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The Crime Scene ~ Crime and courts in Orange County, California.

Archive for the 'Judges' Category

A simmering dispute between prosecutors and the bench

October 22nd, 2009, 4:23 pm by Larry Welborn

A dispute is simmering between the Orange County District Attorney’s office and Superior Court judges over the way certain criminal cases are being settled before trial.

Judge Thomas A. Goethals, the supervising judge of the criminal division, asked retired Judge Robert Fitzgerald to review most cases assigned to Department 5 – the master criminal calendar court — with an eye to resolving them before trial. Fitzgerald continues to serve on assignment as a Superior Court judge.

The idea was that Fitz would talk to attorneys on both sides and then make offers to defendants: plead guilty at an early stage and get a sentence lighter than they might have expected  if convicted at trial, thus cutting a backlog of criminal cases.

Fitzgerald has a well-earned reputation as a tough-on-crime, tough-sentencing jurist who put several Orange County killers on Death Row. Several defense attorneys were reluctant at first to go before Fitz, worried that they would not get the kind of offers that would be advantageous for their clients.

But after two months, it was  the D.A.’s Office that was complaining.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love: the story that never ends

October 6th, 2009, 10:30 am by Larry Welborn

One of the first big stories I covered as a young journalist in Orange County in the early 1970s was the investigation and indictments of several members of the Laguna Beach drug cult “The Brotherhood of Eternal Love.”

The Brotherhood promoted peace and love all the while importing large amounds of hashish and manufacturing copious quantities of LSD. They gained nationwide notoriety with their connection to LSD guru Dr. Timothy Leary, who was arrested in Laguna Beach, convicted of drug use and sentenced to prison, from which he promptly escaped with assistance from the radical group the Weathermen and with financing from The Brotherhood.

I was reminded recently that big stories never end, they just morph into new angles, follow-ups and updates.

Brenice Lee Smith, the last of dozens of Brotherhood associates indicted in 1972 to be arrested, made his first appearance Monday in Orange County Superior Court after he was arrested last month while trying to re-enter the country. He spent 37 years on the run, mostly in a monastery in Tibet, according to Gerardo Gutierrez, his Chicago attorney.

The case has been around for so long that many veterans of the Orange County justice system have some connection to it.

For example, Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals, the presiding judge of OC’s criminal calendar, who heard Smith’s bail motion Monday, said he had some dealings with the Brotherhood case as a prosecutor early in his career. And Prosecutor Jim Hicks is the son of Cecil Hicks, who was Orange County’s District Attorney in 1972.

Goethals, who set Smith’s bail at $1.1 million, recalled on the bench that the Brotherhood indictment “in its day was a notorious case.”

Gutierrez said Smith voluntarily returned to the United States to face the indictment, even though it appears that he was apprehended at the San Francisco Airport last month when airport security noticed an outstanding arrest warrant as he deplaned after a flight that originated in Nepal.

Gutierrez, who is seeking authorization to practice law in California, said Smith also returned because he has family in the States, including two sons and a niece.

Goethals scheduled Smith’s next hearing for Oct. 16, at which time Gutierrez expects to have his California Bar Card and will argue for a reduction in bail.

Judge Andrew Guilford takes the field at Dodger Stadium

September 17th, 2009, 3:29 pm by Rachanee Srisavasdi

U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford will wear a cap that reads “Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles” when he takes the field at Dodger Stadium before Friday’s home game against the San Francisco Giants.

It’s a pre-game ceremony involving the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Guilford will represent the diocese and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Guilford says he’s a longtime Dodgers fan — more so now than ever, especially after Angels owner Arte Moreno forced his beloved local team to become officially known as the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.”

Here’s the backstory: Before he was confirmed to the federal bench in 2006, Guilford  represented the city of Anaheim in a lawsuit against Moreno,  seeking to ban the “Los Angeles” connection in the official name of the team that plays all of its home games in Anaheim.

The city of Anaheim — and Guilford — lost that case.

Guilford says he is no longer an Angels fan.

“The Angels left me and my community, I didn’t leave them,” Guilford says in an email. “No true fan of the Yankees and baseball would EVER support the New Jersey Yankees playing in Yankee Stadium. No true fan of the Angels and baseball should EVER support the Los Angeles Angels playing in Anaheim Stadium!”

After filing 251 motions on his own, rape suspect asks for a court-appointed attorney

August 24th, 2009, 10:47 am by Larry Welborn

After filing more than 250 pre-trial motions  — most of which were unsuccessful  – rape suspect george-cross-booking-photoGeorge Eugene Cross  has  apparently given up on being his own lawyer.

Superior Court Judge Richard M. King  told Cross last week that he was getting “dangerously close” to disrupting the judicial process because of the filing of numerous frivolous and occasionally duplicative motions.

So King barred Cross from the filing of any more pre-trial motions, unless they were vetted first in open court.

When King scheduled the first session to discuss any additional pre-trial motions, Cross said he was through being a jailhouse lawyer. King is expected to appoint an attorney to represent Cross later this week.

In all, Cross filed 251 motions in his case, about evidentiary issues, conditions in the jail or about seeking taxpayer funding for his defense.

Cross, 40, is currently serving 55 years to life for a series of sexual assaults in Sacramento County in 2002, and he also has a prior rape conviction  in Long Beach in 1995.

He faces trial in Orange County now, charged with raping a 17-year-old girl in her Anaheim apartment in 1997.

Cross was allegedly linked to that crime in 2004 when Anaheim police detectives were notified by the Orange County Crime Lab there was a “cold hit” with his DNA.

Victim impact: ‘There’s never a day that I do not think about him”

August 14th, 2009, 11:12 am by Larry Welborn

Deputy District Attorney Sonia Balleste read poignant victim-impact minh-cong-tranletters in court today from the brother and sister of Minh Cong Tran (right), a 13-year-old Westminster boy who was shot to death in 2003 when he was mistaken for a rival gang member.

“There’s never a day that I do not think about him and I can say the same for my family and friends,” wrote Anh Tran, Minh’s older brother. “I realize that he is still alive within us – in our hearts, and he will always be alive so long as he’s in my heart.”

“Killing my brother makes it hard on all of his family and friends,” wrote Jenny Tran, Minh’s younger sister. “I … will never forget the way he smiles, laughs, jokes around, always happy, and how he just always put a smile on everyone’e face…(but) all of that is gone…due to just one guy and a gun.”

After listening to the letters, Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg sentenced shooter Jason Aguirre, 33, to death.

To read more about the sentencing, click here.

Not good: Being late to your own trial

August 12th, 2009, 2:28 pm by Larry Welborn

It is not a good idea to show up late to your own criminal jury trial.

Mary MacGregor, 47, of Sherman Oaks, learned that lesson the hard way today.

She showed up more than three hours late for what was supposed to be opening statements of her trial on criminal threats and aggravated assault charges. 

According to court documents, she allegedly threatened to kill her soon-to-be ex-husband, and then allegedly pulled a 10-inch  knife on him at a mattress store in Laguna Hills in July of 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Judge again denies serial murder suspect’s bid to act as his own lawyer

July 31st, 2009, 12:55 pm by Larry Welborn

Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno has again denied serial francisco-brisenomurder suspect Rodney James Alcala’s request to act as his own lawyer in his upcoming death penalty murder trial.

It is at least the third time this year that Briseno — OC’s most experienced judge — has turned Alcala down.

And it is a decision that has surprised some legal experts, who believe that a defendant has an absolute right to defend himself so long as he is mentally competent and that granting the request would not unduly delay the orderly administration of justice.

Briseno, in a 13-page ruling, makes it clear that he feels Alcala is smart enough, articulate enough and knowledgeble enough.

rodney-alcalaBut the judge questions whether allowing Alcala lawyer-status would impact the orderly administration of justice.

Briseno said Alcala (left) has been wishy-washy about his resolve to serve as his own lawyer in  the past, and that this most current request is “equivocal, conditional, unreliable and involuntary.”

So the judge wants court-appointed lawyers George Peters and Richard Schwartzberg to remain on the case for the trial, which is now set to begin in September.

Schwartzberg today filed a brief on Alcala’s behalf  to overturn Briseno’s ruling.

Alcala, who is now 65, is one of Orange County’s most notorious murder suspects. He has been in custody since 1979, and has twice been convicted and twice sentenced to death for the kidnap-murder robin-samsoeof Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl (right) who disappeared in  the summer of 1979.

But twice the convictions were reversed on appeal. Before Alcala could come to trial for a third time in the Samsoe case, he was allegedly linked through DNA evidence to the sex-slayings of four young women in Los Angeles County in the late 1970s. He is also a suspect in two similar murders in New York.

The four Los Angeles cases have now been joined with the Samsoe case for a single trial in Orange County. To read a previous blog on the case, click here.

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