U.S. Courts

Appeals Court Finds Costa Mesa City Council Law Barring Disruptions Unconstitutional

Benito Acosta, who as a Latino rights activist goes by Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, won a partial victory from the state's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday.The court upheld previous rulings finding Acosta was legally removed from a 2006 Costa Mesa City Council meeting, but the city's law against "disor ... More >>

Lawyer Asks Judge to Seal Sexted Photo of His Penis from the Public Record

In what may be a first in the annals of jurisprudence, an attorney has asked an Orange County Superior Court judge to seal a picture of his penis from the public record. On March 11, attorneys for a Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Riverside attorney Dwayne S. B ... More >>

Santa Ana Hoodlum Admits Mexican Mafia Membership & Role in Heroin Distribution

A 34-year-old hoodlum nicknamed "Fat Ass" is admitting he is a member of the OC Mexican Mafia and conspired to thwart the Santa Ana Police Department while participating in the expected 2009 sale of more than 100 grams of heroin in Orange County.Kinney Stephen Uribe* signed a guilty plea in mid ... More >>

Little Saigon Identity Thief Who Loves Nordstrom Gets A Break

Little Saigon's Celeste Anh Nguyen is a lucky criminal.A federal judge in Orange County is giving Nguyen--a brazen identity and mail thief--a generous path to erase her crimes from the public record if she successfully completes a Conviction and Sentence Alternative "CASA" Program.CASA provides subs ... More >>

San Clemente Businessman Gets Punished For $6.85 Million Foreign Bribery Operation

A San Clemente businessman who violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing foreign government officials with more than $6.85 million to win lucrative contracts has been sentenced to prison this week inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.Stuart Carson, 73, faced up to 10 ... More >>

Garden Grove Police Pop a Cork After Being Cleared in Killing of Jaime Castellanos Suarez

The Garden Grove Police Department is celebrating a federal court ruling clearing one of its officers in the 2009 shooting death of "a previously deported felon." After quick deliberations, a jury in U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna's Santa Ana courtroom found no negligence by the city or it ... More >>

Vietnamese Son of American Soldier Wants Chance To Emerge From California Prison

Little Saigon's Duc Hong Truong--the offspring of an unknown, irresponsible American soldier--isn't a lawyer but he's sitting in Calipatria State Prison and wondering why an important 1984 court opinion, People v. Dillon, doesn't apply to him.Dillon was a 17-year-old high school student who committe ... More >>

Terminal Island Prisoners Win Right to In-Person Parole Hearings

A lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners at Terminal Island, a storied federal corrections facility between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor, has been settled in favor of the inmates. The agreement reached last week was preceded by a federal judge's injunction last March protecting the right ... More >>

Judge Salvador Sarmiento Agrees to Censure in Pact That Keeps Him on OC Bench

The Commission on Judicial Performance and Orange Superior Court Judge Salvador Sarmiento have agreed that the jurist will be censured in exchange, essentially, for his getting to remain on the bench.The censure if for Sarmiento intervening in his wife's traffic case before an OC court commissioner, ... More >>

Carlos Bustamante: The Official List of the Santa Ana Councilman's Sex Crimes Accusations

Orange County Superior Court officials updated their public records today to reflect the government's pending sex crimes accusations against Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante.District Attorney Tony Rackauckas believes Bustamante, the onetime up and coming Republican politician, is guilty of a s ... More >>

How Long Could a Child Molester Dupe U.S. Immigration Officials?

In theory, U.S. immigration officials only allow foreigners with good morals to become citizens, but in 1989 Mexican Bernard Gari beat the system. In the months leading up to his citizenship, Gari sexually molested two Orange County kids under the age of 14 and kept that ugly fact a secret from ... More >>

Federal Appeals Court Won't Touch California Gay Marriage Ruling

Because a majority of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' 26 judges declined to revisit a three-member panel's ruling striking down Prop 8, the court will not reconsider the decision to overturn California's same-sex marriage ban.Proponents of Prop 8 earlier indicated they would appeal next to th ... More >>

Accused Disneyland Pimp of Underaged Girls Pleads Not Guilty and Demands Bail

The mother and father accused of pimping two underage girls, 14 and 17 years old, near Disneyland in April have pleaded not guilty and, over opposition from the Department of Justice, demanded release from federal custody on bail.But U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney declined to reconsider ... More >>

High Yield Investment Scammer Learns His Fate: Federal Prison

A federal judge in Santa Ana has sentenced a New Jersey restaurant owner for his participation in a fraudulent, high yield investment scheme that promised no risk and a 20 percent weekly return.In league with several other men, Ralph Divino--the owner of Steffano's Wood Burning Restaurant in Branchb ... More >>

Irvine Man Wants Off 'No Fly List,' Sues FBI

It's easy to complain about air travel, especially when TSA agents feel you up like it's prom night and then the guy behind you plops his flaking feet on your arm rest. But typically, the end reward is getting where you want to go in a conceivable amount of time. Not for Stephen Persaud. On May 11, ... More >>

Robert Charles Lee Gets 764 Years in Prison to Think About the 10 Women He Raped

A Fullerton man who raped four women in Orange County and six more in Los Angeles County now has 764 years and eight months in state prison to think about his crimes.Then again, perhaps 42-year-old serial rapist Robert Charles Lee can get out after 300 some odd years for good behavior.

Nicholas James Needham: 6 Years for Touching Boy's Penis to Go with 9 Years for Kiddie Porn

​As expected, registered sex offender Nicholas James Needham was sentenced today to six years in state prison for touching a 5-year-old boy's penis in an Orange mall restroom.The Laguna Beach 28-year-old's sentence will be served concurrent with a nine-year term he received in federal court chil ... More >>

Lenny Dykstra, Baseball Star-Turned Money Whiz Out of Garden Grove, Gets 3 Years

​A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge today sentenced Garden Grove phenom-turned-Major League Baseball star Lenny Dykstra to three years in state prison for a scheme to steal or lease cars using someone else's paperwork.Dkystra, known in his playing days for the New York Mets and Philadelphia ... More >>

PETA Loses Whale of a Slave Suit But Still Crows

​A federal judge Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that argued five orcas should be freed from SeaWorld under the anti-slavery 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.Judge Jeffrey Miller of the U.S. District Court in San Diego reasoned in ... More >>

Judge Richard W. Stanford Removed from Bench for Playing Favorites

​The state Commission on Judicial Performance has ordered Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. to step down after determining he waived traffic fines for family and friends. Nine incidents between 2003 and 2010 played a part in the 11-member oversight panel's decision, includ ... More >>

Chriss Street, Ex-OC Treasurer: I Want $8.8 Million In Damages

Nightmare on Chriss Street​Just when we'd thought we'd heard the last of Chriss W. Street, the disgraced former Orange County treasurer/tax collector has reappeared on the public scene and, like all Street sightings, this one is bizarre.Street is blaming his sensational $7 million bankruptcy court ... More >>

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer

Nixon Library

[UPDATED with Delay:] "Irvine 11" (-1) Case Heads for Trial

​UPDATE, AUG. 15, 2:33 P.M.: The "Irvine 11" trial (now with one fewer defendant) was scheduled to begin today in Santa Ana.That didn't happen.Trial has been rescheduled to Aug. 29, which is when jury selection is scheduled to begin.

[UPDATED with Dismissal:] Irvine Woman Sues Dr. Phil Over Naked Man Stunt

​UPDATE, AUG. 15, 2:50 P.M.: An Irvine woman's lawsuit against Dr. Phil McGraw, which alleged the 56-year-old was traumatized by the surprise appearance of a naked man during the taping of the Dr. Phil show, has been dismissed. Lawyers for CBS and McGraw filed a motion to dismiss early last week, ... More >>

[UPDATED with 11 Becoming 10?] "Irvine 11" Case Heads for Trial

​UPDATE, JULY 21, 3:25 P.M.: The Irvine 11 may soon become the Irvine 10.If Hakim Nasreddine Kebir completes 40 hours of community service at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa by Sept. 23, the 20-year-old will be removed from the controversial case pending in Orange County Superior Co ... More >>

[UPDATED with Judge Issues Written Order, City Gets It Now:] Judge Blocks Costa Mesa Layoffs Until Civil Trial

​UPDATE, JULY 18, 4:49 P.M.: Though she made her ruling two weeks ago, Orange County Superior Court Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann issued the written order blocking the city of Costa Mesa from laying off employees and privatizing their jobs late Friday night.The written order just added fuel to the nev ... More >>

Kenneth Joseph Lucas II Gets 13 Years for Running International Phishing Scam and Indoor Pot Farm

​UPDATE, JUNE 28, 2 P.M.: Sentences totaling 13 years for convictions in two cases have been given to Kenneth Joseph Lucas II, the "kingpin" of an international "phishing" operation that used spam e-mails and bogus websites to collect personal information used to defraud American banks. The 27- ... More >>

[BREAKING:] Judge's Right to Rule on Prop. 8 Affirmed

​The chief federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that his retired colleague Vaughn Walker was under no legal obligation to step aside from ruling on California's same-sex marriage ban because he is a gay man.Walker ruled in August that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

[UPDATED with LA County Bail Set at a Half Mil:] Lenny Dykstra's Spectacular Fall Continues

​UPDATE, JUNE 6, 5:58 P.M.: Already looking at 80 years behind bars if convicted of the 13 counts against him in federal court, Lenny Dykstra today had another 25 criminal charges filed against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court.The former baseball star out of Garden Grove is facing 23 felo ... More >>

[BREAKING:] Jared Lee Loughner Ruled Incompetent to Stand Trial in Giffords Shooting

​UPDATE, MAY 25, 1:02 P.M.: A federal judge just ruled Jared Lee Loughner is incompetent to stand trial for January's shooting spree in Tuscon that killed six and injured 12, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona).Loughner will be sent to a federal facility for up to four months in a b ... More >>

Jared Lee Loughner Trial to Move to San Diego

​The Washington Post, quoting federal law-enforcement officials, reports the trial of Tuscon mass-shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner will be moved to San Diego due to extensive pretrial publicity in Arizona.San Diego would take the case because it is the closest federal judicial district to Arizo ... More >>

Toyota Lawsuits Can Move Forward, Judge Tentatively Rules in Santa Ana Court

​A federal judge has tentatively (double-negative alert) refused to dismiss dozens of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp., despite the automaker's motion. U.S. District Judge James V. Selna issued the order last Wednesday, and then heard arguments from Toyo ... More >>

Cal State Fullerton Grad Student Grad Finds Missing Link Between Alex Bernal Housing Covenant Case and the Supreme Court

Courtesy of the Bernal familiaThe pioneering Bernals of Fullerton​It was a pleasure earlier this summer to report on the story of Alex Bernal, the longtime Fullerton resident who successfully fought off a lawsuit filed by racist white neighbors in 1943 that wanted him out of their neighborhood sol ... More >>

Orly Taitz Wants to Verify Clarence Thomas's Signature

​Ever notice that the biggest conspiracy theorists are also the biggest skeptics? Laguna Niguel's birther leader Orly Taitz's application to the Supreme Court, seeking to nullify $20,000 in penalties levied upon her by a federal judge, was denied last week. Some people might have simply accepted s ... More >>

Oh No You Didn't

Haidl: Give me my way. My daddy's rich!​"Men who prey on helpless women who are too intoxicated to say 'no' are sexual predators. The public has a right to know who they are and what they've done and where they live. Again, the Haidl Three always want to have preferential treatment. That's what ma ... More >>

One More "Airplane!" Scene Now Dated

​No-nonsense, double-sunglassed chief pilot Rex Kramer (Robert Stack) shoves, punches and tosses donation solicitors--including a Hare Krishna (David Leisure)--blocking his path at a busy airport in the 1980 comedy Airplane!Like much of the flick's now-dated humor (Airplane! was the best motion pi ... More >>

Supreme Court Weighs Orange County Poop

​The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to let Orange County's poop go . . . to Kern County.

Whining OC Shoplifter Gets Judical Sympathy?

Kidd​"It appears your life is just one unfair trial . . ."--Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard F. Toohey to an unhappy Karim Tambousie Kidd, a serial shoplifter and convicted felon. Kidd complained that his 2009 trial for his seventh known crime spree was unfair. The 30-year-old man specia ... More >>

Most Novel Spousal Support Idea of the Day!

Cultural clash in court​Instead of a California court deciding how much money my ex-wife should get, allow me to choose five of her friends to make the decision.--Satya Reddi's courtroom proposal to Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy A. Pollard, who was rebuked by a state court of appeal pan ... More >>

Court Slams LAPD For Illegally Seizing Medical Marijuana Profits

​In a remarkable opinion issued today with potential Orange County implications, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blasted the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for committing "highly objectionable," "tainted," "reckless," "misleading" and "illegal" conduct in a 2005 atte ... More >>

Orange County Supes Authorize Appeal in Pension Case

This just in from the County CEO office:                               Supervisors Appeal Decision in Pension Case   By a 4 to 1 vote, the O ... More >>

James Corbett's Anti-Establishment Comment

Another Case of Pathetic OC Judge Work

In addition to subscription drops, ridiculously wasteful advertising schemes, constant management blunders and savage cuts to the newsroom budget, The Orange County Register is battling a wage-and-hour class-action lawsuit filed by the good folks who deliver the newspaper to homes and businesses eac ... More >>

Resentencing for another Sheriff Carona felon/pal

In May 2006, OC Weekly broke the news that then-Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona had allowed fellow con man Joseph M. Medawar to film the county's top secret anti-terrorism training procedures three years earlier. (See "Department of Homeland Stupidity.") A native of Lebanon, Medawar used the foota ... More >>

Accused Mater Dei Statutory Rapist Loses Again

It hasn't been a good couple of months for Larry Stukenholtz, a former Mater Dei High choir director whom the school canned in the late 1990s for carrying on a relationship with a student. In October, his victim was part of a $6.685 million settlement that the Catholic Diocese of Orange reached wit ... More >>

Overheard in the Courtroom

Before a recent Orange County criminal trial of a Vietnamese American defendant, Superior Court Judge William Froeberg asked if any of the prospective jurors could speak Vietnamese. There was silence and then: Juror #126: I know one word of Vietnamese! Froeberg: One word? Juror 126: It's not a ... More >>

Homeland Security Officer Sentenced For Hitting On Immigrant

OC Lawyer Tossed From CA Republican Bribery Case

A federal judge in San Diego removed Mark Geragos from a sensational bribery case yesterday because the (in)famous Orange County-based defense lawyer refused to agree to a federal background check before receiving classified national-security-related data. Geragos—who worked for convicted wife-a ... More >>

Chronic Mess