Los Angeles, CA L A Times Reporter Victoria Kim apparently sneaked into the L.A. County Central Men's Jail without being detected, in order to conduct a banned interview with prominent Anti-Trust Attorney who has been jailed there in solitary "coercive confinement" since March 4, 2009.
JAILERS CAUGHT UNAWARE
According to Sheriff Leroy Baca's personal spokesman, Steve Whitmore, the L A Times Reporter's presence at the jail for over an hour, was completely unnoticed by the jailers and security personnel. The Sheriff has banned interviews with Richard I. Fine so it must have been a complete surprise when he read Victoria Kim's article published on June 7, 2009. How she gained access to Fine's solitary confinement cell is apparently a mystery to Sheriff Baca and his personnel.
L A TIMES QUESTIONABLE TACTICSM
It is unknown at this time whether the L A Times was contacted by the Sheriff to determine how their reporter gained access to the high security jail and without the Sheriff's permission. In contrast to the L A Times sneaky tactics to get an "exclusive" interview, Full Disclosure Network has made numerous formal requests for a personal interview with Richard Fine only to be told that Judge David Yaffe had forbidden anyone to interview him.
POLITICAL PRISONER?
Judge Yaffe sentenced Fine to an undetermined sentence with no bail and no release date, following the attorney's attempt to disqualify the Judge from sitting on a case where he had received illegal payments from a party in the case. That party was the County of Los Angeles and the case was Marina Strand Colony II Homeowners Association vs. County of Los Angeles.
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN
The Sheriff is apparently so adamant that that no reporters are to interview Richard Fine that he told his spokesman Whitmore "this is not going to happen" many times, over and over. Listen to the audio tape of a voice mail message left on the Full Disclosure telephone where Mr. Whitmore describes the tone of the Sheriff.
JUDGES vs. SHERIFF BACA
The relationship between Sheriff Leroy Baca and the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges has been an interesting one. The Sheriff is constantly walking a tightrope to please the Judiciary to avoid their interference in the operations of his jail.
JUDGE YAFFE CLAIMS REAL PARTY IN INTEREST?
Sheriff Baca is apparently honoring Judge Yaffe's directions to stop press coverage of the case. Sheriff Baca is the Respondent in the case and Judge Yaffe has filed papers listing himself as the Real Party In Interest in the case. No Order has been entered in either the U S District Court or The Ninth Circuit Court stopping the press from interviewing Richard I. Fine. So it would appear the two defendants in the case are interferring with the freedom of the press.
Comments to date: 42. This is page 1 of 5.
Corrution Vegas
Posted: 08:23 am [PST] on February 08 2010
This stinks. These bad boys are up
to their necks in corruption.
Just remember next election vote him out with a follow-up investigation of this when he is out of power.
YDOBON WASHINGTON STATE
Posted: 07:34 pm [PST] on January 28 2010
OUR FORE FATHERS WOULD BE ANGRY AT THE LACK OF INTEGRITY AND HONOR IN OUR? THIER? GOVERNMENT.ORGONIZED CRIME PUT DOWN MOST OF THIER GUNS ALONG TIME AGO,IT IS EASIER TO CONTROL THRU GREED.
bobby fischer redondo beach
Posted: 08:51 pm [PST] on January 24 2010
Keep up the good work on exposing this surprising conflict of interest and abuses in our legal system. Obviously, the concern has to be with the hundreds of cases that could be overturned should it be determined the judges had conflicts on those matters relating to the County. Some day this may turn into one hell of a movie and would be a bit funny if not so true.
Ron Daniels North Hills, Ca.
Posted: 11:03 am [PST] on January 24 2010
Richard Fine's incarceratiion needs to be highlighted in the media and I fully support your efforts.
Truth Seeker Location unknown
Posted: 09:20 am [PST] on January 24 2010
@ Courtwatch. Please work with Leslie Dutton on a report NAMING NAMES. We deserve the right to know the names of these Judges. All 2000 of them. We deserve the right to know, from top to bottom, who came up with the sudden SBX211 "Bill/Law" to make these payments legal. Every one of them.
It's extremely interesting that Marin County and San Diego County are now undergoing "audits" for Court Corruption, but Los Angeles, which is where THIS part of the corruption started has been left out. Los Angeles is the center of the septic system of Court Corruption, and the law makers as well. (Some who's spouses are Judges)
It appears that our Government is just really a large mafia. Why is Madoff in jail if these Judges aren't? They have done the exact same thing, but it's worse. He was at least caught, and stopped. There is no stopping the Government.
Leslie, please do a report, naming names of all the ones involved from top to bottom. Who drafted SBX 211, who supported it, and who is getting the payments. All 2000 names.
courtwatch San Rafael, CA
Posted: 08:13 pm [PST] on January 23 2010
For those of you who are interested in the Richard Fine issues, the statistics about the judicial perks he was complaining about can be found in the Judicial Council's December 15, 2009 report entitled "Historical Analysis of Disparities in Judicial Benefits". The key statistics are in attachment D, pages D-9 to D-14. In 2008, CA counties paid a total of $30,388,289 in "supplemental judicial benefits" to their judges, above and beyond their state salaries and benefits.$23,482,932 of this total $30.3 million was paid by Los Angeles County, to Los Angeles County judges. The report does not state how much each judge receives per capita, but it states that Los Angeles County has 436 judges-- that comes out to each LA judge receiving approximately $53,860 from LA County. Richard Fine challenged the LA judges, stating that those receiving these hefty benefits from LA County should not be hearing cases involving LA County. He also claimed the payments were illegal. In 2008, a court of appeal agreed that the payments were illegal.(Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles (2008) 167 Cal.App.4th 630.) According to the Judicial Council report (page 4), in response to the Sturgeon case, "the judicial branch sought legislation, Senate Bill X2 11".
The legislation, commonly known as SBX 211, was pushed through on an emergency basis. It allows judges to continue to receive these extra benefits, and also provides RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY from prosecution to counties paying the benefits, and judges receiving the benefits.
In other words, CA judges were taking the county benefits in violation of the law. When this was made public, the CA judiciary got emergency legislation passed, allowing them to continue to receive their benefits (while courts are being closed due to "budget constraints"), and also allowing them to escape prosecution. Meanwhile, the lawyer who had been challenging the LA bench for taking these hefty illegal perks for years, was disbarred and sent to jail, where he has been held in solitary confinement for almost a year.
The legality of SBX 211 has subsequently been challenged -- something the language of the legislation itself anticipated.
If you think this report on judicial benefits is interesting, check out the report issued the same day (12/15/09), by the CA Judicial Council's "Commission on Impartial Courts" recommending that judges be allowed to take campaign contributions from those who appear before them (although 75% of the public, and over 25% of judges, believe such contributions affect the outcome of cases), and also recommending AGAINST the implementation of Judicial Performance Evaluations--which consultants to the Judicial Council have repeatedly,strongly recommended.
Treva Bennett Sun City CA
Posted: 06:40 pm [PST] on January 23 2010
It appears the law is being broken and someway the judge and Sherriff need to be held to account. The idea that Fine can't eat due to broke teeth or plate must be rectified.
Truth Seeker California
Posted: 06:22 pm [PST] on January 13 2010
Well of course the Sheriff denied Leslie Dutton and Full Disclosure access to interview Richard Fine. Full Disclosure will not sugar coat this inhumane story like the Los Angeles Times. Who do you think backs the Times financially? Why do you think the Los Angeles Times, The Daily News, and other media outlets including television news stations have side stepped this story. They all have Legslators, Judges and friends funding them.
We are fed a bunch of garbage by other new sources, solely to keep us in the dark. If people knew the truth about what is REALLY going on, we would take to the streets and take back our lives. Starting at the Los Angeles County Mens Central Jail.
Full Disclosure frightens these corrupt people because here, we will here the truth. The Government wants to keep thinking we are weak, powerless, and have no rights. We need to let them know, they are wrong, and they work for us. The mere fact that the Sheriff denied access to Full Disclosure tells more than if they would have allowed the interview.
Kait Gill Orange County, CA
Posted: 03:58 pm [PST] on December 31 2009
Our judicial system is completely corrupt. Judge Jaffe and Sherrif Baca are waiting for Richard Fine to die in jail. He is sick and being denied access to care.
All his civil rights are being trampled on.
Shirley Arizona
Posted: 02:39 pm [PST] on November 14 2009
Anonymous california Posted: 07:34 am [PST] on October 24 2009
did not have the back bone to identify themselves. Mr. Fine has more integrity in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. I would not be surprised to find that "Anonymous" is one of the those in bed with LA County and their corrupt judges. When throwing stones "anonymous" equates to cowardice!