Earlier this week, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will send thousands of state prisoners to local jails. The idea behind the plan was to reform the criminal justice system and save money.
Many have calculated that the state could save huge amounts of money through such a shift, as counties are better equipped to handle inmates for a much lower cost.
by Ali Bollbach – Up until recently there was hope that Governor Jerry Brown’s previous budged cut proposal would allow the Yolo County Leinberger Memorial center, a minimum security facility in Woodland, to remain partially open. However, due to the increased likelihood that an agreement will not be made by June and the impact of a lack of any agreement even as early as July 1st, new measures must be taken.
By Judy Kerr – This month Governor Quinn of Illinois signed legislation ending the death penalty. The Illinois legislature follows New Jersey and New Mexico in replacing the death penalty with alternatives. Sixteen states across the country now embrace an alternative criminal justice policy that recognizes the needs of murder victim family members while leaving funds on the table for effective public safety programs. They have acknowledged the reality of an inherently human and imperfect criminal justice system. At least six other states may follow the lead of Illinois and repeal their death penalty statues, including Connecticut.
In December, Woodland resident Jose Valenzuela faced trial in Yolo County. He was accused of attempted murder of two individuals at a notorious Woodland night club, La Finca, home to numerous homicide and assaults over the last few years including this year’s first murder in Woodland.
Mr. Valenzuela was acquitted of attempting to kill one man and he was nearly acquitted of attempting to kill the other man, but the jury hung 11-1 for acquittal.
Evidence At Trial Shows Neither a Clear Criminal Street Gang nor a Nuisance in West Sacramento – As I sit there in the courtroom I cannot help but believe that we as a society have failed these kids, allowing them to get this to point. The term gang and gang member inspires fear more than compassion. It conjures visions of hardened criminal street gang members brazenly shooting and killing helpless and innocent victims.
Judge David Rosenberg and District Attorney Jeff Reisig have argued that the increased number of trials in Yolo County is due to new court management practices that have streamlined the judicial process. While that may have initially been true, there is now increasing evidence that the high volume of trials and the costs associated with them have more to do with the failure to settle cases that should have been settled earlier in the process.
Pedro Ramirez and Johnny Morales were scheduled to be sentenced on Friday in Woodland, after pleading no contest to an attack on a Sikh tax driver and making racial slurs during the attack.
However, Mr. Ramirez attempted to withdraw his plea, citing ineffectual counsel, and Attorney Robert Spangler was appointed to investigate whether there was a legal basis for this claim.
Judge Stephen Mock said in his thirty years on the bench and working in the criminal justice system, he had never seen a situation like this. However, when West Sacramento Detective Tate had to rush to Florida for a family emergency, the Judge declared a mistrial in the case of Oscar Barrientos, accused of burglarizing a West Sacramento home.
The Tuesday afternoon dismissal of the case followed a disastrous morning for the prosecution. They had put Maria Cerna, the person whose home was burglarized, on the stand.
On Tuesday, Yolo County Superior Court Judge Kathleen White issued her long-awaited ruling on whether to grant a “permanent” gang injunction. The trial had lasted from July until December 15, and we have been waiting over three months for a ruling.
There was a large contingency of attorneys representing the defendants in this case. Several of these attorneys declined to speak on the record, however, the Vanguard did speak at length with one of the lead attorneys, Sacramento attorney Mark Merin.
After months in a trial and several months of deliberating, Judge Kathleen White ruled, as most observers and participants expected from the very start, to impose a seven-year injunction on the “Safety Zone” in West Sacramento.
The trial began on July 12, 2010 and ended officially on December 15, 2010. During the long on again/ off again trial, Judge White heard mainly accounts from law enforcement. At one point, she admonished the plaintiffs in this case, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office led by Ryan Couzens and Jay Linden, to produce civilian witnesses who could testify that the alleged Broderick Boys gang represented a nuisance to their community.
The Veritas Initiative, the research and policy arm of the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University School of Law, today released Preventable Error: Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 2010, which follows up on last October’s Presentation.
While Yolo County did not have any reports of prosecutorial misconduct officially in 2010, the report adds the 2000 Miranda case that the Vanguard had noted previously.
Yesterday the Yolo County trial of Oscar Barrientos opened. Mr. Barrientos is accused of burglarizing a West Sacramento home. Not exactly the stuff that a Judicial Watch is made of, except for the fact that the only real evidence linking him to the burglary is a partial print of a palm.
As the defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Amber Poston, argued in her opening statement, fingerprint analysis is not the exact science that it is portrayed on TV. Indeed, there is no standard for testing.
In August of 2010, Michael Artz was found not guilty of the main charge in his case, forced oral copulation, but guilty of having sex with a minor and contacting a minor for the purposes of having sex.
The sentencing phase has gone on since mid-January and now figures to continue at least until April 22, when Judge Stephen Mock indicated that there would be closing arguments and then a ruling, but we have heard that before.
One simple reform would free up $450 million dollars, they say. According to them, that is the amount California taxpayers spend to lock up adults who were convicted of non-violent instances of possessing a small amount of drugs for personal use.
Saylor Names Vergis to County Planning Commission – Earlier this month, Supervisor Don Saylor used his appointment to name two-time, former Davis City Council Candidate Sydney Vergis to the planning commission.
Much has been made on these pages about the fact that the DA has a tendency to bring some rather problematic cases to trial. For the most part the DA loses these cases, but they exact a toll nonetheless, as we saw in the case of Fernando Ortega who faced criminal charges stemming from what was largely explicable, by the fact he was carrying a truck battery and had a number of tools on him at the time he encountered Woodland Police.
However, Mr. Ortega remained in custody nearly five months, missed going to the funeral of his daughter, and lost his residence. Mr. Ortega is one of the fortunate ones, exonerated by the a jury trial and now out of custody and free to move along in his life.
Jury Ultimately Believes Man over Police Officer, But It Is Ultimately a Costly Experience – Mr. Ortega went out to take out his battery, and for some reason was confronted by the police.
It was a strange vote and discussion on the County’s Climate Action Plan. It is important to understand that the County’s Climate Action Plan only addresses “greenhouse gas emissions within the unincorporated area, which has seen very little population growth since 1990 as a result of the County’s historic land use policies.”
Moreover, “Although the inventories of the unincorporated area identify agriculture as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, when placed in a broader perspective, farming accounted for only 14% of the countywide emissions in 1990.”
After some lengthy discussions about the interrogation process, following the conviction of Bennie Moses for the rape of his daughter over a nine-year period, it seems that there is a need to revisit the issue of false confessions.
To be extremely clear, in the Bennie Moses case, there is no reason to believe he falsely confessed. However, we do believe, with a good deal of justification, that the interrogation tactics used were improper, even if they were likely completely legal.
Jury Acquits Woman of Drug Possession, Transportation, Despite Police Finding Drugs on Her – And yet a jury acquitted her of possession of meth and hung 10-2 in her favor (presumably) on a charge of transportation of marijuana. The DA immediately dismissed the second charge, a misdemeanor count.
