Court Watch

On Monday morning, as the trial was set to begin, Public Defender Tracie Olson announced there was a possible settlement in the case in which  Pedro Ramirez and Johnny Morales were accused of a brutal attack on a Sikh taxi driver November 28, 2010.

After a lengthy meeting in chambers, Mr. Morales announced he would plead to a probation charge, a single count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, which would not carry either a prison sentence or count as a strike.  He would be required to pay $15,000 in restitution to the victim.

Last week as we arrived at court, we discovered a number of familiar faces gone.  Deputy Sheriffs who provide security among other services to the court had been laid off.

Because of state laws which require the sheriff to adequately staff the courthouse, Sheriff Ed Prieto was forced to move deputies from the field to the courthouse.  That means there are now ten fewer Sheriff’s Deputies in the field protecting the community.

“Well Martin’s dream has become Rodney’s worst nightmare. Can’t walk the streets, to them we are fair game, our lives don’t mean a thing…  Make sure it’s filmed, shown on national T.V.  They’ll have no mercy.  A legal lynch mob like the days strung up from the tree. The L.A.P.D.” – Ben Harper 1995.

This past week marked the 20-year anniversary of the beating of Rodney King.  I watched the special on CNN, and it was interesting to see how much Rodney King has cleaned up his life.  He did say the nightmares are still there, however.

There is mounting evidence that despite the legal status of medical marijuana in California, and the Board of Supervisor’s approval of medical marijuana cards, that the official policy in Yolo County runs counter to state law on this matter. 

In many jurisdictions, law enforcement begins an approach for possession of marijuana with a question as to whether the individual has a medical marijuana card.  That does not appear to be happening in Yolo County, in fact just the opposite, as law enforcement appears to arrest individuals and put the burden on them in a court of law to confirm that they have a legal right to possess the drug.

Judge Timothy Fall on Thursday further reduced the charges faced by Nicholas Benson, stemming from the January 21, 2011, incident that captured regional headlines after he was arrested for making threats to harm himself and others,  and carrying an assault rifle with over 100 rounds of ammunition in his vehicle.

Following his preliminary hearing, Mr. Benson now only faces a single felony charge for possession of an assault weapon.  Judge Fall reduced the second charge, which had been a felony obstructing an executive officer, down to a misdemeanor after officers admitted on the stand that Mr. Benson did not strike them or use force to resist their commands.

What constitutes an independent investigation appears to be a major point of contention among members of the community.  In this context, an independent investigation appears to refer to the department or agency investigating the conduct of another with whom they are not officially responsible for or in charge of.  What’s more, an independent investigation can rely on the information previously produced by law enforcement agencies when determining what action to take.

With that said, questions regarding the impartiality of the DA’s investigation into the Gutierrez shooting have been discussed in the past.  The DA’s direct involvement with the Yolo County Gang Task Force has some wondering whether or not they should have handled any part of the investigation into the conduct of the sergeant and deputies much less conducted their own independent investigation.

Last week, the Vanguard reported that Leighton Dupree was sentenced by Yolo County Superior Court Judge Janet Gaard to 27 years to life in prison for a bank robbery he committed on January 12, 2010.

Mr. Dupree was convicted back in October of second degree burglary.  He had two prior serious felonies as well, which contributed to the length of the term.

One of the fallacies in the criminal justice system is that the system provides adequate health care for the prisoners.  This issue came up, interestingly enough, last week when we reported on Leighton Dupree receiving a 27-year prison sentence for a bank robbery in which he carried no weapons and ended up stealing three hundred eighty-seven dollars.

A commenter remarked that at least the individual would be getting good health care.  Ironically, the same week Dan Noyes, chief Investigative Reporter for San Francisco’s KGO-TV, came out with a report about problems that persist in the prison health care system.

When Omar Atebar, Selaiman Noori and Mostafa Noori were acquitted in December of 2009 on a combined 63 counts of gang raping fellow UC Davis Student Brittany Corrales, they thought it was all over.

“When we were acquitted I thought it would be the end to all our dealings with court,” Mostafa Noori told the Vanguard.

It was not a good day for the defense in the case of Marco Topete.  First Judge Paul Richardson reinstated count five, the stand-alone PC 186.22(A) gang charge against Mr. Topete, and then he admonished the defense counsel of Hayes Gable and Thomas Purtell to properly provide discovery to the prosecution and provide a working witness list by this Friday.

Recently, Judge Paul Richardson had thrown out the gang charges against Mr. Topete. However, the DA argued that the Judge should reconsider the gang charges because the case that apparently was the judge’s sole authority for striking them is being heard by the Supreme Court.

Special to the Vanguard

Editor’s Note: Next week the death penalty trial opens for Marco Topete and they will begin a process known as death qualifying the jury.  The ACLU of Northern California’s Death Penalty expert Natasha Minsker discusses what that means and the implications of it.

The right to be tried by a jury of your peers is a basic right in America. It is one of the innovations enshrined in our Constitution that sets our nation apart from most of the rest of the world. While most of us dread being called for jury service, we know that if it was us who stood accused of a crime, we would want to be judged by a cross-section of our community, not a government official in a black robe.

Editor’s note: Following the February 14 announcement by Sheriff Ed Prieto, the Vanguard’s Alex Clark undertook a comprehensive review of the shooting of Luis Gutierrez and this is the first of three articles based on that review.

On February 14th, Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto announced that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division had concluded it’s investigation into the 2009 officer-involved shooting death of 26-year-old Woodland resident Luis Gutierrez-Navarro.  The officers involved in the shooting were Yolo County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Dale Johnson, Deputy Hernan Oviedo and Deputy Hector Bautista.  All three were working as members of the Yolo County Gang Task Force.  Only Sergeant Johnson and Deputy Oviedo fired their weapons.

In 2008, Ricardo Abrahams had checked into the Safe Harbor, part of the Yolo Community Care Continuum, upon the urging of his family due to a condition where he was increasingly disoriented, stressed and uncommunicative. 

At some point he left the facility.  Concerned about his well-being, the facility alerted the police.  When the police arrived, a confrontation ensued where Mr. Abrahams anxiety escalated to the point where police feared for his safety and their safety.

According to a press release from Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, Leighton Dupree was sentenced on Thursday by Yolo County Superior Court Judge Janet Gaard to 27 years to life in prison for a bank robbery he committed on January 12, 2010.

Mr. Dupree was convicted back in October of second degree burglary.  He had two prior serious felonies as well which contributed to the length of the term.

Last week, Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza, DA Jeff Reisig, and Sheriff Ed Prieto announced the beginning of a Family Justice Center.

According to the county’s press release, “The Center would house core services so that family violence victims can go to one place — instead of the multiple locations they must navigate now — to seek assistance.”

It is not a huge shock that Yolo County is moving in the opposite direction of the rest of the nation.  More and more jurisdictions and states are moving away from the death penalty, for a variety of reasons including costs. They are also taking into consideration problems with the judicial system that result in the inequitable application of the death penalty, and also calling into question certainty about guilt and innocence.

Defense Attorneys, in what will likely be our first death penalty case that we will cover, the Topete case, have argued that “The excessive delays in California’s death penalty system constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment and results in a denial of due process. Based on this violation, the Defense respectfully requests that this Court preclude the People from seeking the death penalty in this case.”

After more than two and a half years since the arrest of Marco Topete, accused of killing Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Diaz, the trial is about to go forward in the next couple of weeks.  This week marked the first of several hearings on motions in limine that will help to define the trial.

Recently Judge Paul Richardson threw out the gang charges against Mr. Topete, however, the DA is arguing that the Judge should reconsider the gang charges because the case that apparently was the judge’s sole authority for striking them is being heard by the Supreme Court.

As I told KCRA yesterday afternoon, the announcement  by the Department of Justice that they are not filing federal civil rights charges against the three Sheriff’s Deputies involved in the 2009 shooting of Luis Gutierrez changes nothing.

We do not know more today than we did last month about the shooting.  A day after the Sheriff’s Department released a press release on the matter, we learned little more than we knew at the onset.

On Monday, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department announced that they had received a letter from that the United States Department of Justice stating that the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded their investigation into the fatal shooting of Luis Gutierrez-Navarro. 

In a letter dated February 4, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice stated “After careful consideration, we concluded that the evidence does not establish a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes. Accordingly, we have closed our investigation.”

In December, a Yolo County jury found Jose Valdivia guilty of two counts of drunk driving, plus they found him guilty of evading a peace officer and resisting arrest.  This was not the only set of charges that Mr. Valdivia faced. 

In a separate case, he also faced felony charges for transportation and possession of a controlled substance per Yolo County’s practice of double-charging possession of drugs as both possession and transportation.