Judge denies bid to move trial of former O.C. Sheriff Carona

A judge today declined to move the political corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, rejecting defense arguments that repeated banter about the case by two KFI-AM radio “shock jocks” would prevent him from receiving a fair trial in Southern California.

Carona’s lawyers had argued that the hosts of “The John and Ken Show” had made it impossible to find impartial jurors because they have urged listeners to lie to get onto Carona’s jury, then vote to convict him.

U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford ruled this afternoon that the commentary was inappropriate but would not prevent Carona from finding 12 honest jurors in a county of 3 million people.

“The advocates of such lawlessness are not nearly as important as they pretend and their listeners are not the gullible audience they suppose,” Guilford wrote in his opinion. “The court will not overreact to bait offered by largely satirical commentators.”

At a hearing this morning, Carona lawyer John D. Cline had suggested it would be impossible for attorneys to determine whether prospective jurors had taken the advice of hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou to lie to get onto the jury.

“Most people won’t lie because of ‘John and Ken’ on the radio, but all it takes is one. Only one of them needs to lie to corrupt the process,” Cline said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Brett Sagel said Orange County was populous enough to find potential jurors who had not listened to Kobylt and Chiampou’s afternoon drive-time show on KFI-AM (640). He said the jury selection process would allow attorneys to find a fair and impartial jury.

“I think we are giving too much credit to two people on the radio,” Sagel said.

Guilford, during questioning of the attorneys, sounded skeptical that one radio show could taint the entire jury pool. He suggested that even if prospective jurors heard the program, it should be clear that the hosts’ rants were satire.

“Don’t we give them too much credence if we believe people will take them seriously?” the judge asked Cline.

“There is nothing funny about suggesting people lie under oath in front of this flag to convict a man,” Cline responded.

In its motion, the defense had suggested that Guilford move the trial outside the considerable reach of KFI’s radio signal to San Francisco, Portland or Seattle. To make their point, Carona’s lawyers asked the judge to consider several comments pulled from transcripts of the radio show.

“You got to fake it, OK,” one of the hosts said during a March 20 show. “You have to sit there and say, ‘I didn’t really hear much. Don’t listen to John and Ken Show… . Inside you’re hiding the fact that, boom, you’re checking that guilty box as soon as you get the paperwork.”

Sagel noted that the few federal cases in which trial locations were changed had been highly charged murder or rape cases in rural communities. He noted that the radio hosts had made the suggestion that jurors lie only a couple of times.

“There is no doubt that the vast majority of the jury pool has never heard the radio show or the hosts’ instructions to lie to this court,” Sagel wrote in opposition to the defense motion.

Cline said the influence of radio talk show hosts shouldn’t be underestimated.

“It is relevant and is important to hundreds of thousands of people who listen to it and may well come into court and act on what they’ve been told,” he said.

 stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com