Eastern District of California Blog

Feds charge man with conspiracy to grow marijuana in El Dorado County

Federal officials have charged a fourth man in connection with last week’s marijuana field shootout that killed El Dorado County sheriff’s Deputy Brian Ishmael, saying the new defendant was part of a conspiracy run out of Mexico that oversaw two marijuana grows in rural areas of Somerset and Georgetown.

Jorge Lamas, an American citizen who has spent much of his time living in Mexico, has been charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Sacramento with conspiracy to manufacture, manufacturing at least 50 marijuana plants and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

The weapons charge stems from the discovery of a 9 mm handgun believed to have been the weapon used to kill Ishmael at a grow site in Somerset on Sand Ridge Road.

Sac Bee, 10/29/19

Trump Sues California Over Its Climate Change Pact With Canada

President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up its fight with California over climate change and greenhouse gases Wednesday, launching a lawsuit that challenges a deal the state made with the Canadian province of Quebec to reduce carbon emissions.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, goes after California’s “cap-and-trade” program, a market-based system created when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor in 2006. It requires businesses to buy carbon credits or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Sacramento Bee, 10/23/19; see also LA Times, 10/25/19.

Chief Judge Warns Of Impending EDCA Judicial Shortage

A Fresno-area federal judge has sounded the alarm about U.S. Eastern District Court vacancies that could lead to a “an impending, acute and judicial catastrophe.”

Presiding Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill sent a letter on Friday to the White House and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, warning about impending retirements on the court with the highest caseload in the nation for more than two decades.

Fresno Bee, 10/21/19; see also Huffington Post, 10/21/19

 

California Prison Whistleblower Testifies in EDCA Court

The whistleblower who accused California prison leaders last year of providing false and misleading data to a federal court on how the state handles inmate psychiatric care made his first public appearance Tuesday, standing behind his claims and saying corrections officials concocted “utter statistical garbage” in some cases.

Dr. Michael Golding, the chief psychiatrist at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation headquarters, testified in Sacramento federal court Tuesday about what he said were repeated instances to gin up phony data the state needed to present to U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to prove they were making progress on improving psychiatric care in the prisons.

Golding, who compiled and sent a scathing, 161-page report on psychiatric care in the prisons to the federally appointed receiver in October 2018, said there had never been anything secret about his views that corrections officials were trying to produce “extraordinarily misleading data” to come into compliance with court orders.

Sac Bee, 10/15/19

Feds Investigating Whether Sacramento-Area Pot Shops Paid Bribes to Local Public Officials

The FBI has been investigating whether Sacramento-area marijuana businesses have made payoffs to public officials in the region in exchange for favorable treatment and license approvals, The Sacramento Bee has learned.

Three sources with direct knowledge of FBI questioning of area marijuana business figures say the investigation began in the past few months and predates the disclosure that one of Sacramento’s major marijuana dispensary owners had ties to a Ukrainian man indicted last week along with two associates of Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney.

Sac Bee, 10/14/19; see also "California Cannabis King Linked to Ukranian who was Indicted with Guiliani associates," Sac Bee, 10/13/19

California to Appeal EDCA Court's Decision That Blocks State Law Requiring Trump to Release Tax Returns

California Gov. Gavin Newsom informed a federal court on Tuesday that he will appeal its decision barring the enforcement of the state's law that requires presidential candidates to disclose income tax returns before their names can appear on the state's primary ballot.

The appeal, which will be filed with the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, comes after a federal judge blocked the law from going into effect last week, in a win for President Donald Trump. . . .

 

Last week, US District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. of the Eastern District of California wrote that "while this Court understands and empathizes with the motivations that prompted California" to pass the law, "the Act's provisions likely violate the Constitution and the laws of the United States." England noted that it is not the court's role "to decide whether a tax return disclosure requirement is good policy or makes political sense."

 

cnn, 10/8/19

Time Served Marijuana Cultivation Sentences

Yesterday, over the government's objection, Judge Mueller sentenced four low-level defendants involved in a large marijuana grow in the Klamath National Forest to 30 months imprisonment, effectively time served.  See United States v. Lobera-Garcia, No. 2:17-CR-0157-KJM. 

Second Amendment Protesters Outside Courthouse

As I walked to my office this morning, I saw about 40 Second Amendment protesters outside the federal courthouse.  I checked the docket and saw that a hearing on plaintiffs' motion to enjoin California laws regarding the open carrying of firearms in public (Cal. Pen. Code §§ 26150, 26155, 26350, 25850) was on calendar today.  Baird v. Becerra, 2:19-CV-617-KJM.  But apparently the hearing was continued at the last moment to tomorrow, 10/9, at 11 a.m.  

[10/9/19 update]:  After hearing oral argument on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction and California's motion to dismiss, the Court took the matter under submission with a written order forthcoming.

Fresno Jury Acquits Two, Returns Mixed Verdicts for Two Others

After a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd in Fresno, a jury returned verdicts on four defendants who faced charges involving helping Paulo Virgen Mendoza avoid capture after the shooting death of Newman Police Cpl. Ronil Singh.  The jury convicted two defendants (Erik Quiroz Razo and Conrado Virgen Mendoza) of one count of conspiracy to aid and abet flight to avoid prosecution but acquitted on the other charges against them; the jury also acquitted the other two defendants, Maria Luisa Moreno and Erasmo Villegas Suarez, on all charges.  Paulo Mendoza faces a December 10 preliminary hearing in state court.  Modesto Bee, 10/1/19