Times Writer Wins State Bar’s Top Journalism Award

SAN DIEGO —  Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Davan Maharaj on Sunday was awarded the State Bar of California’s Golden Medallion Award for excellence in legal affairs reporting for a series about a Laguna Hills lawyer who arranged to inherit millions from the estates of his elderly Leisure World clients.

In presenting Maharaj its top award for work published by a California newspaper in the past year, the state bar noted that he had “performed an important public service with his investigative work,” which resulted in new rules governing the professional conduct of lawyers in California.

In making the presentation, Harvey Saferstein, immediate past president of the State Bar, pointed out that Maharaj’s articles also inspired the enactment of a new law, signed last month by Gov. Pete Wilson, that generally prohibits attorneys from writing themselves into wills and trusts of their clients and automatically invalidates any such provisions.

The Times articles led to ongoing investigations of lawyer James D. Gunderson by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the State Bar of California, which regulates the practice of law in the state.

Over a period of years, Gunderson arranged to receive millions of dollars in cash, stock and real estate from his clients’ estates, despite a longstanding California Supreme Court ruling that anything more than a “modest” bequest to an attorney preparing a will raises questions of impropriety. The high court ruled that a $20,000 bequest was a “significant” gift and noted that the attorney in that 1962 case was obliged to return the money.

Linda Deutsch, of the Associated Press, received the bar’s Silver Medallion for “her outstanding coverage of the first Rodney King police brutality trial.” The award judges noted Deutsch’s “skillful reporting under deadline pressure, providing thoughtful analysis as well as balanced accounts of the trial.”

A special merit award was presented to two Los Angeles Times staff writers, Dan Weikel and Rene Lynch, for their articles about Orange County Municipal Court Judge Claude E. Whitney, who was accused of systematically denying poor defendants their right to an attorney. In August, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced it was reviewing Whitney’s actions.

A Gold Medallion for smaller newspapers, those with daily circulation under 100,000, went to Michael Hytha and Daniel Borenstein of the Contra Costa Times for a series on corrupt government practices, called “Secret Public Business.”

The East Bay Express’ Dashka Slater also won the Golden Medallion for a series of profiles of prosecutors and defense attorneys who handle death penalty cases.

Michael Trihey, Broderick Turner and Tamara Welch, of the Bakersfield Californian, won the Silver Medallion in the under-100,000 circulation category for a series called “Our Vanishing Black Men,” which dealt with the large percentage of black men sent to prison from Kern County.

KCAL-TV in Los Angeles received the Golden Medallion in the television category for its series, “The Privacy Myth,” about public access to personal records and the misuse of such information. Laura Carter, Lissa Eichenberger, Bill Gephardt and Reggie Lopez were cited for their work.

For radio, public station KCRW-FM in Santa Monica won the Golden Medallion for its coverage of the federal civil rights trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating King. Warren Olney and Kitty Felde were cited for five hours of programming “whose questions and commentary provided new insights and a better understanding of the trial issues.”

Also at the bar association meeting, 11 law firms from throughout the state were cited for “remarkable dedication” in providing free legal work for the poor and disadvantaged. Among those firms receiving the State Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award was the Orange County firm of Snell and Wilmer. The firm was cited for donating more than 850 hours to a case involving Spanish-speaking clients, who were victims of an allegedly deceptive advertising campaign aimed at recent immigrants.