Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits

9th Circuit lifts order restricting S.F. homeless encampment sweeps

A federal appeals court cleared the way Monday for San Francisco to sweep homeless encampments, in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court ruling, as long as it allows residents to recover their personal property. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu issued an injunction in December 2022 limiting the city from removing people from street camps without offering them immediate shelter.

San Francisco Chronicle

No cause of action lies for falsifying evidence allegations

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Friday that allegations by a neurologist that government agents fabricated evidence in a search warrant affidavit and submitted misleading reports to prosecutors - resulting in the doctor’s arrest and criminal prosecution - did not give rise to implied civil causes of action under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Supreme Court reverses Ninth Circuit decision dismissing matter pending arbitration and requires a temporary stay of proceedings instead of dismissal

The United States Supreme Court recently reversed a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that held lower courts may dismiss a case when a party requests a stay pending arbitration. Smith v. Spizzirri, 144 S. Ct. 1173 (2024). Smith and other plaintiffs were current and former drivers for a delivery service operated by Spizzirri. 

JDSupra

Amazon defeats US consumer lawsuit over ‘buy box’ product listings

A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed a proposed class action that accused Amazon.com, opens new tab of obscuring product listings for lower-priced items with better delivery times, duping millions of consumers and causing them to pay more for purchases. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle federal court said in her ruling, opens new tab that the two named buyers who sued Amazon last year had not shown how they were allegedly harmed.

Reuters

Calif. Supreme Court upholds decision that eliminated black jurors from death penalty cases

Last week, the California Supreme Court voted 5-2 to uphold an Alameda County court’s decision to issue death penalty sentences in over 30 trials, ruling that the prosecutors had valid reasons to dismiss Black jurors. “We conclude in each instance the prosecutor’s reasons were inherently plausible and supported,” the court ruled. The court cited evidence from jury questionnaires and the prosecutors’ questions directed to the jurors removed from the trial.

Oakland Post

Guards sexually assaulted 6 detained teens in CA, suit says. The survivors are suing

Six people detained as teenagers in Los Angeles County juvenile detention facilities have filed a lawsuit, saying they were sexually abused by male and female probation officers, including one survivor who was 13 when he was violently raped in his cell. The other plaintiffs were between 14 and 16 years old during the abuse, according to the lawsuit, which mentions more than 20 separate instances of sexual assault spanning nearly two decades.

Sacramento Bee

Restitution hearing due for ex-captain of dive boat that burned, killing 34

A restitution hearing is scheduled Thursday for the former captain of the dive boat Conception, which caught fire near Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day 2019, killing 33 passengers, including two Santa Monica residents, and a crew member. Jerry Boylan, 70, was sentenced in May in downtown Los Angeles to four years in federal prison for the single charged count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, a pre-Civil War law also known as seaman’s manslaughter.

mynewsLA.com

LA City attorney sues Airbnb influencer, alleged head of illegal rental ring

Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced a lawsuit on Wednesday against a “massive” illegal short-term rental ring, allegedly run by an Airbnb influencer who offered master classes in his rental schemes. According to the complaint, the rental group reaped more than $4 million in profits by listing dozens of illegal vacation rentals on platforms including Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com in violation of the city’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance.

Daily Breeze

George Gascon's Office

UC Gascon? Rampant antisemitism alleged in LA DA’s Office

The nation watched as campus after campus, seemingly inexplicably, fell victim to repugnant outbursts of open antisemitism. Pro-Hamas demonstrations ended classes around the state, Jewish students were harassed and barred from entering classrooms, and vile and historically ignorant displays of antisemitic - poorly covered as anti-Israel -sentiment were seemingly everywhere.

California Globe

Prosecutors allege antisemitism in DA’s office

A longtime prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office has accused District Attorney George Gascón of deliberately neglecting issues affecting the Jewish community in Los Angeles and discriminating against Jewish employees. “This is the first time I lack confidence in our office’s ability to treat Jewish victims equally,” Schirn told the Jewish Journal after the violence at the Adas Tora.

WeHo Online

"Do your job!" (Video)

Mayor of Newport Beach @RealWillONeill SLAMS Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon for releasing repeat offenders who brutally killed an elderly tourist in his city: "Do your job!"

Fox News

3 charged with murder after tourist killed in Newport Beach; suspects eligible for death penalty: DA

Three men have been charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the death of a tourist from New Zealand who was fatally run over during an attempted robbery at Newport Beach's Fashion Island mall, prosecutors said Friday.

ABC7 Los Angeles

In a first, federal regulators ban messaging app from hosting minors

Federal regulators have for the first time banned a digital platform from serving users under 18, accusing the app - known as NGL - of exaggerating its ability to use artificial intelligence to curb cyberbullying in a groundbreaking settlement. An app popular among children and teens, NGL aggressively marketed to young users despite risks of bullying on the anonymous messaging site, the Federal Trade Commission and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office alleged in a complaint unveiled Tuesday.

Washington Post

California man charged in July Fourth stabbing that killed 2, injured 3

A man who prosecutors say stabbed five people, two fatally, in a July 4 attack on a California beach town has been charged with murder, authorities said Tuesday. Logan Christopher Kelley, 26, was also charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and battery on a police officer, the district attorney's office announced in a news release. 

AP

District Attorney Gascón announces charges against man in sexual assault of UCLA exchange student at campus housing

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced today that Jeffery Brewer, Jr. is charged with breaking into a UCLA student housing apartment occupied by two female exchange students, and sexually assaulting one of them on July 5. “The brutal and violent sexual assault experienced by this survivor at the hands of the alleged suspect is profoundly disturbing and unfathomable, and will not be tolerated,” District Attorney Gascón said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office

DA's Race

George Soros makes bombshell U-Turn as the liberal prosecutors he helped elect plummet in popularity

George Soros has halted funding for several unpopular liberal prosecutors that he helped elect as they face uphill battles to remain in office. Namely, the U-turn has hit Los Angeles County DA George Gascon and Alameda County DA Pamela Price ahead of their re-elections, with both seen as being at risk of being booted from office.

Daily Mail

Billionaire developer Rick Caruso backs Gascon challenger Nathan Hochman for L.A. D.A.

Billionaire mall magnate and 2022 mayoral hopeful Rick Caruso announced Tuesday that he is backing Nathan Hochman for L.A. County district attorney, adding perhaps the biggest name yet to a growing list of endorsements for George Gascón’s challenger. “There’s not a more important race in the state of California than this race,” Caruso said at a news con'sference outside the historic Casa Vega restaurant in Sherman Oaks. “It really will change the trajectory of the region, which I think then changes the trajectory of the state.”

Democratic Underground

DA Gascon’s ‘lower crime’ claims false - state stats show increases

Throughout his re-election campaign, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has claimed that violent crime is actually down, though he has admitted property crime has increased a teensy bit. Because of these “facts,” Gascon and his backers - like the Los Angeles Times and other progressive political propaganda purveyors - have said that no matter how unsafe LA “feels,” the public is wrong to think that crime and safety have gotten worse under Gascon.

California Globe

CA November ballot is set, finally

California lawmakers met into Wednesday night to finish the November ballot before heading off on summer vacation until Aug. 5. They sent voters two bond issues: $10 billion for climate programs (60-5 in the Assembly, 33-6 in the Senate) and $10 billion for school and community college construction (34-3 in the Senate, 68-1 in the Assembly).

Desert Review

Newsom signs law requiring California high-schoolers to take financial literacy class

High school students in California soon will have another graduation requirement to get a diploma: financial literacy. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2927, which requires a semester-long personal finance education course to graduate. The proposed new law requires schools to offer the course by the 2027-28 school year and make it a graduation requirement by 2030-31.

Desert Sun

Opinion: Gavin Newsom tried to jeopardize democracy in California by killing changes to criminal justice reform

Californians have had constitutional powers of direct democracy since 1911, a signature accomplishment of the progressive movement and Gov. Hiram Johnson. Today, with Gov. Gavin Newsom slipping “save democracy” into every interview as he positions himself for the presidency, you’d think democracy is in pretty good shape in the Golden State. You’d be wrong. 

New York Post

Fight over retail theft is testing California Democrats’ drive to avoid mass incarceration policies

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state leaders reversed course on a plan to place a crime-focused initiative on the November ballot a day after announcing it. In a statement released Tuesday night, Newsom said there’s not enough time for state leaders to work out final language before the Wednesday deadline. State leaders rolled out the proposed measure Sunday night after spending weeks unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a separate, more punitive proposal on the same subject off the ballot.

AP

Proposed ballot measure would nearly double L.A. County’s Board of Supervisors. That’s gone unchanged since 1912

Two members of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors on Wednesday proposed sweeping reforms that could end up on the November ballot. The proposals include expanding the size of the board from five to nine, making the county CEO an elected position, and creating an independent ethics commission.

LAist

LASD announces investigation into deputy's delayed response in woman's deadly shooting

Community leaders and the family of a woman who was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting are questioning why there was a delay by law enforcement in responding to the tragedy. Raejonette Morgan, 22, was fatally shot Tuesday in the West Athens area near South LA. She was found critically injured in a bullet-clad Mercedes Benz that was stopped on the sidewalk at the Vermont Avenue exit from the westbound 105 Freeway. 

NBC4 Los Angeles

LA county axes leadership in juvenile detention system over rampant violence, officer morale collapse

Authorities in Southern California have axed more than a dozen top officials after complaints of violence and injuries from rank-and-file officers in the county's juvenile facilities. Los Angeles County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said that 14 top managers would be impacted and 13 chief deputy positions would be eliminated - "an entire layer of management" in the department, which has 6,600 employees.

Fox News

LA County Supervisors set to vote on the sheriff's parking enforcement plan

Following months of discussion about shifting responsibility for parking enforcement in unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County away from the sheriff's department, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider a plan on Tuesday to keep the responsibility within the sheriff's purview but with more oversight and expanded operations.

CNS

Pepper spray reportedly still used daily in Los Angeles County juvenile halls, despite supervisors’ orders

Although ordered by the county supervisors to stop, officers at a juvenile hall here continue to use pepper spray on a daily basis on the incarcerated, according to a recent article by Los Angeles Daily News. The newspaper reported when “Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall reopened in July 2023, probation officers arriving for their first shifts were forced to surrender the pepper spray canisters they had relied on to combat fights and unruly youth at other juvenile facilities.”

Davis Vanguard

LA Board of Police Commissioners to discuss new LAPD chief

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners is expected to enter closed session Tuesday and discuss the appointment of a permanent police chief. Additionally, the five-member board will consider the appointment of a new executive director, who is responsible for assisting and providing guidance to the board.

CNS

California's homicide rate fell nearly 16% last year, state report shows

The violent crime rate in California was up 3% last year compared with 2022, according to to new data released this week, but the state saw a significant drop in the number of homicides, continuing a recent downward trend. A report from state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta's office counted 1,892 homicides in California last year, compared with 2,206 in 2022, a nearly 16% decrease in the homicide rate per 100,000 people.

Los Angeles Times

LAPD searching for driver in near-fatal hit-and-run in North Hollywood

Los Angeles Police Department detectives are searching for the driver of a vehicle that hit a pedestrian in North Hollywood and then fled the scene. The pedestrian, police said, was taken to the hospital with “severe” injuries. It happened on Wednesday around 4:35 p.m. on Sherman Way near Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, police said.

KTLA5 Los Angeles

Man with baseball bat vandalizes church, businesses in San Fernando Valley

Police are investigating after a man vandalized a church and several businesses in the San Fernando Valley overnight. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the original call regarding a man with a baseball bat breaking windows near Sherman Way and Canoga Avenue in Canoga Park shortly after 11:45 p.m. Monday. Several alarms in the area were also triggered, LAPD said.

KTLA5 Los Angeles

Home burglaries increase in SoCal (Video)

he number of burglaries in Southern California has increased this year compared to last year, with criminals focusing more on home versus retail break-ins. Eric Leonard reports for the NBC4 I-Team on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. 

NBC4 Los Angeles

Burglars slam car into shoe store in South LA smash-and-grab theft caught on video

At least nine burglars on Thursday were involved in a dramatic smash-and-grab theft in which a car slammed into the front entrance of a South Los Angeles shoe store. Officers responded to the dramatic break-in, which was captured on surveillance video, at 3:17 a.m. after an alarm was triggered at Rich LA Clothing & Snkrs, located near the intersection of Century Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue in Gramercy Park.

ABC7 Los Angeles

Four family members allegedly shot, killed at Alameda home by father

A 54-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting his wife, his 6-year-old son and his wife’s parents at a home in Alameda on Wednesday night, police said. The man also shot another of his children, a 1-year-old boy who survived but remains in critical condition, according to authorities. The shooting occurred in the 400 block of Kitty Hawk Road around 9 p.m., the Alameda Police Department said in a social media post.

Los Angeles Times

Need a background check in California? Changes at the courts are causing long waits

Significant delays in the processing of background checks are causing headaches across California, leaving applications for jobs and housing stuck in limbo while making it harder for employers and landlords to screen for criminal records. The situation stems from a state appellate court ruling more than three years ago, which industry experts say has blocked background screeners and any court researcher from using date of birth or driver’s license information to narrow down search results as they investigate an individual’s criminal history.

Los Angeles Times

California is trying to lead the way on reparations but not clear on the path to take

California recently allocated $12 million for reparations for the state's Black residents as a way to compensate them for the harm caused by the legacy of slavery and current discrimination. Although it's not clear what the money will be spent on, it is clear it won't be directed toward cash payments at the moment, which many in the reparations movement say is the best way to atone for the legacy and harm of slavery.

NPR

California to impose permanent water restrictions on cities and towns

California will impose permanent water restrictions for the first time in history after the state’s Water Resources Control Board approved a long-debated policy. The policy, dubbed Making Conservation a California Way of Life, is intended to permanently decrease statewide water use so that water reductions during droughts aren’t as severe. The new policy was prompted by legislation signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018. 

Fox40 Sacramento

Orange County judge pleads not guilty to shooting wife

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson pleaded not guilty Friday in downtown Los Angeles to a murder charge for allegedly shooting and killing his wife during an argument in their Anaheim Hills home last August. Ferguson, whose case is being heard in Los Angeles due to his ties to the Orange County court, was previously ordered to stand trial in the case.

City News Service

Boeing accepts plea deal to avoid criminal trial over 737 Max crashes

Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people, the Department of Justice said late Sunday, after the government determined the company violated an agreement that had protected it from prosecution for more than three years.

Los Angeles Times

Woman sentenced to 35 years to life for murder of LA film consultant, social justice advocate

A woman was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison Wednesday for the fatal shooting of a well-known film marketing consultant and social justice advocate. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kerry L. White imposed the maximum term allowed under Jameelah Elena Michl's June 24 guilty plea to one count each of first-degree murder and first-degree residential burglary in connection with Michael Latt's killing at his home in Mid-Wilshire.

ABC7 Los Angeles

State parole board rescinds early parole for convicted rapist from Moreno Valley

The state Board of Parole Hearings rescinded an earlier decision Wednesday recommending parole for a 68-year-old rapist from Moreno Valley who was sentenced to 170 years in prison in 1994. The decision means that Cody Woodsen Klemp will remain in custody for now and will be referred back to the board for a future hearing regarding the granting of parole.

ABC7 Los Angeles

US judge finds California in contempt over prison mental health staffing

A federal judge has found top California prison officials in civil contempt for failing to hire enough mental health professionals to adequately treat tens of thousands of incarcerated people with serious mental disorders. Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller on June 25 ordered the state to pay $112 million in fines at a time when the state is trying to close a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

KFF Health News

Legal advocates seek public access to court records about abuse at California women's prison

Two advocacy groups on Wednesday asked a judge to unseal court records and preserve public access to hearings in the class action lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons over the sexual abuse of incarcerated women at a now-shuttered California prison. The bureau announced suddenly on April 15 that it would close FCI Dublin and transfer about 600 women despite attempts to reform the facility after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate assaults.

AP

A California inmate died during the heat wave. What do state prison conditions look like?

A woman incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla died Saturday amid the heat wave, raising concerns over extreme heat conditions in regional correctional facilities. Adrienne Boulware’s family said that they were informed by prison staff that she had died from a heat stroke. In a statement, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation public information officer Mary Xjimenez said that the cause of death appears to be related to pre-existing health conditions, not the heat.

Sacramento Bee

US Supreme Court: 10 days of blockbuster decisions with huge implications for the future

The US Supreme Court has concluded its 2023-24 term in the past two weeks with a number of profoundly consequential decisions that have major implications for the years to come. This is the court of last resort in the US and no other court may overrule its decisions. It possesses tremendous authority, having the power to strike down as unconstitutional or illegal a vast range of actions or policies undertaken within the US political system.

The Conversation

Alec Baldwin is about to go on trial in the death of a cinematographer. Here are key things to know

Nearly three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust,” Alec Baldwin is going on trial over her death. Here are the essential things to know. The actor is about to enter a New Mexico courtroom for the first time since the Oct. 21, 2021 shooting. He is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter. If a jury unanimously convicts him, he could get 18 months in prison.

NBC4 Los Angeles

The Supreme Court took powers away from federal regulators. Do California rules offer a backstop?

Tucked between headline-grabbing opinions on presidential immunity, Jan. 6 rioters and homeless encampments, the U.S. Supreme Court closed out a momentous session late last month with a series of body blows to the federal bureaucracy. Under three back-to-back rulings, regulations that touch nearly every aspect of the American economy and American life (see: rules on food safety, water quality, overtime pay, medical billing, carbon emissions, fisheries monitoring and housing discrimination, to name a few) may soon be harder to enforce, more convenient to challenge in court and easier to strike down once challenged. 

CalMatters