Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits | |
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Conflict motion filed in Grossman case following Teran charges
The fallout from the criminal case against Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Diana Teran continues, with the DA’s office filing a motion providing notice of a potential conflict of interest linked to its high-profile case against convicted murderer Rebecca Grossman and Teran’s attorney.
Daily Journal
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Judge must generally grant CDR’s resentencing request
The Third District Court of Appeal has held that when the secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation requests that a defendant’s sentence be recalled, a presumption requires the court to grant that request and set the matter for resentencing unless the judge finds that the defendant is likely to commit an enumerated super-strike offense.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Attorney-hopeful must challenge decision of State Bar in California Supreme Court
Denial by the State Bar of California of a petition for a hearing to excuse delay in taking the first-year law students examination - a requirement for those attending unaccredited law schools - may only be challenged by a petition to the California Supreme Court, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday in a case brought by an 81-year old law student who took the exam late due to caring for his ailing wife.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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9th Circuit reprimands California judge who handcuffed, berated crying 13-year-old girl
The federal judge who has declared multiple California gun-control laws unconstitutional was reprimanded Wednesday by a judicial panel for ordering a drug defendant’s 13-year-old daughter to enter the jury box, where the judge handcuffed her and warned her about the dangers of drugs.
San Francisco Chronicle
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Superior Court can’t rid itself of cases by shipping them to ex-judge’s ADR firm
Div. Two of the First District Court of Appeal has issued a peremptory writ in the first instance directing the Solano Superior Court to decide two cases that had been filed there and which a judge of that court, on his own motion, routed to a private judge for decision. In both cases - an estate matter and a dispute over a trust - the parties are the same: Edward Biggs Jr. on one side and Loretta Biggs and Angelique Gabrielle Bouton on the other.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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California law letting property owners split lots to build new homes is 'unconstitutional,' judge rules
A controversial 2021 law that allows property owners in California to split their lots and build up to two new homes is unconstitutional, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled this week. The ruling striking down Senate Bill 9 only applies to the five Southern California charter cities that were parties to the case: Redondo Beach, Whittier, Carson, Del Mar and Torrance.
KQED
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Sovereign immunity is no protection where challenged conduct might recur
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held - in a case by a farm that engages in historical reenactments against a school district that ceased allowing schools to attend the performances after the owner of the farm posted political tweets causing parent complaints - that state actors cannot avoid a constitutional challenge to a policy by voluntarily stopping conduct in the face of litigation and claiming sovereign immunity.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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C.A. reverses restitution award where harm to victim stemmed from non-criminal acts
Div. Five of the First District Court of Appeal has held that in a hit-and-run case - where the “running” is a crime but the “hitting” isn’t - a judge improperly ordered a woman to pay $86,306.12 in victim restitution where her conviction, based on a no-contest plea, was for the felony of fleeing the scene of an accident resulting in an injury.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Ninth Circuit dismisses youth-led climate case in Oregon
A landmark youth-led climate change lawsuit in Oregon came to a halt on Wednesday when a Ninth Circuit panel granted the federal government’s petition to dismiss the case without an opportunity to amend. In their 2015 lawsuit, 21 young climate activists - initially between the ages of 8 and 19 - accuse the federal government of contributing to climate change through fossil fuel production, thus harming them and violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property while failing to protect public trust resources.
Courthouse News Service
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Jury instruction on extinct theory mandates resentencing hearing
Div. Four of this district’s Court of Appeal has held that a resentencing hearing is required where the jury was instructed on the natural and probable consequences doctrine of murder liability on the part of an aider and abettor -a now-retroactively-invalid theory under amended Penal Code §§188 and 189 - even if the prosecution only argued a theory based on an express intent to kill.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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High-ranking L.A. prosecutor booked on felony charges, released on $50,000 bond
A Los Angeles prosecutor accused last week of improperly using confidential records about sheriff’s deputies turned herself in to local police Saturday morning and was released on $50,000 bond. Diana Teran, one of L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s top advisors, was booked on 11 felony charges days after Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta alleged that she downloaded the records of 11 unnamed deputies in 2018 while working at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Los Angeles Times
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Ethical breaches at LA DA’s office: Teran charges expose systemic issues under Gascon’s leadership
The filing of 11 felony charges against Diana Teran, a top official responsible for ethics and integrity at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, has raised serious questions about the management practices under District Attorney George Gascón. The charges, involving unauthorized access and mishandling of confidential data, highlight potential systemic issues within his administration.
Westside Current
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Conflict alleged as Grossman uses same attorney representing DA defendant in Gascón office
According to the deputy district attorneys who successfully prosecuted Grossman for second-degree murder in February, a conflict of interest could arise since Assistant DA Diana Teran was above them in the prosecutor’s office chain of command when she was hit with a charge of illegally using police data on April 24.
Thousand Oaks Acorn
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Bail possible for accused white supremacist leader after ruling by O.C. federal judge
In the latest twist in a legal saga that’s dragged on for nearly six years, a federal judge in Orange County granted bail Tuesday to the accused founder of a violent white supremacist group - but the order will not take effect for at least four days pending a review by a higher court.
Los Angeles Times
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How safe is Harvey Weinstein’s conviction in L.A. trial?
With an appeals court overturning Harvey Weinstein‘s conviction in New York, all eyes are now looking toward the integrity of a California judge’s decisions that led to a Los Angeles jury’s verdict finding him guilty of rape. Weinstein’s fate may rest on a key distinction between the two states in cases dealing with sexual assault: California allows courts to introduce evidence that demonstrate a defendant’s propensity to commit sex crimes, even when the allegations haven’t led to formal charges.
Hollywood Reporter
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Advantage, Hochman: Gascon aide scandal dimming re-election hopes?
Sometimes in politics, campaign gifts just seem to fall out of the sky.
So it has happened for Nathan Hochman, the man challenging Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon in November, when Gascon top “ethics and integrity” lieutenant Diana Teran was charged with 11 felonies by Attorney General Rob Bonta.
California Globe
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Sheriff seeks to hike rates for services in contract cities
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco Tuesday will request the Board of Supervisors’ authorization to hike the blanket rate charged to 16 cities and other contract entities for the use of patrol deputies and support services associated with operations. The sheriff is seeking a 2.45% increase in the base hourly rate charged for the use of patrol personnel. The augmentation, which officials said is needed to recoup higher costs incurred by the department, would be retroactive to July 1, 2023.
MyNewsLA
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Lifestyle boutique Kitson on Robertson posts shoplifting 'Wall of Shame’
Lifestyle boutique Kitson is taking on shoplifters in a very public way, and their campaign of shame is getting noticed. Kitson on Robertson Boulevard is having a big sale. It's shame, and it's 100% free. "Public shaming is kind of hilarious. I've never seen it on this scale before," said Pasadena resident Rob Page. The Beverly Grove novelty shop has been attracting a lot of attention with its front-of-store blame, flame and shame campaign.
ABC7
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UCLA sought extra police but canceled request in days before protest camp was attacked
Five days before pro-Israeli counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA, the university Police Department asked other campuses for additional police, according to the head of the UC police officers union. But the requests - which would have provided UCLA with more police officers as they dealt with the camp and a dueling area erected by pro-Israeli activists - were both quickly canceled, according to internal communications reviewed by The Times.
Los Angeles Times
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Slow police response at violent UCLA protest under investigation
University of California President Michael Drake and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block have pledged to investigate the slow response from campus and outside law enforcement agencies during a violent protest that injured at least 15 people, officials said Wednesday, May 1. In a statement, Drake said he has requested a “detailed accounting from the campus about what transpired” in response to criticism from civil rights groups and the governor’s office over UCLA’s poor handling of the overnight clash between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters.
Pasadena Star News
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UCLA violence changes the picture on California campus protests
The student encampments to protest the Gaza war started April 17 at Columbia University, where Tuesday night New York City police stormed an occupied building and arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters. The movement quickly spread to California campuses. At the University of Southern California, Los Angeles police arrested nearly 100 protestors last week and the university canceled its main commencement ceremony.
CalMatters
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Campus police union blames UCLA for encampment response
The union that represents campus police officers at the 10 University of California schools is blaming UCLA administrators for the much-criticized response to violence that broke out at the Westwood campus this week. Federated University Police Officer's Association said Saturday that the upcoming probe by UC President Michael Drake into the university's "planning, actions and response by law enforcement" must consider the UC's own guidelines for response to campus protests.
City News Service
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An obscure California law may prevent action on protesters’ calls for divestment from Israel
One thorny detail is often overlooked amid protester calls for divestment from Israel: the looming threat of bulldozed budgets. Local governments and public universities that accept $100,000 or more in public funding from the state of California - and that means nearly all of them - cannot act on divestment demands. It’s been barred since 2016, when then-California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2844.
Bay Area News Group
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Hunter Biden demands Fox News remove salacious sex shots citing revenge porn laws
Hunter Biden's lawyers have fired off a demand letter to Fox News, saying a 2022 documentary aired on the network that showed pornographic images of the President's son engaging in a series of sex acts with a prostitute violates "revenge porn" laws enacted in many states nationwide, including California and New York, and could lead to "significant liability."
Los Angeles Magazine
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California AG announces multimillion-dollar settlement with University of Phoenix over aggressive recruitment tactics
Under a proposed settlement agreement announced Thursday, the University of Phoenix and its parent company Apollo Education Group would pay $4.5 million after authorities said they used illegal tactics to aggressively recruit members of the military to enroll as students. The company has agreed to the deal - though at press time, a judge still needs to sign off.
Courthouse News Service
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Riverside County deputy, 14 others arrested in trafficking bust
Culminating a yearlong investigation dubbed “Hotline Bling,” authorities in Riverside County have seized millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs and arrested 15 people suspected of helping a Sinaloa, Mexico, cartel’s drug trafficking network, including a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy.
Los Angeles Times
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Heist crew arrested during train burglary in the Cajon Pass
San Bernardino County deputies arrested multiple people for trying to steal from a freight train at the Cajon Pass in what resembled a scene from an old western movie. Victorville commuter Elias Vasquez bumped into a swarm of law enforcement officers as he made the long drive home Tuesday night through the Cajon Pass.
KCAL News
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L.A. gangsters used painter suits, assault rifles and zip ties for brazen armored car heists
The driver had stepped out of the Brinks truck to make a cash delivery at a Taco Bell when he saw the gun. The man holding the AR-15 wore a white painter suit. He fumbled for the driver’s keys and handed them to a similarly dressed accomplice, who climbed inside the armored car. A minute ticked by. The driver stared down the muzzle of the rifle.
Los Angeles Times
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Convictions/Sentences/Pleas | |
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Backpage executives acquitted of previous prostitution, money laundering convictions
Five months after a jury convicted them on dozens of prostitution and money laundering charges, a federal judge acquitted former executives of the controversial classified advertising website Backpage.com on most of the counts lodged against them. Backpage founder Michael Lacey and two executives Scott Spear and John Brunst were convicted in November after five years of prosecution and two lengthy trials - the first of which was declared a mistrial in 2021, and the second of which came close - over their roles in the Craigslist copycat.
Courthouse News Service
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Santa Barbara embezzler loses Hope Ranch home, ordered to pay $2.4 million in fines and restitution
It’s not often that the victims of white-collar crimes get paid back in full. Plus interest. But that was the case on April 18 when a Santa Barbara judge ordered Adam Pirozzi, a former property manager convicted of embezzlement, to pay $1.3 million in restitution to his victims. He’d stolen approximately half that amount - around $650,000 - from the owners of the properties he supervised.
Santa Barbara Independent
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Southern California woman admits to $150 million postal fraud
A Southern California woman pleaded guilty Friday to charges she defrauded the U.S. Postal Service out of more than $150 million by using counterfeit postage to ship tens of millions of packages. Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 51, who was arrested this past May, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and to the use of counterfeit postage, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. She faces as long as five years in prison.
Courthouse News Service
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True crime podcasts offer new possibilities for in-depth journalism. Just read the labels first
In the first episode of his true-crime podcast, Chris Lambert offered listeners a promise regarding a 23-year-old missing persons case in San Luis Obispo, California: “I’m going to try to learn everything I can about Kristin Smart and what happened to her in the only way that I know,” he said. “By talking to people.”
Courthouse News Service
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Car tracking can enable domestic abuse. Why turning it off is easier said than done
Having a restraining order against your former partner and a judge granting you possession of a family car should be enough to get a car manufacturer to turn off location tracking, right? Wrong. That scenario has happened to domestic abuse survivors CalMatters spoke to and the law as written hasn’t been enough to help. Abusive partners increasingly use technology to exercise control, monitor, and continue to abuse their victims.
CalMatters
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Number of FBI intelligence database searches on Americans has dropped in last year, report says
The number of FBI searches of a vast foreign intelligence repository for information about Americans and people in the United States plummeted over the last year from the prior 12 months, according to a U.S. government report released Tuesday. The release of the annual report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes more than a week after a bitterly divided Congress voted to reauthorize a surveillance program that administration officials say is crucial for national security but that civil liberties advocates say results in privacy abuses of Americans.
AP
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Inmate who killed off-duty LAPD detective in front of 6-year-old son dies in prison
A 68-year-old man convicted of murdering an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department detective in 1985 was found dead inside his cell Monday, April 29, while incarcerated at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, officials said. The death is being investigated as a suicide after Daniel Jenkins, the inmate condemned to death, was found unresponsive in his individual cell and pronounced dead by emergency services around 7 a.m.
Torrance Daily Breeze
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