King David Gets His Day in Court

The high-profile defendant is a head of state accused of adultery and murder. The prosecutor is a trial veteran familiar to a nation of cable TV junkies enthralled by the O.J. Simpson case. The opposing defense attorney is a constitutional expert skilled at raising his own public profile with sound bites handicapping the sensational case of the day. Presiding will be a photogenic judge proficient at leveling legal battlegrounds.

With such a line-up one might expect to see headlines in the supermarket tabloids.

The star-studded mock sanhedrin trial, The People vs. King David, will get underway at Irvine’s Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School (TVT) on April 25.

Dr. Robert Wexler, president of the University of Judaism (UJ), will conduct a pre-trial study of the biblical passage beginning with Samuel, Chapter 11. The school originated the idea of examining biblical events through the lens of modern American jurisprudence and conducted a previous trial in Los Angeles last November. Two years ago, the school first put the patriarch Abraham on trial. A third mock case is planned for November.

"It’s a creative way to teach text," said Gady Levy, the UJ’s vice president of continuing education. "I never expected it to be so successful."

Even as the jury audience is expected to render its verdict, along the way they gain a better understanding of a seminal biblical event and are entertained by legal scholars who play to the crowd but are well-versed in Jewish knowledge.

"I don’t think it’s trivializing," Levy said.

Levy considered — but rejected — the notion of allowing the opposing lawyers more latitude to stage a legal drama.

"If you put on witnesses, you have to bring in a script," he said, which would be untrue to the biblical source. "All the lawyers can use is text and their interpretation of it."

Debating the legal issues raised by King David’s affair with Batsheba and his scheme for the demise of her husband will be Laurie Levenson and Erwin Chemerinsky, the same opposing lawyers in the previous trial. (Hello, counselors, what about double jeopardy?) Former Santa Ana appellate justice Sheila Prell Sonenshine is to preside.

The change of venue is owed to parent Alan V. Thaler, a Fountain Valley civil litigator who has served for three years as a coach to TVT’s mock trial team. Heartbroken his team could not witness the previous sold-out trial, he sought a reprise after seeing it himself.

"This is right up my alley," said Thaler, who as a UC Berkeley undergraduate booked artists on campus by negotiating with the late concert promoter, Bill Graham.

Thaler described the opposing lawyers as well-matched and articulate, with each possessing a flair for comic relief. He considered revising the staging by asking TVT’s principal, Howard Haas, to stand in as King David. When he queried whether Sonenshine could participate, she asked him, "Am I going to be Bathsheba?"

"My instinct was it would be better theater," said Thaler, who ultimately decided against enlarging the cast. "The spotlight will be on Laurie and Erwin. They are the stars."

In her previous prosecution, Levenson, a former assistant U.S. attorney and professor of Loyola Law School, used a PowerPoint presentation. One slide is a photo of Michelangelo’s "David" sculpture. Using a red marker, she circled his genitals and announced: "The scene of the crime."

A bedsheet where the deed was supposedly consummated was also introduced by the prosecution as evidence.

Examining the label, the King’s defender reads out loud, "Fifty percent cotton. I don’t think so!"

Chemerinsky, a longtime USC professor and constitutional law scholar, recently accepted a position at Duke University School of Law.

Projecting a historical story in a modern context set Thaler thinking.

"I thought it was a remarkable historical parallel with Clinton and Lewinsky," he said.

In addition, Thaler came up with an alternate defense argument that he believes would exonerate the defendant.

"I think Chemerinsky could have argued executive privilege," he said, referring to David’s letter ordering his mistress’s husband into battle and harm’s way. "The letter would be privileged. It would never be disclosed. It wouldn’t be admissible."

Local rabbis are to lead post-trial discussion groups about how rabbinic commentators view King David’s lechery and its affect on Jewish history. Under the reign of David’s cursed descendant, the first temple is destroyed, beginning the Jewish Diaspora.

Tickets are $20, which helps defray costs of a trip by TVT’s eighth-graders to Washington, D.C., and New York. Registration for the trial begins at 2:30 p.m at TVT, 5200 Bonita Canyon Drive, Irvine. For tickets and more information, call (949) 509-9500.