CITY HALL — When it landed on her desk, the case was like scores of others that Debra Kanoff has handled during her nearly three-decade career in the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office: A man who had boarded a Big Blue Bus claimed he’d been injured when the driver closed the door on him. Now he wanted to get paid.
As a lawyer in her office’s civil division, it was Kanoff’s job to defend City Hall against the allegations. She followed her normal routine, locating the video tape from the bus system’s on-board surveillance system that showed the incident in question.
The plaintiff, David Hamodot, claimed in court papers he had been “thrown to the ground” by the bus door, causing him pain and suffering that required “extensive medical and chiropractic” care.
The video tape, though, told a different story. Kanoff said it clearly showed the plaintiff’s claims were — to say the least — trumped up. Armed with the evidence, she was quickly able to get Hamodot’s lawyer to drop the $35,000 suit against City Hall.
For many attorneys, that’s where the story would have ended — an easy win in an open and shut case.
But not for Kanoff.
“I feel that I need to bring problems to the right people so they’ll be addressed,” she said. “I think it’s the right thing to do.”
So she took the video tape to the Santa Monica Police Department, where officers forwarded it on to the District Attorney, who filed a felony perjury charge against Hamodot.
More than a year after the alleged incident took place, Kanoff is set to testify for the prosecution in the criminal case against Hamodot on June 15 at the LAX Courthouse.
“I see it as part of my job,” she said. “I also see it as part of my job as a good citizen of this country. When you see something that’s not right, you should stand up and report it.”
Attempts to reach Hamodot through his attorney in the Big Blue Bus case were not successful.
For Kanoff, it’s the third time in her 29-year career at City Hall that she’s initiated a criminal perjury case against an adversary in litigation. Filing criminal charges that stem from a civil action isn’t necessarily unheard of, but Kanoff is one of the few — if not the only — attorney at City Hall who has taken the step.
“Maybe I get more involved, I don’t know,” she said.
A graduate of UCLA and Southwestern Law School, when she decided to become an attorney Kanoff thought she’d defend women’s rights. Instead she ended up fighting on behalf of the Santa Monica Police Department, and she couldn’t be happier.
“I love my job,” she said. “I get to do the right thing. If I think that the city should prevail in a case I can go all the way to trial. If I think the city maybe messed up or there was a problem, I can settle the case.”
nickt@www.smdp.com
