Eastern District of California Blog

Target Pays $275,000 To Settle Wrongful Termination Suit

Retail heavyweight Target Corp. has shelled out $275,000 to extract itself from a wrongful termination claim by a longtime employee at its Woodland store.

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She was fired, Target said in the papers, because she was late taking a meal break three times in 18 months – "an automatic ground for termination of any Target employee."

On one of those occasions, Arriaga was two minutes tardy. Target "makes no exception for 'two-minute violations,' " the company declared in court papers.

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When it came time to settle, Target, with Lockshin's cooperation, wanted everything sealed, but U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton was unsympathetic to its plea.

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In a court affidavit, Target attorney Jerry Deschler Jr. argued that "it would be inherently prejudicial" to his client if the terms of the settlement became public because they "could be taken as an admission of liability." He further argued that disclosure "would likely undermine future settlement negotiations in other cases … by creating expectations of similar or better terms."

Karlton was not persuaded.

"The parties have offered no compelling reasons to seal these documents, and the court will not do so," he wrote in a three-page order.

Sacramento Bee, 5/19/12

Fairfield Landlord Sentenced to 35 Years For Planting Pipe Bomb Under SUV

A Fairfield landlord was sentenced today to a mandatory-minimum 35 years in prison for putting a pipe bomb under the SUV of a former tenant.  SF Chronicle, 4/3/12.  A jury found him guilty in January.  I heard Judge Karlton rejected the prosecutors' request for a 48-year sentence. 

EDCA Court Follows Haskell, But . . .

In light of the Ninth Circuit's decision Thursday in Haskell v. Harris, 10-15152, Judge Karlton unsuprisingly denied the defendant's motion for return of a DNA sample taken by the U.S. Marshal's office when he briefly went into custody on an arrest warrant in U.S. v. Tuzman, 2/24/12 order.  But Judge Karlton attached as an exhibit to his order his intended 48-page order that would have granted the motion on the ground that the forced taking of a DNA sample from a pretrial arrestee before conviction constitutes an unreasonable, warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment, until Haskell beat him to the punch.  Tuzman order exhibit.  I'm hoping he's on to something in suggesting that "the Supreme Court's recent ruling in United States v. Jones, 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012), [may] mark[] a turning point in the depreciation of the Fourth Amendment['s]" warrant requirement.  See Exhibit-Order, at 13 n.14.

In any event, the smart money is betting this fight is far from over and Judge Karlton's "exhibit" order will be persuasive authority for the all-but-inevitable en banc litigation in the Ninth Circuit.   [I represent the defendant in this one].

 

Wine Arsonist Sentenced To 27 Years, Vows Appeal

More than six years after a wine warehouse burned on Vallejo's Mare Island, cooking 4.5 million bottles of fine reds and whites in an inferno that rocked Napa vintners, the bon vivant convicted of setting the blaze in a fit of revenge was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton admitted he was effectively handing a life sentence to Mark Christian Anderson, a former Sausalito civic commissioner who is 63. Anderson has complained of a litany of health problems, and during today's proceedings he lay on his left side on a court bench.

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Anderson, who declined an opportunity to address the court, reacted little to the sentence, but his attorney was surprised by its severity. When Anderson pleaded guilty in November 2009 on the brink of trial, Lapham had recommended a sentence of 15 years, 8 months.

However, Anderson soon sought to withdraw the plea, and by reviving his claim of innocence he lost credit he could have gained for accepting responsibility. He wrote florid memos to the court, likening his former attorney to a "Victorian costermonger."

His new lawyer, Jan Karowski, said today he would appeal Karlton's decision to hold Anderson to the plea deal and ask again for a jury trial. Karowski said he would also appeal the sentence.

Anderson was arrested in March 2007. Although he has already served five years, Karowski said, "he'll be dead long before he does 22 or 23 more years."

SF Gate, 2/7/12; see also Sacramento Bee, 2/8/12.

EDCA Denies Salyer's Motions To Suppress Wiretap Evidence

According to the Monterey Herald, 1/13/12, Judge Karlton denied defendant Frederick Scott Salyer's motions to suppress wiretap evidence in his RICO/antitrust prosecution. 

Ok, I'm a couple weeks behind on this one.

EDCA Court Holds California Prop 9 Parole Revocation Statute Unconstitutional

In this Valdivia v. Brown, No. 94-671-LKK order, Judge Karlton held California's Proposition 9 to be unconstitutional because its changes to parole revocation procedures in California violate the minimum due process protections required by the Supreme Court's decisions in Morrisey v. Brewer and Gagnon v. Scarpelli.  The ruling invalidates Prop 9 in its entirety, finding that when the unconstitutional provisions of the parole revocation statute are stricken, the remaining portions are not severable and "no portion of the statute can be preserved."  Denny Walsh has a good summary in his article in today's Sacramento Bee.

EDCA Court Grants Salyer's Motion To Sever Antitrust Counts & Sets Two Jury Trials In 2012

In this order, 12-12-11, Judge Karlton granted defendant Frederick Salyer's motion to sever the jury trial on his antitrust charges from the jury trial on his other charges.  On Wednesday, the Court denied the government's request to try the two sets of charges back-to-back and instead set the jury trial on the antitrust counts for September 11, 2012.  The jury trial on the remaining counts starts April 17, 2012.  It is expected to last about a month.  See also Monterey Herald, 12/13/11 & Monterey Herald, 12/23/11.

EDCA Court Deletes Condition That DNA Sample Be Collected For Pretrial Release

This morning, Judge Karlton issued this DNA order, No. 11-CR-0427 amending the pretrial release conditions for two defendants by deleting the requirement that they provide a sample of their DNA as a condition of release, and ordering the government to state under oath within 14 days whether a sample was already taken from one defendant before he was released. 

[I represent one of the two defendants, though Rachelle Barbour at the Federal Defender's Office is lead attorney in this litigation and should get all the credit for the excellent briefing.]

Sacramento Bee's Piece On Keker's Addition To Salyer Defense Team

Denny Walsh has a front-page piece in today's Sacramento Bee about John Keker being added to the Salyer defense team and Judge Karlton's denial of the government's motion to recuse him.  The whole article is an interesting read but here's my favorite part:

Anna Pletcher, an attorney in the San Francisco office of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division, argued the motion to disqualify Keker.

"The government would be honored to face the Keker firm in a trial in the Salyer case," but Grewal's situation presents an insurmountable conflict, she told U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.

"Are you kidding me?" Keker asked the judge rhetorically. "This is such a transparent tactical move."

Karlton rejected Pletcher's argument last week, saying, "I believe that the government has got nothing but altruism motivating its motion, and its deep concern with fairness for Mr. Salyer. I believe that, but I also believe in the tooth fairy.

"It seems to me the government is looking to avoid granting Mr. Salyer the best possible defense that he can have. That he can afford Mr. Keker is impressive all by itself … " the judge said, adding that Salyer is ending up with "either the best or close to the best white collar defense team in the world."

Keker now joins Malcolm Segal, considered one of Sacramento's top defense lawyers, who has represented Salyer from the start but says his firm is too small to wage war on an equal footing with the government in such a massive, multifaceted prosecution.

EDCA Court Reduces Punitive Damages Award Against California Prison Guard Ass'n

A federal judge has reduced a $10 million punitive damages award leveled against the California Correctional Peace Officers Association last year, although the plaintiffs in the case can appeal the reduction or seek a new trial that focuses on what the award should be.

Sacramento Federal Court Judge Lawrence Karlton rendered the decision last week, cutting what was a total $12.5 million decision against CCPOA -- compensatory and punitive damages awards combined -- to about $5 million.

The decision is the latest turn in Dawe v. Corrections USA, CCPOA, et al. Last October a jury unanimously found that CCPOA had spread falsehoods about Brian Dawe, a founder and former executive director/treasurer of Auburn-based Corrections USA.

SacBeeBlog, 3/24/11