together at the seams by the good men and women who serve in it. This book is pure entertainment. No preaching, no lessons. It's a genuinely fun read that will have insiders, and judges in particular, laughing out loud and nodding in knowing recognition. At the same time, there are enough examples of integrity and sweet goodness to rescue it from cynicism from lay readers.

We might reasonably expect to see Judge Dunning, his colleagues in the justice system and the young, now graduate, Aaron Dawson, in future installments "behind the robe." 