by Antoinnette Borbon It was a very long day and a half with the jury selection process in Department 2, Judge Timothy Fall’s courtroom.
James Mings has been charged with the killing of a chronically ill man. Kevin Seery, 42 years old, was found face down with what was later identified as a piece of a sock, gauze and a toilette stuffed inside his mouth.
By Ibrahim BaigOn the morning of Monday April 28, 2013, the Honorable Judge Gaard heard motions for the upcoming trial of Ryan Baird.
Among Mr. Baird’s serious charges are murder and gross vehicular manslaughter.
A few days ago, Ross Ramsey, a columnist with the Texas Tribune, argued that Texas prosecutors are no longer “unassailable.”
“An elected prosecutor used to have one of the most respected jobs at any level of Texas government,” Mr. Ross writes. “Running a political campaign against a sitting prosecutor in Texas was a job for egotistic dunces and legal-minded Quixotes. Even weak DA’s were invincible.”
This week, I was amazed about how quickly we hearkened back to a time from a decade ago, where fear and uncertainty once again cloud our better judgment and restrain our finer angels. It is for these times of uncertainty that we have a Constitution, a rule of law, and if we do not adhere to our principles when it is difficult, they are not principles at all, they are simply platitudes.
The Associated Press reports that Federal Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler went to the hospital and convened a court hearing in the hospital room of the accused bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, about 16 hours after a complaint was filed in her court.
Today (Sunday, April 28, 2013) from 5:00 to 7:00 PM in Woodland at the Celebration Center Church (100 Woodland Ave), the Vanguard Court Watch Council of Yolo County (VCWCYC) is inviting the public to come forward to express their concerns about the judicial system, providing testimony and giving personal accounts of contemporary cases in the Yolo County Court system.
“The public has an opportunity to tell of their experiences in the Yolo County judicial system. Experiences that normally are not covered in the newspaper,” said David Greenwald, Executive Director of Vanguard Court Watch. “The Council will take public comment, testimony from invited speakers, and then deliberate in closed session to determine our course of action.”
By Jeanne WoodfordGUEST COMMENTARY – What do the gas chamber, state secrets and illegally manufactured drugs all have in common?
They are all in Senator Joel Anderson’s preposterous new bill, SB 779, sponsored by the California District Attorneys’ Association.
By Charmayne SchmitzOn Thursday, we heard the closing arguments in the case of People vs. Madderra. The defendant was charged with selling cigarettes to a minor in a sting operation. It was her second day of work as a cashier.
Deputy District Attorney Kyle Hasapes stressed that the law is the law and every law has consequences. The defendant made a bad decision. It doesn’t matter if she did not have the experience or the knowledge.
By Antoinnette Borbon On Wednesday in arraignment court came the short testimony of a woman, who testified to the character of a defendant in custody who is being linked to “gang activity.” Attorney Lawrence Cobb is defending the young man.
In a statement to Commissioner Janene Beronio, Mr. Cobb argued that the defendant is a good kid who has no criminal record and has people in his neighborhood who can attest to his character being reliable and responsible. He is a young defendant, already a father, as we learned today.
This Weekend’s Child Sexual Abuse Conference in Davis Focuses on Courts Endangering Children’s Safety – Over the course of the last several years, the Vanguard has received a number of complaints about the Yolo County Family Court system, where the complainants allege that local judges have put young children into homes of known sex offenders or otherwise have endangered their welfare.
According to these complaints, the Yolo County Family Court does not consistently ensure the physical and sexual safety of children in custody, nor make good visitation decisions.
By Antoinnette BorbonA few weeks ago, I did a commentary disagreeing with the jury findings in the trial of John Timothy Ganthner. I would like to apologize for taking so long to get back to the readers.
Since a little bit of time has passed, it may be far better to answer your questions within a commentary, to refresh the minds of my readers. I will attempt to answer your questions in an order you may understand.
by Alexandra Rose On the morning of Monday April 22, 2013, under Judge Timothy L. Fall in Department 2 of the Yolo County Superior Court, the case of James Mings was called for the last time before next week’s jury trial.
James Mings pled “not guilty” to murdering Davis resident Kevin Gerard Seery, a 42-year-old man suffering from pancreatitis and several other illnesses. Mr. Mings claimed that Mr. Seery had wanted to die and asked Mr. Mings to kill him.
You will not find many more critical of this District Attorney’s office than this site. However, we believe that the District Attorney’s office deserves real credit for taking a program that has worked successfully in San Francisco, adding true restorative justice components to it, and then planning to implement it in the city of Davis, for starters, as a pilot program.
“Rather than charging a case for prosecution, the District Attorney’s Office will refer certain misdemeanors and infractions to Neighborhood Court,” the DA explained in a press release. “In Neighborhood Court, a panel of trained volunteers from the community hears the case. All hearings are confidential, and participation by the offender is completely voluntary.”
A turning point has perhaps been reached in terms of the handling of prosecutorial misconduct. It was 2011 when the US Supreme Court overturned a multimillion dollar civil verdict for John Thompson, who spent years in prison as New Orleans prosecutors not only withheld evidence, but destroyed it.
As the New York Times noted at the time, the ruling protects prosecutors, giving them “nearly absolute immunity over civil suits.”
By Catherine Woodward
Zechariah Simpson’s jury trial began on Wednesday, April 17, Mr. Simpson, represented by Deputy Public Defender Emily Fisher, is charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly vandalizing the men’s restroom of G Street WunderBar on March 18, 2012. The damages totaled less than $400. Mr. Simpson had been visiting Davis for the first time on St. Patrick’s Day to watch his brother’s band play at the G Street WunderBar.
In his opening argument, Deputy District Attorney Kyle Hasapes emphasized that, since the incident, Mr. Simpson has refused to take responsibility for his actions and must be held accountable. Ms. Fisher argued that her client is innocent and has been wrongly accused of vandalism.
Hopefully you caught PBS’s Tuesday night broadcast of the Central Park Five – if not, I highly recommend it. Ken Burns remains among the finest contemporary documentarians, presenting the story of five teenagers in late 1980s New York who were railroaded into providing false confessions and ultimately wrongfully convicted of committing one of the most horrific non-murders one can imagine.
Ken Burns did a masterful job of setting the scene, as author Eisa Nefertari Ulen, writing in the Washington Post on Tuesday, notes, “New York was just emerging from the near-bankruptcy of the 1970s and entering a period of lavish conspicuous consumption that was fueled by Wall Street in the 1980s. Black culture was just emerging from the empowerment of the Black Power Movement of the 1970s and entering a period of disenfranchisement that was fueled by the Crack Era of the 1980s.”
Jurors heard from the defense on Monday, April 15, concerning charges against Andrew White. Andrew White is allegedly involved in a robbery with the use of a firearm.
Defense attorney James Granucci called some of Andrew White’s family members to the stand. The witnesses include Mr. Hagey, who worked with the defendant, Billy Henderson, White’s cousin, Dorothy Trammull, White’s mother, and Troy Taylor, Billy’s friend.
On Sunday, April 28, 2013 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM in Woodland at the Celebration Center Church (100 Woodland Ave), the Vanguard Court Watch Council of Yolo County (VCWCYC) is inviting the public to come forward to express their concerns about the judicial system, providing testimony and giving personal accounts of contemporary cases in the Yolo County Court system.
“The public has an opportunity to tell of their experiences in the Yolo County judicial system. Experiences that normally are not covered in the newspaper,” said David Greenwald, Executive Director of Vanguard Court Watch. “The Council will take public comment, testimony from invited speakers, and then deliberate in closed session to determine our course of action.”
On Monday the Yolo County District Attorney’s office unveiled an innovative new pilot project, modeled after a program that San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon implemented two years ago.
Jeff Reisig unveiled a program, in partnership with the Davis Police Department and the UC Davis Police Department, called the Neighborhood Court, a new adult criminal offender diversion program based on restorative justice. This innovative program will be offered in the city of Davis and on the UC Davis campus, starting in May of 2013.
Back in the summer of 2010, lasting for six excruciating months – on again and off again – the gang injunction trial was an underwhelming experience. Trotting out biased police officers who were stunningly allowed to testify, not just to what they witnessed, but also to what they were told, the District Attorney’s office managed to produce dozens of cases over the course of a decade in hopes of proving the existence of a nuisance represented by the Broderick Boys Criminal Street Gang, and thus laying the justification for a gang injunction.
In the end, we were left with the abiding belief that, while there may be areas where gang injunctions are necessary as a tool to reduce gang violence, the case was not made that West Sacramento was such an area.
By: Catherine McKnightOn the morning of Wednesday, April 10, the trial of People v. White began under Honorable Stephen L. Mock in Department 3.
Andrew Lawrence White is being charged on two counts of second-degree robbery with a firearm, and two additional enhancements for discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury. The court heard opening statements by DDA Robin Johnson and private defense attorney James Granucci.