Assembly Bill 2377 has been withdrawn
“Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and publicity.”
---Lord Acton
In a shocking turn of events, California state legislators have dropped Assembly Bill 2377 which would have placed further restrictions on access to complaint information on law enforcement officers in a state which is already the most restrictive. Many expected this bill backed by powerful law enforcement unions to do what the earlier bills trying to do the opposite couldn't do and that's sail right through committee to the big show on the government's main floors.
(excerpt, California Criminal Lawyer Blog)
Hayashi's error came via her authorship of Assembly Bill 2377, which she says the "sheriff's association" asked her to sponsor. The bill unfortunately would make it more difficult for the public, criminal defendants and plaintiffs to obtain records of police misconduct.
It triggered a puff of protest, including a scathing analysis by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Hayashi consulted with Adachi, has since dropped the bill, which ran contrary to making information about public employees public, and will not resurrect it.
"I'm new (this is her first two-year term), sometimes I make mistakes," she said, noting that she and her staff do their own research on bills and that she now understands the public policy implications of AB2377.
Jeffrey Adachi, the public defender in San Francisco strongly opposed the proposed bill and very publicly including in this opinion piece that was published in The Recorder.
(excerpt, The Recorder)
AB 2377 overturns this 35-year-old precedent and instead requires a party seeking such records to show an “internally consistent plausible scenario” of misconduct that is “substantially credible.”
As one might imagine, in cases where police abuse is alleged, it is common that the police version differs substantially from that of the accused. Thus, a person charged with resisting arrest, who claims that the officer used excessive force, might seek complaints of prior incidents where the officer used excessive force. Presently, these records are produced so long as the litigant swears, under penalty of perjury, that the officer used excessive force against him or her. AB 2377 would prohibit the disclosure of such records unless the citizen proves that his or her version of the events is more credible than the version offered by the police.
By setting forth a standard that requires the judge to find the civilian’s version of events more credible than the officer’s version, AB 2377 unduly limits the disclosure of police misconduct records.
Supporters of AB 2377 claim that changes in the law are needed to protect officers’ privacy rights. However, current law requires a judge to review police misconduct records outside the presence of the parties to ensure that only those records that are relevant to the proceeding are ordered produced. Litigants must agree not to disclose the records to anyone, and to only use the records in connection with the case. This well-worn procedure amply addresses any police privacy concerns.
Furthermore, the proponents of AB 2377 do not point to a single instance where an officer’s right to privacy was violated by the current procedure. Instead, they merely argue that police misconduct records should not be produced where a judge views the officer’s version of events as more believable than that of the citizen’s.
Adachi's letter to the state assembly.
The bill will return no doubt as soon as its sponsors find another inexperienced politician to front it to the appropriate subcommittee. That should take only about a couple of weeks or so. Its text is here.
The bill if passed would have required a higher standard of veracity for a civilian than a police officer and as recently seen in New York City, that hardly ever happens involving judges who are heavily reliant on casework on criminal cases by law enforcement agencies so essentially the law would have pretty much eighty-sixed Pitchess not through what's written in its text but through its application in reality.
Judges rarely even question the veracity of officers though legend has it, that Ward Three Councilman Rusty Bailey's father, former Judge William Bailey did do it once during a trial where a former Riverside Police Department officer was testifying in a trial involving a resisting arrest charge. Not long after that trial which centered around an incident at a restaurant involving the officer, another officer and two women who wanted nothing to do with either one of them, the officer whose veracity apparently concerned the judge retired with an injury. All the defendants who went to trial in relation to this incident were acquitted by jury or judge.
Legend also has it that another more current judge expressed concerns in court about the use of force by another Riverside Police Department officer in a case involving a female defendant several years ago, during a sentencing hearing. The woman was convicted of one obstruction charge but acquitted of two more serious battery charges involving a police officer. According to the minute orders of the case, the officer spent over four hours on the witness stand being cross-examined by the defense attorney. A rather long period of time for a misdemeanor case.
Then in another case, it was the jury not the judge that questioned the veracity of another officer who testified in the case which centered around a battery charge involving him. The jury acquitted the defendant (who in this case served as his own attorney after firing his public defender who wanted him to plead guilty, telling him they'd never believe a Black man over White police officers) of that battery charge. Soon after, the officer was fired by the police department for an unrelated incident and spent several years fighting it until being reinstated by the city council.
It's situations like these or similar ones repeated in different law enforcement agencies across the state which led to the concern behind the introduction of S.B. 1019 last year. It passed committee barely. In many cases, the veracity of an officer involving a case can survive rigorous examination. It's the cases where it can't or doesn't that increases concerns about whether or not the officer involved has exhibited a pattern of problems with veracity. The sad thing is that no officer receives as much of a vigorous defense as the officers who fall in the latter group, those who actually operate in a fashion that is detrimental to the officers alongside them who do not engage in this conduct.
As has been stated, though, this probably isn't the last that will be seen of Assembly Bill 2377 or one just like it.
To be continued in the halls of power in Sacramento no doubt...
When it comes to revitalizing downtown, different cities have different track records. Riverside received an "honorable mention" even as restaurants subsidized by the city even to the point of receiving free rent haven't survived.
Downtown Riverside is somewhere underneath a construction site as Riverside Renaissance sweeps down the pedestrian mall, one that has already been renovated through Riverside Neighborhood Partnership business tax collections several years ago. You remember, the effort that was supposed to be more inclusive of businesses outside the strip which were also contributing to the kitty. However, that never happened and the Partnership sold these businesses especially those on Market Street out for its main charity, the Mission Inn and the rest is history.
Over $12 million (as most often, the projects cost more than is projected by their completion) sunk into downtown, as I explained to two gentlemen who were city employees, who couldn't believe it. But it's true and that includes pouring more money into a memorial in front of City Hall that was already renovated for $450,000 several years ago. Even as the library is laying off many of its part-time employees and the police department has no citizens academy.
The Los Angeles Police Department wants to hire about 1,000 more officers but people are scratching their heads, wondering where is the money coming from.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
On paper, paying for the new officers looks easy. If the City Council approves the mayor's budget, annual trash fees will have been raised by more than $140 million since 2006. But hiring so many new officers is much trickier when home sales are flat, sales taxes are down and city employee pay raises have cost nearly $90 million extra with each successive year.
To continue the LAPD expansion in the midst of an economic downturn, Villaraigosa has called for reductions in library hours and supplies, animal shelter hours, park rangers and maintenance, summer recreation workers and arts programs.
With another grim year expected in 2009-10, the budget woes pose a major question for the mayor: Even if he reaches his goal of 1,000 new officers, can that rapid buildup -- his No. 1 priority -- be sustained?
As they review the mayor's budget, some council members aren't sure. Villaraigosa will have few options for big increases in fees next year. And Councilman Greig Smith, a Republican who is a reserve police officer, warned that the mayor is trying to hire too many officers too quickly -- a strategy that threatens to create a bigger budget mess by 2011, the year that all the new officers will be on the job.
"We're digging ourselves a hole," said Smith, who sits on the council's Budget and Finance Committee. "And the question is, is the hole so deep that we can't dig ourselves out?"
In Atlanta, the criminal trial of former police narcotics officer Arthur Testler continues. He's not charged with the murder of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston who was shot to death by narcotics officers who broke into her house under a falsified warrant, but is facing conspiracy and false statement charges. It's the closest thing to a public airing of what went down on the day of the fateful raid in November 2006.
Among those testifying against him will be two officers who did kill Johnston.
(excerpt, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Former Officers Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a federal charge of violating Johnston's constitutional rights. They face up to 10 years and 12 years respectively, depending on their cooperation with authorities.
Both are expected to testify against Tesler, who is on leave pending trial.
"It is an ugly case, but Tesler is not a patsy ... nobody forced him to be derelict in his duty," said Rand Csehy, a former narcotics prosecutor who represented Junnier, an 18-year veteran. "The death was the tragic consequence of an intentional act. I don't believe in diminishing liability based on who got there first and who got their last.
"Kathryn Johnston depended on the Police Department to protect her."
State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said the Johnston killing has hurt perceptions of police in poorer neighborhoods more than any event in decades.
"The police are supposed to be our first line of defense against bad guys, but now there are people who are wondering if they are safe in their homes," Fort said. "There is still a great deal of anger of what happened to Mrs. Johnston."
An officer in Kentucky has been accused of stealing money from a local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.
(excerpt, WLKY-News)
Officer Steve Hopper is a 19-year veteran of the Shively Police Department. His chief said up until this point, Hopper has been a productive officer. But now, he's accused of stealing from his fellow officers.
"We're in the kind of business where we see these kind of things all the time," said Detective Josh Myers, president of the Shively Fraternal Order of Police.
But usually the suspect's not one of their own. Myers said late last year, Hopper, the FOP's then-president became the target of suspicion.
"Our treasurer started noticing some discrepancies in the funds through the lodge, and we brought questions forward to the president at the time and were not satisfied with the answers that we got," Myers said.
Pray-ins and other forms of civil disobedience will take place in New York City in protest of the acquittals of three New York City Police Department officers last month, according to the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Barbara Sheehan told the New York Daily News that her husband had abused her for 18 years before she killed him.
(excerpt)
For 18 years, Barbara Sheehan says, she put up with abuse from her ex-cop husband Raymond, until one day last February, when he terrorized her for the last time, and she shot him dead while he shaved.
"I think he probably would have killed me . . . he was just totally out of control by then," Sheehan, 47, told the Daily News in an exclusive interview as a grand jury weighs murder charges against her.
In a shaky voice, her hands wringing a tissue, Sheehan painted a picture of the classic battered wife, and graphically described the final fight of her 24-year marriage to the retired NYPD crime scene unit sergeant.
Maywood Police Department's chief of the moment welcomes people to his city. If you've been keeping up with the news out of that city, you'd know that Frank Hauptmann is the department's current interim chief.
His two predecessors, Richard Lyons and Al Hutchings both had been convicted of criminal behavior and were removed. The latter was only interim chief for a relatively short period of time before Deputy Attorney General Lou Verdugo threatened to sue. But at the time, it seemed fitting in a corrupt sort of way because about 1/3 of the officers hired by the department either had been fired and/or had criminal histories.
But Maywood at least is an equal opportunity hire of screwups down to the two ex-interim chiefs and individuals whose law enforcement careers should have been over. But is it better or worse to do so and toss nepotism in the mix? That's what other law enforcement agencies have been facing, as well as city employment forces in general. After all, if a politician gets elected to office and then suddenly his relatives are working in different positions at City Hall, what do most people think?
The foreclosed homes of Riverside. This Web site provides aerial views of foreclosed homes in Riverside along with financial information about each one.
What's noticeable is that when you click the houses, how few of them are appraised at less than $250,000, which is the cutoff price for the city's affordable housing measure passed by the city council several weeks ago.
---Lord Acton
In a shocking turn of events, California state legislators have dropped Assembly Bill 2377 which would have placed further restrictions on access to complaint information on law enforcement officers in a state which is already the most restrictive. Many expected this bill backed by powerful law enforcement unions to do what the earlier bills trying to do the opposite couldn't do and that's sail right through committee to the big show on the government's main floors.
(excerpt, California Criminal Lawyer Blog)
Hayashi's error came via her authorship of Assembly Bill 2377, which she says the "sheriff's association" asked her to sponsor. The bill unfortunately would make it more difficult for the public, criminal defendants and plaintiffs to obtain records of police misconduct.
It triggered a puff of protest, including a scathing analysis by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Hayashi consulted with Adachi, has since dropped the bill, which ran contrary to making information about public employees public, and will not resurrect it.
"I'm new (this is her first two-year term), sometimes I make mistakes," she said, noting that she and her staff do their own research on bills and that she now understands the public policy implications of AB2377.
Jeffrey Adachi, the public defender in San Francisco strongly opposed the proposed bill and very publicly including in this opinion piece that was published in The Recorder.
(excerpt, The Recorder)
AB 2377 overturns this 35-year-old precedent and instead requires a party seeking such records to show an “internally consistent plausible scenario” of misconduct that is “substantially credible.”
As one might imagine, in cases where police abuse is alleged, it is common that the police version differs substantially from that of the accused. Thus, a person charged with resisting arrest, who claims that the officer used excessive force, might seek complaints of prior incidents where the officer used excessive force. Presently, these records are produced so long as the litigant swears, under penalty of perjury, that the officer used excessive force against him or her. AB 2377 would prohibit the disclosure of such records unless the citizen proves that his or her version of the events is more credible than the version offered by the police.
By setting forth a standard that requires the judge to find the civilian’s version of events more credible than the officer’s version, AB 2377 unduly limits the disclosure of police misconduct records.
Supporters of AB 2377 claim that changes in the law are needed to protect officers’ privacy rights. However, current law requires a judge to review police misconduct records outside the presence of the parties to ensure that only those records that are relevant to the proceeding are ordered produced. Litigants must agree not to disclose the records to anyone, and to only use the records in connection with the case. This well-worn procedure amply addresses any police privacy concerns.
Furthermore, the proponents of AB 2377 do not point to a single instance where an officer’s right to privacy was violated by the current procedure. Instead, they merely argue that police misconduct records should not be produced where a judge views the officer’s version of events as more believable than that of the citizen’s.
Adachi's letter to the state assembly.
The bill will return no doubt as soon as its sponsors find another inexperienced politician to front it to the appropriate subcommittee. That should take only about a couple of weeks or so. Its text is here.
The bill if passed would have required a higher standard of veracity for a civilian than a police officer and as recently seen in New York City, that hardly ever happens involving judges who are heavily reliant on casework on criminal cases by law enforcement agencies so essentially the law would have pretty much eighty-sixed Pitchess not through what's written in its text but through its application in reality.
Judges rarely even question the veracity of officers though legend has it, that Ward Three Councilman Rusty Bailey's father, former Judge William Bailey did do it once during a trial where a former Riverside Police Department officer was testifying in a trial involving a resisting arrest charge. Not long after that trial which centered around an incident at a restaurant involving the officer, another officer and two women who wanted nothing to do with either one of them, the officer whose veracity apparently concerned the judge retired with an injury. All the defendants who went to trial in relation to this incident were acquitted by jury or judge.
Legend also has it that another more current judge expressed concerns in court about the use of force by another Riverside Police Department officer in a case involving a female defendant several years ago, during a sentencing hearing. The woman was convicted of one obstruction charge but acquitted of two more serious battery charges involving a police officer. According to the minute orders of the case, the officer spent over four hours on the witness stand being cross-examined by the defense attorney. A rather long period of time for a misdemeanor case.
Then in another case, it was the jury not the judge that questioned the veracity of another officer who testified in the case which centered around a battery charge involving him. The jury acquitted the defendant (who in this case served as his own attorney after firing his public defender who wanted him to plead guilty, telling him they'd never believe a Black man over White police officers) of that battery charge. Soon after, the officer was fired by the police department for an unrelated incident and spent several years fighting it until being reinstated by the city council.
It's situations like these or similar ones repeated in different law enforcement agencies across the state which led to the concern behind the introduction of S.B. 1019 last year. It passed committee barely. In many cases, the veracity of an officer involving a case can survive rigorous examination. It's the cases where it can't or doesn't that increases concerns about whether or not the officer involved has exhibited a pattern of problems with veracity. The sad thing is that no officer receives as much of a vigorous defense as the officers who fall in the latter group, those who actually operate in a fashion that is detrimental to the officers alongside them who do not engage in this conduct.
As has been stated, though, this probably isn't the last that will be seen of Assembly Bill 2377 or one just like it.
To be continued in the halls of power in Sacramento no doubt...
When it comes to revitalizing downtown, different cities have different track records. Riverside received an "honorable mention" even as restaurants subsidized by the city even to the point of receiving free rent haven't survived.
Downtown Riverside is somewhere underneath a construction site as Riverside Renaissance sweeps down the pedestrian mall, one that has already been renovated through Riverside Neighborhood Partnership business tax collections several years ago. You remember, the effort that was supposed to be more inclusive of businesses outside the strip which were also contributing to the kitty. However, that never happened and the Partnership sold these businesses especially those on Market Street out for its main charity, the Mission Inn and the rest is history.
Over $12 million (as most often, the projects cost more than is projected by their completion) sunk into downtown, as I explained to two gentlemen who were city employees, who couldn't believe it. But it's true and that includes pouring more money into a memorial in front of City Hall that was already renovated for $450,000 several years ago. Even as the library is laying off many of its part-time employees and the police department has no citizens academy.
The Los Angeles Police Department wants to hire about 1,000 more officers but people are scratching their heads, wondering where is the money coming from.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
On paper, paying for the new officers looks easy. If the City Council approves the mayor's budget, annual trash fees will have been raised by more than $140 million since 2006. But hiring so many new officers is much trickier when home sales are flat, sales taxes are down and city employee pay raises have cost nearly $90 million extra with each successive year.
To continue the LAPD expansion in the midst of an economic downturn, Villaraigosa has called for reductions in library hours and supplies, animal shelter hours, park rangers and maintenance, summer recreation workers and arts programs.
With another grim year expected in 2009-10, the budget woes pose a major question for the mayor: Even if he reaches his goal of 1,000 new officers, can that rapid buildup -- his No. 1 priority -- be sustained?
As they review the mayor's budget, some council members aren't sure. Villaraigosa will have few options for big increases in fees next year. And Councilman Greig Smith, a Republican who is a reserve police officer, warned that the mayor is trying to hire too many officers too quickly -- a strategy that threatens to create a bigger budget mess by 2011, the year that all the new officers will be on the job.
"We're digging ourselves a hole," said Smith, who sits on the council's Budget and Finance Committee. "And the question is, is the hole so deep that we can't dig ourselves out?"
In Atlanta, the criminal trial of former police narcotics officer Arthur Testler continues. He's not charged with the murder of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston who was shot to death by narcotics officers who broke into her house under a falsified warrant, but is facing conspiracy and false statement charges. It's the closest thing to a public airing of what went down on the day of the fateful raid in November 2006.
Among those testifying against him will be two officers who did kill Johnston.
(excerpt, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Former Officers Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a federal charge of violating Johnston's constitutional rights. They face up to 10 years and 12 years respectively, depending on their cooperation with authorities.
Both are expected to testify against Tesler, who is on leave pending trial.
"It is an ugly case, but Tesler is not a patsy ... nobody forced him to be derelict in his duty," said Rand Csehy, a former narcotics prosecutor who represented Junnier, an 18-year veteran. "The death was the tragic consequence of an intentional act. I don't believe in diminishing liability based on who got there first and who got their last.
"Kathryn Johnston depended on the Police Department to protect her."
State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said the Johnston killing has hurt perceptions of police in poorer neighborhoods more than any event in decades.
"The police are supposed to be our first line of defense against bad guys, but now there are people who are wondering if they are safe in their homes," Fort said. "There is still a great deal of anger of what happened to Mrs. Johnston."
An officer in Kentucky has been accused of stealing money from a local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.
(excerpt, WLKY-News)
Officer Steve Hopper is a 19-year veteran of the Shively Police Department. His chief said up until this point, Hopper has been a productive officer. But now, he's accused of stealing from his fellow officers.
"We're in the kind of business where we see these kind of things all the time," said Detective Josh Myers, president of the Shively Fraternal Order of Police.
But usually the suspect's not one of their own. Myers said late last year, Hopper, the FOP's then-president became the target of suspicion.
"Our treasurer started noticing some discrepancies in the funds through the lodge, and we brought questions forward to the president at the time and were not satisfied with the answers that we got," Myers said.
Pray-ins and other forms of civil disobedience will take place in New York City in protest of the acquittals of three New York City Police Department officers last month, according to the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Barbara Sheehan told the New York Daily News that her husband had abused her for 18 years before she killed him.
(excerpt)
For 18 years, Barbara Sheehan says, she put up with abuse from her ex-cop husband Raymond, until one day last February, when he terrorized her for the last time, and she shot him dead while he shaved.
"I think he probably would have killed me . . . he was just totally out of control by then," Sheehan, 47, told the Daily News in an exclusive interview as a grand jury weighs murder charges against her.
In a shaky voice, her hands wringing a tissue, Sheehan painted a picture of the classic battered wife, and graphically described the final fight of her 24-year marriage to the retired NYPD crime scene unit sergeant.
Maywood Police Department's chief of the moment welcomes people to his city. If you've been keeping up with the news out of that city, you'd know that Frank Hauptmann is the department's current interim chief.
His two predecessors, Richard Lyons and Al Hutchings both had been convicted of criminal behavior and were removed. The latter was only interim chief for a relatively short period of time before Deputy Attorney General Lou Verdugo threatened to sue. But at the time, it seemed fitting in a corrupt sort of way because about 1/3 of the officers hired by the department either had been fired and/or had criminal histories.
But Maywood at least is an equal opportunity hire of screwups down to the two ex-interim chiefs and individuals whose law enforcement careers should have been over. But is it better or worse to do so and toss nepotism in the mix? That's what other law enforcement agencies have been facing, as well as city employment forces in general. After all, if a politician gets elected to office and then suddenly his relatives are working in different positions at City Hall, what do most people think?
The foreclosed homes of Riverside. This Web site provides aerial views of foreclosed homes in Riverside along with financial information about each one.
What's noticeable is that when you click the houses, how few of them are appraised at less than $250,000, which is the cutoff price for the city's affordable housing measure passed by the city council several weeks ago.
Labels: battering while blue, corruption 101, David and Goliath, judicial watch, officer-involved shootings, public forums in all places
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