Monika Blodgett

The top prosecutor in the district attorney's Torrance office says she is being demoted partly because she questioned what she called a too-lenient policy of plea bargaining by her predecessors. Monika Blodgett, a 17-year district attorney's office veteran, alleged in an interview Thursday that her refusal to allow plea bargains in serious criminal cases has ruffled feathers among colleagues, defense attorneys and judges in the Torrance courthouse.

The top prosecutor in the district attorney's Torrance office says she is being demoted partly because she questioned what she called a too-lenient policy of plea bargaining by her predecessors. Monika Blodgett, a 17-year district attorney's office veteran, alleged in an interview Thursday that her refusal to allow plea bargains in serious criminal cases has ruffled feathers among colleagues, defense attorneys and judges in the Torrance courthouse.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has decided not to file murder charges against a man who shot a dinner companion seven times at an upscale Redondo Beach mall last weekend, saying there is no evidence to disprove the man's claim that he fired in self-defense. "It's frustrating that a person gets killed in front of all those other people and there's nothing we can do," said Monika Blodgett, chief deputy at the district attorney's Torrance office.

A Los Angeles deputy district attorney has been promoted to head deputy retroactively after settling her lawsuit against the previous administration--a case that became a rallying point for critics of former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti. Monika Blodgett, who was transferred to a nonsupervisory role after she complained to the news media about the handling of cases in the Torrance office, also agreed to a $480,000 settlement, which includes $45,000 in back pay.

A former Lutheran minister from Gardena who was released from prison late last month on a judge's order said he welcomes a new trial to prove his innocence on charges that he molested a 16-year-old parishioner. "I invite a new trial," Arleigh Eugene Cox, 62, said in an interview at his attorney's office. "This time, being innocent will suffice." Cox had served almost two years of a 38-year prison sentence when Torrance Superior Court Judge Candace Cooper on Sept.

A veteran prosecutor's right to free speech was violated when she was suspended after talking to reporters about the inner workings of the Torrance branch of the district attorney's office, a federal judge has ruled. In a case that spotlights the fierce political currents in the district attorney's office, Senior U.S. District Judge Laughlin E.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has decided not to file murder charges against a man who shot a dinner companion seven times at an upscale Redondo Beach mall last weekend, saying there is no evidence to disprove the man's claim that he fired in self-defense. "It's frustrating that a person gets killed in front of all those other people and there's nothing we can do," said Monika Blodgett, chief deputy at the Torrance district attorney's office. "But our hands are tied."

MIGHTY MOLLUSK: The newest resident of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro settled into her new quarters this week, a 500-gallon tank with plenty of room for her eight sucker-lined arms. The 58-pound giant Pacific octopus was eased into the tank Tuesday afternoon, becoming the first octopus of its kind to go on display at the city-owned aquarium. And the orange mollusk with a 12-foot tentacle span played to the audience, crawling around the tank bottom as the television cameras whirred.

At this school, the lessons come sugarcoated. Make that chocolate-immersed. When they're not selling chocolate at the Robin Rose candy and ice cream shop in Venice, Robin Rose and her husband, Roy, use the stuff to attract students to their traffic school for chocoholics. The school, started several years ago, serves up trays of chocolates and ice cream as it guides traffic offenders through the subtleties of the California Vehicle Code.

Voters may have a tough time June 2 choosing a judge in the Rio Hondo Municipal Court district. Incumbent Richard Van Dusen--accused of prejudice and barred from hearing criminal cases by the Los Angeles County district attorney--faces former court commissioner William Jacobson, who was kicked off the Rio Hondo bench. "Jacobson is unpopular with the local bar, and Van Dusen is unpopular with the D.A.," summed up one local attorney.

Call them malcontents or dismiss them as cranks. Cling hard to the notion their complaints are groundless. Even insist that everything they have to say is motivated by petty politics. Do all of those things and you've still got to wonder what is going on in the district attorney's office these days. One veteran prosecutor recently won a partial judgment in her personnel complaint against the office; all that remains is for a jury to decide how much money she should receive.