Eastern District of California Blog

Attorneys Volunteer To Represent Occupy Fresno Protesters

Occupy Fresno participants have peacefully submitted to arrest for 16 nights -- many of them going to jail more than once for their cause.

"Five arrests, 9 different citations," Vanessa Aranda told Action News.

Despite all her arrests, Aranda still comes back to Courthouse Park every day.

When the clock strikes midnight, she's breaking the law if she stays in the park.

But Occupiers say the sheriff's office is wrong to target them like criminals.

"I feel like it's a complete waste," Aranda said. "I mean, we're not doing anything. They've said it many times that we're very peaceful."

Sheriff's deputies say they need to enforce the law whether the violators are peaceful or not. Meanwhile, overtime and other costs are racking up.

Those costs could soon shift to the district attorney's office.

Every arrest leads to a misdemeanor court case and the Occupiers plan to fight -- with a huge team of attorneys taking up their cause.

"We're going to bring it on and it's going to be a real problem for the district attorney's office to prosecute all these cases at one time," said defense attorney Charles Magill.

Magill is one of about 20 Valley lawyers who are volunteering to defend people arrested at Courthouse Park.

He compares the Occupy movement to Vietnam-era protests.

ABC 30, 11/21/11

Video Of UC Davis Police Pepper Spraying Seated Occupy Protester-Students

UC Davis Chancellor calls for task force to review police use of pepper spray on seated student protesters.  Sacramento Bee, 11/19/11.  One woman was taken by ambulance to a hospital for chemical burns.  See also Huffington Post, 11/19/11.  How about a federal investigation?

Nine New Indictments In Sacramento-Area Mortgage Fraud Case

One the biggest mortgage fraud cases to hit the Sacramento area has yielded criminal charges against nine more individuals.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted several members of a local family on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering over their alleged roles in a scheme that defrauded lenders of $16 million.

The indictment said the family members served as "straw buyers" who took out loans using phony documents to pay inflated prices for homes that later went into foreclosure.

Sacramento Bee, 11/19/11

California Settles Lawsuit Over Adult Day Care Program

Advocates for the elderly and the disabled applauded a federal court settlement Thursday that replaces California's Adult Day Health Care program, long a target of state budget reductions, with a similar community-based program that allows low- income, frail seniors to remain in their own homes.

"Some cuts are just not OK in this fiscal process," said Disability Rights California's Elissa Gershon, lead attorney for the Darling v. Douglas case, which challenged plans to eliminate Medi-Cal coverage of adult day health care for 35,000 participants.

Under a sharply criticized transition plan, Medi-Cal funding for ADHC was scheduled to end on Dec. 1.

According to terms of the settlement, participants have until Feb. 29, 2012, to qualify for the new program, which like ADHC will provide skilled nursing care, health services, physical and occupational therapy, and transportation.

The new program, called Community-Based Adult Services, will save $28 million in the 2011-12 budget and $92 million the next year by shifting participants into the Medi-Cal managed care health plan under a federal health care reform waiver.

Sacramento Bee, 11/18/11

Fresno Jail Overcrowding Ruling Delayed Two Weeks

A prisoner-rights attorney on Thursday accused Fresno County Superior Court judges of scheming to undo a 1994 agreement to reduce overcrowding in the Fresno County Jail.

The 17-year-old agreement, Fresno attorney Catherine Campbell told a federal judge, is working fine as is, with Sheriff Margaret Mims deciding when to release prisoners based on adequate staffing levels.

An attorney representing the judges bristled at the accusation, and said the Superior Court jurists are only seeking to clarify the agreement. The judges, Fresno attorney Stephanie Borchers said, want a clear understanding on the settlement's use of the word "capacity."

"I can assure you, the judges don't want to control the jail," Borchers told the judge.

In the end, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. delayed a decision for two weeks to give the two sides a chance to work out an agreement.

It was a strange end to a hearing that got heated at times. The hearing was also strange in that Fresno County and prisoner-rights attorneys – who once fought bitterly over the case in the 1990s – found themselves allied against the Superior Court judges.

The two sides gathered in a federal courtroom here to decide a simple question: Do Fresno County's Superior Court judges have a right to intervene in the long-settled case?

Fresno Bee, 11/17/11

Fresno Officer Faces Trial In Fatal Shooting

A federal judge has cleared the way for a jury trial in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed man who was shot by a Fresno police officer in October 2009.

The trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 6 after U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii rejected a motion by the city of Fresno, police Chief Jerry Dyer and Sgt. Mike Palomino to dismiss the suit.

An attorney for the family of Steven Anthony Vargas, who was shot and killed by Palomino, promises the case will go well beyond the shooting that sparked the initial lawsuit.

"We're basically going to put the entire police department on trial," said Arturo Gonzalez, an attorney with the San Francisco firm of Morrison & Foerster.

Fresno Bee, 11/15/11

Fresno Jury Finds Man Guilty In Scheme To Steal Almonds

A federal jury found a Modesto man guilty Monday in a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds of almonds and to defraud Central Valley almond growers and nut processors.

Modesto resident Ronald John Salado, 59, was found guilty of conspiring to commit mail fraud and bank fraud, two counts of mail fraud, nine counts of bank fraud, and two counts of money laundering, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.

Modesto Bee, 11/14/11

 

Occupy Fresno Federal Lawsuit

Here's the Occupy Fresno v. County of Fresno, No. 11-CV-1844-DWI/DLB Civil Complaint, 11/13/11 and the district court's order, 11/16/11 denying Occupy Fresno's ex parte application for a temporary restraining order.  The order also sets a briefing schedule on a motion for a preliminary injunction with a hearing date of December 12, 2011.

[Updated] City Attorney To Dismiss 31 Occupy Sacramento Cases

Sources say that the Sacramento City Attorney will dismiss a large number--but not all--of the pending Occupy Sacramento arrestee cases starting tomorrow in Sacramento Superior Court at 8:30 a.m.  These are the misdemeanor cases charging protesters with remaining in Cesar Chavez park after 11 p.m., purportedly in violation of Sacramento City Code 12.72.090A.  Other cases are going forward with defense First Amendment challenges to how the City is implementing its park statutes and permit process to be heard November 22, 8:30 a.m. in Department 9.

 [UPDATE:  City Attorney Dismissing Charges Against 31 Occupy Protester Cases, Sacramento Bee, 11/17/11 and "Charges Tossed," OccupySac.com].

U.S. Attorney Files Marijuana-Based Forfeiture Actions

Sacramento-based U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner filed civil forfeiture complaints to seize land and bank accounts connected with commercial marijuana cultivation operations.

“The commercial cultivation of marijuana is a violation of federal law, and commercial marijuana cultivators who attempt to mask their activity through structuring their financial transactions in violation of anti-money laundering laws can expect to have their property seized and forfeited,” Wagner said in a statement.

The growing fields were in five parcels in rural Trinity County and a 40-acre tract in Butte County.

The U.S. Attorney’s office also is pursuing money in bank accounts in at least three different banks.

Sacramento Business Journal, 11/15/11