Eastern District of California Blog

EDCA Court Dismisses With Prejudice Money Laundering Charges Against Five Defendants For Egregious Speedy Trial Act Violation

In this order, Judge Shubb granted the motion of five defendants to dismiss with prejudice all charges against them in the John That Luong money laundering case for violation of the Speedy Trial Act.  U.S. v. Luong, No. 2:96-CR-0350-WBS.  The Court explained that the case against the five "was allowed to lie dormant for almost 19 years, with no finding of excludable time for at least the last eight of those years.  To say what went on behind the scenes beyond that would be no more than speculation of hearsay."

Video of EDCA Unabomber Investigation and Trial Program

The C-Span video of the Unabomber investigation and trial program held at the Sacramento federal court on November 19, 2014, and hosted by the Eastern District Historical Society and Sacramento Federal Bar Association, is available here.

87-Month Mortgage Fraud Sentence

A Sacramento man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Monday after being convicted in a mortgage fraud case that covered Sacramento and Chico.

Leonard E. Williams, 52, was convicted last July of conspiracy and money laundering in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

* * * 

Williams was sentenced to seven years and three months. U.S. District Judge William Shubb said one factor in the sentence was Williams’ conduct on the last day of trial. Williams started shouting at the jury about the case and ignored Shubb’s order to stop.

Sac Bee, 1/27/15

14-Year Sentence For Man Convicted of Ponzi Scheme After Jury Trial

A federal judge sentenced a Sacramento man to 14 years in prison Monday for what prosecutors said was a Ponzi scheme that defrauded family, friends and others of more than $2.7 million. [U.S. v. Berghuis, No. 2:10-CR-0377-WBS].

Last year, a jury found James Berghuis, 42, guilty of four counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud and a count of money laundering related to the scheme.

Sacramento Business Journal, 11/17/14

EDCA Court Denies Dismissal Of ADA Suit Over Delta King

    For 85 years, the riverboat Delta King has carried passengers between Sacramento and San Francisco, served as a wartime vessel of the government and - in later years after being restored to its former glory - entertained people as a hotel, bar and grill and live music venue.

     But the Delta King is not, as an 85-year-old riverboat, particularly accessible to people with disabilities. Its gangways are sloped. The decks are slanted. Entrances have raised thresholds that kept water out of staterooms in the riverboat's seafaring days.

     So it's no surprise that Hollynn D'Lil, a paraplegic, sued the riverboat's owners and its champions - the City of Sacramento and Old Sacramento Business Association - in August 2011 after she tried to reserve an accessible hotel room and found that the land-tethered boat completely failed to meet its obligations under California's Disabled Rights Act and the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.

     It isn't that the Delta King's owners or the city haven't tried to make the riverboat ADA-compliant. Solon Wisham Jr., the assistant city manager for Sacramento from 1981 to 1991, said in a declaration answering D'Lil's lawsuit that "the goal was to find a way to preserve as much of the original appearance and design of the vessel as possible in a way consistent with then-existing standards as a hotel and public accommodation."

 * * *

     Disabled patrons can be seated on the more accessible third deck and order food and drinks there, but "it does not provide the equivalent ambience, experience and scenic view as seating on the fourth floor of the Delta Bar and Grill," according to U.S. District Judge William Shubb in denying a dismissal request by the riverboat's owners.

     In his 36-page ruling, Shubb acknowledged the boat's historic status but said he could not see what had been done to win an accessibility exemption under the historic building code.

     "None of the evidence before the court suggests that the Sacramento Building Department worked with or solicited input from a representative local group of disabled people," Shubb wrote. "The lack of evidence showing compliance with the historic building code's handicap hardship exceptions raises a genuine dispute as to whether those sections were in fact utilized to grant any exceptions."

  * * *

     The Delta King and its twin Delta Queen were built in Glasgow, Scotland and Stockton, Calif. and were christened in 1927, according to the Delta King website. The 285-foot paddlewheel boats took over 10 hours to reach San Francisco from Sacramento while guests enjoyed Prohibition-era drinking, gambling, jazz bands and fine dining - until the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937 and the Bay Bridge in 1938 ended the riverboats' run.

Courthouse News, 10/1/14

EDCA Court Sentences In Mortgage Fraud Scheme Case

A Roseville resident and three co-defendants have been sentenced in federal court in Sacramento for their roles in a scheme that victimized homeowners facing foreclosure.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb on Monday sentenced Jesse Wheeler, 37, of Roseville to three years in prison. The judge also sentenced Jewel Hinkles, also known as Cydney Sanchez, 64, of Los Angeles to five years in prison; Cynthia Corn, 61, of Oakland to two and a half years in prison; and Brent Medearis, 48, of Modesto to one year and 10 months in prison, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.

Court documents show that Hinkles was the founder and general manager of Horizon Property Holdings LLC in Beverly Hills. From 2008 through 2010, Hinkles offered a service called “Save My Home” or “Homesaver” that promised to rescue financially distressed homeowners from foreclosure and reduce the principal on the homeowners’ mortgages. The firm offered the program directly to clients and through “affiliates,” who promoted and sold the program to clients, mostly in Northern California.

Sacramento Bee, 9/29/14

EDCA Court Grants Acquittal On Obstruction Of Justice Charge In Bid-Rigging Case

In this order, Judge Shubb granted Andrew Katakis's motion for judgment of acquittal, overturning his conviction for obstructing justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519 for allegedly deleting emails in the recent bid-rigging case.  Here are the first few paragraphs from the Modesto Bee story:

Saying a rational jury could not have found Modesto businessman Andrew Katakis guilty of destroying evidence to throw off investigators, a federal judge has thrown out Katakis’ March 11 obstruction conviction. Katakis said he is “gratified” and will seek a new trial to reverse the same jury’s guilty verdict of rigging bids at public foreclosure auctions.

“I have always maintained that I am innocent of the government’s claim of obstruction of justice,” Katakis said in an email to The Modesto Bee. “Fortunately, my trial was in front of a judge who does care about the truth.”

How the overturned conviction or a new-trial motion might affect Katakis’ sentencing on the bid-rigging charge, scheduled for June 9, could not be determined.

After a four-week trial and four days of deliberating, jurors declared Katakis and Donald Parker guilty of bid rigging in San Joaquin County, and Katakis guilty of obstruction. Jurors could not agree on whether the men had committed mail fraud, and they cleared auction crier Ted Longley of having a role in a conspiracy involving 11 other defendants who had pleaded guilty earlier.

Katakis hired another law firm and asked that the obstruction conviction be tossed. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb, who had presided at the trial, agreed.

In his order, Shubb noted that federal prosecutors relied on various theories of Katakis deleting supposedly incriminating emails in 2010, moving from one to another and then a third when the first two theories fell apart. A former FBI agent hired by Katakis’ defense team discredited a prosecution computer expert, who was forced to admit the error when recalled, Shubb noted.

EDCA Court Blocks Expansion At Tahoe's Homewood Ski Resort

A dramatic expansion of a ski resort in the community of Homewood on Lake Tahoe's west shore has been blocked by a Sacramento federal judge.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb ruled that Placer County and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency sidestepped laws governing the project when they approved a plan that fails to consider a smaller facility.

In a 114-page opinion issued Friday, Shubb said that a combined environmental impact report and environmental impact statement appears to skew the financial outlook of the resort's proposed expansion by failing to consider all streams of income.

Sacramento Bee, 1/8/13

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/08/5098688/judge-blocks-expansion-at-tahoes.html#storylink=cpy

EDCA Court Finds Search Warrant For Medical Marijuana Worker's Home Lacked Probable Cause

I saw this at fourthamendment.com:

The search warrant for defendant’s house was issued without probable cause. The fact somebody worked in a medical marijuana operation in a state recognizing it is hardly indicative of criminality at his home. When undercover officers tried to buy from the dispensary, they were turned down because their “recommendations” could not be verified. United States v. Franklin, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172808 (E.D. Cal. December 4, 2012).

Case Number, 02:12-0093-WBS.

EDCA Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Against California's "Gay Conversion Therapy" Ban

A Sacramento federal judge late Monday barred the state from enforcing its new law prohibiting "gay conversion therapy" against two mental health providers and a student who are suing to derail the measure.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb, who practiced First Amendment law before his appointment to the bench, found the three "are likely to succeed on the merits of their … claims based on violations of their rights to freedom of speech under the First Amendment."

They "have also shown that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction, that the balance of equities tips in their favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest," Shubb declared in a 38-page order.

Sacramento Bee, 12/4/12; Business Week, 12/4/12.