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- CURRENT NEWS January 31st, 2008
By Megan Garvey,
Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2006
A judge Friday ordered a union for Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies
to pay $56,000 in attorney fees to a coalition that opposed the union's
efforts to seal information - including normally confidential records -
generated when deputies appeal disciplinary cases to the county's Civil
Service Commission.
The fees, plus $1,365 in court costs, must be paid to the Los
Angeles Times, California Newspaper Publisher's Assn. and Rich McKee, a
longtime 1st Amendment advocate and president of the group Californians
Aware.
The parties had intervened in a lawsuit filed earlier this year
by the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which represents thousands
of deputies, seeking to stop the county's practice of making such records
available to the public once employees asked for reviews of their cases
before the Civil Service Commission.
The union says state law requires that information about sworn
law enforcement officials be kept private. It sued shortly after The Times
requested the information in January.
A Superior Court judge briefly sealed the files of four deputies
- all sought by The Times - while the larger legal issues were considered.
That stay was lifted in February, and union attorneys have appealed.
Several pending cases, including one now under consideration
by the California Supreme Court, deal with how far privacy protections for
police officers should extend: Does state law provide sweeping confidentiality
for law enforcement officials even when they appeal disciplinary decisions
in forums that traditionally have been public?
The award of fees and costs Friday by Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge Irving Feffer was hailed as significant by attorneys for The Times
because it was made even though the coalition opposing the union's lawsuit
was not a direct party in the case. When the court makes such a ruling involving
a party to a case, such fees and costs are automatically awarded.
Susan Seager of the law firm Davis, Wright Tremaine, who represented
The Times, said the union's actions, in effect, were an attempt to block
the public's access to information. That, she argued, entitled the coalition
to be compensated for its efforts to keep the records available.
"Our position is that this was a reverse Public Records Act lawsuit
by the union. We intervened to defend the public's right of access to the
commission's records," she said.
Richard A. Shinee, who represented the union, said he would
recommend that his client appeal, calling the awarding of fees and costs "excessive
and not warranted."
Shinee said his clients hope that future court rulings will
close the files from public view.
"We attempted not to block access to records but to enforce the right
of confidentiality of police officer records," he said. "I don't
think that this idea of freedom of information trumps the right of an employee
to have confidentiality in terms of his employment."
- CURRENT NEWS March 10th, 2006
Effective April 2006, All Unit members of 611 will be receiving the following pay raise from the county:
- 3% - 04/06
- 4% - 10/06
- 5.5% - 04/07
- 3% - 08/07
- 3% - 08/08
It appears that the County will provide a 18.5% pay beginning 04-02-2006:
18.5% plus the 5% already given works out to about 3.4% a year for seven
years.
- CURRENT NEWS February 28th, 2006
Suspect In 2002 Deputy Slaying Arrested In Mexico
LOS ANGELES -- A man suspected in the 2002 slaying of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy was in custody in Mexico Friday awaiting extradition to the United States.
Armando Garcia, the suspect in the slaying of Deputy David March, was arrested in Jalisco on Thursday, according to the Mexican Attorney General's Office.
"Terrific," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told the Los Angeles Times in response to news of the arrest.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley also spoke to the Times, saying: "We don't forgive. We don't forget. Justice will now be done."
Baca told The Times that U.S. marshals and Mexican police had been staking out the home of an uncle of Garcia's when, to their surprise, Garcia himself walked out of the house. He surrendered peacefully, Baca said.
U.S. authorities have 60 days to file an extradition request.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office scheduled a late-morning news conference to discuss the arrest.
March, a 33-year-old Saugus resident, pulled over a black Nissan Maxima near Live Oak Avenue and Peck Road in an unincorporated area bordering Monrovia and Irwindale on April 29, 2002, according to authorities. He entered the car's license plate into his Mobile Data Terminal and, shortly afterward, was shot several times at close range.
Baca has said Garcia was a suspected drug dealer who was known to carry a 9 mm pistol at all times and who had vowed to kill any law enforcement officer who might try to arrest him.
Garcia fled to Mexico within hours of the shooting, Cooley said.
"We're still in disbelief. We've been waiting for a long time,"
Teri March, Dave's widow, told NBC4 in reaction to news of yesterday's arrest.
"It's bittersweet," she said. "It obviously opens up really painful wounds, but (Garcia) has kind of been a monster, living at large and living openly and freely down there, and not any more."
Garcia's extradition had been blocked by a Mexican high court ruling preventing
the transfer of Mexican citizens facing the death penalty or life sentences without
the possibility of parole in the United States.
In November, Mexico's high court
reversed the decision prohibiting the extradition of Mexican citizens facing
life sentences in the United States. However, the ruling still blocks extradition
of its citizens if prosecutors here say they want the death penalty.
"Armando Garcia ... was one of the most sought-after fugitives by the United
States," the Mexican Attorney General's Office said. "With his detention, we
formally look forward to cooperating in extradition procedures between the two
countries."
The arrest came after years of efforts, including an offer of a $100,000 reward
by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.
In April, in conjunction with the third anniversary of March's slaying, a bipartisan
group of 26 California congress members wrote Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice asking her to urge the Mexican government to change its policy of not extraditing
suspects facing either the death penalty or life in prison.
Deputy
David March LASPA Member since 1999.
- CURRENT NEWS February 20th, 2006
Suspect Killed By Deputies Responding To Armed Robbery Report
One Man Killed, One Wounded In Compton
POSTED: 7:28 am PST February 17, 2006
LOS ANGELES --
A suspected robber died Friday after being shot in Compton by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in an encounter that left his alleged accomplice with a minor wound, authorities said.
Deputies arrived at a liquor store at Compton Boulevard and South Central Avenue at about 9:40 p.m.
Thursday after witnesses reported that two men entered the store with shotguns, said Sgt. Steve Skrnich of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Compton Station.
Deputies located the two men about three minutes later at South Central Avenue and West Brazil Street, said sheriff's Sgt. Don Manumaleuna.
The two deputies chased the two men on foot until one of the men turned, pointing a gun, Manumaleuna said.
Deputies opened fire, striking both men, Manumaleuna said. No deputies were wounded.
One of the men was taken to a hospital, where he died this morning, said Sgt. Paul Patterson. Authorities withheld his name, pending notification of relatives.
The other man was treated for a minor gunshot wound and taken into custody, Manumaleuna said. His name was not immediately released.
A sawed-off shotgun and an automatic pistol were found at the scene of the shooting, Manumaleuna said.
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