February
27,
2015

A report on where
things
stand


Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Egerton and Iwasaki Assigned to Court of Appeal...Valerie Skeba and Scott Nord Elected Superior Court Commissioners...Senator Introduces Bill to Change Grand Jury Procedures

Judicial Elections

The campaign for judicial offices on the June 2016 ballot received an early start last month when Deputy District Attorneys Debra Archuleta, David Berger, Steven Ipson, and Taly Peretz, and civil attorney Jeffrey Carter, filed paperwork in order to begin raising campaign funds. Archuleta, Berger, and Ipson told the MetNews they are definitely running, while Peretz could not be reached for comment.
Carter said last week he would not run.
Also, business litigator Aaron Weissman said he will run for an open seat, and attorney Douglas Weitzman, who has run several times in the past, said he may run next year as well.

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

David Tamman
Suspended Attorney

The state Supreme Court Wednesday declined a request to publish a Court of Appeal opinion allowing Tamman’s suit against Nixon Peabody LLP, where he used to be a partner, to go forward.
A case management conference in the suit is now scheduled for May 20. Tamman, who left the firm while under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, contends in his complaint that he was “thrown under the bus” so that his partners could get their hands on his $1.5 million book of business.
The firm contends it acted properly in cooperating with the agency’s investigation into charges against a Tamman client, and ultimately against the attorney himself.
Oral arguments were held Nov. 21 of last year in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tamman’s appeal from his Nov. 13, 2012 conviction and seven-year prison sentence on one count of conspiring to obstruct justice, five counts of altering documents, one count of being an accessory after the fact to his client’s mail and securities fraud crimes, and three counts of aiding and abetting his client’s false testimony before the SEC.
Tamman’s attorney, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, argued to the appellate panel that his client’s jury waiver should not have been accepted because he was under the influence of several psychotropic drugs at the time. He also contends that the sentence is excessive and that hearsay evidence was improperly admitted at trial.
Tamman’s client, former fund manager and radio personality John Farahi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for running the scheme, which involved false promises that investors’ money—more than $24 million was collected, prosecutors said—would be invested in corporate bonds backed by the Troubled Assets Relief Program.
Tamman’s interim suspension from the State Bar took effect Feb. 18, 2013. An additional suspension for not paying bar dues took effect July 2, 2013.

Justin Moongyu Lee
Suspended Los Angeles Attorney

Lee, 57, a State Bar member since 1997, but under suspension for nonpayment of dues since July 1 of last year, was suspended from practicing before the U.S. District Court for the Central District on Dec. 22.
He was indicted Sept. 3 by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana. He is accused of running an investment scheme that defrauded foreign investors seeking permanent resident status in the United States through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.
A related complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed the same day as the indictment, names Lee; his wife, Rebecca Tawwon Lee; disbarred Los Angeles attorney Thomas Edward Kent; and five companies allegedly controlled by Lee as defendants. It alleges that the defendants raised more than $11 million from investors seeking to participate in the EB-5 program, used the money improperly to finance other ventures, and lied to the government in order to conceal their failure to meet the EB-5 program’s job-creation requirements.
The civil and criminal allegations are similar to those raised in State Bar disciplinary proceedings filed against Lee in January of last year. In a 38-page response, he acknowledged responsibility for “errors and/or mistakes” in the handling of EB-5 investments, but largely denied the State Bar’s charges and sought to deflect blame to Kent.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner has set a scheduling conference in the civil suit for March 16.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments



Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There are no vacancies.

 

Judge Audrey B. Collins retired Aug. 1 to join the state Court of Appeal.


There are no vacancies.

Second District

Justice Walter Croskey of Div. Three died Aug. 29.
Justice Frank Jackson retired from Div. Seven June 30, 2013. Justice Orville Armstrong retired from Div. Five July 31, 2013 and died Dec. 22 of last year.
Justice Paul Coffee retired from Div. Six Jan. 31, 2012. A vacancy exists in Div. One as a result of the elevation of Frances Rothschild to presiding justice.
Among those whose names have been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are Los Angeles attorneys Kent Richland and Bradley Phillips; White House attorney LaMar Baker; Ventura Superior Court Judge Tari Cody; Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Rita Miller, Russell Kussman, Richard Rico, John Segal, Luis Lavin, Helen Bendix and Sanjay Kumar; and Southwestern Law School professor Christopher Cameron.
The following judges have been temporarily assigned to the court by the chief justice: Bendix to Div. One through March; Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Harwood Egerton to Div. Three through April, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan J. Goodman to Div. Five through March, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Feuer to Div. Seven through April 10, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bruce G. Iwasaki to Div. Seven through April 30.

Seats in other districts are filled.
Los Angeles Superior Court

There are vacancies as a result of the retirements last year of Judges John Meigs March 7, Candace Beason April 15, Wendy L. Kohn June 6, Antonio Barreto Jr. Sept. 5, Steven Ogden Sept. 24, James Steele Sept. 30, and Leslie A. Dunn Nov. 10, the elevations of Judge Brian Hoffstadt on Aug. 28 of last year and Judge Lee Edmon on Jan. 5 of this year to the Court of Appeal, and the retirement of Judge Thomas White on Feb. 19 of this year.
There is a vacancy in a position that the Legislature authorized but has never funded, and a number of commissioner positions have been converted to judgeships that have not yet been filled.
Judge Ronald Rose sat for the last time last month and will retire officially on March 20.
Among those whose names have been sent to the JNE Commission as possible appointees to judgeships are Los Angeles attorney Timothy Dillon, Torrance attorney George Bird, South Pasadena attorney Mark S. Priver; Deputy District Attorneys Kevin Stennis, Candace Foy Smith, Leonard Torrealba, Kathleen Tuttle and Brentford Ferreira; Court of Appeal staff attorneys Frank J. Menetrez, Kenneth E. Roberson and Kim Nguyen; Superior Court Commissioners Collette Serio, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Robert Kawahara, Alan Rubin, Emma Castro, Jane Godfrey, Sharon Lewis Miller, Mark Zuckman, Dennis Mulcahy, Terry Truong and Kenneth Taylor; State Bar Court Judge Richard Honn; Deputy County Counsel Julie Ann Silva; Glendale attorney Kenneth Wright; Los Angeles attorneys Timothy Martella and Angel Navarro; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Wesley Hsu.
The name of Ed Chau was sent to the commission prior to his election to the state Assembly.
Barbara McDaniel, previously a deputy alternate public defender, was elected a commissioner last month. Valerie Skeba, a former referee, and Scott J. Nord, who practiced family law, were elected commissioners earlier this month..

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

The Legislature took the following action on bills of interest to the legal community in February.

•AB 182 by Assemblymember Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, which would broaden the scope of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 by allowing courts to create a remedy for racially polarized voting within local government districts, as well as within jurisdictions that vote at-large. The bill was referred to the Elections and Judiciary committees Feb. 2.

AB 202 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, which would grant employee status to cheerleaders for professional sports teams. The bill was referred Feb. 9 to the committees on Labor and Employment and Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media.

AB 249 by Assemblymember Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake, which would bar a criminal defendant from bringing an appeal based solely on an assessment of fines, fees, or other monetary exactions, unless the issue was first raised in the trial court, by post-sentencing motion if necessary. The bill was introduced Feb. 9 and referred to the Committee on Public Safety Feb. 17.

•SB 227 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, which would make non-substantive changes in the law relating to grand juries. Mitchell said in a statement that the bill would be amended to abolish the use of grand juries in cases involving shootings or killings by police officers. The bill was introduced Feb. 13.


 

 

 


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