Bringing Up Baby Gavin

During the 1970s and '80s, the judge strategized with Gordon about ways to pull more cash out of the Sarah C. Getty Trust, which was basically a padlocked treasure chest. J. Paul Getty had administered the trust as a perpetual growth fund that allowed only a thin trickle of riches -- measured in thousands rather than millions of dollars annually -- to flow into the bank accounts of his children and grandchildren. Newsom convinced Gordon to sue his father for more access to the family gold. The lawsuit failed, but the older Getty was reportedly impressed by his son's mettle, and in his will entrusted Gordon with administering the vast family trust.

In 1985, Newsom, then a sitting state appellate judge, made use of his extensive political contacts in an effort to help his old friend. He lobbied Democratic state Sen. Bill Lockyer of Hayward -- now California's attorney general -- to push a bill that would permit the "partitioning" of trusts, thereby allowing the Gettys to divide the Sarah C. Getty Trust into four parts and giving them easier access to its riches.

"I think it's going to be a great thing for the Getty family," Newsom told the Los Angeles Times. He also claimed, unconvincingly, that he had not discussed the bill with Getty family members.

The Legislature subsequently enacted the bill, adding enormously to the wealth of Gordon and his relatives.

In a recent interview, Judge Newsom said he did not receive so much as a cup of coffee for talking to Lockyer. But years later, Newsom wound up overseeing large parts of the gargantuan Getty fortune -- a circumstance that has helped enrich both him and his son. Last year, for instance, the judge earned about $250,000 for his work for the Gettys, he says.

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The U.S. tax code allows wealthy people to create trusts to reduce their tax load. A trust may own a variety of investment instruments, and some profits are distributed to its beneficiaries.

The Gordon P. Getty Family Trust is governed by a board of trustees composed of Gordon and his four sons, Andrew, Peter, John, and Billy. For the past eight years, William Newsom has been the trust's administrator, deploying hundreds of millions of dollars in blue-chip stocks, bonds, real estate ventures, and the occasional start-up company.

Since 1989, Newsom also has served as a trustee of the Ronald Family Trust A, another piece of the original Sarah C. Getty Trust, which benefits offspring of Gordon's brother Ronald. And the judge is a partner with Gordon Getty in a real estate investment firm, Donwilong LLC, created to provide for Gordon's half sister, Donna Long.

The judge further serves as co-trustee of the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, which gives millions of Getty dollars to nonprofit organizations. Most of these tax-deductible donations support classical music and opera companies. In 2001, the foundation gave $750,000 to the San Francisco Symphony, $585,000 to the San Francisco Opera, and, in a more modest act of charity, $1,000 to Meals on Wheels.

But Newsom also is deeply involved in helping Gordon Getty invest his personal trust income.

Newsom acts as co-trustee of Gordon's San Francisco Revocable Trust, which buys and sells Bay Area real estate. Among its holdings is 704 Sansome, a small office building that Getty purchased for $2.1 million in 1997 from political consultant Clint Reilly. For a while, Getty's sons used it as headquarters for several businesses.

In 1989, Newsom incorporated a Nevada-based firm, Newsom Investments Ltd., to manage Getty's investments in real estate and other ventures. Newsom Investments is managing partner of Loma Rica Ranch LLC, a corporation that plans to build a large housing development in rural open space near the city of Grass Valley in the Sierra foothills of California. The developers are lobbying city officials to annex the Ranch property, which would greatly increase its value.

"Loma Rica will be smart growth," the judge says. "Eighty percent open space -- two bedrooms, one bathroom [homes] for $140,000 to $180,000."

Indeed, the judge has incorporated a dozen or more Getty-financed investment vehicles in low-income-tax Nevada, including one that earns royalties from oil wells and another that owns property in South Africa.

Newsom and Gordon Getty have other interests in the Third World as well.

The judge serves on the board of directors of the Getty-funded Conservation Corporation Africa, which owns 25 safari lodges in wild areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. The luxuriously appointed lodges cater to well-heeled eco-tourists who can afford to pay $350 a night.

"We lease the land and restore it to pristine condition," says Newsom. "There is light impact with 15 rooms [in each lodge] on 10,000 acres. We employ 3,500 people and provide medical clinics and schools. I am very proud of steering the [Getty] family to it."