Legal Pad

At Bradstreet Bash, Kennard Sings Praises. Literally.

[Kate Moser]

Clocking in at nearly two hours, the induction ceremony for San Francisco Superior Court Judge Angela Bradstreet must have set several records.

Aside from its duration, it’s safe to suppose that the investiture for Bradstreet -- the former state labor commissioner, BASF president and Carroll, Burdick & McDonough managing partner -- was the only one in San Francisco (in the state?) that has ever featured a singing tribute by a California Supreme Court justice.

The rotunda at City Hall was packed Tuesday night with Bradstreet devotees, public officials and judges (many of whom Bradstreet, having served on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s judicial committee, probably had a hand in getting appointed). It took the master of ceremonies, S.F. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein, a good three minutes or so to read the names of all the judges in attendance: federal judges, appellate judges, retired judges, and even a judge from Kentucky.

Speakers included San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart, Golden Gate Law School Dean Drucilla Ramey, Joseph Cotchett of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy and Berkeley criminal defense attorney Cristina Arguedas.

They spoke of Bradstreet’s battles on behalf of women and gay people, her career that skyrocketed from a middle-class upbringing in London, her golf game, the loves of her life and her penchant for martinis.
But Justice Joyce Kennard pretty much stole the show when she serenaded Bradstreet with a few lines from America’s favorite singing cowboy, Gene Autry’s 1946 hit “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?”

 

Coblentz Eulogized as Trusted Adviser, Nickname Giver

[Scott Graham]

It was a somber yet joyful day for Fuzzy Renfrew, Goofy Gerstein and Fat Ass Bakar.

On Monday they eulogized William Coblentz as a lion of the San Francisco bar, a former regent of the University of California, a shaper of San Francisco's skyline, and a man with a penchant for handing out silly nicknames.

"My name is Charlie Renfrew -- better known to all of you as Fuzzy," was how the former federal judge and Coblentz law partner introduced himself to a nearly packed Herbst Theater.

Coblentz, patriarch of the firm known today as Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, died last month at 88. He was remembered as a man who wanted to make the world a better place -- and had the political capital to do it.

"No issue was too large or too small for Bill," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who recalled that as a member of the S.F. Airport Commission, Coblentz had pushed through free luggage carts for international passengers. Part of the airport's Terminal 2 has been named in Coblentz's honor.

Several speakers recalled Coblentz's clashes with then-Gov. Ronald Reagan during the 1960s. Law school classmate Bakar -- true first name Gerson -- said that despite their disagreements on issues like affirmative action, Reagan and Coblentz maintained a cordial relationship.

Private equity magnate Warren Hellman, who gave his eulogy in verse, framed it slightly differently: "As chair of the regents he really was swell/He told the governor to go straight to hell."

Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley recalled the moral support Coblentz gave during UC's funding crisis -- "about persevering in the face of what in the last couple of years has looked like a pretty daunting challenge." There was financial support too, in the form of the William K. Coblentz Civil Rights Endowment Fund at Boalt Hall.

"As much as we miss you," Edley said, "you'll continue to do good for all of us, as you always did."

No Third Term for S.F. Supervisor Alioto-Pier

[Scott Graham]

The First District Court of Appeal has termed out S.F. Supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier.

Barring last-minute intervention by the California Supreme Court, Alioto-Pier will not be allowed to seek re-election election to her District 2 seat this November. The First District reversed Superior Court Judge Peter Busch on Tuesday afternoon, ruling that because Alioto-Pier has served one full term plus three-quarters of another, she is termed out under the S.F. charter.

Alioto-Pier has argued that because she was appointed to part of her first term and elected to the rest, it did not count as a full term for purposes of San Francisco's term limits law. Both City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Roger Arntz, director of the city's elections department, disagreed with that interpretation. So did the First District.

"Twenty years ago the voters of San Francisco imposed term limits on their supervisors, so that 'no person elected or appointed' could serve 'more than two successive four-year terms,' " Justice James Richman wrote, "and a person appointed to complete more than two years 'would be deemed to have served one full term,' with his or her service rounded up." Although voters have amended the language on several occasions, "nothing changed the rounding up provision."

Justices J. Anthony Kline and James Lambden concurred in Arntz v. Superior Court, A129173.

 

 

 

DA Harris Touts New Lineup

[Kate Moser]

Signs of the old guard are still around, but S.F. District Attorney Kamala Harris showed off her recently promoted chiefs at a press conference this morning. (Pictured left to right: Braden Woods, Sharon Woo, Kamala Harris, David A. Pfeifer, Paul Henderson and June Cravett)

She didn’t deny (nor come right out and say) that the personnel shuffling earlier this month was partly prompted by the evidence tampering scandal at the police drug lab. But she emphasized that some longtime prosecutors in the office decided to retire by June 30 in order to take advantage of a wellness benefit.

“It was sad for us that some of our veterans had to leave,” Harris said. “But there are others who are veterans of this office who have the experience and who have earned the promotions they have received.”

Harris’s new chief assistant, Pfeifer, has worked in the office 20 years. He replaces Russell Giuntini.  Woo, the new criminal chief, had been narcotics chief for six of her 10 years there (she was an assistant district attorney in Santa Clara for 10 years before that).Cravett, a 14-year veteran, moved up to Pfeifer’s job as chief of special operations. And Woods was tapped to lead the homicide team.

Asked about cases affected by the city's drug lab troubles, Harris said her office is reviewing seven cases in which former criminalist Deborah Madden testified following her 2008 misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence in San Mateo County. And the DA’s office has also sent letters to defense attorneys alerting them to her involvement in 1,700 cases going back to 2005, she said.

Harris dropped hundreds of narcotics cases in the wake of the scandal, but she said the office has stopped dismissing cases and is in the process of re-testing drugs to re-file some of them.

Asked about the backlog in the lab's DNA unit, Woods said it’s just a funding problem. “The quality of the work has never been an issue in the DNA lab,” he said.

Advice to Criminal Defense Lawyers: Think More Like Willy Loman

[Kate Moser/Christine Jegan]

At San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s annual justice summit today, panelists (from left) TV writer and former federal prosecutor Jonathan Shapiro, former Court TV anchor Jami Floyd, defense attorney Gerald Schwartzbach and public defender/blogger Carol Huneke laughed over media portrayals of public defenders. “You have a great product and you don’t sell it,” Shapiro told defenders in the audience.

At S.F. DA's Office, a Little John Keker Deja Vu

[Pam Smith]

San Francisco DA Kamala Harris just announced that John Keker is going to be a special advisor to her office. (Full press release after the jump.) Sounds like he’ll be helping her prosecutors assess the case damage when/if the Police Department releases info about the misconduct and criminal history of some of its employees.

Hmm, Kamala Harris, John Keker … Something about this was all sounding vaguely familiar. Maybe because:

• In late 2003, he was one of the bigwigs who signed up for her advisory committee that took shape between her election and early '04 inauguration

• In 2004, he was one of the bigwigs who signed up to help her office with trial-skills training

• Also in 2004, he was one of the bigwigs who helped announce a Bar Asssociation of San Francisco resolution saying that Harris had reasonably exercised her discretion in deciding against the death penalty for the killing of cop Isaac Espinoza

More details on who at the DA's office is doing what here, in the full press release after the jump ...

Prosecutors Have a Good Hair Day

[Kate Moser] 

A faithful cadre of prosecutors from the San Francisco district attorney’s office turned up Friday to get their locks shorn at the 2010 “Buzz the Fuzz” fundraiser for Wish Upon A Star, a law enforcement foundation that raises money for kids with cancer.

Pictured below are gang unit chief Wade Chow grinning half-buzzed (left), then getting the full shave (middle). Narcotics prosecutor Richard Hechler, a veteran head-buzzer who raised about $7,000 this year, said he’ll give donors of $100 or more a portrait of his neon green Mohawk (right). “It helps me wring a little more out of them,” he noted. You can watch his metamorphosis in the video below.

Video by Jason Doiy and photos (click to enlarge) by Hillary Jones-Mixon

Buzz The Fuzz from Cal Law on Vimeo.

Sonoma County: Impudent in Face of Dying Gay Man and His Partner

[Cynthia Foster]

An elderly gay man from Sebastopol is alleging that Sonoma County officials demonstrated a pretty shocking lack of compassion toward him when his partner of 20 years fell seriously ill and was admitted to a hospital.

According to the NYT's The Bay Area blog, Clay Greene was denied his rights as executor when county officials sought and were granted conservatorship after his partner, Harold Scull, became incapacitated. The county then proceeded, according to the complaint filed last month, to auction off the couples' belongings (over $500k worth) "and at one point referred to Mr. Greene as Mr. Scull’s 'roommate'" among other insults, which you can read about over at The Bay Area Blog.

Greene claims he was subjected to repeated incidents of disrespect, amounting to what appears to be a distinct lack of an ally within the local government, despite his status as executor of Greene's estate.

"Even here, where they had filled out legal documents, because their relationship is so thoroughly invisible and disrespected, it didn’t protect them,” said Shannon Minter, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

You can read the NCLR's press release on the case here.

Dennis Herrera's Third Time Around

This afternoon Legal Pad saw San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sworn in for his third term, by John Perez, the soon-to-be speaker of the California Assembly. (That's Herrera mid-oath in the photo just below.) And let's just say the city attorney was Mr. Popular today -- the bottom photo shows the ego-boosting crowd that turned out for the event, held in City Hall's very big North Light Court.

 

—  Photos by Jason Doiy

An Attempt to Bring Bud Selig to His Knees

Oakland A’s fans queasy that their storied team could be lured south to San Jose have a new best friend –- San Francisco’s top litigator.

Today City Attorney Dennis Herrera wrote to Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, advising him in a six-page “sternly-worded letter,” as his press release calls it, that San Francisco is not pleased by the notion of another franchise moving into Giants territory.

Herrera made it clear that San Francisco is interested in protecting the millions of dollars in rent and tax revenues generated by the Giants franchise, and he walked Selig through the promises San Francisco had to make to keep the Giants in town and build AT&T Park, all with the understanding that major league baseball wouldn’t do anything to undercut the financial viability of the franchise.

Stern words can hurt, after the jump ...