Eastern District of California Blog

EDCA Complaint Charges Man With Attempting To Provide Material Support To ISIS Terrorist Group In Syria

A six-month undercover FBI operation led to the arrest early Monday of a 20-year-old San Joaquin County man who authorities allege talked of launching a civil war that would topple the U.S. government.

Nicholas Michael Teausant, an Acampo resident and student at San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton, allegedly spoke of attacking the Los Angeles subway system, of bringing “America to its knees” and of traveling to Syria to teach fighters there how to shoot straight.

Teausant, a trainee in the California Army National Guard who was in the process of being released from his unit, was arrested Monday after being taken off a bus in Blaine, Wash., near the Canadian border.

A federal criminal complaint alleges that Teausant was on his way to Syria to join ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a foreign terrorist organization more widely known as Iraq’s al-Qaida.

He was scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington on Monday afternoon to face a charge of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to the complaint.

Sacramento Bee, 3/17/14

EDCA AUSA Robert Tice-Raskin Runs For Nevada County Superior Court

Someone recently alerted me to the fact that EDCA AUSA Robert Tice-Raskin is running for the Nevada County Superior Court bench, which I confirmed online. See Yubanet.com, 2/6/14

Ninth Circuit Upholds Plan To Protect Delta Smelt

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday upheld the science used in fish protection plans that sometimes cut back water pumping for San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California cities.  [Opinion available here]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturned a 2010 lower court ruling from Fresno, which had held that protections for the delta smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta were not supported in science.

The decision in Fresno would have forced a rewrite of 2008 protections for the threatened smelt, but there were no assurances that more water would have been made available.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Bay Institute had appealed the Fresno ruling from U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger. On Thursday, environmentalists applauded the appeals court.

"The decision today rejects the notion that water interests can buy a lot of scientific help to go over every fly speck of the science," said lawyer Trent Orr of legal watchdog Earthjustice, which represented the environmental groups. "The smelt protections should be judged on their merits and the science in the record."

Fresno Bee, 3/13/14

Local Coffee Maker Files EDCA Antitrust Suit Against Keurig Coffee Maker

Rogers Family Co., a Lincoln-based roaster, packager, grower and seller of gourmet coffee products, has filed a federal lawsuit against the makers of Keurig’s one-cup brewing systems.

The legal action claims violations of federal and California antitrust and unfair competition laws. The lawsuit seeks damages to be determined at trial.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California names Keurig Green Mountain Inc., formerly known as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. and successor to GMCR’s former wholly-owned subsidiary Keurig Inc.

Sacramento Bee, 3/13/14

Wannakuwatte Indictment

The Sacramento Bee today reports on the indictment charging Deepal Wannakuwatte with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.

Husband And Wife Sentenced to Five Year Terms in "Viaticals" Investment Fraud

Robert Eberle, 75, and his wife, Barbara, 66, formerly of Chico, were sentenced to five years each in prison and ordered to pay $13.2 million in restitution, the U.S. attorney’s office announced. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. in Sacramento.

The Eberles, who now live in Oxford, Ga., worked as sales representatives for a now-defunct Redding company called Secure Investment Services. Their job was to peddle financial instruments known as “viaticals,” which are fractional shares in someone’s life policy.

Viaticals are a legal business and have been around for 30 years. They became popular when dying AIDS patients started selling their life insurance policies to raise much-needed funds.

In the Redding case, however, prosecutors said this newfangled investment program was really an old-fashioned Ponzi scheme.

Sacramento Bee, 3/11/14

Last Defendant Re-Sentenced In Road Dog Cycle Case

After his conspiracy to obstruct justice conviction was overturned on appeal, Judge O'Neill resentenced defendant Stephen J. Johnson to 15 months prison on his remaining counts of conviction.  No. 1:08-CR-0224-LJO.  Judge Wanger had originally sentenced Johnson to 21 months.

My client, Gary Ermoian, was acquitted after appeal on the only charge against him.  See my 8/18/13 post.

One Acquitted, Two Guilty In Bid Rigging Antitrust Trial

After 18 trial days and 5 days of deliberation, the antitrust criminal "bid rigging" trial before Judge Shubb ended today with an acquittal on all counts for defendant W. Theodore Longley. 

Defendants Andrew B. Katakis and Donald M. Parker were convicted of one count of violating the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, while Katakis was also convicted of one count of destroying, altering, or falsifying records, 18 U.S.C. § 1519.  United States v. Chandler, et. al., No. 2:11-CR-511-WBS.  (The jury hung and a mistrial was declared for both defendants on count 2, conspiracy to commit mail fraud). 

The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys from the U.S. DOJ antitrust division in San Francisco.  Congratulations to Assistant Federal Defenders Matt Bockmon and Matt Scoble for their acquittal!  

Guilty Plea In USP Atwater Killing Case

James Ninete Leon Guerrero, of Guam, pled guilty today in Fresno federal court to one count of murder by an inmate serving a federal life sentence for his role in the stabbing death of officer Jose Rivera in June 2008.  No. 1:08-CR-0259-PMP.  The conviction requires a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole.  The Attorney General withdrew its request to seek the death penalty as part of the plea agreement.

Before the plea, Guerrero had been scheduled to begin an Atkins evidentiary hearing today.  (In Atkins v. Virginia, 538 U.S. 304 (2002), the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment bars the execution of mentally retarded defendants).

Co-defendant Jose Cabrera Sablan is set for trial on April 6, 2015.  [added: Fresno Bee, 3/11/14 and Guam PDN, 3/11/14].

14-Year Prison Sentence For Pointing Laser At Police Helicopter

A Bulldog gang member convicted of pointing a high-powered laser at a police helicopter was sentenced Monday to spend 14 years in federal prison.

Sergio Patrick Rodriguez, 26, was accused of pointing a green laser 13 times more powerful than common pointers at a Fresno Police Department helicopter in 2012. The helicopter had been called to an apartment complex near Fresno Yosemite International Airport after the Children's Hospital Central California helicopter crew reported they had been targeted by a laser from the ground in the area.

A federal jury found Rodriguez guilty of attempting to interfere with safe operation of aircraft and aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft.

Fresno Bee, 3/10/14