MoVal changes course on churches

As previously reported below the city of Moreno Valley was considering limiting where churches could be established. Due to heavy lobbying by certain church groups the city decided to drop the proposal. We get a taste of the extent of the lobbying here:

"I don't think it's worth falling on a sword for and becoming divisive," Councilman Bill Batey said. "Personally, I'm tired of personal attacks from those I would expect to have more conversations and respect from."

Close Tremors for rowdiness?

The PE reports that your local public attorney Gregory Priamos "plans to meet with representatives from the Riverside Police Department and the state Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control to evaluate and eliminate "criminal and nuisance activity" at Tremors." This comes as a result of a recent brawl inside the club which continued outside where some guy grabbed a gun and started shooting. Mr. Priamos is quoted as saying that the bar could lose its alcohol license.

Man sentenced 16 months for making threat to Rod Pacheco

The PE reports that Chandler Cardwell of Perris was sentenced to 16 months in state prison for publishing the following in the PE:

"Cardwell placed an ad in the paper calling for a yard sale at Pacheco's home to support the "Rod Pacheco Memorial Fund." The ad included Pacheco's home address and cell phone number. It also read, "Big Blowout going out of business sale" and "everything must go."

Cardwell, who worked as a commercial classified advertising representative at the time, said he searched newspaper records to obtain Pacheco's information, court records said.

He called the paper and gave false check information to pay for the ad using check No. 0187, the California penal code number for murder."

Apparently Cardwell did this because he was upset at Pacheco's plans to have the East Side Riva gang declared a public nuisance.

Riverside settles wrongul death case for $395,000

The PE reports that the city of Riveside settled with the heirs of Summer Lane for $395,000. The case arose from an officer's shooting of Ms. Lane. She was driving a vehicle apparently trying to facilitate the escape of her companion who was in the middle of a scuffle with a police officer. It's hard to say exactly what happened but I was stuck by the account of witnesses at the scene.

"It was in the parking lot, witnesses said, that Lane drove up to the men in her Honda Civic and backed away several times, screaming for Grotness to get into the car. She knocked over a sign in front of the store and may have hit both men.

Grotness told police that Lane bumped into them with the car once. Several witnesses said Lane appeared to be trying to run the officer down, but they didn't know whether she had actually hit him.

Wilson said Lane ran over his left leg at least twice and bumped into him at least once while he was on the ground fighting with Grotness.

Police originally said Wilson had suffered a broken leg but later changed the injury to a slightly sprained ankle.

The struggle went on for four minutes without backup officers, with little help from a security guard and with a small group of onlookers "yipping and snorting on their cell phones, giving a blow-by-blow account" but offering no help, Barham said.

Very nice. Perhaps the whole matter could have been avoided if some of these people would have helped. But it seems that no one wants to get involved. I can understand not wanting to get hurt, but "yipping and snorting" hardly seems civic worthy.

Judges are essential for protection of liberty

The PE reports on the case of three prison guards convicted of roughing up some prisoners. A jury found the three guards guilty of the allegations which pertained to causing some cuts and bruises to the prisoners. The judge found that their was not sufficient evidence for the jury to find the defendants guilty and therefore overturned the convictions. It may seem peculiar that the judge would overrule the jury but there are documented cases where the jury ignores its obligations to apply the facts to the law and gets cases wrong. Fortunately, there are judges willing to protect the citizenry from the state's occasional overreaching.

Judicial strike force cut in half

As previously reported, RivCo has benefitted by the appointment of 12 temporary judges to hear criminal trials. I also reported below that their are more criminal trials awaiting trial now than when the task for was appointed. The PE reports on Thursday that the task force was ended. There is no question the task force was necessary but the problem still exists and shows no signs of easing without either a massive amount of new judges or the DA starts dealing with the criminals to reduce the demand on the courts. Until one of these options takes place, we will continue to have no civil justice system in this county.

Is the system broke?

If this doesn't convince you the system isn't working, I think you had too much to eat today.
A monster kills two police officers in 1982 and was found guilty in 1984. The article says he was sent to San Quintin which probably means he was sentenced to die for his crime. In 2005 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal held that the monster had ineffective assistance of counsel. Over twenty years later!!!! The court ordered a new trial. That's just the RivCo citizens need. The court of appeal admits that the evidence was such that there was no question he killed the officers, yet now one court room needed to relieve the backlog will be taken up for a month to hear this guys' retrial. Nice.

Justice delayed, continued

The PE reports today that justice is not being served in RivCo. The numbers are truly staggering. There are 2,100 pending felony cases. The eight civil courts in western RivCo have on average 1665 cases while the three desert courts have an average of 1,464 cases each. The 2100 criminal cases have priority over all civil cases. Within the article the DA admits it wants family law judges to hear criminal cases as well. The article carefully demonstrates the hardships these delays cause the parties. Yet, the DA seems unmoved by the delays in the civil justice system.

Interestingly, the article also answers an earlier post about an appeal brought by a group of homeowners requesting the court of appeal order their five year old case to trial. Apparently, the court of appeal denied the appeal. Accordingly, it looks like the delay will continue until either RivCo gets more judges or the DA starts dealing with the criminal defendants.

More Zoning part 3

A 75 year conservation plan for the Coachella Valley was recently approved. The plan sets aside 240,000 acres in the Coachella Valley to be paid for ( $526 million) by developer fees, landfill fees, and what the PE reports as eligible state and federal funds. Supposedly, the land is to be purchased over 30 years from sellers at fair market value. To get an idea of how large 240,000 acres is the PE states it is equivalent to 15 cities of the size of Palm Desert. Despite monopolizing a tremendous amount of land the article indicates that this plan will facilitate more development in the area because the governing agencies will be able to issue more permits on less sensitive areas.

Development in the DA induced civil court logjam

As the readers of the IELB know, I have been very distressed by the lack of civil trials in our fair county. Indeed, I have not shied from appointing blame for the virtual shutdown of the civil justice on the District Attorney's Office. I am not alone in believing that the current system cannot continue. The PE reports that the plaintiffs in a construction defect lawsuit petitioned the local court of appeal for relief from the backlog. The California Code of Civil Procedure requires that civil actions proceed to trial within five years of the date of filing. The plaintiffs' lawsuit was originally filed over 2002. They did not get at trial within the statutorily allowed period of time.

It will be very interesting to see how the Court of Appeal responds. The current situation simply cannot continue. Each and every plaintiff with an outstanding case is simply being deprived of justice by the current backlog. The article concludes by stating that Riverside County should have 133 judges but only has 76 judges. There is no question but that this is true. However, this shortage of judgeships predated the start of current District Attorney Ron Pacheco's tenure. It is plain that the district attorney's policies (discussed ad nauseum previously) are the cause of the backlog.

More Zoning

Zoning appears to be the subject of the hour. In this article in the PE we learn how the city of Moreno Valley is attempting to exclude churches from residential and industrial areas. In the post below on Zoning your faithful correspondent attempted to demonstrate how zoning keeps citizens from maximizing the cash potential of their property. Here, the city of Moreno Valley is attempting to limit where can conduct your spiritual practices. I suppose the question is twofold: First, whether you would want 100 churchgoers descending upon your neighbor's home every week. Second, whether people should have the option to invite over friends and family for a weekly devotional? Alas, this is where the law steps in. This article shows lawmaking and how its responsive to the community's needs.

Corruption?

The PE reports that recently elected Riverside Unified School District Board member Tom Hunt received $10,000 in campaign contributions from the local teachers union. He says that he will listen to the teachers but not represent their interests exclusively. Riiiiiiiiggggghhhhht.

Former Colton police chief sues city

Former Colton police chief Kenneth Rulon sued the city of Colton for wrongful termination, defamation, retaliation, and emotional distress. He seeks $10 million. Rulon held the job for nearly 4 years and is 43 years old. See this article for more information. The IE LB's purpose is to point out interesting items of the law in our fair Inland Empire. It used to be that if you're Boss was a jerk or if you were treated unfairly you took your lumps and accepted the harsh reality of life. Now, if you are treated unfairly you sue. In this case, Rulon is suing the city of Colton. But who exactly is the city of Colton? It is 47,000 taxpayers. Rulon wants these citizens to pay him $10 million.

Most cities in California are dependent for revenue on sales tax. The vast majority of the sales tax go to the state and counties but the city in which the sale transaction took place does get a small cut of the sales tax. The reality is that cities are typically starved for revenue. Yet Mr. Rulon, because he feels he was treated unfairly, wants the city to either cut services or raise taxes to compensate him for the mistreatment. Assuming for the sake of argument that Mr. Rulon was treated unfairly what is the law to do? Deprive him of a legal remedy? The citizens of this state have decided that Mr. Rulon will have his day in court. The jury will decide if Mr. Rulon's rights were violated and if so how much will he get. If the jury awards Mr. Rulon money it will be Colton's citizens who are deprived of services or their hard-earned money. As such, it will have been the citizens of the state who created the law on which the lawsuit was brought and it will have been the jury of San Bernardino County citizens who gave Mr. Rulon the award. although the vast majority of Colton citizens had nothing to do with Mr. Rulon's mistreatment, they will ultimately be the ones who have to pay for the mistreatment.

A final thought on this is that the city of Colton's attorney is probably going to bill somewhere north of $100,000 for the city's defense.

Zoning

As part of the IE LB's ongoing commitment to covering all aspects of the law, we would like to point out an article which was probably widely ignored by readers of the PE. Like most other counties, it regulates what people and entities can do with their property. In other words, you as a free United States citizen are limited as to what you can do with your land. If, say, you own a property zoned for agriculture, you would not without a change in zoning the allowed to build a manufacturing facility. The article correctly states that the property owner a request the change in zoning but that "not all requests are likely to be approved." Accordingly, the property owner may be unable to use his property in a way that maximizes its value.

Most people do not give a second thought to this encumbrance on the free market. Zoning is the rule among municipalities not the exception. Houston is a noteworthy example of a municipality without zoning laws. However, the vast majority of cities and counties to provide for zoning. Your faithful correspondent has never been to Houston and cannot therefore attest to the benefits of freedom from zoning.

Indirect potable reuse?

The Lake Arrowhead Community Services District recently proposed using treated wastewater to replenish Lake Arrowhead. the agency proposes adding 1.5 million gallons per day of treated wastewater to the lake. The agency claims that the treated water would meet or exceed all drinking water standards. For an article on the topic go here.

Something tells me that this will never fly for the bluebloods living up the hill.

More evidence DA Pacheco is swamping the system

Here's another article showing DA Pacheco's swamping of the system. According to the article:

Seven felony cases ready for trial were dismissed Tuesday in Riverside County Superior Court because no judge was available to hear them and the cases had outrun constitutional speedy trial limits.

The court apparently had family, juvenile and probate judges available but would not assign the pending criminal trials to those judges. I suspect the DA will press the issue to have these judges hear criminal trials as well.

But I thought we just had the cleanest summer in recent memory?

Wasn't this summer just deemed the best in air quality on record? In fact, on October 2, 2007, I reported this exact news. Well, that's irrelevant to our senator Barbara Boxer who thinks the pollution is terrible and that it's all President Bush's fault. In this article, Senator Boxer has

"harsh words for the Bush administration.

The EPA, she said, has repeatedly delayed tougher standards for locomotives, ships and other sources of pollution.

"I have suggested they change their name to the Environmental Pollution Agency," Boxer said.

Might Senator Boxer be a "glass half empty type?"

No civil justice system in Riverside County

Here is a must read on the fall out from the DA Pacheco's position on criminal prosecutions. As long time readers IELB know, there is a serious problem going on in the Riverside County courts, i.e., namely, no civil lawsuits are going to trial. DA Pacheco is filing so many cases, and refusing to plea bargain in good faith, that all civil courts are being diverted to hear criminal cases. Because of the speedy trial guarantees for criminal defendants, criminal trials take priority over civil actions. So, if the DA Pacheco files a misdemeanor DUI, it has priority over a wrongful death action against a negligent defendant. So, if a sole provider parent is negligently killed by some defendant, the kids and surviving parent don't get their day in court, while the DA clogs the court with the case against the drunk driver.

Get a load of this:

There were 709 felony and misdemeanor trials last fiscal year in Riverside County, 171 more than the previous year. San Bernardino County had 272 felony and misdemeanor trials last fiscal year, just 32 more than the previous year.

Less than 3 percent of cases go to trial in Riverside County, but each one can take days, weeks or even months. Riverside County and San Bernardino County face heavy court congestion. An estimated 1,300 criminal cases await trial in the western part of Riverside County alone, and a state task force of judges has been sent to help.

I have previously written about the task force of 14 judges chief justice Ronald George assigned to Riverside County. At the time the task force was sent out there were 1200 cases awaiting trials. Now, there are one hundred more cases!! Shouldn't the DA acknowledge that he's swamping the system?

The other amazing part of the article involves Judge Gary Tranbarger's compilation of statistics which show that there have been more "all not guilty" verdicts. This would seemingly support that the DA is bringing more marginal cases to trial as opposed to plea bargaining in good faith. What's DA Pacheco's response?

"What's a judge doing, tracking stuff like that?" Pacheco said. "That exhibits his bias ... he's crafting these numbers to make us look less effective."

What? Resorting to an attack on a sitting judge rather than addressing the issue? Typical.

Great news-More judges

The Governor signed a bill enacting into law increasing the number of judges by 50. Apparently, San Berdoo and Riverside counties are to get seven of the judgeships each. This is in addition to the 15 added last year. Here's the link to the story.

More papering, different county

Here's another article about the disqualification of a judge. As previously discussed on this blog, the RivCo DA is regularly papering Judge Gary Tranbarger for alleged prejudice. The allegation is without any foundation, but I'm glad the DA is doing it because at least we have one judge dedicated to civil trials. At any rate, the San Berdoo public defender is now seemingly disqualifying a San Bern Superior Court Judge.

Interestingly, the judge admitted considering incarceration for bad courtroom conduct of one particularly intransigent attorney. I have never heard of such threats by a judge. The behavior hopefully warranted such punishment. Attorneys are known as "officers of the court" whereby they are supposed to be facilitating the court's effort at doling out justice. I usually like to give attorney's the benefit of the doubt in understanding their role. This is not to say that their isn't bad conduct in court by attorneys, their certainly is, but bad enough to warrant incarceration? That is quite a stretch.

Pool contractor, wife guilty in theft case

Here's an article about the fine line between criminal and civil conduct. The article describes a pool contractor who in one instance took $90,000 for a pool and proceeded to dig a big hole and did nothing else. Apparently, he did this or a variation of it 19 times. Normally, an aggrieved home owner's only option is to sue in civil court. The district attorney thought that this rose above the norm sufficiently to bring a criminal action. As an aside and as the IELB's astute readers know, there are no civil cases in RivCo, only criminal ones.

The Browns defended themselves by stating that employee salaries and worker's compensation in combination with poor management ate them up. I'm sure there is some truth to this, but it's hard to imagine circumstances justifying Brown's receipt of $90K and doing nothing except digging a big hole.

It is common for contractors to get behind projects where they use their downpayments on future projects to complete current projects. The Constractor's STate Licensing Board is supposed to ensure this doesn't happen by enforcing the law limiting down payments to $1000 or ten percent. Brown should never have gotten a $90,000 down payment. Still, I'm troubled by the district attorney's action here. Let's ask the question why did the contractor need to use funds from the future project for the present projects. Like I said, this is very common, and is usually the result of some unforeseen contingency. On construction projects, problems are the rule rather than the exception. Someone, either the architect, the general contractor or a subcontractor will miss something they were required to handle. When this happen, the party at fault starts blaming everyone else. The result is that everyone loses, even the parties not at fault. I've seen general contractors able to avoid their own mismanagement at the expense of subcontractors. So what of these subcontractors, victimized by the Goliath's? They use funds from other projects to make payroll, pay payroll taxes, and pay worker's compensation. It would be very unfortunate for the DA to prosecute these individuals, but something tells me that it may become the norm.

At any rate, let's close on this: Let this be a lesson to any consumers out there. Pay only the minimal downpayment required by law. You cannot rely upon the contractors having fear of the district attorney. They're too busy trying to rescue earlier projects.

Guiliani back in the IE

The IELB's inaugural posts covered the Mayor's visit to our very own Coffee Depot back in August. Well, the Mayor is back in the IE. This time though in Palm Springs. Here's the PE's report. The Mayor's speech was a little partisan:

"Democrats think business is the enemy," Giuliani said. "They want to tax it. They want to regulate it. ... We want to give business more flexibility."

This being the PE, there was of course the obligatory quote from someone who's opinion is absolutely meaningless to me. For instance, Marcella Roth, a book vendor, said:

"I don't want to hear their opinions on their opponents," said Roth, a Palm Springs resident. "I want to hear what they care about and what they are going to do."

Gee, that's exactly what I feel about Roth's opinion.

"Don't taze me Bro."

These guys apparently didn't say the magic phrase:

"Officers use Taser on two at nightclub

Police used a Taser to stun two people involved in a large fight early Sunday at The Ville nightclub.

About 2 a.m., police went to the club on University Avenue to break up a fight, according to police. Two of the people involved did not stop fighting so officers shocked them with Tasers."

Another non-legal post

The Press Enterprise reports that "This year's Southern California smog season likely will be the cleanest on record." Great balls of fire, who knew? Perhaps our current federal and state leaders aren't destroying the environment after all.

Adverse Possession in the news

Here's a rare article. It's about adverse possession which is a legal process whereby a squatter can obtain title to someone else's real estate by openly and notoriously claiming and using said real estate. Where this is done for the statutorily prescribed period, the squatter becomes an owner. This process was common in the wild west where the government wanted to encourage the use of real estate as opposed to allowing absentee owners to stifle economic development by tying up the real estate.

Breaking news

Judge Spitzer was removed as a judge by the state Commission on Judicial Performance. For a history of the allegations of misconduct see the posts below. For an article on his removal, go here.

Please forgive the interruption in legal news

Please forgive the interruption in legal news while I cheer the good news. The 60-215-91 interchange is going to be done within six months. Now if only all those Perris-Hemet-Sun City-Temecula-Murrieta drivers will stay off Allesandro all would be good in the world.

UC law schools to run at or near $40K per year

Here's an article near and dear to my heart. As an alumnus of Boston University School of Law I have personal knowledge about the pain of law school tuition. It always struck me as unfair that the taxpayer of California subsidized the cost of education for students who would soon be making top dollar at blue chip law firms which are currently paying first year associates over $150,000 per year.

Equality of the sexes?

Here is an article showing the sweeping nature of the state's anti discrimination laws. Apparently, some woman, frustrated from the loud play of a local boy, showed herself to the boy when he play basketball. It seems she did this on several occasions. The police were called and she was charged with indecent exposure. The judge hearing the case thought the law only applied to men. I suspect the trial court judge got hung up on the fact that most reported cases involved only men. But the plain language of the code prevailed. She's apparently going to get a trial before a jury to determine whether her exposure was indecent.

What about freedom of association?

This blog regularly discusses Rod Pacheco's zealous advocacy for the People of the state. As long time readers know, I regularly comment on the effect of his refusal to plea bargain. As is no secret, this has resulted in a glut of criminal cases which has all but eliminated the civil justice system. This article includes a twist on his actions. Specifically, he is seeking a civil injunction against an east side gang on the grounds that it is a nuisance. The article includes a number of interesting legal theories. First, it references that the gang members aren't entitled to a lawyer because this is a civil matter. This is interesting because the Supreme Court of the United States has determined that before the government can take away your life or liberty it must provide you with counsel. The constitution gives us a right to assembly which by definition means a right to free association. Well, here, aren't the people attempting to stop these gang members from freely associating and thus impinging there right to free assembly?

It's a fanciful legal argument which starts to fall apart on even minimal examination. Just like our freedom of speech isn't absolute (you can't yell fire in a crowded theater), your right to assemble may be limited to peaceful lawabiding activities. As you will read from the article, whether these gang members are law abiding is exactly the issue.

Liquidation of Church Owned Property

As mentioned below, one of the interesting legal issues arising from the sexual abuse cases facing numerous Catholic dioceses is how do these sums get paid. Well, sure enough, here is an article on exactly that issue. The Los Angeles arch diocese is closing and selling a convent in Santa Barbara to create a fund for the victims. The spokesman for the archdiocese strikes just the right tone on this matter:

"The pain is being spread around," Tamberg said. "We're losing our headquarters here, and none of the employees got a pay raise this year. This is just part of making it right with the victims, and we all have to share in the process even though none of us -- the nuns, myself -- harmed anybody. All of us as a church have to pay for the sins of a few people."

However, this is small consolation to those who were benefited from the church's outreach programs designed to help the poor and suffering. But, what's the alternative?

San Bernardino Diocese Settlement

This article details the settlement of 11 of 16 cases against the San Bernardino diocese. The eleven will share a $15,000,000 settlement. As a member of this diocese I am grateful that this matter is nearly over.

Most of the article focuses on one victim and her continued suffering.

One small blurb burried in the article explains that half of the $15,000,000 settlement will come from insurance carriers and the other half from dioscesan reserve funds. The diocese apparently released a statement saying that weekly donations will not be used to pay the settlement. Given the extreme pain and suffering of the victims I can't help but feel uncomfortable with this focus. Nevertheless, it is an interesting issue from the laws' perspective. As background, the article says that the San Diego diocese is prepared to settle its 133 cases for 198.1 million dollars. The San Diego diocese recently went bankrupt and apparently used the leverage of bankruptcy to get the settlement. What makes this interesting is that in bankruptcy it is typically the case that creditors get paid at least the liquidation value
of the debtor's assets. In the context of a diocese, doesn't this mean that all the local parishes' real estate have to be appraised to give the liquidation value? It is no secret that some of the victims' attorneys wanted to do exactly this, i.e., sale property. Can you imagine how terrible it would be for parishioners who had nothing to do with the abuse to lose their parish church? One argument against this that the local parish is held by the diocese in trust for the parishioners.

I am not aware of any parishes actually being sold any where in the US. I am grateful that this sordid matter does look like it is coming to an end.

Delay Delay Delay

After reading this, one might be lead to believe that justice is inherently dilatory. We have the hearing on perchlorate contamination in Rialto which was supposed to be heard on August 21 but was stayed by a Los Angeles County judge. We're talking about pollution which occurred in the 1950s and the State Water Resources Control Board decides 50 years later to conduct a hearing to establish who is to blame for the contamination. Apparently the state asked the LA judge to hear a change of venue motion to allow a San Bernardino judge to consider the issue of whether the Board has authority to hold this hearing. I discussed this issue previously (See below). The hearing on the change of venue is set for October 17! When the judge hears the matter, then the original hearing will have to be rescheduled. If the judge grants the matter, the San Bernardino judge will have to schedule the matter for another month out. In the meantime, the witnesses are getting really old.

Alas, justice is delayed, and perhaps will not prevail in this instance.

Giminy Christmas - allegations of impropriety in San Bernardino politics

Here's an article on improprities in the San Bernardino political realm. Who knew? San Bernardino's mayor Patrick Morris wrote this article lambasting the city attorney, Jim Penman. I know too little to comment on the allegations but the representation that only 11 out of 478 California cities have an elected city attorney is very interesting. The reasons against making the position an elected one sound about right. The city attorney is an advocate for the city in enforcing the municipal code and is supposed to provide a legal opinion for the departments on their obligations under the law. The job is ministerial as opposed to political. I'll keep an eye out for more on this story.

Judge Robert Spitzer on the hot seat

Here's an article about a hearing before the Committee on Judicial Performance. Judge Spitzer is charged with several breaches of judicial conduct including (1) speaking with the family of a murder victim to encourage the family to seek from the prosecutor's lesser charges against the perpetrator; and (2) signing affidavits that no matters are more than 90 days old. Interestingly, in order to get paid, judges have to swear that they have no matters pending more than 90 days. Judge Spitzer admits he signed the declarations despite having several matters beyond the 90 day limit. He says that he is obsessive compulsive. The examiner who is bringing the charges states that the public needs Judge Spitzer removed because it will not have confidence in a judge who can't make a decision. Dear Readers, is this true? Or is the lack of confidence due to the execution of the affidavit when he did have several matters over 90 days old?

To Catch a Predator

As my many readers know, I have lamented that our civil judges have been usurped by the DA's office. Here's a blurb from the PE about Judge Dallas Holmes who normally presides over civil matters. However, here he is handling a case involving a defendant from the popular program To catch a predator.

Sex-sting charges against man dropped
A Riverside judge has dismissed
attempted child molestation charges against a Twentynine Palms man arrested
during a "Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator" Internet sex sting in Mira
Loma.
Superior Court Judge Dallas Holmes' decision to release William
Lawrence Havey, 25, on Aug. 13 came after a jury deadlocked after a day and a
half of deliberations.
Havey was one of 51 men arrested during the three-day
sting in January 2006.
So far, 19 men have entered guilty pleas, two men have
warrants out for failure to appear and one man died before his case was
adjudicated.

Interestingly, the jury deadlocked. I wonder if any one interviewed them to determine what held them up.

Desert Water

Nothing's more important than water when you're in the desert. Here's an article from the LA Times about a water board member who apparently used her vote to further her economic interests. Although I am very mindful of the presumption of innocence it is always best for elected officials to recuse themselves.

A very important newsworthy development

The PE reports today that the Mission Inn is getting a new airconditioner. This is cutting edge news folks.

The wheels of justice turn slowly.

The PE reports that the State Water Board's attempt to hold a hearing on perchlorate contamination here in the IE was foiled for the time being while a superior court judge in Los Angeles County determines if the Board has the authority to hold the hearings. As most of you know, there are three branches of government: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. There is also lurking a "fourth" branch which most people don't know about: The administrative agencies. Because most laws are too general to fully regulate the narrow specifics of the conduct sought to be regulated, the state and federal government have created these agencies which make regulations and often conduct hearings on violations! In orther words, the agencies are acting as minilegislatures and minicourts. Parties subject to the regulations and mini-courts often don't like the prospects and therefore challenge the actions to the real courts. It's time consuming, but what are the alternatives? Here's the link. http://www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_C_perch14.3c41216.html

A glimpse into the backlog

Here's an interesting article in the PE showing why the 1200 case backlog is such an intractable problem. An attorney wants a continuance because of his glaucoma. He can drive to court but can't go to trial. Another problem occurs when the DA tries to disqualify a defense attorney. According to the defense attorney, the DA is afraid of his success. Another item involves the 20 counts against one defendant. That number of counts greatly complicates trials which means greatly extends them while the parties try to work through the legal complexities. The final interesting note, IMO, is that this contingent of judges is only set for four months. Given the 1200 cases this is like a drop in the bucket. Oh well. It"s a start. http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_H_strikeforce14.3f1d42b.html

You heard it here first

Although I'm loathe to brag, I said earlier regarding the DA-Judge Tranbarger row, that despite the finding that Judge Tranbarger is not biased, the DA would continue to move to disqualify the judge. In legal squares we call this "papering the judge." Well here is your confirmation: http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_C_judge11.3ee2e4d.html

I find it delicious that the DA "papered" one judge only to have the case assigned to Judge Tranbarger. I especially liked this quote from the supervising judge:

Cases where another judge has already been blocked "are now eligible to go to
Judge Tranbarger, and we will assign them to him, if he is available," said
Helios J. Hernandez II, supervising judge for the Riverside County Hall of
Justice."

Lest you, my reader, thinks I'm being too glib here, please be assured that Judge Tranbarger is highly regarded among attorneys for his intellect and fairness. He will assuredly give the people a fair trial. It is preposterous for DA Pacheco to say:

"We believe Judge Tranbarger is not fair to the people and biased to the
prosecution," District Attorney Rod Pacheco said Friday in a statement.

The fact is that many jurors go into the trial thinking the defendant is guilty. It is not uncommon for jurors to think that the criminal defendant wouldn't be there unless he had done something. Further, the DA has nearly unlimited assets to investigate and call witnesses, unlimited discretion to make deals with "accomplices" and virtually no time constraints. Given the inherent advantage that the DA has it is absurd for him now to complain about that mean ole Judge Tranbarger.

1200 criminal cases, 12 additional judges?

This PE articles explains some of the reasons for the backlog of 1200 criminal cases. http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_longtime10.27e2ab3.html
While I hate to be a killjoy, 12 judges for a backlog of 1200 cases sounds inadequate. If the current group of judges can maintain the status quo, then the 12 judges will each have a 100 cases to resolve. If each case lasts two weeks on average, and if the average judge takes off 15 holidays and four weeks vacation, that means that each judge will resolve 22 cases. 12 times 22 is 264 cases. Hmmm. That means in about five years will resolves this gridlock. Given the counties increasing population growth, and DA Pacheco's refusal to budge, it doesn't look good.

Riverside Foreclosures up 281%

The LATimes reports that Riverside Foreclosures are up 281% from this time last year. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/inland/la-me-foreclose1aug01,1,7794496.story?coll=la-editions-inland-news&ctrack=2&cset=true Given that foreclosures for the 2-3 years before that were at record lows (it's not much of an exaggeration to say that during this time their were virtually none) this statistic is largely meaningless. Yet here's the Times shouting out this headline.

Judge Tranbarger not biased

The Press Enterprise reports here http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_tranbarger07.3ee4073.html
that Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim G. Dunning rejected RivCo DA's Rod Pacheco's motion to deem local judge Gary Tranbarger biased against the DA's office. This row started when RivCo's grossly understaffed Superior court became inundated with criminal cases. Pacheco caused this flood by refusing to plea bargain cases in good faith. Defense counsel thus had to demand trials. Because criminal matters take priority over all other matters (the state constitution guarantees criminal defendants a speedy trial) the superior court halted all civil matters and reassigned the civil judges to criminal matters. This still wasn't sufficient as the flow continued. This matter came to a head when Judge Tranbarger dismissed two misdemeanor cases for violating the speedy trial guarantee. Pacheco wanted the court to reassign all judges to criminal matters. Judge Tranbarger published a well publicized tract questioning why the DA wasn't taking steps to ease the flood of criminal cases. Pacheco responded brazenly in this writer's opinion why the courts were not more efficient. For instance, Pacheco asked why the courts are dark on Fridays.

All in all, I suspect Judge Dunning's ruling will have little effect on the DA. In fact, I suspect the DA will continue to seek Judge Tanbarger's disqualification every time he is assigned a criminal case. This is fine with me because at least some civil matters will get trial dates. The fact that all civil cases were put on hold while civil courts held criminal cases has been a disaster for the administration of justice.

Murrieta in the News; Making waves

Here's a fascinating article in the news about a recent trend for public schools to have courses on the Bible. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bible5aug05,1,1087611.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true Our own Murrieta school district is blazing a path in the inland empire in establishing such a course. The article assumes that the study of the bible serves legitimate scholastic purposes, but quibbles with such courses on the grounds that they can easily serve as worship services as opposed to secular scholastic inquiry. Certainly, indoctrination and proselytizing should be avoided as this is not the function of the government. The article touches upon the interesting legal question which is whether such courses are constitutional. There is a wide spread misconception that the constitution says that there is a separation of church and state. This is incorrect. The Constitution's establishment clause forbids the congress from establishing a religion. Thus, the question is whether such courses establish a religion. This is obviously not correct.

All in all, this is a very fair minded article. However, will you endulge a pet
peeve? The articles gives us the advice of an 18 year old: "Thomas Scher, who
graduated from Murrieta Valley High in June and will attend Stanford University,
said that although he approved of the course in concept, he believed religious
agendas prompted its adoption."There was an effort made to
bring Judeo-Christian religion into our school under the guise of academia," he said
at a school board meeting in May. "Political or religious agendas do not belong
in our schools, and that is simply what is going on here today."

If the boy wonder wanted to expound on what was the "effort made to bring Judeo-Christian religion into our school under the guise of academia" that could be newsworthy, but to simply give us his opinion that "Political or religious agendas do not belong in our schools, and that is simply what is going on here today" is tendentious and tiresome.

Unqualified?

Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Elia Pirozzi as a Judge for the county of San Bernardino. The state bar had apparently deemed him "not qualified" but the governor went forward with the appointment. Here is an article on the brouhaha. http://www.sbsun.com//ci_6448371?IADID=Search-www.sbsun.com-www.sbsun.com The judge's defenders say that the "not quailfied" rating was politically motivated. It is my observation that many of the people who serve on foundations, committees, boards and the like are typically politically active. Given the current overwhelming drift of the state to the left it stands to reason that the bar's evaluation committee has also drifted leftward. The question thus becomes whether the members are able to keep their Democrat politics in check in evaluating Republican candidates. I wonder how many Democrat judges have been deemed not qualified.

Giuliani was in town?

I just heard Rudy Giuliani was in town. He made a stop at the Coffee Depot. Here's the PE's take on this visit: http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_D_giuliani25.3dea0b1.html

Is it me or am I just getting old? Why does the writer and the PE bother us with a 19 year old's take on Giuliani? Even if the article quoted someone who actually pays taxes and has some dependents, I'd probably still complain. It seems that the article could explain how Giuliani came to be at the coffee depot? Where was he going from there? Who was with him? and perhaps a little more about what he said. Instead we get as much as the 19 year old's take as from Giuliani himself.

A modern Fred Sanford

Here's an article about the status of a court ordered cleanup of a Norco property. http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_D_corson05.3c328ae.html

Interestingly, the article says that the property in its cleaned up condition will be worth $2,000,000 while it was unsellable prior to clean up. The court ordered clean up is costing $462,000 which will be offset against the amount gained from recycling. Currently, recycling has netted $75,000 which doesn't come anywhere near the cleanup costs.

Also interesting are the skunks, rats and snakes making a home among the junk.

Now for the legal issues. Obviously, nobody wants to live next to Fred Sanford. I also understand the downward effect on market values of such junk heaps. Still, I'm concerned with giving city attorneys sole discretion to prosecute these claims. I've seen abusive prosecution of claims. A disgruntled neighbor complains and the offending neighbor finds himself on the wrong side of a city prosecution, while a far worse house around the block goes unaddressed. Further, where does the government stop? Sure these guys were way out of control, but what about the neighbor with an inoperable rusting hulk of a 55 Chevy Bel Aire in his driveway? I suppose we have to let the jury decide, but I'm sure concerned with our ever shrinking liberty.

Will this clear up the impacted courts?

Chief Justice Ronald George promised to assign temporarily several retired judges to our county to address the glut of cases. Here is an update on those assigned this daunting task. http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_C_judges27.3d0dd1a.html