March
31,
2015

A report on where
things
stand


U.S. Judicial Conference Seeks Additional Judges for Ninth Circuit, Central District...Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel Assigned to Court of Appeal Through May...Bill to Extend Rule Against Use of Peremptory Challenges Based on Group Bias Passes Assembly

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.

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

David Tamman
Suspended Attorney

A case management conference in Tamman’s suit against Nixon Peabody LLP, where he used to be a partner, has been 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

Prosecutors reported that Lee, 57, is presently 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.
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.
Rebecca Lee has pled the Fifth Amendment in those proceedings, and the SEC said in a Feb. 19 filing that it expects to move for summary judgment against her.
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.

The Judicial Conference of the United States this month recommended that Congress create five new judgeships for the court, which would bring the total to 34..

 

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

The Judicial Conference of the United States this month recommended that Congress create 13 new judgeships for the court, for a total of 41, and that one temporary judgeship be made permanent..


There are no vacancies.

Second District

Justice Fred Woods is retiring today, his 80th birthday. He told the MetNews that he has no specific retirement plans, but wanted to take advantage of life “while I have great health with which to do it.”
He said he might consider private mediation, but wasn’t sure whether parties would “want to invest a lot of time in an 80-year-old justice.”
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 former Justice Elwood H. Lui, 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 April, 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 May, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Feuer to Div. Seven through April 10, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bruce G. Iwasaki to Div. Seven through April 30, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel to Div. Seven through May.

Seats in other districts are filled.
Los Angeles Superior Court

Gov. Jerry Brown Friday named four new judges to the court—George F. Bird, a criminal defense attorney, to succeed retired Judge Joseph Biderman; Frank Menetrez, a judicial attorney at the Court of Appeal, to replace retired Judge John Meigs; Michael C. Small, senior counsel at Akin Gump, to succeed retired Judge Wendy L. Kohn; and Deputy District Attorney Kevin Stennis to succeed Judge Candace J. Beason.
There remain vacancies as a 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 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 retirements of Judge Thomas White on Feb. 19 and Judge Ronald Rose on March 20 of this year.
Judge Arthur Jean sat for the last time on Friday and officially retires April 30. Judges Owen Kwong and Ronald Skyers are retiring April 30 as well.
Judge Patricia Schnegg is retiring today. Judge Leland Harris has left the bench and is officially retiring May 8.
Among those whose names have been sent to the JNE Commission as possible appointees to judgeships are Century City lawyer Josh Wayser, Superior Court counsel Brett Bianco; Beverly Hills attorney Edward Tabash; Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Songhai Miguda-Armsted; Los Angeles attorney Timothy Dillon; 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.
Commissioner Marshall Rieger retired March 28. Commissioner Loren DiFrank retired Feb. 28.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

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

•AB 29 by Assemblymember Nora Campos, D-San Jose, which would provide that “in any civil action involving sexual intercourse between an adult and a minor, it shall not be a defense that the minor consented to the sexual intercourse.” A Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for March 10 was cancelled at the request of the author.

•AB 60 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, which would permit attorneys to charge fees for assisting immigrants in obtaining relief from deportation under President Obama’s recent executive order. Existing law prohibits such fees from being charged in the absence of federal legislation authorizing such relief. The bill was amended March 9, expanding its scope to include “any future executive action or order that authorizes an undocumented immigrant who either entered the United States without inspection or who did not depart after the expiration of a nonimmigrant visa, to attain a lawful status under federal law.” On March 17, the bill was passed as amended by a Judiciary Committee vote of 10-0 and re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

•AB 87 by Assemblymember Mark Stone, D-Santa Cruz, which would prohibit the use of peremptory challenges to remove jurors based on ethnic group identification, age, genetic information, or disability. The bill passed the Assembly March 19 by a vote of 68-2 and was sent to the Senate, where it was referred to the Judiciary Committee March 25.

•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 was amended in the Assembly March 5, then passed the Appropriations Committee March 25 by a vote of 16-0 and was placed on the consent calendar.

•AB 202 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, which would grant employee status to cheerleaders for professional sports teams. The bill has been scheduled for an April 8 hearing in the Committee on Labor and Employment.

•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. The bill passed the Committee on Public Safety March 17 by a vote of 6-0 and was re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

•SB 30 by Sen. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado Hills, which, as introduced, would have limited the defense of consent in civil sexual battery cases to instances in which the allegedly consenting person is over the age of 18 years or the spouse of the alleged perpetrator. As amended March 17, however, the bill would expand the scope of the crime of vehicle theft to include the commandeering of a vehicle through a digital access system.

•SB 227 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, which, as amended March 19, would bar the use of the grand jury to investigate killings by police officers. The bill was re-referred to the Committee on Public Safety March 25.


 

 

 


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