Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits

C.A. axes order requiring CHP to consider ability to pay

Div. Two of this district’s Court of Appeal has reversed an order granting a permanent injunction requiring the California Highway Patrol to consider a vehicle owner’s present ability to pay towing and storage fees during impound hearings and vehicle release procedures, finding that relief was granted based on a misapplication of due process principles and requires the agency to contravene existing law.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Judge orders production of fired commander’s rights hearing transcript

A judge has ordered Los Angeles police to turn over to attorneys for a fired commander documents they say are important pieces in her lawsuit alleging she was wrongfully fired after being found passed out in a police vehicle in 2018 in Glendale while in the company of a subordinate. Cmdr. Nicole Mehringer alleges in her Los Angeles Superior Court that the LAPD’s justification for taking her job away was a pretext.

myNewsLA.com

Santa Clara County judges line up with DA on death sentence reversal

Since August, local judges have been nullifying murderers’ death sentences one by one. But there’s a problem: The law the judges have been relying on to reduce those death sentences doesn’t apply to death sentences. And that’s not the only problem. It’s easy for judges to make mistakes when they’re hearing only one side of the story, and that’s what happened here. The reductions are coming at the insistence of Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who has recently discovered he doesn’t like capital punishment. Unsurprisingly, the murderers feel the same way.

California Globe

School district may be liable for officer’s off-duty assault

Div. One of the Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday revived an action against a school district seeking to hold it vicariously liable for the misconduct of one of its police officers who assaulted a plaintiff while off-duty and off-campus in an attempt to retrieve a lost cell phone, finding that the actions may fairly be regarded as within the scope of his employment.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

LASC to begin mandatory eService Dec. 2

Represented parties wishing to transmit, deliver or serve documents for juvenile dependency appeals in Los Angeles County Superior Court will be required to accept the court’s eService starting Dec. 2, the court announced Friday. Civil, family law, probate and Mental Health-LPS  cases will eventually be required to utilize eService as well, with “full implementation” expected by July 1, 2025.

Daily Journal

Judge denies request to rule SJSU volleyball player ineligible

The San Jose State women's volleyball team is eligible to play in the Mountain West Conference tournament with its full roster, a federal judge in Denver ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews denied a motion filed by 12 plaintiffs against the Mountain West that would have rendered one of the SJSU players ineligible and removed wins from the team.

ESPN.com

Court grants challenge to FCC subsidies over nondelegation doctrine

The justices on Friday created the prospect of another major ruling on the role of administrative agencies and Congress’s ability to delegate power to those agencies. At the Biden administration’s request, the court agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that invalidated parts of a program by the Federal Communications Commission to improve internet and phone services in underserved areas.

SCOTUSblog

Supreme Court rejects tobacco industry challenge to graphic anti-smoking images on cigarette packs

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge from major tobacco companies to the Food and Drug Administration’s requirement that they place graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements. The FDA issued a rule in 2020 that requires health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements, occupying the top 50% of the area on the front and back panels of packages and at least 20% of the area at the top of cigarette ads, according to the FDA.

CNN

Former truck driver wins $34.7 million defamation verdict against Walmart

A California jury awarded $34.7 million in damages to a former Walmart truck driver, who claimed the company defamed him when it found he violated its integrity rules by driving a recreational vehicle while on medical leave and fired him. The San Bernardino County Superior Court jury on Wednesday awarded Jesus “Jesse” Fonseca $25 million in punitive damages on top of the $9.7 million in compensatory damages they had awarded him Tuesday, according to a statement by his lawyers.

Courthouse News Service

Inglewood Oil Field owner sues California for ‘illegal’ terminating of operations

The owner of the Inglewood Oil Field is suing the state of California in an attempt to invalidate a state law that will require the energy company to cease production and plug all of its wells - or pay costly fines. In a lawsuit filed this week, Sentinel Peak, the sole owner and operator of the oil field, argues that Assembly Bill 2617 is an unconstitutional statute that will impose unreasonably high penalties on the company, forcing it to halt operations.

Los Angeles Times

Annual Discipline Report, fiscal year 2024

The State Bar of California has submitted its Annual Discipline Report (ADR) to the Chief Justice, the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees in accordance with Business and Professions Code sections 6086.15, 6094.5(d), 6095(b), and 6177, Civil Code section 55.32(f)(1), and Insurance Code section 1872.95(a). The ADR describes the performance and condition of the attorney discipline system for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. The following summary is provided pursuant to Government Code section 9795.

State Bar of California

Texas wins latest legal fight with Border Patrol over razor wire

A federal appeals court sided with Texas in its latest legal fight with the Biden administration over border security, saying US agents can’t cut down razor-wire fencing the state installed to deter people from entering the country illegally. The dispute is part of a turf war between Texas and the Biden administration over control of a public park in Eagle Pass along the US-Mexico border.

Bloomberg Law

Prosecutors

California teen charged with murder after shooting four, burning house down

A California teenager is facing multiple charges, including murder, after he allegedly shot four people during a burglary and set the house on fire. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced the charges against 19-year-old Miguel Diego Sandoval on Tuesday. Sandoval is facing four counts of murder, one felony count of first-degree residential burglary with a person present and one felony count of arson of an inhabited structure or property.

Newsweek

Men charged with stealing 1,200 pairs of Air Jordans from a train in the Mojave Desert

Three men accused of stealing more than 1,200 pairs of Air Jordans from a train in the Mojave Desert were foiled by a GPS tracker hidden inside the shipment, authorities said. Authorities were notified by BNSF Railway police Friday that a shipping container had been moved from a train near Amboy in San Bernardino County, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a release.

Los Angeles Times

Assistant principal charged with molesting 8 students at California elementary school

An assistant principal has been accused of molesting eight children at an elementary school in California. David Lane Braff Jr. was charged with 17 felony counts of “lewd acts” on eight students between the ages of six and 10 at McKevett Elementary School in Santa Paula on Friday, Nov. 22, according to a news release.

People

Policy/Legal/Political

Free speech advocates blast California ban on news reporting of sealed arrest records

The First Amendment Coalition sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in San Francisco federal court Friday, claiming they chill free speech by using a section of the California penal code to punish journalists who publish information related to sealed arrest records. In its complaint, the First Amendment Coalition claims Bonta and Chiu recently used California Penal Code § 851.92(c), known as the anti-dissemination statute, to threaten and prevent a journalist from publishing information about a former tech CEO’s 2021 arrest on suspicion of domestic violence.

Courthouse News Service

As Mark Ridley-Thomas’ fights for his freedom, L.A. remains deeply divided

You could have been forgiven last Thursday morning for mistaking the scene inside the Pasadena branch of U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a Hollywood nightclub at closing time. Just as security guards try to move patrons out the door so that the staff can start cleaning and shutting the place down, a cadre of bailiffs were kindly but sternly ushering people out of a packed hallway.  The hall was soon cleared, but the crowd was hardly done.

Westside Current

Two California prosecutors promised a different kind of justice. Voters turned on them

California’s two best known “progressive” prosecutors were doing what they promised the voters who elected them. George Gascón, a former San Francisco police chief first elected as Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2020, established policies that prohibited his prosecutors from pursuing exorbitant sentencing enhancements, transferring juvenile cases into adult courts, and advocating against offender reentry at parole board hearings.

CalMatters

Durbin urges judicial bipartisanship under Trump as Republicans offer none for Biden judges

Pleas from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat to respect the panel’s bipartisan tradition were left aside Thursday, as the committee’s Republican lawmakers roundly refused to offer any support for a group of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. The Judiciary Committee met this week to vote on one of the last slates of White House court picks, as Democrats rush to fill as many vacancies as possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Courthouse News Service

24 states' attorneys general call on Supreme Court to keep biological boys out of girls sports

Attorneys general from 24 states are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling and uphold an Arizona law to prohibit biological boys from competing on girls' sports teams. The petition comes after a federal appeals court ruled that the law likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

Fox News

Nathan Hochman

DA-elect Nathan Hochman: ‘My job is to uphold the law’ on immigration enforcement

Nathan Hochman defeated incumbent Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón three weeks ago by promising to do just about everything differently from his predecessor. Gascón was elected in 2020 on a progressive platform of criminal justice reform. But after several years of panic about retail theft, voters swung to the right in 2024, backing Hochman’s tough-on-crime approach.

KNX News Radio

What to know about the Menendez brothers' resentencing plea

Erik and Lyle Menendez will have to wait until next year for a decision on whether they should have the possibility of freedom from prison more than 30 years after killing their parents, a judge said. The shotgun killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez on Aug. 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills mansion captured the public’s attention. Prosecutors argued the Menendez brothers killed their parents for financial gain.

AP

Southern California

Sheriff Luna on Trump's mass deportation plans: 'We will not start asking about immigration status'

There's been growing fear from residents since President-elect Donald Trump said he would declare a national emergency and use the military to conduct mass deportations. After the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to adopt a "sanctuary city" ordinance, those living in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County are curious to know what steps the sheriff's department will take.

ABC7 Los Angeles

Inside the LAPD chief search: Secretive meetings, surprise names, leaked details

Some candidates for Los Angeles police chief campaigned openly for the job, enlisting influential friends to put in a good word with the mayor. Others tried to avoid the spotlight, including one reported contender who denied even applying when asked about it by her hometown newspaper. And then there was former LAPD Assistant Chief Alfred “Al” Labrada, who interviewed despite facing termination over accusations he tracked a former romantic partner with an AirTag.

Los Angeles Times

State regulators, advocates prepare to sue if LA County refuses to close troubled juvenile hall

A state regulatory agency and community advocates are separately preparing for potential legal battles with Los Angeles County in the event its leadership refuses to comply with an order to remove 300 youth from the troubled Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall by Dec. 12. That forced closure seems all but inevitable now after the Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory agency overseeing California’s jails and juvenile halls, took no action to reverse its shutdown order during its meeting Thursday, Nov. 21, the last currently scheduled for this year.

Pasadena Star News

L.A. failed to spend $513 million from homeless budget, says City Controller

According to a recent analysis by City Controller Kenneth Mejia, only $599 million of the allotted $1.3 billion homelessness budget was spent in the 2023-24 fiscal year. At least $513 million went unspent, nearly half of the total budget. In his analysis, Mejia revealed that only 30% of the $262 million in grants given by the state Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program was utilized by the city, and only 58% of its budget of $267 million from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe Program was used.

Los Angeles Magazine

LA County leaders lay out plans to pull funding from troubled homeless services agency

In what would be a seismic shift in how homeless services are delivered across Los Angeles, two top county officials are proposing an overhaul that could pull hundreds of millions of tax dollars from the region’s troubled homeless services agency. The plan, which is still in early stages and will be up for a vote on Tuesday, proposes largely exiting the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and instead creating a new homeless services department within the county that would give the board more direct control over how public money is spent.

LAist

Homeless service providers that owe millions in cash advances to the county revealed, after pressure from judge

A federal judge on Thursday demanded the names of several Los Angeles-area service providers that received more than $48 million in advances from the region’s top homelessness agency but have not yet paid it back. The unpaid debt was revealed in a recent audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which administers funding to nearly 100 providers in the city and county of L.A. The taxpayer funds in question were doled out in 2017.

LAist

Public Safety

Are international thieves exploiting tourist visas to target pro-athletes' homes?

North America’s top professional sports leagues have issued warnings to their players about a growing threat from high-tech, organized burglary rings, whose tools of choice are passports, cutting-edge technology and a 90-day calendar. The NBA memo, citing FBI intelligence, specifically linked the crimes to “transnational South American Theft Groups” that target “professional athletes and other high-net-worth individuals.”

NBC News

DA George Gascón ‘destroyed’ bail system in Los Angeles. Now he’s out of a job (Video)

Venice Beach neighborhood councilwoman and new Los Angeles district attorney Jon Hatami discuss the amount of crime in their community induced from prop 47 with Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital

The ghost gun surge is abating. This is how it happened.

In 2021, California was in the throes of a ghost gun crisis. Police recovered nearly 11,000 of the unserialized, untraceable firearms that year alone, a nearly seven-fold increase from just two years earlier. Though every state in the country was experiencing a surge in crimes committed with ghost guns, California was hit particularly hard, reporting more recovered ghost guns to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives than any other state by far. 

The Trace

2 arrested in AutoZone flash burglary caught on camera and street takeover

Two men were arrested Thursday in connection with a burglary that involved 50 to 75 people in June at a Los Angeles AutoZone. Video of the June 10 burglary caught on camera showed people rampaging through the store in 600 block of West Century Boulevard. Many were at nearby street takeover that drew hundreds of people. The estimated loss of property was approximately $67,000.

NBC4 Los Angeles

Mexican Mafia settled scores with killing at Long Beach homeless camp, records reveal

Prison was Samuel Villalba’s domain. On the inside, he was Negro from Artesia, a Mexican Mafia member whose word was the law to the thousands of Latino gang members who fall under the syndicate’s influence. Outside prison, he was an ex-con with a failing liver and a dark past. His once muscular body, tattooed with the black hand of the Mexican Mafia, had grown thin. Home was a tent on the side of a freeway.

Los Angeles Times

LA City Council affirms the LAPD may continue using its “military” equipment

The Los Angeles City Council has authorized the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to continue using tactical and so-called “military” equipment. On Tuesday, the city council approved 10-2 the LAPD’s report enumerating its use and inventory of such equipment, as required by California state law. Council members Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez voted no.

Los Angeles Public Press

Father of missing Hawaii woman found dead in apparent suicide in Los Angeles: Police

The father of a missing Hawaii woman, Ryan Kobayashi, has died after an apparent suicide, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The 58-year-old father had been searching for his daughter, 30-year-old Hannah Kobayashi, after she missed her connecting flight to New York from LAX. Hannah was supposed to meet with family on Nov. 8, according to family.

NBC4 Washington

They may look like $18 million in world-class electric guitars. They’re a con, officials say

More than 3,000 fake Gibson electric guitars have been seized through the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex as part of a multiagency law enforcement investigation, making it the largest counterfeit musical instrument seizure on record, authorities announced Tuesday. Africa Bell, port director for the Los Angeles-Long Beach Seaport, provided no details about suspects or details of the case because it remained active but said that the products - worth more than $18 million if they were legitimate - were probably destined for e-commerce.

Los Angeles Times

California/National

California voters approve measure aimed at restricting AIDS Healthcare Foundation spending

California voters have approved Proposition 34, a measure from an apartment trade group that aimed to restrict spending by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has bankrolled several rent control initiatives and criticized the measure as unconstitutional revenge. The Associated Press called the initiative Wednesday evening. According to the California Secretary of State, the measure is ahead 50.8% to 49.2%.

Los Angeles Times

New California gas regulations expected to cost consumers hundreds of dollars annually

California's new legislative actions and regulatory decisions will cost consumers hundreds of extra dollars per year if they own a gas powered car, according to a new estimate. California's new special blend mandates for refiners and gas stations, and legislation requiring refineries to maintain minimum amounts of gasoline will contribute to higher gas prices costing consumers anywhere from $222 to $449 annually, according to Michael Mische, a professor at the University of Southern California's business school.

National Review

FBI seizes websites that North Koreans allegedly used to impersonate American companies

The FBI has seized multiple websites that North Korean operatives used to impersonate legitimate US and Indian businesses in a likely effort to raise money for the nuclear armed-North Korean regime, according to statements on the websites and security researchers who investigated the activity. All four websites identified by cybersecurity firm SentinelOne as North Korean fronts on Thursday had a statement in English and Korean saying they had been seized pursuant to a warrant issued by the US District Court of Massachusetts as part of a “coordinated law enforcement action” against the North Korean government.

CNN

Articles of Interest

Live Nation antitrust case shows peril of 'batched' arbitration

A Ninth Circuit ruling that denied Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s bid to compel “batched” arbitration underscores the risks that corporate defendants face when pushing to resolve consumer antitrust disputes outside of court. Live Nation’s requirement that aggregated or batched claims go through its arbitration panel - New Era ADR Inc. - was unfair to consumers who alleged the company inflated ticket prices, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Oct. 28. 

Bloomberg Law

Pet-friendly perks for employees come with liability risks

Companies are adopting a wide variety of pet-friendly policies to boost morale and attract top talent, a growing shift in workplace culture that carries some litigation risks if not implemented properly. The prominence of employee pet benefits increased in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, when pet ownership soared as people turned to animal companions for emotional support and to alleviate loneliness and anxiety.

Bloomberg Law

Supreme Court drops review of Meta, shareholder brawl over data breach disclosures

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that it shouldn’t have agreed to review a lower court decision finding that Meta violated disclosure laws by not telling investors about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Earlier this month, the court heard Meta’s appeal, but after much debate, the justices dismissed the case as improvidently granted.

Courthouse News Service

Google’s Hail Mary pass: The two-sided market

As Google attorneys prep for closing arguments in the Eastern District of Virginia antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, they could use a get-out-of-jail free card. And they may already have one. Google's legal team argues that the advertising technology at the center of their most recent antitrust trial operates within a two-sided market. In this worldview, Google executives are not, as the feds claim, operating their ad business as a monopoly. Indeed, two-sided markets do business in a distinct way that must be taken into account - a point established by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Courthouse News Service

For more ADDA news and information, visit www.laadda.com.