A prosecutor was remiss in referring to a defendant repeatedly as “she” despite the person’s identification as a male, Div. Three of the First District Court of Appeal has declared, but declined to reverse the convictions, holding that the “misgendering” was, under the circumstances, harmless. It was the third time a California appellate court has utilized that term, which is one of recent vintage.

Out of options after California’s highest court rejected its appeal, Johnson & Johnson has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a $344 million judgment based upon what it called unconstitutionally vague state consumer protection laws. In July, the California Supreme Court refused to review the judgment based upon more than 100,000 purported violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Laws, which provide for up to a $2,500 penalty each.

Private lawyers who hoped to make a killing by suing Netflix, Hulu and other streaming video services with claims they owed taxes to municipalities lost again, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruling there is no basis in Arkansas law for their case. The federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by the city of Ashdown, Arkansas seeking to collect cable-television franchise fees from the streaming services.

A New York Times report of a former anti-abortion leader's claim that he was told in advance about the outcome of a major 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case involving contraceptives triggered calls on Saturday for an investigation of a court still reeling from the leak of a landmark abortion rights ruling. Rev. Rob Schenck was quoted by The Times as saying he was informed weeks before the public announcement of the 2014 ruling shortly after two conservative allies had dinner at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife.

Two state constitutional provisions on bail - one harking to a provision of the original 1848 state Constitution, carried over to the 1879 Constitution and relocated and amended in 1974, and the other added by voters in 2008 - are reconcilable, Div. Three of the First District Court of Appeal declared yesterday in an opinion in which it found there to be no right to have bail set at a level that is affordable to the defendant.

A judge has tossed out a federal lawsuit filed by a developer who said his real estate companies should have been compensated for losses they incurred as a result of emergency tenant protections approved in Los Angeles following the outbreak of COVID-19. In his 15-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson said the city's ordinance, which barred landlords from removing tenants who were unable to pay rent because of COVID-19, did not constitute a "taking" of private property as defined by federal law.

In a verdict that could affect countless claims by athletes who sue sports organizations for head injuries, a Los Angeles jury on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit seeking $55 million by the widow of a former USC football player who said the NCAA failed to protect him from repeated head trauma that led to his death. Matthew Gee, a linebacker on the 1990 Rose Bowl-winning squad, endured an estimated 6,000 hits as a college athlete, lawyers for his widow said.

Trevor Bauer’s quest for payback against certain people and publications suffered a couple of setbacks in court Wednesday when a federal judge ruled in favor of two people Bauer has sued and accused of damaging him financially. One of those defendants is the woman from San Diego who accused the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher of choking and hitting her last year during two sexual encounters at his home in Pasadena.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a $1,000 sanction imposed on a lawyer because the order to show cause was based on having failed to produce his client at a conference, as ordered, but the monetary penalty was predicated largely on having misstated the nature of the client’s medical condition that supposedly caused the nonappearance.

In their FAC [First Amended Complaint], Plaintiffs allege that in January 2020, the Softball Team "held a team-bonding lip-sync event with makeup and costumes." Jane Does 1-5 decided to perform The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song and "dress like 'dudes' in a 'Boy Band' with the style of Hip-Hop clothing worn by 'Boy Bands.’"

An appeal by the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) to reverse a COVID-19 vaccination mandate that was previously ruled illegal by a lower court, was upheld on Tuesday in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, forcing the district to continue to scrap plans for a district-wide vaccination mandate. The fight over the San Diego school’s mandatory vaccination plans dates back to September of 2021.

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to shield former President Donald Trump’s tax returns from a congressional subpoena. None of the justices publicly dissented from the order, which offers no explanation for the denial. Though Chief Justice John Roberts had temporarily obliged the former president’s request at the beginning of the month, Tuesday's order vacates that administrative stay.

As Manhattan prosecutors reportedly renew their focus on a criminal investigation into Donald Trump, lawyers are closer to knowing the final tab for the litigation that first thrust the former president’s relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels into the public spotlight. A judge in Los Angeles last week ordered Trump to pay Daniels $54,436.25 to cover her attorney fees and costs for defending an earlier fee order. 

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to wade into a trademark dispute concerning whiskey and poop-themed dog toys. VIP Products sells a Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker dog toy labeled “The Old No. 2 on your Tennessee carpet.” Though shaped like a bottle of the iconic Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey “Old No. 7. Brand,” Bad Spaniels touts its contents as “43% Poo by Vol.” and “100% Smelly.” The problem is Jack Daniel’s isn’t laughing.

A federal appeals court has halted planned court-ordered depositions of three top Biden administration officials in a lawsuit the states of Missouri and Louisiana brought over alleged pressure on social-media companies to remove posts containing purported misinformation about the coronavirus, election security and other issues.

A qui tam action in which it is claimed that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and U.S. Bank, N.A. failed to report and turn over to the state as escheated property millions of dollars in funds used to purchase casher’s checks that were not cashed, will go forward under a decision of the First District Court of Appeal, filed Friday. Presiding Justice Stuart R. Pollak of Div. Four authored the opinion denying a petition for a writ of mandate sought by the financial giants.

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has recently addressed the number of repeated ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) lawsuit filings, with a novel repudiation in its unanimous ruling in Shayler v. 1310 PCH LLC. “Shayler is binding precedent in the Ninth Circuit, and it essentially gives district courts permission to substantially reduce attorneys’ fee awards in ADA Title III cases that involve serial plaintiffs and boilerplate complaints,” Minh N. Vu, a Seyfarth Shaw partner who handles labor and employment cases, told the Northern California Record by email.

A 35-year-old Lancaster woman was charged in connection with a string of follow-home robberies throughout Los Angeles, District Attorney George Gascón announced. Taniqueka Nashay Harris and two others - 43-year-old Laron Deshone Bundley of Inglewood and 46-year-old Rudolph Leopold Flowers of Los Angeles - were added to the criminal complaint filed in September against 34-year-old Clayton Richard Randolph of Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles County deputy district attorney has been placed on administrative leave for his role in the questionable prosecution of a Michigan software executive that may have been sparked by conspiracy theorists who deny the validity of the 2020 presidential election. Deputy Dist. Atty. Eric Neff’s leave comes in the wake of Dist. Atty. George Gascón's decision to drop charges against Eugene Yu, chief executive of Michigan-based Konnech, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation.

A Los Angeles Police Department detective has been charged with attempting to obtain a gun silencer that he allegedly purchased from China, prosecutors said Wednesday. Luke Walden, 48, was charged with one felony count of attempted possession of a silencer. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 7 in downtown Los Angeles. "Any device that is intended to silence or muffle a firearm is illegal," Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.

During an early case management hearing here in Stanislaus County Superior Court Monday regarding a felony drug possession for sale case, Deputy Public Defender Amy Kennedy alleged the prosecution inappropriately included a “Watson advisement” as part of the plea deal for her client. The accused, Rudy Ruiz, pleaded no contest to the felony of possession for sale of controlled substances.

Prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint against a Michigan man on Tuesday accused of threatening to kill a California congressman and FBI Director Christopher Wray, adding to the spate of recent alleged criminal threats against lawmakers. According to court documents, Neil Matthew Walter made several threatening statements online and in a voice message to lawmakers and law enforcement officials.

A Southern California man was arrested on suspicion of running two illegal drug labs that used high-speed pill presses to create bulk amounts of tablets containing fentanyl and methamphetamine that were sold on the dark web, federal authorities said Monday. Christopher Hampton, 36, was named in an 11-count indictment that charges him with various narcotics and weapons offenses that could result in a sentence of life in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

A former longtime Orange County prosecutor who retired following allegations of sexual harassment that prompted multiple still-pending lawsuits against the county was found dead Friday in his Fullerton home. Gary LoGalbo, who was best man at Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer's wedding, was 57. There was no official word on a cause of death, but there did not immediately appear to be any indications of foul play.

It’s been more than six months since L.A. city and county officials pledged rapid action following a Times story that revealed rampant slum-like conditions at Chesapeake Apartments, a World War II-era, 425-unit complex that stretches multiple blocks in South Los Angeles. Since then, code enforcement and public health inspectors have issued more than 2,000 citations to the landlord, Pama Properties, for violations including plumbing and electrical failures and cockroach and mold infestations.

Lawyers for a Los Angeles Police Department officer who alleges he was sexually harassed by Mayor Eric Garcetti’s former senior adviser want a judge to exclude any defense evidence during the upcoming trial of the plaintiff’s lawsuit that Garcetti himself may have been the victim of sexual harassment while in high school. Officer Matthew Garza filed the lawsuit against the city in Los Angeles Superior Court in July 2020, alleging sex and gender harassment.

Earlier this month, former LAPD commander Cory Palka made headlines for purportedly conspiring with CBS and its former CEO to prevent an explosive sexual assault allegation from going public. But long before the onetime head of the Hollywood Division began working behind the scenes to suppress claims against Les Moonves, he had revealing associations with the entertainment business and was the subject of multiple in-house LAPD investigations.

The decision last month by The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute to terminate a fellowship program it sponsored at California Lutheran University dismayed several who had supported the program. But it didn’t really surprise them. After all, since Lori Varlotta became president of the private university in Thousand Oaks two years ago, there have been major alterations to other parts of CLU’s Elton and Janice Gallegly Center for Public Service and Civic Engagement, which the Reagan Library supported with its scholarship program.

A judge refused Friday to quash a subpoena issued to former White House press secretary Jen Psaki that seeks her deposition in a lawsuit filed by Missouri and Louisiana, alleging that the Biden administration conspired to silence conservative voices on social media. Psaki filed a motion in federal court in Alexandria seeking to quash the subpoena, saying that she had no relevant information to provide and that a deposition would place an undue burden on her.

Los Angeles Police Department officials said Tuesday that they will ask the City Council to reconsider a rule that allows officers accused of serious misconduct to have civilians decide their discipline - after a report found they routinely hand down lenient punishments. The lighter discipline issued by all-civilian hearing panels undercuts Chief Michel Moore's ability to run the LAPD and to hold officers accountable when they are found to have committed major offenses such as lying, according to the report by the LAPD's inspector general, Mark Smith.

The driver behind the wheel of a SUV that struck a group of sheriff's department recruits on a training run in Whittier says the crash was not intentional. Nicholas Gutierrez said in an exclusive interview with NBCLA that the crash that injured 25 recruits was not deliberate and that he fell asleep at the wheel. Gutierrez was arrested after the wrong-way crash last week and booked on suspicion of attempted murder on a peace officer.

Retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna won the election as Los Angeles County sheriff. He inherits a troubled department from incumbent Alex Villanueva. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Voters in Los Angeles have ousted their sheriff after just one term. Alex Villanueva wasn't exactly the progressive reformer that he'd pledged to be, doing things like launching criminal investigations into his critics.

More than a year after it was secretly recorded and a month after it was leaked, a backroom conversation among three Los Angeles City Council members and a prominent union president continues to shake city politics. It has triggered resignations, protests that halted much council business, and condemnations from the highest levels of the Democratic Party.

A man plans to sue Los Angeles County after he says deputies wrongfully detained him in relation to a dangerous pursuit as he and his family tried to get away from flying bullets. Adrian Cruz says Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies beat him up and wrongfully detained him during a high-speed pursuit last Wednesday that spanned two counties. The pursuit came to an end in Hacienda Heights, where Cruz was with his family in their white sedan at a stoplight.

A Los Angeles police officer violated policy when he fired a rifle at a suspect inside a clothing store last year, killing a 14-year-old girl in a dressing room, a civilian oversight board ruled Tuesday. Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. fired three times when police responded to a Burlington clothing store in the San Fernando Valley where 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez had brutally attacked two women on Dec. 23, 2021.

Pasadena City Manager Miguel Márquez has chosen San Gabriel Police Chief Eugene Harris to lead the Pasadena Police Department. Harris will start with the City on Jan. 3. According to a statement released by the City on Monday. Harris met local reporters on Monday. He is the department’s first African-American chief since Jerry Oliver led the department from 1991-1995.

Natalia Bryant, the 19-year-old daughter of Kobe and Vanessa Bryant, has filed for a restraining order against an alleged stalker, court records show. Bryant, a student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park area, filed for a civil harassment restraining order against Dwayne Cortez Toliver Kemp, a 32-year-old Sun Valley man. The harassment started in 2020 on social media when Bryant was 17 and he was 30, according to court documents.

A Los Angeles police officer and his wife have both been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, prompting an outpouring of support for them and their two young children. Laura Tomelloso was the first one diagnosed, with colon cancer. Just weeks later, her husband Michael, an LAPD Central Traffic Division motor officer who has been on the force for more than two decades, was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Tuesday night's stabbing spree inside a target store in Downtown Los Angeles has residents and people who work in the area extremely concerned. There's no question that homelessness has expanded dramatically in Downtown LA but now business owners are demanding more from the city government in order to prevent another stabbing like the one that took place Tuesday. A homeless man stabbed a child and woman that night inside the Downtown LA Target store located on 7th and Figueroa Street.

A violent fight broke out in the SoFi Stadium parking lot on Sunday after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Los Angeles Chargers. Video captured by a witness who did not want to be identified shows two men aggressively fighting, moments before one man was thrown over the side of a railing. He was seen falling 10-15 feet below before hitting the concrete floor. Witnesses say the altercation started after the two men bumped into each other and exchanged heated words.

Los Angeles is famous for its fashion sense and stylish crowds. Yet in the past six months, the city’s clothing stores have attracted a wholly undesirable element: thieves. After expected low numbers during the first year of the pandemic, Los Angeles clothing stores experienced approximately 50–75 monthly crimes from April 2021 - February 2022. Then, in March, the number spiked, to 102 crimes, according to Los Angeles Police Department figures.

An arrest has been made in a brutal assault on a couple leaving an Elton John concert at Dodger Stadium. One of the victims spoke with Eyewitness News to share details of the shocking, unprovoked attack. A bystander was recording as the incident unfolded Thursday night in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium after the concert.

A man is accused of shooting and killing his daughter's ex-boyfriend who was allegedly chasing her in a car in Palmdale. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department responded to a call in the 3700 block of Sierra Highway on Monday around 4:45 p.m. According to LASD, a woman - who was driving a gray compact car - was being chased by her ex-boyfriend, a 26-year-old man who was driving a white Chrysler sedan.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating a home-invasion robbery that resulted in as much as $1 million worth of property being stolen from a home in Hollywood Hills home early Wednesday. It happened around 3:30 a.m. at a home on the 3500 block of Multiview Drive. Police say armed robbers entered the home and awoke the two sleeping people inside by putting a gun in their face and demanding money.

This is the horrifying moment two British tourists ran for their lives before being brutally gunned down in the street while on holiday in Los Angeles. The holidaymakers were standing outside a Venice Beach bar on July 30 when they got into a heated argument with Brandon Manyo Dixon and his friend, police said. The fight turned physical and Dixon then chased the terrified Britons with his gun, shooting and seriously wounding the pair who needed treatment in hospital, while he fled the scene.

A man died Wednesday morning after he was found at a Los Angeles Metro Rail station suffering from multiple stab wounds. The man was found by Los Angeles police officers around 1:15 a.m. at the Pershing Square subway station at the intersection of 5th and Hill streets in downtown. Video from the scene showed police tape blocking off the entrance to the underground subway platform.

Three people suspected of stealing catalytic converters in South Los Angeles had to be rescued with the Jaws of Life early Saturday morning after they crashed their vehicle while fleeing police. Just before 3 a.m. Saturday, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department were in the area of Main Street and West Imperial Highway when they apparently observed a vehicle having its catalytic converter stolen.

The State Bar of California announced, via its interactive discipline statistics webpage, the disbarment of 22 California attorneys in the third quarter of 2022, bringing its calendar year disbarment total through September 2022 to 62 attorneys. Along with the 22 disbarred attorneys, 36 others were suspended and/or put on probation by the State Bar Court in the third quarter following Notices of Disciplinary Charges or stipulations to discipline filed by the Office of Chief Trial Counsel (OCTC).

The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office has released its report into the fatal shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin's film "Rust," which reveals text messages the actor sent in the days and weeks after the incident. The 550-page report follows a yearlong investigation into the shooting on the New Mexico set of the Western. The film's cinematographer, 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, was killed by Baldwin, who was pointing a Colt .45 revolver at her when it fired. Director Joel Souza was also injured.

Former Attorney General William Barr said Friday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) probably has a “basis for legitimately indicting” former President Trump over the classified and sensitive documents law enforcement says were taken to Mar-a-Lago. Barr told PBS’s Margaret Hoover during an interview on “Firing Line” he thinks the DOJ has enough evidence to reach the amount they would need to indict his former boss.

After more than three hours of oral arguments in a single case last week, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts uttered the traditional closer, “The case is submitted.” But the hearing wasn’t over. Roberts, a details man who usually hews to script, had forgotten that a lawyer had yet to take his rebuttal time. “I’m sorry,” Roberts said to Matthew McGill, who rose to his place at the lectern. “It is late.”

The man who sued the maker of Texas Pete hot sauce because it is made in North Carolina should have read the label. That's the argument of T.W. Garner Food, which faces a proposed class action from plaintiff Phillip White and his attorneys at the Clarkson Law Firm. That suit says Garner Foods uses the Texas brand to trick customers into buying Louisiana-style hot sauce actually made in North Carolina.

In former President Donald Trump’s first extended response to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Friday announcement that he had appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation into Trump’s retention of government documents after he left office, Trump defended himself with dishonesty - repeating his false and thoroughly debunked claims about how other ex-presidents handled official records.

Walmart is pointing at the impact a prolific class action lawyer has made on the federal court system, figuring he's filed hundreds of dubious cases around the country. Spencer Sheehan has received media attention for his consumer causes. Usually he alleges the ingredients in foods don't live up to what consumers would expect, given the products' marketing. For example, he sued the maker of Pop-Tarts because the strawberry-flavored version is made from pears and apples and dyed red.

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will serve more than 11 years in federal prison for defrauding investors and misrepresenting the benefits of her now-defunct company's blood-testing device publicly. Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Edward Davila to make an example of Holmes given the need for trust between Silicon Valley innovators and investors, and to “send a clear message to the community that white collar crime is serious and deserving of significant punishment.”

A former special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was sentenced today to 121 months in federal prison for accepting cash payments and other benefits to help an organized crime-linked person, including taking official action designed to help two foreign nationals gain entry into the United States. Felix Cisneros Jr., 48, of Murrieta, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay a fine of $30,000. Judge Klausner also entered a forfeiture order of $133,000 against Cisneros.

A San Gabriel Valley woman was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for causing tens of millions of dollars in losses to investors who provided funds intended for a hotel and condominium complex in the Coachella Valley, and then using the money to finance her lavish lifestyle. Ruixue “Serena” Shi, 38, of Arcadia, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered her to pay $35,842,329 in restitution.

A Compton man faces almost two-dozen years behind bars at sentencing today for targeting and robbing men he met on the Grindr dating app. Derrick Patterson, 23, pleaded guilty in July in downtown Los Angeles to federal robbery and aggravated identity theft charges. The charges carry a total sentence of up to 22 years in federal prison, prosecutors noted. Patterson targeted his victims by using Grindr.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office arrested two state prison officers in the past week, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed. One of the men, 43-year-old Matthew Robert Solem, was arrested Nov. 18 on suspicion of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and being 10 years older than the alleged victim, county jail records show. The CDCR said Solem began working for the state prison system in November of 2006 and became a correctional lieutenant at Folsom Prison in 2018. He is now on leave. 

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