Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits

Gascón retaliated against prosecutor for exposing deception of transgender sex offender, suit claims

A veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor alleges he faced retaliation from District Attorney George Gascón for exposing misconduct in the widely publicized case of child molester Hannah Tubbs, who began identifying as a transgender woman after her 2014 arrest for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Palmdale.

Southern California News Group

D.A. authorized to issue grand jury subpoena at any time

It’s no impediment to the issuance of a subpoena to testify before a grand jury that no panel has yet been formed, the Office of Attorney General has declared in an opinion. Responding to an inquiry from El Dorado District Attorney Vern Pierson, Deputy Attorney General Susan Duncan Lee said in an opinion released Friday: “[P]rosecutors may lawfully issue criminal grand jury subpoenas for witnesses to appear at a future grand jury proceeding where the grand jury that will hear their testimony has not yet been impaneled."

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Deputy attorney sues LA, claims retaliation after complaining about digital evidence storage

A veteran prosecutor for the City Attorney’s Office is suing Los Angeles, alleging his career “has now gone backward” for complaining that the office’s criminal branch was non-compliant with state and federal requirements regarding the safekeeping of digital evidence. Deputy City Attorney David Bozanich’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges whistleblower retaliation.

City News Service

Request to decide moot media-access issues denied

An appeal from an order only partially unsealing requests by the Sheriff’s Department for warrants to search cellphones belonging to persons arrested for throwing objects at law enforcement officers during a protest must be dismissed as moot given that the judge has now ordered the release of all records sought, the Court of Appeal for this district has held, spurning the request by a media group to determine the merits, nonetheless.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Liability for high-risk stop is ‘clearly established’

It is clearly established that reasonable suspicion by police officers that a vehicle is stolen does not justify a high-risk, 24-minute traffic stop during which the plaintiff was asked to exit the car at gunpoint in front of her passenger and teenage daughter and asked to lay flat on her stomach on the ground, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday. The car, it turned out, belonged to the detained driver Hasmik Chinaryan. 

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Appeals court sides with Oxnard treasurer in dispute with city

Oxnard's elected treasurer, Phil Molina, won back his job duties and pay after a state appellate court voided city actions that had largely stripped him of his role. The unanimous opinion of three justices, filed Wednesday in the Court of Appeal's 2nd District, which includes Ventura County, is the latest in a yearslong conflict between Molina and Oxnard. But the dispute isn't over just yet.

Ventura County Star

Sentence for bribe-taking federal agent vacated

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday vacated the 10-year prison sentence imposed on a former special agent with Homeland Security Investigations who was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery of a federal public official, and money laundering. A three-judge panel - comprised of Circuit Judges Gabriel P. Sanchez and Kim Wardlaw and Senior Circuit Judge Richard Paez - held, in a memorandum opinion, that District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner erroneously relied on commentary to a sentencing guideline relating to bribery rather than the text of the guideline, itself, without determining whether the text is “genuinely ambiguous.”

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Conn. police violated free-speech rights of man who warned drivers with ‘Cops Ahead’ sign, judge rules

A city police lieutenant violated a local man’s free-speech rights by arresting him in 2018 for holding up signs reading “Cops Ahead” a few blocks from a law enforcement operation targeting people talking on cellphones while driving, a federal judge ruled. The ruling last week by Judge Omar A. Williams, who sits in U.S. District Court in Hartford, is a win for Michael Friend, a food delivery driver and occasional protester of government actions, in his lawsuit against Lt. Richard Gasparino of the Stamford Police Department.

Journal Inquirer

Meta beats censorship lawsuit by RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine group

Meta Platforms defeated an appeal by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., challenging its censorship of Facebook posts that spread misinformation about vaccines’ efficacy and safety. In a decision on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, said the nonprofit did not show that Meta worked with or was coerced by federal officials to suppress views challenging “government orthodoxy” on vaccines.

Reuters

Judge orders UCLA to ensure equal campus access to Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protests

A federal judge on Tuesday admonished UCLA for its handling of pro-Palestinian encampments and ordered the university to ensure equal access to Jewish students, three of whom alleged in a lawsuit that the university enabled protesters to block Jews from parts of campus because of their faith.

Los Angeles Times

Christopher Dorner gun found at Airbnb of alleged 'crime tourists' after Beverly Hills robbery of $1 million watch

A gun once registered to Christopher Dorner - the notorious former L.A. cop who killed four people including two law officers - was found in the L.A. Airbnb of a pair of alleged “crime tourists,” federal prosecutors say. The two South American nationals are accused of stealing a $1-million watch at gunpoint last week on the patio of the Beverly Wilshire hotel.

Los Angeles Times

Multiple people charged in connection with overdose death of actor Matthew Perry

A web of people motivated by greed - two doctors, a live-in-personal assistant, an acquaintance and a drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen” - conspired to provide Matthew Perry with the ketamine that caused his accidental overdose death last year, federal authorities announced Thursday.

NBC News

Man who allegedly threw woman into freeway traffic charged with attempted murder

A man who allegedly attacked a woman at an LA Metro station in Pasadena and then threw her into oncoming traffic on the 210 Freeway has been charged with attempted murder. On Monday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced 33-year-old Juan Pablo Flores has been charged with one count of attempted murder and one count of mayhem.

KTLA

2 retired LA County deputies among 4 indicted in fake immigration raid in Irvine

An indictment unsealed Monday accused four men, including two retired LA County Sheriff's deputies and two former soldiers from Australia and Great Britain, of staging a fake law enforcement raid on a home in Irvine, where the resident was allegedly held against his will and coerced into signing over business interests worth more than $37 million.

NBC4

State prosecutors drop three felony counts against Los Angeles County D.A. advisor

Four months after California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced a slew of felony charges against a top advisor to the Los Angeles County district attorney, state prosecutors this week dropped three of the 11 counts but still pushed forward toward a trial. Diana Teran, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department advisor who later oversaw ethics and integrity operations at the D.A.’s office, is accused of illegally using confidential personnel records.

Los Angeles Times

San Francisco D.A. brings charges against pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked Golden Gate Bridge

Protesters blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in mid-April to call attention to the war in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinian civilians whose cities were being bombarded. Now, authorities in San Francisco are prosecuting them for trapping people in their cars on the bridge for hours. The San Francisco Public Defender countered that officials were “weaponizing the law” against protesters; he wants the charges dropped.

Los Angeles Times

California AG faces skeptical judge in case against Los Angeles assistant DA

Prosecutors from the California Department of Justice faced off with a skeptical judge on Thursday in their bid to put a Los Angeles assistant district attorney on trial. Thursday's hearing came as state prosecutors accuse that assistant DA, Diana Teran, of illegally using information she obtained while working for the LA County Sheriff's Department.

Courthouse News Service

Paying the accused: DA Gascon’s top aide/potential felon still on payroll

Despite her status as a suspected felon, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s “Ethics and Integrity Assistant District Attorney,” Diana Teran is still on the public payroll and getting paid - a lot, in fact. Since she was charged with eleven (that number was cut to eight last week by a LA County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta) felony counts by state Attorney General Rob Bonta in late April, Teran has collected more than $60,000 in pay and “flex earnings.”

California Globe

California law firm and senior managers settle False Claims Act allegations regarding misuse of Paycheck Protection Program loan funds

The Bloom Firm, a California law firm, and Lisa Bloom and Braden Pollock, members of the firm’s senior management, have agreed to pay a total of $274,000 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly providing false information in support of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application submitted by The Bloom Firm.

Office of Public Affairs Press Release

Suspect charged with sexually assaulting mother walking with newborn in Brentwood

A man accused of sexually assaulting a mother who was walking her 4-week-old baby in Brentwood was charged for the attack Friday. Abraham Shily, 26, is accused of sexually and physically assaulting Carmina Lu as she was walking in the 900 block of South Gretna Green Way on July 16. Lu had been speaking to a friend in the neighborhood at around 5 p.m. Moments after saying goodbye, a shirtless attacker suddenly approached her from behind.

KTLA

City Council opposes proposed drone law

At its Aug. 6 Regular Meeting, the Beverly Hills City Council voted 4-1 to oppose Senate Bill 99, which would ban the use of several of the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) drones. The bill is authored by Senator Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, and would prevent cities from purchasing military equipment from any manufacturers that the United States Armed Forces is prohibited from purchasing. 

Beverly Hill Courier

What the Supreme Court left unsaid about Trump’s criminal immunity

When the Supreme Court set out to decide Donald Trump’s bid for presidential immunity, the justices were aiming to establish “a rule for the ages.” Instead, the court left a muddle that both Trump and his prosecutors now hope to exploit - and their efforts may send the case hurtling right back to the justices, perhaps within months.

Politico

California advances bid to create legal drug injection sites

The California Assembly on Thursday approved a controversial bill allowing Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco to set up places where opioid users could legally inject drugs in supervised settings. The move follows more than a year of legislative consideration, with proponents saying it would save lives and detractors saying it would enable drug addiction.

AP

L.A. city attorney is searching employee emails, staffer alleges

Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto has been reviewing the emails of her employees without their knowledge, contributing to a climate of fear within the office, an employee has alleged. In a document recently filed with the city, Sean C. Tyler said he saw Feldstein Soto order a supervisor to look through the emails of Michelle McGinnis, then the head of the office’s criminal branch.

Los Angeles Times

Newsom slams LA County supervisors on lack of homeless action, Supervisor Barger responds

California Governor Gavin Newsom voiced significant frustration with Los Angeles County's response to the homeless crisis on Thursday, as he personally assisted in the cleanup of a homeless encampment in Mission Hills. Newsom, working alongside Caltrans workers, helped remove debris and trash from the encampment located under an overpass.

Fox11

How Beverly Hills Police Department uses tech to fight crime (Video)

The small ritzy city of Beverly Hills may be only 5.5 square miles but they have more than 2,500 cameras monitoring just about every block. One camera unit flashes lights to let you know you're being watched. Their high-end cameras are so impressive that they can read car license plates from a quarter of a mile away. Police Chief Mark Stainbrook showed Inside Edition's Jim Moret the "real time crime watch center" in action as a 911 call came in.

Inside Edition

LAPD releases video of officer fatally shooting 18-year-old from unmarked police car

Newly released video from the Los Angeles Police Department on Monday shows how a confrontation last month between a plainclothes vice officer and an unarmed 18-year-old ended in a fatal shooting. The family of Ricardo “Ricky” Ramirez Jr. recently announced they were asking the state prosecutor to file criminal charges. They plan to sue the city for wrongful death.

Los Angeles Times

Crime

Four suspects arrested in fatal shooting of 'General Hospital' actor Johnny Wactor

Four people were arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Johnny Wactor, the “General Hospital” actor who authorities said was gunned down in May after he interrupted a catalytic converter theft, police said Thursday. In a statement, the Los Angeles Police Department identified three suspects arrested on suspicion of murder - Robert Barceleau, 18; Leonel Guiterrez, 18; and Sergio Estrada, 18.

NBC News

Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of every American. How to protect yourself

About four months after a notorious hacking group claimed to have stolen an extraordinary amount of sensitive personal information from a major data broker, a member of the group has reportedly released most of it for free on an online marketplace for stolen personal data. The breach, which includes Social Security numbers and other sensitive data, could power a raft of identity theft, fraud and other crimes, said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Los Angeles Times

Man arrested for trying to kidnap 17-year-old girl in parking lot of Simi Valley Public Library

A man was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly attempted to kidnap a teenage girl outside of the Simi Valley Public Library. The original incident happened at around 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the library, located in the 2900 block of Tapo Canyon Road, according to the Simi Valley Police Department. Investigators learned that the victim, a 17-year-old girl, was walking with her mother back to their car when they were approached by the suspect. 

KCAL News

LAPD makes ‘significant’ arrests in San Fernando Valley burglaries

A surge of resources deployed in response to increased burglaries in the San Fernando Valley has led to two “significant” arrests, Interim LAPD Chief Dominic Choi announced Tuesday. “About a week and a half ago, there were two significant arrests that were made. The investigations will tell you that these two individuals are well known for burglaries,” Choi told the city’s Board of Police Commissioners.

City News Service

Man fatally shot in the face in South Los Angeles, reportedly during street takeover

One person is dead after being shot in the face, reportedly during a street takeover in South Los Angeles, and authorities on Sunday were investigating. The incident happened around 3:30 a.m. at the intersection of 89th Street and Broadway, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The victim, only described as a man between 40 and 50 years old, died at the scene.

ABC7

Off-duty Beverly Hills officer shoots and kills armed man in Van Nuys, police say

One man is dead following a shooting involving an off-duty Beverly Hills Police officer in Van Nuys Thursday night. The shooting happened around 8 p.m. on Roscoe Boulevard near the 405 Freeway on-ramp. The Beverly Hills officer was driving with another person when he saw two people fighting on the street. One of the men had a pipe and the other a gun, according to police. The off-duty officer tried to break up the fight and as a result fired his gun, striking one of the men.

NBC4

Teens storm, trash 7-Eleven in Pico-Robertson

Shocking surveillance video shows a flash mob robbery inside a 7-Eleven store Friday night in Pico-Roberston. In the video, dozens of young people can be seen overwhelming store employees. The surveillance video shows the vandals stuffing their hands with food, knocking over aisles, breaking the cash register, busting windows, and taking cigarettes. "They destroyed everything, even the coffee machine," said Aika, an employee.

City News Service

Tow no! New fees, new costs for state towing biz

The towing and vehicle storage business may not be the most glamourous, but it is indispensable. Helping clean up after wrecks, moving nuisance vehicles out of the way, responding to emergencies, storing impounded cars, clearing the freeways as quickly as possible and providing roadside assistance to stranded motorists – this is what they do all day.

California Globe

California defends one-gun-a-month law at Ninth Circuit

The state of California told a Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday that a ban on buying more than one gun in a 30-day period doesn’t violate people’s Second Amendment rights, it just controls the pace they can acquire them to try to prevent criminals from buying guns in bulk. “Do arms traffickers buy two at a time? It seems like no,” said U.S. Circuit Judge Danielle J. Forrest, a Donald Trump appointee. 

Courthouse News Service

FBI, in private meeting with Trump, revealed new details about his would-be assassin: Sources

In a private meeting with Donald Trump last week, FBI agents and other law enforcement officials offered the former president new, previously undisclosed details about the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who came close to assassinating Trump at a rally last month, sources familiar with the meeting told ABC News.

ABC News

Federal judge rules Harvard University must face antisemitism lawsuit from Jewish students

A federal judge denied Harvard University’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by six Jewish students alleging the school did not properly address ongoing campus antisemitism. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns wrote in his ruling Tuesday that despite how former Harvard president Claudine Gay and interim president Garber "repeatedly publicly recognized" an "eruption of antisemitism," there were many instances where "Harvard did not respond at all."

Fox News

Federal appeals court issues another blow to Biden’s student loan repayment plan

A federal appeals court delivered on Friday another blow to President Joe Biden’s student loan repayment plan, siding with Republican-led states that asked it to block further implementation of the plan until their challenge to it is resolved. The fate of the plan, known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), is in flux as courts across the country consider two legal challenges brought by several Republican-led states.

CNN

Ventura men receive prison terms for crime spree in which taco truck vendor extorted, small businesses robbed last year

Two Ventura County men were sentenced today to federal prison terms for their roles in a crime spree late last year in which a taco truck vendor was extorted, two small businesses were robbed, and for fraudulently using debit and credit cards from a victim robbed at gunpoint. Oscar Aguirre Silva, 31, of Ventura, was sentenced to 72 months (six years) in federal prison by United States District Judge Hernán D. Vera, who also ordered him to pay $2,941 in restitution.

U.S. Attorney’s Office Press Release

LA man convicted of killing boy in Long Beach who took cellphone and ran

A Los Angeles man was convicted by jury this week of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy who attempted to steal a cellphone during an OfferUp sale in North Long Beach two years ago. The Long Beach Superior Court jury deliberated for more than two days before finding Jose Bustamante Cardenas, 27, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, guilty in the April 15, 2022, slaying of Joshua Simmons at the Via Carmelitos Community Center after the two met up to discuss Simmons potentially buying Cardenas’ lavender iPhone 11 Max for $500.

Southern California News Group

GM manager gets 2 years for taking millions in bribes

An Irvine man was sentenced to two years in federal prison for accepting millions in bribes from a South Korean company hoping to win a lucrative contract from General Motors. In addition to the prison time, Hyoung Nam So, a 49-year-old former GM manager who also went by Brian So, was ordered to repay $250,000 after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery in November, the United States Department of Justice said in a news release.

KTLA

CNN losses another motion in defamation case as court orders Tapper to appear

We previously discussed the defamation lawsuit against CNN and the curious effort to use Taliban law to dismiss the lawsuit by Navy veteran Zachary Young. The litigation has not been going well for the network and it just lost another key motion to block an effort to depose Jake Tapper. Worse yet, the court appears to have questioned the veracity of the host in a sworn deposition on his lack of knowledge over the financial subject matter of the deposition.

Jonathan Turley

Judge tosses convicted lawyer’s $10 million defamation lawsuit against Inner City Press

A federal judge threw out the defamation lawsuit by a convicted lawyer seeking $10 million in damages against Inner City Press, a nonprofit operated by Matthew Lee who reports from the federal court in Manhattan, for purportedly falsely implying that he was charged and convicted of domestic violence. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi on Wednesday granted Inner City Press's motion to strike the claims under California's anti-SLAPP statute, a law that empowers courts to dismiss at an early stage unmeritorious accusations that attempt to restrain free speech.

Courthouse News Service

Yes, Trump was in a scary helicopter ride. But not with that politician.

Donald J. Trump was doubling down on Friday about his story of nearly crashing during a helicopter ride once with Willie Brown, the notable Black California politician. He was so adamant that it had happened that he threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting that the story was untrue, then posted on his social media site that there were “‘Logs,’ Maintenance Records, and Witnesses” to back up his account.

New York Times

Trump campaign says 'hostile' foreign sources hacked and leaked internal documents, emails

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday that some internal documents and communications had been hacked and leaked to a news organization - and blamed it on “foreign sources hostile to the United States” intent on interfering with the presidential election. The acknowledgment by the campaign came after Politico reported it had received emails from an anonymous account with documents that purported to be from inside the Trump campaign operation.

USA Today

101-year-old Disney accused of age discrimination & retaliation in fired 73-year-old business analyst’s lawsuit

The optics are pretty lousy when a company run by a 73-year-old man cans a nearly 20-year employee as she hits 73 and then attempts to call it a retirement on paper. Yet, according to former longtime Disney business analyst Deborah Violante, that is exactly what happened to her at the Bob Iger-led Mouse House last year.

Deadline

Dupo police officer shot while on duty awarded over $3 million in damages

A Dupo police officer who was shot by a homicide suspect last year will receive damages from the shooter’s estate after a recent judge’s ruling that he is owed over $3 million for lost wages, pain and suffering. Sgt. Patrick Carrier was responding to a call about a shooting the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, when the suspect shot him in the shoulder with an AR-15 rifle.

Belleville News-Democrat

In Amazon case, the Washington SC becomes the first to give plaintiff lawyers this new way to sue

The Washington Supreme Court has given a boost to price-gouging claims against Amazon, opening the retail giant to new claims over increased costs during the COVID pandemic. Answering a certified question from Seattle federal court, a 5-2 majority found price-gouging is an unfair trade practice under the state's Consumer Protection Act. 

Legal Newsline

Attempted homicide of California institution for men officer under investigation

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating the attempted homicide of a peace officer at California Institution for Men (CIM). On Aug. 11, 2024, at approximately 8:30 p.m., officers observed incarcerated person Kevin G. Roby, 60, exiting his housing unit wearing only his boxers with no shoes. Roby ignored officers’ orders to stop as he continued walking onto the yard, where he yelled he would kill anyone left on the yard and pulled out an inmate-manufactured weapon in a sheath from his boxers.

CDCR News Release