Court Watch

Holder Calls for an End to the Cycle of Poverty and Incarceration – In a continued signal of détente for the criminal justice system, US Attorney General Eric Holder made sweeping changes to the federal sentencing requirements by ordering federal prosecutors to cease listing the quantity of drugs in low-level drug cases, enabling them to sidestep federal laws that impose lengthy mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for possession of drugs and other related offenses.

In a speech at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Mr. Holder laid out his new policy which aims at modifying the Justice Department’s charging policies “so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs, or cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences.”

In a long-anticipated and awaited ruling, a federal judge – Shira Scheindlin – ruled that the New York Police Department’s “stop-and-frisk” policies violated the constitutional rights of minorities in the city.

Judge Scheindlin ruled that the city had “adopted a policy of indirect racial profiling by targeting racially defined groups for stops based on local crime suspect data. This has resulted in the disproportionate and discriminatory stopping of blacks and Hispanics in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”

A recent statewide publication trumpeted the DA’s Neighborhood Court program, stating that Davis has earned another distinction, “becoming the second California city to institute a restorative justice program to deal with misdemeanors as an alternative to the traditional court system.”

Yolo County has earned a lot of mileage from the program. DA Jeff Reisig notes that “courts are overcrowded, the system is costly, and there are too few judges and too few courtrooms.”

No one, not even his own attorney, can deny that Tom Vukodinovich made a string of very bad judgment calls.  He abused his charge that he was hired to do when he turned his position of authority and responsibility and used it to engage in at least a two-year string of sexual liaisons with a developmentally disabled woman, who the prosecution said had an IQ of 37.

But would justice have been served if Mr. Vukodinovich, who is 74 years of age anyway, were simply relieved of his duties and not allowed to serve in the capacity of bus driver anymore?  That was a decision that the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office had to make.

By Dan Williams

The jury remained in deliberation for most of the day. The question on their minds was not if the alleged actions took place, but rather if the victim was mentally able to give consent; and if she was, whether she communicated it.

The issue that this case raises is an interesting one. The outcome of this case could set a dangerous precedent. We could be seeing what is essentially an IQ floor on sexual relationships and consent. Now, I’m not saying that anybody who’s ever had the privilege of being a sexual partner of dim-witted cousin Skeeter is at risk of being thrown on the sex offender list; but this is something we should be concerned about with regard to those who have issues communicating, and to their biological urges.

Thomas Vukodinovich faces 57 felony charges for a sexual relationship he had with a 49-year-old developmentally disabled woman, who the prosecution says has an IQ of 37 and is considered moderately retarded.  Mr. Vukodinovich was the bus driver in charge of transporting disabled individuals to work.

According to the prosecution, he used this bus to drive the alleged victim to a number of secluded locations throughout Yolo and Solano County to have sexual relations with her and then warned her that if she reported him that he would get in trouble, be arrested and lose his job.

When a person is wrongly convicted for a crime, there is the presumption that the process broke down.  Often we look to prosecutorial misconduct, mistakes by investigators and ineffectual defense.  As this year was the 50^th anniversary of the seminal Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, there has been much attention focused on the decline of indigent defense.

We have found that public defense is strained by declining budgets, high workloads and other problems.

There was a time when DUI convictions, even for accidents that caused the deaths of innocents, were given small prison terms, virtual slaps on the wrist.  One of the great success stories has been the rise of the power of the MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) lobby.  In this county, even accidents not involving alcohol have been treated at times as vehicular manslaughter.

A few years ago we saw a case before Judge Fall, where an elderly woman driving in a parking lot was given gross vehicular manslaughter when she killed a pedestrian.  In a more recent case, Judge Mock in a court trial ruled that ten seconds of inattentiveness by the driver of a delivery truck that slammed into stopped traffic on I-5 warranted vehicular manslaughter, but without the gross negligence component.

In early June, former Dixon High JV Football Coach Troy Hensley, 37, was arrested for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with, and later threatening, a 17-year-old Dixon resident, over a 3 1/2-month period in 2012 at multiple locations in Davis, according to a release from the Davis Police Department.

However, our attention focused on the incident when the Dixon Patch published a story entitled, “Did Dixon’s Vice Mayor Influence Bail Reduction for Hensley’s Release?”

The defense has filed a Pitchess motion and a motion to suppress, in the case of Kathryn McEachern.  She is accused of possession of drugs, stemming from an arrest at CVS Pharmacy on West Covell in Davis, on January 30 at 2:30 am when Ms. McEachern had entered the pharmacy in need of taking care of her menstrual cycle that had come on suddenly and unexpectedly.

In his report, Sgt. Doug Bates indicated that he, Officer Franti and Sgt. Rod Rifredi were dispatched to the CVS on West Covell regarding a suspicious circumstances call.  An employee had called in about observing a male and female in the store apparently preparing to shoplift.

When the police union stepped in to prevent the release of the Kroll and Cruz Reynoso reports last year, they relented at allowing the reports to go forward, but with the names of all of the officers not named – all but John Pike and Chief Annette Spicuzza – redacted.  It was the height of absurdity.

Facing lengthy litigation, the UC Regents rightly reasoned that allowing as much information to go forward in a timely manner made the most sense.  We agree.

On May 6, 2014, Michael Artz will be a free man, his term of probation expiring, his only charge on his record a misdemeanor charge for having a sexual encounter with a classmate less than two years younger, and no registration under Penal Code section 290.  At some point, he would be able to get even that misdemeanor expunged from his record.

But to get there was a long, painful and arduous journey filled with rape allegations, a trial that saw him acquitted on that charge but found guilty on lesser charges, a long and painful sentencing proceeding, endless counseling, a period of incarceration at the local jail, the loss of his mother and then finally an appellate court overturning much of what remained of the charges, with Judge Stephen Mock on Friday dispensing with the last hurdle – the PC 290 registration requirement.

As stated on Sunday, the President’s comments on race in part helped to push us away from one discussion on the Trayvon Martin killing and toward another.  The President said, “When Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.  Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

This is the reality that all African-Americans have to deal with in our society – the prospect of being treated not because of their actions, but being regarded with suspicion because of the color of their skin and the location of their whereabouts.

In the early morning hours of June 19, an individual was approached outside of the Cottonwood 7-Eleven in Woodland.  They asked him if he had money, when he said no, he was asked if he “bangs” if he was a “scrap” or a “DO.”  When he failed to respond, he was hit and attacked.

They allegedly yelled gang slurs and one of them lifted up his shirt and said, “Should I shoot this Nigga?”  They then took some of his property including his bike.

Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto will speak with members of the public at the Vanguard Court Watch Council of Yolo County meeting on Sunday, July 28.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the Holy Rosary Pastoral Center, 503 California St. in Woodland. Community members are invited to come and learn more and ask questions or share concerns.

In early May, Mississippi officials were a mere four hours from executing a potentially innocent man, Willie Manning when the state’s Supreme Court stepped in with an 8-1 ruling that halted the execution.

A key part of the prosecutor’s original case was forensic evidence that would tie Mr. Manning to the murder.  However, on May 2, 2013, “, the Justice Department has sent three letters to the attorneys in the case announcing that the feds now are backing away from the “ballistics” and “hair fiber” testimony their so-called “expert” testified about at Manning’s trial. State prosecutors heavily relied on that now-discredited evidence at trial — as have state court judges ever since — as proof that Manning’s conviction was secure enough to warrant his execution.”

This week we saw the controversy nationally of the Rolling Stone cover portraying the Boston Marathon bomber as though he were a rock star.  That spawns local columnist Debra DeAngelo to opine about “When monsters have the face of angels, and the uncomfortable nature of journalism.”

She writes, “So, this week, when the angelic face of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a morph of Jim Morrison and Eros, peers out at us from under the iconic RS logo, it’s not out of character. The Tsarnaev feature is just another step on Rolling Stone’s investigative journalism path.