Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits

No immunity for police who left dead man's genitals exposed during shootout

Ending a split among state appellate courts, the California Supreme Court ruled a law protecting police officers against claims of wrongful prosecution doesn’t immunize them against other claims, including one that officers had left the body of a man shot by police in the street with his genitals exposed. Section 821.6 of California’s Government Claims Act immunizes police against liability for “prosecuting any judicial or administrative proceeding” and some state courts had interpreted it to include activities related to investigating a crime. 

Legal Newsline

Arizona cop presses 9th Circuit for immunity on fatal shooting

A police officer who shot an unarmed man in a traffic stop urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to call off his upcoming civil trial, arguing that he fired his weapon because he thought the life of another officer was in danger. The shooting happened at about 3 a.m., on July 21, 2018, near the intersection of Dobson Road and Southern Avenue in Mesa, Arizona. Court documents show that the driver, 21-year-old Anthony Lopez, admitted he had been drinking that night, but police say he ignored commands to turn over his keys. 

Courthouse News Service

9th Circuit conservatives blast homelessness ruling, say issue is 'paralyzing' U.S. West

Some of the most powerful conservative judges in the United States took collective aim Wednesday at the idea that homeless people with nowhere else to go have a right to sleep in public, excoriating their liberal colleagues for ruling as much. Their scathing comments came in a set of responses to a decision Wednesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals not to rehear a case in which a smaller three-judge panel affirmed such rights in September.

Los Angeles Times

Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals declares ban on recording without consent unconstitutional

On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a law prohibiting the recording of individuals without their explicit consent is unconstitutional, as it violates the First Amendment. The decision came after James O’Keefe, the former CEO of Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action Fund, filed a lawsuit in Portland, Oregon three years ago, arguing that the law in Oregon violates the US Constitution, particularly in the context of undercover investigative journalism.

KXL

Ninth Circuit wary of blocking California open-carry ban

A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday took up a challenge to California's restrictions on openly carrying a firearm in public in the wake of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that a New York prohibition on carrying guns in public violated the Second Amendment. U.S. Circuit Judges Lawrence VanDyk and Kenneth Lee, both Donald Trump appointees, seemed reluctant to issue a sweeping injunction of the two California criminal statutes that the plaintiffs claim violate their constitutional rights. 

Courthouse News Service

Appeals Court rules that "FCK" is not appropriate for license plates

The license plate “FCKBLM” sparked national debate over free speech and the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city and county and the state Monday. License plate requests with the letters “FCK” and “FKN” are automatically rejected now, but in 2021 Edward Odquina received the license plate “FCKBLM.” Deputy Attorney General Isaac Ickes represented the State of Hawaii after Odquina filed stating that recalling his license plate is a violation of his free speech.

KITV

C.A. reverses Judge Meiers’s judgment, says she applied personal notions, not the law

Barbara Ann Meiers, a frequently reversed judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, was reversed yesterday by the Court of Appeal because she refused to follow the dictates of a 1980 statute and a 2021 Court of Appeal opinion interpreting that law, instead applying the legislatively supplanted common law rule. The statute is Code of Civil Procedure §764.060, a part of the Quiet Title Act, and the case Meiers sidestepped is Tsasu LLC v. U.S. Bank Trust, N.A.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Appeals court upholds suspension of UC Berkeley professor for sexual harassment

A state appeals court has upheld the suspension of a disgraced UC Berkeley architecture professor who lost his job after claims of sexual harassment from a former graduate student came to light. Nezar AlSayyad - an internationally recognized scholar who started teaching within the university’s Architecture and City and Regional Planning departments in 1985 - opted to retire in 2018 instead of serving a three-year suspension without pay for violating the university’s code of conduct.

Bay Area News Group

Governor appoints three judges to L.A. County Superior Court

Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 27 announced three legal appointments in Los Angeles County. Michelle Graves has been appointed to serve as a judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Graves has served as a deputy district attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office since 2012. Jerome Haig has also been appointed to serve as a judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Haig has been a sole practitioner since 2013. Judge Dina Richman will serve in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Richman has been corporate counsel at Farmers Group, Inc., since 2022. 

Beverly Press

Ridley-Thomas’ bid for new trial denied

A judge today denied former City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ bid to have his convictions on federal bribery and conspiracy charges vacated after defense lawyers argued there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s guilty verdicts. Attorneys for Ridley-Thomas alleged during an hours-long hearing Monday that prosecutorial misconduct, misstatements of the law and other issues during the longtime Los Angeles politician’s trial ultimately deprived him of his rights.

City News Service

City seeks to evade DA block on misdemeanor prosecution

The Manhattan Beach City Council is trying to find a way to prosecute misdemeanor crimes that occur within the city. At last week’s council meeting, city staff and councilmembers reported once again being rebuffed at such attempts by Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who issued a directive in 2020 that ended the prosecution of non-violent misdemeanors throughout much of LA County.

Easy Reader

DA to seek death penalty in Riverside County deputy’s slaying

Prosecutors announced Monday that they plan to seek the death penalty for Jesse Ceazar Navarro, who allegedly shot and killed Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Darnell Calhoun in Lake Elsinore earlier this year. The Jan. 13 shooting in the 18500 block of Hilldale Lane killed the 30-year-old Calhoun. Navarro also fired at another deputy who came to Calhoun’s aid, prosecutors said in a news release.

KTLA

SF District Attorney won't charge police officer who shot, killed Sean Moore

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office confirmed Monday she is dismissing charges against former San Francisco Police officer Kenneth Cha, who fatally shot Sean Moore at his home in 2017. Her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, had filed voluntary manslaughter charges against Cha in 2021. “It’s awful,” Cleo Moore, Sean Moore’s mother, told KQED. “He killed him. And I can’t change that.

KQED

Tulare DA warns of bill to release ‘worst-of-the-worst’ murderers after 25 years

One of the worst anti-victim, soft-on-crime bills looks as if it will be passed by the California Legislature under the guise of criminal justice “reforms,” Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward told the Globe Wednesday. Senate Bill 94 by Sen. Dave Cortese (D-Santa Clara), “would give the state’s worst, most heinous murderers, who have been sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole (LWOP), the opportunity to have their sentences invalidated and make them eligible for parole,” Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation wrote in April at the Globe.

California Globe

Prosecutors say murdered woman was victim of real estate fraud

Before she was found suffocated in her Montecito house last May, a murdered 96-year-old woman was already the victim of another crime: real estate fraud, with the alleged aim of stealing her home, prosecutors said. The alleged perpetrator of that fraud - Pauline Lisa Macareno, 47, of Los Angeles - remains behind bars while awaiting her second arraignment in the 18-count felony case filed against her, Senior Deputy District Attorney Casey Nelson told the News-Press.

Santa Barbara News-Press

Is California listing toward failed state status?

California used to be known for its stunning weather, Hollywood movies and stars, Silicon Valley - home to the high tech industry, and for the agricultural products grown and raised for the state, country, as well as the rest of the world. Today, California is known for its crazy Left wing politics, violent crime, bumper-to-bumper traffic, its homeless epidemic, out-of-control spending, record budgets, and the $1+ trillion unfunded pension obligation to state retirees.

California Globe

In this beach town, sometimes the first cop on the scene is a drone

When someone calls 911 for police in the upscale beach town of Santa Monica, California, a drone is dispatched from the roof of the station with a push of a button. Officers respond, as well. But most of the time, the drone gets there first - rushing to a set of GPS coordinates punched in by the controller. Sometimes it is there in as fast as 30 seconds. “It’s a fundamental change in the way that we can bring policing services to our city,” said Peter Lashley, a veteran of the force who often pilots the drone from a screen-filled command center inside the police station.

NBC News

Advocates call for 911 changes. Police have mixed feelings

A mountain of evidence shows police often fail to respond properly to people experiencing a mental health crisis. It can lead to avoidable deaths and criminalization of mental illness, especially among people of color. A poll commissioned by Public Health Advocates, a Davis-based health policy nonprofit, showed that more than two-thirds of California voters want behavioral health professionals to be part of the emergency response in non-life-threatening situations. 

KFF Health News

Los Angeles City/County

LA has spent $40 million to house just 1,400 people

Out of nearly 1,400 people placed in Inside Safe motels by city officials, only about 77 people - or 6% - have moved into permanent housing, which is the ultimate goal of the program. That’s according to a preliminary number released verbally by city officials Wednesday afternoon, at a committee meeting where councilmembers sharply criticized what they described as a lack of transparency around the L.A. mayor’s signature homelessness program.

LAist

LA County says it isn’t liable for motel stabbing involving cops

Los Angeles County is immune from civil liability in the 2022 death of one of two El Monte police officers fatally shot by a convicted felon in that city, according to county attorneys, who also argue in new court papers that the slain officer assumed the risk of injury. Officers Joseph Santana and Michael Paredes responded to a report of a stabbing on June 14, 2022, at the Siesta Inn, where Justin Flores was staying with his wife. The officers rescued the victim, but were subsequently shot to death by Flores.

City news Service

LA County Sheriff calls video of deputy throwing woman to ground ‘disturbing’

Los Angeles County's sheriff called video of a deputy slamming a woman to the ground and pepper-spraying her in the parking lot of a grocery store "disturbing" as he vowed a thorough investigation into what unfolded after his deputies responded to the business in Lancaster. Sheriff Robert Luna promised on Wednesday that an “objective” and thorough investigation will be conducted into the actions of the deputy caught on camera.

City News Service & NBC4

A Black LAPD officer wanted to make a difference. Then, he says, he was racially profiled by his own department

He felt their gaze on his back as soon as he stepped out of the car. As he recalls that day, Bernard Robins says he saw three Los Angeles police officers eyeing him suspiciously from their department cruiser. He knew what to do in these situations. Arms in the air. No sudden movements. And, taking the bass out of his voice, he announced that he was one of their own, a cop.

Los Angeles Times

Four LAPD bomb squad members disciplined for June 2021 fireworks explosion in South LA

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore has announced that four members of the department's bomb squad were disciplined for their involvement in a botched detonation of illegal fireworks in a South Los Angeles neighborhood two years ago. Additionally, an internal Los Angeles Police Department investigation resulted in the implementation of new protocols for the bomb squad to prevent any similar events from occurring in the future, Moore said.

KCAL

LA City Council approves settlement in case over Mark Ridley-Thomas’ replacement

The Los Angeles City Council has approved up to $350,000 to settle a lawsuit brought against it by groups who claimed the council violated the city charter by appointing Herb Wesson in 2022 to replace then-suspended Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California and a group of individuals calling themselves the League of Registered Voters of District 10 sued, claiming the council denied 10th District voters their chosen representative, Ridley-Thomas.

Los Angeles Daily News

‘Top shot’ LAPD officer posts wedding photos holding semiautomatic weapon amid lawsuit against chief

A Los Angeles police officer who sued the chief after she claimed she was denied promotions due to her firearm-heavy social media feed recently posted photos of herself holding a semiautomatic firearm at her wedding. Officer Toni McBride, a trained sharpshooter who earned “Top Shot” in the LAPD police academy, showed off her JW3 TTI MPX Taran Tactical 9mm alongside her husband and wedding party in photos posted online Thursday.

Los Angeles Times

Over 14,000 vehicles in LA County are used as homes

In TV news segments and election season political ads, images of sprawling tent encampments have become the face of a worsening homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. But tents did not play a significant role in the past year’s 9% rise in homelessness across L.A. County. In fact, the number of tents used as dwellings on L.A. streets fell slightly, from 4,304 in 2022 to 4,293 in 2023. Instead, the increase reported in this year’s homeless count was disproportionately driven by people living in vehicles.

LAist

Amazon Prime Day shoppers risk counterfeits, fraud, and scams

Amazon's highly anticipated Prime Days event on July 11th and 12th comes with a warning: "Buyer beware." Despite Amazon's hefty $139 Prime membership, consumers should be alarmed that it offers no protection against counterfeit, fraudulent, and dangerous product listings, fake reviews, and deceptive endorsements. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has critically examined Amazon's practices and filed a lawsuit against the company for deceiving millions of consumers into subscribing to Amazon Prime and making it unnecessarily difficult to cancel. 

The Counterfeit Report

The wait for US passports is creating travel purgatory and snarling summer plans

Seeking a valid U.S. passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport. A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels - with too few humans to handle the load. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty.

AP

Probation leaders across California disband secretive nonprofit group

A group of probation chiefs from nearly every county in the state has decided to disband a secretive nonprofit organization they set up to work out of the public eye on a sweeping state-ordered reform of juvenile justice. The decision came five days after the Union-Tribune published a story on the group’s history, organization and financing and followed months of questioning by advocacy groups, some of which sued over its approach to state open meeting laws and its rejection of requests to review its records.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Hope and uncertainty linger as California turns the page on state-run youth prisons

Juvenile offenders in California might now have a better chance at rehabilitation instead of facing a mostly punitive sentence in a youth prison system that often only reinforced the patterns of neglect and violence that led many of them into trouble in the first place. On Saturday, California shuttered its last three state-run youth lockups and passed day-to-day operations of juvenile halls to county probation departments. 

AP

Here are some of the new California laws going into effect in July

Starting July 1, a handful of new laws go into effect in California. The new laws include recognition of Juneteenth as an official state holiday, the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act, streamlining the construction of affordable housing, changes to the handling of criminal records and more.

NBC4

Prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case denies retaliating against IRS agent who talked to House GOP

The federal prosecutor leading the investigation of President Joe Biden's son Hunter is pushing back against claims that he was blocked from pursuing criminal charges in Los Angeles and Washington and denies retaliating against an IRS official who disclosed details about the case. In a two-page letter to House Republicans on Friday, U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware defended the lengthy investigation into Hunter Biden's financial dealings that ended last month with a plea with the Justice Department that likely spares Biden from time behind bars.

AP

Judge limits Biden administration in working with social media companies

A judge on Tuesday prohibited several federal agencies and officials of the Biden administration from working with social media companies about "protected speech," a decision called "a blow to censorship" by one of the Republican officials whose lawsuit prompted the ruling. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the injunction in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri. 

AP

Attorney who challenged Trump’s 2020 loss gives up law license as states weigh disciplining him

Attorney Lin Wood, who filed legal challenges seeking to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, is relinquishing his law license, electing to retire from practicing rather than face possible disbarment. Multiple states have weighed disciplining him for pushing Trump’s false claims that he defeated Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to “retire” his law license in light of “disciplinary proceedings pending against me.” 

AP

Crime

Westlake suspects ride up on scooters, fatally shoot victim: Police

A 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the Westlake District Sunday night and two suspects remained at large Monday morning. Los Angeles police said the man was shot in the chest near 8th and Park View streets, about a block south of MacArthur Park, at about 9:40 p.m. Two suspects riding on scooters reportedly approached the victim, according to the LAPD. The victim was reportedly shot in front of family members. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

KCAL

Pallets of Red Bull and drained EBT accounts: Romanian crime groups plunder public benefits in San Diego

The bulk purchases of Red Bull and Monster Energy drinks were huge. Within about two months late last year, the same small group had spent $305,270 buying pallets of the caffeinated drinks at grocery stores in downtown San Diego and Riverside. The transactions were large enough that members of the group had to make special arrangements with store managers ahead of time and pick up the drinks in the Smart & Final loading docks.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Thief breaks into Venice wine store through roof, steals more than 600 top-of-the-line bottles

Some very expensive wines, worth possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars, were stolen during a late-night burglary at a wine store in Venice. It happened around midnight on Friday, June 30, at Lincoln Fine Wines on Lincoln Boulevard. According to owner Nazmul Haque, the burglars cut a hole through the ceiling, directly above the store's wine cellar where some of his most prized wines were stored.

ABC7

Copper wire thefts on the rise, causing delays for Metro’s rail lines

A section of Los Angeles’ Metro rail system that extends from Norwalk to the South Bay was delayed this week because of the theft of copper wires used to power the rail cars. The incident marks the latest in a surge of thefts of valuable copper wiring, which has caused disruptions for the rail system, which serves more than 5 million riders a month. In 2022, Metro reported more than 60 copper wire thefts, mainly affecting the Metro A Line, formerly known as the Blue Line.

Los Angeles Times

Juveniles in Hemet cause over $100K in damage to multiple school district locations 

Police in Hemet arrested two juveniles on Thursday responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to several Hemet Unified School District properties. The vandalism and burglaries, which were captured on surveillance cameras at multiple locations associated with HUSD, led authorities to identify several suspects, the Hemet Police Department said. While police were unable to find all the school’s missing property when executing search warrants, they were able to locate some of the stolen items. 

KTLA

Convictions/Sentences/Pleas/Appeals

Driver of Tesla on autopilot gets probation for crash that killed 2 in Gardena

A 28-year-old man who was behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S on autopilot in 2019 when it ran a red light in Gardena and slammed into a car, killing two people, authorities said, has been sentenced to two years of probation after pleading no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter. But should Kevin George Aziz Riad violate his probation, a judge could sentence him to four years in state prison, said Tatevik Tigranyan, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Southern California News Group

Former Malibu resident pleads guilty to bilking investors out of $3M with false promises of discounted, pre-IPO shares of Alibaba

A former Malibu resident who defrauded several individuals out of more than $3 million with bogus claims he had access to stock shares of Alibaba prior to its initial public offering has pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, the Justice Department announced today. Frank Harold Rosenthal, 48, who currently resides in New York City, pleaded guilty Friday before United States District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha.

U.S. Attorney’s Office Press Release

OC man must forfeit $3M in illegal gambling case that allegedly involved Yasiel Puig

An Orange County man was sentenced Wednesday to six months probation and ordered to forfeit $3 million for helping run an illegal bookmaking business that allegedly ensnared ex-Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig. Edon Kagasoff, 45, of Lake Forest, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of conspiring to run the gambling operation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

City News Service

Ninth Circuit slashes exorbitant attorney’s fee award that would “make the average person shake her head in disbelief”

The Ninth Circuit recently struck a blow against plaintiffs’ attorneys’ ability to recover handsome attorney’s fee awards in class action settlements when there is little actual benefit to the class. In Lowery v Rhapsody International, Inc., No. 22-15162 (9th Cir. June 7, 2023), a Ninth Circuit panel reversed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s award of $1.7 million in attorney’s fees to plaintiffs’ counsel in a copyright class action, finding that the fee award was not reasonable when compared to the class’ actual recovery of $52,841, without any injunctive relief.

National Law Review

Yashar Ali’s future income is forfeit until Getty heir is paid in full, judge says

Yashar Ali must forfeit his future earnings until his debt to a Getty heir is paid in full. A Los Angeles judge on Wednesday ordered the Twitter personality and online journalist to transfer his earnings - spelling out sources including Twitter, Substack, Venmo, GoFundMe and more - to a judgment creditor until his lapsed loan from Ariadne Getty, granddaughter of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty, is repaid.

Los Angeles Times

The Ninth Circuit just provided a roadmap on how to defend California consumer fraud claims

Companies that may face consumer fraud claims in West Coast courts will want to take a close look at the Ninth Circuit’s decision this month in McGinity v. Procter & Gamble Co., __ F.4th __, 2023 WL 3911531 (9th Cir. June 9, 2023). The Ninth Circuit provided some much-needed clarity on how lower courts within its jurisdiction should reconcile two seemingly conflicting precedents on how to apply the “reasonable consumer” test to seemingly fanciful claims brought under California’s consumer fraud laws.

JD Supra

Mexican Mafia member who ran county jail rackets is killed in prison

Michael Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who oversaw gangs in the San Fernando Valley and controlled drug and extortion rackets in the Los Angeles County jails, was stabbed to death in prison Thursday, authorities said. Torres, 59, was attacked around 9 a.m. at California State Prison, Sacramento, where he was serving 133 years to life for attempted murder, conspiracy, weapons offenses and witness tampering.

Los Angeles Times

Convicted murderer from LA County killed in Kern County prison cell, state officials say

A prisoner from Los Angeles County who was serving a life sentence for murder was found dead in a Kern County cell, an apparent homicide victim, officials said. Ricardo Saldivar, 25, was found dead in his cell at North Kern State Prison on Monday afternoon, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. State and local officials have classified Salvidar's death as a homicide. 

ABC7

California promises better care for thousands of inmates as they leave prison

California has agreed to improve health care for newly released prison inmates who are disabled, including through a series of measures that advocates say will help almost everyone trying to make the transition from incarceration. Attorneys representing inmates say proper care during the transition from prison has long been lacking and can lead to homelessness.

California Healthline

California quietly shelves $15 billion pension divestment bill

The California State Assembly has shelved legislation that would have forced the country’s two largest pension funds to divest an estimated $15 billion from oil and gas companies, a major blow to environmental advocates who hoped the funds could be a national model for the divestment movement. SB-252, which passed the state Senate in May, won’t be given a floor vote, according to the bill’s lead author, Senator Lena Gonzalez of Los Angeles County. Bloomberg Law