News
Judges and Judiciary
Feb. 19, 2002
DA Sheds Gladiator Image for Bench
LOS ANGELES - Mad Dog. Bulldog. Energizer Bunny. That is how members of the Los Angeles legal community refer to former prosecutor Harvey Giss - and that's from his fans.
PROFILE
Harvey Giss
Superior Court Judge
Los Angeles
Career highlights: Appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to Los Angeles Superior Court, April 20, 2001; deputy district attorney, Los Angeles County, 1972-2001; partner, Isman and Giss, 1966-72; law clerk to Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Frederick C. Struckmeyer, 1964-66
Law school: UCLA School of Law, 1964
Age: 62
By Anne La Jeunesse
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - Mad Dog. Bulldog. Energizer Bunny.
That is how members of the Los Angeles legal community refer to former prosecutor Harvey Giss - and that's from his fans.
Now that Giss, known as a dogged and tireless deputy district attorney, is on the bench and no longer baring his teeth in court, attorneys speak mainly of his deft command of the law and meticulous attention to cases.
But it wasn't always that way.
Giss tried some of the county's most gruesome murder cases in his 29-year tenure as a prosecutor. Along the way, he made bitter enemies of some defense attorneys - perhaps most notably, outspoken criminal defense attorney Leslie Abramson.
Giss handed the feisty high-profile attorney her only defeat in a death penalty case, in the infamous Bob's Big Boy murders.
After a contentious trial, her client, Ricky Sanders, was sentenced to death in 1982 for herding restaurant customers and workers into a freezer, killing four and wounding several others.
Abramson could not be reached for comment.
Giss engendered outright hostility from killers he prosecuted. His life was threatened and the deputy district attorney took to wearing a pistol strapped to his ankle.
"I don't carry it anymore," Giss said recently, patting the ankle where his gun used to rest. "I even gave up my concealed weapon permit."
One such case involved security guard Rodney Garmanian, who was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a Brentwood High School girl. Garmanian launched a jailhouse plot to have a hit man rub out Giss along with a judge and a cop. In another, the father of a defendant in the Bob's Big Boy case socked Giss unconscious outside the courthouse.
"It was a sucker punch - I never saw it coming," he said.
As a deputy district attorney, Giss racked up top awards from his colleagues - he was named Outstanding Lecturer by the California District Attorneys Association at its homicide symposium in 1987, Los Angeles County Prosecutor of the Year in 1988 and California Prosecutor of the Year in 1990.
Santa Monica criminal defense attorney Charles Lindner said that Giss' reputation as a judge, among the Los Angeles area defense bar, is "extraordinarily" good.
"For a guy who was such a hard-ass prosecutor, he's turned out to be an excellent judge," Lindner said. "Very well-balanced, very calm, very on top of what is going on in his courtroom. He's not afraid to grant a defense motion when it's meritorious - unlike many judges."
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George, then a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, presided over the trial of a couple who killed the leader and treasurer of a bogus church. Giss handled the prosecution.
"I consider him to be one of the most able prosecutors who ever appeared before me," George said.
"It is worthy of note that while he was very forceful and effective in prosecuting the case, he had a true sense of fairness in performing his duty. The defense attorneys had a great deal of respect for him," George said. "He never lost sight of his duty to be fair."
He has continued that level of professionalism on the bench, according to those who have appeared before him.
Criminal defense attorney Christopher C. Melcher, who recently had a grand theft case before Giss in the San Fernando Division court, praised the judge's compassion and work ethic.
"Every time he would come into the courtroom, he had a stack of authorities, research he'd done on our case," Melcher said. "He always had the latest case law at his fingertips - he did more research on my case than I did."
Melcher was particularly interested in Giss' take on the case because it involved Miranda issues and a questionable signed confession. While clerking for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Frederick C. Struckmeyer from 1964 to 1966, Giss drafted a decision in a rape-robbery case against a man named Ernesto Miranda. In a 5-0 vote, the Arizona Supreme Court allowed Miranda's admissions to police to be entered into evidence.
But two years later the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision on a 5-4 vote, resulting in the Miranda rights familiar to any fan of police novels or films - "You have the right to remain silent ... ."
The ferocity that Giss displayed while a prosecutor is not evident in his work as a superior court judge, Melcher said.
"His demeanor is excellent. He doesn't act like a prosecutor when he's on the bench, he acts like a judge," Melcher said.
Giss allowed both sides a fair shot, admitted the evidence each side deemed important and did nothing Melcher considered prejudicial. And, Melcher said, Giss has a tremendous sense of humor.
Giss' knowledge of the law is incredible, "you couldn't ask for anything better," Melcher said, adding that he'd try all of his cases before Giss if he could.
Melcher's opponent in that case, Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Michael Sheehan, seconded Melcher's opinion.
"Doing a trial there [before Giss] is like getting an LL.M. in criminal law," Sheehan said. "He knows that law backwards and forwards. I stayed up a lot of nights working on that case because I didn't want to disappoint the judge - you could tell he devoted a great deal of time and effort to it."
Giss' work ethic is infectious, making attorneys who appear before him strive to do their best, Sheehan said.
"It's a real pleasure being in his court," Sheehan said. "I look forward to the next thing I do in his court. It'll make me work harder and be a better lawyer."
Santa Monica criminal defense attorney Gigi Gordon cut her legal teeth while working on the defense team in the execution-style slayings of three workers and a customer inside a walk-in freezer at the Bob's Big Boy restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in 1980.
Giss won convictions for all three defendants in the case, sending Abramson's client, Ricky Sanders, to death row, where he remains today.
Acrimony between defense attorneys and Giss pervaded the trial, but he always had time for Gordon, despite the fact that there were few women lawyers in high-profile matters at that time.
"Harvey could have ignored me like I was a bug who just carried the briefcase, but he wasn't like that, he was truly interested in talking to me, and I was truly interested in talking to him, even when I wanted to punch his lights out," Gordon said. "Had I not had 18 months in a courtroom with Harvey, I probably wouldn't be whatever kind of lawyer I am today.
"Harvey Giss taught me every trick I know," Gordon said, echoing the words she spoke on the occasion of his retirement from the district attorney's office.
Gordon calls Giss the "Energizer bunny."
"He was a scary guy, very scary. He was the most tenacious person I have ever seen in the courtroom," said Gordon, hardly a shrinking violet herself. "There was no one ever more fearsome or hard-working, which is something that will be a good asset as a judge. Harvey was one of the hardest-working guys I ever saw. It didn't matter if I worked 11 hours - Harvey worked 12."
Veering from one war story to the next, Giss admitted he can be "ornery," like his favorite television lawyer - actor Sam Waterston's driven New York prosecutor Sam McCoy.
Giss is also a "fiercely intelligent" man, which will serve him well on the bench, Gordon said.
Gordon's husband, Bellflower criminal defense attorney Andrew M. Stein, crossed paths with Giss throughout the years. Stein represented one of many defendants Giss prosecuted in a case of fraud stemming from automobile crashes staged for insurance fraud purposes. Stein also once represented the security guard who tried to have Giss killed for prosecuting him in the 1988 murder of high school senior Teak Dyer.
"Harvey is above board and fair and honest, and I think his intelligence is superior to many, many people in the legal profession," Stein said. "He's going to make every effort to be an outstanding judge - he has the life experience to be able to judge what a case is worth and to learn [different types of] law - he's quicker than lightning, intellectually."
Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Vincent Ewing said that Giss operates his courtroom in an even-handed manner and interjects humor when appropriate.
"He's firm on the sentencing when he feels it's appropriate, whether it's on a conviction after a trial or a post-conviction matter," Ewing said.
Ewing advises attorneys who appear before Giss to be punctual, know the rules of the court and be very familiar with the issues in the case, because Giss will be prepared.
"Know the different code sections that apply, whether Penal or Vehicle Code - because he certainly does," Ewing said.
Courtesy is paramount in Giss' courtroom, Ewing said.
"Show the court the same courtesy that you would expect to be shown to you," he said.
Appointed to the bench last April by Gov. Gray Davis, Giss served a stint at Metropolitan court and, about a month ago, moved to the San Fernando Division court, where he conducts misdemeanor trials. He'll soon move to a new courthouse in Chatsworth.
A Los Angeles native, Giss spent his formative years in Echo Park, the Fairfax District and Beverly Hills and was a paperboy when, he said, "the world was a much safer place."
After earning a bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA in 1961, he attended UCLA School of Law, graduating in 1964.
He was inspired to pursue a legal career by his dad, attorney Jerome Giss, who died at the age of 49.
After two years clerking for Struckmeyer in Arizona, Giss worked in a general law practice from 1966 to 1972. Among his tasks was safeguarding the First Amendment rights of pornographers.
"I wasn't all that thrilled with it," Giss said.
He was elated with his next move - to the Los Angeles district attorney's office in 1972 - and spent 15 years in the death penalty prosecution unit. Giss tried 130 felony jury cases, 30 of which were homicides.
"I love the adrenaline rush of being in trial," he said. "We are the gladiators in the pit."
In 2000, he decided he'd had enough of the gladiator lifestyle.
"One day I said, 'That's it - I gotta get a life - I can't work all the time,'" Giss said, running his hands over his silver helmet of hair. Judging gives him more free time, he said.
Somehow, during his busy days as a prosecutor, Giss wedged in time to be a consultant on the popular television program "Cagney and Lacey," giving the female buddy cop drama its verisimilitude and paying his kids' college tuition.
His eldest son, Greg, is an attorney, and his other son, Gary, just received his master's degree in psychology and will soon have his master's in business administration. Daughter Wendy is pursuing her teaching credential.
After 13 years in the death penalty prosecution unit striving to get murderers into San Quentin or at least in prison for life, Giss turned to going after white-collar criminals.
But death followed him even there as he prosecuted a vehicular homicide that occurred when an accident staged for insurance fraud resulted in a death.
After retiring in 2001, Giss pursued a judgeship - he'd been turned down before by former Gov. Pete Wilson - and was appointed by Davis.
Giss admitted that judging, at first, was difficult after so many years as a prosecutor.
"I had to bite my tongue at first, not to cross-examine," he said.
But lawyers who appear before him and who have known him for years say the former prosecutor is diligently fair.
"Unlike many people who cannot take off their advocate's role when they get on the bench, I don't think that's what Harvey's like," Gordon said. "I think he'll go out of his way to separate the two - and it would offend him if somebody thought he couldn't."
Here are some of Judge Giss' recent cases and the lawyers involved:
People v Garcia, VA068052
Prosecution: Anya Artan, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Stephen E. Galindo, deputy public defender, Los Angeles
People v Brooks, VA067704
Prosecution: Carina Castaneda, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Thomas R. Slattery, Chase Law Group, Sherman Oaks
People v. Shanklin, VA067288
Prosecution: Sandra Olivera, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Aparna Voleti, deputy public defender, Los Angeles
People v Park, BA206022
Prosecution: William D. Clark, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Ivan Klein, Los Angeles
People v. Hernandez, 1MT09037
Prosecution: Lois Phillips, deputy city attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Linda Powell, Turner & Reynolds, Irvine
Harvey Giss
Superior Court Judge
Los Angeles
Career highlights: Appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to Los Angeles Superior Court, April 20, 2001; deputy district attorney, Los Angeles County, 1972-2001; partner, Isman and Giss, 1966-72; law clerk to Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Frederick C. Struckmeyer, 1964-66
Law school: UCLA School of Law, 1964
Age: 62
That is how members of the Los Angeles legal community refer to former prosecutor Harvey Giss - and that's from his fans.
Now that Giss, known as a dogged and tireless deputy district attorney, is on the bench and no longer baring his teeth in court, attorneys speak mainly of his deft command of the law and meticulous attention to cases.
But it wasn't always that way.
Giss tried some of the county's most gruesome murder cases in his 29-year tenure as a prosecutor. Along the way, he made bitter enemies of some defense attorneys - perhaps most notably, outspoken criminal defense attorney Leslie Abramson.
Giss handed the feisty high-profile attorney her only defeat in a death penalty case, in the infamous Bob's Big Boy murders.
After a contentious trial, her client, Ricky Sanders, was sentenced to death in 1982 for herding restaurant customers and workers into a freezer, killing four and wounding several others.
Abramson could not be reached for comment.
Giss engendered outright hostility from killers he prosecuted. His life was threatened and the deputy district attorney took to wearing a pistol strapped to his ankle.
"I don't carry it anymore," Giss said recently, patting the ankle where his gun used to rest. "I even gave up my concealed weapon permit."
One such case involved security guard Rodney Garmanian, who was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a Brentwood High School girl. Garmanian launched a jailhouse plot to have a hit man rub out Giss along with a judge and a cop. In another, the father of a defendant in the Bob's Big Boy case socked Giss unconscious outside the courthouse.
"It was a sucker punch - I never saw it coming," he said.
As a deputy district attorney, Giss racked up top awards from his colleagues - he was named Outstanding Lecturer by the California District Attorneys Association at its homicide symposium in 1987, Los Angeles County Prosecutor of the Year in 1988 and California Prosecutor of the Year in 1990.
Santa Monica criminal defense attorney Charles Lindner said that Giss' reputation as a judge, among the Los Angeles area defense bar, is "extraordinarily" good.
"For a guy who was such a hard-ass prosecutor, he's turned out to be an excellent judge," Lindner said. "Very well-balanced, very calm, very on top of what is going on in his courtroom. He's not afraid to grant a defense motion when it's meritorious - unlike many judges."
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George, then a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, presided over the trial of a couple who killed the leader and treasurer of a bogus church. Giss handled the prosecution.
"I consider him to be one of the most able prosecutors who ever appeared before me," George said.
"It is worthy of note that while he was very forceful and effective in prosecuting the case, he had a true sense of fairness in performing his duty. The defense attorneys had a great deal of respect for him," George said. "He never lost sight of his duty to be fair."
He has continued that level of professionalism on the bench, according to those who have appeared before him.
Criminal defense attorney Christopher C. Melcher, who recently had a grand theft case before Giss in the San Fernando Division court, praised the judge's compassion and work ethic.
"Every time he would come into the courtroom, he had a stack of authorities, research he'd done on our case," Melcher said. "He always had the latest case law at his fingertips - he did more research on my case than I did."
Melcher was particularly interested in Giss' take on the case because it involved Miranda issues and a questionable signed confession. While clerking for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Frederick C. Struckmeyer from 1964 to 1966, Giss drafted a decision in a rape-robbery case against a man named Ernesto Miranda. In a 5-0 vote, the Arizona Supreme Court allowed Miranda's admissions to police to be entered into evidence.
But two years later the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision on a 5-4 vote, resulting in the Miranda rights familiar to any fan of police novels or films - "You have the right to remain silent ... ."
The ferocity that Giss displayed while a prosecutor is not evident in his work as a superior court judge, Melcher said.
"His demeanor is excellent. He doesn't act like a prosecutor when he's on the bench, he acts like a judge," Melcher said.
Giss allowed both sides a fair shot, admitted the evidence each side deemed important and did nothing Melcher considered prejudicial. And, Melcher said, Giss has a tremendous sense of humor.
Giss' knowledge of the law is incredible, "you couldn't ask for anything better," Melcher said, adding that he'd try all of his cases before Giss if he could.
Melcher's opponent in that case, Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Michael Sheehan, seconded Melcher's opinion.
"Doing a trial there [before Giss] is like getting an LL.M. in criminal law," Sheehan said. "He knows that law backwards and forwards. I stayed up a lot of nights working on that case because I didn't want to disappoint the judge - you could tell he devoted a great deal of time and effort to it."
Giss' work ethic is infectious, making attorneys who appear before him strive to do their best, Sheehan said.
"It's a real pleasure being in his court," Sheehan said. "I look forward to the next thing I do in his court. It'll make me work harder and be a better lawyer."
Santa Monica criminal defense attorney Gigi Gordon cut her legal teeth while working on the defense team in the execution-style slayings of three workers and a customer inside a walk-in freezer at the Bob's Big Boy restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in 1980.
Giss won convictions for all three defendants in the case, sending Abramson's client, Ricky Sanders, to death row, where he remains today.
Acrimony between defense attorneys and Giss pervaded the trial, but he always had time for Gordon, despite the fact that there were few women lawyers in high-profile matters at that time.
"Harvey could have ignored me like I was a bug who just carried the briefcase, but he wasn't like that, he was truly interested in talking to me, and I was truly interested in talking to him, even when I wanted to punch his lights out," Gordon said. "Had I not had 18 months in a courtroom with Harvey, I probably wouldn't be whatever kind of lawyer I am today.
"Harvey Giss taught me every trick I know," Gordon said, echoing the words she spoke on the occasion of his retirement from the district attorney's office.
Gordon calls Giss the "Energizer bunny."
"He was a scary guy, very scary. He was the most tenacious person I have ever seen in the courtroom," said Gordon, hardly a shrinking violet herself. "There was no one ever more fearsome or hard-working, which is something that will be a good asset as a judge. Harvey was one of the hardest-working guys I ever saw. It didn't matter if I worked 11 hours - Harvey worked 12."
Veering from one war story to the next, Giss admitted he can be "ornery," like his favorite television lawyer - actor Sam Waterston's driven New York prosecutor Sam McCoy.
Giss is also a "fiercely intelligent" man, which will serve him well on the bench, Gordon said.
Gordon's husband, Bellflower criminal defense attorney Andrew M. Stein, crossed paths with Giss throughout the years. Stein represented one of many defendants Giss prosecuted in a case of fraud stemming from automobile crashes staged for insurance fraud purposes. Stein also once represented the security guard who tried to have Giss killed for prosecuting him in the 1988 murder of high school senior Teak Dyer.
"Harvey is above board and fair and honest, and I think his intelligence is superior to many, many people in the legal profession," Stein said. "He's going to make every effort to be an outstanding judge - he has the life experience to be able to judge what a case is worth and to learn [different types of] law - he's quicker than lightning, intellectually."
Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Vincent Ewing said that Giss operates his courtroom in an even-handed manner and interjects humor when appropriate.
"He's firm on the sentencing when he feels it's appropriate, whether it's on a conviction after a trial or a post-conviction matter," Ewing said.
Ewing advises attorneys who appear before Giss to be punctual, know the rules of the court and be very familiar with the issues in the case, because Giss will be prepared.
"Know the different code sections that apply, whether Penal or Vehicle Code - because he certainly does," Ewing said.
Courtesy is paramount in Giss' courtroom, Ewing said.
"Show the court the same courtesy that you would expect to be shown to you," he said.
Appointed to the bench last April by Gov. Gray Davis, Giss served a stint at Metropolitan court and, about a month ago, moved to the San Fernando Division court, where he conducts misdemeanor trials. He'll soon move to a new courthouse in Chatsworth.
A Los Angeles native, Giss spent his formative years in Echo Park, the Fairfax District and Beverly Hills and was a paperboy when, he said, "the world was a much safer place."
After earning a bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA in 1961, he attended UCLA School of Law, graduating in 1964.
He was inspired to pursue a legal career by his dad, attorney Jerome Giss, who died at the age of 49.
After two years clerking for Struckmeyer in Arizona, Giss worked in a general law practice from 1966 to 1972. Among his tasks was safeguarding the First Amendment rights of pornographers.
"I wasn't all that thrilled with it," Giss said.
He was elated with his next move - to the Los Angeles district attorney's office in 1972 - and spent 15 years in the death penalty prosecution unit. Giss tried 130 felony jury cases, 30 of which were homicides.
"I love the adrenaline rush of being in trial," he said. "We are the gladiators in the pit."
In 2000, he decided he'd had enough of the gladiator lifestyle.
"One day I said, 'That's it - I gotta get a life - I can't work all the time,'" Giss said, running his hands over his silver helmet of hair. Judging gives him more free time, he said.
Somehow, during his busy days as a prosecutor, Giss wedged in time to be a consultant on the popular television program "Cagney and Lacey," giving the female buddy cop drama its verisimilitude and paying his kids' college tuition.
His eldest son, Greg, is an attorney, and his other son, Gary, just received his master's degree in psychology and will soon have his master's in business administration. Daughter Wendy is pursuing her teaching credential.
After 13 years in the death penalty prosecution unit striving to get murderers into San Quentin or at least in prison for life, Giss turned to going after white-collar criminals.
But death followed him even there as he prosecuted a vehicular homicide that occurred when an accident staged for insurance fraud resulted in a death.
After retiring in 2001, Giss pursued a judgeship - he'd been turned down before by former Gov. Pete Wilson - and was appointed by Davis.
Giss admitted that judging, at first, was difficult after so many years as a prosecutor.
"I had to bite my tongue at first, not to cross-examine," he said.
But lawyers who appear before him and who have known him for years say the former prosecutor is diligently fair.
"Unlike many people who cannot take off their advocate's role when they get on the bench, I don't think that's what Harvey's like," Gordon said. "I think he'll go out of his way to separate the two - and it would offend him if somebody thought he couldn't."
Here are some of Judge Giss' recent cases and the lawyers involved:
People v Garcia, VA068052
Prosecution: Anya Artan, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Stephen E. Galindo, deputy public defender, Los Angeles
People v Brooks, VA067704
Prosecution: Carina Castaneda, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Thomas R. Slattery, Chase Law Group, Sherman Oaks
People v. Shanklin, VA067288
Prosecution: Sandra Olivera, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Aparna Voleti, deputy public defender, Los Angeles
People v Park, BA206022
Prosecution: William D. Clark, deputy district attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Ivan Klein, Los Angeles
People v. Hernandez, 1MT09037
Prosecution: Lois Phillips, deputy city attorney, Los Angeles
Defense: Linda Powell, Turner & Reynolds, Irvine
#337690
Anne La Jeunesse
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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