Attorney Found Not Guilty of Overcharging L.A. County

Attorney Ray Newman was found not guilty Tuesday on charges that he overbilled Los Angeles County by as much as $1 million on his court-appointed defense cases.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury took just 50 minutes to acquit Newman of grand theft--his second trial stemming from work on a series of death penalty cases during the late 1980s.

In the first trial in 1993, a jury found Newman not guilty of one count each of grand theft and perjury but deadlocked on three other counts.

In 1988 and 1989, Newman submitted bills to the county for 10,000 hours, which works out to an average of 15 hours a day, seven days a week--a work schedule that county investigators found difficult to accept.

But jurors polled after their verdict Tuesday said that after hearing testimony about Newman’s hours at the office, they believed Newman’s claim that either he or various associates actually worked those hours, said Newman’s attorney, Michael Adelson.

During the time in question, Adelson said, Newman was either trying or preparing for trial at least seven death penalty cases. Adelson said the fact that none of those defendants was sentenced to death also persuaded jurors that Newman and his colleagues must have worked tirelessly on their behalf.