Judging the Judge
Judge Mira said Brandon showed no remorse. Read the letter Brandon wrote to Judge Mira before this statement by the judge, and then you be the judge.
Judge Mira called Brandon a "callous and vicious and sociopath" who he claimed was a "danger to the community". The Judge felt enough pressure from the LAPD that he had to go out of his way to explain that pressure from the LAPD had nothing to do with his decision. The Judge did not feel sentencing an 18-year-old who had not killed anybody, who was only at the wrong place at the wrong time would "shock the conscience, and it does not offend common notions of dignity."
The Judge, who is up for reelection in 2000, has his own, unique "common notions of dignity."
Mira, an ex record producer, has established his own notoriety as Judge for celebrities like Tommy Lee, Robert Downey, Jr., and Charlie Sheen.
According to an Associated Press release [4/7/98] Rocker Tommy Lee was accused of "kicking his wife several times as she held their baby son." This was not the first time Lee faced battery charges. Mira sentenced Lee to probation and ordered him to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
The Judge himself knows something about alcohol. In July 1992 Mira was arrested by the California Highway Patrol for drunk driving after running his yellow Nissan 300 ZX into a dirt embankment. Fortunately no one was killed, but Mira did throw the legal system into a tizzy because his arrest occurred in the area in which Mira had jurisdiction. Who knows? Had it been the LAPD they might have recognized the Judge and quietly shepherded him home, garnering a few IOU's in the process.
According to the LOS ANGELES TIMES, Mira said, "I would never have driven the car if I felt I was impaired . . ." The TIMES reported that according to the California Highway Patrol, Mira registered a 0.14% blood-alcohol level and the legal limit in California was 0.08%. A Beverly Hills judge fined Mira $901 on the misdemeanor charge, and forbid him to drive except to work and an ordered alcohol rehab program for three months, according to the LOS ANGELES TIMES [7-22-92]. The Judge was on probation from 1992 to 1995. Did this give LAPD some kind of clout over the judge or cloud the judge's judgment and impartiality? Is this why then LAPD Police Chief Willie Williams sought to influence the judge? Did the Judge have other run-ins with LAPD that were dealt with quietly and with "professional courtesy", thus creating an obligation? There is no evidence to suggest his, but even without becoming a conspiracy theorist, one wonders.
The same judge who saw Brandon as a "callous and vicious sociopath" who was a "danger to society" was anything but a law-and-order judge when movie actor Robert Downey, Jr. paraded in and out of Mira's court room.
What did "offend common notions of dignity" was when Mira finally did lock up Downey, and then ordered Los Angeles Sheriff Sherman Block to provide "limo" service for Downey so that he could continue filming a movie while he was supposed to be in jail. According to UPI Mira allowed the Academy Award-nominated actor to leave his cell three times to work on a movie at Paramount Studios.
Mira's preferential treatment for Downey was too much for Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block who got a state appeals court panel to overturn the Judge, requiring Downey to remain in his cell, the "celebrity cell" at LA County Jail used by OJ Simpson. When Downey got in a fight with other inmates, according to the NY POST, this tender and caring Judge allowed his personal plastic surgeon to patch up the actor's face rather than allow the jailhouse doctor to stitch him up.
Downey was initially arrested in June 1996 after, according to AP, police stopped his speeding truck and found cocaine, crack, heroin and a pistol. Mira finally lost patience with Downey in August 1999 - after three years of this! - and sentenced him to 3 years at Corcoran State Prison. At Corcoran they don't let you out to do movies.
Under the precedent set by the People vs. Dillon the judge had every opportunity to impose a lesser sentence on Brandon Hein. He gave him the maximum.
So, you be the judge: judge the Judge.
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