LOS
ANGELES — There is nothing outwardly extraordinary about the Polo
Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, aside from the bill for a $38 Kobe
beef hamburger that is washed down with a $14 bottle of Belgian beer.
The room looks much the same as it always has: the low ceiling, the
semicircular banquettes along the walls, the small tables in the middle
of the room, the piano that is played in the evenings and the bar that
is tended by a man in a white jacket.
It is the visitors to the watering hole who make it matter.
Perhaps
no place over the years has better represented the Hollywood power
lunch — or breakfast, or dinner — than the Polo Lounge. It is where
Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Ari Emanuel have eaten while
negotiating deals. It is where the Rat Pack once frolicked and Richard
M. Nixon’s aides were told of the Watergate break-in when a phone was
brought to their table. These days it is where Mary J. Blige and Warren
Beatty might be spotted, or Al Pacino and Katy Perry, though probably
separately.
The
Polo Lounge’s latest turn as a backdrop for intrigue may come this week
in a Los Angeles probate court, where Donald Sterling’s last-ditch
legal fight to hold on to the Los Angeles Clippers was set to begin Monday.
On
May 19, several hours after Dr. Meril S. Platzer, a California-based
neurologist, evaluated Sterling for competency, she and Sterling’s wife,
Rochelle, joined him; his lawyer, Bobby Samini; and a family friend for
dinner at the Polo Lounge, which is just across Sunset Boulevard from
Donald Sterling’s residence.
The
hour and a half they spent eating, drinking and socializing could be
central to the evidence that Judge Michael Levanas began to hear Monday
in determining whether Rochelle Sterling acted legally in invoking the
capacity clause in the Sterlings’ trust to seize control of the team.
The
answer to that narrow question will probably determine whether the
record $2 billion sale of the Clippers by Rochelle Sterling to Steve
Ballmer, a former chief executive of Microsoft, will be completed.
In
court papers filed Thursday, Donald Sterling’s lawyers asked for the
case to be moved to federal court to determine whether Sterling’s
privacy rights had been violated after the release of his medical
records. Lawyers for Rochelle Sterling filed an emergency brief Sunday
night opposing the motion to send the case to federal court.
When
the probate court convened Monday morning, the proposed move to federal
court had not yet been assigned to a federal judge, so Levanas
dismissed those involved and told them to meet back at 11 a.m. local
time. The judge hoped to know by then whether the case would be kicked
back to probate court, removed to federal court or bifurcated, with the
federal court hearing the privacy matter but instructing the state court
to continue with the case. Rochelle Sterling was in court, but Donald
Sterling was not.
If
the case is returned to probate court, Samini, Donald Sterling’s
lawyer, plans to focus on Platzer, one of two doctors — along with Dr.
James Spar, a geriatric psychiatrist — who have certified that Donald
Sterling lacks the mental capacity to remain as a trustee. According to
the Sterling family trust, Donald or Rochelle can be removed as a
trustee if two doctors determine either one lacks the capacity to
control the team.
“The focus in the trial will be very heavy on her,” Samini said of Platzer.
Samini,
who accompanied Donald Sterling to the Polo Lounge on May 19, said it
was inappropriate for Platzer to socialize with Sterling, whom she had
examined earlier in the day at Sterling’s home. Samini questioned
whether anything that was gleaned from the dinner went into Platzer’s
evaluation.
Platzer
was recommended to Rochelle Sterling by a friend, according to a court
filing, after Rochelle Sterling became concerned about her estranged
husband’s erratic behavior during a television interview on CNN. That
interview came in the wake of Commissioner Adam Silver’s decision to bar
Sterling from the N.B.A. for life and fine him $2.5 million for racist remarks that were released April 25 on an audiotape by TMZ.
After
Sterling was evaluated by Platzer, he went with Samini to his office in
Beverly Hills to retrieve financial statements and told Rochelle that
he would meet her later for dinner. When Sterling arrived at the Polo
Lounge, Platzer was seated at the booth with Rochelle Sterling and a
family friend.
Samini
said Donald Sterling sat next to Platzer and ordered a margarita and
lamb chops, which he insisted Rochelle and Platzer sample. He added that
the women each drank wine, and Platzer remarked that she had an
ownership interest in a Central California winery. A few acquaintances
of Donald Sterling’s stopped by the table to say hello, according to
Samini.
When the meal was over, Donald Sterling paid the bill.
Messages
left at the office Platzer shares in Woodland Hills, a San Fernando
Valley suburb, and on her voice mail were not returned.
The
evaluations of Donald Sterling were part of a 13-day whirlwind in which
Rochelle Sterling moved to take control of the Clippers. On May 16, she
urged Sterling to undergo neurological testing at Cedars-Sinai
Hospital. Three days later, he was evaluated by Platzer. And, three days
after that, on May 22, Spar, the psychiatrist, visited Sterling’s home
to conduct his examination.
On
May 29, with the two reports in hand, Rochelle Sterling asserted
control of the trust and signed an agreement to sell the team to
Ballmer. Pierce O’Donnell, the lawyer for Rochelle Sterling, said his
client followed the trust’s directives and is enforcing her fiduciary
duty to the trust by closing the sale.
“There
are two billion reasons why this sale should go through,” O’Donnell
said last Monday after Levanas denied Donald Sterling’s request for a
delay in the trial.
The
agreement between Ballmer and Rochelle Sterling is set to expire July
15 but can be extended once — for 30 days — according to Adam F.
Streisand, a lawyer for Ballmer. He added that Ballmer was not worried
about the deal falling through.
“We
have to work through the court to do it, but he’s confident it’s going
to happen,” said Streisand, who last week was given standing by Levanas
to join Rochelle Sterling in the case.
Sterling
had authorized his wife to negotiate “all issues in connection with a
sale” in a May 22 letter to the N.B.A., but later withdrew his support.
When the doctors’ reports were made public, Sterling left angry,
expletive-laced voice mail messages for Spar and Platzer, according to
court filings.
Joseph
B. McHugh, a probate attorney in Glendale, Calif., who is not involved
in the Sterling case, said that it was not uncommon for someone to
protest being ruled incapacitated, and that the court had broad
discretion.
“The judge has the ability to do what he thinks is equitable or right according to the trust,” McHugh said.MERLE RATNER AND SUSAN RATNER PROUDLY PRESENT HOW TO SEIZE YOUR FATHERS ASSETS FROM WELLS FARGO ADVISORS AND THAT DEATH WAITS FOR NO ONE
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