Legal Pad

Habeas Lawyers Say Horowitz May Be 'True Perpetrator' in Wife's Killing

[Cynthia Foster]

Lawyers representing the man convicted of killing the wife of prominent defense attorney and TV pundit Daniel Horowitz six years ago all but accused Horowitz of the crime Tuesday.

Katherine Hallinan, a niece of former San Francisco DA Terrence Hallinan, and Sara Zalkin, both of Tony Serra’s Pier 5 Law Offices, filed a habeas petition last week on behalf of Scott Dyleski, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering Pamela Vitale at the couple's East Bay home. Dyleski was 16 at the time.

The petition includes the commonplace claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, but in publicizing it, Dyleski's new lawyers promised "compelling evidence indicating that Mr. Horowitz may have been the true perpetrator."

Reached Tuesday, Horowitz said the statements were "sanctionable," and said the petition is an attempt by Zalkin to "get famous." "They actually invented fake evidence that never existed in this case and then told the press that it exists somewhere, but it doesn’t," he said.

Walnut Creek City Attorney Succumbs to Long Illness

[Scott Graham]

Sad news from the East Bay. The Contra Costa Times is reporting that Paul Valle-Riestra, Walnut Creek's city attorney since 2006, has died at age 52 from a long illness.

Valle-Riestra had grown up in Walnut Creek and served as assistant city attorney under longtime friend and mentor Tom Haas before being promoted to the top job.

Lawyer Groups Say Gay Judge Can Rule on Gay Marriage

[John Koopman]

More than 40 legal organizations have banded together to file a friend of the court brief in support of former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, and his ruling in the Proposition 8 case.

The organizations are led by Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, an association of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lawyers around San Francisco. Other LGBT lawyer groups are there, as well as various associations of minority lawyers, including the Asian Law Caucus, the Black Women Lawyers Association of Northern California and the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers.

Epstein Becker Loses S.F. Managing Partner to Crowell

[Amy Miller]

William Helvestine, the managing partner and founder of Epstein Becker & Green’s San Francisco office, has left to join Crowell & Moring.

Helvestine, a Chambers-rated health care and employment litigator, didn't respond to a message left at his new office, and officials from Crowell did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Helvestine was a member of Epstein Becker's board of directors, and his departure comes at a time of apparent upheaval at the firm. Texas Lawyer, a sibling publication, reported Tuesday that the bulk of Epstein Becker’s Houston office had left to join Cozen O’Conner. In January, the firm closed its Miami office.

Amendments to AB1208 Strengthen Decentralization

[Cheryl Miller]

UPDATE: Here are the proposed amendments to Assembly Bill 1208, the Trial Court Rights Act. Changes to existing statutes are underlined and marked in italics.

The author of the Trial Court Bill of Rights has significantly rewritten the controversial legislation once again, this time restoring some of the strong branch decentralization language that he stripped to secure passage in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on May 3.

The amendments, circulated around the Capitol on Wednesday, remove the Judicial Council’s authority to alter legislative allocations of the Trial Court Trust Fund to the trial courts, according to sources who have seen the new language. Leaders of local courts have complained that the Council has diverted too much of the fund’s money for the troubled Court Case Management System and other branch projects.

Walker Returns Video, Concedes Nothing

[Ginny LaRoe]

Former U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has lawyered up.

Walker, who struck down the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, has tapped Ephraim Margolin, a San Francisco criminal defense lawyer and frequent counsel to judges, to handle the controversy surrounding the trial video, which has thrust the former chief judge back into the case.

Margolin today turned over Walker's copy of the digital trial recording, which the Prop 8 proponents had demanded. Prop 8 proponents say Walker violated various rules and broke his word by showing a snippet of the sealed video at a speech in Arizona, which was captured by CSPAN, and on other occasions.

Margolin's letter reiterated Walker's position that the recording is part of Walker's chamber record and to be used at his discretion.

Expanded Definition of Vexatious Rejected by Judiciary Committee

[Cheryl Miller]

The state Senate Judiciary Committee today rejected a bill that would have expanded the definition of vexatious litigants to include plaintiffs who have lawyers.

On a party line vote, majority Democrats on the committee said Senate Bill 603 was unnecessary because existing sanctions already serve as adequate deterrents for lawyers who might take on the questionable cases of frequent-filing litigants. Currently, courts can only affix the vexatious litigant label to pro per plaintiffs.

Proponents, including the Civil Justice Association of California and the state Chamber of Commerce, said the bill was needed to protect defendants from scurrilous plaintiffs who are willing to drag out litigation in hopes of securing a profitable settlement.

The Consumer Attorneys of California and California Rural Legal Assistance opposed SB 603, arguing that it went too far and was premature given a related, pending case now before the state Supreme Court.

Next Up for Calderon: Trial Court Beauty Act

 

[Cheryl Miller]

Correction: I goofed. The video of the hearing shows Assemblyman Charles Calderon refered to the chief justice as "attractive," not "pretty" as I originally reported. The item below has been fixed to reflect that.

The chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding an apology from Majority Floor Leader Charles Calderon, D-Montebello, after the assemblyman called the chief justice “attractive” during Tuesday’s committee debate on Assembly Bill 1208.

Calderon had been asked by Judiciary Committee members whether it was fair to demand significant branch management changes when Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has only been in office for four months. Calderon responded that the bill was not a personal attack on Cantil-Sakauye and that any chief justice would have difficulties managing the branch’s large bureaucracy.

“It doesn’t mean that she isn’t nice, because she is,” Calderon said. “It doesn’t mean that she isn’t smart, because she is. It doesn’t mean that she isn’t attractive, because she is.”

The remark drew murmurs of protest and some hissing from the committee audience, which included many members of the Consumer Attorneys of California.

“Your remarks regarding the chief justice were degrading and inappropriate,” Evans, who is chairwoman of the legislative women's caucus, wrote in a letter to Calderon. “As the leader of California’s judiciary, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye should be taken seriously and not spoken about in such a dismissive and frivolous manner.”

Reached Tuesday afternoon, Calderon said his comments were taken out of context and the issue is "a sideshow."

"I'm surprised at the response because that's certainly not the way I view women in power," he said. "That's not the way I interact with my colleagues."