Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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Courts & Rulings Sergeant can't use qualified immunity to stop lawsuit in Riverside fatal police shooting, court rules A California judge on Thursday denied an appeal for qualified immunity from a Riverside County Sheriff's Department sergeant who is accused of shooting and killing a man with excessive force. Nearly every key detail of the years-long case against the sergeant and the county is disputed, including whether the man was retreating from the property at the time of the shooting; wheth...
Courts & Rulings California statutes utilizing court decisions California statutes in numerous instances refer to, abrogate, or confirm appellate court decisions. In most instances, statutory references to reported court decisions occur with legislative intent language where the Legislature makes findings and declarations. But there are other instances in which the Legislature uses the court decision in an affirmative statement. California Globe Lakers show virus damage in partial COVID-19...
Courts & Rulings Judge Ryan orders briefing on possibility of resentencing of inmate ordered executed Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan, who granted party-status to the family of a man slain in 1993 in connection with a proposed resentencing, has called upon the Office of District Attorney George Gascón to respond to the contention by the family's lawyers that the office's request for a lifting of the death sentence imposed on the murderer is not authorized by the statute upon...
Courts & Rulings FBI wins narrow high court ruling on failed mosque sting operation The FBI can invoke privilege for state secrets to duck a lawsuit over a failed operation spying on Muslims after 9/11, the Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision Friday. Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, an imam with the Orange County Islamic Foundation, brought the suit with two other Muslim men over a decade ago, saying their rights were violated through the FBI counterterrorism investigation dubbed "Operation Flex"...
Courts & Rulings Judge Ryan grants standing to family of murder victim Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan, the court's specialist in resentencing, has recognized the standing of the kin of a murder victim to speak out, in a public session, against a proposed order vacating a death sentence and substituting a term of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, shunning a request by the office of District Attorney George Gascón that he issue such an order in chambers....
Courts & Rulings Legality of resentencing in chambers draws challenge Former Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley and victims' rights attorney Kathleen Cady yesterday filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court a document labeled "Victim's Notice of Appearance and Assertion of Rights" in which it was contended that state constitutional rights of the family of a man who was slain on Jan. 23, 1992, would be trammeled if the murderer were resentenced without a public hearing, and one at which...
Courts & Rulings Judge denies injunction staying enforcement of commissioner's order A judge today denied a request by the California FAIR Plan Association for a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's September order that the FAIR Plan offer a homeowners policy with coverage for water damage, theft and loss of use in addition to fire damage. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel said in a written ruling that in weighing the harms from...
Los Angeles District Attorney LA DA declines invitation to chat ahead of employee no confidence vote Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón declined an offer to meet with the union representing many of his office's prosecutors - as they consider whether or not to endorse a newly formed effort to recall Gascón from office. "The issues raised in the invitational letter appear political and have nothing to do with improving the working conditions of the individuals your board r...
Courts & Rulings Calif. DAs win temporary restraining order preventing corrections dept. from awarding 66% 'good conduct credits' to second-strikers The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation recently enacted so-called "emergency" regulations to allow for additional "good conduct credits" to be awarded to serious and violent felons, and not based upon these felons completing any rehabilitation programs, or in essence, proving their good conduct. California Globe Protester was to...
Courts & Rulings California high court greenlights suit by assault victim, despite prior settlement In a ruling being hailed as a major win for victims of sexual assault and harassment, the California Supreme Court held Thursday that a contract barring two people from bad-mouthing each other doesn't prevent a woman from suing an abuser in court. "I think it's a great day for California victims of harassment and abuse because the opinion appropriately recognizes that such victims are entitled to...
Courts & Rulings A court upheld the firing of 2 LAPD officers who ignored a robbery to play Pokémon Go An appeals court in California has upheld the firing of two former Los Angeles Police Department officers for playing Pokémon Go rather than responding to a nearby robbery. Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, who were fired after the 2017 incident, had argued that the city violated the law by using their police car's digital in-car video system recording as evidence and by denying them p...
Courts & Rulings California Supreme Court rejects early releases for violent crime The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that corrections officials need not consider earlier release for violent felons, even those whose primary offense is considered nonviolent under state law. The ruling stems from inmates' latest attempt to expand the application of an initiative championed by former Gov. Jerry Brown and approved by nearly two-thirds of voters in 2016. AP Maglula beats Amazon in...
Courts & Rulings Judge halts California earlier releases for repeat offenders A judge on Wednesday temporarily halted California's plans to speed the potential prison release dates for repeat offenders with serious and violent criminal histories under the state's "three strikes" law. California corrections officials had filed emergency regulations to boost good conduct credits for second-strike inmates serving time for nonviolent offenses who are housed at minimum-security prisons and camps. AP...
Courts & Rulings The Supreme Court found a Sonoma County man's arrest illegal. A state appeals court upheld his conviction anyway Six months ago, a North Bay man who was pursued into his garage by police scored a rare defense victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, which limited officers' authority to enter a suspect's home without a warrant. That meant the entry into Arthur Lange's garage was illegal - but because the officer couldn't have known that in advance, Lange's drunken-driving conviction...
Courts & Rulings Judge stops LAPD union's request to nix COVID vaccine mandate The union representing LAPD officers lost a round Monday in its lawsuit alleging unfair labor negotiations related to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for municipal employees - with a judge denying its members' request for a preliminary injunction against the directive. The Los Angeles Police Protective League alleges the city failed to negotiate in good faith by withholding information about the city's testing...
Courts & Rulings Judge Ito spurns DA's entreaty to vacate death sentence Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger Ito on Friday rejected a stipulation by the Office of District Attorney George Gascón and the defense that a death sentence be vacated, saying that this is the first time as a bench officer that he has not accepted a proposed stipulation between the parties. The California Supreme Court ordered a hearing as to whether the defendant, Samuel Zamudio, who was convicted on Nov. l7, 1997,...
Courts & Rulings 'Inventory search' of lawfully parked car was pretextual The exploration by sheriff's deputies of the content of an automobile, in the absence of a warrant, cannot be justified as an inventory search incident pursuant to an impounding of the vehicle being driven by an unlicensed driver where that vehicle was in a public parking lot, the Third District Court of Appeal has held. Acting Presiding Justice Coleman Blease wrote the opinion, filed Wednesday and not certified for...
Courts & Rulings Federal judge rejects California's bid to postpone vaccination of prison staff With COVID-19 already having taken the lives of nearly 300 California inmates and prison staff, a federal judge has ordered all prison employees to be vaccinated by Jan. 12, and criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom and the prison guards' union for seeking to postpone his order. In the face of "undisputed scientific and medical evidence" that vaccines are both effective and essential in confined settings like...
Courts & Rulings No decision is reached on Gascón's hiring practices Still lingering is the question of whether Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón acted unlawfully in hiring three deputy public defenders who supported his campaign effort as prosecutors without them having passed a Civil Service exam. A motion for a preliminary injunction, filed by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, came before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff on Wednesday, but he held t...
Courts & Rulings Judge Ito won't rubber-stamp Gascón's recommendation Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger T. Ito yesterday made it clear yesterday that he is the fact-finder in a habeas corpus proceeding and is not bound by the District Attorney's Office's concession that a double murderer is entitled to be relieved of a death sentence. District Attorney George Gascón has opted to support the contention that inmate Samuel Zamudio may not be executed under the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 p...
Courts & Rulings California high court refuses to hear Brad Pitt's appeal in child custody battle The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider Brad Pitt's appeal of a lower-court ruling that disqualified the judge in his custody battle with Angelina Jolie. The court denied a review of a June appeals court decision that said the private judge hearing the case should be disqualified for failing to sufficiently disclose his business relationships with Pitt's attorneys. Los Angeles...
Courts & Rulings Judge denies LAPD officers' request to block elements of the employee vaccine mandate A federal judge in Orange County has denied a request from a group of LAPD officers to block the city of Los Angeles from imposing certain elements of its COVID-19 vaccination mandate for city employees. In a six-page decision U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner said the police employees had failed to show the city's requirements for exemption requests had caused any actual harm to the w...
Courts & Rulings Qualified immunity: Supreme Court sides with police, overturns denial of immunity in two cases The Supreme Court sided Monday with police in two cases in which plaintiffs claimed officers used excessive force, overturning separate lower court rulings that had allowed the officers to be sued for civil rights violations. In two unsigned opinions, the court stressed police are entitled to be shielded from liability unless it is "clear to a reasonable officer" that their actions...
Courts & Rulings 6th Circuit sides with student-athletes: Western Michigan University's vaccine policy 'burdens their free exercise of religion A Michigan attorney was preparing to file another lawsuit Friday on behalf of student-athletes who were banned from playing despite religious and medical vaccine exemptions when an appellate court issued a precedential ruling in an identical case. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sided with 16 student-athletes at Western...
Los Angeles, October 14, 2021 - The Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County (ADDA) is seeking an injunction in Superior Court to prevent District Attorney George Gascon from continuing to violate the law by again appointing ineligible political supporters to civil service protected positions in the District Attorney's Office. This action is necessary to preserve the status quo while the Civil Service Commission hears the ADDA appeals of prior ineligible political...