Court Watch

Last August, the Vanguard reported that Yolo County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Randy Skaggs had filed suit against Yolo County and the District Attorney’s Office for among other things a violation of right to privacy and whistle-blower retaliation.

According to the suit, in 2008, Mr. Skaggs, a ten year veteran DA Investigator was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an administrative inquiry into allegations of misconduct.  Details of the discipline case were then disclosed to Dave Markss, Chief DA Investigator for Colusa County’s DA’s Office who sent the details of the conversation to no less than thirteen other Chief District Attorney Investigators.

This past weekend, the Woodland Daily Democrat had a small story on Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig.  He had given a speech last week at the Woodland Chamber of Commerce laying out the fact that the DA’s office was facing budget cuts that will result in a reduction of services and prosecutions.

He told the audience that with the new budget cuts and the fact that staff has already been cut as much as possible, services will suffer.  At the same time he said that between 30 percent and 35 percent of the DA’s Office is funded by grants which are used to investigate and prosecute different areas of crime.

Last November, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office released their report on the Shooting of Luis Gutierrez Navarro by Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputies. That report concluded, “When considering all of the facts and circumstances known to them at the time, the use of deadly force by the deputies was objectively reasonable and justified and therefore does not warrant the filing of criminal charges against Sgt. Johnson, Deputy Oviedo or Deputy Bautista.”

At the time, the Vanguard raised some troubling questions about inconsistencies in the report. Those questions have grown with last month’s hearings by the Yolo County Independent Human Rights Commission, the testimony by several witnesses, and the report by investigator Frank Roman.

Good piece by Marcos Breton this morning in the Sacramento Bee on James Marchbanks.  Mr. Marchbanks if you recall was cleared in late January of wrongdoing in a case in which three students in his drama class claimed that he made a bomb threat.

He served four days in jail and faced an $150,000 bail.  At the time of his release, the DA’s office did not file charges pending further investigation.

Over 150 people gathered in Davis on Saturday morning and marched from the train station over to the Davis Farmer’s Market where they gathered in the park and addressed a large contingency and hoped that the nearby shoppers going about their business on a Saturday morning would be educated on what they see as a corruption in the Yolo County Judicial System.

Terry Easley, a family member and one of speakers, told the Vanguard that they had hoped to make the public aware of the way that the Judicial System in Yolo County is set up.  “The way that it works,” she said, “has actually been corrupted and compromised by what we term the cash for convictions program.”

The challenge to the Gang Injunction was originally to begin today (March 9), however last week, Judge David Reed suddenly recused himself citing a number of cases that he was involved in as a defense attorney that the District Attorney’s Office intends to use.  That move was likely a ploy by the District Attorney’s Office to remove Judge Reed who seemed to view their case more unfavorably than others.

The trial will now proceed in April with Judge Kathleen White presiding as she did over the preliminary injunction.  Yesterday, a three judge panel in the Third Court of Appeals issued a ruling on a challenge to that preliminary injunction.

What started out as a modest story on the Vanguard has now been featured in stories across the world.  Yes you read that correctly.  On Monday February 8, 2010, the Vanguard wrote a story called “Yolo County Man Faces Third Strike For Stealing Cheese.”

It will not go down as the most read story on the Vanguard however it is probably by far the most influential.  Because the Vanguard ran this story, the Sacramento Bee ran a follow up a few days later.  As we reported to you, by Thursday, the Yolo County District Attorney had pulled back the push for three strikes and only asked for 11 years.

California taxpayers, in a system that is so strapped they are releasing minor felons, will have to pay the bill for one more.  That was determined on Monday when Judge Thomas Warriner sentence Robert Ferguson to seven years and eight months in prison in part of the crime of stealing less than four dollars worth of cheese in addition to another petty theft that saw the theft of a woman’s wallet. 

It could have been a lot however, as originally, the District Attorney’s Office was arguing for conviction under the three strikes law.

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.