[ Upbeat music plays ]
>> The only time I ever played
golf before I retired was in
1972, and I got a telephone call
from my friend the lawyer,
Sarita Waite.
The Alameda County Clerk's golf
tournament was coming up, and
she really wanted to play in it.
And she'd gone down to the
clerk's office to register for
it, and they refused her
registration 'cause she was a
woman.
She had decided she was gonna
file a lawsuit and asked me if I
would attach my name, and I
said, "Of course I will."
But of course that meant I had
to play golf.
So, I went out, and I took one
lesson.
Well, the newspapers reported
that Penny Cooper had shot the
highest score ever on the golf
course, with the headline,
"Women Teed Off So Are the
Men."
[ Chuckles ]
You judge a society by how it
treats its worst, and
constitutional rights are
meaningless unless they apply to
the worst in society.
I really wanted to be a trial
lawyer, and I wanted to fight
for the people, and I wanted to
fight for their -- the causes.
I have to say, from the first
day that I walked into the
Public Defender's Office as an
employee, I really thought I'd
died and gone to heaven.
Everybody was just fabulous.
I loved the excitement of
figuring out people's problems,
going to court.
>> She was really feisty, and
the clients loved her.
At that time, there were 12
lawyers in the
Public Defender's Office in
Alameda County -- covered the
whole county.
So we learned how to try cases.
[ Psychedelic rock music plays ]
>> One of the most memorable
cases I had was sort of a tale
of the times.
There was a man in Berkeley who
was charged with possessing LSD,
and he announced to the whole
community that he was going to
be, on a certain day and a
certain time and place, carrying
LSD in his cross on his neck.
And of course he did that, and
he was promptly arrested.
And I was assigned his case.
During the trial, the prosecutor
asked why he was carrying this
LSD in his cross, and
"Charlie Brown" Ortman said,
"Well, I heard voices."
And Stacey Walthall said to him,
"You hear voices?
Are you hearing voices now?"
And I yelled out, "Objection!
Hearsay!"
And that was just a huge hoot,
you know, made the papers,
softened the judge, and he just
got a tongue-lashing.
[ Soft music plays ]
I grew up in Denver, Colorado,
and I became very much aware of
the fact that I was Jewish
because I was singled out for
it.
Myself and the only other Jewish
kid in the class, we were sort
of segregated.
All the other kids sat
alphabetically but myself and
my friend.
We sat at the back.
I did go to religious school,
which required me to get from
school onto a yellow school bus
with Hebrew letters on the side
every Wednesday afternoon.
And everybody would see us on
this weird bus that had these
Hebrew letters.
My father was born in Poland and
came over to the United States
when he was about six, with his
family.
They were extremely poor.
His father basically sold rags
from a horse cart.
My mother's father was a tailor,
and he had a tailor shop in
Downtown Denver.
My dad did not have a
high-school education, and
neither of my parents had a
college education.
They were of the era that
believed that everything they
did should be for their
children.
My dad decided, when he was in
his mid 30s, to enlist in
World War II.
And the reason he did that, even
though he had two children at
the time, was he felt like the
Jews weren't doing enough for
the World War II effort.
And he lost his leg.
The amputees were awarded the
first Hydra-Matic Oldsmobile car
so they could drive a car
without having to shift gears
and use the clutch.
And that was a big highlight in
our neighborhood, our little
blue Hydra-Matic Oldsmobile.
I got a scholarship to the
University of Colorado because
my parents really couldn't
afford an out-of-state college.
And I had always loved
San Francisco and the Bay Area
because my aunt and uncle lived
here and this is where we would
go on vacations.
It was always that bright spot
at the end of the road, and I
just thought this was the
greatest place in the world.
Following graduation, I came out
to Berkeley to go to law school.
I was at Boalt from '61 to '64.
The school was headed by
Dean William Prosser, who had
written the key textbook on
torts, and he was nationally
famous.
And he didn't believe that women
should be in a law school at
all.
He would just make fun of women
in the class.
So he announced very early on
that he was going to treat the
men and women equally, and in my
section, there were like 85 men
and 3 women, and he said, "I'm
just gonna call on you, 'man,
woman, man, woman,'" and that's
how he did it.
And then he would say, "Stand up
like a man and answer the
question."
It's hard to be a
criminal-defense lawyer.
Really, everybody's against you.
And you have to have a certain
resilience and, I believe, a
certain sense of humor in order
to be successful.
I was in court, and the opposing
district attorney was somebody
who had been in my law-school
class.
And while I was arguing a point
in front of the judge, he yelled
out to the judge, "Don't mind
her, Judge.
She's on the rag."
And I just was really...floored
and said, "First of all,
Judge, it's not true.
And secondly, he should be held
in contempt for this."
And the judge just brushed it
off.
>> [ Chanting ] Hell no!
We won't go!
>> The anti-war movement was
rampant all around the Bay Area,
everywhere else, too.
And about seven or eight of us,
at least, decided to march in an
anti-war parade in
San Francisco.
John Nunes, who was the public
defender, called the group of us
into the office.
I remember his quote.
>> "I'll take steps," meaning he
was gonna try to fire us.
>> For exercising our civil
rights, which is what we were in
business for!
>> And from that point on, the
jobs that I was given were less
than desirable.
I had been dating Jim Newhouse.
We were very close, and we were
both very much aligned on this
issue.
And we had sort of made
tentative plans that we would go
out on our own eventually.
We opened our private practice
in March of 1969.
Two weeks later, "People's Park"
hit.
[ Sirens wailing, indistinct
shouting ]
So Jim and I went to this church
where all of the "People's Park"
defendants had gathered.
And we basically told these
people that, if they wanted to
hire us, we would do their cases
for $100.
And the firms in San Francisco
were charging $1,500.
So we got about a hundred
clients our first month.
We were always able to get the
charges down to something
reasonable so that their futures
weren't affected.
We would come to court on Monday
mornings to discuss cases, and
we would go into chambers, and
everybody would be talking about
the football games -- every
single guy.
And I felt I was really at a
disadvantage not knowing about
football, so I talked to Jim
about it, and we got season
tickets to the Oakland Raiders
so that I could talk football.
And then I learned baseball and
all of it, and now I actually
enjoy watching it all the time,
and I talk baseball, football,
basketball with all the guys.
Eventually, Jim got a
girlfriend, and I got a
girlfriend, too.
And I had finally come out.
And we continued to practice
together, but eventually, his
interest was more where his
girlfriend was, which was in the
southern part of the county and
in Carmel.
And my interest was in making a
big career here in the East Bay.
>> Her mother adored her, and I
think she probably had a very
strong foundation, and she
became a very confident person
early on.
>> Never bothered her a whit to
go wherever you had to go, and
she'd just...go.
She goes to Puerto Rico, goes
into court, and everybody's
talking Spanish.
And she -- "Wait a second.
I thought this was a U.S.
Federal District Court?"
So she calls the associate
counselor and says, "You better
get your ass into chambers here
'cause these people are talking
Spanish and I don't know what
they're talking about."
>> The judge said to me, "And,
Ms. Cooper, the next time you
return to my courtroom, you will
wear a dress."
And so I did.
And I stood in front of the
judge who pronounced the
judgment upon my client of a
year in jail.
I said, "But, Judge, I wore a
dress for you."
And he looked down, and he saw
the dress, and he said, "That's
right, Ms. Cooper," banged his
hand down, and said, "That'll be
six months."
The last time I wore a dress in
the courtroom.
[ Soft music plays ]
It just was a natural sort of
evolution for me, realizing that
I was really more attracted and
much more companionable with a
woman.
Coming out to my close friends
was difficult, and one of the
women who was a part of this
group was just absolutely
horrified.
And she just said, "Oh, my God.
I just feel so sorry for you,
Penny.
I feel so sorry for you.
I think your problem is you just
haven't met the right guy yet."
And I really enjoy this story
because right now she's on her
fifth husband, so apparently she
hasn't met the right guy either.
>> I met Penny because we had
this mutual friend who thought
we would like each other 'cause
we were the only two people she
knew that were both interested
in contemporary Italian design.
>> And we realized that our
common interest in contemporary
art was one of the ties that
bound us.
And we were becoming really
consumed by it, so we would read
magazines, we would go to
museums, and we would go to
exhibits.
And we decided that it would be
important to support women
artists.
We've been together 36 years.
We chose to get married the
first day that it was officially
legal in the state of
California.
Our collection is a mix of what
you would call emerging artists,
mid-career artists, and many
artists who've reached heights
of any artist's career.
Our collecting would be
circumscribed by how well I had
done that year 'cause often I
waited till the end of the year
to see if we had any money that
we could spare, and whatever we
had, we used to buy art with.
>> My role with Penny has really
shifted a lot over the years.
When she was working, you know,
a million hours a week, I would
take care of a lot of the things
around the house.
>> I would usually go to court
in the morning.
And then, at noon, I would show
up in the office, wait for
clients, and handle all those
matters, and then back in the
office after afternoon court and
normally in the office till 7:00
or 8:00.
I worked most weekends.
I worked lots of nights all the
time because I had a lot of work
and I was really interested in
being over-prepared.
>> I'd really never been with
anybody that had worked such
long hours, and it gave me a lot
of time to be by myself, which I
love.
>> Rena is a published poet, and
there was never enough time for
Rena to be able to write.
>> No matter how hard or long
Penny worked, she loved to sit
down and have a really nice
dinner, and we'd talk about the
day.
And I loved her energy.
>> I had been asked to represent
the great ceramic artist
Peter Voulkos, who had some
issues with drugs.
In lieu of paying a fee, I asked
him to give me a piece of his
work which I thought was really
beautiful, called a "stack."
It was a huge ceramic piece.
After I had the piece for a few
years, I decided that it didn't
fit in our collection because
it wasn't a piece by a woman,
and I also became aware of the
fact that the
Berkeley Art Museum did not own
a piece of this incredible
artist's work.
So I donated the piece to the
Berkeley Art Museum, and soon
after that, I was invited to be
on the board.
>> Back in 1994, I wanted to do
an exhibition that was
potentially controversial on the
theme of the resonance of gay
and lesbian experience in
20th-century American culture.
There had been very little
occasion for museums in America
to look at this particular
theme.
You know, who's gonna put their
money behind an exhibition like
this?
And spontaneously, Penny Cooper
said, "If you can't raise the
money from other sources, I will
underwrite this exhibition."
And I just remember feeling so
relieved and so grateful and
thinking, "This is precisely how
trustees should behave."
You always want to be with Penny
because she's just gonna help
you get through.
[ Folk music plays ]
>> There's nothing I like better
than seeing art with Penny.
>> I've always really loved
contemporary art.
I love contemporary artists.
I love their thoughts.
I love the way they approach
issues.
I love the way they translate
what they think onto whatever
their surface might be.
Artist's way of thinking is
really almost completely
opposite from the way that I
learned to think.
[ Up-tempo symphony plays ]
>> I had been at the
Federal Public Defender's Office
for two years, and I was gonna
go out somewhere, and I thought
I was gonna go with this very
well-respected criminal-law
firm.
She said, "Come on over to my
house for dinner," and we did a
lot of talking and laughing and
hanging out.
And at the end of it, she said,
"You shouldn't go with those
guys.
You should come with me.
Come with my firm, and in a
year, I'll make you a partner."
>> There is a 15-year age
difference, and that made it
really good for me also because
I really had an intense desire
to pass on what I knew could
happen in the courtroom.
>> So, I didn't do any cases or
anything else.
I just went where Penny went for
a month.
Wherever we went, everybody
would brighten up because Penny
came.
Because she'd be talking about
sports or telling a story about
a client or remembering
something funny that happened,
and in the meantime, she was
getting what she wanted.
And she could, in an instant,
get tough.
>> She would often say, you
know, "The prosecutor, I mean,
he's lying through his teeth.
I mean, it's unbelievable what
they're getting away with."
You know, so by the time I go to
court with her, I've just got
steam blowing out my ears.
And we march into court, and the
next thing, I look around, and
she's got her arm around the
prosecutor.
You know, everybody else's blood
pressure is up to 200.
[ Up-tempo drums beating ]
[ Ethereal music plays ]
>> I think of Penny as like a
very friendly older sister to me
or like an aunt that was very
doting on me.
And yet, at the same time, I
could never really turn my back
to her, because she would slit
my throat in a nanosecond if I
didn't give her everything that
she wanted.
The case was
People v. Dan Mackay.
Dan Mackay was a nice guy,
Mormon guy, who beat his wife to
death with a baseball bat.
>> She was a very heavyset
woman.
He loved her.
He loved her anyway she looked.
But she decided at one point in
her life, in her early 40s, that
she was too fat.
And she took these drugs, and
according to her, it made her
really want to have sex with
young men.
They were just totally steeped
in the Mormon religion, and this
really began to drive him crazy.
She announced to my client that
she was gonna take the kids.
They were in an upstairs
bathroom.
The kids were all off at church
in the morning.
And he found himself in a wild
rage, looked in the closet.
He saw a bat, took a bat, and
beat the hell out of her.
And then he took her body --
dead body -- and he wrapped it
in a sleeping bag.
And he drops the body off, and
then he pulls off to the side of
the road, whereupon he's seen by
a Highway Patrol officer, who
sees blood coming down the rear
bumper of the car.
So it was really irrational what
he did, and it was really
terrible.
>> She just says, "Look, this is
what I'm gonna do.
This is how I'm gonna drive a
truck through your case."
And she proceeds to do that.
>> And he confesses in a
statement that's about two or
three hours long, that would
make anybody start sobbing.
>> My last name is Pinney --
P-I-N-N-E-Y.
So it's like Penny Cooper and
Paul Pinney -- There's all these
P's.
And we had all these lengthy,
lengthy interviews with
Dan Mackay that went on for
literally hours.
And so I would excise portions
of those and play those to the
jury.
So in her closing argument, she
would call me
"Pick-and-Choose Pinney."
She said, "He's
'Pick-and-Choose Pinney.'
He doesn't show you the whole
thing."
And I argued forcefully for
first-degree murder.
As it was, the jury came back
with a voluntary manslaughter.
She has good powers of
persuasion.
[ Mid-tempo rock music plays ]
>> We had a lot of clients who
would be impressed if you looked
good, if you had a nice new suit
on, or if you drove a fancy car.
>> I remember being really,
really super young, and I wasn't
quite sure what she did for a
living.
We got off the freeway to get
gas in the middle of nowhere on
our way up to the Oregon border,
and there were probably 500
motorcyclists.
Turns out they were a bunch of
Hells Angels.
They looked kind of mean, and I
was terrified.
In typical Penny fashion, she
gets out of her bright red
Mercedes, looks over at about 20
of them, and says, "Hi, boys.
Thanks for my car."
Later she tells me that was the
beginning of her great career,
representing the Hells Angels,
and they paid for her car.
>> It was a huge trial, and
there was lots of publicity, and
it kind of launched me into
another space.
[ Rock music continues ]
I had a name, Cooper, which
didn't strike people at first as
being necessarily Jewish.
And I can remember one time at a
celebratory party after somebody
had a victory in the
Public Defender's Office, and
one of the guys made some remark
in fun jest about me being
Jewish.
And the man who was the public
defender of the county, just
looked at me with the most
astonished face and insisted and
kept saying, "You're not Jewish.
You're not Jewish."
And the way he said that was he
didn't want me to be Jewish.
So even at that stage of my
life, it was, like, there.
And it did help me develop a
certain resilience that I needed
later, in terms of being an
underdog often in the
courtrooms.
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
Michael Blatt, who was a wealthy
developer in Stockton, had been
accused of ordering the killing
of a former business associate.
And the theory of the case was
that he had ordered two
ex-football players, that he
knew because of his association
with the UOP football team, to
kill Larry Carnegie.
And in fact, one of them,
James Mackey, did kill
Larry Carnegie by firing a
crossbow into him.
And the case was originally
tried by two Alameda County
lawyers.
It was a death-penalty case.
And these lawyers had the trial
and the case for a couple of
years.
Prosecutor was determined to
retry it.
This case was tried by my
partner, Cris Arguedas, and
myself.
>> He was a big guy.
He had been a football player in
college.
He was a Fundamentalist
Christian.
He didn't like Penny and I.
I'm sure he didn't like it that
we were gay.
He didn't like it that we were
criminal defense lawyers.
>> This was his life, this case,
and his career, as it turns out.
>> Penny had read the trial
transcript, and she saw that
Blansett has a need to talk and
be listened to all the time.
Penny decides that what we're
gonna do is we're gonna not
speak to him -- ever, for the
whole trial.
And it drove him absolutely
insane.
>> And during one point in the
opening statement, Eual Blansett
got so frustrated that he
actually left the courtroom.
>> And went into the bathroom,
which was right next door in
this old courthouse, and would
be flushing the toilet during
her opening statement and then
make a big show of, you know,
coming through the doors like
this, and, you know, just to be
a distracting, obnoxious fool.
When he went, she stopped
talking.
She waited for him to come back.
And so she made him be the fool.
>> He objected to every single
thing, and it was really a
battle, and when James Mackey
went to testify, I actually
cross-examined this gentleman
for 20 days.
>> And the judge says to us,
"If you -- Counsel, if you
insult the opposing counsel one
more time, I'm gonna hold you in
contempt, and I'm gonna charge
you $100 for every time I hold
you in contempt."
She reaches into her pocket, she
takes out the wad, and she
counts out 5 $100 bills, and she
says, "Here's for this one, and
here's for four more!"
>> Towards the end, Cris was in
a hallway talking to a witness.
>> He says to me, "Move out of
here.
I'm talking to my witness here."
And I say, "I'm not moving.
I'm talking to my witness here.
It's a hallway."
And he says, "I said move."
And I said, "I'm not moving."
He kind of picks me up like an
inch off the floor and is kind
of walking me back like to move
me out of the way.
>> And Cris fell onto the floor
in the sight of some of the
jurors.
10 months later, the jury hung
11-1 for acquittal.
And the case was ultimately
dismissed, and Mr. Blansett lost
his job.
This article features the
unbelievable battle we had,
entitled "Culture Clash."
And that it was.
[ Upbeat music plays ]
>> One of the very great moments
in not only my legal life but my
life itself was being able to
argue for the defense in the
Unites States Supreme Court.
It was a very complicated matter
involving a probation search
that produced a large drug lab.
The problem was that the
defendant had never consented to
being on probation.
Court crier comes out.
Then the court members come out.
They sit, and the solicitor
general gets up to begin his
argument, and I am terrified.
The Honorable Thurgood Marshall
bellows into the microphone at
my opponent, "When did the
respondent here first know of
this probation business?"
The answer -- "He was told at
the door."
The justice -- "That don't give
you any problems, do it?"
The man's answer here -- "No."
The justice -- "Oh, so he lost
all his rights without even
knowing he lost them?"
[ Laughter ]
And then the justice groaned
uncontrollably, and I was
feeling quite calm.
It's not just the drama of going
to court and objecting and
winning or losing.
It's really managing people's
lives when they get into
difficulty or trouble.
A lot of people are critical at
what you do until they need you.
And when they need you, their
whole attitude about it is
totally different.
People don't get guilty people
off.
What you do is ease a situation
and try to reach compromises in
most cases that are meaningful
for both sides.
I've received hundreds of
letters from jail from desperate
people.
I read them all, I usually
respond, and occasionally, I
take the case.
My favorite letter of all,
written many, many years ago by
a prisoner -- At end of his
letter, he's saying, "Before
closing, I'd like to tell you
something about yourself."
[ Laughter ]
"If there is such a thing here
in our society, prison, your
name is a household word.
Everyone from the Bay Area has
been represented by you at one
time in the past."
[ Laughter ]
"You have many faces.
Sometimes you are described as
being about 50 and walk with a
cane."
I was about 25 then.
[ Laughter ]
"And at other times, you wear
large hats and colorful clothes.
You drive everything from a
Henry J to a Rolls-Royce.
Seemingly, the 'in thing' is to
have known you through your
profession at one time.
After all, without dreams and
fantasies, what else have we
here?"