Court Watch

In March of 2011, Judge Kathleen White, following a nearly six-month trial that went from July 12, 2010 to December 15, 2010 on alternate weeks, issued her ruling in favor of upholding the gang injunction in West Sacramento.  Three months later, she issued a final “Judgment Granting Injunction After Trial” against the Broderick Boys criminal street gang in West Sacramento.

The gang injunction issued by the court imposed a curfew and restricted other activities of gang members in a defined area within West Sacramento called the “Safety Zone.”

By Vanguard Court Watch Interns

Today in Judge Fall’s courtroom, Marlon Raye was brought from jail in a wheelchair for a probable cause hearing. He was arrested in West Sacramento on February 19 while riding a bicycle. He was charged with Resisting/Delaying Arrest and Possession of Methamphetamine.

Officer Wright, of the West Sacramento Police Department, testified that he observed the bicycle leaving the Pickwick Motel shortly after midnight. The officer was patrolling on foot. He called for assistance. No mention was made of why Officer Wright believed there was a reason to pursue Mr. Raye, nor why he was not in a patrol car. Foot patrol is not a common method used in West Sacramento.

by Alexandra Rose

On the morning of Monday, April 8, 2013, in Department 3 of the Superior Court of California, Yolo County, the armed robbery case of Andrew White was set to start under the Honorable Stephen L. Mock.

Andrew White is charged with two counts of robbery with use of a firearm, with an additional two enhancements related to discharging a firearm that inflicted great bodily injury.

Judge David Rosenberg has been working on this new courthouse for a decade now, and he deserves tremendous credit for the fortitude and skill to get it to the point where on Friday they actually broke ground on the new building.

“We truly love our historic courthouse … but it was built five generations ago for another time and another era,” he said, as quoted in other news accounts.  “We have outgrown that historic courthouse in every conceivable way.”

by Antoinnette Borbon

On Friday March 29, 2013, eleven alleged gang members, with all of nine different defense attorneys, filed into the courtroom. Nine different defense attorneys, with a couple conflict attorneys in that pile, were sent to the judge’s chambers for what seemed like forever, only to come out with yet another continuance date.

Some of the defendants were out of custody. Their charges stem from possession of drugs to possessing firearms and other gang-related activity. The People’s case is represented by Robin Johnson, Deputy District Attorney.

Earlier this week, we reported on a study from ProPublica that, in analyzing state and federal court rulings from 2001 to 2011, in particular “scrutinizing instances in which state or federal courts identified misconduct serious enough to throw out a conviction,” found that of 30 cases that met their very specific criteria, only one prosecutor would be disciplined in a meaningful way for misconduct.

Those findings mirrored earlier findings from the 2010 report from the Veritas Initiative, “Preventable Error,” funded by the Northern California Innocence Project, which documented more than 800 instances of prosecutorial misconduct, including 107 where the prosecutors were found to have committed misconduct more than once – two were cited for misconduct four times, two were cited five times and one prosecutor was cited for misconduct six times.

by Antoinnette Borbon

On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, the jurors came back with a guilty verdict on almost all counts in the state’s case against defendant John Timothy Ganthner, who was charged with child abuse and sexual abuse of a child, among serveral other charges and enhancements.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Gorman even added a count of torture, the only charge the jury acquitted on.

Last year when Clinton Parish was running for a Yolo County judgeship against Judge Dan Maguire, he made a critical mistake that, in the heat of the moment, is easy to make – he thought his political team had properly vetted an attack ad that they were recommending he launch against sitting Judge Maguire.

He was wrong, they had not, and the allegations turned out to be embarrassingly false.  The mistake cost him his dignity, his election, and ultimately his job.  He had to move his family from the place they had lived for over ten years.

By Charmayne Schmitz

On Monday, March 25, John Timothy Ganthner’s mother testified that her son Tim had very little experience interacting with or caring for small children. Public Defender Allison Zuvela then called the defendant to the stand.

Tim and Tina, Zane’s grandmother, had been living together for about 5 years. Zane’s mother, Vanessa, was homeless. At the time of the incident, Vanessa and Zane were living at a shelter on Power Inn Road, but Vanessa didn’t stay at the shelter every night with Zane.

by Antoinnette Borbon

The small courtroom of Department 9, Yolo Superior Court Commissioner Janene Beronio presiding, was packed full of Yolo County residents Wednesday.  Some were friends and family of the victim, with a few family members of the defendant.  All of them were anxiously awaiting the arraignment of the young man accused of beating a Davis resident.

Clayton Garzon, accused of beating a 32-year-old Davis resident and allegedly using the f-word in referring to the victim’s sexual orientation during the attack, is now facing felony charges along with three enhancements for a hate crime to each felony charge.

I was not always sold on the innocence of Ajay Dev.  It was the summer of 2009 when I received an email from Mr. Dev’s sister-in-law about the case.  Mr. Dev had just been convicted, and he had not yet been sentenced to the stunning 378-year sentence.

Little did I realize that this would be a pivotal moment in my life, as I headed out to the Roseville home of the Devs and heard their story.  I didn’t know what to think, I had not seen the case, had not heard the evidence, and I was in a position of having to take their word for it.

In February, the State Bar of California filed disciplinary charges against a Yolo County attorney for allegedly failing to comply with ethical rules while seeking judicial office. Clinton Parish, 41, is accused  by the California Bar of making misrepresentations about himself and his opponent in the May 2012 election for Yolo County Superior Court.

According to the complaint, in May of 2012, Mr. Parish was seeking judicial office against incumbent Judge Dan Maguire when, through campaign advertising, he made a number of misrepresentations regarding his opponent.

Three years after the conviction of Ajay Dev for the multiple counts of rape of his adoptive daughter and his sentence of 378 years to state prison, he and his attorney have filed their appeal.

Their appeal attacks both the facts of the case as well as the legal rulings used by Yolo County Judge Timothy Fall that the defense claims denied Ajay Dev of his right to a fair trial.  This includes, most notably, the inclusion of the alleged victim’s interpretation of a 50-minute pretext call that meandered between English and Nepali, the judge’s failure to properly instruct the jury on the law, and the judge’s refusal to allow potentially exculpatory evidence.

by Ibrahim Baig

People v. Johnathon Timothy Ganthner is a case about sexual abuse, torture, and violence, according to Deputy District Attorney Robert Gorman.

Ganthner’s charges include a sexual act with a child, torturing another person, and abusing/endangering the health of a child.

Three years after the conviction of Ajay Dev for the multiple counts of rape of his adoptive daughter and his sentence of 378 years to state prison, he and his attorney have filed their appeal.

Their appeal attacks both the facts of the case as well as the legal rulings used by Yolo County Judge Timothy Fall that the defense claims denied Ajay Dev of his right to a fair trial.  This includes most notably the inclusion of the alleged victim’s interpretation of a 50-minute pretext call that meandered between English and Nepalese, the judge’s failure to properly instruct the jury on the law, and the judge’s refusal to allow potentially exculpatory evidence.