Court Watch

Sunday Commentary: How Liberty Mutual Defied Its Image to Team with Yolo DA to Squash a Vulnerable Injured Worker

Vela-Linda

It is a brilliant and powerful montage, one in which a female voice sings in the background, “I am falling half an acre.”  The images depict a string of events in which people uncharacteristically go out of their way to do the right thing for their fellow human kind.

Finally, after nearly a minute of images, the music building to crescendo, the voice over comes on, “When it’s people doing the right thing, they call it being responsible.  When it’s an insurance company, they call it Liberty Mutual.”

Release of Dash Cam Video Generate More Controversy in Topete Case

KCRA-Topete

When KCRA 3 in Sacramento requested the dash cam video of the pursuit that ended up with Deputy Sheriff Tony Diaz being shot, and aired it on Thursday evening, it caught many off guard.

The video was a sensitive matter to the family.  When it was initially shown in court, relatives of Tony Diaz responded in loud emotional outbursts that required the court to recess and prompted the defense to ask for a mistrial.  While Judge Paul Richardson refused to declare a mistrial, he did admonish the family to control themselves.

Report: Yolo County Highest Direct File Rate of Juvenile Cases in the State

juvenile-courtWhen five defendants – four of them juveniles under the age of 16 were arrested in January of 2011 for assault and robbery, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office refused to drop the gang charges.  Because the gang charges remained in place, the DA’s office was able to continue their direct filing of the juveniles.

Direct filing is when the prosecutor is allowed to try a juvenile as an adult, and Proposition 21, passed in 2000, increased  the ability to do that.

Eventually, the case that could have settled on the base offenses went to trial and the case blew up in the face of prosecutors as the defense was able to question the field show-up technique of witness identification.  Moreover, the gang charges – thin to begin with – did not hold up.

Guest Commentary: Growing Consensus That California’s Death Penalty Must Be Replaced

death-penaltyby Andrew Love

Tani Cantil-Sakauye, after one year as the Chief Justice of the State of California, has concluded that the state’s capital punishment system is “not effective” and requires “structural changes” that the state cannot afford.  Her predecessor, Ron George, who was Chief Justice for 15 years, came to the same conclusion, describing California’s death penalty scheme is “dysfunctional.”

These are two conservative jurists, appointed by Republican Governors, who with their fellow justices on the California Supreme Court have voted to uphold death sentences at an unprecedented rate.  But they have become disillusioned when confronted with a costly, time-consuming, unreliable and unworkable system that serves no useful purpose while draining judicial resources and diverting needed funds from true public safety programs.

Jury Finds Injured Woman Guilty of 12 Counts of Fraud

Vela-Linda

Cash for Convictions Motivation Underlies Clearly Insurance-Driven Criminal Investigation

Linda Vela, 58, sits at the table at Denny’s in West Sacramento, her hands badly shaking. Her husband has to spread and cut the butter on her pancakes, but otherwise she is able largely to eat and drink normally, if she is careful with her left hand (she’s right handed).

It has been just four days since a Yolo County Jury found her guilty of twelve felonies – seven counts of Worker’s Compensation Insurance Fraud, three counts of Presenting False Statement Concerning Payment From An Insurance Policy, and two counts of Attempted Perjury, in connection with disability claims made between March of 2005 and February of 2007, following a trial that lasted approximately nine days.

Briggs Admits Father Was Wrong on Briggs Initiative – Comes Out Against Death Penalty

san-quentinIn a remarkable editorial in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Ron Briggs, the son of Senator John Briggs, admits they were wrong in 1977.  “We believed the Briggs initiative – the death penalty measure we wrote in 1977 – would bring greater justice. We were wrong,” he writes.

“In 1977, my dad, former state Sen. John Briggs, my brother-in-law and I got together to discuss California’s death penalty. We agreed it was ineffective and decided a ballot initiative was needed to expand the number of murder categories eligible for capital punishment,” Mr. Briggs recounts in Sunday Op-Ed.

Commentary: Reflections on Topete and the Culture of Death

Topete-DefenseI made a conscious decision to go to the Yolo County Courthouse yesterday morning, but not to attend the Topete sentencing.  I decided that I believe the process illegitimate and I did not want to legitimate the process with my presence.

There are a lot of things that need to be said and I will undoubtedly forget some of them.

Opening Juvenile Court to the News Media

yolo_county_courthouseOne of our chief complaints about the operation of governments is that confidentiality laws that are supposed to protect minors from undue intrusions and public exposure are transformed into shields for public agencies to protect them from scrutiny regarding misconduct.

Acting on that rationale, the Los Angeles Times reports, “Los Angeles County Juvenile Court will be opened to media coverage regularly, with certain exceptions intended to protect the interests of children, under an order issued Tuesday by the court’s presiding judge.”

Sunday Commentary: Parish Is In Deep Trouble in His Race For Judge

Judges-Race-2012

Sometimes January filings confirm what you think you know about the races, sometimes they do not tell you much of anything, and sometimes they outright form your conclusions.

For example, Dan Wolk has a healthy lead in finances, drawing money across the political divide in Davis.  His filing tells you that he is the odds-on favorite to become the city’s next mayor pro tem, to succeed Joe Krovoza and become mayor.  But aside from that, we do not know a lot about who else will emerge as a candidate and who will ultimately make up the Davis City Council.

Judge Maguire Surges to Huge Advantage

parish-clintIt is early but if Deputy DA Clinton Parish thought that Judge Dan Maguire was vulnerable, he may be sorely mistaken.  The judge has surged out to a tremendous monetary advantage – holding a nearly 5 to 1 advantage in contributions, an advantage that narrows only slightly on a percentage basis by the fact that both men have dumped their own money into the race as well.

For the first six months of the campaign from July 1 to December 31, Judge Maguire raised 24,850 dollars and put in 16,000 dollars of his own money for a campaign war chest of over 40,000 dollars.

Prison Reform Bills on Three Strikes and Sex Offenses Die in Assembly

prison-reformEveryone recognizes that the current sentencing system is broken, and yet in an election year, two needed reform measures died in the supposedly liberal Assembly.

Yesterday, the Assembly could not even a pass a measure that would have placed the measure to alter three strikes legislation before the voters.  It failed 36-34 with ten members not voting.  The sponsor, Mike Davis, is going to attempt to get reconsideration in the next week, in hopes that some of the absent members vote and push the measure over the top.

Is Unlawful Entry into a Home Enough for a Burglary Conviction?

burglarOn the surface it seems to be an easy case and relatively straightforward.  On May 1, 2011, Richard Rodriguez broke into the storage closet in an inhabited residence.

According to Deputy District Attorney Robin Johnson, he went in there with the intent to steal, however, the burglary was thwarted before he had the chance to take anything.  The light went on outside, he ran off and was subsequently arrested and charged with first degree burglary.

Deputy Files Suit Against Sheriff Prieto Alleging Racially Insensitve Names and Hostile Work Environment

Sheriff-PrietoA Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputy has accused Sheriff Ed Prieto of using racially insensitive language during a departmental staff meeting last fall.

Deputy Darrel Johnson told KCRA that during a meeting with a number of deputies and other high-ranking officials in the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department in September of 2011, the Sheriff singled him out using possibly racially inflammatory names such as “gravy” and “dark one.”

Judge Fall Grants Pitchess Motion in Davis Marijuana Case

marijuana2Last week Judge Timothy Fall granted a Pitchess motion in a co-defendant case involving the Davis Police Department.  Pitchess is a motion that grants discovery of citizen complaints against law enforcement officers, and the disciplinary records concerning the officers’ records in terms of propensity to commit acts of violence or other problems.

To obtain peace officer personnel records, a defendant need only make a “good cause” showing by affidavit, setting forth the materiality of the information sought and an allegation about the governmental agency identified in the request.

In A Rare Move, Judge Fall Exercises His Discretion to Strike A Defendant’s Prior Strike

crim2When California originally put in the Three Strikes Law, back in 1994, judges had little to no discretion at all to remove past strikes.  However, a Supreme Court decision in 1996 changed that.  In what became the Romero Decision, the sentencing court was granted the discretion to strike prior conviction allegations (strikes) “in the interest of justice.”

While a Romero motion gives judges the right to strike prior strikes, depending on the judge, that discretion may rarely be exercised.  Last week, Yolo County Judge Timothy Fall, in ruling on a Romero motion, noted that since 1996, the year after he was appointed to the bench, he had granted a Romero motion just once in a contested hearing (meaning the prosecution opposed the motion), and that decision was later overturned by an appellate court.

BREAKING NEWS: No Charges Filed Against Pepper Sprayed Protesters by DA

Pepper-spray

In news that likely will surprise no one, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office declined to file charges against the protesters that Lt. Pike and one of other police officers fired pepper spray at during UC Davis protests on November 18, 2011.

In a brief statement, the DA’s office said, “District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced today that there was insufficient information contained within the police reports submitted by the UC Davis Police Department to justify the filing of criminal charges against those individuals arrested during the November 18, 2011, confrontation with UC Davis Police during the ‘Occupy UC Davis’ protest.”

Chief Deputy DA Raven Cited by Judge Mock For Prosecutorial Misconduct

Yolo-Count-Court-Room-600Mock Rules the Violation Harmless and Sentences Defendant to 45 Years to Life in Prison

This week, the District Attorney’s office proudly sent out a press release trumpeting the conviction of Christopher Smith, who was sentenced to 45 years to life in state prison for the murder of Gidd Robinson on November 3, 2009.

The facts of the case can be found in the Vanguard’s original article back in December.  The two men had a confrontation that resulted in the shooting of Mr. Robinson by Mr. Smith.  Mr. Smith would claim self-defense, but critical errors in judgment by the defendant leading up to and following the shooting led the jury to a second degree murder conviction.

Judge Richardson Denies Motion To Set Aside Death Penalty, Sentencing Delayed Until February

In the Marco Topete trial, JTopete-Defenseudge Paul Richardson denied the defense’s motion for a new trial or a new penalty phase, or to strike down the death penalty and impose life without parole after allegedly improperly removing a juror who might have had qualms about imposing the death penalty in this case.

However, the defense has filed a new motion this week, after the California Supreme Court for the second time in a month struck down a death sentence due the improper removal of a juror.  The next hearing and sentencing date has been moved to early February, with legal experts mixed, at best, as to whether Judge Richardson ruled properly in this matter.

Board of Supervisors Approve Grant Application for Jail Expansion With a Twist

prison-reformArguing that this is not simply a return to business as usual by replicating the failure of CDCR at the county level, the County Board of Supervisors approved the application for the full 148-jail bed expansion, with the understanding that this money would go toward upgrading existing facilities and with the further understanding that Leinberger would be repurposed and, in fact, decommissioned.

The Board was assured that the operational costs of maintaining the smaller Leinberger was equal to the costs of operating the additional 148 beds called for in recommended Option 4.

Did Judge Richardson Act Appropriately In Dismissing Juror?

Topete-DefenseOn Thursday, Judge Paul Richardson will formally sentence Marco Topete in a case that has been anything but routine.  Back in November, a jury reached a unanimous verdict in the penalty phase, recommending the death penalty for Mr. Topete.  However, under 190.4(e) of the California Penal Code, the trial judge makes an independent determination regarding imposition of the death penalty.

At issue was the dismissal of Juror No.11, who sent the court a hand-written note asking to be excused from further deliberation and replaced with an alternate juror.  Following the brief inquiry, Judge Richardson made the decision to replace Juror No.11.