Eastern District of California Blog

Oral Argument In The "Delta Smelt" Cases Set For Friday, 1:30 p.m. In Fresno

Oral argument is scheduled for Friday, 1:30 p.m., before Judge Wanger in Fresno on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment and other procedural matters in the "Delta Smelt" case, Coalition for A Sustainable Delta v. California Dept. of Water Resources, et al. and related actions.  See my earlier, related June 2, 09 and May 25, 09 posts.  

This Week in the EDCA, September 28-Oct 2, 2009

Besides the ongoing child porn criminal trial before Judge Mendez and week three of the civil CPS trial before Judge Shubb, the court's calenders show civil jury trials starting up this week before Judges England (Mon, 8 a.m.), Ishii (Tue, 8:30 a.m.), O'Neill (Mon, 8 a.m.), and Wanger (Tue, 8:30 a.m.). 

Also a reminder that the Federal Defender's habeas training seminar is this Friday, Oct 2, on the Delta King in Old Sacramento.  See my earlier post and flyer.  Although it's past the registration deadline, I've learned there are still a few spots available.  Late registrants should call Debbie Sutter at the Federal Defender's Office at 916-498-5700.

Sekhon & Sekhon Sentencings Continued to December 17, 2009, 10 a.m.

Sentencings for all defendants in the Sekhon & Sekhon immigration fraud case have been continued to December 17, 2009, at 10 a.m. 

[On September 30, 2009, the Court also continued defendants' motions for judgment of acquittal and for a new trial to December 17, 2009, 10 a.m.]

Embezzler Who Paid Back Over $800,000 Gets 6 Months Home Detention

It helps to pay restitution.  According to a Fresno Bee online story, Judge O'Neill sentenced a Clovis man on Friday to six months home detention and a $100,000 fine "for embezzling more than $800,000 from a well-known local food processor.  Jerry Burnes, 65, already had paid full restitution and agreed to pay more than $450,000 in back taxes to the state of California and the Internal Revenue Service. "

El Dorado County Pays Woman $127,000 After Encounter At Sheriff's Office Leads To Arrest and Tasering

The Sacramento Bee reports today on a settlement in which El Dorado County paid a woman represented by attorney Stewart Katz $127,000, resulting from her unlawful arrest and tasering in jail after she refused to leave the Sheriff's Office where she went to try to talk to the Sheriff to discuss her daughter's drug problem:

Kathleen Copelin Pastula wanted to see the sheriff of her county.

Perhaps naively, she went to the El Dorado County sheriff's office without an appointment to discuss with him her daughter's substance abuse problem and two experiences stemming from her daughter's condition that Pastula had with deputies within the previous 72 hours.

A 56-year-old housewife and mother of four, she was looking for answers, trying to cope with the worst kind of trouble a parent can face.

Pastula never got the meeting she wanted. Instead she became embroiled in an ordeal that would involve a night in jail, two courts, a criminal charge dismissed and a check written to her to settle a civil lawsuit.

* * *

Pastula was charged with resisting arrest. On the trial's second day, after hearing all the witnesses, El Dorado Superior Court Judge James R. Wagoner threw the case out and excused the jury.

"I just do not see how a reasonable jury, having heard this information, this testimony, and evaluating the conduct, could find that Ms. Pastula had violated" the law, Wagoner told the attorneys.

U.S. v. Harrison Jack: A Typical Terrorism Case Turned On Its Head

With the next status conference still set for October 5, 2009, at 11 a.m., here are excerpts from Denny Walsh's front-page Sacramento Bee, 9/26/09 piece on the status of U.S. v. Harrison Jack after the dismissal of General Vang Pao: 

There is no other post-9/11 prosecution like it. It stands the typical terrorism case on its head:

American citizens charged in an indictment invoking the little-used Neutrality Act with conspiring to attack Laos, a foreign country at peace with the United States.

* * *

Charges against the marquee defendant, storied Hmong patriarch Vang Pao, were dropped by the government last week after admissions that the evidence against him was lacking.

Now, the defense will shift its focus to a theory that an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – code named "GunSlinger" – was really the man behind the plot.

"At that time, when this ATF agent showed up, there was no scheme, there was no plan, there was no conspiracy and there was no capacity to hatch one," Vang's attorney, John Keker, argued in court in May. "The only weapon (the agent) didn't offer to get was a nuclear weapon."

All agree a trial is still years away.

The defense plans to ask U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. to dismiss the case or at least suppress evidence, partly because of what it contends are lies by the agent.

* * *

Defense lawyers insist the case is fatally flawed because the undercover agent went beyond legal boundaries and reeled the defendants in by suggesting a coup would be supported by the United States government.

"(My client) fought with the United States forces for 15 years. For 15 years, he took instruction from members of the CIA and other American intelligence officers to retrieve both living and dead troops," James Brosnahan, who is representing defendant Youa True Vang, said in a May hearing.

"It is outrageous conduct for a government agent who is trying to be undercover ... to strongly suggest that the United States government, the CIA, would support the overthrow of the Laotian government. That issue will never go away and that stain will never be removed from this case."

Mortgage Fraud Defendant Gililland Extradited from Barcelona to Sacramento

After an unsuccessful fight against extradition from Spain, Garret Griffith Gililland III made his initial court appearance on a 24-count Gililland Superseding Indictment on Friday.  According to the Sacramento Bee today,

Garret Griffith Gililland III, who fled to two continents to avoid prosecution and fought a pitched, 11-month battle against extradition, on Friday finally entered a federal courtroom in Sacramento.

He is charged with 24 counts stemming from an alleged large mortgage fraud scheme and has alleged ties to what has been described by federal authorities as a $100 million mortgage fraud based in Roseville, the largest in the history of the Sacramento region.

Monte McFall Has Sentence Cut From 10 to 6 1/2 Years

On resentencing after some of his counts were reversed on appeal, Judge England resentenced Monte McFall to 6 1/2 years, down from his original 10 year sentence.  According to the Sacramento Bee's coverage, Judge England's top-of-the advisory guideline sentence followed the agreement of the parties.

McFall, a former sheriff's deputy, water district official and sometime Capitol lobbyist, had far less of his trademark swagger in court Thursday. He told England, who has never appreciated McFall's defiance: "I assumed what I was doing was right. I see now that it was wrong. I'll go through life a convicted felon. My reputation is destroyed."

The judge responded: "You said three words in your allocution that I've never heard you say before – 'I accept responsibility.' That is the one thing I had not heard from Monte McFall, and that I wanted to hear."

ATF Agents Testify At Road Dog Cycle Evidentiary Hearing

Modesto Bee, "Road Dog Testimony Centers on Sticker's Existence," 9/25/09

210-Month Child Porn Sentence In Fresno

On Tuesday, Judge Ishii imposed a 210-month prison sentence on a former military policeman who pled guilty without a plea agreement to receipt and distribution of child pornography.  The U.S. Attorney's press release gives more details and notes a further hearing on two claims for restitution has been set for next month.