Courts/Rulings & Lawsuits | | |
AI pilot program in L.A. County courts will help judges craft rulings in some cases
Judges in one of the nation's largest court systems have started using artificial intelligence, testing a tool that can rapidly distill hundreds of pages of legal motions and use samples of a jurist's writing style to help reach conclusions and even draft tentative rulings. The program, which launched last month, gave half a dozen Los Angeles County civil court judges access to AI software called Learned Hand.
Los Angeles Times
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LAPD commander fired over drunken incident wins $5.7 million in discrimination lawsuit
A Los Angeles County jury awarded a former LAPD commander nearly $6 million on Wednesday, finding in her favor in a lawsuit against the department that claimed she was wrongfully fired over an alcohol-fueled incident in 2018. The commander, Nicole Mehringer, argued she was held to a different standard than her male LAPD colleagues, who she claimed were allowed to keep their jobs under similar circumstances, sometimes with department officials going to extreme lengths to cover up their wrongdoing.
Los Angeles Times
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Man who called 911 to report attack has no claim based on arrest of him
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the City of Los Angeles and two of its officers brought by a man who was arrested for an assault with deadly weapons - a knife and a crowbar - over his protest that it was he who called 911 to summon the police to the altercation and the other party was the aggessor.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Judge erred in preliminarily enjoining online privacy law
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday gutted a preliminary injunction barring the enforcement of a California statute designed to protect children from harmful online business practices, finding that a District Court judge erred in determining that a trade association plaintiff had met its high burden for establishing a likelihood of success on its facial First Amendment challenge to the law.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Young Explorers abused by cops in mentorship program; Whittier to pay $3.5 million, lawyer says
Four former female Whittier Police Explorers who accused former police officers of sexually abusing them will receive a $3.5-million settlement from the city, an attorney for the women announced Wednesday. Anthony DeMarco, an attorney who helped secure a settlement of more than $7 million with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for priest sex crime victims, said the city of Whittier's lawyers agreed to the settlement Wednesday, shortly before the first of the two former Explorers' cases was set to go to trial.
Los Angeles Times
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Rebecca Grossman murdered 2 boys when she sped through a crosswalk, a jury found. Appeals court agrees
Rebecca Grossman murdered two young brothers when she sped through a Westlake Village crosswalk, a jury found two years ago. Now, a state appeals court has upheld that verdict. Grossman, the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, is serving 15 years to life in state prison for the second-degree murders of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and 8-year-old Jacob Iskander.
Los Angeles Times
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With DOJ sidelined, states resume antitrust trial against Ticketmaster
The federal antitrust trial against Ticketmaster and its parent concert promotion company Live Nation resumed on Monday, a week after the Department of Justice pulled out of the case by settling with the live event giants. Now, 36 states and the District of Columbia - rejecting the DOJ’s controversial settlement - are leading the case, which charges Ticketmaster and Live Nation with leveraging their power and influence as the most powerful concert brands to foster an anticompetitive market at the detriment of fans, venues and artists.
Courthouse News Service
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California, other states file suit over changes to federal housing funding
Over a dozen attorneys general argued in a suit announced Monday that President Donald Trump’s administration has illegally issued rules that threaten state funding and undermine housing protections. The federal suit, filed in the Northern District of California, hinges on guidance issued last year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That guidance threatens to cut funding if states consider housing protections other than those in the Fair Housing Act.
Courthouse News Service
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Lawsuit asserting public fraud by big pharma is revived
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday resurrected a qui tam lawsuit filed by a California-based health care provider against multiple pharmaceutical companies seeking damages allegedly due to the state and federal governments for what the plaintiff claims was a scheme to fraudulently overcharge for drugs to recoup inflated prices from entitlement systems while utilizing a program designed to keep charges down for low-income patients.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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US appeals court fines lawyers $30,000 in latest AI-related sanction
An appeal containing fake case citations that misrepresent the law can be dismissed as frivolous, a U.S. federal appeals court panel said in a decision sanctioning two attorneys who submitted filings that bore hallmarks of artificial intelligence “hallucinations." The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its order on Friday that attorneys Van Irion and Russ Egli “sullied the reputation of our bar, which now must litigate under the cloud of their conduct.”
Reuters
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9th Circuit denies California's request on gender policy
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied California’s emergency request to modify a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a policy that allowed public schools to withhold information from parents about a student’s gender transition. California filed an emergency motion seeking to revise the language of a permanent injunction against the policy, citing the need to address situations involving parents who might engage in abuse.
The Center Square
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Ex-CHP officer and DUI suspect make 1st court appearances in fiery crash that killed 4 in Norwalk
Two people charged in a fiery crash that killed four people in Norwalk last year, including a now-former California Highway Patrol officer, made their first court appearances on Tuesday. Former CHP officer Angelo Rodriguez, 24, and suspected drunk driver, 27-year-old Iris Salmeron, appeared together in a Bellflower courtroom on Tuesday. They are both charged with four counts of murder.
ABC7
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Parents charged in Murrieta mobile home fire that killed 2 young sisters
New details have emerged in a December mobile home fire in Murrieta that killed two young sisters, ages 11 and 12, as both parents now face felony charges in connection with the deadly blaze. Authorities said the girls' father, Adam Keenan, was arrested Friday and booked on charges including reckless burning, child endangerment and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
ABC7
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United States arrests alleged Tren de Aragua leader charged in Chile with criminal association, extortion and kidnapping resulting in homicide
Venezuelan national and illegal alien Rafael Enrique Gamez Salas, 40, has been arrested at the request of the Government of Chile so that he may be prosecuted on seven charges stemming from his alleged role as a leader of “Los Piratas,” the primary Chilean cell of the Venezuelan transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).
U.S. Department of Justice Press Release
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LA police union demands inquiry as council president traffic stop scandal grows
The top police union in Los Angeles is calling for a formal investigation into claims by the president of the City Council that he was pulled over for being black - despite details emerging that he had actually been stopped for driving recklessly in a school zone. The Los Angeles Police Protective League is calling for a probe of Marqueece Harris-Dawson, 56, raising questions about whether he tried to use his position to avoid a traffic citation, and whether outside contacts played a role.
California Post
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California lawmakers, police push to stop release of aging sex offenders
California lawmakers and law enforcement officials are pushing to change the state’s elderly parole law after parole boards approved the early release of two men convicted of child sex crimes in recent weeks, decisions that drew sharp criticism from prosecutors and local officials.
USA Today
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CA lawmakers pushes forward bill to curb mental health diversion for public safety
Prosecuting attorneys from across California, including from Sacramento County, cheered a state Senate committee’s passage of a bill Tuesday they say will prevent the release of violent criminals through the state’s mental health court diversion program.
Sacramento Bee
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California lawyers must soon take a yearly civility oath, prompting free speech concerns
Starting next month, each of California's 286,000 attorneys will have to swear each year to "strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy and integrity" or risk losing their license to practice law. Unless, that is, the oath is found to unduly restrict freedom of speech, an argument that may find some support in the state Supreme Court, which would have the last word.
San Francisco Chronicle
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LA eviction lawyer charged over filing that contained fake case law, sparking AI debate
Dennis Block, a prominent Los Angeles lawyer who once boasted about filing thousands of evictions every year, is facing new disciplinary charges from the California State Bar. Some of the allegations stem from a case LAist covered in 2023, in which Block submitted a filing in eviction court that cited non-existent case law.
LAist
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Five LAPD officers advance lawsuit over alleged arrest quotas
Five LAPD officers who say commanders enforced an illegal quota system tied to gang contacts and gun-related arrests and seizures - then retaliated when officers spoke out - are headed to trial after a Los Angeles judge refused to dismiss most of their claims. The ruling keeps alive a consolidated whistleblower case brought by officers who allege LAPD supervisors inside the department’s Metropolitan Division favored high “recap” numbers and punished officers who spoke out against the practice or were believed likely to do so.
Westside Current & City News Service
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California used faulty DUI tests for nearly 10 years, state Justice Department says
Almost a decade ago, a Simi Valley-based medical supply company began providing the California Department of Justice urinalysis tests for law enforcement agencies around the state that didn't have local forensic labs to test for alcohol. For most of that time, the test kits Andwin Scientific supplied were faulty, potentially inflating the results of DUI suspects in the heart of California's wine country and elsewhere, according to a letter state officials sent to Sonoma County prosecutors that was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Los Angeles Times
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Hundreds of California businesses registered with Secretary of State may be fraudulent, investigation finds
More than 800 business registrations filed last year in California may have been fraudulent, CBS News California Investigates has found. That figure represents a small proportion of the more than 3 million businesses registered in the state in 2025, but it appears to indicate a growing problem with identity theft. Identity theft experts say criminals are creating fake business entities by targeting a specific population: legal immigrants.
CBS News
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California risk assessments: Seven steps for employers
Effective January 1, 2026, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires certain employers to complete detailed, documented risk assessments before engaging in many routine data processing practices. Because the assessments must be finalized before Covered Processing begins - and because they must include the date of approval and the names of reviewers - employers cannot wait to “backfill” assessments later.
Littler
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US judges condemn Trump appointee's 'vulgar barroom talk' in transgender bias case
Nearly 30 U.S. appeals court judges have issued unusual written rebukes to a colleague over his coarsely worded dissent in a case involving a spa for women that refused service to a transgender woman. The judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were writing late Thursday in response to Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke's dissent from the full court's decision not to review the spa's claims that a Washington state anti-discrimination law violated its constitutional rights.
Reuters
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Sheriff asks federal agency to review L.A. County jail conditions after inmate deaths
Sheriff Robert Luna has asked the National Institute of Corrections to examine conditions and practices at Los Angeles County jails, a request made after 10 inmates died in jail custody in less than three months. The request comes amid growing concern over conditions inside county lockups. In September, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sued the Sheriff's Department over what he called "unsafe and unconstitutional conditions at county jails."
Los Angeles Times
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Four of the five civilians who oversee the LAFD step down
Four of the five members of the Board of Fire Commissioners, which oversees the Los Angeles Fire Department, are stepping down at a time when the department is under intense scrutiny because of its missteps in handling the devastating Palisades fire. The departures, which include board President Genethia Hudley Hayes, come after the agency's top watchdog, Independent Assessor Tyler Izen, retired this month.
Los Angeles Times
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LA activists tied to $177M in city contracts are trying to install a DSA city attorney: ‘Serious concerns’
A group of lefty Los Angeles activists and lawyers who scored an eye-popping $177 million in City Hall contracts is now bankrolling a DSA-backed candidate for the city’s top prosecutor - a move that’s raising serious oversight concerns. Campaign filings reviewed by The California Post reveal that far-left challenger Marissa Roy has built a war chest of $462,629, putting her within striking distance of incumbent City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, who currently holds $686,341 in campaign funds.
California Post
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Authorities recover $3.7 million in monies diverted by disgraced ex-OC supervisor Andrew Do
Federal and local authorities have recovered $3.7 million of more than $10 million in pandemic relief funds in a fraud scheme involving former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Money Laundering, Narcotics, and Forfeiture Section has determined that the county is entitled to as much as $8.8 million from any forfeited assets related to COVID relief money that Do said he directed to two charities in exchange for more than $550,000 in bribes, according to District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
Orange County Register
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California couple sues LA schools for trans ‘secrecy policy’ after teen’s suicide: ‘Social contagion’
A Los Angeles high school’s “secrecy policy” kept a California couple in the dark about their only child’s gender identity, helped “sever” the family’s relationship - and ultimately drove the teen to suicide, his parents alleged. Dylan Parke was already struggling to fit in as a sophomore at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles in 2019-2020 when he told school staffers he would use she/her pronouns and go by the name “Aria,” as he transitioned into a woman.
California Post
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Dramatic moment Hollywood mansion swarmed by FBI in high-stakes identity theft bust
FBI agents swarmed the North Hollywood mansion of an accused fraudster who allegedly worked with an identity-theft syndicate led by an illegal Iranian migrant to steal $17 million from wealthy Los Angeles homeowners. The Post had a front-row seat to the action early Thursday morning, as agents moved in to arrest accused scammer, Armen Vardevaryan, by blasting his stately white home with blinding spotlights.
California Post
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$6 million in luxury goods seized in Southern California burglary bust
A multi-agency investigation in Southern California uncovered a stash of stolen luxury goods worth more than $6 million. The El Segundo Police Department said the investigation started in January after learning about a residential burglary where a suspect stole more than $600,000 worth of merchandise, including high-end designer handbags and jewelry.
CBS News
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California lawmakers face pressure to oversee 911 upgrade as Cal OES scraps new $450 million system
California lawmakers are facing increased pressure to provide more oversight to the governor's Office of Emergency Services, which has been working for nearly a decade to upgrade the state's 911 system. The state has a functioning 911 system, but work has been underway to transition California away from a land-line-based system to one that relies on the internet, known as Next Generation 911.
KCRA
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California is holding $15 billion in unclaimed property. Other states automatically return the money.
California is holding roughly $15 billion in unclaimed property - one of the largest totals in the country. That's money and valuables that legally belong to California residents, businesses and nonprofits. A CBS News California Investigates analysis found large charities and hospitals had no idea the state was holding on to tens of thousands of dollars that belonged to them.
CBS News California
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California GOP launches petition targeting Newsom parole board over sex offenders
The California Republican Party has launched a new petition dubbed “Stop Gavin’s Predators,” aiming to highlight cases of convicted sex offenders granted parole in the state and the governor-appointed Board of Parole Hearings members involved in those decisions. The website, StopGavinsPredators.com, includes the petition along with information about parole board members and several offenders released during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tenure as California’s chief executive.
Fox News
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Conservative group asks Trump to target Stanford program to train diverse teachers
A conservative group wants the Trump administration to investigate a Stanford University training course for teachers who are Black, Latino or Native American, arguing it violates white and Asian teachers' civil rights. "Because Stanford only offers the program to ‘teachers of color,' Stanford is clearly discriminating between program applicants on the basis of race," the Virginia-based organization, Defending Education, said in a complaint Monday to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
San Francisco Chronicle
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Accusations of sexual abuse by Cesar Chavez detailed in newspaper investigation
Allegations of abuse that appear to be part of a larger pattern of sexual misconduct by late labor leader Cesar Chávez were revealed Wednesday in a new investigation by the New York Times. The newspaper found that Chávez, a California icon, used many of the women who worked and volunteered in his labor rights movement for his own sexual gratification.
Times of San Diego
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Judge to decide if developers of eight-story building behind Mission can sue California, City of Santa Barbara
A federal judge is considering dismissing a lawsuit filed against the State of California and the City of Santa Barbara. The development team The Mission LLC sued the state and city in October, alleging that SB 158 - a budget trailer bill that passed in September - illegally singles out the company’s housing project and requires it to undergo environmental review.
Santa Barbara Independent
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'We had no idea what they were doing': Former CDCR agent sounds alarm about lack of monitoring parolees
A former parole agent who worked for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says parolees in the state have not been closely tracked and is warning if things don't change, there could be dangerous consequences. The former agent says he worked for CDCR for 15 years, including six years in the San Francisco parole office.
KCRA
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UC Berkeley pays $1 million to settle antisemitism suit, says students cannot ban Zionist speakers
UC Berkeley on Thursday said it would revise campus nondiscrimination policies, prohibit student organization bylaws from banning Zionist speakers and pay $1 million in legal fees to settle a lawsuit by two Jewish groups over alleged antisemitic incidents following protests in response to the Hamas-Israel war in 2023.
Los Angeles Times
| | Convictions/Pleas/Sentences/Parole | | |
Former L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy sentenced to more than 5 years in prison for extorting, falsely arresting rivals of crypto fraudster
A former deputy and helicopter pilot with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) was sentenced today to 63 months in federal prison for helping a now-jailed, self-styled cryptocurrency businessman extort a rival and arrange the sham illegal drug possession arrest of another adversary in Paramount in 2021. Michael David Coberg, 44, of Eastvale, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who also ordered him to pay $127,000 in restitution.
U.S. Attorney’s Office Press Release
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"We've got a live one.'
Jo, as he came to be known to the cybersecurity experts watching his every move, was a hard worker. He rose early, usually by 5 a.m. ET, and worked late into the night, often six days a week. Jo juggled three jobs and constantly applied to more - sometimes as many as 50 a day. He needed the money. Always professional, he quickly moved on from rejection and followed up with recruiters whenever there was a lull in communication. His inbox was full of job matches and interview confirmations.
NBC News
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Leaked audio reveals Rebel Wilson’s PR team plotted to smear movie producer as sex trafficker
Behind closed doors, Rebel Wilson‘s crisis public relations team discussed plans to create anonymous websites that accused the producer of The Deb of sex trafficking as part of an alleged smear campaign solicited by the actress. In a recording obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, digital fixer Jed Wallace instructed top entertainment publicist Melissa Nathan to assert without evidence that the producer, Amanda Ghost, is a “madame” whose work involves procuring young women for wealthy and powerful men.
The Hollywood Reporter
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