Courts/Rulings & Lawsuits | | |
The Gascón era is proving costly
Los Angeles County has approved nearly $14 million in legal payouts to 10 county prosecutors who accused former District Attorney George Gascón and his administration of demoting them or otherwise retaliating against them when they questioned his criminal justice reforms, an L.A. Material review of county records and court filings found.
L.A. Material
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D.A. can’t compel mental examination of defendant seeking mental health diversion
Two defendants in unrelated criminal proceedings, each seeking a mental health diversion, have persuaded Div. One of the Fourth District Court of Appeal that the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office does not have the right, under a discovery statute, to an order compelling a mental examination.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Widow of deputy killed in LASD grenade explosion files lawsuit against county, sheriff
The widow of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy killed in last year’s deadly grenade explosion has filed a lawsuit against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and several officials, alleging the tragedy was the result of inadequate training, unsafe practices and leadership failures.
KTLA
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Supreme Court to hear from Alaskan bush pilot whose plane was confiscated over a six-pack of beer
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal from an Alaskan bush pilot whose plane was seized by authorities after they discovered it was bound for a remote, dry village with beer on board. The appeal from the 82-year-old pilot, Kenneth Jouppi, could have national implications if the 6-3 conservative court limits the ability of state and local governments to rely on asset forfeiture.
CNN
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Plaintiff suing UCLA camp breakup seek to keep anonymity
Nine of 33 plaintiffs are asking to use pseudonyms in their pleadings as their lawsuit proceeds toward trial against the UC Regents, in which they allege UCLA violated the civil rights of students, faculty and community members during 2024 campus protests of what they said was an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
MyNewsLA
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Family of loved one died of excessive force win round in court
Relatives of Keenan Anderson, a Black man who went into cardiac arrest and died after being shot with a stun gun multiple times in a struggle with Los Angeles police in Venice in 2023, won a round in court when a judge ruled they can proceed to trial with most of the allegations in their lawsuit.
MyNewsLA
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Privacy breach is not ‘harm’ under license plate data law
Div. One of the Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday affirmed a summary judgment in favor of a company offering car-mounted license plate scanners in a putative class action accusing it of violating a California statute requiring safeguards regarding the collection of such information, saying that the proposed representative’s failure to point to an injury other than an alleged invasion of privacy was fatal to his assertion of standing under the law.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Hiring a hit man to commit murder is not always 'a crime of violence,' 9th Circuit rules
Hiring a hit man is not a crime of violence, even in cases where the killer fulfills his contract and his employer is convicted in the conspiracy, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel vacated two felony convictions that stemmed from a pair of contract killings negotiated to settle an oil well dispute in North Dakota.
Los Angeles Times
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Case asserting millions in pandemic-payout fraud is revived
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that a California lender’s services-related website does not qualify as a “news media” source for purposes of a bar to qui tam actions, brought under a federal statutory scheme authorizing whistleblower lawsuits aimed at rooting out fraud against the government, if the information underlying the claims was previously publicly disclosed.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Which California Supreme Court justices are up for retention elections in 2026?
California Supreme Court justices are nominated or appointed by the governor, but voters get to say whether they keep the job. Once California Supreme Court justices are confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, they face a retention election every 12 years. They can’t campaign for the job, and voters don’t get to choose a replacement.
CalMatters
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Judge tosses feds’ suit over Minnesota ‘sanctuary city’ policies
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration challenging Minnesota’s state and local “sanctuary” laws, policies and ordinances. In the 56-page order, Chief U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud said forcing state and local officials to enforce federal immigration law violates the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes a balance of power between federal government and individual states.
Courthouse News Service
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LA man charged with sex assaults on young girl in Fullerton
A 40-year-old Los Angeles man was behind bars Thursday on charges of sexually assaulting a girl, starting when she was 4 years old in Fullerton. Claudio Marino Hernandezlopez is charged with sexually assaulting the victim until she was 12 years old, police said. Fullerton police began investigating the defendant in January after receiving a report of sexual abuse from another law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County, police said.
City News Service
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Los Angeles duo facing felony charges connected to Thousand Oaks dealership burglary
Two Los Angeles men are facing felony charges after allegedly breaking into a local auto dealership and stealing a Corvette valued at over $105,000. The duo, 39-year-old Johne Lene Ivy and 29-year-old Brandon Montel Taylor, are each charged with one felony count of second-degree commercial burglary and one felony count of unlawful taking of a vehicle stated a press release from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.
KEYT
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21-year-old charged with vehicular manslaughter in OC 'car-surfing' crash that killed beloved surfer
A Huntington Beach man has been charged with vehicular manslaughter after his friend was killed while car surfing on Pacific Coast Highway last summer. Brandon Scott Soleau, 21, was charged with one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the death of 20-year-old Kolby Kekoa Aipa. Aipa is the grandson of surfboard shaper Ben Aipa of Aipa Surfboards.
ABC7
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12 individuals indicted in $2 million Nike cargo theft scheme
12 individuals have been criminally charged for their alleged involvement in theft at Nike’s logistics center in Memphis, TN. The indictments were announced yesterday by the US Justice Department and are based on a multi-year investigation by the FBI’s Cargo Theft Task Force and the US Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Michael Dunavant.
Complex
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Amazon purchases, matching tattoos: See evidence prosecutors have against D4vd at pretrial hearing
As Los Angeles prosecutors aim to show there's enough evidence to put singer D4vd on trial for the murder and dismemberment of a teen girl, some of the investigators took the stand Tuesday, describing what they witnessed when discovering the 14-year-old's decomposing body.
NBC4
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LA’s top federal prosecutor lays down the gauntlet with Gov. Gavin Newsom over voter fraud claims
Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor challenged Gov. Gavin Newsom to show proof that California isn't experiencing voter fraud. After Newsom called President Trump's claim of widespread voter fraud "false and misleading" ahead of the commander-in-chief's primetime speech on election fraud, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli shot back at the governor.
California Post
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1st Amendment groups threaten litigation over LA Council's word ban during meetings
First Amendment organizations Thursday threatened litigation against the Los Angeles City Council if they fail to rescind a word ban placed on speakers, arguing the rule violates the Constitution and state law. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the First Amendment Coalition sent a letter to Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto to immediately provide an "unconditional commitment" to "cease, desist from and not repeat" removing or threatening to remove a speaker based on the language they use absent actual disruption of a meeting.
City News Service
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California city repeals gun purchase limit - what are other states doing?
A Southern California city is set to repeal a decades-old restriction limiting handgun purchases after a federal appeals court ruling cast doubt on the constitutionality of similar firearm regulations, marking another significant shift in the legal landscape surrounding gun rights in the United States.
Newsweek
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Southwestern condemns bigotry, won’t disavow candidate
Southwestern Law School on Friday stopped short of acceding to a deputy district attorney’s call to publicly disavow what he termed “antisemitic” remarks by judicial candidate Rhonda Haymon, a deputy public defender, and to condemn her alleged courtroom “misconduct,” and “unethical” tactics, but it did distance itself from her and made clear she is no longer an adjunct professor at the institution.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Los Angeles medical examiner pushes for greater transparency in high-profile deaths
Autopsy reports rarely come with barbed comments. So eyebrows rose when the autopsy results of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were released with a statement from the Los Angeles County chief medical examiner saying it was “unfathomable” her grieving parents had to wait months to learn how their daughter died.
Associated Press
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Overdose or homicide? LAPD detective claims he was ordered not to investigate girl’s death
In early 2024, Tan and his then-police partner, Det. Jose Verdin, had been conducting an investigation of what police described as a known “flop house” in Van Nuys when they learned of Salehpour’s death there. Tan claimed in the lawsuit that Salehpour’s death was misclassified as an overdose. He alleged that he and his partner found evidence that she had instead been strangled.
Los Angeles Times
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Family of girl accidentally shot to death by LAPD seeks retrial of lawsuit
Citing four reasons that include alleged judicial error, attorneys for the parents of a teen girl who was inadvertently shot to death by a Los Angeles police officer in a North Hollywood store are asking a judge to grant a new trial in their negligence lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. On May 7, a Burbank Superior Court jury ruled in favor of the city by a 9-3 margin.
MyNewsLA
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The Supreme Court has clawed back concealed-carry laws. Could switchblades be next?
Now that the Supreme Court has overturned most state restrictions on carrying concealed firearms in public, the next target could be California's ban on carrying switchblade knives, which open at the flick of a switch or the push of a button. Since 1957, the state has prohibited publicly carrying or selling switchblade knives with blades two inches or longer, with criminal penalties of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
San Francisco Chronicle
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Fake Artesia lawyer posed as pastor to target local Filipino community, State Bar says
The State Bar of California on Monday announced it has seized the alleged illegal business of a nonattorney in Los Angeles County who is accused of illegally practicing law for years, targeting members of the local Filipino community under the guise of legitimate immigration and legal services.
Fox11
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Over 3 years, homeless nonprofit paid more than $1.7 million to companies owned by its chief executive
In recent years, the nonprofit A Step to Freedom has grown rapidly, collecting millions of dollars from the government to house and feed homeless people coming out of jail in L.A. County. What was a small organization providing 20 or so men shelter each year, with $25,500 in revenue in 2018, grew to operate six interim housing sites serving about 200 people at a time in 2024, with more than $5 million in revenue, largely from taxpayers, according to federal tax filings.
Los Angeles Times
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Call comes for EPA to investigate ‘cancer cluster’ in SoCal community
A federal official is calling for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate after residents of an Orange County community reported several cases of a rare cancer. Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, is asking for the EPA to conduct an investigation "to determine if there are any environmental factors causing this cancer cluster" in Ladera Ranch.
USA Today
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Shocking new figures show LA homeless count spikes despite billions poured into crisis
Los Angeles’ most expensive crisis is moving in the wrong direction - and Mayor Karen Bass continues to pass the buck. Shocking new numbers show that despite spending nearly $3 billion a year on homelessness programs, LA city and county are expected to report that the homeless population grew in 2026, according to multiple sources familiar with the annual count.
California Post
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Man shot at World Cup watch party reunites with LAPD officer who helped save his life
A month after a Los Angeles police officer saved a man's life after he was shot at a World Cup watch party, the two met face to face for the very first time. Luis Romero was shot in the leg after tackling a gunman during a South Korea-Mexico World Cup watch party in Koreatown.
ABC7
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Neighbors suspect mental health issues in deadly Simi Valley pursuit, police shooting
A 37-year-old man died after leading officers on a pursuit through Simi Valley and crashing a pickup truck into a parked police motorcycle and a home Tuesday, authorities said. Neighbors believe he may have been having a mental health crisis. The confrontation followed an hourslong search that began around 8:15 a.m. in the 2500 block of Dusan Avenue, where officers responded to a domestic violence call.
KTLA
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California bill could add $14 billion in new costs for local governments and taxpayers
California Assembly Bill 1383, which passed out of the state Assembly and is under consideration in the state Senate, would grant a pension benefit increase to the state’s first responders, but doing so would deal a significant blow to the state’s landmark 2012 reform and add major costs to already stretched local government budgets.
Reason Foundation
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Hollywood challenges California's ghost gun proposal
California has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, but state lawmakers are concerned that a new technology is allowing criminals to obtain firearms by building them from scratch. By using 3-D printers, they warn, lawbreakers are able to make key components of untraceable "ghost guns" with the press of a button.
Los Angeles Times
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White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants
Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities.
CalMatters
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Most California lawmakers never buck their party. These few do
Mavericks are hard to find in the California Legislature. It’s exceedingly rare for lawmakers to vote against the majority of their party. A CalMatters Digital Democracy analysis of current legislators’ voting records found that, on average since 2023, they broke from the majority of their colleagues less than 1% of the time. But a few are more willing to stray from the herd. Some represent the few competitive swing districts in California.
CalMatters
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California's DMV director says possible criminal investigation is underway related to driver's license test issues
The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles has told state lawmakers a potential criminal investigation is underway after the agency found irregularities with 11,000 driver's license tests. The DMV on Monday provided KCRA 3 a copy of a letter the agency's director, Steve Gordon, sent State Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Dave Cortese late last week.
KCRA
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White House pulls controversial DOJ nominee after offensive social media posts revealed
The Trump administration has quietly pulled its controversial nominee to serve as the Justice Department’s lead liaison with state and local law enforcement after Courthouse News reported he had written and deleted hundreds of offensive social media posts, including some disparaging police.
Courthouse News Service
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NRA reveals it has spent over $3 million fighting California’s ammo laws as ammunition depot launches checkout donations to fund the battle
Ammunition Depot and the National Rifle Association have announced a new partnership aimed at expanding support for Second Amendment litigation across the country, and it comes with a number that has never been made public before. According to figures provided by the NRA, the organization has spent more than $3 million supporting California Second Amendment litigation since 2021.
USA Carry
| | Convictions/Pleas/Sentences/Parole | | |
Ex-UC Davis student cleared of murder, convicted of manslaughter in stabbing spree
A California jury acquitted Carlos Reales Dominguez on second-degree murder charges Tuesday in connection with the 2023 stabbing deaths of two people, but convicted the 23-year-old former UC Davis student of involuntary manslaughter. It was the second time a jury deliberated the fate of Dominguez, whose public defender said he suffered from untreated schizophrenia at the time.
Courthouse News Service
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OC serial robber pleads guilty to federal charges in restaurant crime spree
A Santa Ana man has pleaded guilty to federal robbery charges following a violent multi-city crime spree targeting local restaurants throughout Orange County early this year. According to federal court documents and his plea agreement, Freddie Alexander Lopez, 24, admitted that he "robbed or attempted to rob restaurants in Orange County by force and violence, and by intimidation, knowingly took cash or attempted to take cash from employees of the businesses against their will and by threatening them with force."
Fox11
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Sinaloa cartel leader, kidnapped to face justice in US, gets life sentence
A federal judge on Monday sentenced Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, one of the most powerful drug lords in the world and the violent Sinaloa cartel’s strategist, to a mandatory minimum of life in prison after Zambada pleaded guilty in a drug trafficking case. Zambada, one of the longest-surviving capos in Mexico, directed murders, kidnappings and a massive illicit drug operation, prosecutors say.
Courthouse News Service
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Ex-LASD deputy sentenced for fake search warrant scheme tracking a security client’s estranged husband
The deputy also worked as a private security guard for the Beverly Hills “crypto godfather” Adam Iza. Federal prison time lies ahead for a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who weaponized his badge to help a wealthy private client track down her estranged husband.
Westside Today
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Manhattan Beach attorney pleads guilty to embezzling client settlement money
A 36-year-old attorney from Manhattan Beach has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $300,000 from his former clients to support his gambling addiction. Sergio Valdovinos Ramirez pleaded guilty to three felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement and one felony count of insufficient checking funds.
CBS LA
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Two street gang members found guilty of murdering victim outside his home during Mexican mafia-ordered armed robbery
Two members of a Southern California street gang operating under a branch of the Mexican Mafia prison gang were found guilty by a jury today of murdering a man outside his home while trying to rob him. Ysrael Jacob Cordova, 41, also known as “Trips,” and “Tripper,” of Placentia, California, and Ricardo Valenzuela, 44, also known as “Solo,” of Buena Park, California, each were found guilty of one count of murder in aid of racketeering activity (VICAR murder).
Office of Public Affairs Press Release
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California's missing report: Why the state needs an Annual State of the Criminal Justice System Report
Every year, state agencies, universities, advocacy organizations, and think tanks - including the Pacific Research Institute - publish valuable analyses of crime, courts, corrections, sentencing, policing, and public safety. Those reports shape legislation, influence budgets, and inform public debate.
Pacific Research Institute
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NJ software vendor says state is to blame for erroneous registration of 6,600 noncitizens
The software company that NJ Governor Mikie Sherill was quick to blame for the registration of 6,600 noncitizens is contesting responsibility, immediately releasing a statement saying the state, not a technical glitch, was to blame. During a press conference yesterday, Sherill said that the registration was the fault of the software company.
Townhall
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