Jailhouse Informants

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner on Friday issued interim guidelines to govern the use of jail-house informants by prosecutors during an internal investigation into successful murder prosecutions that relied on confessions that could have been fabricated by informants.

Retired California Supreme Court Justice Otto M. Kaus is expected to be named shortly to direct a grand jury investigation into whether Los Angeles County law enforcement officials misused jailhouse informants, the attorney general's office said Monday. Word of the impending appointment was greeted with enthusiasm by local prosecutors and defense lawyers, who expressed confidence in Kaus' ability to conduct a thorough and fair-minded probe. The investigation is expected to center on allegations by informants that they have faked confessions--sometimes with the help of law enforcement personnel.

The jailhouse informant whose testimony helped convict Robert Alton Harris of first-degree murder 12 years ago recanted some of that testimony in court Tuesday, saying he had been coached by investigators. Joey Dee Abshire, 44, a career criminal, said he agreed to lie on the stand during the trial in an effort to avoid extradition to Louisiana, where he had escaped from prison. Some of the falsehoods, he testified, were based on information he either had read or been told by investigators.

Veteran jailhouse informant Leslie Vernon White, who last week failed to appear for sentencing in a purse-snatching case, has been arrested during a drug raid on a downtown Los Angeles motel where he was staying, one of White's attorneys said Monday. White told his lawyers that he missed his court appearance last Thursday because he had been beaten by unidentified gang members who had marked him as a "snitch," said Mark Geragos, who represents White.

REMEMBERING HER DAYS AS A young girl--"No one would have accused me of being a happy child"--Leslie Abramson has an enduring memory of her favorite means of escape. After school, at the corner luncheonette, she'd buy button candies and chocolate marshmallow twists (two for a nickel) and spend hours at the comic-book racks, reading. Mad magazine was good for a giggle. But it was the spooky stuff, the horror comics like "Tales From the Crypt," that she really loved. And hated, too.

A few weeks ago in the chaplain's office on the 13th floor of the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice, a sheriff's deputy gave jailhouse informant Leslie Vernon White the last name of another inmate whom White had never met. The only other fact given White was that the inmate was a murder suspect.

A veteran jailhouse informant whose testimony helped send three Los Angeles County men to prison for life terms now says he lied at their murder trials at the urging of police. Stephen Jesse Cisneros, a convicted arsonist, kidnaper and rapist serving a 70-year prison term, says he perjured himself when he testified that all three men confessed to him.

Two leading defense lawyer organizations Thursday formally asked for a special prosecutor to conduct a grand jury investigation into what they described as a jailhouse informant scandal that is "threatening to undermine public confidence in our system of justice" in Los Angeles County. The groups are the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a statewide organization of 2,100 criminal defense lawyers, and the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Assn.

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury said Wednesday that it wants to investigate the use of jailhouse informants in criminal cases but needs a lawyer to help it. The announcement came in response to requests for a grand jury investigation by defense lawyer organizations and by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

Arthur Davodian's roommate arrived home to discover a gruesome scene at his Tujunga condominium. Davodian's headless body was stretched out on the living room floor, punctured with stab wounds up to six inches deep. A trail of blood led through the apartment's hallway to a bedroom where the door had been kicked open. Inside, Kimberly Crayton, Davodian's girlfriend, lay covered in blood. She had been stabbed 19 times during a fierce fight for her life. Davodian's head was found beside a parking lot a short walk from the condominium complex.