How I learned to serve papers, steal cars, and evict old ladies
How I learned to serve papers, steal cars, and evict old ladies
I joined the Los Angeles County Marshal’s Department when I was 24. The pay was very good, the same as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department into which it was later absorbed. We were the court officers of the Municipal Court of Los Angeles County. We were the court bailiffs; would serve civil court process such as subpoenas, and seize property by court order. Cynically, but with great truth, we delivered papers, stole cars, evicted old ladies, and wiped judges’ asses.
I stayed for four years. Four long years. What I saw showed me the path to becoming a liberal. It broke the mirror through which I was viewing life. I was forced to look at reality instead of a smudged reflection.
There were red flags from the start. During a recruitment interview, a man in what appeared to be a SWAT costume-I use costume purposely because Marshals are not street cops, interviewed me. “I need to have a list of your girlfriends cause we can’t have no queers. Huh? Huh? Huh?” It was good money, good benefits, good retirement. I gave him the list. I needed to go to Woolworth’s several times to buy more paper. Several times. Narrow lined.
So there are no misunderstandings or hard feelings, please note that I refuse to use /s. While I am in an aside, everything I am saying here is verifiable using Google. I have also included some documentation at the end. Now back to looking into the shattered mirror.
I did my time delivering papers, stealing cars, and evicting old ladies. Our paper deliveries started at 4 a.m. I was stationed in the West Hollywood office. I woke many movie stars. Some are not so hot without makeup. I met Liberace, one hell of a nice guy.
I transferred to the Court Services division and was put at the Criminal Courts building in Downtown LA. New deputies were fill-ins. We were “floaters.” Often, judges treated us as such. One day, I was rushed to a court where I had to fill in for a deputy. He had an emergency and had to leave. He had a side hustle. He placed coin-operated wash machines in apartment buildings. A machine had flooded a washroom. It was an emergency. I later got to know this man. He was old with a young wife. He was obscenely wealthy but lived like a miser. But his story is for another time. His judge was hearing a civil case where multi-millions were on the line. All of the days I was in there, I never saw his eyes open. He slept the entire time. This was the first of a multitude of times where I would ask myself, “How in the Hell can he make a fair judgment?”
I will never forget my boss. He had thick black hair and a big mustache. And he smoked cigars-there were clouds above his desk. He looked like a slightly fat Burt Reynolds; if Burt Reynolds were a second level mobster in bad film-noir 50s gangster movie. He knew every wholesale house in town. He saved me a lot of money.
When I came to the Marshals, I thought I was a Republican. I had registered as one. I had registered as a Republican because a high school teacher I had admired said it was the right thing to do, so I had. The Marshal’s was a very political being. I was told to get involved in politics so I could lobby. I ran for Republican Central Committee Man. I won. I never attended. For about 10 years I would receive letters to, “The Honorable Remo Yarrum…”
My time, sounds like I was in prison… the case could be made… caused me to realize I was no Republican. Not then. Not now. Never.
There was grief that unfolded in the lieutenants life. His son was one of the officers in the Rodney King tragedy and sept significant time in prison.
As the aftermath of Rodney King shook Los Angeles, we were sent out as seconds to help police and sheriffs. It was boring. We sat at a staging area. I watched Reginald Denny being beaten and the leaders in charge…
I feel strongly about what I observed, I must restate this. We sat at a staging area. I watched Reginald Denny being beaten and the cowards in charge sat on an army. There were multitudes of SWAT teams sitting, drinking coffee and snacking on doughnuts. I had thoughts of anger. I still do.
Cowards-NOT LEADERS sat as we all did and watched an innocent man being beaten close to death: left with permanent injuries. And all we were allowed to do was watch it on TV. Many of us cried.
After this surreal event, it was a relief to get back into the courts. I was assigned to assist in an arraignment court. Noel Cannon was the judge. Not Saturday Night Live, not Laugh In, not Benny Hill could do her justice. I promise you South Park would come up short. Everyone, judges, police officers, attorneys, even the LA Times, referred to her chambers as “The Pink Whorehouse.” And, there were often extended private conferences.
I found an old black and white photo of her and the chambers. Note the french phone and the kitty. I seem to remember a poodle and a parakeet in a cage as well.
I felt she was a nice lady who lost her way. But, she was flamboyant.
Imagine walking into court, not wearing a judicial robe but a fluffy, ballerina style pink mini-skirt. That was Noel. I heard that at Christmas, the lawyers sang to her a parody of “The First Noel.”
She was removed by the Commission on Judicial Qualifications on July 10, 1975. She was not the first judge to be removed.
I drifted a bit more. I helped in the courts of Tom Murphy who went on the become a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York and Armand Arabian who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from 1990 to 1996. These men were judges, not South Park parodies.
I eventually landed with Judge Leland W. Geiler. We had rights of refusal.
I did not know…
Before I ended up with Geiler, I learned this later, Judge Tom Murphy had gotten back at Geiler for some nasty prank of which I have no details. Tom Murphy’s bailiff would drive each Friday to San Pedro, about 30 miles each way, to acquire fresh fish for the judge. On one of those occasions, an extra fish was obtained. It was hidden deep in the back of Geiler’s in chambers desk. It began to smell like a decaying corpse. The chambers became unlivable. It took county crews nearly a year to find the source of the odor.
I started with Geiler as a bailiff in his Lincoln Heights Jail, Drunk Tank Arraignment Court. It was strange.
Eventually he moved to the old Wall Street Traffic Court; a shabby, run down relic of a building leased and wholly unsuited for its use.
Judge Geiler was unique. He was a brutally profane ex-LAPD motor sergeant.
He was also unique that he was the only judge in the entire LA County judicial system, and it was/is massive to not have a court stenographer. He had some difficulty with court clerks-grab em’ by the… difficulty, so the court clerk would remain outside of the courtroom and create a summary later. It was very unique.
For a moment, I want step into your mind as you read this. You think this is bullshit. I assure you it is not and there is more—all backed up by court documents.
Geiler was in Traffic Court because the P J, excuse me, The Presiding Judge knew he was a big problem. They were searching for a place to put him where he would do the least damage.
If a black man or woman came into his courtroom, he or she would go to jail on some charge. The only exception were cops. Once, the Sparkletts water man spent several hours in jail. It sickened me.
Since there was no record, there was a steady stream of attorneys with clients in tow who would enter the chambers – now fumigated, and do deals. Traffic tickets tickets were not cleared. They vanished. I saw movie stars. Several soap stars. Daily while those on the docket to make a plea from morning to well after we arrived back from Chinatown. They were lucky in the afternoon. He was sometimes in a better mood.
My job at lunch was to daily drive him to Chinatown, to his preferred whorehouse. I was invited but chose to stay in the car.
On one of those trips, he told me that he got his judgeship by paying Jerry Brown $50,000 on Brown’s last day in office on Brown’s first time as California Governor.
By the time he confided in me, I had already decided I had had enough, I was looking for the fire-door.
I found the fire-door. I ran like Hell.
Pragmatists among you might ask, “Why not just suck it up? It is a good and well paying job with which to support your family.”
Because I saw more.
When Geiler was at Lincoln Heights, presiding over his shabby little satrapy, I saw things… I saw a thing.
The function of the Judge at Lincoln Heights was to help the city and county steer drunks to the extensive “drunk farm” system to get an opportunity to escape the addiction of alcoholism. They would clean up, get healthy, work on roads for therapy and many would recover back to a normal life.
Geiler came in and set this world on fire. Geiler elected to take cash fines from the drunks. The drunks had no money so he put them on the installment plan.
Some would fall behind on installments and would face much stiffer penalties. Prison time.
More aggressive and dominant drunks continued their installment payments by rolling other passed out drunks on skid row.
This opens what I saw. A particular drunk would be rearrested almost nightly. He would come in, plead, and be fined. He had some 20 plus installments and he was fully up to date.
I need to break here. Everything else I have written has been documented extensively. I do not there is any documentation. It was covered up. When it occurred, we were told it did not happen. Records were altered or vanished.
On a morning, our heavy hitter again appeared. He and the judge had this ongoing dueling banter sort of engagement between them. This morning, he was quiet. He began to walk to… He fell. He landed on his back with his shirt open. As I began to come from the far back of the courtroom, his chest and stomach split open and maggots began pouring out.
Officially, this never happened. I saw it and the cover-up.
It may not have happened but I began making my escape plans.
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As I wrote my very vivid memories, I could not think but that nothing has changed.
Corruption was everywhere but some were not corrupt: some were shining examples showing the way to a better tomorrow.
Corruption is everywhere but some are standing strong and resisting in the hope of an improved future.
One of Geiler’s official charges was that he grabbed a Court Commissioner by the balls and squeezed until the man became unconscious. For this and other reasons, Geiler was removed.
Today, someone is in power that likes to grab ‘em somewhere else. For this and other reasons, he deserves to be removed. We are still waiting.
Personally, I was surprised that I had association with two of the first three judges removed.
I mean this seriously, I thought I lead a dull life until I freed my fingers to roam.
ADDENDUM: Summary of Charges and Removal of Judge Leland W. Geiler (1973)
Judge Leland W. Geiler, Los Angeles Municipal Court, became the first judge in California history ever removed from office by order of the California Supreme Court.
The removal occurred on October 25, 1973, following formal proceedings by the Commission on Judicial Qualifications.
I. Charges and Proven Misconduct
The Commission filed 6 counts covering 23 specific acts.
The Supreme Court ultimately found the following conduct proven:
1. Crude Sexual Conduct in Chambers
- Geiler brandished a dildo in chambers during an active criminal trial.
- He used the incident to cut off a public defender’s cross‑examination, mocking the attorney and trivializing the proceeding.
- The Court called this “crude and offensive conduct” and an abuse of judicial authority.
2. Vulgar and Abusive Language Toward Staff and Attorneys
- Repeated profane, insulting, and unjudicial language directed at:
- Court clerks
- Bailiffs
- Public defenders
- Attorneys appearing before him
- The Court found this behavior prejudicial to the administration of justice because it degraded the dignity of the court and intimidated those required to work in it.
3. Abusive Treatment of Court Employees
- Geiler profanely reprimanded and humiliated court staff, often in open court.
- The Court held this was an abuse of power and demonstrated a lack of judicial temperament.
4. Interference with Attorney–Client Relationships
- He interfered with public defenders’ ability to represent their clients, motivated by what the Court described as “petty animosity toward public defenders.”
- This crossed into bad‑faith misuse of judicial authority, affecting defendants’ rights.
5. Crude and Offensive Conduct in Public Settings
- The Commission documented a pattern of offensive behavior in public places, inconsistent with the dignity required of a judicial officer.
- While not every allegation was sustained, the pattern contributed to the overall finding of misconduct.
II. Legal Basis for Removal
The California Supreme Court held that Geiler’s conduct constituted:
- Willful misconduct in office, and
- Conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute
Although removed, the Court noted his actions did not involve moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption — so he remained eligible to practice law.
III. Historical Significance
- First judge ever removed from office in California under the state’s judicial discipline system.
- The case became a defining precedent for what constitutes unjudicial conduct, abuse of authority, and the limits of acceptable courtroom behavior.
https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/304847-there-goes-the-judge
https://cjp.ca.gov/public-decisions/geiler/
https://cjp.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2016/08/Geiler_10_Cal_3d_270_1973.pdf