Eastern District of California Blog

EDCA Court Overturns Murder Conviction For Batson Violation

According to the Sacramento Bee, Judge Karlton granted habeas relief, overturning a 1998 murder conviction, because the prosecutor was found to have struck an African-American juror because of her race.  The decision adopted findings and recommendations by Magistrate Judge Claire.

EDCA Court Rules Documents In Lodi Police Shooting Death Case Should Be Public

A trove of documents related to the shooting death by Lodi police officers of an Army veteran earlier this year should be released to the public and the media, a federal magistrate judge ruled Friday.

Judge Allison Claire denied a motion by the city for a blanket “protective order” that would have kept confidential autopsy reports, witness statements, photographs and other information pertaining to the fatal shooting of Parminder Singh Shergill by police as he walked toward his mother’s home on the morning of Jan. 25.

Claire said the city failed to prove that it had the legal standing for the proposed protective order, which was labeled a “gag order” by Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin, who is representing the Shergill family.

Shergill, 43, a Gulf War veteran who suffered from schizophrenia and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, was shot dead by police as he walked toward his mother’s home in Lodi. His family had called police, as they had in the past, after he suffered a mental “episode” and left the house. They asked that officers pick him up and take him to a mental health facility.

Sacramento Bee, 8/8/14

Notable Sacramento Bail Rulings Yesterday

Yesterday, Magistrate Judge Claire ordered firearms/explosives suspect James Christopher Malcolm detained, Sacramento Bee, but ordered Nicholas Michael Teausant, the Lodi man alleged to have been on his way to Syria to assist rebels, released on a $200,000 bond with restrictive conditions.  Sacramento Bee.  Judge Claire stayed the release order to permit the government to appeal the bail decision to district judge Mendez.

Second Group Of Drone Protesters Found Guilty, Receive Community Service

A Sacramento federal judge Monday found four people who protested the Obama administration’s use of killer drones outside a gate at Beale Air Force Base last spring to be guilty of trespassing.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire sentenced the four to 90 days of unsupervised probation, which will end for each defendant after he or she completes 10 hours of community service.

The maximum punishment on the misdemeanors is six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The case was tried in less than a day before Claire, who refused to give the protestors a jury trial, though it was within her discretion to do so.

The defendants – Mari Toby Blome, 58, of El Cerrito; William C. Doub, 78, of Camptonville; Martha E. Hubert, 60, of San Francisco; and Robin L. Ryan, 47, of San Francisco – are the second group of peace advocates in less than six months to be convicted at a non-jury trial in Sacramento federal court of penetrating the boundary of the Yuba County air force base.

Prosecutors fought to keep the cases away from a jury. Defense attorneys are convinced that prosecution fears “juror nullification,” which occurs when jurors ignore the law because they disagree with it, or because they believe it should not be applied in the case before them.

Sacramento Bee, 2/3/14

U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire

Today's Sacramento Bee has another profile story on U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire entitled, "Standing for Justice."  I liked best the photo of Judge Claire as a host on Santa Cruz's KZSC radio in 1985 from the Bee's paper version, but it was unavailable online so this is the Judge's 1993 UC Berkley law school graduation photo.

Judge Allison Claire Sworn In At Investiture Ceremony

That's my iphone photo of U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire being officially sworn in yesterday in the Sacramento federal court's ceremonial courtroom.  (I added another photo to my twitter feed @balazslaw.)  Here's an excerpt from today's Sacramento Bee:

No one until now has made the jump from the federal public defender's office to the federal bench in Sacramento.

Those who know and have worked with Allison Claire describe her as "super smart," a hard worker and compassionate, and they harbor no doubt it will be an effortless transition for her.

Claire was officially sworn in Friday as Sacramento's seventh U.S. magistrate judge at an installation in the federal courthouse's ceremonial courtroom.

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Claire, 52, is the first member of the federal judiciary in the nation, at any level, to be in a state-sanctioned same-sex marriage. She and her wife were married during the 4 1/2-month window – June 16 to Nov. 5, 2008 – between the California Supreme Court's validation of same-sex marriage and the passage of Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution outlawing it.