Vacant federal judgeships abound

Almost one in eight federal judgeships is vacant in the country and legal scholars warn that the increasingly politicized confirmation process threatens the administration of justice across the nation.
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Of the 102 federal judgeships open, there are nominees pending for 39 seats ... Read more >

Griesa sentenced: short jail term,lifetime registration as a sex offender

by Tom Nadeau

Former tow truck firm owner Joseph Griesa was sentenced in Yuba County Superior Court Friday to 270 days in jail and five years on probation for being convicted of 10 criminal counts involving sex with a minor girl and payroll tax violations.

The toughest penalty visiting Judge Ersel Edwards imposed on the 45-yer-old Griesa was compelling him to register as a convicted sex offender annually for the rest of his life.

Griesa must also stay away any minors and schools, although Edwards did allow one exception that permits him to transport his own children to and from school.

Edwards also levied a lengthy roster of fines and fees against the convicted felon.

Sacramento defense attorney Kenneth Rosenfeld asked that Griesa be allowed to serve his jail term on a work-furlough status. That would allow him to go leave jail every day to go to work, but would have to return to the jail to spend the night.

Edwards left it up to the jail commander whether to permit that.

Little hard time, but not so easy, either ... Read more »

Judge Darlington denies all motions;Santana, Vasquez goes to trial, maybe

by Tom Nadeau

Visiting Judge John Darlington denied Friday all defense and prosecution motions to reconsider his previous rulings in the Yuba County felony matter of People v. Santana, Vasquez, CRF-#08-825.

Neither side was happy with his ruling. Each indicated they would, “take it to a higher court,” as the saying goes.

In early August, Darlington granted some – but not all – of the motions attorneys Jesse Santana and David Vasquez had made seeking dismissal of charges they had violated rules of law and ethics while negotiating a settlement between boss-sex attacker Joseph Griesa and his employee-victim, “S.A.”

Griesa was sentenced later the same day in that criminal case by a different judge.

The Santana, Vasquez proceedings Friday allowed the lawyers one last chance to persuade Darlington to revise his earlier decisions.

Darlington listened, but after a 20-minute recess, returned to say nothing the lawyers had said changed his mind. The two must stand trial.

If and when, maybe, possibly ... Read more »

Leary countersues in continuingromance, real estate, crime drama

by Tom Nadeau

Former Elk Grove City Council member Michael Leary has filed a civil lawsuit claiming a cabal of women notary executives cheated him of thousands of dollars through an improper transfer of title.

In the suit filed Aug. 18 in Sacramento County Superior Court, Leary alleges that Abby Patneaud, Catherine Picton, Alyce Maselli and “Does 1 through 15” conspired via North American Title Company to defraud him of an unspecified amount in excess of $25,000.

Leary is currently facing a criminal trial on four charges he defrauded Maselli of an unspecified amount in a disputed transfer of title for a residence at 3301 Marina Cove Circle, Elk Grove valued at $610,000.

Leary was arraigned in October 2009 on charges of grand theft fraud and forgery related to the title transfer between himself and his former girlfriend Maselli in 2006. The trial in People v. Leary, #09F07685 is now slated to start Sept. 14.

If convicted in that case, Leary could be sentenced to as many as 12 years in state prison and fined up to $75,000. He currently remains free on bail.

This new civil lawsuit, Michael Leary v. North American Title Company et al, case #34-2010-00085705,was filed in propria persona, or “in pro per,” as courthouse slang would have it.

That simply means Leary filed the civil complaint as an individual acting on his own behalf without the benefit – or the expense – of an attorney.

What the suit claims ... Read more »

Moore faces stiff sentencing options following his conviction of assault

By Tom Nadeau

A Yuba County jury convicted James Archie Eugene Moore Jr. Thursday of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, to wit: a two-by-four and his foot.

When he returns for sentencing 9 a.m. Sept. 27, Judge Kathleen O’Connor has several options to choose from, because Moore decided not to fight the inclusion of his two prior felony convictions as sentencing factors.

O’Connor’s interpretation and imposition of sentencing options could put Moore in state prison a minimum of eight years, defense attorney, Geoffrey Wander explained.

The nine-woman, three-man jury’s verdict came after one day of trial, an hour or so of hours of closing arguments and about four hours of sequestered deliberation in the matter of People v. James A.E. Moore Jr., case #F-10-184.

The prosecution alleged Moore knocked a man unconscious with a board and then kicked him when he was down.

The jury did not precisely follow the written instructions for correctly filling out verdict forms and they were told to retire again until they had the paperwork properly done.

Guilty, but not of great bodily harm ... Read more »

Leary trial reset for Sept. 14

by Tom Nadeau

The trial of former Sacramento County sheriff’s Lt. Michael P. Leary’s was again postponed by Sacramento County Superior Court judge Wednesday.

Pleading “scheduling problems,” prosecution and defense attorneys joined in asking Judge Gary Ransom to put the trial off until Sept. 14. Another pre-trial meeting will be held Sept. 8.

Both Deputy District Attorney Michael Blazina and defense attorney William Portanova said negotiations between the two sides were not a factor in the request for a delay.

However, each would not discount the possibility that some sort of out of court resolution to the long-running case might be reached.

Love, loot lost ... Read more »

Leary hearing today likely last before trial

by Tom Nadeau

Former Sacramento County sheriff’s Lt. Michael P. Leary’s last last pre-trial hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. today in Sacramento County Superior Court.

He has pleaded innocent to all of the four felony fraud charges authorities have brought against him.

His trial is currently expected to start at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 8 in the court’s Department #9.

Several times the defense has hinted an eleventh-hour settlement might be in the offing, but, as pre-trial hearings dragged out over months of delays, none materialized.

However, Elk Grove News will be on the scene today and will report if a settlement is announced.

Love, loot lost ... Read more »

Simlick preliminary hearing to go Sept. 8

by Sam Pierce

A Sutter County judge set a preliminary hearing Wednesday into charges Joseph Hayden Simlick falsely imprisoned a girl and then caused her parents to be burned to death in a fire at their Sutter home July 29.

Superior Court Judge Chris Chandler scheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 8. Meantime, Simlick, 21, of Rio Linda, remains held without bail at the Sutter County Jail.

People v. Simlick, cases #10-1786 and #10-1787 charge Simlick with special circumstances murder in the deaths of Jack and Susan Martin, both 46, and with false imprisonment for holding their daughter elsewhere against her wishes.

As so far disclosed by law enforcement, Simlick held the Martin’s youngest daughter for some five days prior to the parents’ deaths.

Simlick has pleaded innocent to all charges.

If convicted of the murders, Simlick could be sentenced to death or life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Courtroom packed again ... Read more »

'LM' mental health assessment ordered by Yuba County judge

by Tom Nadeau

A new felony case filed in Yuba County Superior Court is disturbing in several ways.

The defendant in People v. “L.M.”, case #F-10-358 -- (full name withheld due to of the nature of the still-pending case*) – is charged with two counts of Penal Code section 288(a), lewd and lascivious acts against a child under 14 sometime between January, 2010 and May 2010.

Judge Debra L. Givens Wednesday ordered further proceedings be delayed pending the defendant’s assessment by two mental health experts.

The defendant was arrested and charged in early August, with the case filed in Superior Court Aug. 5.

A relatively rare case ... Read more »

Sparks attorney wants Yuba DA's answer

by Tom Nadeau

Justin Scott, attorney for Dustin W. Sparks, told Yuba County Judge Kathleen O’Connor Monday that he has been unable to wrest a straight answer out of the prosecution whether it will consider bargaining a plea in a double homicide case reaching back to 2005.

The prosecution’s long delays and dodges were both mysterious and onerous inasmuch as Sparks was not even the alleged shooter in the deaths of Scott Davis and Christopher Hance.

Michael Huggins has already been convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in state prison for the deaths which occurred on a medicinal marijuana farm in Linda.

The Yuba DA later charged Sparks with the more serious crime of murder in the first degree in those killings, despite the fact he had fled the scene before the men were shot.

The legality of the first degree murder charges was appealed to higher state courts, with the state Supreme Court eventually sending the case back down to Yuba County Superior Court.

The case is now slated for further adjudication, with pre-trial hearings to start Sept. 14.

Scott told O’Connor Monday that Sparks – who has already spent four years in custody awaiting some definitive action on his case – has made it clear he would consider entering a negotiated plea of guilty, if it led to a sentence of no more than 11 years.

But, Scott said, the defense has yet to receive a reply to the offer, yea or nay, from District Attorney Patrick McGrath.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Byrne said he would consult with McGrath. O’Connor set further hearings on the matter for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 30.

WaPo: New study eyes ‘bought’ judges

The problem may be clear, but the solution is not, report suggests.

While Washington politicians argue over the role of money in federal elections, a growing number of states are starting to grapple with their own challenge: a tide of special-interest money flowing into local judicial races.

An exhaustive study scheduled to be released Monday shows that spending on state Supreme Court elections has more than doubled over the past 10 years, to $207 million, mirroring the surge in contributions and expenditures for other kinds of political races during the same period.

The report, produced by a trio of nonpartisan policy groups, found that much of the increase has been fueled by outside groups funding attack ads of the kind commonly found in partisan races for the White House, Congress or governors' mansions. Industry groups, trial lawyers and others are increasingly targeting specific judges for removal over rulings that hurt their financial bottom line, the report shows.

The findings come amid mounting evidence that 2010 is likely to mark a new watershed for spending in a midterm election year. The study also underscores a growing debate in legal and political circles over the influence of campaign money in judicial races, particularly in 22 states where top judges face challengers or 16 others that hold "retention" elections for judges.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has joined her former colleague Sandra Day O'Connor in calling on states to give up the practice of electing judges, arguing that raising campaign money and promising outcomes on the bench is antithetical to a fair judicial system.

The 'King of Crazy Lawsuits'

by Tom Nadeau

This guy I'd like to interview this guy, Jonathan Lee Riches. His lawsuits speak volumes. Literally.

“Jonathan Lee Riches will be in every local, state, federal court in the world, then when my name gets banned or flagged, the 100’s of AKA’s of mine kick in and refile. I’m Murphy’s Law, the Plague, Cyrus the Lawsuit Virus. I swine flu suits with tainted pork in the courts. I appeal. Anyone is welcome to write me. I appeal.” —Jonathan Lee Riches, March 16, in a motion appealing the decision of Hon. Miriam Goldman, Southern District of New York, denying him representation of Martha Stewart in United States of America v. Stewart.

Comes now Jonathan Lee Riches, aka the “Legislator Crusader,” “Johnny Sue-nami,” the “Duke of Lawsuits,” the “Neal Boortz of Appeal Courts,” “Sue-per-man,” the “Patrick Ewing of Suing,” the “Lawsuit Zeus,” aka “Bernard Madoff,” aka “Irving Picard,” aka “Howard Stern,” aka “Herb Allison,” aka “Robert Alan Meyst,” aka “Farouk AbdulMutallab,” the undisputed world champion of the frivolous, farcical and otherwise insane lawsuit, hell-bent on transforming the court system of the United States, and ultimately the entire world, into the stage for his own twisted brand of humor.

The entire Riches story by Beau Hodai is well worth the entertaining read.

In one of my previous Theaterland columns in the Appeal-Democrat newspaper, I wrote at length about how attending a trial in court was much like -- and at least as much fun -- as going to a stage play, or a first-run movie.

Moreover, Riches is bursting with great ideas for the more litigious of us, or for those of us who are fans of the litigation process on basic principles.

Lawsuits fly in various Griesa matters

by Tom Nadeau

Lawsuits are flying about involving Joseph Griesa, the Marysville businessman who has pleaded no contest to charges that he did not pay certain taxes and that he acted improperly with under-aged female employees.

Griesa has sued one of the several attorneys who have represented him in Yuba County Superior Court in the interlocked and complicated matters of People v. Griesa and People v. Santana, Vasquez.

He also has reportedly filed a separate $5 million cross-complaint in Sutter County Superior Court against a female who in a different lawsuit is accusing him of sexual harassment.

And in an entirely unrelated matter, he is being sued in Sutter County Superior Court by a woman who seeks damages for injuries allegedly suffered in a March 14 traffic accident.

It's a litigious world ... Read more »

Mourners remember G. Dave Teja,famed for prosecuting Juan Corona

by Tom Nadeau

Memorial services for G. Dave Teja were heavily attended Wednesday with the assemblage of family and friends, prosecutors, defense attorneys and cops representing his seven decades of life and service in Sutter County.

He died Aug. 7 of declining health and complications from heart surgery. He was 71.

A former Sutter County Municipal Court, district attorney and public defender, Teja is probably best known for his role in prosecuting labor contractor Juan Corona for the 1971 murders of 25 itinerant farm workers whose bodies were found buried in shallow graves in orchards along the Feather River north of Yuba City.

The sheriff at the time, Roy D. Whiteaker, said even more bodies may have been buried in the area.

Corona was sentenced in 1973 to 25 life sentences. A second trial in 1982 failed to render an acquittal and he was returned to prison to serve out his sentence.

During his 20-year tenure in Sutter County's legal system and another 20 years in private practice, Teja earned a high reputation for his fairness, approachability and sense of humor.

He died Aug. 7 following six-way heart-bypass surgery, family members reported.

Teja remembered ... Read more »

Some, but not all, charges dismissed,so Santana, Vasquez must stand trial

by Tom Nadeau

Visiting Judge John Darlington has granted some – but not all – of the objections Yuba-Sutter attorneys Jesse Santana and David Vasquez raised in a motion to dismiss charges they may have violated certain rules of law and ethics during disputed legal negotiations.

That means the two attorneys may go on trial in Yuba County Superior Court at an as yet undetermined date. If the defense files no more objections before Aug. 13, the rulings go into effect Aug. 27.

Santana’s attorney, Roberto Marquez said in a blistering written statement that he intends to file a writ of mandamus with the Third District Court of Appeals on the grounds the indictment was tainted because the judge who presided over the indicting grand jury had a demonstrable history of prejudice against Santana.

The counts, one by one ... Read more »

Simlick held to answer in double homicide case; he's looking at possible death penalty

by Tom Nadeau

In a courtroom packed with the families and friends of the victims and relatives of the accused, Joseph Hayden Simlick pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges he killed Jack and Susan Martin, whose bodies were found Friday in their burnt-out home in the town of Sutter.

If convicted of special circumstances murder, Simlick, 21, could face the death penalty or life in state prison with no possibility of parole, Sutter County Superior Judge Chris Chandler said.

People v. Simlick, felony cases #10-1786 and #10-1787, also charge Simlick with felony violations of California Penal Code sections 236 and 237, both involving false imprisonment.

As so far disclosed by law enforcement, Simlick is suspected of unlawfully holding the Martin’s youngest daughter for some five days prior to the parents’ deaths.

Delay denied ... Read more »

Theater, sex, crime converge once again

The man who stole Shakespeare to fund a good time and a girl got eight years and a tongue-lashing from a judge for booklegging a priceless early edition of the Bard's works, the British press reported today.

An unemployed antiques dealer with a taste for the high life was jailed today for eight years after he was convicted of handling a stolen copy of a rare first collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Raymond Scott, 53, who drove a yellow Ferrari and posed as an international playboy despite having huge debts, walked into one of the world's leading Shakespeare research centres with the 17th century book.

Staff at the renowned Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. recognised the valuable book and called the police, the British Embassy and the FBI.

Regarded as one of the most important printed works in the English language, less than 250 copies of the collection survive.

They were first printed in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death.

Judge angered by crime against culture ... Read more »