Month: December 2010

What we do know suggests something very wrong happened that night, and the people most responsible for that were not the defendants who may have to stand trial in two months for a fourth time, but rather the people that we entrust to protect us and keep us safe – police officers.  Unfortunately the DA’s Office is more concerned with protecting the financial interests of West Sacramento than they are in seeing that justice is done.  The statute of limitations has long since run on a state charge of felony assault.  And likewise a federal civil rights charge, for which the statute is five years, and which ended six months ago.

Last year, California’s judiciary adopted new transparency rules that allowed access to spending records on personnel, including salaries.

The Contra Costa Times have obtained court information that includes  includes all California judges and employees of appellate courts, the supreme court and the administrative office of the courts, and totals more than $1 billion in salaries for 15,377 employees.

After nearly five months of on again-off again testimony and hearings, the Gang Injunction trial has finally wrapped up as the plaintiffs presented their closing statement on Wednesday. The defense deferred theirs, and will submit written arguments only.

The plaintiff’s case rested on combining a number of crimes that seemed at times to be almost random and scattered throughout the safety zone, involving individuals that were said by police officials to be gang members.

Last week a Yolo County jury acquitted Fermin Galvan on one charge and nearly a second.  They also hung on the four charges against Ernesto Galvan, who in 2005 was beaten nearly to death by Officers Schlie and Farrington of the West Sacramento Police Department.

On Monday, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office stunned many legal observers in pursuing a fourth trial in the case that has seen two hung juries in the 2010 calendar year alone.

On Monday, the Vanguard presented the Innocence Project’s report that flagged over 700 cases statewide.  On October 5, 2010, the Northern California Innocence Project came out with a report, “Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997–2009,” that uncovered over 700 cases in which courts had found prosecutorial misconduct during an 11-year period.  Of all of those cases, only six prosecutors were disciplined.

The misconduct covered in the report ranged from failing to turn over evidence to presenting false evidence in court.  As a response to their research, the Northern California Innocence Project is calling for legal reforms requiring courts to report all findings of misconduct to the State Bar, which they currently are not required to do.  When a court decides the misconduct was harmless, those cases often go unreported.

Just when it appeared over for the Galvan brothers, who have had to endure a lifetime of injuries and already three trials as the result of an incident that took place early in the morning in June of 2005 at a dark park in West Sacramento, Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Palumbo announced that the DA’s Office intends to try the case for yet a fourth time.

Right now a trial readiness conference is set for January 31 and a fourth trial set to begin on February 7 – assuming there are no further delays.

On October 5, 2010, the Northern California Innocence Project came out with a report, “Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997–2009,” that uncovered over 700 cases in which courts had found prosecutorial misconduct during an 11-year period.  Of all of those cases, only six prosecutors were disciplined.

The Vanguard has found four cases in Yolo County: Racimo, Lindeman, Massey, and Morales.  However a source indicates a fifth case might be added, which would be the case of Lawrence James Miranda, which  was overturned because the prosecutor, then-Deputy DA Jeff Reisig, withheld exculpatory evidence and the conviction was reversed on appeal.

This week UC Davis announced that, more than a year after it was acknowledged that the longtime director of the Campus Violence Prevention Program had exaggerated the numbers of forcible sex offenses reported under the Clery Act in 2005, 2006 and 2007, the former director of that program has been arrested. 

The arrest of Jennifer Beeman occurred on December 9, on charges of embezzlement of public funds and eight other felonies in connection with her alleged misuse of public funds as director of the Campus Violence Prevention Program.

For the third time, a Yolo County Jury has hung on charges against Ernesto and Fermin Galvan.  But this time it was different.  The Galvan brothers, who have been prosecuted since 2005 for resisting arrest and battery on police officers, in the two previous trials had seen 11-1 splits in favor of the prosecution.  That prompted the DA to refile charges twice and continue pursuit of the case.

However, this time it was very different.  Fermin Galvan, who was the less active participant and the brother less badly beaten by the police, was nearly completely acquitted.  He was acquitted of the misdemeanor charge of resisting detention by then-Officer Jim Reeder, who dropped him to the asphalt with a leg sweep. The jury hung, 11 to 1 in his favor on the misdemeanor charge that alleged he had caused interference or delay to Officer Donald Schlie’s detention of his brother.