Just as Marks doesn’t hesitate to blame her failures on her divorce and her mother’s worldview, she is quick to rail against inequality in society in general. Specifically she blames Spelman, Carlthorp and the justice system for grinding her daughter into the ground. "I would like people to know about the brutality, cruelty and heartlessness Ericka has experienced," Marks says. "Why do people in authority seem to have so little conscience? Why, 46 years after my mother graduated Spelman, did school administrators do so little to get at the root of what happened to her granddaughter on campus?"
This knack for rhetoric has rubbed off on Griffin. While she gets her physical attributes and work ethic from her father, she gets her righteousness from her mother. In taking on Carlthorp, she admits that she fantasizes about Ida B. Wells, the 19th-century crusader for justice. But Griffin carried her righteousness into adulthood without the maturity or the guidance she needed to steer clear of trouble. Left to her own devices, she got mixed up in a situation that damaged her credibility and came back to haunt her when she went to court as an alleged victim of racism and bigotry.
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Joel Tamraz is a veteran attorney with 38 years in private practice. In 1994, he needed an office assistant who could order supplies and process checks in his small but busy law office in Santa Monica. Tamraz hired Griffin for $200 a week and, despite her lack of accounting skills or training, placed his trust in her. But his was no ordinary law practice.
Superior Court records show that Tamraz has personally sued or been sued more than 80 times in his career. Working for him was stressful. In addition to failing to pay her on time, Griffin says, he was prone to outbursts. According to Tamraz, Griffin opened several accounts in his name at Staples and Office Depot but used them for her own purposes. Then she paid herself by forging his signature on checks, he says. "I confronted her with it and she quit," says Tamraz, who went to the police in December 1995 and accused her of embezzling several thousands of dollars.
Shortly after she quit, however, in August 1995, Griffin filed a complaint with the state bar. In her complaint, she accused Tamraz of hatching schemes with his clients to defraud insurance companies by reporting thefts that had not occurred. According to court records, Griffin provided a recorded statement to investigators for Allstate Insurance Co., an insurer with which one of Tamraz’s clients had filed a claim and gave a deposition in which she cooperated with Allstate’s challenge to the claim. No money was recovered on the claim, and Tamraz was not disciplined, but Griffin walked away with a criminal record.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office charged Griffin with grand theft on April 18, 1996. A handwriting expert hired by Deputy Public Defender Norman Kava determined that Tamraz’s signature on four checks made out to Griffin totaling $800 had been forged, and that Griffin had endorsed the backs of the checks with her signature before cashing them. Findings were inconclusive as to who did the forgeries. Griffin says that she often signed checks for Tamraz at his request and denies she paid herself without his authorization. After being shuffled around among four different deputy public defenders, Griffin pleaded no contest to felony grand theft on June 26, 1997. She served three years of probation and paid back the money Tamraz says she stole from him. Her case was expunged in September, meaning the charges were dropped to a misdemeanor and dismissed, with a plea of not guilty to the felony entered.
Elise Klein, a partner at Lewis, D’Amato, Bribois & Bisgaard, who represented Allstate, believes Griffin got a raw deal. Klein urged Griffin to fight the criminal charges in 1997. In a letter to the court recently in support of Griffin’s motion to dismiss the felony, Klein wrote, "I found Griffin to be credible. I found [Tamraz] to be otherwise."
"I’m not perfect, and I’ve never been very smart about navigating the legal system," says Griffin, who was under the impression she was pleading to a misdemeanor. In fact, the prosecutor’s notation in the court file indicates a lesser charge was discussed, but it was not entered. "I get screwed every time, and it’s not okay." Kava, the attorney who entered the no-contest plea on behalf of Griffin, did not return several calls for comment.
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Carlthorp seemed like a last hope for Griffin. But when conflict arose there, or when she came under scrutiny from parents, peers or the administration, it was often to her detriment. Her family saw it coming. No way a 25-year-old black woman with her baggage was going to cut it among the upper crust. Particularly when she started working as a nanny for rich families and celebrities, such as James Worthy and Steven Spielberg, something was bound to go wrong. Many private schools — not including Carlthorp — have policies against teachers babysitting students or working as nannies for enrolled families. And though Griffin got along well with Spielberg’s family, her relationship with Worthy’s ex-wife and children had ended poorly. "There are going to be people who just want you around if you can meet their needs," says Larry Griffin, scoffing at the memory of visiting the Wilder household. His daughter had been so proud to show him the rarefied world she was a part of. "The only thing that separates that family from any other is an address," he says. "They had money to throw around but no time for their kids." Of the suggestion that Wilder and others had once embraced his daughter as family, he says, "Sure, you treat your dog like family too."
