[Previously: “Junior Vera Is Back in Jail — Could Return to State Prison,” July 15. Keywords: Junior, Vera.]
At 9:45 this morning, an achingly familiar scene played out in an 8th floor courtroom that Albert Vera Jr. knows by now as well as the layout of his father’s Sorrento Italian Market.
Wrists cuffed behind him, Junior Vera, this time in a jailhouse pale green jumpsuit, emerged from the holding area for the incarcerated with the requisite deputy Sheriff escort.
Since nearly everybody in Culver City seems to know the venerable Vera family, and like then, Junior Vera’s continuing skirmishes with the law during what should be his peak production years are being closely watched, mostly from a distance.
Invariably, people around the courthouse familiar with the case history that Junior Vera is building, express sympathy and support for Albert Sr. and his seriously ailing wife, Ursula, who continues her every other day dialysis treatments, which she has undergone for years.
Serenity
What distinguished this morning’s appearance from numerous others he has made at the Airport Courthouse since last year’s escapade bounced him from the County Jail all the way to state prison, was the smile of benignity that wreathed his still youthful face.
Amazingly, the man called Junior seemed strangely, almost ethereally, at peace.
As he entered Judge William R. Hollandsworth’s court from the eastern side, he glanced leftward toward the spectators’ section for the single friendly face he was positive would be there, rooting him on.
Like the whoosh of a computer, the smiles of two mature men speedily traveled in opposite directions through the still air of the jammed courtroom.
Halfway to his 44th birthday and once again behind bars where he has spent quite a lot of time lately — essentially for drug addiction — since March 6 of last year, Junior Vera is nose-to-nose with the ugliest confrontation of his formerly gilded life.
As an alleged parole violator, he faces the possibility of being returned to state prison to serve out the remainder of a 16-month term for grand theft. He was paroled last Christmas Day.
It Was Dark Out
Mr. Vera’s newest quirky brush occurred two weeks ago, in the pre-dawn hours of July 15, when he, in the company of his girlfriend, found themselves behind in the alleyway behind a donut shop, on Jefferson Boulevard, several hundred yards from his father’s market. He told Culver City police that at 17 minutes before 5, he had espied a man with a gun.
To condense several lengthy accounts, police booked him and let his girlfriend go after judging that Mr. Vera, suffering “eyelid tremors,” was on drugs and that he was “experiencing an episode of paranoia.” Later, a search of Mr. Vera’s home turned up a loaded .357 magnum, police said, while noting that parolees are not permitted to own, possess or use a firearm.
Shortly afterward, his booking in Culver City, Mr. Vera was transferred downtown to County Jail, where he remains, being held on no bail pending a determination of this latest case.
The day apparently is past when Mr. Vera’s well-to-do family would provide lawyers for him. As was the case all of last year, however, Mr. Vera is being represented by a public defender, whose services typically are intended for the destitute.
His new public defender is Nan Whitfield, whose personality is said to be the opposite of the mild-mannered Mr. Vera’s.
In a bare 2-minute appearance, she stood by his side this morning before Judge Hollandsworth when Friday, Aug. 15, was set as the date for Mr. Vera’s preliminary hearing.
