Monday, April 16, 2012

Kelly Soo Park Changes Counsel

I arrive in downtown Los Angeles in plenty of time for the hearing, however, on my walk to the courthouse I realized I forgot to bring a notepad. I walk to the underground city and purchased a notepad from the CVS drugstore.

When I finally get inside the courtroom, sit in the second row and look inside my bag when I realize in cleaning out my bag over the weekend, I forgot to put back my cache of pens. I get up from my seat in the second bench row and sit in the back row and open my laptop. I know Judge Kennedy allows the press to work on their laptops in her courtroom.

DDA Alan Jackson is here with the Santa Monica detective.

Park's defense attorney's Stephen Bernard is here.

Kelly is here along with several of her supporters.

Jackson is on the phone at the prosecution table.

It’s 8:50 AM. We are waiting for Judge Kennedy.

I don’t recognize the other two gentlemen at the defense table.

Beautiful tie on Jackson, A shimmering light olive color with dark gray diagonal lines. The suit he’s wearing is a charcoal gray with double pleats in back. I can barely see from the back row some faint vertical lines in the suit.

Bernard's co-counsel, Alena Kilmianok arrives.


The Dateline producer “Luce” (sp?) enters and sits in the second row. I first saw her during Fayed case. She’s slender, pretty and has short dark hair. When she sits in the row in front of Park she greets Park. From where I’m sitting I see Park greet her back, reach out and touch her hair. (Maybe she's cut it since Park last saw her.) Park is sitting a row in front of me to my right.

Maybe the other two attorneys are for another case? What makes me believe that is Bernard and Kilmianok are standing back in the well, but the two other gentlemen are standing at the defense table.

Around eight people are here for Kelly, including (allegedly) her bail bondsman, a very tall man with jet black hair.

The Dateline producer gets up to speak to Bernard.

Jackson and the female Santa Monica Detective stand at the podium.

An attractive black female attorney, with long hair wearing a sharp gray suit and tall black heels enters, sits beside me for a moment, takes out her phone and then walks out.

Judge Kennedy is out of her robes and chatting with her clerk. She has on a black sweater over a black top and she looks even thinner than the last time I saw her. Whatever she’s doing it’s working for her.

The City News reporter I saw at Lazarus arrives.

Kelly comes up and stands with the two new attorney’s in the well. They give their names but it’s too quick. I think I hear George Buehler.

Alan Jackson for people.

Substitution of counsel request.

Park wishes to change counsel! This would be her third set of attorneys.

JK: How long is it going to take you to get up to speed? (snip) This is now the third set of attorney’s.

New Defense: Understand (your honor?) it's not our intent to cause unreasonable delay. (snip) Would like court to give us two months, and at that time set a trial date.

When Judge Kennedy asks if Park agrees to the change in counsel, she nods and I can barely hear a whispered “Yes.”

JK: Mr. Bernard, when can you transfer your files?

SB: Today.

It’s around this point that I believe DDA Eric Harmon enters with a large briefcase and sits in the back row.

JK: Make sure our clerk has your business cards and information so we can place it in our files.

The new counsel states that a return date of June 11th had been discussed.

Park waives the right to a speedy trial and agrees to return on June 11th.

JK: Counsel join?

Everyone agrees and that’s it.

In the well, the new counsel is exchanging business cards with the bail bondsman as well as the prosecution team, DDA Jackson and DDA Harmon. I wait, introduce myself, and get business cards from the two gentlemen. Park's new counsel is the team of George W. Buehler and Mark M. Kassabian.

I have a brief hello with DDA Jackson and then I head back to the subway and home. I search the web for Buehler & Kassabian, and their web site indicates they specialize in white collar crime. One has to wonder why at this late stage, Park had a change in strategy in her defense. How would she benefit by utilizing a law firm that does not specialize in the type of defense she needs, specifically homicide?

6 comments:

Ellwood P.Dowd said...

Has Kelly Soo Park been released on bail.she's not in the LA Sheriff's Jail locator.

Sprocket said...

Park has been out on bail for some time. She's out on 3.5 MILLION bail. She either wears or has on her person a monitoring device... I believe it's a GPS device, but I'm not positive about that.

Anonymous said...

Justice for the beautiful angel happy spirit and friend forever Juliana Redding! LETS GET TO TRIAL PEOPLE!!!
~Juliana will NEVER be forgotten. Maybe its true "Only the good die young."
Its too bad there are so many evil people in this world. The good will always win over EVIL.

Anonymous said...

Betsy I had to google the case to get somewhat up to speed as it would not be covered on the East Coast. According to the April 6 edition of "Desert Living Today", Ms Park's co-conspirator is a "shady spinal doctor" and then there is some discussion of Courtney Cox's "boy-toy"'s association with the case.

Can you venture a guess as to what makes the doctor shady and why the prosecution makes the defendant out to be a "female James Bond" if she has no past record? I assume they can back this up during the trial.
-Wes J.

Sprocket said...

I still don't know if I will be covering this case or not. It's tentative at this point.

The Doctor. You are talking about Dr. Munir Uwaydah his business Frontline Medical and the connection to a possible worker's compensation fraud...huge scam.

I'm behind on getting some documents up on the web, specifically the indictment and "the people's application for a court inquiry regarding possible conflict of interest and appointment of separate advisory counsel" as well as Statement of Probable Cause".

Those documents would give a better understanding as to the players.

It's not exactly clear what Kelly Soo Park did for Dr. Uwaydah; what the large cash payments she received from him were for. Official documents state he once bragged to others that he had a "Female James Bond" at his disposal. One attorney (will have to go back and refresh my memory who the counsel represented) stated that Kelly Soo Park was the doctor's "real estate agent" and large sums of money paid to Park were not unusual.

Redding's father, Gregory Redding was set to go into business with the doctor, I believe setting up a chain of pharmacies. Five days after that business deal fell through, his daughter was murdered by someone she did not know. There is no known connection between Park and Julianna Redding. The only connection they have in common is....the doctor.

Apparently, at the time of Redding's murder, approximately March 15th, 2008, Redding was in an intimate relationship with a young "boy toy" that Courtney Cox later dated. I think I have that correct.

Sprocket said...

I'm sure Julianna was much loved by her family and friends.

I wish I could say for certain at this time that I was going to cover this case but unfortunately, I cannot. I have another case I'm committed to, Cameron Brown's third trial that may come to trial at the same time as the Park case.