James G. Kolts, the former Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who went from workaday anonymity to local fame as head of the Kolts Commission, which in 1992 found "deeply disturbing" use of excessive force and mistreatment of minorities by the Sheriff's Department, has died. He was 77.
Kolts died Friday of a heart attack in Altadena while playing golf with his grandson, Daniel McAllister, said his daughter, Kathryn Showers.
The respected judge with the laudable sense of humor was on the bench from 1969 to 1989 and before that had been something of a star prosecutor as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney for 17 years.
But nothing in his long legal career gave him the satisfaction or the renown that he achieved from heading the Kolts Commission and producing the scathing 359-page Kolts Report, which was released July 20, 1992.
Kolts had retired in 1989, and although he accepted a few private judging assignments, was spending most of his time golfing and enjoying his grandchildren when he was tapped to look into the Sheriff's Department.
Then-Supervisor Ed Edelman proposed hiring a special counsel--Kolts' title during the investigation--to examine complaints of abuse after then-Sheriff Sherman Block refused to allow supervisors to appoint members of his citizens panel. Critics claimed Block's oversight group was made up of his cronies and lacked independence.
Supervisors were also concerned because settlement of lawsuits over abusive practices by the department had cost the county $32 million in the previous four years.
Edelman, a Democrat, picked Kolts, a Republican appointed to the bench by Gov. Ronald Reagan and a staunch advocate of the death penalty, based on recommendations of leaders in the legal community. Kolts had a reputation for being fair, level-headed, experienced, bright, decisive, thorough and independent, with a conveniently thick skin.
He earned brickbats--and kudos--from civil libertarians and law-and-order advocates alike as he led the $400,000 investigation with a paid staff of two attorneys, a psychologist and a secretary, a contracted accounting firm, and 30 volunteer lawyers and about 20 other volunteers.
Kolts patterned his small band after the far larger Christopher Commission, headed by former Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, which investigated the Los Angeles Police Department after the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.
