McDougal Visit to Courtroom Lends Support to Holden

Susan H. McDougal, no stranger to trials of political intrigue, unexpectedly showed up Wednesday at the statutory rape trial of Michelle E. Holden, wife of Pasadena Mayor Chris Holden.

McDougal said she came to lend support to a fellow target of a prosecutor’s political witch hunt. “She is a political victim much as I was a political victim,” said McDougal, who was acquitted in federal court in Arkansas last month of obstructing the Whitewater investigation.

Holden’s case hardly qualifies for the national political arena, and is far more salacious. She is accused of having unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old male baby sitter in early 1998. She also is accused of misdemeanor counts involving her alleged sexual advances toward the boy and a friend.

Her trial was postponed a week to allow attorneys to prepare questions for potential jurors about their exposure to news stories about the seamy details of the politically charged case.

The two women share a birthday (June 27) and a lawyer (Mark J. Geragos). As they left the courthouse in Pasadena, wearing matching white pantsuits, they embraced on the sidewalk.

“This case is a travesty,” McDougal said. “I know how it feels when a prosecutor goes after someone in a political case. This prosecutor is trying to ruin the lives of an innocent family and I’m outraged by it.”

It was the defense’s day to attempt to seize control of the spin in the case. In the past week, detailed news accounts of the alleged sexual encounters between Holden, a mother of four children under age 5, and a teenage baby sitter have been carried in the local press.

The teenager, identified in a grand jury transcript only as John Doe 1, has testified that the encounters occurred in the Holdens’ house, sometimes while the children were nearby.

Geragos had sought a delay in the case, charging that adverse publicity and leaks from the district attorney’s office had made it impossible for Holden to receive a fair trial. He also asked to transfer the case to the downtown Criminal Courts Building.

Pasadena Superior Court Judge Joseph F. DeVanos turned down both requests, saying that the news accounts were not significant, and that attorneys can question prospective jurors next week about any biases they hold.

During a court hearing Wednesday, Geragos accused prosecutors of leaking an internal memo detailing the case, and charged that a key prosecution witness was an informant for the Pasadena Police Department.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tuppence McIntyre vigorously denied being the source of any leaks. In a rare example of role reversal, the prosecutor asked the judge to impose a gag order. He declined, but cautioned the lawyers against engaging in any personal attacks.

McDougal was acquitted late last year in Santa Monica of stealing from her former employers, famed symphony conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife, Nancy.

She said the Holden trial, like her trials here and in Arkansas, reeks of dirty politics. “People need to understand that there’s another side to this story,” she said.

Chris Holden, the defendant’s husband, this month lost Pasadena’s first citywide mayoral election in decades. He steps down May 3, although he will remain on the City Council.

He and his father, Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, have charged that a Sheriff’s Department employee sought a payoff to make the charges “go away.” The district attorney’s office investigated but could not substantiate the allegation.

Asked if the charges against his wife cost him the election, Chris Holden would say only that “the timing is suspicious.” He added, “History will record how political it was. It certainly is very suspicious, the way this was brought forward at the time we were launching an aggressive campaign.”

He said he continues to support his wife, who he says is innocent.

“The charges are false,” Chris Holden said. “We’re going to go through the process to prove it.”