Whipped Cream Difficulties

…robs whoever a spider can.

Several performers in Spider-Man suits have been detained briefly for questioning since the incident, police said. But as of Monday morning, none were identified as the thief, said Officer Chris No of the Los Angeles Police Department.

If this had happened in New York City, I’d blame Julie Taymor, Bono, and The Edge.

Woo hoo woo hoo hoo!

I was out and about until just now and returned home to find out we have verdicts in the Bell corruption trial.

Maybe.

Former council member Luis Artiga: acquitted on all twelve of the charges against him.

Former council member George Cole: found guilty of two counts of misappropriation of funds from the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, and not guilty on two counts of misappropriation of funds related to the Public Finance Authority. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on four other counts.

Former council member Victor Bello: found guilty of four counts of misappropriation of funds from the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, and not guilty on four counts of misappropriation of funds related to the Public Finance Authority. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on eight other counts.

Former mayor Oscar Hernandez: found guilty of five counts of misappropriation of funds from the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, and not guilty on five counts of misappropriation of funds related to the Public Finance Authority. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on ten other counts.

Former council member Teresa Jacobo: found guilty of five counts of misappropriation of funds from the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, and not guilty on five counts of misappropriation of funds related to the Public Finance Authority. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on ten other counts.

Former council member George Mirabal: found guilty of five counts of misappropriation of funds from the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, and not guilty on five counts of misappropriation of funds related to the Public Finance Authority. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on ten other counts.

The LAT has a handy cheat sheet covering who was convicted of what, in addition to their news coverage.

But.

…In a note, Juror No. 7 told Judge Kathleen Kennedy that he had misgivings about the deliberations.
The cryptic note said that the juror “questioned myself on information that had me on a [doubt] of thing [sic] that were not presented properly.”

A second juror sent a note saying “she believes the jury is ‘getting away from your instructions’ and possibly misunderstanding a law on ‘several levels.’”.

The judge, at this point, seems to be disinclined to “reopen verdicts that have been reached”, but the jury is supposed to report back to the courtroom tomorrow at 9 AM. We’ll see what happens; the judge may question the jurors about the returned verdicts, the judge may ask them to deliberate more on the undecided verdicts, some combination of the two, or possibly something I haven’t even thought of yet. We shall see.

By the way, the council members apparently have a good shot at getting probation and community service, if the verdicts stand.

But it still a good day. And this comic strip seems appropriate.

The jury is still out in the Bell trial.

The LAT‘s “LA Now” blog ran an article yesterday speculating on the possibility of deadlock.

Over the last 2-1/2 weeks, they have struggled to reach a verdict that would answer the basic question: Could those salaries — which approached $100,000 — be excessive and still be legal?

Wouldn’t that be a kick in the head?

The general rule of thumb when it comes to deliberations tends to be one day for every week of testimony, said veteran defense attorney Paul Wallin. Anything longer, he said, is a strong sign of a hung jury or at least a deadlock on some counts.

Yesterday was day 13 of deliberations, according to the LAT. (It looks like they’re not counting the week of deliberations which ended with one juror being replaced and the judge ordering a restart.)

I have often heard the accusation that the Better Business Bureau is more interested in money than protecting customers. That is, if you’re a business that pays enough money to the BBB, you’re guaranteed a high rating, and customer complaints against you might just magically disappear.

I’ve never been able to prove that to my satisfaction. But in at least one case, I don’t have to.

The BBB of the Southland was expelled Tuesday from the national organization, losing the right to use the BBB name and logo.

The BBB of the Southland is the branch that covers LA and the surrounding area. Why did they get kicked out? Some folks may remember this:

In 2010, a group of Los Angeles business owners that had been critical of the BBB conducted a sting operation by paying dues for fake companies, including one named after the Palestinian organization, Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group.
The fake businesses were all accredited and given ratings, according to the ABC News report. Hamas received an A-minus rating.

Ken over at Popehat covered this in more detail at the time. I haven’t seen an update from him, but I don’t blame Ken, as he’s been tied up with the whole Prenda Law saga. (If you haven’t been following Prenda Law, I recommend checking Popehat; the entire saga is way to complex for me to summarize here, and Ken’s done a pretty good job of doing so over there.)

I’ve been thinking about posting an update for a couple of days now, but have held off. Why? The update boils down to: the jury is still deliberating.

Today’s events: one of the jurors is sick, so they’re taking the day off. More updates will follow as things happen. At this point, I’d bet on a mistrial.

Sutchi Hui, a 71-year-old San Francisco resident, was walking with his wife through the busy intersection of Castro and Market streets when he was hit by Bucchere in March 2012. He died of his injuries four days later at San Francisco General Hospital.

Chris Bucchere, the man who hit Mr. Hui, is being charged with felony gross vehicular manslaughter.

People get hit by cars every day, and the drivers sometimes face charges, yes? So why am I picking out this case?

Because Mr. Bucchere wasn’t driving a car: he was riding his bicycle when he hit Mr. Hui.

“Court testimony indicated that [Bucchere] was going at least 30 mph and that he ran two red lights and a stop sign prior to going through the intersection where the collision occurred,” said San Francisco Assistant Dist. Atty. Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

I know I haven’t been posting updates on the Bell trial, but there’s a reason for that: the jury has been deliberating for the better part of a week.

Yesterday morning, the jury sent a note to the judge stating they were deadlocked. And another juror sent a note to the judge stating that one of the jurors had been doing “outside research” on the case. This is a Bad Thing.

The same juror made a tearful request Monday to be removed from the panel because she felt others were picking on her. Kennedy told the woman that although discussions can get heated, it was important to continue deliberating.
On Thursday, however, the juror again broke into tears and said she had spoken with her daughter about “the abuse I have suffered.” She said her daughter told her, “Mom, they’re trying to find the weak link.”
The woman said she had turned to the Internet to better understand the rules about jury deliberations and came across the word “coercion.” After her daughter helped her look up the word’s definition, she wrote it down on a piece of paper and brought it with her to court. When the judge asked to see the paper she went into the jury room to retrieve it.

That juror, known as “Juror #3″, has been dismissed and replaced with an alternate juror. The judge has told the jury to restart deliberations, and to pretend that the earlier deliberations never happened.

It kind of sounds like #3 was leaning towards acquittal, but nobody knows for sure.