Judge Removes Herself From Retrial of Case Involving On-Flight Videotaping of Michael Jackson
Posted Monday December 6, 2010 - 9:11am
A judge has removed herself from hearing the retrial of a case brought by two lawyers against a now-defunct charter jet company whose owner ordered the secret videotaping of Michael Jackson and his attorneys aboard a 2003 flight.
Mark Geragos and Pat Harris were awarded a multimillion-dollar judgment by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Soussan G. Brugera in March 2008, following the non-jury trial of their lawsuit against XtraJet and its owner, Jeffrey Borer.
But the decision was overturned in January by a panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. On Wednesday, Brugera announced through a court minute order that although she is ``not prejudiced or biased against or in favor of any party ... in the interest of justice and to avoid any appearance of impropriety, this court voluntarily (removes) itself from further proceedings in this action.'
Brugera transferred the retrial to a master calendar judge for reassignment.
Lawyers for Geragos asked for a new trial in lieu of an alternative proposal by the appellate justices that he accept a total award of $500,000 and Harris $250,000.
Before Brugera stepped down from the case, she scheduled the retrial for Feb. 14.
Along with Borer and XtraJet, Brugera previously found travel agent Cynthia Montgomery, who set up the flight, liable for some of the compensatory damages. Montgomery was not present for today's court session.
Brugera called the secret videotaping -- no audio was recorded -- ``highly offensive to a reasonable person' and said Borer was ``the mastermind behind a scheme to desecrate and exploit sacred attorney-client communications for personal profit.'
Borer attorney Lloyd Kirschbaum claimed Brugera ignored crucial evidence in favor of his client in the first trial and made the wrong conclusion that the tape included sound. Without audio, Geragos and Harris did not have grounds to claim a breach of the attorney-client privilege, Kirschbaum said.
Kirschbaum also maintained the award was excessive and that punitive damages should not have been given.
The taping occurred on Nov. 20, 2003, as an aircraft owned by XtraJet took Jackson, Geragos and Harris from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara so the late singer could surrender in a child molestation case.
Geragos was representing Jackson at the time, but the entertainer later replaced him with Tom Mesereau, who helped get the entertainer acquitted of the criminal charges in 2005.
Geragos, Harris and Jackson filed the invasion-of-privacy suit against Borer and XtraJet in November 2003. Jackson dropped out as a plaintiff in April 2005.
Geragos testified that after the XtraJet incident, he was no longer comfortable speaking with clients about sensitive matters over the telephone.
Borer and Arvel Jett Reeves, an aircraft mechanic who admitted installing the cameras at Borer's direction, pleaded guilty in 2006 in U.S. District Court to a federal conspiracy charge and was sentenced that July to eight months in prison and six months in a halfway house.
Borer was sentenced in October 2006 to home detention and fined $10,000.
In her ruling, Brugera noted that Borer was spending part of his home detention living at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey.
She also said that Borer had a $5 million home, another $5 million to $7 million in personal ``toys,' Porsche racing cars valued at a half-million dollars and a $500,000 racing boat.
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