An unusual courtroom scene this morning:
After informing a Superior Court judge they have agreed to private mediation in 48 hours to settle the Bennett-Harris family’s civil suit against the National Guard and the state of California, opposing attorneys asked to meet with the judge in his chambers.
What volleyed across the nearly empty courtroom for the next four minutes sounded like the remnants of a New Year’s Eve party.
Even as Mark Geragos, the celebrated attorney for the plaintiffs, and Dep. Atty. Gen. David Adida were filing into the quarters of Judge Kevin C. Brazile, jollity broke out.
The spur apparently was the presence of the spare, graying Mr. Geragos because his name was called out as the trio passed through the doorway.
Mr. Geragos, one of the most recognizable faces in the Downtown courthouse, has been on the three-year-old case just the last 60 days.
The normally grave courtroom environment vanished as soon as the men disappeared from sight. Loud, jovial voices rang out through the courtroom walls. The unseen joie de vivre was strikingly unusual.
Court sources said the almost merry sounds were an unorthodox indication that a settlement is near in the civil suit dimension of the four-year-old vicious murder of JoAnn Crystal Harris at the National Guard Armory, Culver City, by Sgt. Scott Ansman, now doing life in prison.
The surviving three siblings of Ms. Harris, with her brother, Gerald Bennett, at the helm, are seeking considerably more compensation than the $400,000 the state and one of the family’s former attorneys say their late mother agreed to last year.
The Bennett-Harris siblings also are battling a breach of compensation suit filed by the state about the time Mr. Geragos came to the case in October.
Mr. Adida and Mr. Geragos separately assessed the looming possibility of an agreement.
“If there is any chance we can resolve amicably this litigation along with the State's case for breach of settlement agreement, we want to explore and take advantage of it,” Mr. Adida told the newspaper.
“This is the first time, since Mr. Geragos's involvement, the parties have had a chance to discuss the possibility of a global settlement with a neutral judge.
“The idea of a settlement conference was discussed earlier. But the where, whe, and who will preside over it was reached this morning.
“I have spoken and discussed this case, as well as the State's case against his clients, with Mr. Geragos, as well as his right hand woman, Ms. Shelley Kaufman.”
Said Mr. Geragos: “I am always hopeful of a settlement. I am just waiting to see what happens on Friday” in the private mediation conference.
Regardless of Friday’s outcome, they are scheduled to report back to Judge Brazile’s courtroom on Monday morning.
