Eastern District of California Blog

Ninth Circuit Affirms EDCA Court In Rejecting Challenge To Forest Service Rules on User-Created Roads

In Friends of Tahoe Forest v. U.S. Forest Service, No. 14-15336, the Ninth Circuit yesterday affirmed Judge Mendez's grant of summary judgment in favor of the U.S Forest Service and other federal defendants on claims that they violated the National Environmental Policy Act in evaluating the environmental impacts regarding motor vehicle use on 869 miles of "user-created" roads and trails in the Tahoe National Forest.

Ninth Circuit Reverses EDCA Court For Faretta Violation

Congratulations to local attorney Tim Warriner for his Ninth Circuit win in U.S. v. Pulley, No. 13-10491, where the Court held that the EDCA court violated his client's Sixth Amendment right to represent himself under Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975).  

Fresno Jury Exonerates Sanger Officers In Fatal Shooting Case

The tragic case of a suicidal Marine Corps veteran who called 911 and asked police to kill him ended Thursday when a federal civil-rights jury ruled that three Sanger police officers with assault rifles did not use excessive force – nor were they negligent – when they riddled his body with bullets in June 2012.

The jury’s verdict in U.S District Court in Fresno was a dramatic ending to a trial that gave a rare glimpse into an officer-involved shooting: A bystander videotaped it as it unfolded. The officers didn’t know about the videotape when they gave their account of the incident to Fresno County sheriff’s investigators.

The 12-second video shows five officers facing Salinas, who was unarmed and standing in a flower bed. The officers had formed a skirmish line, a police tactic in which officers stand side by side.

Officer Robert Pulkownik shot Salinas twice with a shotgun that fires beanbags. Simultaneously, Sgt. Jason Boust and officers Angela Yambupah and Preston Little fired 22 rounds at Salinas with assault rifles, striking him 11 times as he left the flower bed outside a business on Academy Avenue.

The officers were 10 to 15 feet from Salinas before they opened fire. Fresno County sheriff’s Sgt. Joshua McCahill, who assisted on the call, pointed a handgun at Salinas but did not fire his weapon.

The video wasn’t enough to sway the jury of five men and three women, who voted unanimously to find the officers had done nothing wrong.

Fresno Bee, 2/25/16

5-Year Prison Sentence For Former Firefighter Convicted Of Setting Fires On Federal Lands

A U.S. Attorney's press release today reports that Judge Mendez sentenced a former firefighter to the mandatory minimum 5-years imprisonment after he pled guilty to arson and admitted setting wild land fires on federal lands.  The government's Sentencing Memo asked for a 90-month sentence, consistent with the (c)(1)(C) plea agreement of the parties.  I don't have any more info, but it appears that Judge Mendez rejected the (c)(1)(C) sentencing recommendation and instead followed the presentence report's recommendation for a five year sentence.

Fresno Civil Rights Trial Over Sanger Police Shooting Death Continues

Today was Day 9 in the Fresno excessive force civil rights jury trial, Esperanza Brooke v. City of Sanger, No. 1:13-CV-586-AWI.  The Bee's Pablo Lopez described the trial before Judge Ishii as determining "whether the three [Sanger] officers were justified in killing 46-year-old Charles “Charlie” Salinas, a Marine Corps veteran with a history of alcoholism, mental illness and a desire to die."  Here are links to his coverage of trial Day 1, Day 2, Day 4, and Day 5.  

Ninth Circuit Reverses EDCA Ruling Invalidating California Laws Limiting Parole Hearings

An appeals court Monday reversed a Sacramento federal judge’s ruling that two state laws limiting parole hearings and giving the governor authority to block paroles were unconstitutional.

The late U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled in 2014 that the two statutes created a significant risk of making murder sentences longer than they otherwise would have been, even though the prison terms were imposed before the laws were enacted.

Proposition 9, a ballot initiative passed by the voters in 2008, and Proposition 89, passed by voters in 1988, “retrospectively increased punishments, in violation of the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution,” Karlton wrote in his 58-page order.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and, in a 30-page opinion [here] published Monday, reversed Karlton.

Sac Bee, 2/22/16

Feds Charge Immigration Fraud Through Adult Adoption Scheme

The Sacramento Bee has articles on Helaman Hansen's indictment and arrest, arraignment, and bail hearing.  He's charged with fraud for allegedly falsely telling undocumented immigrants that they could obtain naturalized U.S. citizenship if he and his associates adopted them as adults.  Here are the indictment and the search warrant affidavit.

Judge Drozd Investiture Ceremony Last Thursday

I'm finishing up a crazy busy February (including 3 Ninth Circuit oral arguments) and should be picking up my blogging now.  I amended and updated my post on Judge Shubb's order applying Johnson to 924(c) charges here.  Photo above is from Judge Drozd's well-attended investiture ceremony in Fresno on Thursday.  Nice speeches by EDCA Judges Shubb and Mueller, as well as CALPERS general counsel and former AUSA Matt Jacobs, and Loyola Law School Professor Laurie Levenson.  

Securities Fraud Case Charged in Sacramento

Securities fraud cases are usually the domain of the Northern District, home of the Silicon Valley.  But as the Sacramento area tech industry expands, we may see more of these prosecutions here as well:

Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. was a rising star in the Sacramento-area tech community – until it got clobbered by an accounting scandal that exposed serious problems with the financial results it was reporting to investors.

Now the Davis biotech company’s troubles have turned into a criminal case.

Marrone Bio’s former chief operating officer was arrested and charged with fraud Wednesday. A federal grand jury in Sacramento accused him of artificially inflating the company’s reported revenues by millions of dollars, placing him at the heart of a scheme that has dogged Marrone Bio for well over a year.

Hector Absi, 47, the former executive, was charged with securities fraud, falsifying corporate records and other crimes, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento. He was arrested at his home in Las Vegas, where he was released after agreeing to surrender his passport and abide by other restrictions following an initial court appearance.

Sac Bee, 2/17/16

Fresno Jury Trials

Today, a Fresno jury found a defendant guilty of one count of enticement of a minor in United States v. Torres, No. 1:13-CR-390-AWI.  On Monday, a Fresno jury found a former Fresno National Guard Recruiter guilty of wire fraud in a scheme to obtain bonuses in United States v. Cuenca, No. 1:14-CR-106-DAD.