ACLU staffer said she witnessed deputies beating inmate at Twin Towers

A civilian monitor was visiting the Twin Towers jail on another matter on Jan. 24, when she saw two deputies punch and use a Taser on an inmate who lay unconscious. A department log confirms the incident but offers different details.

A civilian jail monitor said she witnessed two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies treat an inmate like “a punching bag,” unjustifiably beating him as he lay unconscious for at least two minutes, according to a court declaration filed Monday by the ACLU.

The representative for the civil liberties organization was at Twin Towers jail for an unrelated meeting with another inmate when, according to her declaration, she heard thuds from outside the room she was in. Through a window, she said, she saw two deputies punching, kicking and Tasering an inmate.

Esther Lim, the ACLU observer, said the inmate never resisted, and his body was limp “like he was a mannequin” throughout the assault. In an interview with The Times, Lim said the deputies did not realize she was watching until after the beating stopped. A declaration from another inmate supports her account.

An internal sheriff’s log also appears to confirm the Jan. 24 incident, but offers a different narrative. The log states that the inmate punched a deputy and charged at him. When another deputy tried to help, the inmate punched him as well and remained combative until he was Tasered, according to the sheriff’s log.

Lim called the deputies’ account a fabrication, saying inmate James Parker was so still while being beaten that she worried he was dead. During the incident, she said the deputies monotonously repeated “stop resisting” and “stop fighting” as though they “were reading from a script.”

Lim said the ACLU commonly receives complaints from inmates who say deputies beat them while repeating “stop resisting” commands, even when the inmates aren’t resisting. Lim said she suspects the deputies involved in this incident recited the commands as a ruse to later justify their actions with the help of a jailhouse recording or other deputies who may have heard their commands.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the matter is being investigated, though “initial findings” indicate the inmate was combative, and one of the deputies injured his hand and had swelling on his face.

Allegations of deputy brutality in county jails are common but hard to substantiate. Aside from other deputies, usually the only witnesses are inmates, whose accounts are inherently considered less credible, experts say. This incident offers an especially rare instance in which a third party was there to observe.

One of the deputies involved in the incident was identified in court records as Ryan Hirsch. The other was identified by the ACLU by his last name, Ochoa. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore declined to confirm their names. Both, he said, declined requests from The Times for an interview. The deputies remain on active duty, Whitmore said.

Parker, 35, was charged Monday with felony counts of battery and resisting an officer in connection with the incident. According to Lim’s account, Parker was lying on his stomach, looking “unconscious” or “even dead.” Hirsch and Ochoa, she said, simultaneously punched him and kneed him. Parker, she said, never put up his hands to protect his head, which Lim took as a sign that he had lost consciousness.

The deputies Tasered Parker’s leg up to four times, she said, and his torso up to three times. A minute into the beating, Ochoa motioned to the other deputy, bringing his index finger to his lips, Lim recalled. Hirsch yelled “stop resisting” and “stop fighting” just once more after Ochoa motioned, she said.

Soon after the incident, Ochoa looked at Lim through the window and signaled for her to move away from the window, she said.

During another visit the next day, she said, she recognized Ochoa and at one point noticed him “staring at me in an aggressive manner.”

Parker received stitches to his face, pain in his ribs and a swollen cheek and eye, according to the ACLU.

“This makes me feel even more strongly that these kinds of incidents go on a lot,” said Peter J. Eliasberg, managing attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “And every time we bring them to the Sheriff’s Department, they consistently say, ‘They’re all false, they’re all false, prisoners lie.’ ”

Whitmore said investigators will interview all the witnesses.

“It’s rare that you have a civilian eyewitness, and what we don’t understand is she never mentioned this to us,” Whitmore said. “Why didn’t she come forward? Why didn’t she talk to us?”

Eliasberg said the ACLU did not notify the Sheriff’s Department immediately because in the past officials there have been quick to deny any complaints.

A court declaration from the inmate who was meeting with Lim at the time of the incident also disputed the deputies’ telling. Lim said inmate Christopher Brown had seen the altercation develop before she did. Brown said Parker was not resisting.

“I saw him stumbling forward, towards me, falling to the ground,” Brown said in a court declaration. “He looked like he was knocked out.” After the incident, Brown said, another inmate had to mop up what appeared to be blood.

Brown said he was interviewed by deputies about the incident afterward. He said Ochoa was present at first. “As I was telling the sergeant that I saw Deputy Ochoa punching Parker, Deputy Ochoa stared at me in an aggressive manner, so I asked him ‘What?’ He aggressively said ‘What’ back at me.’ ”

Michael Gennaco, who heads the Office of Independent Review, the department’s official watchdog, said involved deputies should not be present during interviews. Whitmore said the deputy was not present and that Brown’s allegation was a “fabrication.”

After Ochoa was escorted away, Brown said, he saw the other involved deputy, Hirsch, who warned him not to get involved.

“My advice,” he said the deputy told him, “is to stay out of it. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

Jury awards nearly $1.2 million to bounty hunter shot by LAPD

Elvin Andre Gilbert was detaining a man wanted on a felony in South L.A. in 2005 when an officer shot him. Gilbert was arrested but not charged. The jury found the LAPD did not have cause to arrest Gilbert.

A bounty hunter who was shot and wounded by Los Angeles police who mistook him for a robber as he was taking a fugitive into custody has been awarded nearly $1.2 million by a federal jury.

Jurors earlier this month found Los Angeles Police Department Officer Daniel Pearce used “excessive force” when he shot Elvin Andre Gilbert in South L.A., where the bail recovery agent was detaining a bail jumper wanted on a felony.

The shooting occurred Nov. 30, 2005, and left Gilbert, who was working for a San Jose bail bonds company, in a medically induced coma for several days from the gunshot wounds.

“I am glad it is over, and I’m happy with the jury’s decision,” said Gilbert, who continues to live with injuries he received. “I am very happy the jurors got to hear what really happened,” he said in a phone interview. The LAPD “made a lot of statements that contradicted the facts to try to justify the shooting.”

Gilbert was shot after Pearce and his then-partner, Officer Harlan Taylor, heard a commotion near the 2100 block of East 99th Place and saw two men dressed in black holding a man’s wrists behind his back and escorting him at gunpoint.

Officers said one of the men held a gun to the head of Isabino Vasquez, and they believed Gilbert and fellow bail agent Allen Badoya were committing a robbery or a kidnapping.

The officers, according to the LAPD, ordered Gilbert to drop the handgun, but Gilbert turned toward them, and Pearce shot him three times. One round hit the left side of Gilbert’s stomach and came out the right side, while another went through his right arm.

During a six-day trial, Gilbert’s attorney, Dale K. Galipo, presented witnesses who said Gilbert and his partner were about to escort the fugitive and his gun was not raised when officers confronted them. He also said officers did not shout a warning before they fired.

“They shot me as soon as I stood up,” Gilbert said Thursday. “Once I was hit, it was lights out…. I never saw the officers or heard them. I only knew they were police officers when they said they would blow my head off if I moved and began handcuffing me.”

Gilbert was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer, and the LAPD guarded his hospital room for several days. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to charge Gilbert.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Ian Perlstein noted the “facts tend to indicate he turned toward the officer to see where the shooting was coming from.”

The jurors hearing the civil lawsuit found the LAPD officers did not have the required probable cause to arrest Gilbert.

On Jan. 10 the jury awarded Gilbert $1.165 million, comprising $365,000 for economic damages, $200,000 for physical pain, mental suffering and emotional distress and $600,000 for future damages.

A deputy city attorney who handled the case did not return calls from The Times.

Attorneys for Gilbert told jurors the bounty hunters had warned an LAPD patrol unit the day before that they would be in the area seeking to detain a fugitive. The jurors’ decision contradicts one by the Los Angeles Police Commission that found the use of force to be within department policy but that the officers’ tactics warranted further training.

Deputy City Atty. Richard Arias said the city is considering whether to appeal the jury’s award. He said he was surprised by the verdict. The city maintains the officers had probable cause to arrest Gilbert and the officer who shot him maintains he did so in defense of his life and his partner’s life.

How much does it cost to get a DUI conviction?

Q: Retired Riverside City College professor Cecil Green was surprised to hear someone describe the cost of a DUI ticket as about $1,300 — and somebody else doubt it was that much.

“The ticket is bad enough,” Green said, but there are other related, less obvious, costs. “It would do the county and people a service if you’d explain the cost of a drinking-and-driving ticket.”

A: Most of the financial impact from a DUI stems from a conviction, though the arrest will cost even if a case ends in acquittal. It’s nearly impossible to predict the cost of a conviction because many factors — including insurance premiums and attorney’s fees — vary with the individual, location and circumstances.

Here’s an idea of the hit someone’s wallet could take if they’re arrested in the state on a DUI charge.

When arrested, a person’s driver’s license is confiscated, they’re jailed and their vehicle is impounded. The bond to get out of jail before trial costs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, according to Insurance Information Network of California. If one doesn’t have that, using a bail bondsman generally costs 10 percent of the total bond. To retrieve a car, one must pay the cost of towing it from the arrest site to the local impound lot and pay the storage fee. Together these will cost at least $250, according to the network. To get back a license at the end of the revocation period, one must pay a $125 reissue fee to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Court fees vary by jurisdiction. Legal websites say that hiring an attorney will cost from $500 to $10,000, depending on the case and the attorney.

Those who are convicted must pay a fine ($390 to $1,000), have their license suspended for six months and complete an anti-DUI education program at their expense. The classes cost $240 to $3,400 depending on the program and the number of offenses, according to www.shouse.law’s online guide to California DUI schools.

The DUI conviction won’t please auto insurance companies, which will raise premiums or drop coverage when one’s next renewal period comes up.

“A DUI is visible on your record for 10 years,” said Tim Gaspar, of Gaspar Insurance Services, Encino. It’s a major violation, and in California counts as two points on your driving record, he said.

Auto insurers use points to gauge how safe one’s driving is and how much to charge.

“Although the points fall off your record after three years, insurance companies do not return your good-driver discounts (typically 15 to 20 percent) until the 10 years are up,” said Gaspar, who added that a DUI will make a driver ineligible for some insurers.

Even someone with a previously perfect driving record may see their premium increase by at least 25 percent after a DUI, Gaspar said. If there is more than one vehicle or driver on a policy, the DUI can spike the rate for the whole policy, Gaspar said.

If dropped by an insurer, one must find new insurance, because the DUI conviction will require an SR-22 form, a California Proof of Insurance Certificate, with the DMV (the form costs $15 to $25).

The SR-22 means that if one drops insurance coverage, the DMV will invalidate the license.

DUI sentences vary from 96 hours to six months, depending on the number of convictions. The period of license suspension gets longer with additional convictions. An ignition interlock device could be installed to monitor a driver’s blood-alcohol level and prevent the car from starting if the level registers too high. If required, one must pay for the device’s installation ($50 to $200, according to ignitioninterlockdevice.org), monthly rental ($50 to $100 per month) and maintenance and data downloads.

It’s difficult to pinpoint how much a DUI conviction costs, but it’s likely to be far more than the $1,300 that Green’s acquaintance predicted.

By MAURA AMMENHEUSER
Special to The Press-Enterprise

Rizzo to be released from jail after judge accepts $2-million bail offer

Former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, who is facing 53 charges that he helped misappropriate millions in public funds, will be released from jail after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Villar said she was satisfied that the money being posted for his $2-million bail was not linked to the money he made in made in Bell.

Rizzo must wear an electronic monitoring device and surrender his passport.

Rizzo has been described by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley as “the unelected and unaccountable czar” who oversaw “corruption on steroids” in Bell.

The former city administrator had already fought to slash his bail from $3.2 million to $2 million. Wednesday’s hearing was to determine whether he could provide collateral for the bond that was unrelated to his city earnings.

Rizzo’s nearly $800,000 salary sparked outrage and led to revelations of widespread inflated salaries among Bell officials — as well as numerous other alleged misdeeds, including illegal taxation and voter fraud.

Rizzo has been in jail since Sept. 21, when seven other current and former city leaders were taken in custody in a sweep.
Rizzo could face more than 40 years in prison if convicted of 53 felony counts, including misappropriation of public funds, conflict of interest and falsifying public records to keep his lucrative salary secret.

His attorney James Spertus argued Wednesday that four properties in Torrance and Los Angeles not owned by Rizzo should be sufficient collateral for his bail and are unrelated to Rizzo’s earnings. In court papers, he presented an insurance analysis showing their combined value as $2.3 million.

However, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman questioned whether the estimates are accurate, arguing that there is insufficient documentation about the properties’ current market values and whether the values have increased since the last hearing.

“They are now saying [the properties] are worth more. The firm is Creative Bail Bonds and they may have earned their name,” Huntsman told The Times in an interview before the hearing.

– Richard Winton / LA Times

L.A. County jail inmate awarded $405,000 in pepper-spray attack

A federal court jury finds that three sheriff’s deputies assaulted the man in 2007 after he cursed at one after being declined fresh laundry at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.

A federal court jury Thursday awarded $405,000 to a man who alleged that three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assaulted him in jail, pepper-spraying his anus and groin.

Alejandro Franco, a 23-year-old inmate at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility at the time of the alleged 2007 attack, told jurors that the deputies escorted him from his cell to an outdoor recreational center, where he said he was struck multiple times.

The deputies, none of whom are still on active duty, were upset with him, Franco said, because he had cursed at one after being declined fresh laundry.

When Franco refused to apologize, he said deputies pulled his boxers down and assaulted him with the pepper spray.

“I felt hollow inside,” said Franco, who described the alleged incident as a sexual assault.

One deputy placed a Taser near Franco’s head and revved it, the former inmate testified. “Boo,” Franco recalled him saying to the laughter of the others.

Two of the three deputies, Davie Chang and Anthony Pimentel, were relieved of duty with pay after the incident. The third, Kris Cordova, is no longer with the department. Each invoked the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination to all questions during the trial. Their attorney said the men are innocent of any wrongdoing.

The jury’s decision in favor of Franco comes just about a week after prosecutors declined to file felony criminal charges against the three deputies, citing insufficient evidence and an unreliable witness in Franco.

In their decision to not press charges of assault by a public officer, prosecutors acknowledged that Franco’s boxers had an orange stain that when analyzed showed components of pepper spray. A criminalist determined the stains were deposited on the inside surface of the fabric, according to the memo.

But prosecutors asserted that the residue may have come from a five-hour jailhouse disturbance a month before the alleged assault in which deputies used pepper spray throughout the facility multiple times. When an investigator came to retrieve Franco’s boxers after the alleged assault, the inmate said he had kept them hidden for two days so they wouldn’t be retrieved by the deputies who attacked him. But prosecutors concluded that Franco may have had that pair of boxers hidden for about a month after the jailhouse disturbance.

Franco’s credibility, prosecutors said, was damaged by inconsistent statements, and a potential exaggeration of residual back pain from the alleged assault. Franco’s lawyer said Thursday’s verdict vindicated his client.

“This jury really sent a message out that this clearly did happen,” said attorney Arnoldo Casillas. “No jury is going to tolerate police officers putting themselves above the law.”

Edwin Rathbun, an attorney for the deputies, said he was frustrated that the jury was kept unaware that the district attorney’s office opted not to file criminal charges.

The Los Angeles County counsel’s office said Thursday it was yet to be decided if the county will pay the award on behalf of the deputies.

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

Man accuses deputies of Twin Towers jail attack

Former inmate files $3-million suit, charging that officers struck him and pepper-sprayed him in an alleged sexual assault.

The alleged attack inside the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles began with a simple request for a clean shirt.

But a former inmate told a federal court jury Wednesday that what followed was a degrading assault that ended with Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pepper-spraying his anus and groin.

Alejandro Franco, who was 23 at the time of the alleged 2007 assault, is seeking $3 million, mainly for emotional suffering, in a lawsuit against the deputies.

Two of the three deputies have been relieved of duty with pay. The third is no longer with the department.

The three watched Wednesday as Franco testified that he had just received fresh laundry and was in line for medication when he noticed a foul smell from his pants.

Former Deputy Kris Cordova agreed to replace the pants. But when Franco returned to his cell, he noticed the same stench on his freshly laundered shirt. When he tried to have that replaced as well, he was rebuffed.

“You trying to get over on me,” Franco recalled Cordova saying.

Franco swore at the deputy and returned to his cell. Later that night, around lights-out, Franco testified, Cordova and two other deputies selected his cell for a random search. They cuffed him, Franco said, and he was escorted to an empty recreation room.

There, Franco said, Cordova asked him why he showed disrespect by dropping “the F-bomb” in front of other inmates. Another deputy, Davie Chang, punched him in the face, Franco testified.

When he refused to apologize, Franco said, the deputies hit him repeatedly. He said a third deputy, Anthony Pimentel, stood back, activating his Taser.

Franco said he was flipped onto his belly. Chang, he testified, pulled down his boxers, spread his buttocks and used pepper spray on his anus and genitals. The South Los Angeles man called the incident a sexual assault.

“I felt hollow inside,” Franco said. “I felt as if I wasn’t there.”

The burning lasted through the night, he said.

Gilbert Nishimura, one of the attorneys for the deputies, said his clients are innocent. All three took the stand Wednesday but pleaded the 5th Amendment to all questions.

Felony charges of assault by a public officer are being considered against the three men, said a representative of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The Sheriff’s Department turned over its findings from the incident in 2008, spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

“The sheriff requires deputy sheriffs, especially those in custody, to be the civil rights leaders of that community,” Whitmore said. “Just because someone is in jail doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated with the utmost respect.”

The deputies’ attorneys argued that there is scant evidence to prove the allegations. They also tried to connect Franco’s emotional issues since his time in jail — bouts of depression and antisocial behavior — to a dysfunctional upbringing and drug abuse.

Franco said he often thinks about the alleged assault and has had trouble maintaining motivation or intimate relationships. His attorney, Arnoldo Casillas, blasted the deputies for refusing to answer any of his questions during testimony.

“Cops tell the truth,” he said. “Cops don’t plead the 5th.”

If the jury returns a verdict in Franco’s favor, it’s unclear whether any damages would be paid by the county or the defendants.

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

August 26, 2010

Compton gang member suspected of strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate

A Compton gang member already sentenced to life in prison for murder and awaiting trial in a second slaying is being investigated for allegedly strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate.

Jamar Lavon Tucker, 28, was found Thursday morning inside a two-man cell next to the body of William Levell Hansbrough during a security check at the county jail in downtown Los Angeles, officials said.

Tucker allegedly told deputies that he had just killed his cellmate, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. A coroner’s autopsy determined Hansbrough’s death was homicide by strangulation.

Deputies found Hansbrough, 36, covered with a sheet inside the cell that is part of a gang module. Whitmore said sheriff’s homicide investigators expect to present a case to prosecutors in the near future. According to sheriff officials, Tucker and Hansbrough are part of the “same gang” and were listed as the “same security level” and had shared a cell for more than month before the slaying.

Hansbrough was slated to go to trial next month for felony gun possession and forgery, according to prosecutors.

Tucker was being held at the jail because he is slated to go on trial May 10 for the 2005 murder of Kevin Watts. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Tucker if he is convicted in that case, officials said.

Tucker was convicted two years ago of a murder and attempted murder along with three other men, court records show. During the trial for the April 2005 home invasion robbery and carjacking in Redlands, Tucker pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. Tucker received a life sentence.

When Redlands police arrested Tucker, they described him as a member of the L.A. gang the 107th Street Hoover Crips who goes by the name “Baby Hoover Ray.” Tucker, along with three other men, carjacked a car restoration expert and then forced him to drive them to his Redlands home.

Once there, the men fatally shot the carjacking victim’s 28-year-old cousin and wounded his 51-year-old mother. They then stole thousands of dollars in cash, according to police. As they drove back to L.A., Tucker shot the carjacking victim, according to authorities. The man faked he was dead and was dumped in Fullerton.

– Richard Winton

Sheriff says mental health cuts burden L.A. jails

May 25, 2010

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Tuesday blasted cuts to mental health services in the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, saying they would burden the county’s already overcrowded jails.

Baca estimated that the Sheriff’s Department currently has about 2,500 inmates with mental health problems in its jails, many of them in the Twin Towers facility in downtown Los Angeles. Critics have asserted that the number of mentally ill inmates is much higher, with many landing in Men’s Central Jail, a facility less equipped for mental health care.

Cutting funding to community mental health services would push the mentally ill out of clinics, onto the streets and, for many, eventually into the jails, Baca said.

“Los Angeles County jails are already the largest mental health provider in the country,” Baca said. “The timing of these cuts could not come at a worse time.”

– Robert Faturechi

Los Angeles DA Sends Former Mayoral Candidate to Jail without trial

LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 24 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Craig Rubin has never been accused of actually selling marijuana. In three hearings the only testimony from two LAPD police officers, Tracye Fields-Black and Cecil Mangrum, is that Rubin spoke to both officers about the Bible, the Ten Commandments and the testimony of Jesus Christ; and now he is going to jail for it and without a trial. This is a prime example that we are currently living in a police state. “Trutanich and Cooley, our local elected attorneys, are ignoring real crime, wasting tax payer’s money and aiding and abetting an ongoing criminal enterprise (LAPD Narcotics Division),” says Rubin former candidate for mayor of Los Angeles.

Rubin has been a licensed clergy member since graduating from UCLA with a history major that emphasized religious history. On October 22nd 2009 Rubin was arrested at his wife’s store, Tara’s Tee-shirts, now closed, when police entered without a warrant and pointed weapons at customers in the store, they seized money from Rubin’s wife’s store and claimed it as drug money, which allows them to keep it. Officers and Detectives then allegedly falsified police documents stating that a minor customer in Tara Rubin’s shop was actually in Mr. Rubin’s church that provided legal medical marijuana. In the first arrest Rubin alleges that the law enforcement officers who arrested didn’t report a $10,000 check Rubin had written them and they cashed the check prior to arresting and seizing back the money. These funds were never reported as seized.

Author and pastor Rubin believes the jailing is retaliation for his mayoral campaign. “This thing has appeared rigged since the beginning.” Rubin has been anti-prohibition for over 30 years having worked with Dennis Peron and Jack Herer. Rubin has videos showing, “The biggest pot dealer I know of in the world,” and with Rubin’s experience that is saying something, “associating with law enforcement going in-and-out of a private door belonging to legalzoom .com, across the street from Temple 420, all day.” Rubin has witnesses that place the well-known alleged drug dealer using the same private door to observe the arrest. Rubin further asserts, “Coincidentally Robert Shapiro, legalzoom.com spokesman, calls me the next morning to ‘help out’ when he is supposedly the Chairman of some anti-drug group — and the person he claims asked him to call me, none other than the CEO of legalzoom .com, himself a person I’ve never met.”

In 2006, when the first arrest took place Rubin and his wife had their life’s savings seized prior to being convicted of any crime, thus limiting their ability to hire an attorney, but coincidentally an attorney approached Rubin in Superior Court claiming to be working as a criminal defense attorney. She had “street cred,” being a pastor herself, and having represented Tupac Shakur in the past. Rubin retained her through trial, but after repeated written requests she was unable to provide a retainer agreement. Rubin was informed by a California attorney, claiming to supervise her, that his attorney was a full-time employee of the federal government moonlighting without permission from her job at the Veteran’s Administration.

“When you hear about something my office does that appears to be unjust,” Carmen Trutanich said at a recent Homeowner’s Association, “I want you trust that our office is doing the right things for the right reasons.” However, it appears clear that Trutanich has worked with LA DA Steve Cooley to close Rubin’s medical marijuana club, Temple 420, for all the wrong reasons.

In 2006, Rubin was convicted after being denied the ability to show the jury Officer Tracye Fields-Black’s membership agreement to the temple and was prevented from mentioning medical marijuana at trial. Rubin states, “My potential witnesses, who were members of Temple 420, were assigned lawyers by the court and each warned that they too could be charged with a conspiracy leading them to face up to 20 years in prison,” Rubin claims this was only one of the things that made the trial unfair because an M.D. he had lined up to testify backed out after allegedly being warned he could be charged. “The only officer to testify against me, Field-Black, committed perjury and without her testimony there wouldn’t have been a conviction.”

Rubin is harsh on local politicians and law enforcement, “Our city and county are sick. They have leukemia and the white blood cells that should be protecting us, are our elected attorneys, have turned on the citizens and are attacking law abiding people for their own political gains.”

At the January homeowners association meeting Trutanich said, “I haven’t gone after and shut down the medical marijuana clubs.” However, on October 22, 2009, prior to that untrue statement, Trutanich’s office had Rubin arrested. Trutanich also said, “Probably my kids have smoked it (marijuana). We know it is not the worst thing in the world. It is the criminal element that comes with it.” He went on to say, “I do law, not policy and selling medical marijuana is illegal.”

Officer Cecil Mangrum testified that Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg had Rubin arrested on a permit issue one day after Greenberg wrote a letter to Rubin from the City Attorney’s office saying that the City Attorney’s office wasn’t pursuing permit issues. Mangrum testified that in his career had made only 15 controlled buys of marijuana; all of them at medical marijuana clubs. With all those buys the only person ever arrested according to his sworn testimony is Pastor Rubin who says, “Cooley and Trutanich are trying to label me the ‘criminal element’ when I am pastor running a church that provides legal medical marijuana. My arrest was purely political. Cooley and Trutanich are thugs because everyone knows there are a few MMJ clubs run by, shall we say, less ethical people, yet they arrest me?”

Rubin words cut like a knife when it comes to holding public officials accountable for their actions. “I never broke the law. All it takes is one corrupt judge and a District Attorney with political ambition and they can send any innocent person in the city to jail.” Rubin is not happy about having to go to jail without being able to confront his accuser and without a trial. “I am a pastor who has never personally sold pot according the LAPD’s own testimony. My job is to teach pot smokers about the Bible and that is all I have done. Our justice system is corrupt and our government is sick. In this case it is Justice that needs to be investigated including the Judge Windham who seems to be in collusion with Trutanich and Cooley.”

Rubin is also in possession of letters written by the LAPD to Rubin’s landlord threatening to seize her property if she didn’t evict Rubin because they claimed the pastor was running an “illegal” marijuana dispensary. They claimed to be prosecuting a case against him, but the case was dropped because Rubin’s dispensary was 100% completely legal according to Judge Windham’s own words, so there was no case against Rubin the DA could pursue. Rubin is considering a case of slander against the LAPD for alleging his club was selling marijuana “illegally” when in fact it was not.

Rubin is asking people sympathetic to his cause to call Governor Schwarzenegger’s office to ask for some relief for Rubin in this case. (916) 445-2841 ext. 6. Rubin has to turn himself in on March 26, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. at the LAX Courthouse. “People keep joking,” Rubin says, “don’t pick up the soap, but the only one being screwed is the tax payers as the City of LA spent millions upon millions of local dollars to put me, a pastor, in jail for one gram of pot. I hope people are outraged at how Cooley and Trutanich are using the people’s money.”

The Game Checks into Jail

Rapper to serve 60 days.

By Gil Kaufman

The Game began his 60-day jail sentence on Sunday night at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, a label representative for the rapper confirmed Monday (March 3). The rapper (born Jayceon Taylor) pleaded no contest last month to a felony charge of possession of a firearm in a school zone.

The sentence stems from an altercation Game allegedly got into last February during a pick-up basketball game at the Rita Walters Educational Learning Complex in South L.A., with prosecutors alleging that Taylor punched an opposing player and then pulled a gun from his car and threatened to shoot the man. He was arrested on the charge in May of 2007 and, following the plea deal cut last month, was sentenced to 60 days in jail, 150 hours of community service and three years’ probation.

He had faced three counts of making criminal threats and possessing a firearm in a school zone, but two of the charges were dropped in the plea deal. According to reports, the rapper waited until just moments before midnight on March 3 — the deadline for him to check in to jail — to report to the facility.

In a recent interview with Monsta magazine, Game apparently proclaimed his innocence.

“The crazy part about this is that I’ve had guns before in my life,” Game told the mag. “But this time, I didn’t have a gun. And because one person said I had a gun and coaxed his homies into saying that I had a gun, I’m in a predicament where I’m asking, ‘Do I want to spend another million dollars to fight this trial, so who knows what jury’s gonna come in and say I’m guilty? Or do I want to save my money, go sit down for four months and accept this felony they’re trying to give me for no reason.’ ”

« Previous Page — Next Page »