Subject: Appellate Trials

• 'Fags Die' Killer Wins Court Point

  Party animal/prostitute/tree trimmer Gregory Pisarcik had hoped an OC jury would see him as the victim of his, well, dead victim, a retired gay INS agent. It didn't work out that way. More and more, juries here aren't buying the "gay panic" defense, and now the 28-year-old killer is in prison. But good news comes to those who wait. Last week, the state court of appeal based in Santa Ana overturned Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel's sentencing decision. The appellate court said Fasel must re

  April 25, 2007

• Bad News for Ladies' Night at Clubs/Bars

  Yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled that businesses charging one sex less for, say, entry or drinks cannot escape legal liability if the discriminated person fails to protest at the time. In July 2002, Marc Angelucci, Edgar Pacas, Elton Campbell and Jeff Kent were charged $20 entrance fees at the Century Supper Club in Los Angeles while women entered for $15. The men sued, claiming they'd been discriminated against in violation of the state law that says, "All persons with the juri

  June 1, 2007

• Overruled

  Orange County Superior Court Judge James M. Brooks' unusual courtroom tactics have gotten him into trouble again. A state appeals court panel overturned his ruling on an employment-discrimination case today because of his unconventional courtroom manner. This isn't the first time that Brooks, who has been a judge in Orange County since 1987, has received such criticism. The state Commission on Judicial Performance has denounced him for his courtroom remarks on several occasions, including an

  June 6, 2007

• Nguyen vs. Nguyen: Janet Wins!

  Ok, so the timing sort of sucks for us, since we'd have liked to include the information in our story, but it's good news for Janet Nguyen: the California Court of Appeals ruled today, the same day our cover story hit the streets, that Janet did win her election, and therefore does get to stay in office. Last November, the Orange County Registrar ruled that Trung Nguyen, a Garden Grove school board member backed by State Assemblyman Van Thai Tran, the most powerful Vietnamese-American elected o

  January 17, 2008

• Citizen of the Week!

  Veronica Paz smoked pot with and repeatedly had public sex with Diego Gonzales, a 17-year-old high school wrestling champion, on a hillside perch overlooking Orange County. Yes, it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a minor, but that’s the least of Paz’s worries. The 26-year-old Stater Bros. grocery cashier is still trying to explain how Gonzales ended up dead—and his corpse ended up burnt—after their last rendezvous in the back seat of her Nissan Altima in November 2003. The tro

  July 9, 2008

• Citizen of the Week!

  Don't assume that because Deep Arora won a top prize at a math competition that women wouldn't find him irresistible. On February 16, 2006, Emily, whom he'd met online that evening, invited Arora to drive from Placentia (where he lived with his parents) to her Laguna Beach apartment. The 19-year-old college student aiming for a degree in engineering at Fullerton College couldn't wait for the rendezvous. As he drove down Interstate 5 and then Laguna Canyon Road towards the Pacific Ocean, he shar

  July 16, 2008

• Police Chief Operates Surf City's Only Medical Marijuana Dispensary

  Cops around here have developed a nasty habit: bogarting joints. That is, they illegally confiscate medical marijuana, get dragged into court for violating state law, lollygag in chambers for years, and have the local verdict kicked up to appellate court, where they ultimately lose and have to give the Devil's weed back, seeing as how state law protects legitimate medical marijuana patients like the ones cops around here keep busting. (Knit beanies off to Newport Beach artist michaelm for having

  September 17, 2008

• Lawyers, Monks and Money

  December 26, 2002

• Taco Bell Crime of the Week!

  This one is from last week and involves Taco Bell itself!A federal appeals court Friday ruled that Taco Bell is solely liable for $42 million in breach-of-contract awards to two Michigan men who created the diminutive mascot that starred in the Irvine fast-food giant's hit $500-million advertising campaign in the 1990s.Yo quiero appeal. And you know what's most offensive about the campaign, especially in the original ad shown below? The music? If Taco Bell's going to hawk bad Mexican food, at le

  January 29, 2009

• Court Slaps Little Saigon Red-Baiter

  The decades-old Little Saigon sport of falsely labeling a fellow Vietnamese immigrant "a Communist" if that person doesn't share your right-wing politics now finally has consequences. Just ask Sinh Cuong Cao. In 2007, Kimoanh Nguyen-Lam (pictured) was fired as the nation's first Vietnamese American superintendent of an American school board after Cao labeled her a Commie to members of the Westminster School District. For certain infamously reactionary board members like Judy Ahrens, it didn't ma

  March 3, 2009

• [Moxley Confidential] Meet Catherine Cass of Santa Ana, OC's Most Annoying Neighbor

  March 27, 2008

• Justice Takes a Beating

  August 11, 2005

• Dudes Gone Wild

  Three odd tales from Orange Countys domestic-violence files

  July 26, 2007

• Andy Get Your Gun

  OC arms dealer with AK-47s, rocket launchers escapes prosecution

  March 15, 2007

• Badgering and Blunders

  Judges misconduct could set OC man free from six-year prison sentence

  May 17, 2007

• The Beer That Made Tustin Infamous

  OC cops seek to expand anti-public-drinking laws to private property

  May 10, 2007

• The Book of Judges

  WEB EXCLUSIVE! An incomplete guide to obscure races

  November 2, 2006

• The Last Picture Shaw

  August 10, 2006

• 'Holy Crap! I Lost Louis Eugene Craft!'

  May 25, 2006

• Made in Newport Beach

  March 7, 2002

• Finally!

  May 17, 2001

• A Second Chance

  May 11, 2000

• Cesar Salud

  February 17, 2000

• Tourists Trapped

  December 10, 1998

• What Happened?

  October 8, 1998

• CA Supreme Court To Business: Comply With ADA Or Expect Huge Penalties

  Angelucci and Gunther: Anti-Discrimination Heroes?On Friday, the California Supreme Court overturned a Santa Ana-based Court of Appeal decision that required plaintiffs in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-type cases to prove that businesses purposely violated the law by not making their facilities usable by wheelchair-bound customers. The high court, acting on a request for clarification by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, decided that appellate justices in Orange County misund

  June 13, 2009

• Federal Panel Gives Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona Leniency

  Break out the vodka, boys!​As Orange County's Republican sheriff, Mike Carona liked to talk tough about granting no mercy to convicted felons, but ever since the ex-top cop turned convicted felon himself earlier this year he's been begging for leniency.This afternoon, the Ninth Circuit--the nation's most liberal federal appeals court--granted Carona his wish. Unlike most felons, he'll be allowed to remain free from serving his 66-month federal prison sentence until the appellate court reviews

  July 27, 2009

• Who Killed Tootsie? And Should Her Owner Get Paid for Her Emotional Distress?

  September 3, 2009

• Free Speech Triumphs Over Gestapo in OC!

  Oppression didn't end in 1945​Folks are always complaining that Congress and state legislatures should not be allowed to meet except for a couple of weeks a year. It's an idea to help curtail the nanny-state notions of politicians of both major political parties. Good enough. But what about city councils?Take the San Clemente City Council, for example. It decided that it could outfox the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court rulings that rigidly prevent the government from restricting free

  October 2, 2009

• LGBT Groups Seek to Intervene in Prop. 8 Challenge

  This just in from the ACLU, which believes the action taken today will help a judge hearing a challenge of Prop. 8 understand the unequal rights inherent in the ballot initiative . . . SAN FRANCISCO -- Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today asked the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to allow Our Family Coalition, Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to intervene in Pe

  July 8, 2009

• UCI's Chemerinsky to Represent Teacher in 'Jesus Glasses' Appeal

  James Corbett​The Register's Scott Martindale reports that the lovably liberal UCI Law dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, will help represent James Corbett in his appeal of the ruling earlier this year that he violated the Constitution by criticizing Creationism in a Capistrano Valley High School classroom.Corbett called Creationism "religious, superstitious nonsense" while teaching AP European History in 2007. Student Chad Farnan sued, alleging religious descrimination based on that comment and 21 othe

  October 27, 2009