October 2011 - Page 3 of 4

Vanguard Court Watch Event Will Highlight Cases of Wrongful Convictions and the Work of the Innocence Project

By David GreenwaldOctober 15, 20111 comments

On November 3, Yolo Judicial Watch will focus its attention, at its annual Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony Event, on the issue of preventing wrongful convictions. This event will feature, among others, Linda Starr, the Legal Director of the Northern California Innocence Project, which has played a strong role in a number of recent exonerations.

Maurice Caldwell, who will also speak at the November 3 event, was wrongfully convicted of a 1990 murder and had his verdict overturned last December, after spending over 20 years in prison. He was finally released this year around the first of April.

Commentary: Councilmember Souza Needs to Let this Go

By David GreenwaldOctober 14, 2011116 comments

Earlier this week, I defended Councilmember Stephen Souza from charges of “blocking” – preventing those who wished to sign petitions from doing so. However, in the last few days we have had reports that Mr. Souza may have been a bit too zealous in defending his cause.

There is nothing wrong with that, per se. As we noted, he has a first amendment right to speak out as a citizen.

Crime and Punishment Revisited Part II : A Look At the Impact of Three Strikes

By David GreenwaldOctober 14, 201110 comments

As we discussed on Thursday in the first installment of this series on the UC Davis School of Law Program on “Crime and Punishment Revisited,” the application of AB 109, commonly known as realignment, figures to change the nature of the criminal justice system, but no one knows for sure just how.

Yesterday we talked about the reasons for AB 109 and the problems in the legal system, and today we will talk specifically about three strikes.

Counter Protest Message: The Democratic Right to Fear the People

By David GreenwaldOctober 13, 201192 comments

Earlier this week, the Vanguard covered the counter-protest, if you will, those residents of Davis who are opposing the referendum. Yesterday the Davis Enterprise reported that that group of residents includes Kemble Pope, Alan Pryor, Kari Fry and Tom Cross – and ironically makes little mention of Councilmember Stephen Souza, who at least appears to be spearheading the movement.

As reported earlier in the week, the message is simply: “Think before you sign! Forcing a vote on the clean water project is a delay which will cost rate payers more money.”

Crime and Punishment Revisited

By David GreenwaldOctober 13, 201111 comments

Public Officials Explain Realignment, Why We Need It, and Express Concerns About How It Will Be Implemented –

The application of AB 109, commonly known as realignment, figures to change the nature of the criminal justice system, but no one knows for sure just how. On Wednesday, UC Davis School of Law had a program featuring policymakers, prosecutors, academics and other experts who discussed and debated just what AB 109 will mean and what will happen going forward.

This was not simply an academic exercise, as the panelists and audience members would be asked to draft recommendations that would be forwarded to the legislature. This is the first of at least two, possibly three, installments covering the panels and discussion at UC Davis.

Commentary: Water is Pitted Against Schools – Like It or Not

By David GreenwaldOctober 12, 201172 comments

It sounds good, the simple notion of pitting students and water against each other. After all, in the ideal world we should just decide every project, every expenditure, every law on its own individual merits.

And so part of me wants to agree with School Board Member Susan Lovenburg when she writes, “Will these separate needs – water and students – be pitted against one another? I trust not.”

Loophole in Reporting Process For Expenditures and Contributions for the Signature Gathering Process

By David GreenwaldOctober 12, 201130 comments

Whatever side one comes down on in the water battle that has been increasing in this community, as supporters of a possible referendum have two weeks left to get the necessary citizen signatures, the need arises for a fully transparent process.

The Vanguard has always believed that the hallmark of a free and democratic society, particularly at the local level, requires full transparency.

Prosecutorial Misconduct Leads to Wrongful Convictions

By David GreenwaldOctober 12, 20117 comments

On November 3, Yolo Judicial Watch will focus its attention, at its annual Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony Event, squarely on the issue of Preventing Wrongful Convictions. This event will feature, among others, Linda Starr, the Legal Director of the Northern California Innocence Project, and Maurice Caldwell, a man who was wrongfully convicted of a 1990 murder and who had his verdict overturned last December after spending over 20 years in prison. He was finally released this year around the first of April.

According to published reports, the critical finding was that Mr. Caldwell had been represented by ineffective defense counsel. His attorney, according to the Innocence Project, has been since disbarred for conduct in other cases. Since his 1991 conviction, another man had admitted to the victim’s murder and several witnesses would testify that Mr. Caldwell was nowhere near the scene of the crime.

Ethical Considerations Plague DBO Process in Selecting the Team to Run the Water Project

By David GreenwaldOctober 11, 201174 comments

The Clean Water Agency (CWA) had a special meeting to continue the discussion from two weeks ago about two key elements of the Design-Build-Operate process that is paramount to making the water project as affordable as possible.

On the one hand, the CWA is acting cautiously on the ethics front, as serious but different issues plague two of its bidders. On the other hand, the CWA – clearly divided on the issue of offering a fourth company a chance to bid – declined to take any further action, leaving in place the companies currently in the running.

Commentary: Starting to Question Water Tank Art Expenditures

By David GreenwaldOctober 11, 201116 comments

I am certain that the art community is not going to appreciate my views on this matter and that is fine. I have been on the fence about the water tank art project. On the one hand, I have argued that in these tough times, we ought to stop doing business as usual.

On the other hand, I think the public does not sufficiently appreciate that non-general fund expenditures cannot go to operating costs.

Fire Department Merger, Fire Staffing and the Budget

By David GreenwaldOctober 10, 201113 comments

It would be perhaps fitting if the Davis firefighters, for the last several years the symbol of failed fiscal restraint in the City of Davis and really across the state and the nation, represented the undoing of Davis’ budget hopes.

That is perhaps a premature judgment, but an increasing possibility. The city had hoped it could merge the fire operations with UC Davis as a way to save money. Indeed, the pilot project was implemented a year ago, in which there would be a sharing of the two departments’ administrative staff – the fire chief, assistant chief, and two full-time division chiefs.

Water Referendum Signature Process Heats Up

By David GreenwaldOctober 10, 2011135 comments

By the time Michael Harrington posted his allegations on the Vanguard comment section yesterday morning, the Vanguard had already been investigating allegations that the opposition to the referendum campaign, led by Councilmember Stephen Souza, had been attempting to interfere with the signature gathering process – serious charges that would have constituted an election law violation and possibly more.

Wrote Mr. Harrington, “Yesterday, Steve Souza was overheard yelling about surface water and acting as a ‘blocker’ to keep the public from talking with petition tablers at the Farmers Market, Nirth [North] Davis Safeway, and the Davis Food Coop.”

Sunday Commentary: Democracy, Referendum, and Water Rate Hikes

By David GreenwaldOctober 9, 201158 comments

There has been a lot of talk about democracy surrounding the water rate referendum. Supporters of the referendum have urged those who agree with the city’s decision on the water supply project to vote, out of a sense of democracy.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the Davis Enterprise took up the call this morning in their editorial, in which they called for the city to put water rates to a vote.

Legislative Analyst’s Office’s Fiscal Analysis of Death Penalty Initiative

By David GreenwaldOctober 9, 201110 comments

Death penalty critics, many of them recent converts to the cause precisely because of the length of stay and prohibitive cost, quickly jumped on a study released this summer from U.S. Ninth Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell, which found that the death penalty adds $184 million to the budget over what it would cost to imprison people for life.

Seizing on that study, the Safe Coalition was formed, led by notables such as former San Quentin Warden Jeanne Woodford, and former Los Angeles County District Attorney Don Heller, who wrote the original 1978 legislation.

Commentary: Westlake Boycott Shows Unions Can Be Their Own Worst Enemy

By David GreenwaldOctober 8, 201143 comments

There are those who believe that unions have out-served their usefulness. The unfortunate fact of the matter is when people see conduct like the firefighters union retaliating against a local business for advertising in a publication that they do not agree with, the reaction of many will be the same as one of our readers.

“This is just another of a long list of examples of the public unions’ actions damaging the citizenry,” the reader wrote. “What we need [is] a one-sentence ballot initiative, to amend the California constitution that simply says that public employees cannot form unions.”

DA Reisig Issues Statement on Realignment As His Office Seeks to Ratchet Up Charges Even More

By David GreenwaldOctober 8, 201127 comments

Everyone believes that AB 109, the prison realignment bill, will be a game changer, but as we have noted in previous articles and columns, no one knows just how it will play out.

Law enforcement has predictably come out against AB 109, but many seem to forget, this is not really a choice on the part of California, the federal courts are mandating prison reduction.

District Lays Out Cut List Should Parcel Tax Not Be Renewed

By David GreenwaldOctober 7, 201161 comments

The Davis School Board, following reporting requirements set forth by the County Board of Education, set forth a plan for budget reduction should Measures Q and W not be renewed.

According to a presentation Thursday night by Associate Superintendent Bruce Colby, “the district’s current ‘positive’ budget certification is based upon the official board approved district budget that includes $6.5 million in reductions pending the election result for the renewal of Measure Q and W.”

Conflicting Accounts of Tasering by CHP in West Sacramento

By David GreenwaldOctober 7, 201119 comments

The Vanguard has received additional statements about the tasering that occurred in West Sacramento on September 8, 2009.

A few weeks ago the Vanguard reported on Thomas Dias who alleges that CHP Officer Raul Reyna tasered him after he assisted his niece, who had run out of gas and was on the on the shoulder of I-80 eastbound, east of Reed Avenue in West Sacramento.

Woodland Vows to Go It Alone on Surface Water Project if Davis Falters

By uptownstudiosOctober 6, 2011146 comments

Combined with Selenium Accumulating in Davis Wetlands’ Wildlife, This is a Likely Death Knell for Davis’ Hope for a Wastewater Variance or Extension

by Alan Pryor –

Admittedly, the surface water project forum held recently by the City of Davis was well-orchestrated and rather boring with few surprises until near the end. Then, in response to a delicately-phrased question by Elaine Roberts Musser about the financial reliability of Woodland as a partner in the surface water project (an argument initially raised by some other than Ms. Musser), Woodland Councilwoman Martie Dotie assured the Davis attendees in no uncertain terms that Woodland is 100% committed to the project..

She said they had already had their Prop 218 notice providing for a good amount of the revenues they need to support the project. She then indicated they would have another Prop 218 notice next year to fulfill their revenue generation responsibilities to entirely uphold their financial end of the project.

YJW Analysis: An Examination of the DA’s Gang Case Against Topete

By David GreenwaldOctober 6, 201113 comments

“Norteño gangs” were the first words that Deputy DA Garrett Hamilton uttered in the opening statement for the prosecution – that was no accident, as Defense Attorney Hayes Gable noted in his closing arguments.

Among the most problematic elements of the current criminal justice system are liberties prosecutors and gang experts get in promoting gang charges. As Mr. Gable would note in his brilliant closing statement that thoroughly dismantled the gang charges, the gang expert’s testimony was based on smoke and mirrors – rumor and innuendo, unnamed sources and unprovable allegations backed by the expert’s “training and experience.”

Month: October 2011