Attorney Ordered to Stand Trial on Charges of Faking Blood Test : Crime: William Yacobozzi Jr. of Newport Beach is accused of seven felonies in paternity case.

By JERRY HICKS

Jan. 5, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SANTA ANA — A well-known criminal defense lawyer was ordered Friday to stand trial in Superior Court on seven felony charges alleging that he faked a blood test to produce favorable evidence in a paternity lawsuit against him.

Municipal Judge Marjorie Laird Carter determined after a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence of wrongdoing to bound William Yacobozzi Jr. of Newport Beach over for trial. She set his arraignment for Jan. 15.

Yacobozzi, 49, is charged with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of submitting false evidentiary information and five counts of perjury. The perjury counts stem from oral and written statements by Yacobozzi to the court that he had taken a second blood test in the paternity suit when he allegedly had not.

The veteran lawyer has maintained throughout his plight that he never falsified a blood test nor fathered the child of the woman who has sued him.

“She knows I have money; that’s what this is all about,” Yacobozzi said.

Yacobozzi took an initial blood test in June, 1988, as part of the paternity suit. Prosecutors say the results show that he fathered the child, but Yacobozzi claims the results only show he could have been the father.

Nevertheless, Yacobozzi demanded, and the court agreed to, a second blood test--this time one that analyzed DNA, a very accurate way to determine parentage.

But prosecutors say Yacobozzi gave someone else his driver’s license, which must be produced for the test, and sent that person to submit blood in his place at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

As standard procedure, the man’s picture was taken and attached to the blood sample paperwork.

Two lab technicians--one who administered the test and a second who witnessed it--both testified this week that the man who took the test was the man in the picture--not Yacobozzi.

Prosecutors, however, have been unable to determine who the man is. Testimony showed that district attorney investigators took the picture to Yacobozzi’s relatives in Chicago and Milwaukee, Wis., in an attempt to identify him. He’s now listed in court papers as “imposter John Doe.”

Yacobozzi’s attorney, Thomas M. Goethals, contends that the hospital lab might be trying to cover up its own inefficiency and lack of diligence in making sure they had the right person. For example, it is standard procedure for lab technicians to check the features of the person taking the test against the picture on the driver’s license.

“Why didn’t that break down the whole process right there?” Goethals asked. “There are a lot of questions they (the hospital) cannot seem to answer.”

The technicians said they noted the discrepancy, but figured the two were similar enough and that perhaps the man’s appearance had changed slightly since his driver’s license photo was taken.

But Goethals claimed that if fraud occurred, it could have been discovered if the technicians had only checked the man’s features against the photo of Yacobozzi taken during the blood test the year before. The technicians testified that such a comparison was not made.

Jeri McKeand, an attorney for the woman in the paternity suit, later learned about the alleged discrepancy from hospital officials and informed the district attorney’s office. She testified that she felt an obligation to inform authorities.

Yacobozzi says it is suspicious that nobody decided there was a problem until the results of the test finally showed that the blood donor could not be the father of the child in question.

If convicted of the felony charges, Yacobozzi could face up to four years in state prison and automatically lose his license to practice law.

“That’s the greater penalty,” Yacobozzi said. “It’s how I make my living; it’s what I enjoy.”

Yacobozzi has won several high-profile cases in recent years. One involved a gang leader, Eleazor Gonzales, charged with murder in a Santa Ana gang-related slaying. Just a few weeks after Yacobozzi won him an acquittal, Gonzales was arrested again and accused of another gang killing.

Yacobozzi also represented Joey Grosso, accused of aiding in the shooting of the financier of the Mustang topless bar in Santa Ana, which has since burned down. Grosso was found guilty.

But as a defendant himself, Yacobozzi has been struggling. Last week, he was ordered to pay $45,000 in contempt of court fines for refusal to pay court-ordered temporary child support in the paternity case.

He claims he did not make the monthly payments under the order because he’s not the father. Yacobozzi, who is married and has a young child with his wife, denies that he has ever had sex with the woman in the lawsuit.