Court Watch

Clinton Parish Acknowledges Some Accusations Baseless But Does Not Go Far Enough for His Opponent

On Wednesday, Clinton Parish, whose candidacy for judge in Yolo County can only be described as on life support, acknowledged that he failed to properly vet charges that were launched in his mailer.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Parish admitted that he “did not verify claims in an attack mailer that alleged campaign rival Judge Dan Maguire was involved in corporate fraud and bribery while working at a Colorado law firm in the mid-1990s.”

One attack piece, targeted for voters in Davis, attacked Judge Maguire on a number of issues such as the deal to commute the sentence of the son of former Speaker Fabian Nunez, despite the fact that Dan Maguire was already a judge in Yolo County by the time that occurred.

For the second time in less than a week, mailboxes in Davis and probably the rest of Yolo County received an attack mail piece.  This time it was the race for Yolo County Superior Court Judge and Judge Dan Maguire, the incumbent was on the short end of it.

In addition to touting the Deputy DA’s record and endorsements from Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto, and the West Sacramento, Woodland and Winters Police Officers Association, the mailer attacks Dan Maguire as “Arnold’s Bagman,” referring to former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Representatives for the defense in the misdemeanor case against bank blockers on Thursday indicated that they were not inclined to take any plea offer in this case, as that would be tantamount to acceptance of the criminalization of dissent.

Tim Kreiner, a media spokesperson for the defendants told the media Thursday morning, “It was rejected in part on the grounds that any continuance of prosecution is a wrongful attempt to prosecute political speech on campus.”

Five attorneys will represent the 12 defendants facing 20 counts of blocking the US Bank Building in UC Davis’ memorial union from January 13 until the bank closed its down on February 28.

This week, Judge Dan Maguire received the endorsements of both the Davis Enterprise and Woodland Daily Democrat.

The Davis Enterprise writes, “Yolo County voters have the opportunity on June 5 to send a rousing vote of confidence to a well-respected member of the Yolo Superior Court bench: Judge Daniel Maguire.”

One of the big problems that we have identified in the criminal justice system is the lack of accountability that prosecutors have when they commit acts of misconduct.  As we have noted in the past, the research done by the Innocence Project in California shows only a small number of  prosecutors are sanctioned, even when acts of misconduct lead to cases being overturned.

California is not alone.  Researchers have found a similar pattern in Texas.

The Vanguard covered the two-week trial of Angel Palacios, Carlos Hernandez and German Martinez, each of them 20 years old, each of them found guilty of possessing a Tec-9 type assault pistol in their car.  They were also found to be Norteño gang members from Woodland and to have been engaging in criminal street activity.

According to the DA’s version of events, witnesses testified at trial that on August 17, 2010, two groups of gang members were in the area of Harris Park near Midtown Elementary in Woodland. Just as school security arrived, a rival gang member challenged defendant Hernandez, who appeared to have an object in his hand.

I often hear it asserted that the US has the best system of justice in the world.  Often we arrive at this conclusion based either on our own prejudices and biases, but also in comparison to non-democratic nations around the world.

Having watched our system of justice in action for the last two and a half years, I have no such illusions.  I think the adversarial system does us far more disservice, in the interest of justice, than service.  The job of the prosecutors as representatives of the “people” ought to be dispensing justice rather than winning cases.

Last week, a Yolo County jury convicted 22-year-old Charles Quillin of first degree murder for the death of Mathew Smith on August 27, 2011.

According to a press release from the Yolo County District Attorney’s office, on August 26, 2011, Charles Quillin, Mathew Smith, Mr. Smith’s girlfriend, and two other friends went to Mr. Quillin’s trailer in West Sacramento to drink and hang out. Sometime after midnight, Mr. Quillin wanted one of the girls to leave his trailer after she vomited all over his living room.

As many as 100 students and faculty members turned out on Monday afternoon to show solidarity with 12 protesters facing as many as 21 misdemeanor charges, up to 11 years in prison, and restitution fines up to one million dollars for their activities relating to the blocking of a US bank building from January into early March.

On Friday, 12 of them will be arraigned in Yolo County Superior Court.  On Monday they rallied, asking the chancellor and the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office to drop the charges.  Students and others were signing the letters during the course of the event.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen today certified a fifth measure for the November 6, 2012, General Election ballot. The measure would repeal the death penalty, according to a news release from the California Secretary of State’s Office.

In order to qualify for the ballot, the death penalty repeal initiative needed 504,760 valid petition signatures, which is equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2010 gubernatorial election.

Tomas Matzat received good news and bad news on Friday.  The good news is that, in part thanks to the vigilance of his friends and fellow occupiers, he and his attorney met with those in charge of the College of Letters and Science, and it was determined that he would be able to be reinstated as a student so long as he follows some unspecified terms and conditions.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Matzat was scheduled to be arraigned in front of Commissioner Janene Beronio.  However, his attorney requested that the arraignment be delayed until May 11, where he will be arraigned by Judge Timothy Fall in Yolo County Superior County.

UC Davis student Tomas Matzat will be arraigned this afternoon on felony vandalism charges, the Vanguard finally confirmed late Thursday.  The arraignment had been something of a mystery, as Mr. Matzat apparently received the date upon his release from custody, but the hearing was not on the public calendar or in the court’s computer system.

Repeated emails to Assistant Chief Deputy DA Michael Cabral were unreturned, despite the request for public information.  The hearing was finally confirmed by the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office.