Court Watch

One of the early battles in the Gang Injunction case has been on whether to allow third-party evidence from police officers in particular offering statements from various alleged gang members as evidence.  Judge Kathleen White made a formal ruling on the ongoing objection by defense attorneys to allowing such evidence on Monday.

She argued that she would continue to allow the plaintiffs leeway to “connect the dots” and show the relevance of the testimony in establishing that an individual was in fact a member of the Broderick Boys Criminal Street gang.

Daniel Carter was just released from a hospital where he was receiving treatment for a psychiatric ailment.  He was heavily medicated and missed his stop in West Sacramento on the Yolo Bus.  He reached the end of the line in Davis, was awakened by the bus driver and deposited on the corner of Chiles and Mace.

According to his mother, Janice Jackson, he did not know anything about Davis.  As he was trying to figure out how to get out of Davis, he went to a store to buy a can of beer.  Mr. Carter suffers from a mental disorder and he often carries all of his items on him.  That includes a pair of clippers and a knife that he used to adjust the clippers.  It is an old knife, worn down and dulled from the use, but it was in his pocket.

Earlier this week, Yolo Judicial Watch monitored a hearing in Judge Timothy Fall’s court. The case involved a man accused of molesting his girlfriend’s daughter.  The girl, 11, was allegedly molested for two years from the time she was 8 until she was 10.

The defense wanted to introduce evidence to the jury that the defendant in this case was suffering from a tick-borne ailment, similar to Lyme’s disease, which caused an infection and pressure on his brain.  In addition, an MRI revealed a cyst in the frontal portion of his brain.

A jury had already completed a day’s worth of answering of a questionnaire in advance of a murder case that was set to begin on Wednesday involving Jesus Solis.  However, a significant development has pushed the murder trial back to September as late evidence emerged involving latent finger prints on the SUV involved in the case that match Mr. Solis.

Prosecutors claim their experts say those fingerprints could have only have been left by the driver of the vehicle.  If accurate, that would put Mr. Solis in the driver’s seat and lend credence to prosecution’s claims that he fired the shots that killed the victim in this case. However, the case is tricky to begin with and the other suspects have fled to Mexico.

On Tuesday, the Vanguard covered the long and at times complex case of Rudy Ornelas, who was prosecuted and eventually convicted for attempted murder.  In watching the trial, it seems questionable that he was actually the shooter in the case and more likely that his co-defendant, Claudio Magobet, was actually the guy who pulled the trigger.

Mr. Magobet had the motive, he had the dispute with Abel Trevino over the girl, he had the explosive temper, he was the one who went on the run after the incident while Mr. Ornales went home to his wife, and the list goes on.

A Yolo County Jury has acquitted a young man charged with burglarizing the Davis home of his former girlfriend, in a case that was highly questionable as to whether it should have been criminally charged in the first place. The DA’s office charged him with grand theft and first degree burglary, with an enhancement because the girl’s roommate was in the house at the time of the burglary.  Mr. Estep faced five years in prison if he were convicted.

Daniel Estep thought he was in a long term relationship with his girlfriend Chelsea Stewart. They had met over the winter of 2007 in Oroville when Ms. Stewart was home for the holidays from a UC Davis study abroad program in Sweden.

Friday afternoon, Woodland, California, a jury returns after deliberating for nearly two days.  They file in quietly, most of them looking down.The last juror as she entered noticed a large contingent of people in the courtroom and muttered some exclamatory statement under her breath. She obviously believed that the people were for this trial. Little did she realize that there were two murder trials that had hearings in the same court room.

That body language should have been a signal, but when the judge announced that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked on what should have been the most difficult charge, it seemed everything was going according to form.  Then the clerk read the jury’s verdict, and when the first charge came back guilty there was stunned silence. The family of the convicted silently wept.

A Yolo County man, down on his luck, was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison for writing two bad checks to Nugget Market in 2007.  He had been facing 30 years to life as part of a three strikes, but that was reduced in final sentencing given the nature of his crimes.

On June 16, 2007 and again three days later, James Davis, a 46-year-old wrote two checks to Nugget Market that were returned for insufficient funds.  Mr. Davis says in his declaration that he was down on his luck and trying to buy food and necessities for his family.

The Gang Injunction Trial is expected to go for at least two months, one week on, one week off.  Judging by the first week, I would estimate it will be at least four months, possibly longer.  The first week saw only three witnesses come forward, however, I would expect that to increase as time goes on and both sides develop some sort of routine or rhythm.

There are a lot of side issues still to be worked out.  A big issue that needs to be resolved and will be is that of allowing hearsay testimony about unnamed defendants.  I will also discuss in this column, the prosecution’s game plan thus far, and finally a bit commentary regarding a line of questioning on Tuesday pertaining to gang terms and slogans.

On Thursday, the Gang Injunction Trial resumed and prompted more legal and philosophical questions as we saw West Sacramento Police Officer Michael Duggins testified about unnamed defendants and he named them.  This prompted several long discussions about the relevance of testimony about named individuals who are not listed as defendants on the case, the fairness and propriety of the process.

We will discuss this issue more fully towards the end of this article and likely into the future as it gets really to the heart of the procedural matters and the rights of individuals.

The first witness in the Gang Injunction Trial appeared on Tuesday.   Thomas Ignacio Cedillo appeared on the stand following opening statements from the plaintiffs and the defense.  Wednesday became an open date due primarily to logistical issues involved the plaintiffs and the intention to hear on Friday where two key witnesses, named defendants, would be able to plead the fifth due to ongoing legal issues.

The plaintiff’s counsel was overheard at one point saying you always have a choice about starting strong or ending strong, certainly as the record will show, Mr. Cedillo who has been married for the last four years to a woman that he has known for 12 years (he is 28).  He has two children.  He has held stable employment installing insulation first for F. Rogers in West Sacramento and then PCI in Sacramento.

This week, the Gang Injunction trial opens in Yolo County Superior Court in front of Judge Kathleen White.  On Monday, lawyers for the District Attorney’s Office along with Attorneys representing those served by the gang injunction who have chosen to challenge it deliberated and argued over pre-trial motions which will shape the more than fifty witnesses that both sides will be allowed to call according to a ruling by Judge White.

Prior to the start of proceedings, neighbors and activists from the affected neighbors spoke to reporters.  Rebecca Sandoval who has been on a forefront of the opposition to the injunction in West Sacramento said, “The injunction is targeting innocent citizens and the community has been torn apart by this injunction.  The community was never consulted nor advised of the impacts and the way the West Sacramento Police Department would label citizens as gang members and that they all live in an area as a public nuisance.”

In July of 2007, having had the original Gang Injunction struck down by the appellate court, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig filed an amended complaint seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to restrain activities of alleged criminal street gang, the Broderick Boys, supposedly a branch of the Norteno gang.

A preliminary injunction was imposed in 2008.  The injunction covers a large swath of West Sacramento and imposes curfews, restrictions on all activities which involve anyone deemed by the police to be gang members.  It limits the ability of those enjoined to go to restaurants, public activities, public transportation, or standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering or appearing anywhere in public view with anyone alleged to be a gang member.

I still remember where I was when I watched the verdict back in 1992 in which an all-white jury acquitted Los Angeles Police Officers of beating Rodney King.  I remember where I was, I remember what I said, there’s going to be riots.  Turned out, there already was.  I was just a freshman at Cal Poly that year, but I watched transfixed for days to the burning and looting that occurred in Los Angeles.

One of my favorite musicians/ artists is Ben Harper, a few years after the riots, he wrote a song in which he sings, “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.”  Towards the end of the song he sings, “So if you catch yourself thinking it has changed for the best you better second guess cause Martin’s dream has become Rodney’s worst nightmare.”

Recently a Woodland man was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison as part of a three strikes case stemming from a Picnic Day 2009 fight that broke another man’s eye socket.  He was sentenced by Yolo County Judge Kathleeen White on June 24, 2010.  On March 12, 2010 a jury convicted Steven Hector Martinez, age 35, of Woodland of one count of Battery with Serious Bodily Injury.

According the District Attorney’s office, on Picnic Day, April 18, 2009, the victim reported he was at the Bistro 33 restaurant in downtown Davis when he saw people he thought he knew getting into a fight in the street area. The victim went over to stop the fight. The defendant, a complete stranger to the victim, “sucker-punched” him in the face with his fist. The defendant and the group with him then fled the scene.

The West Sacramento Gang Injunction Trial is set to begin next week, but first they had some pre-trial motions to deal with on Wednesday in Judge Kathleen White’s courtroom.  Judge White presided over the preliminary injunction back in 2008 after the Third District Court of Appeals threw out the previous injunction back in 2007. 

Every so often it pays off just sitting in the courtroom.  In fact, that is part of the premise of Yolo Judicial Watch – the need to get people into the courtroom who can monitor and bear witness to the proceedings.  On Wednesday this paid off as I waited patiently for pre-trial motions to begin in the Gang Injunction Trial, set to begin next Wednesday.

I watched as Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish became increasingly unhinged in Judge Kathleen White’s courtroom as a series of ruling went again him to the point where he seemed to becoming threatening to both Judge White and the defense counsel he was up against.  Whether he was actually speaking for the DA and illuminating new policy is something that we will have to see.

The Gang Injunction trial is rapidly approaching and gamesmanship is clearly afoot.  The DA is making a motion to exclude all witnesses from the courtroom prior to testimony.  While that sounds harmless, the effect will be that a large portion of the effected communities of Broderick and Bryte would be excluded from the courtroom for the majority of the trial as the prosecution would get to lay out their case and witnesses first.

The DA is filing two separate motions for the exclusion of not-testifying witnesses.  “Plaintiff requests that those witnesses not testifying be excluded from the Courtroom pursuant to Evidence Code section 777(a).”  And in a separate motion, “Plaintiff would ask that Court to receive a representation from defense counsel that any person remaining in the courtroom during testimony will not be used for any part of defendants’ case (in chief, rebuttal or otherwise) before allowing that person to stay in the Courtroom.”

On June 11, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office informed lawyers fight against the implementation of a permanent Gang Injunction in West Sacramento that they will be using the testimony of Angel Sanchez and Jesse Sanchez in the gang injunction trial which is set to begin in just two weeks on July 12, 2010.

Specifically they will use the fact that Angel Sanchez testified that he was a gang member, specifically a member of the Broderick Boys and that they have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity for years.  We covered this case a few weeks ago.