Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 93
California federal court announces vaccine mandate for workers--The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California now requires all employees, volunteers and judiciary contractors working onsite be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Kiry Gray, the clerk of the court, issued the policy on Friday. The announcement referred to the mandate as "necessary to combat the spread of Covid-19 and protect the health and safety of the court's employees, volunteers and contractors, as well as...
Courts & Rulings Judge: California prison guards can't invoke qualified immunity after sticking homicide victim into cell with Aryan Brotherhood killer A year after hearing arguments, a federal judge has given the green light to a lawsuit alleging prison officials were negligent when they placed a man listed as an Aryan Brotherhood enemy into a cell with a gang member who stabbed him to death within minutes. Bay Area Newsgroup Presiding Judge Eric C. Taylor amends general order to extend...
Courts & Rulings California court overturns murder convictions, cites racism A California appeals court on Friday overturned the convictions of three Black men over a double slaying, saying prosecutors dismissed a Black woman from the jury pool for racial reasons. The prosecutor in the Contra Costa County case inappropriately questioned the 25-year-old woman's support of the Black Lives Matter movement and dismissed her for reasons that "were plainly tied to race," said a unanimous ruling by a...
Courts & Rulings Ninth Circuit denies bid by California DAs to challenge death penalty moratorium In a divided opinion, a Ninth Circuit panel upheld a lower court decision that prevented a group of district attorneys from intervening in a case where Governor Gavin Newsom stayed all executions in the state of California via executive order. "The district attorneys have no authority to choose the method by which California will execute condemned inmates," U.S. Circuit Judge William Fletcher, a...
Courts & Rulings Federal court upholds ban on seizure of oversize items in public areas by LAPD, sanitation workers A federal appeals panel on Thursday affirmed a ruling prohibiting Los Angeles police and sanitation workers from seizing and tossing oversized items stashed in public places, frequently by the homeless. The split decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena upholds last year's lower court decision that bans the city from enforcing an ordinance stopping people from...
California Supreme Court rejects attempt to make it harder to impose death penalty California's top court rejected an attempt to make it harder to impose the death penalty, ruling Thursday in favor of the current system where jurors need not unanimously agree on aggravating factors used to justify the punishment. Jurors already must unanimously agree to impose a death sentence, and to do so must decide that aggravating factors outweigh mitigating circumstances. AP--Judge has immunity even if he...
Courts & Rulings California Supreme Court rules prison inmates not allowed to have marijuana The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state's law allowing the use of recreational marijuana does not apply to prison inmates, overturning a 2019 appellate court ruling that allowed prisoners to possess up to 1 ounce of pot. In a 5-2 decision, the state's high court ruled that "it seems unlikely" voters sought to decriminalize possession of marijuana in prisons. Courthouse News Service...
A rising tide of violence in Los Angeles There were more aggravated assaults in Los Angeles in July than during any month in over a decade, with 1,299. The spike highlights one of the emerging concerns about public safety during COVID-19. Overall crime has fallen sharply, as social distancing and lockdowns kept people apart. But violent crimes - from murders to shootings and assaults - have been climbing to alarming levels. Crosstown With 46 murders, Los Angeles sees deadliest month in more...
Courts & Rulings Judge halts Newsom's planned closure of Northern California prison A Lassen County judge this week granted the city of Susanville a temporary restraining order halting the state's work to close a Northern Californian prison that employs about 1,000 people. Superior Court Judge Mark Nareau found Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration did not comply with requirements cited in the California Penal Code when it announced plans in April to close the California Correctional Center....
Courts & Rulings Removing boy from mother's custody appropriate despite lack of blameworthiness on her part The Court of Appeal for this district declared yesterday that a suicidal and aggressive teenager suffering from traumatic brain injury was appropriately removed from the custody of his mother toward whom he displays animosity, notwithstanding a lack of fault on her part. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Whitaker expressly found that the mother, "Sharon M.," had not abused,...
Courts & Rulings Thomas slams 'One-Size-Fits-All' immunity approach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used a college campus First Amendment case to sound off Friday about jurisprudence that affords school officials the same immunity give to police officers. "But why should university officers, who have time to make calculated choices about enacting or enforcing unconstitutional policies, receive the same protection as a police officer who makes a split-second decision to use force in a...
Courts & Rulings Tentative ruling stops LA County's most ambitious justice reform measure A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has published a tentative ruling that it appears will stop the voter-approved Measure J from taking effect. The ruling does not address the intent of the measure, which was to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from the County's budget each year away from law enforcement activities, but instead focuses on an underlying authority of government issue, which is whether...
Courts & Rulings Order snipping sentence-boosting allegations is dumped Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rob B. Villeza - who in January granted a motion made pursuant to a special directive to deputies by District Attorney George Gascón and allowed the prosecution to drop special circumstances and sentencing-enhancement allegations in a murder case - has reconsidered the matter and ordered resurrection of the original information. Metropolitan News-Enterprise Prosecutors can play child porn...
Courts & Rulings Ninth Circuit overturns drug conviction because search for weapon surpassed frisking Police conducting a "stop-and-frisk" can pat someone down for guns or other weapons if they have reason to believe they're in danger. But inside the pockets is out of bounds, and any evidence the officers find there is inadmissible, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. San Francisco Chronicle Warrantless search of motel room of parolee was justified - court A parolee's assent to a...
Depp to get drafts of article at center of defamation case against Heard--WHAS Johnny Depp's lawsuit accusing his ex-wife Amber Heard of defamation enters its third year in court with a ruling that the actress must turn over drafts of an editorial she published in The Washington Post. Fairfax County Circuit Court Chief Judge Penney S. Azcarate ruled from the bench Friday that Heard must also turn over certain communications with partners and associates, along with a passel of other documents...
Courts & Rulings Suit over disclosing officer’s personnel file not a SLAPP An anti-SLAPP motion does not lie where a suit was brought based on conduct in prior litigation, the Court of Appeal for this district held yesterday, saying that the act of revealing the plaintiff’s personnel file without judicial authorization was not protected conduct because it was a misdemeanor. The opinion by Justice Gail Ruderman Feuer of Div. Seven reverses a decision by Ventura Superior Court Judge Vincent J....
Courts & Rulings Reasonable jury could find officer liable for breaking woman's arm during arrest A District Court judge erred in granting summary judgment to a police officer who was sued by a woman on whom he applied such force in arresting her for trespassing as to break her arm, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday. The memorandum opinion reverses a Feb. 21, 2019 order by Judge William B. Shubb of the Eastern District of California awarding summary judgment to Vacaville...
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Courts & Rulings Recording calls without consent still illegal, California Supreme Court rules California's prohibition on secretly recording phone calls applies to both parties on the call and not just third-party eavesdroppers, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The court's unanimous decision reverses the Fourth Appellate District's opposite interpretation from 2019 that the law applies only to nonparties and does not forbid those on the call from recording each other without...
Courts & Rulings New trial required in action over death of tased suspect The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, in a 2-1 decision, reversed a judgment pursuant to a jury verdict in favor of the City of Los Angeles in an action brought by the family of a man who died after an officer used a Taser on him, holding that an initially proper order barring introduction of Police Commission findings that the officers acted unreasonably was rendered invalid in light of testimony by a...
Courts & Rulings Commissioner Campos says DA's policy doesn't override CA's remand order Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Benjamin Campos on Friday reconsidered his March 3 order that dispositional proceedings involving a man who was convicted in 2016, at age 22, of a murder committed six years earlier, while a minor, will take place in Juvenile Court, deciding that, instead, he will conduct a "transfer hearing" to determine if the case did belong in the criminal court, where it was origi...
Courts & Rulings Grieving family shocked as getaway driver freed in bloody murder of USC grad student from China: 'Reluctant' judge has 'no discretion' Saying he had no choice under a new narrower felony murder rule, a judge Monday changed the conviction against the getaway driver involved in the beating death of a USC graduate student from China to attempted robbery from second-degree murder and sentenced him to time served. MyNewsLA State appeals court won't hear DA's disqualification in SLO...
Courts & Rulings Court narrows law used to target white supremacists A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down portions of an anti-riot law used to target white supremacists. Still, the ruling found enough of the law constitutional to reinstate charges against four men prosecuted under the statute. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturned a district court judge's ruling in 2019 that found key sections of the Federal Anti-Riot Act violated the First Amendment by...
Courts & Rulings Judge rules victims lack standing to seek recusal of District Attorney's office Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher Smith has rebuffed the plea by family members of two slain females, who were half-sisters, to recuse the Office of Los Angeles County District Attorney in pending Juvenile Court proceedings against the alleged killer, now an adult, ruling that they lack standing to seek such relief. Metropolitan News-Enterprise Mandatory bar fees could violate attorneys'...
