Carmen Trutanich

Carmen Trutanich was being interviewed at the start of his fifth full week as Los Angeles city attorney when the door of his eighth-floor office at City Hall East swung open. A deputy stepped in to deliver the news of his administration's first win: dismissal of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a 19-month-old girl killed when police stormed a South L.A. auto shop. They had returned fire on her father, who was holding the child in his arms. It was a delicate matter, but Trutanich's first reaction was to show pride in his team's work.

It must have seemed like a minor coup when Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss secured the backing of Sheriff Lee Baca, the county's top law enforcement officer, for his 2009 campaign for city attorney. What Weiss did not know was that a year after he received the endorsement, Baca would urge another lawyer to enter the race: former Deputy Dist. Atty. Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, an environmental lawyer whose resume presents him, in some ways, as the polar opposite of Weiss.

In the midst of a bruising final few weeks of the Los Angeles city attorney's race, two groups are calling on candidate Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich to stop running a television commercial that they say unfairly depicts Latino men as gang members. But Trutanich's campaign consultant contended that the complaints were orchestrated by supporters of City Councilman Jack Weiss, who is also running for the job.

Los Angeles city attorney candidate Jack Weiss criticized his chief rival Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich on Wednesday for representing a man accused of shooting at sea lions. As a private lawyer several years ago, Trutanich represented John Gary Woodrum, a charter boat captain who ultimately admitted to firing a rifle at sea lions near Santa Catalina Island.

In the flashy television ad that has served as his calling card to voters, Los Angeles city attorney candidate Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich compressed his 30-year legal career into a narrow sliver: the time he spent prosecuting serious gang crimes. Not mentioned is the mainstay of Trutanich's work: his expertise in environmental law, developed as a young prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and finessed as a private attorney defending a number of polluters.

Los Angeles City Atty.-elect Carmen Trutanich complained Thursday that his transition to office is being made more difficult by the current officeholder's decision to grant job protections to top aides, comparing it to "Barack Obama walking in and Karl Rove is sitting in the White House." Trutanich said he was walking "into just a mess financially" because of the city budget crisis.

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich touched off his first term with a note of defiance Wednesday, promising to vigorously pursue misconduct by public officials, restructure the office to spend less money on outside counsel and possibly even keep an eye on the L.A. Police Department.

Newly elected Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich has sent a blistering letter to city planners who approved a billboard plan over his objections last week, stating that by "acting in haste, for no apparent reason," they "undermined and jeopardized" the work of his office.

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich wants to give police the ability to arrest "taggers" simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act -- raising thorny constitutional issues as he lays the groundwork for a campaign to tackle the city's vexing graffiti problem. In an interview, Trutanich said his staff has begun amassing street-level intelligence and reviewing legal strategies that would pave the way for a series of injunctions targeting graffiti and "tagging" crews.

City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have accomplished something remarkable. They have given new life to a dispute between their predecessors that should have expired when the new term started July 1. Each made a campaign issue of cooperating to resolve the case of City of Los Angeles vs. Laura Chick, but each now claims the other is not cooperating. It's as if the contentious ghosts of termed-out politicians refused to leave and now possess the bodies of the new officeholders.