Joanne Harrold

The 4th District Court of Appeals refused this week to reinstate defense attorney Joanne Harrold, who has been lead counsel representing Thomas F. Maniscalco in an 11-year-old Westminster triple-murder case. In making the decision, the appellate court also took some sharp jabs at the way Harrold, a former judge, has performed in representing Maniscalco, who is also an attorney.

The 4th District Court of Appeals refused this week to reinstate defense attorney Joanne Harrold, who has been lead counsel representing Thomas F. Maniscalco in an 11-year-old Westminster triple-murder case. In making the decision, the appellate court also took some sharp jabs at the way Harrold, a former judge, has performed in representing Maniscalco, who is also an attorney.

A 36-year-old former member of a motorcycle gang testified Wednesday that he was so frightened after watching Thomas F. Maniscalco and a small band of killers leave three people dead in a Westminster home in 1980 that he hid for a year for fear he would be next. Robert Robbins, a bearded former member of The Family motorcycle gang in Michigan, was the leadoff witness at Maniscalco's murder trial in the Memorial Day triple slaying.

Orange County jail inmate Thomas F. Maniscalco was released from a medical observation cell and returned to the main jail, said his attorney, Joanne Harrold. Maniscalco complained that he had been sent to the medical cell--which he compared to solitary confinement--in retaliation for his talking with a Times reporter about prisoners' request that they be served more Mexican food. He said doctors told him they needed to monitor his diet before testing him for a persistent gall bladder problem.

The state Supreme Court has stayed a judge's decision to fire Joanne Harrold as attorney for murder defendant Thomas Maniscalco. Maniscalco's capital murder trial ended in a mistrial last year after two jurors voted him not guilty. He is charged in an alleged biker feud that resulted in the slaying of three people in Westminster. Maniscalco, a lawyer himself and a longtime friend of Harrold's, told The Times that he wants her to remain his attorney. The stay order came at 5:05 p.m.

Orange County Jail inmate Thomas F. Maniscalco was released from a medical observation cell Wednesday morning and returned to the main jail, his attorney, Joanne Harrold, said. Maniscalco complained that he had been sent to the medical cell--which he compared to solitary confinement--in retaliation for his talking with a Times reporter about prisoners' request that they be served more Mexican food. He was ordered into the medical cell Tuesday, the same day The Times story was published.

A judge Wednesday agreed to let an attorney for former judge Joanne Harrold subpoena the state attorney general's records on Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates. Harrold is battling charges that she falsified information about her status as an Orange County resident when she ran for office in 1984. The Orange County district attorney's office has already turned over its files on Gates to Harrold's lawyer, James P. Stotler. Central Municipal Judge James P.

The Orange County district attorney's office has reluctantly agreed to step aside in the prosecution of former West Municipal Judge Joanne Harrold. County prosecutors apparently don't want to risk the chance that the Harrold case would interfere with their case against Thomas F. Maniscalco. Maniscalco is accused of masterminding a triple murder in Westminster. Harrold is his trial attorney, and the district attorney's office had been prosecuting them both.

It's been five years since Joanne Harrold was removed from the bench in West Orange County Municipal Court after a judge invalidated her election victory, saying she had lied about being a county resident. But the issue is far from dead. On Thursday, Harrold, 43, faces a preliminary hearing on criminal charges related to her 1982 residency claims. She is charged with a felony count of filing a false declaration of candidacy by claiming to be an Orange County resident.