Our judicial system sucks. It’s a capricious, vindictive, and discriminatory thing wielded in Los Angeles County in a willy-nilly fashion by District Attorney Steve Cooley for or against anybody he wants, whenever he wants and for whatever reason he wants. I remember the day he came before the Black Journalists Association when he first ran for the office and promised us he would be a fair and impartial prosecutor. He lied. I was reminded of that lie after the pretrial hearing Monday in which Judge George G. Lomeli made two damaging rulings in open court against Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn’s defense against charges that he misappropriated public funds and was unlawfully compensated when he took out a home improvement loan from the city of Inglewood.

Lomeli ruled that Dorn could not call as expert witnesses for his defense, Julie H. Biggs and James C. Spindler, both of whom are experienced experts in interpreting governmental codes. In fact, the D.A. had called upon Biggs to testify for the prosecution in previous trials such as the one facing Dorn, but this time he objected to her testifying for the defense and the judge went along with it and ruled that Dorn could only call witnesses from Inglewood to interpret the codes. Biggs said usually the prosecution is right in this kind of case, but in this case against Dorn, the prosecution is wrong. The testimony of these two experts would have been a slam-dunk for Dorn’s exoneration.

Then the judge ruled that Dorn, who had been a Superior Court judge for 18 years, could not serve as co-counsel in his own defense. Lomeli said Dorn’s lawyers were good enough and he said Dorn had the right to represent himself, but he would have to fire his lawyer and do the whole job himself. Lomeli held his ruling in abeyance on whether Dorn can call character witnesses in his defense, pending whatever Dorn says on the stand when he testifies. The mayor may not get to call any.

Cooley is determined to do everything he can to convict Dorn for having basically done nothing wrong, while he is ignoring what I see as flagrant law-breaking politicians such as Inglewood Councilwoman Judy Dunlap, Inglewood school board member Arnold Butler, former county Supervisor Yvonne Burke, and possibly the board of directors of the Inglewood Neighborhood Housing Services. For years, neighbors of Dunlap’s purported 2nd District Inglewood home have complained to the D.A. that she does not live there anymore — and hasn’t done so for years. They point out her weed-choked, unkempt and rundown purported address as evidence, and officials note that water usage at that address has not been recorded in years. The man next door admits to using her unattended property as his personal parking lot for his multiple cars.

After learning last month that the D.A. was investigating to determine the true domicile of state Sen. Rod Wright, Inglewood City Treasurer Wanda Brown wrote a letter to Cooley requesting that he, likewise, probe Dunlap’s abode. Everybody knows that, in violation of the law for which Cooley convicted then-Compton school board member Basil Kimbrew, Dunlap reportedly does not live in Inglewood and has so informed Cooley. In fact, Dunlap doesn’t even live in the region. It is widely believed that she has lived in San Francisco for years and Cooley hasn’t done a thing about it.

Just like he didn’t do anything about that criminal, Burke, who hadn’t lived anywhere near her L.A. County 2nd District constituency since she was a child. Burke spent her 16 years in office living in tony Brentwood and Marina del Rey, next to her neighbor, Nate Holden, a Los Angeles city councilman, at the time, and neither lawbreaker caused Cooley to raise an eyebrow.

And don’t get me started on Butler, who never lived in Inglewood. He owned a four-unit apartment building on Cedar Avenue in Inglewood and for political purposes, he insisted he resided in one of those units, when in fact, everyone knows he lives on Stillwater Drive in Los Angeles. When Butler was running for re-election to the school board this year, he listed neither his real Stillwater nor phony Cedar address on the required July 9 financial campaign filing. Instead, he listed a La Brea office complex as his address. Why? Because he knew he was in trouble and was facing serious Inglewood homelessness issues: Records show that on Aug. 5, he lost his Cedar Avenue apartments in a trustee’s sale for wont of $513,649 to retain them. So, whereabouts in Inglewood does Butler pretend to live now? Or does Cooley even give a damn? The only one he’s ever wanted for this crime was Kimbrew; and he got him.

Remember when former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo’s wife, who was unlawfully driving a city car, wrecked it? Remember how nothing bad happened to her? Remember when Najee Ali’s young, frightened daughter, Jazmin, bumped into one of five White, burly, felonious motorcyclists who were chasing her on the freeway and Cooley charged her with attempted murder and tried to put her away for life? And let’s not forget that Najee is still sitting in prison because the D.A. reneged on a reduced sentence agreement he made with Najee if he would plead guilty to something he didn’t do! Cooley is just mean.

And whatever happened to that $1.2 to $2 million that came up missing in 2007 at the Inglewood Neighborhood Housing Services? That nonprofit agency came under fire because of it, and the then-Executive Director Richard Winslow, resigned because he couldn’t come up with any answers as to what happened to the money, thus dragging Board Chairman Gil Mathieu deeply into the mess. The last I heard, the Inglewood City Council was trying to turn the matter over to the district attorney for investigative and prosecutorial action, but I guess Cooley was too busy.

Let’s go back to Dunlap because her stuff is the very picture of a conflict of interest and suspicious money flow. Milton Brown is the man who does the Inglewood Community Television work. According to documents filed with the Secretary of State’s office, Brown “owns” the nonprofit South Bay Performing Arts Initiative in Inglewood and he lists Nannette Marchard as his company’s chief financial advisor. Now, payment records show the city of Inglewood has paid Brown and his “nonprofit” South Bay Performing Arts doing business as Inglewood Community Television a total $1,034,479.48 over the past five years with some kind of “loosey-goosey” Inglewood City Council contract that has never gone out to bid. And they’re still paying him.

The council voted to pay him more than $5,000 Tuesday night! Councilwoman Dunlap has never denied many public assertions that she is Brown’s former wife, and Marchard, Brown’s financial advisor, is Dunlap’s council assistant!! So, we’ve got an out-of-town councilwoman, her ex-husband, her employee, a sweetheart city contract and more than $1 million and counting! What’s wrong with this picture? Where is a district attorney when you need one?! Oh, I know. Ours is busy trying to railroad the Inglewood mayor out of office and into prison for borrowing money and paying it back — with interest!!!

When writing “Oliver Twist,” Charles Dickens hit the nail right on the head when he had Mr. Bumble tell the judge in the novel, “The law is a ass!”