A judge today denied a request by the California FAIR Plan Association for a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's September order that the FAIR Plan offer a homeowners policy with coverage for water damage, theft and loss of use in addition to fire damage. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel said in a written ruling that in weighing the harms from either issuing or denying the preliminary injunction, she did not find that the balance of those harms tips strongly in favor of the FAIR Plan's arguments.

A longtime federal law that makes it a crime to encourage or persuade undocumented immigrants to enter or stay in the United States violates freedom of speech because it applies to a wide range of ordinary, innocent statements, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. Under the 1985 law, anyone who “encourages or induces” an unauthorized immigrant to enter or live in the U.S., knowing or in “reckless disregard” of the fact that the immigrant’s presence is illegal, is guilty of a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The door is open for The New York Times to publish documents related to a defamation lawsuit that Project Veritas filed against the newspaper. Four judges in a New York appellate court on Wednesday lifted a gag order concerning attorney memos published in Times articles after it was sued by Project Veritas. Courthouse News joined several prominent media organizations in challenging the underlying order.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought forth by more than 100 Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters, challenging the city's employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate. "For more than a century, plaintiffs have filed lawsuits to halt vaccination mandates," Judge Michael P. Linfield wrote in the ruling, adding that most challenges against mandates have not been successful.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Gelfound has responded to criticisms of him by his challenger in the June 7 primary, Deputy Public Defender Lloyd Handler - who denounces the incumbent for not embracing District Attorney George Gascón’s view that “retribution and incarceration” are not valid goals of the justice system - but has declined to comment directly on Gascón or his policies.

Patricia Guerrero, a justice for the California 4th District Court of Appeal, has been nominated to serve as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday. If confirmed, Guerrero would be the first Latina to serve on the California Supreme Court. “I am deeply honored by this incredible opportunity to uphold the rule of law and make a positive impact on the lives of Californians across the state,” Guerrero said in a statement.

Former Los Angeles Chief of Police Charles Beck on Friday said he was rescinding his support of accused soft-on-crime District Attorney George Gascón, who is facing a second recall effort. Beck, who served as chief from 2009 to 2018, said he’d backed the DA during the 2019 campaign “on the hope he would advance public safety in Los Angeles and because of our close personal relationship of over 30 years.”

ADDA Vice President Eric Siddall appeared on the John & Ken show to discuss George Gascón’s refusal to meet with his prosecutors before they vote on whether or not to endorse a newly formed effort to recall the District Attorney from office.

Progressive Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is being accused of retaliating against prosecutors who have spoken out against his soft-on-crime approach - with his lenient new policy on juvenile criminal cases being labeled a “veiled threat.” In an office memo sent to staff Tuesday afternoon, Gascón’s second in command, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sharon L. Woo, said prosecutors must now get approval before opposing a defense motion to transfer a case out of adult court and into the juvenile department. 

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón has modified his blanket ban on trying juveniles as adults due to a pending state Supreme Court case and continuing backlash over a decision to allow a 26-year-old to plead guilty to sexually assaulting a child in juvenile court last month. Under the new policy, which was circulated throughout the office on Tuesday, prosecutors must notify Chief Deputy Sharon Woo if a defense attorney seeks to move a case from adult court to juvenile court, and seek her permission to object to that motion.

On today’s podcast we present an exclusive conversation with Eric Siddall vice president of the ADDA the professional association for Deputy District Attorneys of Los Angeles county. Siddall joins me to discuss the first year of Los Angeles district attorney George Gascons term in office. In a November New York Times article entitled He’s Remaking Criminal Justice in L.A. But How Far Is Too Far?

A campaign to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is receiving donations from high-profile figures across the political spectrum as fears of violent crime mount in the SoCal city. Major funding for the effort comes from Palos Verdes Estates investor Gerald Marcil and Beverly Hills real estate developer Geoff Palmer - both Republican megadonors - but other generous donors fall among Hollywood’s left-leaning elite.

The office of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said its progressive policies that have come under fire and have since become the catalyst for a do-over recall attempt are based on science and research data. Gascon tweeted a link Wednesday to research posted on the Los Angeles County's District Attorney's website that outlined the reasoning behind his criminal justice reforms.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced charges against 54 former and current California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers in connection with an alleged, multiyear overtime fraud scheme. The charges are the result of an internal criminal investigation by CHP into whether officers in the East Los Angeles station exaggerated the number of overtime hours they worked. The officers face a total of 302 counts, including charges of grand theft and the presentation of a fraudulent claim.

A former Prosecutor of the Year in California who is campaigning to become a judge has been fired from his job in the Orange County district attorney’s office after an internal investigation into the withholding of evidence in a murder case. The Orange County Register reported Thursday that Ebrahim Baytieh - a senior assistant district attorney overseeing homicide, sexual assault and other cases - no longer works for the office following a report completed on Tuesday.

A former senior official at the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office made an initial appearance in court Monday ahead of an expected guilty plea in a federal extortion case tied to the lawsuits that stemmed from the 2014 Department of Water and Power billing system debacle. Thomas H. Peters told a judge he understood the charges against him and was released on personal recognizance until the next court date.

Four years ago, progressive prosecutors were in the sweet spot of Democratic politics. Aligned with the growing Black Lives Matter movement but pragmatic enough to draw establishment support, they racked up wins in cities across the country. Today, a political backlash is brewing. With violent crime rates rising in some cities and elections looming, their attempts to roll back the tough-on-crime policies of the 1990s are increasingly under attack - from familiar critics on the right, but also from onetime allies within the Democratic Party.

With violent crime surging out of control nationwide, a majority of voters support proposed new laws that would replace local district attorneys who fail to prosecute criminals. A new national telephone and online survey by the National Police Association and Rasmussen Reports finds that 58% of likely U.S. voters believe a law permitting an appointed state oversight committee with the ability to remove state attorneys from office if they won’t prosecute violent crimes would improve safety.

The Association of Orange County Deputy District Attorneys (AOCDDA) has officially endorsed Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer for reelection. “As the prosecutors who tirelessly work every day to keep Orange County safe, the AOCDDA is extremely proud to endorse District Attorney Todd Spitzer for reelection,” said Cyril Yu, Chair, AOCDDA Civic Action Committee.

A 54-year-old Whittier man was charged Monday with setting the Sycamore Fire that destroyed two homes and damaged at least four others. Kevin Whitlock faces multiple counts of arson, including six counts of "arson of an inhabited structure or property," and one count each of arson of another person's property, as well as arson of a "structure or forest," the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced.

A Sept. 7, 10-page whistleblower report obtained by the Beachcomber alleged serial contract fraud and misappropriation of public funds in excess of $1 million over the past 15 years by means of a payment scheme between City Auditor Laura Doud and a regional lobbying firm - Kindel Gagan, Inc. What’s the rationalization for the payment scheme?

Amid a recent uptick in some criminal activity, the majority of California voters in a new statewide poll reported concern over state crime rates and said they would support reinstating penalties for certain thefts that a 2014 ballot measure reduced. Seventy-eight percent of voters surveyed in a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times said that crime has risen statewide over the last year, and 65% said it has increased locally.

The very nature of criminal justice - to protect the innocent and increase public safety - is today undermined by a group of district attorneys (Das) in America’s big, mostly Democratic-run cities. These rogue prosecutors, and those who fund them, dress up their schemes with poll-tested feel-good language like “re-imagining prosecution,” and argue that “data and science” back their pro-criminal, anti-victim approach.

Local officials are calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to change Proposition 47 and take a harsher stance on crime. It comes after a recent UC Berkley poll shows 59% of California residents support changing Prop 47. Voters passed Prop 47, known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, back in 2014. It reduces non-violent drug and theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, including thefts of retail items valued up to $950.

Lawmakers in Los Angeles earlier this week voted to strip a sheriff who refused to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for his staff of his enforcement power. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors decided on Tuesday to relieve Sheriff Alex Villanueva of the responsibility to enforce COVID-19 vaccine mandates, The Los Angeles Times reported. The decision to strip him of the responsibility comes after Villanueva has for months refused to enforce the mandate.

If elected mayor, Rick Caruso said Monday he wants to add 1,500 officers to the Los Angeles Police Department and promised to put his businesses in a blind trust to avoid potential conflicts of interest while he served in office. In his first interview with The Times since he entered the race last week, Caruso - the billionaire developer of the Grove and Palisades Village shopping centers - offered the first details of how he would seek to govern the city.

As Los Angeles County residents endure rising crime and increasing homelessness, Sheriff Alex Villanueva is slamming what he describes as a political push fueled by defund police activists to fire 4,000 sheriff department employees who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Villanueva, who oversees the largest sheriff’s department in the nation, said he’s the “only one left standing” when providing counterbalance against the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which has progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon “in their back pocket.”

A group of Venice Beach, California, residents is demanding Los Angeles city officials take action against crime and homeless overnight campers as tourists flood the hotspot ahead of the Super Bowl. As the nation turns to Los Angeles for Super Bowl Sunday, about 70 homeless people have been camping overnight at Venice Beach.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office is taking a unique approach in its gun control efforts - one that could be seen as a significant overreach. The County District Attorney is now calling on credit card companies to halt any payments for online purchases of so-called "ghost guns," which are DIY homemade firearms that use an unfinished receiver. Gun control advocates, including President Joe Biden, have alleged that the kits - which can be untraceable - are being used in crime at a growing rate.

Billionaire developer Rick Caruso announced Friday he is entering the crowded field of candidates hoping to become Los Angeles’ next mayor, reordering a contest that already includes several established Democrats hoping to succeed outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti. Caruso, 63, said in a statement posted on Twitter that the nation’s second most populous city can reverse a spike in crime and an unchecked homeless crisis.

The contest to become the next mayor of Los Angeles can be distilled into a single question with no easy answer: Who can fix this mess? Tourists still flock to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, the palm trees soar along Sunset Boulevard, and the Los Angeles Rams are Super Bowl champions. But in many ways the nation’s second most populous city feels diminished. An out-of-control homeless crisis plays out on the streets daily, sometimes with deadly consequences.

In December 2021, a noteworthy counterfeiting case against Amazon came to an end. While the case settled before trial, the plaintiff Maglula (represented by Finnegan) achieved a major legal victory when it defeated Amazon's motion for summary judgment. That decision offers valuable lessons on proving patent infringement using representative products as well as holding online marketplaces like Amazon accountable for trademark counterfeiting and infringement for products offered through its 'third-party' marketplaces.

It used to be that counterfeit goods in the United States originated in well-known places like New York City’s Canal Street, or perhaps other niches in a city near you. Back then, getting a Rolex sold out of someone’s jacket or a Chanel handbag from a street vendor’s coat hanger made it easy for buyers and law enforcement alike to tell what is counterfeit. But today’s counterfeit-spotting is much harder, and that’s largely because of the internet.

Officials in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office are vowing to seek better protection for their employees after spokesman Rob Wilcox, who is also a candidate for city controller, was attacked near City Hall. "We have reported the incident to LAPD, and we will step up our efforts to insist that LAPD and (the General Services Department) find solutions to better protect our staff as they come and go from our offices,'' chief of staff Kathleen Kenealy said Friday in an email to staffers. 

Los Angeles residents have the bleakest view of any region in California about rising crime rates. A record 34% of Californians see violence and street crime in their local community as a “big problem” - up 10 percentage points from a year ago, according to a poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. The survey found that 41% of respondents in LA view crime as a major worry, the highest in any region of the state. The city saw an almost 12% increase in homicides in 2021, while property infractions and overall violent crime both jumped about 4%.

Prosecutors in Sacramento County, California, filed charges in the killing of a woman with autism whose partly nude body was found hanging from a tree in a homeless encampment after she was kidnapped and raped, according to documents obtained Monday by NBC News. Mikilo Morgan Rawls, 37, was charged with murder with special circumstances - including kidnapping, rape and sodomy - in the slaying of Emma Roark, 20, authorities said.

A Los Angeles high school student was shot while walking home from school last week. It is the latest in a string of violent incidents involving students in the city. The victim, who is said to be stable, is a 10th grader at Hamilton High School in West LA. He was walking home in an alley near Reynier Park at about around 3:40 p.m. on Feb. 8. A car drove up and a person fired a handgun from the vehicle, according to police.The suspect has not been identified.

The San Francisco Police Department is accused of using DNA from sexual assault victims to identify possible crime suspects in a practice that the city’s district attorney called “legally and ethically wrong.” San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in a statement Monday that his office had demanded an immediate end to the alleged practice, which he said “treats victims like evidence, not human beings.”

A statewide effort coordinated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to crack down on the sex trade, which happened to coincide with this year’s Super Bowl, resulted in nearly 500 prostitution-related arrests and the rescue of dozens of human trafficking victims, officials said Tuesday, Feb. 15. Law enforcement agencies from Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and seven other counties also took part in Operation Reclaim and Rebuild.

Unable to persuade California voters to do away with capital punishment altogether, the movement to abolish the death penalty is quietly shifting its strategy to shrinking the nation’s largest Death Row. With the possibility of executions off the table for the foreseeable future under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 moratorium, advocates are focusing instead on narrowing the scope of when death sentences can be sought by prosecutors, plus other policies to make them a less normal part of the criminal justice system.

An unemployment scam operated out of California prisons sought a record $25 million from the state and US governments, netting more than $5 million that went for vehicles, furniture, handbags and jewelry, federal authorities said, Friday. The $25 million is the largest known single intended haul in California, said former US attorney McGregor Scott, who is working with the state Employment Development Department to coordinate investigations into fraud related to pandemic relief.

The suspect is accused of following a woman into her Manhattan apartment, and stabbing her to death. Police said that the suspect is a homeless man with a criminal record, but it was not immediately clear why he targeted Lee. NBC New York’s Marc Santia reports.

The latest salvo in the public-relations war between the San Francisco Police Department and the office of District Attorney Chesa Boudin is also a highly troubling potential breach of a sexual assault victim's privacy. Boudin on Monday made public an allegation that the SFPD crime lab had used DNA collected from a female victim in a rape kit and subsequently kept in a database to link the woman to a recent property crime.

The “Protect Act” is a proposed city ordinance to implement a number of policies to significantly curtail investigatory and enforcement tools for San Diego Police officers. The San Diego Police Officers Association launched a public campaign on Thursday, opposing the “Protect Act”. “The proponents of the Protect Act were unable to defund the police, so now they’re pushing a set of policies that would abolish policing,” said Jared Wilson, President of the SDPOA.

Two members of a South Central Los Angeles street gang will spend 12 years in federal prison for an armed robbery at a packed Beverly Hills restaurant last year that caused an uproar at the ultra-affluent enclave. A federal judge sentenced Malik Powell, 21, and Khai McGhee, 18, at a hearing in LA on Monday. “These types of robberies, which are becoming more and more prevalent in our community, have to stop,” U.S. District Judge John Walter said at the hearing.

A federal jury deliberated for only three hours Thursday before convicting a former Los Angeles Angels communications director of dealing opioids that killed pitcher Tyler Skaggs during a road trip in Texas. Eric Kay, 47, looked down and was silent as the verdict was read. Federal marshals immediately handcuffed Kay and took him into custody. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death.

A former U.S. Air Force sergeant with ties to a violent antigovernment group stood before a federal judge on Friday and admitted to deliberately shooting and killing federal protective officer David Patrick Underwood and gravely wounding Underwood's partner during a protest in Oakland on May 29, 2020. Underwood and his partner were guarding the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building as demonstrators marched through nearby streets to protest racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer.

One of three suspected members of a Gardena street gang charged in the death of a 29-year-old man who was gunned down in front of his home pleaded guilty Friday to a federal racketeering count. Antonio “Tank” Yanez, 23, entered his plea via Zoom to the charge of violent crime in aid of racketeering, which carries a sentence of the death penalty or life in federal prison because the victim - Evan Campbell - was murdered, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A television producer charged with killing her sister pleaded no contest Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter. Jill Blackstone, 59, was immediately sentenced to eight years in state prison following her plea to one felony count of voluntary manslaughter involving the March 2015 death of 49-year-old Wendy Blackstone in Studio City, along with three felony counts of animal cruelty involving three dogs - two of whom died.

A petition by convicted murderer and Manson Family follower Leslie Van Houten challenging Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent refusal to parole her was denied by the California Supreme Court on Thursday. Van Houten was arrested at age 19 in 1969 for helping Manson Family leader Charles Manson murder Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary in August of that year. Van Houten had personally held down and repeatedly stabbed Rosemary LaBianca during the murder, but did not participate in the more famed Sharon Tate murders that happened a few days before.

Health care giant Sutter Health denied price gouging and bullying insurers at the opening of a jury trial in San Francisco that will determine whether the rates it charged for inpatient hospital services violated federal antitrust law. In opening arguments Thursday, attorney Matthew Cantor told a 10-member jury that Sutter Health used its economic muscle to thwart competition and force families and businesses to collectively pay nearly $411 million more than they should have for health insurance.

In his own words, Matthew Fletcher is a “f— gang motherf— lawyer.” The defense attorney’s crass self-assessment was captured on tape a few years ago while L.A. County sheriff’s investigators eavesdropped on one of his conversations. It was typical bravado for a man who often speaks with rapid-fire profanity and can rattle off the turf boundaries of Compton’s street gangs as easily as another attorney might cite sections of the penal code.

Judge Jed Rakoff, the judge overseeing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, said Monday afternoon that he will dismiss the suit, ruling that Palin's team did not prove a key element of its case. Rakoff's ruling came while the jury is deliberating over a verdict - and Rakoff said he will allow the jury to continue deliberating and to reach a verdict, and will dismiss the case once it has done so.

There are times in most lawyers' careers when they encounter judges who outrage them. They may believe the judge's rulings are profoundly wrong. They may believe the judge's political or personal views have infected the process. Or they may believe the judge is so partial to an opposing party or counsel, or so hostile to the lawyer or the lawyer's client, as to create the proverbial kangaroo court. In each case, the lawyer is confronted with the question of what - if anything - they can or should do about it.

Public pension boards across the U.S. are tasked to identify competitive salaries to attract talent to manage their pension plan. There is always controversy with public officials making extravagant salaries. However, for the financial services and investment industries, top-level investment chiefs usually walk away with huge compensation packages. Let’s first compare the salaries of elected officials. The Governor of California has a salary of US$ 209,747 per year.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which has now officially reached half a trillion dollars in assets under management, reported its returns through December 31 at a board meeting yesterday. The fund had a strong fourth quarter performance, returning 4.7%. Overall, CalPERS reported returns of 13.3% throughout the calendar year. “Performance for the year was quite strong,” Tom Toth of consultant Wilshire Advisors said at the board meeting. “Both the quarter returns and calendar year returns handily outpaced the policy benchmark.”

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