@meghannmcuniff: A judge in California on Wednesday halted a lawyer's questions about a police officer's meetings with his lawyers because "that's not uncommon or inappropriate in any way." Judge Frank M. Tavelman interrupted plaintiff's attorney Nick Rowley's questioning of Officer Michael Mazur of the Los Angeles Police Department in a civil trial over a police shooting that killed a teen girl. Rowley asked Mazur about the amount of time he spent preparing for his testimony, which lawyers commonly do when trying to show jurors that outside factors may have influenced a witness' testimony. In Mazur’s situation, he testified that he initially thought Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. disobeyed his command to "slow down" inside a Burlington clothing store in North Hollywood but he realized after reviewing video that he did not. The officers were searched for a man who assaulted a woman with a bicycle lock. Jones fired three rounds from his AR-15 inside the store, killing the suspect but also killing 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was in a dressing room with her mother. The girl's parents are suing Jones, the police department and the City of Los Angeles for negligence and wrongful death. Judge Tavelman is hardly passive on the bench. While some judges won't interject unless an attorney objects and they have to rule, Tavelman proactively halted Rowley's questioning on Wednesday as he asked Mazur about meeting with his lawyer Christian Richard Bojorquez of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. Bojorquez is defending the city with James Touchstone of Jones & Mayer. Tavelman cited California Evidence Code § 352, which allows a judge to exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by potential prejudice, confusion of the issues, or repetitiveness. "The court's going to sustain its own objection under 352. It is common for witnesses to meet with lawyers to prepare cases. That's not uncommon or inappropriate in any way. So I'm going to sustain my own objection, because I think it would lead to unnecessary speculation," said Tavelman, who's been a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge since 2014. Rowley pushed back, saying, "I think the amount of time isn't getting to the into the attorney-client privilege," but Tavelman still wouldn't allow the questions. "It's leaving the jury with a potentially the wrong impression that lawyers shouldn't be meeting with witnesses before they testify, and that routinely happens in almost every case." Rowley said Mazur is "a client" and not a witness, but Tavelman said, "I'm not looking to debate the issue with you, counsel. You can ask you another question." Rowley will continue questioning Mazur today (Thursday, April 16) in Tavelman's courtroom in Burbank. #law #court #police #attorney

Meghann Cuniff

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Thursday 16 April 2026 14:37:45 GMT