Wednesday, Mar. 05, 2008

Judge agrees secret tapes took toll on Geragos, awards $20M

Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos' simultaneous representation of Michael Jackson and Modesto's Scott Peterson four years ago surfaced once more in a judge's ruling that could help Geragos forget the bruises he absorbed in both high-profile cases.

Geragos lost Jackson as a client and lost Peterson's death penalty case, but won more than $20 million for himself and an associate Friday after claiming he was the victim in a privacy-invasion scheme.

Two days after Geragos failed to free Peterson from double-murder charges at his November 2003 preliminary hearing in Modesto, Geragos and Pat Harris flew with Jackson from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara in an arranged surrender on child molestation charges.

None of the three men knew that the Gulfstream's owner had hired an aircraft mechanic to work into the early morning hours installing Sony video cameras in the jet.

TV journalists a few days later tipped off Geragos, who previously had represented former Rep. Gary Condit of Ceres and actress Winona Ryder. Geragos successfully blocked sale and distribution of the tapes and they never were broadcast.

"There is a price when people believe they're going to profit off celebrity fame and fortune," Geragos' attorney, Brian S. Kabateck, told The Bee on Tuesday. "Now we know what that price is."

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Soussan G. Bruguera called the surreptitious recording "extremely reprehensible" and wrote that XtraJet Inc. owner Jeffrey Borer "intentionally engaged in despicable and felonious conduct." She awarded Geragos $18 million and Harris $2.25 million.

Kabateck refused to say Tuesday why Jackson dropped out of the lawsuit in April 2005, two months before he was acquitted while represented by attorney Tom Mesereau.

Jackson had not mentioned Peterson when he fired Geragos a year earlier, in April 2004, but left little doubt that he had tired of Geragos splitting time between Jackson and Peterson.

But in Friday's ruling, the judge cited Geragos and Harris' contention that the chartered jet tapes were partly to blame.

"Harris testified that he and Geragos were indeed the butt of jokes in the media as a result of the incident," Bruguera wrote. "It is their belief that this incident was partly why Mr. Jackson chose to terminate them as counsel on (one of) the biggest international cases at the time."

"Cases," meaning Jackson's and Peterson's.

Geragos became "paranoid" when discussing strategy with clients, presumably including Peterson, he later testified in the privacy-invasion case.

In a blockbuster trial, jurors in November 2004 declared Peterson guilty of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, on Christmas Eve 2002. He arrived on death row in March 2005, where he remains while awaiting appeals.

Borer pleaded guilty to conspiring to intercept communications in July 2006. His company went bankrupt three years ago, his Los Angeles attorney, Lloyd Kirschbaum, told The Bee on Tuesday.

But Borer "enjoyed a lengthy stay at a five-star hotel in Mar-ina Del Rey to serve his house arrest," the judge wrote in Friday's ruling. And, he owned a $5 million home, "toys" worth $5 million to $7 million, a $500,000 race boat and $500,000 in race cars, she wrote.

"I think this is a classic case of someone who screams poverty but has Porsches in the garage and nice homes he doesn't tell people about," Kabateck said. "(The ruling) is fairly indicative to me of someone who has money."

Kirschbaum said he will appeal the more than $20 million award, claiming Geragos and Harris, respectively, could not have merited $2 million and $250,000 in compensatory damages, which the judge used to compute the rest in punitive damages.

"People with brain injuries don't get $2 million judgments," Kirschbaum said. "But this lawyer (Geragos), who never met a press conference he didn't like, suffered $2 million in injuries?"

Kabateck said, "I don't think people should focus on whether Mr. Geragos and Mr. Harris deserve it. They should focus on what penalty people pay for crossing the line. This is really a case of going too far."

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or 578-2390.