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