Michael I Greer

A 16-year-old San Diego girl seeking to pay her therapy bills by tapping the monthly pension of a retired state worker convicted of molesting her won an initial court victory Tuesday. After a hearing in his chambers, San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael I. Greer issued temporary restraining orders Tuesday that froze the pension paid to convicted molester Colby W. Flaherty, 67, by the state Public Employees Retirement System. Greer ordered another hearing for Sept.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance is investigating whether three San Diego County judges gave favorable treatment to a prominent local attorney who provided them gifts over several years. Two of the San Diego County Superior Court judges awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts to clients of attorney Patrick Frega, who took the unusual step of asking that jury trials be waived in both cases so the judge alone could determine the size of the award.

The Sheriff's Department and San Diego County are responsible for a woman inmate's suicide attempt because they failed to provide adequate psychiatric treatment and supervision, her attorney charged Tuesday. The family of Keon Ja Lee, 38, is seeking $25 million in damages for injuries she suffered in the suicide attempt at the Las Colinas women's jail. Opening statements in the civil suit began Tuesday in Superior Court.

San Diego social worker Chester Holliday and his children were awarded $929,173 Monday by a Superior Court judge who ruled that Holliday was inadequately defended by his attorney in 1981 during a trial that resulted in a manslaughter conviction for the death of his wife. After an appeal of the conviction, Holliday was found innocent of all charges in a retrial in August, 1984. Superior Court Judge Michael I. Greer ordered attorneys Otis L.

When a case called for a "Rambo lawyer," the unyielding gladiator who brings in the big verdict almost by force of will, Pat Frega was the man. The La Jolla lawyer's multimillion dollar victories, flamboyant style and tough talk have earned him a reputation as the kind of attorney that plaintiffs want when the stakes are high and the odds are long. "He's the Rambo lawyer," said former partner Dick Verlasky, who practiced with Frega for most of 1984. "He's very aggressive. He's very forceful.

In a landmark ruling for cash-poor counties across California, a Superior Court judge Monday declared that the formula the state uses for distributing property-tax money has unconstitutionally shortchanged San Diego County for more than a decade. If upheld, the ruling would bring major cash increases to counties that taxed and spent conservatively before the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, pulling the money from counties such as Los Angeles that spent more. Judge Michael I.

Doubts about whether health care for the medically indigent would survive until June 30 were resolved this week, and the legal wrangle over it cooled--but not because the county and the state are any closer to reaching agreement. Superior Court Judge Harrison Hollywood signed an order Thursday requiring the state to reimburse the county for unfunded cost of the County Medical Services program. The state had vehemently fought such an order. But--for the moment--$8.

There is insufficient time for the San Diego County Grand Jury to investigate allegations of abuse by sheriff's deputies in the county jails, and state law prohibits the panel from extending its tenure beyond June 30 to complete the investigation, the presiding judge of the Superior Court said Monday. In a letter to grand jury foreman Edward C. Malone, Judge Michael I. Greer turned down Malone's request for an extension so the jury can complete the investigation.

The physicians, clinics and hospitals treating the county's 25,000 poor and uninsured adults have agreed in principle to continue providing care for the next four to 12 months, despite a funding shortage that nearly closed the medical program earlier this year, officials said Tuesday.

San Diego County's years-long lament that it does not receive its fair share of property tax revenue from Sacramento moved into a courtroom Tuesday, as county lawyers urged a Superior Court judge to strike down funding formulas that they claim shortchange San Diego by nearly $100 million annually. In opening arguments in a case with possible statewide ramifications, Deputy County Counsel Michael Poynor told Judge Michael I.