Judge Maxine Thomas : Case of the Missing Key Takes a Twist

Continuing the dispute over the reportedly missing master key to Los Angeles County Courthouse, Municipal Judge Maxine F. Thomas insisted Wednesday that she had turned in the key after she was ousted as presiding judge--only to have her office burglarized.

In a prepared statement issued from her new post in the Criminal Courts Building, Thomas declared, “I state here and now unequivocally that on July 2, 1986, I turned over to (current Presiding) Judge George Trammell ‘all’ of the keys which I had in my possession relating to the office of Presiding Judge. . . . “

That included, she said, the master key that Trammell has said is missing and that he said will cost the court system about $7,000 because of the need to re-key courtrooms, judges’ chambers and offices in the civil courthouse.

After she turned in her keys, Thomas stated in her printed release, “my office was burglarized by someone with a key. The door was not forced.”

Different Building

A security patrol report showed, however, that the apparent break-in did not occur in the County Courthouse, but in the Criminal Courts Building, where, Trammell said, the master key would not work.

She said “a personal television set, a calculator, other personal items and certain files” were stolen from the office. Also stolen, she added, was the “only existing copy . . . in California” of her letter inviting two U.S. Supreme Court justices to participate in her installation as presiding judge of the Municipal Court. Thomas said she had “informed the police that the possessor of that letter is probably the person who burglarized my office.”

She pointed out that Herald-Examiner reporter Nancy Hill-Holtzman “wrote a story reporting on the contents of that letter last week.” She added, “Miss Holtzman would, therefore, have information which might lead to the apprehension of the burglar. I urge her to cooperate with the authorities.”

Neither Holtzman nor any Herald editor was immediately available for comment.

Trammell initially said Wednesday afternoon that he had not previously heard about any burglary of Thomas’ office. However, he soon received from the county marshal’s office a handwritten “incident report” indicating that Thomas or her bailiff had reported on July 15 an apparent break-in at her new office in the Criminal Courts Building. It mentioned only a TV set with attached AM-FM radio as missing, he said.

“I don’t understand what that master key has to do with this building,” Trammell said.

Thomas would not talk to reporters, but referred further inquiries to attorney Geraldine Green, who said she was unaware that the master key did not open doors in the Criminal Courts Building. She said she knew nothing more about the break-in.

Lambastes The Times

In her release, the former presiding Municipal Court judge also lambasted The Times at length for what she called “a steady barrage of harassment, indignities and extreme pressure, the latest of which is (a story about) the master key.”

Each time The Times “runs a story regarding me,” she complained, “they state as fact various and sundry charges which led to my removal, some of which I had never heard of.”

Thomas’ colleagues voted overwhelmingly last month to remove her as presiding judge on grounds that she had been absent from the bench too much and that she had used the position to help win election to the Superior Court bench.