Court Watch

Today Robert Ferguson will be sentenced to prison for among other things, stealing less than four dollars worth of cheese and also stealing a wallet from a lady at a convenience store.  While no one will argue that it is acceptable to do either of these things, given the state’s lack of resources and release of a variety of convicts, one has to wonder the wisdom of spending county time and resources on this sort of case.

It was just last week that Yolo County Superior Court Judge Rosenberg was praising the Yolo County judicial system for a high rate of disposition.

Federal Court Judge Morris England denied Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment in the portion of the Buzayan family’s lawsuit that aims at the conduct of Davis Police Officers Pheng Ly and Ben Hartz.

The lawsuit stems from an incident that occurred on June 7, 2005, when Davis Police Officer Pheng Ly was dispatched to the home of Adrienne Wonhof-Gustafson to investigate claims that her Mazda had sustained damage resulting from a hit-and-run collision.  Officer Ly made the determination that the Buzayan family was responsible, and the family paid for the damages.  However, six days later, Officer Ly would arrest their then-16-year-old daughter on misdemeanor charges of hit-and-run.

On March 9, 2010, the challenge to the West Sacramento Gang Injunction will go to trial in Yolo County court.  That was determined on Tuesday as Yolo County Superior Court Judge David Reed denied the District Attorney’s office move for summary judgment. 

In the meantime, lawyers fighting against the injunction that would place strict limitations on the actions of those deemed to be gang members in West Sacramento, appealed Judge Kathleen White’s ruling from last year that put in place a temporary injunction.

While Yolo County Sheriff Prieto on Tuesday once again expressed skepticism about the girl’s claims, telling the Sacramento Bee, “I doubt seriously whether anybody put a gun to this young girl’s head…  It’s common sense: Do you really think a policeman would perceive a 9-year-old girl as a threat?”  New evidence emerges that leads to a very different conclusion.

The Vanguard has obtained the emergency room report from the family of now 10 year old Cristal Ochoa, it shows that the family had to pay more than $3000 for the visit.  Given the family’s lack of insurance and lack of means, is it lnot ogical that the family would incur those expenses if the charges were not true?

Yolo County Superior Court Judge David Reed allowed the case by the family of Ricardo Abrahams against Yolo Community Care Continuum to proceed despite strong arguments by attorney Ronald Enabnit who argued that death was not a foreseeable consequence of calling the police.

Judge Reed ruled that the duty of care ends with discharge and that there is a factual dispute as to when discharge occurred that needs to be determined along with other questions of fact during trial rather than during demure.

The testimony of the Yolo County Indepedent Civil Rights Commission has already begun to make an impact in Yolo County as Sheriff Ed Prieto is now forced to respond to allegations his deputies put a gun to a nine-year-old girl’s head during the serving a search warrant on June 11, 2009.

The Vanguard on Sunday morning was the first to report on nine-year-old Crystal Ochoa, who is now suffering from what appears to be post traumatic stress disorder stemming from treatment she received by Sheriff’s Deputies last June, the same team from the gang task force led by Sgt. Dale Johnson and including Deputies Bautista and Ovieda that had a little over a month before shot and killed Luis Gutierrez.

The panel led by former state Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso wrapped up its first weekend of testimony on Sunday, taking brief testimony from two witnesses and then listening to an impressive discussion by Private Investigator Frank Roman who went through the DA’s report blow by blow and raised questions that need to be answered and showed problems and contradictions in other areas.

Not everyone was appreciative of the panel’s efforts however, as both Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig and Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto dismissed the panel as politically motivated and lacking credibility.  However, as far as we can tell, neither attended nor had any of their deputies attend the weekend’s testimony.

Former Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso is chairing a thirteen person commission on civil rights to look into the 2009 shooting of Luis Gutierrez.  Saturday marked the first public meeting of that commission where they took testimony from four witnesses to Gutierrez’s mannerisms and activities of the day, the shooting itself, and the tactics of the officers.  In day one of testimony taken by the Yolo County Independent Civil Rights Commission a number of witnesses were called to testify.  Some of these were direct witnesses to facets of the events of the day that Luis Gutierrez was shot by three Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputies working for the Yolo County Gang Task Force. 

One of the key witnesses, described in great detail what she had seen.  She provided far more detail than what was made available by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office in their report on the incident.  She described the incident in great detail and told the commission that she had not seen a weapon, and that Mr. Gutierrez was retreating as he was shot.

Last week the Vanguard reported on the second mistrial in the case of brothers Ernesto and Fermin Galvan.  This was a clear case of excessive force on the part of West Sacramento Police.  The Vanguard will continue to analyze the case itself, however, at this time the concern arises about the jury and their handling of this matter.

There were critical questions that had to be determined in this matter, it involved a portion of the law that requires keen judgment a discernment of facts.

Yolo County is facing fiscal crisis on a scale that boggles the mind.  Last year, the county was able to cushion a 20 million dollar blow using reserves and concessions, this year, there will be no cushion for a 21 million dollar deficit.  Vital services that people rely on to survey are going to be slashed.  We’re talking health services, mental health services, and public safety.

In that context, last week, the Sheriff’s Department talked about the release of inmates.  Indeed, across the state, there have been the release of prisoners, essentially people who have committed less dangerous felonies.  Likewise Yolo County under a worst case scenario would immediately release 140 convicts with the closure of the Walter J. Leinberger Minimum Security Facility.

For the second time, a Yolo County jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Ernesto and Fermin Galvan, brothers who were charged with resisting arrest and battery for an incident that occurred back in 2005.

The defendants have alleged excessive force by the police officer.  At that time, they had been unable to come to trial because the younger brother had suffered debilitating head injuries.

Judge Tim Fall declared a mistrial after a juror announced they were hopelessly deadlocked on all six counts.  One juror held out against conviction on all counts, the same thing that occurred in the original trial back in 2007.

On Monday the Vanguard broke the story that Robert Ferguson is facing life in prison for a third strike in part for stealing cheese from Nugget Market.  Quickly the Sacramento Bee also picked up the story.

As a result, Yolo County Prosecutors announced on Thursday that they would no longer seek life for the man who had also stolen a wallet from a woman in a 7-11 convenience store.

For the second consecutive year, Yolo County is having to cut 20 million dollars from its general fund budget.  This is going to take a huge toll as we will discuss later on the vital county services.  It will also result in cutbacks to law enforcement.

Some of the proposed cuts will include the closure of the Walter J. Leinberger Minimum security facility which would result in the immediate release of 140 felons into the community (though it should be noted these are felons housed in a minimum security facility).

A Yolo County Man, Robert Ferguson is facing life in prison for a third strike in part for stealing cheese from Nugget Market.  Prior to that he was convicted for petty theft at a 7/11 for stealing a woman’s wallet.  Sentencing will occur on March 1 to see if indeed he is given his third strike in which he would spend 25 years in prison, essentially a life sentence for a man in his mid 50s.

Mr. Ferguson was previously convicted back in 1982 for three separate counts of residential burglary, at the time he was age 25 years old.  Six years later he pled guilty to a single count of 1st degree burglary.  Finally in 1995, he pled guilty to a single count of petty theft with a prior.

After nearly five years, the trial opens for Fermin Galvan-Magana and his brother Ernesto who face counts of resisting arrest and battery on police officers for an incident that occurred back in 2005.

The Vanguard covered this story back in 2007.  The defendents have alleged excessive force by the police officer.  At that time, they had been unable to come to trial because the younger brother had suffered debilitating head injuries.

A Davis resident and mother of a teenage son was stunned to learn that her son would be facing 10 felonies including 5 gang enhancements for his role in a fistfight in front of her Davis home.  As the Vanguard soon learned, her son would not be alone.  Is this part of a new rising gang threat in Davis or simply a matter of the Davis Police Department and the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office overreacting to relatively minor offenses by tacking on gang enhancements?

The Vanguard, in the first of what could be several installments over the coming weeks and months examines, that question more closely.

On Thursday, Jonathan Raven from the Yolo County District Attorney’s office announced that the Yolo County DA’s Office had declined to file charges against James Marchbanks, a graduate assistant who had allegedly made a bomb threat to his students on the last day of class back in December. 

He cited a lack of evidence to proceed with charges and obtain a conviction.  This ended a long and strange saga that has generated outrage and bewilderment among many on the UC Davis campus and in the community.

Yesterday, the People’s Vanguard of Davis proudly launched its newest project, Vanguard Court Watch.  Vanguard Court Watch is a focused effort to monitor and track cases that go through the Yolo County Judicial System from arrest to adjudication. 

Yolo Judicial Watch will be located on the Vanguard but available on its own separate page: yolojudicialwatch.org .

Last night at Dingle Elementary School  in Woodland a large audience of at least 150 people gathered to listen to what was billed as a townhall meeting with the county and city’s leadership.  Apparently organizers for this event entitled, “Protecting Our Children’s Public Safety” organized by the Yolo County Justice Coalition, had invited leaders ranging from the members of the Woodland City Council, the Woodland Police Chief Carey Sullivan, Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto, District Attorney Jeff Reisig, and members of County Board of Supervisors.

Of these invitees only two showed up.  Woodland Police Chief Carey Sullivan sent his Lt. Don Beal and Woodland Mayor Skip Davies came and graciously and patiently addressed a group of questioners that seem to grow more frustrated as the night went on.  The crowd was very grateful to Lt. Beal who was actually on duty as the scene commander and to Mayor Davies, but they were frustrated at the lack of attendance of other political leaders.

It was a fact first mentioned in the December Sacramento Bee article on District Attorney Jeff Reisig that the number of felony trials in Yolo County has risen from 30 or 40 a year to 120 a year since Reisig took over.  The result of that is that Monroe Detention center is no longer heavily backed up and the process has been streamlined.

The Daily Democrat wrote a story on this January 3 and the Enterprise on January 10.