Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits | |
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Longtime LACo prosecutor's harassment lawsuit trimmed
A judge says in a tentative ruling that he is inclined to dismiss the remaining two claims in a lawsuit brought by a longtime Los Angeles County prosecutor who sued the county, alleging she was repeatedly harassed and denied promotions by individuals within the office she believed were trying to destroy her career. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Douglas W. Stern heard arguments from lawyers on Friday in plaintiff Linda Baek's allegations of retaliation and failure to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation in light of his tentative ruling, then took the case under submission.
City News Service
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LAPD officer gets mental health diversion for touching dead woman's breast during investigation
A judge Friday granted the defense's request for a mental health diversion program for a Los Angeles police officer who testified in 2021 that he had touched a dead woman's breast while on duty and that it was done as part of an investigation into her death. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kevin Stennis found that David Rojas was "eligible and suitable" for an 18-month mental health diversion program over the objection of the prosecution, which asked for time for its own expert to review records in the case.
City News Service
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Federal judge again rules that California’s ban on assault weapons is unconstitutional
A federal judge who previously overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons did it again on Thursday, ruling that the state’s attempts to prohibit sales of semiautomatic guns violates the constitutional right to bear arms. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego conceded that powerful weapons like AR-15 rifles are commonly used by criminals, but said the guns are importantly also owned by people who obey the law and feel they need firearms to protect themselves.
AP
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Lawyer sues hundreds of local small businesses for allegedly violating law; some call it ‘extortion’
Glendale-based immigration consultant Zed Ziafathy told the NBC4 I-Team he was shocked when he found out he was being sued, not by one of his former clients, but by a corporation he'd never heard of. “It was a shakedown, basically,” Ziafathy told the I-Team. Ziafathy, who's worked as a consultant for more than 40 years, said the suit came, "out of the blue," and accused him, without citing evidence or proof, of violating the California law that governs his business.
NBC4
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Service that directs city to lawyers on panel is not unregistered referral service
An outfit that refers a city to a panel of attorneys to conduct administrative hearings on contested traffic tickets and other citations is not operating an attorney referral service and is therefore not breaching a statutory provision outlawing such services if they have not been approved by the State Bar of California, Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has held.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Judge closes the door on LACo Bid for Contempt Hearing vs. Villanueva
A judge has said she will comply with a state appellate court ruling that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva does not have to face a contempt hearing for allegedly ignoring three subpoenas in 2021 to testify before the Civilian Oversight Commission, despite the county's argument the door to a contempt proceeding was not fully closed.
City News Service
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$17 million wrongful-death judgment against city stands
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the denial of the City of Los Angeles’s motions for a new trial and for judgment as a matter of law in a case in which a jury assessed damages at $17,002,000 plus costs based on the fatal shooting by an off-duty police officer of a mentally ill man and the wounding of his parents. Kenneth French, 32, was killed on June 14, 2019, after bumping into Salvador Alejandro Sanchez, then a Los Angeles police officer, at a Costco sausage-sampling event in Riverside County.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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SCOTUS will hear 'backdoor censorship' case of council member arrested for placing document in binder
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider what kind of evidence is needed to defeat a qualified immunity claim by government officials accused of engineering the retaliatory arrest of a new city council member who criticized the city manager. The Supreme Court accepted the case of 76-year-old Sylvia Gonzalez, who sued Castle Hill, Texas, officials after she was arrested for placing her citizen petition seeking the city manager’s ouster into her binder, according to SCOTUSblog and a press release from the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm.
ABA Journal
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Supreme Court to consider conservative effort to block federal power and a challenge to ‘qualified immunity’ for police officers
The Supreme Court on Friday added another case to its docket that asks the justices to overturn decades-old precedent to scale back the power of federal agencies, as well as a case that looks at “qualified immunity” for police officers. The new case is a companion to a similar dispute involving herring fishermen that the justices have already agreed to hear his term.
CNN
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US Supreme Court blocks judge's order allowing 'ghost gun' sales
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday barred two Texas-based manufacturers from selling products that can be quickly converted at home into firearms called "ghost guns," granting a request by President Joe Biden's administration to once again block a federal judge's order that had sided with companies. The justices lifted Fort Worth-based U.S. Judge Reed O'Connor's Sept. 14 injunction barring enforcement of a 2022 federal regulation - a rule aimed at reining in the privately made firearms - against the two manufacturers, Blackhawk Manufacturing and Defense Distributed.
Reuters
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Los Angeles DA race more a referendum on Gascón than progressive politics
The race for Los Angeles County District Attorney won’t be decided until next year, but the field is crowded and the outcome will determine the leadership of one of the nation’s largest and most closely watched prosecutorial agencies - one whose practices have helped shape criminal justice priorities not only for Southern California but much of the country. That makes George Gascón’s re-election campaign significant, and his weaknesses have attracted a big field of opponents. Oddly, that may be the best thing he has going for him.
CalMatters
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Challengers line up to take potshots at George Gascon, a no-show at the LA district attorney debate
Organizers of the Los Angeles district attorney debate left one podium empty for George Gascon, the progressive incumbent who, despite his absence, was very much a presence on Wednesday night. Hardly a minute went by without one of the nine challengers denouncing Gascon. They called him a "dictator," a "wannabe king," and someone who “prioritizes criminals before everyone else."
Courthouse News Service
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Candidates for LA County district attorney blast George Gascón during debate
L.A. District Attorney George Gascón was the main target during a debate among his nine challengers Wednesday night. Gascón skipped the event - a fact police union organizers highlighted by placing an empty podium with his name on it on the stage. Most of the challengers’ main complaints were that Gascón’s policies are too lenient. On the day he took office last year, Gascón introduced a sweeping set of reforms that rolled back penalties for people who commit crimes.
LAist
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Gascon polling disaster finds only 14% plan to vote for him in March
One in seven - that’s how many Los Angeles County residents plan to vote to re-elect George Gascon in the March District Attorney’s race primary. For an incumbent to poll at 14% against a field of nine far lesser known, candidates can be summed up in one word: disastrous. The poll of 600 likely voters by RG Strategies for the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS) also shows Gascon has only an overall favorability rate of 25% against an unfavorable rate of 52%, a negative gap of 27%.
California Globe
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Veteran's Affairs officer faces civil rights, assault charges (Video)
Civil rights and assault charges have been filed against a federal police officer after video last year showed him repeatedly beating a suspect on the West LA VA campus. David Goldstein takes a look as that officer appears in court for arraignment.
KCAL News
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Orange County Fire Authority firefighter indicted in hit and run incident resulting in death of a pedestrian
A veteran firefighter with the Orange County Fire Authority has been indicted on a felony charge for a hit and run incident that resulted in the death of a pedestrian in Dana Point. Jeffrey Richard Grasinger, 36, of Rancho Santa Margarita, was indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury on one felony count of hit and run with permanent injury or death. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison if convicted.
Huntington Beach News
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Council votes 4-3 to participate in new ‘zero bail’ lawsuit
In Tuesday’s significantly longer-than-usual City Council meeting, Councilmembers voted 4-3 to join a lawsuit over the County’s newly implemented Zero Bail system, with the issue apparently causing some emotional discussion during closed session. Starting October 1, every police agency in the county has to follow a new bail system that largely eliminates the need for cash bail while evaluating the severity of the crime, a suspect’s risk to the public and repeat offenses.
Santa Monica Daily Press
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The Texas Pete-isn't-from-Texas lawsuit fizzles out after plaintiff's relationship with lawyer becomes issue
A serial plaintiff in class-action lawsuits has dropped out of at least two cases over claims defense lawyers have harassed him about ties to his lawyers, including an allegation he was involved in an “intermingled intimate relationship” with a former college roommate and his attorney. Philip White filed a motion to dismiss the class action he brought against the makers of Texas Pete hot sauce, citing the “harassment he and his friends have experienced” as defense lawyers probed his relationship with the Clarkson Law Firm.
Legal Newsline
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California Governor vetoes bill banning law enforcement firearm resales
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have banned firearms from being resold by law enforcement agencies to the public, unless to a licensed dealer to be resold to other such agencies, citing concerns over the financial impacts the bill would create by imposing limitations. Mr. Newsom, in a legislative update, announced his decision to veto the bill Oct. 8.
The Epoch Times
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Advocates say excited delirium provides cover for police violence. They want it banned
Bella Quinto-Collins was celebrating her 21st birthday with her family on Sunday when she got the news they'd all been waiting for: California had just become the first state to ban “excited delirium” as a diagnosis and cause of death. The announcement came nearly three years after Quinto-Collins had watched in horror as two Antioch police officers restrained her brother, Angelo Quinto, and one knelt on his neck for nearly five minutes while the Navy veteran was having a mental health crisis.
USA Today
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California bills to cut prison population unlikely to stop
Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in Sacramento are working steadily these days to close several California prisons, perhaps as many as six. The stated benefits include saving money and doing something to address mass incarceration of African Americans and other minorities, which is partly the result of the much-maligned federal and state “war on drugs.” Despite support from the elected chief prosecutors in several of the most populous California counties, though, there are dangers.
East Bay Times
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Pressure rises on online retailers to fight fakes
From clothes and shoes to electronics and even aircraft engine parts, online retail sites and social media marketplaces are awash in counterfeit products, tricking consumers and companies into buying the fake goods. Of 13,000 online consumers surveyed in 17 countries by the Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection, nearly 3 out of 4 reported having bought counterfeit products.
Roll Call
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Los Angeles County follows city of LA's lead on regulating ‘vanlords'
Los Angeles County is going after "vanlords" who rent out RVs and vans that are parked illegally along public streets. In doing so, the county is following the lead of the city of L.A. "We are going after the vanlords - those who are really trying to rent or lease these RVs that are broken down, they're unhealthy to live in," L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said Tuesday during a board meeting.
ABC7
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Feds investigate fire that critically hurt 2 LASD deputies (Video)
Federal investigators are now probing a fire that left two LA sheriff’s deputies critically injured inside a shooting trailer. Eric Leonard reports Oct. 13, 2023.
NBC4
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Ex-LAPD assistant chief says demotion was unjustified (Video)
Al Labrada said his recent demotion to the rank of commander was unfair, following an accusation that a tracking device was found by an ex-girlfriend, who is also an LAPD officer. Eric Leonard reports Oct. 17, 2023.
NBC4
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Detective alleges sexual hazing on LAPD’s Centurions football team
He was a former Pac-10 football player, one of the best recruits on the LAPD’s amateur team, the Centurions. He joined because a supervisor told him it was a quick route to promotion and good assignments. But as he walked off the field at his first all-weekend practice, that veteran supervisor and others on the team began to yell: “Rookies to the locker room.” What followed, according to court documents, was an alleged hazing, a group sexual assault that the young linebacker said he didn’t dare report: Who would he tell, anyway?
Los Angeles Times
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Women sue LASD alleging ‘traumatizing’ traffic stop was unnecessary, illegal
An advocate for domestic violence survivors and her mother are suing Los Angeles County after deputies used “violent tactics” in a 2022 traffic stop in East Los Angeles, their attorney claims. On Sept. 25, 2022, Gabriela Koutantos of Monrovia was driving a rented U-Haul van that she had used to deliver donated furniture to the East Los Angeles Women’s Center, a shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
KTLA
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Drivers in three Southern California cities can get speeding tickets from a roadside camera
Drivers who speed on streets in three Southern California cities soon may find a ticket waiting for them in their mailbox generated by a roadside speed camera. Over the weekend Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 645 by Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), making speed cameras legal for the first time in the state.
Los Angeles Daily News
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Top law firm rescinds job offers to Ivy League students over Israel letters
Top U.S. law firm Davis Polk announced in an internal email that it had rescinded letters of employment for three law students at Harvard and Columbia universities who it believed were tied to organizational statements about Israel, one of the latest responses to open letters from university groups about the Israel-Hamas conflict that have roiled university donors, employers, alumni and students.
NBC News
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Los Angeles newscaster Christina Pascucci announces California Senate bid
Los Angeles newscaster Christina Pascucci announced Wednesday morning that she is running for the U.S. Senate vacancy created by the death of Dianne Feinstein. The 38-year-old Democrat is the latest entrant to join an increasingly crowded field for California’s 2024 Senate contest. The San Fernando Valley native argues that she offers a centrist option for voters tired of polarization in the nation’s politics.
Los Angeles Times
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California orders Kaiser to pay $50 million in settlement to overhaul behavioral health services
California’s largest health care provider will pay $50 million in a settlement over mismanagement of its behavioral health care services, and commit to an extensive overhaul to better serve people seeking behavioral health support. The state's Department of Managed Health Care ordered Kaiser Permanente - California’s largest health care provider with 9.4 million members - to pay the $50 million fine and revamp its behavioral health services system.
Courthouse News Service
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District Attorney Jason Williams and his mother carjacked at gunpoint in New Orleans
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and his 78-year-old mother were carjacked at gunpoint Monday night (Oct. 16) in New Orleans, his spokesman said. “OPDA confirms that DA Williams and his 78-year-old mother were carjacked at gunpoint as he was helping her into a car,” office spokesman Keith Lampkin said in response to questions from Fox 8. “DA Williams and his mother were unharmed and both thank the NOPD for their hard work tonight and every night responding to crime victims.”
WVUE
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Gunman shoots CHP officer before stealing, crashing cruiser
A traffic stop on Interstate 5 took a violent turn Sunday when a man shot a California Highway Patrol officer, took the patrol vehicle, then crashed it. Upon investigating a vehicle stopped at around 11:40 a.m. near the Chard Avenue overpass in Corning, a CHP officer ended up in a gunfight. The officer sustained injuries as a result of the shooting, CHP said. The suspect proceeded to enter the patrol vehicle and head southbound on I-5.
Chico Enterprise-Record
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National clothing store sues San Francisco mall owners over unchecked retail theft, criminal activity
With organized retail crime on the rise in San Francisco, American Eagle has filed suit against mall operator Westfield, on grounds that the persistent criminal activity has violated the terms of its lease. In AE Retail West v. S.F. Centre Limited Partnership, the clothier’s parent company states that Westfield was obligated to keep up the mall’s common areas and had pledged American Eagle “would have quiet enjoyment of the store for the duration of the lease.”
Northern California Record
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LAPD searching for 3-man burglary crew targeting San Fernando Valley businesses
Los Angeles police are searching for a three-man crew believed responsible for several burglaries in the San Fernando Valley. Earlier this week the team broke into a Baskin-Robbins and the adjoining Balboa Smoke Shop at a Van Nuys strip mall around 3 a.m. Surveillance video shows one of the crew with a hand saw. After smashing the front door glass, he used the saw to cut through the locks.
ABC7
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Convictions/Sentences/Parole/Appeals | |
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Borderline Bar and Grill owner convicted of grand theft embezzlement
The owner of the former Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks was found guilty of felony grand theft after spending money meant for the Oak Heart County Music Festival, prosecutors said. Andrew Hynes, a 43-year-old Thousand Oaks resident, was convicted by a jury, the Ventura County district attorney's office said in a statement Wednesday. According to prosecutors, Hynes partnered with Westlake Rotary to put on the annual charity music festival in 2020.
ABC7
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California family members plead guilty in $600M nationwide catalytic converter theft scheme
Three members of a California family pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy for their role in a ring that shipped $600 million worth of stolen catalytic converters from California to New Jersey, federal prosecutors said. Brothers Tou Sue Vang, 32, and Andrew Vang, 28, along with their mother, Monica Moua, 58, were part of "a national network of thieves, dealers, and processors" who provided the stolen auto anti-smog devices to a metal refinery for more than $600 million dollars, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.
CBS News Bay Area
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eBay could face $2 billion fine over "rolling coal" devices: Lawsuit
eBay could be facing billions of dollars in fines for the sale of devices that let pickup trucks emit giant, obnoxious gas clouds. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the online retailer, alleging in court documents that eBay allowed the sale of more than 343,000 "defeat devices." Defeat devices are designed to cancel out vehicle emission controls, and are in violation of the Clean Air Act, according to the DOJ.
Insider
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A record 75,000 consumers filed complaints that major airlines took over DOT to quash competition
To the airline industry, safety is too important for political games playing. For nearly 100 years this was an inviolable norm. But it’s been broken. Airlines never used to argue that competitors were less safe, because shaking confidence in the safety of air travel without data to support it undermined confidence in the entire industry.
View from the Wing
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One court case changed how West Coast cities deal with homeless encampments
Five years ago, federal judges ruled it was “cruel and unusual” for cities to fine or arrest homeless people for sleeping outside when they had nowhere else to go. Fast-forwarding to recent months, elected officials in the West Coast are railing against the decision, asking the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Martin v. Boise. But why now?
Seattle Times
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Fallout of Skid Row Housing Trust collapse big and small: broken promises, homelessness, lost dentures
Nearly eight months after a fire left their downtown single-room occupancy hotel boarded up and uninhabitable, the building’s 22 former residents remain scattered and scarred. Some have become homeless. Others are unaccounted for. Another group remains in temporary housing, chafing under a nightly curfew and a no-guest policy - rules that didn’t exist at their previous residence, Skid Row Housing Trust’s Dewey Hotel.
Los Angeles Times
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Valley Glen residents continue to deal with homeless encampment issue
If Governor Gavin Newsom needs voters' approval to get funds via bonds for the construction of mental health facilities, he could get significant support from the Valley Glenn neighborhood, a community that FOX 11 has closely tracked throughout its ongoing issue with homeless encampments at Laurel Grove Park. Back in May, the park was closed off with metal fences for a major renovation. The closure left residents fearing the RVs and encampments moving to other locations.
Fox11
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US Supreme Court may make it harder to prove racial gerrymandering
The U.S. Supreme Court may be on the verge of making it even harder to win legal challenges accusing state officials of racial gerrymandering - the illegal manipulation of an electoral district's boundaries to alter its racial composition - to dilute the clout of Black and other minority voters. The nine justices this week heard arguments in such a case involving the relocation of 30,000 Black residents from South Carolina's 1st congressional district to another one in an electoral map adopted by the state's Republican-led legislature.
Reuters
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California employers and unions locked in complex battle over state labor laws
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 365 last week, he opened a new chapter in a decades-long political and legal war over California laws governing relations between employers and their workers. Briefly, SB 365 declares that when an employer loses a civil suit seeking to compel arbitration in a labor law dispute with a worker, the employer is not automatically allowed to freeze proceedings in the underlying issue by filing an appeal.
CalMatters
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Far-left groups in LA extend support to Palestinian resistance 'by any means necessary’
As hundreds of Hamas fighters crossed into Israeli territory murdering more than 1,300 Israelis and kidnapping over 100 more, the terrorist group found explicit support from several far left organizations in Los Angeles. "Free the people! Free the land! #FreePalestine," posted People's City Council accompanying video of Palestinians entering Israel through a destroyed border fence.
Westside Current
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Los Angeles Times: What’s the strategy now that circulation hits new low?
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times published information on its average daily circulation, and it was not pretty. Over the last twelve months, the total paid distribution dropped by 17%, from 150,000 to 125,000 copies. This was not unexpected given the sorry state of the newspaper business. What was unexpected was the 4% drop in paid digital subscriptions, from 314,000 to 303,000, an area of expected growth. This is contrary to the July announcement by The Times that it had 550,000 digital subscriptions.
CityWatch LA
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CDCR: 3 men serving life sentences kill inmate in Soledad prison
Prison officials are investigating the violent death of inmate Cory J. Benton inside Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Benton, 40, was attacked by three other inmates at 3:19 p.m. Sunday. His suspected killers, Alberto T. Valades, Jose L. Valle, and Jimmy M. Martinez, are all currently serving life prison sentences. Benton was stabbed to death by inmates who used an “inmate-manufactured weapon,” according to CDCR officials. He was pronounced deceased at 4:25 p.m.
KRON4
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Despite new pension law, thousands of retired California teachers are still paying for others mistakes
For years, the state agency that oversees California’s teacher pensions has clawed money back from nearly 10,000 retirees after discovering school districts - or the agency itself - had been miscalculating their pension packages. A new law signed on Sept. 25 by Gov. Gavin Newsom expands protections for retired teachers, and further shields them from having to repay for those mistakes in the future. But it does nothing for former educators who don’t qualify for relief because the errors in their pensions were discovered before the cut-off point of the bill: January 2023.
Bay Area News Group
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