End of the Month

July
31,
2015

A report on where
things
stand

U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow to Take Senior Status in October...U.S. District Court Names Alexander McKinnon and Karen Scott as Magistrate Judges...First Court Appearance Set for Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Bascue, Charged in Shooting

Judicial Elections

The campaign for judicial offices on the June 2016 ballot received an early start in January when Deputy District Attorneys Debra Archuleta, David Berger, Steven Ipson, and Taly Peretz filed paperwork in order to begin raising campaign funds. They have since been joined by business litigator Aaron Weissman; Sydne S. Michel, a lawyer in the Redondo Beach City Attorney’s Office; and Deputy District Attorney Susan Jung Townsend.

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

James Bascue
Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Bascue, 75, faces his first court appearance Aug. 10, in connection with his June 11 arrest for shooting at police officers who came to his home in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles after a call that Bascue himself made.
An attorney for Bascue, a judge from 1990 to 2007 and the court’s presiding judge in 2001 and 2002, said his client was receiving treatment, of an unspecified type, at an unspecified location.

Christopher Garcia
Former Deputy City Attorney

Garcia, a onetime candidate for Los Angeles Superior Court judge, was placed on interim suspension from the State Bar, effective Jan. 7. An additional suspension for nonpayment of bar dues was added July 1.
Garcia pled no contest Oct. 21 to possession of child pornography. He was placed on probation for five years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
He faces summary disbarment based on conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude.

Justin Moongyu Lee
Suspended Los Angeles Attorney

On June 24, the Securities and Exchange Commission moved for entry of default in its civil action against Lee. Prosecutors in the related criminal case previously reported that Lee is incarcerated in South Korea. He was indicted Sept. 3 of last year 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.
The SEC complaint, 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.
Rebecca Lee has pled the Fifth Amendment in those proceedings. The proceedings as to Kent were terminated last October.
The civil and criminal allegations against Justin Lee are similar to those raised in State Bar disciplinary proceedings filed in January 2013. 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.
Lee has been a State Bar member since 1997, but has been under suspension for nonpayment of dues since July 1 of last year, and was suspended from practicing before the U.S. District Court for the Central District on Dec. 22. .

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There are no vacancies.

President Obama, on July 16, nominated Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Young to succeed Judge Audrey B. Collins, who retired Aug. 1 to join the state Court of Appeal.
Judge Margaret Morrow is taking senior status Oct. 29.
Alexander F. McKinnon, formerly a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a leading intellectual property litigator, was appointed and sworn in July 20 to succeed retired Magistrate Judge Victor Kenton. He is sitting in Los Angeles.
Karen E. Scott was appointed and sworn in July 28 to succeed Magistrate Judge Robert N. Block. Scott, formerly a litigator at Rutan & Tucker LLP, is sitting in Santa Ana.

There are no vacancies.

Second District

The Commission on Judicial Appointments last Thursday confirmed four nominations to the court.
Former Justice Elwood Lui fills a vacancy in Div. One that resulted from the elevation of Frances Rothschild to presiding justice; Luis Lavin, formerly a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, was sworn in immediately following his confirmation as the successor to the late Justice Walter Croskey, former White House attorney LaMar Baker was sworn in Monday as a justice of Div. Five, succeeding Justice Orville Armstrong, who retired July 31, 2013 and died Dec. 22 of last year; John L. Segal, previously a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, succeeds Justice Frank Jackson, who retired from Div. Seven June 30, 2013.
Vacancies remain in Div. Seven, due to the March 31 retirement of Justice Fred Woods, and Div. Six, from which Justice Paul Coffee retired Jan. 31, 2012. Another vacancy will occur in Div. Three due to the imminent retirement of Justice Patti S. Kitching.
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; Ventura Superior Court Judge Tari Cody; Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Rita Miller, Richard Rico, Helen Bendix, Ann Jones, and Sanjay Kumar; and Southwestern Law School professor Christopher Cameron. The name of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Russell Kussman was also sent to the JNE Commission, but Kussman has withdrawn from consideration.
The following Los Angeles Superior Court judges have been temporarily assigned to the court: Carl H. Moor to Div. One through August; Jones to Div. Three through August; Mary H. Strobel to Div. Seven through Aug.15; and Sam Ohta to Div. Eight through August.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Governor Brown, on July 16, appointed eight new judges to the court.
Songhai D. Miguda-Armstead, Timothy P. Dillon, Ronald F. Frank, Julian C. Recana, Lawrence P. Riff, Laura A. Seigle, and Lisa K. Sepe-Wiesenfeld fill vacancies created last year by converting vacant commissioner positions to judgeships. Natalie P. Stone succeeds Judge Brian Hoffstadt, who was elevated to the Court of Appeal last year.
Vacancies remain as result of the retirements last year of Judges Antonio Barreto Jr. Sept. 5, Steven Ogden Sept. 24, James Steele Sept. 30, and Leslie A. Dunn Nov. 10; the elevations of Judges Lee Edmon on Jan. 5 of this year and Judges John Segal and Luis Lavin last week to the Court of Appeal; and this year’s retirements of Judges Thomas White Feb. 19; Ronald Rose March 20; and Patrick Hegarty and Patricia Schnegg March 31, Arthur Jean, Owen Kwong, and Ronald Skyers April 30, Leland Harris May 8, Alan Goodman yesterday and Thomas McKnew today.
Among those whose names have been sent to the JNE Commission as possible appointees to judgeships are Los Angeles attorney Lisa Mattern, Deputy Public Defender David Hazami, Century City lawyer Josh Wayser, Superior Court counsel Brett Bianco; Beverly Hills attorney Edward Tabash; South Pasadena attorney Mark S. Priver; Deputy District Attorneys Karen Borzakian, Candace Foy Smith, Leonard Torrealba, Kathleen Tuttle and Brentford Ferreira; Court of Appeal staff attorneys 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 following commissioners have recently retired: Loren DiFrank Feb. 28, Marshall Rieger March 28, Diana Summerhayes May 27, Anthony Drewry May 29, John Murphy June 17, and David Bianchi June 30.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

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

•AB 87 by Assemblymember Mark Stone, D-Santa Cruz, which, as amended, would prohibit the use of peremptory challenges to remove jurors based on ethnic group identification, age, genetic information, disability, or any other characteristic as to which discrimination is prohibited by statute. The bill was signed into law by the governor July 16.

•AB 139 by Assemblymember Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, which would authorize the use of revocable transfer-on-death deeds so that real estate may be transferred without probate upon the death of the transferee. The bill, which passed the Assembly April 9 by a vote of 78-0, was amended in the Senate July 15 to add additional provisions regarding administration of small estates.

•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, which passed the Assembly May 11 by a vote of 53-25, was ordered to the Senate inactive file July 6.

•AB 202 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, which would grant employee status to cheerleaders for professional sports teams. The bill was signed into law by the governor July 15.

•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. As amended, the bill would permit the motion to be made informally, in writing, and would also permit informal, written motions to correct errors in the calculation of sentencing credits. An amendment specifying that the trial court retains jurisdiction to correct errors in the calculation of monetary assessments after an appeal has been taken was approved April 13. The bill, which passed the Assembly April 23 by a vote of 78-0, passed the Senate July 6 by a vote of 39-0 and was sent back to the Assembly, which ordered it to engrossing and enrolling July 6.

•AB 256 by Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, which would extend the criminal statute regarding falsification of evidence to cover the destruction or concealment of an electronic record for the purpose of keeping it from being used in court. The bill passed the Assembly May 11 by a vote of 79-0 and was sent to the Senate, where it was referred to the Appropriations Committee suspense file July 6.

•AB 691 by Assemblymember Ian Calderon, D-Industry, which would establish a process, under probate court supervision, by which an individual may determine how much of his or her electronically stored personal information will be made public after his or her death. The bill passed the Assembly 78-0 on May 11 and was sent to the Senate, where it was amended July 1. Among other things, the amendments would extend service providers’ immunity to disclosures made in accordance with the legislation, even if not ordered by a court.

•AB 1028 by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, which would eliminate the prohibition against the administration of oaths and affirmations by former judges who retired due to disability. As amended, all former judges—unless removed from office by the Commission on Judicial Performance—would be allowed to administer oaths after obtaining a certificate from the CJP declaring the ex-judge does not suffer from an impairment affecting the ability to administer oaths. The bill passed the Assembly June 2 by a vote of 78-0, and was sent to the Senate, where it passed the Judiciary Committee July 8 by a vote of 7-0 and was re-referred to the Appropriations Committee.