He's studied international law in at least three countries, prosecuted antitrust cases for the U.S. Department of Justice and acted as special counsel hired to investigate a Los Angeles mayor in the 1970s.
Now, at the twilight of his career, attorney Richard Fine finds himself without a law license, at odds with county and appellate judges, and facing a third contempt-of-court case that may land him behind bars -- for a second time.
In a contempt hearing this week, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge found the 69-year-old attorney guilty of contempt for refusing to answer a jurist's questions and practicing law without a license. Fine was ordered back to court in March for sentencing. If he insists on defying the court's orders, Judge David Yaffe told him, he should be prepared to go straight to jail.
Fine was unfazed.
"This thing will be overturned so fast that his head will spin," he said after the hearing.
The way Fine sees it, he's waging a one-man battle against all that's corrupt and wrong in this city. Judges, according to court records, consider Fine a vindictive attorney out to retaliate against those who dare to rule against him.
Since 1999, Fine has sued at least three Superior Court judges, three appellate justices, the Superior Court clerk, and the state appellate court clerk. He once filed 12 motions -- all in one case -- to get a judge disqualified. And he has appealed a number of those cases all the way to the state Supreme Court.
A State Bar Court judge, recommending Fine's disbarment in 2007 on charges of "moral turpitude," compared him to a bully in a dodge ball game -- hurling the ball at whoever knocks him out.
Fine contends that all county judges are tainted by the $46,000 in benefits they have been receiving from the county in addition to their state salary and benefits. Each contempt of court charge and each ruling against him is payback for allegations he made challenging those benefits, Fine says.
"The L.A. Superior Court is still retaliating against Fine," he said, referring to himself in the third person, in his contempt of court hearing Thursday. "This case was a sham from Day 1."
In the three-hour hearing, Fine jabbed his pen in the judge's direction, accusing Yaffe of changing his story, being biased and violating the Constitution. Voices were raised and faces reddened as Fine and Yaffe cut each other off in a tense exchange.
