Moussaoui case judge is enigma to some

WASHINGTON -- To Zacarias Moussaoui, the federal judge handling his Sept. 11, 2001, conspiracy case is the "death judge," a wannabe Nazi SS officer who is "a master of deception."

In his written blasts at US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, Moussaoui has even mocked her as a "Grandnany" -- a reference to the way Brinkema wears her gray hair pulled back in a trademark bun as she dispenses justice in her Alexandria, Va., courtroom.

At times, Brinkema's patience has worn thin. She rebuked Moussaoui for trying to communicate with terrorist confederates around the world, sealing his pleading because it was "replete with inflammatory rhetoric."

Yet three days later, the judge Moussaoui mocked for "pretending to want to protect me" did just that, issuing a ringing defense of his rights -- and throwing the case of the only person charged in a US courtroom in the Sept. 11 attacks into further turmoil.

In a decision that surprised both sides, Brinkema risked the wrath of everyone from the attorney general to the victims of Sept. 11 by barring prosecutors from preventing any evidence that Moussaoui was involved in the attacks. Prosecutors are appealing the decision, which also made Moussaoui ineligible for the death penalty, to a Richmond-based federal appeals court. That court agreed last week to hear the appeal on an expedited basis.

The ruling, which defied requests from both sides that she dismiss the charges to allow for a quick appeal, was classic Brinkema -- independent, unpredictable, and driven by a desire to play fair and hold the government to account, lawyers say and her past decisions show.

"She's not going to be bullied by anyone," said Bill Cummings, an Alexandria lawyer and former US attorney who hired Brinkema as a prosecutor in the mid-1970s. "The current administration wants to make sure every judge is predictable -- and I'm a Republican -- but the public should want a judge who is independent-minded."

Yet while admirers see a champion of fairness in the jurist appointed by President Clinton in 1993, detractors see a liberal with a soft spot for criminals. Onetime Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, for example, blasted Brinkema in 1996 as belonging to a "Clinton Hall of Shame."

Dole cited a 1995 murder-for-hire case in which Brinkema gave a lighter sentence to the defendant -- 21 months in prison -- than the seven- to nine-year term called for by federal guidelines. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned her ruling.

"It's my impression that she is highly ideological," said Delegate Richard H. Black, Republican of Loudoun, who was outraged by a 1998 Brinkema decision, the first of its kind nationally, that barred the Loudoun County, Va., public library from using filters to prevent adults from viewing sexually explicit material on the Internet. Black helped design the policy as a Loudoun library trustee; Brinkema ruled it violated constitutional rights of free speech and failed to serve a compelling governmental interest.

That decision, and another in which Brinkema struck down as unconstitutional a law that prohibits Virginia employees from using government resources to access adult websites, earned her a mocking "court jester" award for judicial activism from the conservative Family Research Council.