Corrupt LA Deputy DA Seeks Judgeship

GUEST WORDS--You don’t know me, but I’ve been a defense attorney in LA for almost 25 years. 

Who we sit as judges is of the utmost importance to all Angelinos and even more so to marginalized communities.  

Specifically, the information I obtained relates to disturbing instances of prosecutorial misconduct by Adan Montalban who is running for LA County Judge in seat 145.  

One attorney who was on these cases with Montalban is Mark Brandt, a former DA and 35-year attorney, who says Montalban is “totally unqualified.” 

In these two cases, Montalban displayed shocking misconduct and as Judge Perry called it, “incompetence.” As you can read in the transcript, his attitude and demeanor are also awful and unbecoming and display inappropriate judicial temperament.  

One matter, before Judge Perry at CCB, resulted in a mistrial of a murder case because Montalban secretly altered an audio transcript during trial, added a confession, and failed to notify anyone (case BA417858). He then proceeded to accuse Judge Perry (who has done 600+ trials) of not being fair! 

The other case before Judge Geldfound in San Fernando resulted in a reversal on appeal also due to Montalban’s egregious prosecutorial misconduct (case PA083280).  

The Court of Appeal on the Gatlin case said, “we conclude that the prosecutor [Montalban] committed misconduct” “...the misconduct is the likely explanation for the conviction...” “We conclude that in the absence of this misconduct, it is reasonably probable the result would have been more favorable to Gatlin.” “[T]he prosecutor’s misconduct was egregious and his case was weak.” 

The reversal due to prosecutorial misconduct on the Gatlin case requires self-reporting to the California Bar - I don’t know if this was done.  

I have attached the transcript of the hearing on the mistrial and the Court of Appeal decision on the Gatlin case and the docket on Gatlin to show Montalban was the DA on the case.  

Any defense attorney I have spoken to feels he should not be a DA and certainly not a judge. Prosecutors would see no limits in his courtroom. People would suffer. 

(Edward J. Blum is a long-time Los Angeles attorney.)

-cw