D.A. Asks Judge to Drop Fiedler Case

Arguing that prosecuting Rep. Bobbi Fiedler is not in the interest of justice, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner Thursday asked a Superior Court judge to dismiss an indictment alleging that she tried to bribe an opponent into dropping out of the Republican U.S. Senate primary.

In a motion filed with Judge Robert Altman, Reiner noted that his office had advised the grand jury not to indict Fiedler.

“It remains the opinion of the People that there is insufficient evidence to establish the defendant Fiedler’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the motion stated. “Therefore, it is requested that the indictment against the defendant Fiedler be dismissed in the furtherance of justice.”

Fiedler, 48, of Northridge and her campaign manager and fiance Paul Clarke, 39, were indicted Jan. 23 on charges that they violated the state Election Code by offering a $100,000 contribution to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) to get him to give up his U.S. Senate campaign. The district attorney’s office is planning to pursue the case against Clarke.

By filing the motion, Reiner took a step beyond the position he enunciated Wednesday when he said his office would not oppose a defense motion to quash the indictment.

To dismiss the case at the request of the defense, Altman would be required by law to find that the grand jury had improperly indicted Fiedler because there was no “probable cause,” or strong suspicion, to believe she was guilty.

Since the district attorney’s office believes there was probable cause, prosecutors feared that Altman might refuse to grant the defense motion.

Prosecutors took the additional step of filing their own motion to give Altman more leeway to dismiss the case on the general ground that it would be unjust to subject Fiedler to a trial when prosecutors believed they could not prove the case against her beyond a reasonable doubt.

Commenting on the district attorney’s motion, Daniel H. Lowenstein, one of Fiedler’s attorneys, said: “I agree that it is in the interest of justice. It would have been more in the interest of justice if the case had never been brought at all.

“Not only does the evidence show that the finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is unsupported, the evidence shows they are not guilty at all.”

The defense and prosecution dismissal motions are scheduled to be heard Wednesday.