Courts, Rulings & Lawsuits | |
|
ADDA sues DA Gascón for repeated violations of the California Public Records Act
The Association of Deputy District Attorneys has filed a new lawsuit against Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, accusing him of repeatedly and deliberately violating the California Public Records Act (CPRA), the state’s counterpart to the federal Freedom of Information Act. Representing over 750 Deputy District Attorneys, the ADDA asserts that Gascón’s ongoing refusal to comply with the law contradicts his public commitment to transparency.
LA ADDA
| |
|
Ninth Circuit: LA’s 100% late fee for parking tickets raises questions
A Ninth Circuit panel ruled Monday that it didn't see any basis for Los Angeles slapping a 100% late fee on parking tickets that weren't paid within 21 days. In a split decision, the three-judge panel said the city hadn't provided any evidence to justify a $63 late penalty on a $63 parking ticket and, as such, wasn't entitled to summary judgment on this point in a 10-year-old class action.
Courthouse News Service
| |
|
Private texts with racist images are unprotected speech
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that the First Amendment does not protect a police chief from being forced to resign over allegations that she sent private text messages containing racist images to two colleagues as the speech did not concern an issue of public interest. Appealing the dismissal of her First Amendment claims was Kate Adams, who was promoted to chief of police for the City of Rancho Cordova in 2020.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
| |
|
9th Circuit upholds California gun bans in some ‘sensitive’ places, but not others
California may enforce its recent ban on guns in “sensitive places” when it comes to parks and playgrounds, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, casinos, stadiums, amusement parks, zoos, libraries, museums, athletic facilities and the parking areas associated with them, a federal appellate court ruled Friday.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Former LAPD sergeant’s termination suit pared
A judge has pared a lawsuit filed by a former Los Angeles police sergeant who alleges she was targeted for termination in 2023 because of her claims that the Internal Affairs Division tries to silence some officers and fire others in order to get promotions. Ex-Sgt. Sarah Dunster’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges whistleblower protection, retaliation, failure to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation and wrongful discharge.
MyNewsLA
| |
|
Woman kidnapped, shot, validly stated claim against city
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a state claim for gross negligence against the City of San Diego based on a police dispatcher, who is also a defendant, having convinced a woman not to accede to a $2,500 ransom demand, assuring her that a supposed kidnapping of her daughter was a scam - when, in fact, it wasn’t. Non-payment of the money angered the three abductors, resulting in a shooting of the victim three times, with one bullet causing a fall that severed her spinal cord.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
| |
|
Ninth Circuit judges sick and tired of unqualified Trump judge's spamming the record with irrelevant screeds
Lawrence VanDyke is unqualified to be a United States Circuit Judge. The ABA warned everyone about this, noting that VanDyke was “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules.” But Leonard Leo and Donald Trump rammed VanDyke onto the Ninth Circuit anyway and he’s used his tenure to confirm the ABA’s prescience.
Above the Law
| |
|
12 years in prison for man who burned woman to death in North Hollywood
A man who was arrested on suspicion of murdering his one-time girlfriend Elizabeth by allegedly dousing her with a flammable liquid and setting her on fire in front of horrified motorists in North Hollywood was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison. Gerardo Contreras, 49, was initially charged with murder for the attack on Aug. 28, 2021, which police and prosecutors said was captured by a security camera on a building nearby, leaving little doubt about what happened.
NBC4
| |
|
South LA gang associate gets nine years in fatal shooting of LAPD officer
A gang associate was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison for what attorneys considered her “minor” role in the robbery and killing of an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer who was gunned down while house-hunting with his girlfriend. Haylee Marie Grisham, 21, pleaded guilty last year to one federal count of violent crime in aid of racketeering for participating in the January 2022 fatal robbery of LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos.
MyNewsLA
| |
|
Brianna Kupfer murder: Homeless man convicted of killing UCLA student who was working at furniture store
A homeless man accused of brutally stabbing to death a UCLA student while she was working in a boutique furniture shop was found guilty Tuesday. Los Angeles County jurors convicted Shawn Laval Smith, 34, for the gruesome killing of Brianna Kupfer. Jurors also convicted Smith of a special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait, along with an allegation that he used a knife during the commission of the crime for the Jan. 13, 2022 murder, Fox Los Angeles reported.
Fox News
| |
|
Friend, customer, victim? L.A. case tests limits of murder charges for fentanyl overdoses
Mo Ida Solomon's head rested on a coffee table. Her fingers, dusted with white powder, gripped the edge of it. Her half-opened eyes stared at nothing. She died in July 2023 at her Los Angeles apartment. Eight months later, a homicide detective showed a photograph of Solomon's body to Casey Linder, who said they had been "good friends for a long time."
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Spotty redactions and public records reveal names of deputies in case against DA advisor
One deputy was convicted of driving drunk with a loaded gun in the car. Another was suspended for failing to promptly report an on-duty traffic accident. An experienced detective was accused of lying on his job application. And a commander was demoted to captain for turning a blind eye to a cheating scandal in a popular law enforcement relay race.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Feds say white supremacist leaders of "Terrorgram" group plotted assassinations, inspired attacks
Federal prosecutors in California unsealed an indictment Monday charging two people with leading an online group of white supremacists that maintained a list of high-profile targets to assassinate and urging group members to commit hate crimes. A 37-page indictment filed on Sept. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California alleges that Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison led the group known as "Terrorgram," a network of channels, group chats and users on the app Telegram, that promote "white supremacist accelerationism."
CBS News
| |
|
Kidnap suspects arrested after migrant held for ransom escaped into L.A. boba shop, feds say
Last March, a man escaped from the second-story window of a motel in L.A.’s Koreatown and ran to a nearby boba shop, where he tried to tell workers he’d been held hostage. He was there only for a moment before his alleged captors caught up to him, put him in a chokehold and punched him repeatedly in the face. In a federal indictment filed in July and not previously reported, prosecutors allege that the victim - identified by the initials N.C.L. - was one of four immigrants held for ransom in L.A. after entering the country illegally and being transported from Arizona.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
6-year-old boy dies after being tortured, beaten by babysitter, O.C. prosecutors say
Chance Crawford was a happy 6-year-old boy who loved “Sesame Street” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.” The first-grader’s drawings of the Disney mascot were so detailed his family swears it was if he had pulled them straight out of a movie. Chance died Tuesday, days after prosecutors allege his babysitter tortured him and beat him with a piece of lumber. “Why would this happen to him? He didn’t get to live the rest of life,” Chance’s father, Vance Crawford, told KABC-TV.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Southern California man accused of murdering 76-year-old girlfriend
A suspect was arrested for the murder of an elderly woman in the San Fernando Valley Thursday. William Anthony Tillman, 69, is accused of murdering his 76-year-old girlfriend, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. On Thursday morning around 6:15 a.m., police responded to reports of a domestic violence assault on the 7300 block of Balboa Boulevard in Van Nuys.
KTLA
| |
|
Louis Vuitton clothes and Vegas hotels: Border agents spent big with money from Mexican cartels, prosecutors say
It seemed like a harmless work assignment trade. Jesse Garcia, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, was monitoring the pedestrian lane at the border crossing in Tecate on Aug. 22, 2023, when he asked a fellow officer to switch assignments so that Garcia would work the primary vehicle lane. While working the vehicle lane, Garcia admitted Amanda Mancera, who was driving a Toyota Camry.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Hochman, Gascon square off in debate
Wednesday night, current Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon and challenger Nathan Hochman faced off in a web-based debate sponsored by the Jewish Federation Los Angeles. And it was the last question of the debate that was almost certainly the most telling. Moderator Alex Cohen, Spectrum News 1’s current political editor, asked both Hochman and Gascon if they could find anything in the other’s campaign or stances on the issue they admired.
California Globe
| |
|
How George Gascón went from cop to one of the most progressive DAs in the country
As George Gascón’s ascended to leader of the nation’s progressive prosecutors movement he has faced fierce backlash from his own frontline prosecutors to his policies. We cover his rise and that backlash in the second episode of this season of Imperfect Paradise our podcast covering the messy realities of life in Southern California.
LAist
| |
|
L.A. County to pay $7.2 million tied to fatal shooting at fire station
More than three years after a firefighter was shot and killed by a co-worker at a remote station in Agua Dulce, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay his family $7.2 million. Tory Carlon was fatally shot while on duty at L.A. County Fire Station 81 on June 1, 2021. The following year, Carlon’s widow, Heidi, and the couple’s three children filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against L.A. County, alleging fire officials had known about the shooter’s “dangerous conduct” for years.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
15-year-old son of LAPD officers killed himself with gun found in home. L.A. County to pay $495,000
The gun was locked in a safebox. But on Dec. 17, 2019, Aiden Smith, the son of two divorced Los Angeles police officers, guessed the code: his mother’s birth year, according to court records. The 15-year-old took out his stepfather's gun and fatally shot himself. It was the second time Aiden, who told doctors he was suicidal and plagued by hallucinations of demons, had found a gun in the La Crescenta home his mother shared with his stepfather, also an LAPD officer.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Eric Garcetti perjury: He lied about #MeToo allegations to save his career
It is a rare thing when the California Globe compliments NPR - a very rare thing. But credit where credit is due as NPR just took a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s desperate, almost certainly perjury-filled, effort to deny the existence of the very nasty City Hall sexual harassment and bullying scandal involving his longtime political fixer Rick Jacobs.
California Globe
| |
|
CalMatters sues LA homeless authority to obtain secret shelter records
A string of sexual assaults in Los Angeles shelters. A brutal murder in a motel transformed into emergency pandemic housing. Rats, roaches and garbage piling up in supposed safe havens. What else is happening inside homeless shelters in California’s biggest city? CalMatters filed a lawsuit last week to find out, after the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority repeatedly denied our attempts to inspect shelter incident reports under California’s Public Records Act.
CalMatters
| |
|
VA ordered to provide hundreds of additional shelter beds, build nearly 2,000 housing units for homeless vets in LA
The Department of Veterans Affairs must establish hundreds of additional shelter beds within 18 months and build another 1,800 units of subsidized apartments by 2030 after a federal court ruled the agency has failed to comply with an agreement to develop a west Los Angeles campus with housing for disabled homeless veterans.
Stars and Stripes
| |
|
Nevada high court ends casino mogul Steve Wynn's defamation suit against The Associated Press
The Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday ended a defamation lawsuit brought by casino mogul Steve Wynn against The Associated Press in 2018, rejecting his bid for a jury to hear his claim that he was defamed by an AP story about two women who alleged Wynn committed sexual misconduct. The seven-member court upheld a February ruling by a three-judge panel that cited the state's anti-SLAPP law, or “strategic lawsuits against public participation, that blocks lawsuits filed to intimidate or silence critics."
ABC News
| |
|
Conservative activist Joe Oltmann fined $1,000 a day until he discloses evidence to court
Colorado conservative activist Joe Oltmann owes a former Dominion Voting Systems employee $1,000 a day, starting Wednesday, for as long as he continues to withhold evidence of his claims of election rigging. Oltmann is named as a non-party in a defamation suit filed by Eric Coomer, who was the former director of product security and strategy for Dominion Voting Systems.
USA Today
| |
|
Lawsuit vs. DWP filed on behalf of son, 5, of electrocuted tree trimmer
A lawsuit has been filed against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on behalf of a 5-year-old boy whose father was electrocuted while working as a tree trimmer in Cheviot Hills in 2023. The Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit's other defendants include the Cheviot Hills Homeowners' Assn. and All-In-One Landscaping Corp.
City News Service
| |
|
The Langer’s blow-up isn’t just L.A.’s biggest story. It’s also the ultimate L.A. 2024 story
The most gobsmacking story in Los Angeles these days is the fate of Langer’s Deli in MacArthur Park. But if you had passed through the neighborhood west of Downtown in recent months, then it might not have come as a surprise. Really, the bigger question would have been, why did this take so long to blow up?
Westside Current
| |
|
Illegal towing companies waiting for you to get into an accident on Southern California roadways
NBC4’s I-Team has investigated predatory towing practices where tow trucks find out about accidents, often by listening to police scanners, show up, and claim to have been dispatched by auto insurers then pressure people into allowing their cars to be towed. Gladys, a scam victim that the I-Team spoke with in 2019, said a tow company took her car to a body shop that was 20 miles away without working with her insurance. That cost her nearly $1,000.
NBC4
| |
|
LA OKs police dog donation after looking into whether Jurupa Valley provider’s name evokes Nazi history
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a donation of two police dogs after declining the request three months ago when a council member raised concerns about Jurupa Valley-based Adlerhorst International, the company that is providing the animals. The vote was 9-5, with council members Eunisses Hernandez, Katy Yaroslavsky, Heather Hutt, Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto-Martinez opposed.
City News Service
| |
|
Mayor Bass needs a new chief. That chief needs Bass’ support
In this city, it’s become a story, seemingly, as old as time: the relationship between the mayor and the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The power of these two positions is significant. Before the turn of the century, we witnessed how Mayor Tom Bradley used his power to force the ouster of Chief Daryl Gates. And, right after the start of the millennium, I personally experienced how the power of a Chief of Police can hold a mayor accountable and, ultimately, play a part in his unwilling departure.
CityWatchLA
| |
|
Million-dollar watch stolen in Beverly Hills holdup found after arrest in Miami
Police said an emerald-encrusted Patek Philippe watch worth at least $1 million, stolen at gunpoint from a tourist in Beverly Hills, was found after the arrests of three men in Miami, Florida accused of being involved in organized thefts of luxury goods across the U.S. The discovery of the Beverly Hills watch followed an investigation into another watch theft that happened in Miami in April, when a man was robbed at gunpoint and his watch, a different Patek Philippe model worth $50,000, was stolen.
NBC4
| |
|
205 arrests in multi-agency operation targeting online predators
Authorities today announced 205 arrests were made during "Operation Online Guardian", a multi-agency task force targeting predators who sexually exploit minors through the internet. The arrests were announced during a news conference at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. The operation took place between Aug. 12-23 and involved personnel from Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties assigned to the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
CBS News
| |
|
Former sheriff’s deputy arrested in kidnapping, sexual assault of girl, 14
A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and his nephew were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, according to authorities and jail records. The ex-deputy - 68-year-old Benny Caluya - is also accused of sexual assault, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He was arrested Aug. 28 by Lancaster sheriff’s deputies, and his bail was set at $250,000.
Los Angeles Times
| |
|
Wife of California inmate wins $5.6 million in settlement for strip search
The wife of a California inmate will receive $5.6 million after being sexually violated during a strip search when she tried to visit her husband in prison, her attorneys said Monday. After traveling four hours to see her husband at a correctional facility in Tehachapi, Calif. on Sept. 6, 2019, Christina Cardenas was subject to a strip search by prison officials, drug and pregnancy tests, X-ray and CT scans at a hospital, and another strip search by a male doctor who sexually violated her, a lawsuit said.
AP
| |
|
S.F. sues to halt online sales of flavored nicotine pouches
San Francisco is accusing sellers of flavored nicotine pouches - known as “nics” or “zyns” - of violating state and local laws and endangering young people’s lives. A 2016 San Francisco ordinance prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products to anyone in the city. The companies are violating that law by selling the pouches online to San Francisco customers, City Attorney David Chiu’s office said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Superior Court.
San Francisco Chronicle
| |
|
Students, professor sue UC Santa Cruz after being banned from campus following protests
The legal battle over pro-Palestinian protests at University of California campuses escalated Monday in a lawsuit by two UC Santa Cruz students and a professor who said they were among more than 110 demonstrators summarily banished from campus by police in May, with no explanation or opportunity to defend themselves.
San Francisco Chronicle
| |
|
Exclusive: California’s homeless population grew again this year, especially in these counties
New data shows nearly 186,000 people now live on the streets and in homeless shelters in California, proving the crisis continues to grow despite increasing state and local efforts to stem the tide. That’s according to an exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest results of the point-in-time count, a federally mandated census that requires counties to tally their unhoused residents over the course of one night or early morning in January.
CalMatters
| |
|
Rising hate crimes deepen divide between Hindus and Sikhs in California
On a morning just days before the New Year, Kiran Thakkar received a worrying phone call. A friend had found anti-India graffiti overnight on the Newark Hindu temple he co-founded. Someone sprayed phrases disparaging India’s prime minister and hailing a secessionist movement for the country’s Sikh minority. Support rushed in from Indian American community leaders and politicians.
KQED
| |
Convictions/Pleas/Sentences | |
|
Sheriff’s deputy pleads no contest in off-duty crash that killed 12-year-old boy in South Gate
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy pleaded no contest Thursday, Sept. 5 to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in connection with a high-speed, off-duty crash in South Gate that left a 12-year-old boy dead. Ricardo Castro, now 30, is facing six years in state prison, with sentencing set for Sept. 25 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
City News Service
| |
|
Former Orange County high school teacher who installed hidden cameras in school bathrooms sentenced to 17½ years in prison
A former teacher at a high school in Orange County who secretly installed hidden cameras in bathrooms at the school and elsewhere and, during a three-year span, viewed and downloaded hundreds of images – including of children under the age of 12 - using the restroom, was sentenced today to 210 months in federal prison for possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
U.S. Attorney’s Office Press Release
| |
|
Suspect pleads guilty in connection with death of 'General Hospital' actor Johnny Wactor
One of the four suspects charged in connection to the shooting death of "General Hospital" actor Johnny Wactor has pleaded guilty, a spokesperson for Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón's office told ABC News. Leonel Gutierrez, 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of attempted robbery and grand theft. He was not alleged to have been the one who actually shot Wactor.
ABC News
| |
|
Appeals Court holds L.A. properly certified an EIR while partly finding it exempt from CEQA
In Westside Los Angeles Neighbors Network v. City of Los Angeles, an appeals court confirmed a trial court’s decision that denied a nonprofit’s California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) challenge to Los Angeles’s Westside Mobility Plan and the City’s decision to certify an Environmental Impact Report for the Plan while at the same time finding part of it exempt from CEQA.
California City News
| | | | |
