Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits

County not liable for death of inmate with weight loss

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that the County of Alameda might be liable to survivors of a man who died in custody in a jail, but restricted any potential recovery to damages based on pain and suffering of the decedent as a result of deliberate indifference to the involuntary weight loss he experienced, finding no liability for wrongful death. Only one member of a three-judge panel - Senior Judge Carlos Bea - agreed with the entirety of the memorandum opinion.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Sylmar man’s conviction upheld in San Fernando Valley shooting rampage that left 5 dead

A state appeals court panel on Friday upheld an ex-convict’s conviction for carrying out a shooting rampage that left five people dead in the San Fernando Valley, including three on the same day. The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that his conviction violated Alexander Hernandez’s constitutional right because his trial counsel conceded guilt at his trial, purportedly over the defendant’s objection.

City News Service

L.A. County might be liable for suicide of unwatched inmate

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles and its Sheriff’s Department alleging that guards at the Twin Towers jail facility routinely perform slipshod checks of the cells of mentally ill inmates, resulting in what the Coroner’s Office declared to be the suicide of the plaintiff’s son who ingested more than three times a lethal dose of an antipsychotic prescription medication.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

C.A. says prospect that defendant was not sole shooter requires resentencing hearing

The Court of Appeal for this district, in a 2-1 decision, held yesterday that a man who - acting alone, from all appearances - fired four bullets at an intended victim who survived, pled guilty to attempted murder and admitted personally using a firearm, is entitled to a resentencing hearing under Penal Code §1172.6 which applies where a conviction was based on malice on the part of another being fictionally imputed to the defendant.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Prosecutor’s exclusion of juror who admitted favoring Hispanics mandates reversal

Div. Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday reversed the first-degree murder conviction of a Hispanic defendant due to the prosecution’s use of a peremptory challenge to a prospective juror who said she “can be biased toward Hispanics,” with the justices holding that the deputy district attorney’s explanation that the remark was “unprompted” was not supported by substantial evidence.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Santa Barbara jury awards $19 million against insurer over Avenatti jet seizure

In the years since Michael Avenatti’s jet was seized at the Santa Barbara Airport, his ownership partner in the jet has been fighting with insurer Starr Indemnity & Liability Company over the “physical loss” of the aircraft due to a peril such as “seizure,” which is part of the policy language. Last week, a jury awarded $19 million to the jet’s owner - Passport 420 - in the case against Starr Indemnity, finding that the company had acted in bad faith when it denied the claim.

Santa Barbara Independent

FTC to appeal court decision blocking worker noncompete ban

The Federal Trade Commission is appealing a Texas federal judge’s ruling that blocked its near-total ban on worker noncompete agreements, continuing what’s become a bitter fight over the regulation. The FTC filed a notice of appeal Friday that it would take the case to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The motion sets up a clash in front of the New Orleans-based appeals court, a conservative-dominated court that has become a hot spot for challenges over federal regulations.

Bloomberg Law

LAPD commander seeks exit from suit over alleged data breach

A Los Angeles police commander who is the target of a lawsuit filed by the union representing LAPD lieutenants and ranks below is seeking her removal as a defendant in the case, which alleges fraud and unlawful computer data access. In the Los Angeles Superior Court suit originally filed Aug. 7 and amended Aug. 19, the Los Angeles Police Protective League alleges Cmdr. Lillian Carranza used bogus online credentials to access confidential emails, communications and surveys distributed by the union to its members.

MyNewsLA

Judge orders VA to build housing on UCLA baseball parking lot. On the double!

In a matter of months, if a federal judge’s order holds up, the parking lot for UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Baseball Stadium will be filled with modular housing. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to select a vendor within a week and have a contract three weeks after that. 

Los Angeles Times

Supreme Court will decide who sets salaries for retirement board employees

The court agreed to hear Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association v. County of Los Angeles. Justice Martin Jenkins was recused. The Second District, Division Seven, Court of Appeal’s published opinion framed the issues this way: “does the fiduciary board of a county public employee retirement system established under the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 have authority under the California Constitution and relevant statutes to create employment classifications and set salaries for employees of the retirement system?”

Horvitz & Levy LLC

LA DA George Gascon: Abandoned victims at parole hearings, leaving them to face their rapist alone

On July 26, 2008, 23-year-old Jessica M. was waiting at a bus stop when her life was forever changed. At 5:30 a.m., a man held a knife to her throat, kidnapped her, and subjected her to unspeakable horrors - he raped, sodomized, and assaulted her in ways no one should ever endure. Despite her trauma, Jessica found the courage to tell the police her story, allowing evidence to be collected and photographed.

California Globe

ADDA Chief Hanisee says Gascón prioritizes media hype over justice for crime victims

The president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents nearly 900 Los Angeles County prosecutors, yesterday lambasted District Attorney George Gascón over his statement in connection with a possible resentencing of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez who shot their parents to death and, in 1996, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. 

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Menendez brothers’ sentences should be reduced, D.A. says

Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón will seek a reduced sentence for Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers who murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989. Gascón’s office will ask a Los Angeles judge to lower their sentences from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. If approved, the Menendez brothers would be eligible for parole immediately. At a press conference, Gascón said he had come to his decision after “careful review.”

Variety

Politically motivated? DA George Gascón recommends a re-sentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers

George Gascón is likely facing defeat in his bid for re-election as District Attorney for Los Angeles County. In an effort to garner votes, Gascón announced through various media outlets that he plans to recommend a re-sentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers, who are currently serving life without parole. Gascón cited newly discovered evidence, specifically a letter written by one of the brothers months before the murder of their parents. The undated letter alleges that both brothers were sexually abused by their father. However, this letter has been known for the past two to three years.

CityWatchLA

Orange County supervisor agrees to plead guilty to bribery conspiracy involving $10 million in COVID relief funds

The District One Supervisor on the Orange County Board of Supervisors has agreed to plead guilty to a felony federal charge for accepting more than $550,000 in bribes for directing and voting in favor of more than $10 million in COVID funds to a charity affiliated with one of his daughters, Rhiannon Do, the Justice Department announced today.

U.S. Attorney’s Office Press Release

Attempted murder charges filed in South LA shootout that wounded 6 homeless bystanders

Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed attempted murder charges against four suspects for their alleged roles in a mass shooting in South L.A. late last month, an incident police say was gang-related and injured a group of bystanders. Los Angeles police said in a report that the six victims, who appeared to have been unhoused, were standing near the corner of 74th and Figueroa streets on the afternoon of Sept. 25 when gunfire broke out between two sets of suspected gang members. 

Los Angeles Times

Man accused of drugging and raping 9 women, including 1 who died, faces charges

A 50-year-old South Bay man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting nine women at his homes in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, including one who died, faces criminal charges that include murder and rape. Michael DiGiorgio was set to be arraigned Friday in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. The crimes occurred between May 2019 and November 2021, according to a news release announcing the charges this week from District Attorney's Office.

NBC4

UCLA student president issues update on charges against vigilantes in encampment attack

On Friday, the President of the Undergraduate Student’s Council Association at UCLA, Adam Tfayli, issued a transparency report regarding charges that have been filed against four of the vigilantes who attacked the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on April 30 and May 1 of this year, co-signed by the council’s internal and external vice presidents, Josh Garland and Javier Nunez-Verdugo.

Santa Monica Mirror

Key immunity dossier unsealed in Trump’s election subversion case

A federal judge unsealed four exhibits supporting special counsel Jack Smith’s recent immunity brief in Donald Trump’s election subversion case on Friday. The release, which had already been delayed a week on Trump’s request, unveils a portion of the reams of evidence Smith has compiled against the former president and 2024 election candidate regarding Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat. 

Courthouse News Service

The real reason Los Angeles’ DA is looking into the Menendez brothers’ case

To his credit, Gascón has overseen 14 exonerations of unjustly convicted people. Only I don’t think that’s happening here. Instead, a politician in trouble is exploiting a tragedy. And make no mistake, Gascón is in big trouble, trailing law-and-order candidate Nathan Hochman by 30%, according to a recent poll conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times (with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points).

MSNBC

Independent police auditor criticizes D.A. Gascón’s office for long delays in officer-involved shooting reviews

Pasadena’s Independent Police Auditor blamed District Attorney George Gascón’s office for taking more than three years to decline to file criminal charges in a 2020 officer-involved shooting, the latest in a pattern of delayed decision-making that Richard Rosenthal said negatively impacts the Department, the community and the involved officers.

Pasadena Now

At 15, he faced pressure to confess to murder. The L.A. County D.A. says he should be freed

The teen slumped in a chair, sobbing, in a Los Angeles Police Department interrogation room. “I wasn’t there,” he said, again and again, according to a video of the interrogation reviewed by The Times. “Please.” “You were there,” one homicide detective responded, a point the detectives would make over and over. “Let’s get past that right now.” The teenager kept crying and telling the detectives: This was wrong. 

Los Angeles Times

DA's Race

Desperate old man dances for votes: Gascon takes to TikTok

Sometimes, when something is “cringe worthy” you feel bad for the person. Maybe they just didn’t get the premise, maybe they meant it as a lark, maybe they had a few tee many martoonis or maybe they said inherently meaningless things like this: Or maybe it’s the public’s fault for not getting the joke.  

California Globe

Police cash flows to Hochman in D.A. race while support for Gascon dries up

When George Gascón ousted Jackie Lacey from office in 2020, it marked the end of the most expensive district attorney's race in Los Angeles County history. Four years later, the money is flowing again - just not to Gascón. Gascón raked in $13 million in 2020, with more than half coming from committees organized by wealthy San Francisco Bay Area residents shelling out to support criminal justice reforms after the murder of George Floyd.

Los Angeles Times

LA’s progressive prosecutor roared into office in 2020. His reelection bid is sputtering.

George Gascón has spent four years as Los Angeles’ preeminent lightning rod, drawing endless heat over his progressive overhaul of the county’s district attorney office. But his reelection bid has felt less like an ideological brawl than a rout. Public polling puts Gascón 30 points behind his challenger Nathan Hochman, a Republican-turned-independent former federal prosecutor. 

Politico

LA Councilwoman Traci Park endorses Hochman for District Attorney!

Frustrated by an increase in crime here in the 11th District that includes Venice, Los Angeles Councilwoman Traci Park(CD-11), has endorsed former federal prosecutor and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman for Los Angeles County District Attorney. Hochman is challenging incumbent George Gascon, who’s term of office has been ravaged by several recall attempts and being perceived as soft on crime.

CityWatchLA

Policy/Legal/Politics

L.A. council candidate takes heat for saying 'F— the police' while discussing LAPD spending

The candidate running to unseat Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León faced sharp criticism Monday for saying “F— the police” at a recent meet-and-greet with college students. Ysabel Jurado, running in the Nov. 5 election to represent neighborhoods stretching from downtown to El Sereno and Eagle Rock, used the phrase while fielding a question about police spending - an exchange captured on an audio recording.

Los Angeles Times

LA Times editorial page editor resigns after paper skips presidential endorsement | exclusive

The Los Angeles Times was engulfed in turmoil two weeks ahead of the presidential election on Wednesday when Editorials Editor Mariel Garza resigned “immediately” after she said owner Patrick Soon-Shiong vetoed a decision by the newspaper to endorse Kamala Harris for president. It was the first time in more than a century that the paper had elected not to endorse a presidential candidate. 

The Wrap

California is handing off its bar exam to a private company

Law school graduates who want to practice law in California will face a new bar exam, starting in February, after the state Supreme Court gave final approval Tuesday to the State Bar’s request to use questions from a private company to replace the standard exam used in most other states. The court also granted the bar’s request to allow the exam to be taken remotely, either at home, where they would be monitored by a bar proctor, or in small test centers. 

San Francisco Chronicle

Early release program for aging inmates helps clear out California prisons, but at what cost?

Thirty years ago, before he was sentenced for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old niece in Moreno Valley, Cody Klemp told a probation officer that if he was ever released from custody he would kill the girl for reporting him. It seemed like he would never get that opportunity when a judge sentenced him to 170 years in prison. Now, however, Klemp awaits a parole hearing Thursday, Oct. 24, that could free him under a program designed to reduce California’s prison population and slash medical costs by releasing aging, often infirm inmates. 

The Mercury News

Study reveals Prop 47 may have done more harm than good 

A recent report reveals that a criminal justice reform passed in California ten years ago may have done more harm than good. The Manhattan Institute, a conservative research group, shared a study showing that Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for several minor crimes, caused crime and drug use to increase. The findings indicate that in Riverside, one of the largest counties in California, there has been a rise in repeat offenses, including serious crimes, and more issues with offenders not showing up for court. 

CBS News Sacramento

Antisemitic chaos continues on UCLA campus as task force blasts school’s discriminatory acts

Three UCLA Jewish students and a Jewish UCLA professor filed an amended complaint today in their lawsuit against UCLA for its role in helping antisemitic agitators exclude Jews from campus. The amended complaint in Frankel v. Regents of the University of California sheds more light on UCLA’s failures to stop antisemitism on campus during and after the rise of the initial Jew Exclusion Zone, details how each defendant was personally involved, and describes how student groups have responded to the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attacks on Israel, with one student group even memorializing the October 7 massacre and another encampment forming yesterday.  

Becket

UCLA professors and students sue over arrests tied to Gaza war protests

Allegations: The plaintiffs joined in protests that called for universities to divest from companies that support Israel’s war effort. The protests carried on throughout last spring, and included an encampment on campus. Two of the plaintiffs were arrested after police cleared out that encampment in early May. They say their arrest violates the state constitution because the university did not have probable cause to declare the encampment an unlawful assembly.

LAist

US judges have a social media problem

Two judges have been suspended for social media posts as ethics panels continue to crack down on online content. On October 7, Pennsylvania's Court of Judicial Discipline ruled that the case of Judge Mark Cohen was the worst case of defiance they had ever seen after he refused to stop posting political comments. "No other case in the history of the Court of Judicial Discipline has involved such defiance post decision," the eight-judge panel ruled.

Newsweek

11.5M California program to resettle sexually violent predators faces stiff opposition

Public opposition is making it difficult to reintroduce sexually violent predators into California communities even though they have undergone post-prison treatment that makes them much less likely to reoffend, according to a new state audit. The 57-page audit released last week said it can take months or even years to find community housing for SVPs, as sexually violent predators are called, after they have finished treatment through California’s conditional release program.

Orange County Register

Judge orders mental competency evaluation for L.A. bishop’s alleged murderer

A judge suspended the criminal proceedings of the alleged murderer of a beloved California bishop as courts evaluate whether the 64-year-old man is mentally fit for trial. Carlos Medina was charged with murder last year for allegedly shooting and killing Bishop David O’Connell, Los Angeles’ 69-year-old auxiliary bishop, in his home in Hacienda Heights. Medina’s attorney argued that he was not mentally fit to stand trial on Thursday, according to a report by the L.A. Times. 

Catholic News Agency

Judge delays order in antitrust case requiring Google to open up its app store

A federal judge on Friday delayed an order requiring Google to open up its Android app store to more competition until an appeals court decides whether to block the shake-up because of legal questions surrounding a jury’s verdict that branded Google as an illegal monopolist. The delay granted during a court hearing in San Francisco comes less than two weeks after U.S. District Judge James Donato issued a decision that would have forced Google to make sweeping changes to its Play Store for Android smartphones starting Nov. 1.

Los Angeles Times

Southern California attorney faked terminal cancer, used clients’ money to fund gambling habit 

A Southern California attorney has been disbarred after he misappropriated more than $116,000 from his clients and used some of that money to fund his gambling habit, all while claiming he was terminally ill with cancer to cover up his misconduct, officials said. Sergio Valdovinos Ramirez (State Bar No. #318157) was ordered to be disbarred Friday after a disbarment recommendation was filed in July 2023 by Judge Yvette D. Roland.

KTLA

Southern California

How the City of Angels went to hell

A journey through Los Angeles, the adopted home of Vice President Kamala Harris, offers a masterclass in urban dysfunction. As you drive through the streets of the southside, and along Central Avenue, the historic main street of black LA, now mostly Hispanic, the ambience is increasingly reminiscent of Mexico City or Mumbai: broken pavements; battered buildings; outdoor swap meets; food stalls serving customers much as one would see in the developing world.

UnHerd

The L.A. ballot measure that could change California

Are men biting dogs? Are pigs flying? Has hell frozen over? Fair questions, all. Because politicians in the most populous local jurisdiction in America are seeking to reduce their own power. Even in times as strange as our own, Measure G seems impossible. An amendment to the Los Angeles County charter on this November’s ballot, Measure G proposes to add four new supervisorial seats to the county board and establish an elected county executive.

Desert Sun

What are the answers to MacArthur Park crisis, and can Councilmember Hernandez lead the way?

L.A. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez was touring the eastern fringe of MacArthur Park with a medical outreach team when they paused to make sure a shirtless man slumped on a bench was still breathing. He was, so they moved on to a young man who’d been hit by a car while riding his bike, and then to several people with festering ulcers on their arms and legs, a common side-effect of "tranq," the veterinary tranquilizer that’s been showing up in street drugs.

Los Angeles Times

L.A. County to appoint internal compliance officer for problematic juvenile halls

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday called for the appointment of an internal compliance officer to ensure that juvenile halls - which have repeatedly come under fire from state overseers - are in adherence with state regulations. The compliance officer will be responsible for ensuring the halls meet suitability standards set by the Board of State and Community Corrections and the operating terms of a settlement agreement with the California Department of Justice.

City News Service

Crime

Voter frustration with crime, liberal DAs mounting in California while Harris mum on controversial Prop 47

Proposition 47, a progressive proposal headed by George Soros-backed Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, could be going down the drain come election night as polling shows a partial-repeal effort has the support of the majority of California voters. Gascon's job, along with other progressive district attorneys who championed Prop. 47 across the state, could also be at risk from voter backlash.

Fox News

One arrested as UCLA police dismantle 'Gaza solidarity sukkah' and disperse student protest

One person was arrested at UCLA on Monday night on suspicion of failing to disperse after the university's Police Department ordered around 40 protesters to leave Dickson Court North, where they had established a "Gaza solidarity sukkah" and a handful of tents, authorities said.

Los Angeles Times

Judges punishing Jan. 6 rioters say they fear more political violence as election day nears

For nearly four years, judges at Washington’s federal courthouse have punished hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on the nation’s democracy. On the cusp of the next presidential election, some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming. Before recently sentencing a rioter to prison, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he prays that Americans accept the outcome of next month’s election.

Los Angeles Times

Gun rights across state lines: CRPA files amicus brief in Matthews v. City of Los Angeles case

The case of Matthews v. City of Los Angeles has become a focal point for Second Amendment advocates, as it challenges the restrictive laws that hinder out-of-state residents from carrying firearms in California. This case represents a significant legal battle that could reshape gun rights across state lines, bringing into question whether the Second Amendment’s protections should be limited by state borders. 

Survival World

Beyond Varsity Blues: In pursuit of donations, USC admitted affluent kids as walk-on athletes

Energy and telecom mogul Sarath Ratanavadi, one of the richest men in Thailand, wanted his son to attend the University of Southern California a decade ago. The admissions officer who reviewed his file, however, termed him a “mediocre student at best” with grades at a Bangkok private school that USC equated to four Ds and two Fs. But after Ratanavadi donated $3 million to the Trojan golf team, USC found a spot for his son.

Los Angeles Times

A frustrated Supreme Court to look at one version of judge shopping

The Supreme Court said Monday it would weigh in on at least one version of what is derisively called “judge shopping.” That is the phenomenon of plaintiffs going to great lengths to file cases with judges they think are sympathetic to their views. Both liberal and conservative lawyers have “judge-shopped” to one degree or another.

NPR

California Supreme Court rules there is standing for Prop 8 intervenors

When the Ninth Circuit initially referred the issue of standing for the Defendant-Intervenors in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger/Brown back at the start of the year, I wrote this: I still look for the California Supreme Court to certify this issue, and my best guess is they will find standing, the case will be sent back to the 9th Circuit for a merits decision and the 9th will uphold Vaughn Walker. Assuming all that is the case and plays out accordingly, it will sure eviscerate much of the ability of the US Supreme Court to avoid the merits on standing (which I think they otherwise would do).

Emptywheel

Pasadena appeals panel rejects Ed Buck’s appeal of sentence for WeHo deaths

A federal appeals court in Pasadena Monday rejected a former Democratic political donor’s bid to overturn his conviction for supplying drugs to two men who overdosed and died in his West Hollywood apartment. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s 30-year prison sentence for Ed Buck, who was convicted of nine felony counts stemming from the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean.

City News Service

Rudy Giuliani must give control of luxury items and Manhattan apartment to Georgia election workers he defamed, judge rules

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered former Donald Trump attorney and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to turn over all his valuable possessions and his Manhattan penthouse apartment to the control of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Georgia election workers he defamed and to whom he now owes $150 million.

CNN

Parents sue elite private school for expelling fifth-grader over squirt-gun emoji, rap lyrics

The parents of a fifth-grader are suing an elite private Mulholland Drive elementary school after their son was expelled over emails he exchanged with a classmate containing rap lyrics and the squirt gun emoji. The parents allege that the disciplinary action was "arbitrary and capricious" and that the school provided no evidence of a policy being violated or of the classmate feeling threatened.

Los Angeles Times

Black student at Oaks Christian alleges he was racially harassed for years, lawsuit says

At the prestigious Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, students allegedly downloaded a phone app that made whipping sounds and played it when a Black student walked by, according to a lawsuit filed against the school in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week. Students at the private school held a mock slave auction among themselves in the cafeteria, openly debating how much the Black student would be worth if he were sold and asking him about his physical capabilities to estimate a price, according to the lawsuit.

Los Angeles Times