CCSD approves $250K buyout of Superintendent Jara’s contract. [TNI]
Sec. of State Cisco Aguilar apologizes for voter record glitch. [TNI]
“The end of the evil real estate empire”: lawsuit targets artificially inflated fees. [RJ]
Ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov arrested again in Las Vegas. [RJ]
Judge Erika Ballou faces a new ethics charge for saying a Black man had good reason to run from police. [8NewsNow]
Not Vegas, but a big law partner gets scolded by court for using “incorporated by reference” in a way that arguably exceeded word count limits. [ABA Journal]
I certainly have my issues with Judge Ballou. But she is not wrong on the issue. The question of the reasonableness of a person’s fear of police and police overaggression is a question in many cases. I may not have the same level of fear but that does not mean that a reasonable person would not.
I’m all for being able to file valid complaints against judges, but these are so specifically targeted and vendetta-based that it doesn’t even give the appearance of being a valid complaint.
I’m all for being able to file valid complaints against judges, but these are so specifically targeted and vendetta-based that it doesn’t even give the appearance of being a valid complaint.
Just one lawyer’s opinion here, but Ballou is dead wrong. The color of a defendant’s skin alone does not create a blanket excuse to flee from law enforcement. That precedent is not only ridiculous, but dangerous.
The precedent needs to be that fleeing from law enforcement does not create reasonable suspicion that crime is afoot, Illinois v. Wardlow be damned. Anyone who can do it, should do it, regardless of skin color. There is no such thing as unprovoked flight when people with the means to kill you show up. Don’t want to be subject to unlawful detainment? Flee. Want to avoid illegal search and seizure? Flee. Want to be safe from a cop being struck by a falling acorn? Flee.
This is the absolutely dumb. The role of police, and the obligation of persons, is to obey lawful orders. Even a first grader understands the need for rules.
I agree. The role of police is to obey lawful orders. Once they start obeying their orders (“Don’t violate the law while upholding the law”) I’ll be more inclined to stick around to hear their lawful orders. Until then, I choose to have no consensual encounters.
Philando Castile. Johnny Hollman. Aderrien Murry (fortunately not dead, but only because 11 year olds are resilient). Santos Rodriguez, 12, was not so lucky. You want more?
Yeah…she’s not wrong. This is some BS witch hunt. There are a lot of people in our community who do not look like me who are justified in their fear of the police.
Guest
Anonymous
February 23, 2024 1:59 pm
I know many of the blog readers are not privy to what goes on in Family Court and a lot of things are being said and done behind closed doors, but it is so funny what’s going on right now. The Falconi writs have freaked out the family law bench and bar. They are scrambling to figure out how they’re going to deal with it. When I was a bright eyed undergrad I used to say if you’re ashamed of what you do, stop doing it. If the denizens of family court are so scared of the media publicizing what they are doing, makes one wonder what they’ve been up to? What are they so worried about? What are they hiding?
I understand the sunshine thing. But I also understand the position that spreading the most intimate details of a child’s life for public view can be incredibly harmful to all involved.
This is the argument used by abusers. Orders granting media requests can be tailored. Go online and look at what ONJ has already posted. Judge Gibson even allowed them to film a CPS hearing. The names/faces were blurred and the camera was focused on the court activities, the judge, and the attorneys – not the personal, identifying details of the families involved. It is more harmful for abusers, corrupt judges, and out of control attorneys to be able to operate in secret. Too many people do not know how dysfunctional and dangerous this family court is for children until it’s too late and they’re already stuck in the system. And it’s not a system you can just walk away from. They will take your children away from you. And it is not a system that’s one and done like criminal (get your sentence, do your time, be done.) Your abuser/ex can take you back to court over and over and over again.
Holy buckets. That judge better be certain that he is right. Chesnoff better be certain that Judge Wright is wrong.
“It has come to this Court’s attention that counsel for defendant has sought an emergency hearing in the District of Nevada to arrange the release of Defendant Smirnov, likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States,” Wright wrote.
Wright has scheduled a detention hearing for Smirnov in his Los Angeles courtroom for Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Smirnov’s attorneys have appealed his current detention to a higher court, saying that their client has a right to have a hearing in Nevada before being transferred to California, and that Wright overstepped his authority by signing a new arrest warrant without a hearing.
“This is a case of national importance. As a result, the public should have confidence that it will be conducted consistent with the rule of law,” Smirnov’s attorneys wrote. “In this case, the Court has prejudged the detention issue.”
Smirnov’s attorneys declined to comment on Wright’s order.
Its a lot of hullaballoo. Lying to a federal agent carries with it a 5 year max. Every single case that I have seen, for this nonsense white collar crime, results in a year and a day sentence or less, often much less. For reference, Martha Stewart was convicted of this.
Seems overly abusive and more abuse by the DOJ for political purposes.
Guest
Anonymous
February 23, 2024 9:36 pm
Say it with me: making your brief longer makes it weaker. The fact that lawyers regularly try to either cheat the word limit or just barely make it under always amazes me. Unless your client is going to die if you lose, cut out weak arguments, streamline your reasoning and try to come down at half the word limit or less. Then the judge might be willing to actually read what you wrote instead of skimming it.
(Capital habeas lawyers could probably stand to lose some words too, but I don’t deal with such high-stakes matters so I’m not going to tell them how to do their job.)
The only time i ever have had real difficulty on the issue is discovery motions where one is required to have word for word the discovery questions copied and pasted in.
Your conclusion is well-reasoned, intuitively obvious, and false. (At least for appellate briefs.) For evidence, check out Morrison and Darby’s law review article “Testing — and mostly rejecting — the folk wisdom of the effective appellate brief.”
Dosing your brief with a dump-truck of weak issues and doing an end run around the word limits by deleting surplusage like articles (e.g., “Next hearing, defendant told court he wanted new attorney”) at the expense of making the brief a chore to read, nevertheless gets results.
I’ve had cases where Judge Ballou ruled in my favor but couldn’t keep her mount shut and created an appeal issue by oversharing.
Freudian slip?
I certainly have my issues with Judge Ballou. But she is not wrong on the issue. The question of the reasonableness of a person’s fear of police and police overaggression is a question in many cases. I may not have the same level of fear but that does not mean that a reasonable person would not.
Apparently “impartiality” means that one must be pro-LVMPD.
I’m all for being able to file valid complaints against judges, but these are so specifically targeted and vendetta-based that it doesn’t even give the appearance of being a valid complaint.
I’m all for being able to file valid complaints against judges, but these are so specifically targeted and vendetta-based that it doesn’t even give the appearance of being a valid complaint.
Just one lawyer’s opinion here, but Ballou is dead wrong. The color of a defendant’s skin alone does not create a blanket excuse to flee from law enforcement. That precedent is not only ridiculous, but dangerous.
You must not be a black male.
The precedent needs to be that fleeing from law enforcement does not create reasonable suspicion that crime is afoot, Illinois v. Wardlow be damned. Anyone who can do it, should do it, regardless of skin color. There is no such thing as unprovoked flight when people with the means to kill you show up. Don’t want to be subject to unlawful detainment? Flee. Want to avoid illegal search and seizure? Flee. Want to be safe from a cop being struck by a falling acorn? Flee.
This is the absolutely dumb. The role of police, and the obligation of persons, is to obey lawful orders. Even a first grader understands the need for rules.
And when the orders and use of force exceed legal boundaries, then what?
I agree. The role of police is to obey lawful orders. Once they start obeying their orders (“Don’t violate the law while upholding the law”) I’ll be more inclined to stick around to hear their lawful orders. Until then, I choose to have no consensual encounters.
Show me a single instance where a perp was killed while completely complying with a lawful order from law enforcement officers.
Philando Castile. Johnny Hollman. Aderrien Murry (fortunately not dead, but only because 11 year olds are resilient). Santos Rodriguez, 12, was not so lucky. You want more?
Yeah…she’s not wrong. This is some BS witch hunt. There are a lot of people in our community who do not look like me who are justified in their fear of the police.
I know many of the blog readers are not privy to what goes on in Family Court and a lot of things are being said and done behind closed doors, but it is so funny what’s going on right now. The Falconi writs have freaked out the family law bench and bar. They are scrambling to figure out how they’re going to deal with it. When I was a bright eyed undergrad I used to say if you’re ashamed of what you do, stop doing it. If the denizens of family court are so scared of the media publicizing what they are doing, makes one wonder what they’ve been up to? What are they so worried about? What are they hiding?
I understand the sunshine thing. But I also understand the position that spreading the most intimate details of a child’s life for public view can be incredibly harmful to all involved.
This is the argument used by abusers. Orders granting media requests can be tailored. Go online and look at what ONJ has already posted. Judge Gibson even allowed them to film a CPS hearing. The names/faces were blurred and the camera was focused on the court activities, the judge, and the attorneys – not the personal, identifying details of the families involved. It is more harmful for abusers, corrupt judges, and out of control attorneys to be able to operate in secret. Too many people do not know how dysfunctional and dangerous this family court is for children until it’s too late and they’re already stuck in the system. And it’s not a system you can just walk away from. They will take your children away from you. And it is not a system that’s one and done like criminal (get your sentence, do your time, be done.) Your abuser/ex can take you back to court over and over and over again.
Yawn. Who exactly is “freaking out”? Family practitioner here. As far as I can tell, no one cares.
@3:18 you must not have any friends then. I too practice family law and my phone and email have been blowing up.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/23/politics/smirnov-flee-us-judge-says/index.html
Holy buckets. That judge better be certain that he is right. Chesnoff better be certain that Judge Wright is wrong.
“It has come to this Court’s attention that counsel for defendant has sought an emergency hearing in the District of Nevada to arrange the release of Defendant Smirnov, likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States,” Wright wrote.
Wright has scheduled a detention hearing for Smirnov in his Los Angeles courtroom for Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Smirnov’s attorneys have appealed his current detention to a higher court, saying that their client has a right to have a hearing in Nevada before being transferred to California, and that Wright overstepped his authority by signing a new arrest warrant without a hearing.
“This is a case of national importance. As a result, the public should have confidence that it will be conducted consistent with the rule of law,” Smirnov’s attorneys wrote. “In this case, the Court has prejudged the detention issue.”
Smirnov’s attorneys declined to comment on Wright’s order.
Its a lot of hullaballoo. Lying to a federal agent carries with it a 5 year max. Every single case that I have seen, for this nonsense white collar crime, results in a year and a day sentence or less, often much less. For reference, Martha Stewart was convicted of this.
Seems overly abusive and more abuse by the DOJ for political purposes.
Say it with me: making your brief longer makes it weaker. The fact that lawyers regularly try to either cheat the word limit or just barely make it under always amazes me. Unless your client is going to die if you lose, cut out weak arguments, streamline your reasoning and try to come down at half the word limit or less. Then the judge might be willing to actually read what you wrote instead of skimming it.
(Capital habeas lawyers could probably stand to lose some words too, but I don’t deal with such high-stakes matters so I’m not going to tell them how to do their job.)
The only time i ever have had real difficulty on the issue is discovery motions where one is required to have word for word the discovery questions copied and pasted in.
Your conclusion is well-reasoned, intuitively obvious, and false. (At least for appellate briefs.) For evidence, check out Morrison and Darby’s law review article “Testing — and mostly rejecting — the folk wisdom of the effective appellate brief.”
Dosing your brief with a dump-truck of weak issues and doing an end run around the word limits by deleting surplusage like articles (e.g., “Next hearing, defendant told court he wanted new attorney”) at the expense of making the brief a chore to read, nevertheless gets results.
Anyone use this site? http://www.therobingroom.com/