Remember the Masonic Fraternal Police Department? Wasn’t that a couple of days wonder?
Latest developments: charges against one of the defendants, Brandon Kiel, have been completely dropped.
And a second defendant, David Inkk Henry, who was apparently the “chief”, died suddenly.
I probably should have covered this last week, but it got past me. Work’s been kind of rough. Anyway:
The NYPD reassigned three deputy chiefs and a deputy inspector:
Meanwhile, a prominent NYC restaurateur was arrested and charged with running a Ponzi scheme:
What do these two things have in common? Glad you asked. They both seem to be tied to a federal investigation involving two of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fund-raisers:
More:
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Mr. Rechnitz and Mr. Reichberg were also investors in the Peralta Ponzi scheme.
Like I said, I’ve been kind of behind the 8-ball, so here’s another one I should have blogged before now: Paul Tanaka was convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice last week.
Mr. Tanaka was the undersheriff of Los Angeles County: basically, he was Lee Baca‘s second-in-command.
The LAT claims that Mr. Tanaka could get “as long as 15 years in prison”: as we all know, such claims should be taken with soy sauce and wasabi.
They did things differently there.
The San Francisco Chronicle used to give out firearms as subscription premiums.
You could also get a Colt rifle plus a one-year subscription to the paper for $14.50. (“$15 of 1887 dollars would be worth: $362.50 in 2015.”)
Peter Hartlaub for the win:
(Hattip: Jimbo.)
One more quick Leland “Uncle” Yee thought that I didn’t have time for in the previous entry:
Yes, folks, you read that correctly. Campaign finance reform is the only thing standing between you and your elected state senator smuggling guns to Islamic terrorists and rebel groups in the Philippines.
Convicted former California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee was sentenced today.
As you may recall, convicted former California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee pled guilty to one count of racketeering:
And what did he get for all this?
Five years in prison and a $20,000 fine. He’s also apparently going to have to give up $33,000, at least some of which will come out of his political campaign accounts.
Speaking of “his past record of public service”, as a convicted felon, convicted former California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee, who was a prominent advocate of gun control and received an award from the Brady Campaign, will no longer be allowed to own firearms. Legally, anyway.
Edited to add: more from the SF Examiner.
According to the same article, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow’s sentencing is scheduled for March 23rd.
SFGate:
I haven’t been paying as much attention to the LA County jail scandal as I used to: things sort of got away from me.
But this is stunning and noteworthy: the former LA County sheriff, Lee Baca, has pled guilty to lying to the feds.
In a plea agreement filed in federal court Wednesday morning, Baca admitted that he lied when he told federal authorities that he was unaware that his subordinates planned to approach the FBI agent leading the jail investigation at her home.
Baca agreed not to contest other allegations leveled by federal prosecutors, including that he directed subordinates to approach the agent, stating that they should “do everything but put handcuffs” on her, the agreement said.
I believe this is the incident in question.
Baca’s plea deal apparently includes a provision that he won’t serve more than six months, and it seems possible that he could get probation. His #2 man, Paul Tanaka, is going to go on trial in March; the plea deal also apparently does not require Baca to testify against Tanaka.
Edited to add: longer article from the LAT about Baca’s plea.
Somehow “tax-fattened hyena” doesn’t seem fitting, and crustacean related jokes seem inappropriate.
So. Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow: guilty.
On 162 counts, “including murder in the service of racketeering, murder conspiracy and racketeering.”
(They said “murder” and “racketeering” twice. They must like “racketeering”. And “murder”.)
LAT. SFGate. SF Examiner. Of course the defense plans to appeal.
It took us a non-trivial amount of digging to find this, but:
The case against Chow went to the jury on Tuesday.
We will keep an eye out for the verdict, or lack of one.
I’ve been trying to keep up with the Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow trial. Really, I have.
But the press coverage has been kind of pathetic. I keep looking for stories in the San Francisco newspapers, but no joy.
The latest update is from the LAT: apparently, we’re now into the defense phase of the trial, and “Shrimp Boy” is testifying.
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Do you want to read that? I kind of want to read that, though “Chow doesn’t always understand English and that his diction and tenses are not always used correctly.”
I’ve written previously about Ron Reynolds, a state representative and lawyer who was charged with barratry.
Well, it has been a while. The other seven people who were arrested with Rep. Reynolds took pleas, but Rep. Reynolds went to trial. And…?
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!
I’ve also written about Kelly Thomas, who was beaten to death by the Fullerton PD. The city (meaning local taxpayers) is going to pay out $4.9 million to his family, in settlement of their wrongful death lawsuit.
Obit watch: noted elsewhere, but I did want to mention the passing of Ken Johnson, former player for the Houston Astros (and the Colt .45s, their predecessor), and the only pitcher ever to “complete a nine-inning game without yielding a hit and still manage to lose it.”
(Oddly enough, there’s a good explanation of how this happened in the FARK discussion thread.)
Also among the dead: Adele Mailer, Norman’s ex-wife and the woman he stabbed in a drunken rage.
Mike Thomas out as athletic director at Illinois.
The Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow trial stated yesterday.
My mother was complaining last night that the authorities were being awfully close-mouthed about the shooting of Judge Kocurek. I figured they were playing things close to the vest because the investigation was ongoing.
Well. Well well well. Well.
James Mee has his job back.
I feel sure I’ve written about this before, but I can’t find the post now. Mr. Mee was a deputy with the LA County Sheriff’s Office. He was fired because of his alleged involvement in a police chase that ended when the vehicle he was supposedly chasing crashed into a gas station.
At least, that was the claim. So why was he really fired? Well, Mr. Mee was also one of the officers who arrested Mel Gibson back in 2006.
This one’s for Lawrence: Frank Gehry is working on a project to rehabilitate the Los Angeles River. This has some people upset.
(Obligatory. Plus, the video I’ve linked to before has been taken down, so call this a bookmark.)
Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow’s trial is set to start November 2nd.
But that could change.
Why?
Six of “Shrimp Boy”‘s co-defendants pled guilty yesterday.
…George Nieh pleaded guilty to every count filed against him, including 146 counts of money laundering and a slew of weapons and drug charges. Leslie Yun pleaded guilty to five counts of money laundering and drug-related charges.
Kevin Siu pleaded guilty to eight of the 24 money laundering counts against him, and Alan Chiu pleaded guilty to 13 of 36 money laundering charges.
Yat Wa Pau pleaded guilty to trafficking in contraband cigarettes and admitted to his involvement in sales of contraband cigarettes worth more than $300,000.
Andy Li pleaded guilty to felony possession of a firearm along with money laundering and marijuana possession.
The judge is considering postponing the trial, I guess so “Shrimp Boy”‘s legal team has time to evaluate the situation and possibly change their strategy in light of the guilty pleas.
As a side note, sentencing for convicted former California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee is scheduled for October 21st.
I got dragged into something literally the moment I hit the door at work this morning. Not that I’m bitter or anything. But it did mean that my blogging time was cut short.
This, in turn, meant that Lawrence beat me to the latest developments in the Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow case. Really, I was going to blog that. But, to summarize:
More:
I suppose it could be selective prosecution. Then again, it could be: if you have a choice between indicting the guy who took bribes, and the guy who took bribes and engaged in gun running, who are you going to pick?
Also possibly of interest:
Chiu and Chow were involved in a dispute: Chiu pulled funding for the Night Market after finding out Chow was involved with it.
“a corpse eating a vegetarian dinner”? Perhaps that makes more sense in the original Klingon.
It’s Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save your job as police commissioner.
I’ve been sort of generally following the whole “illegal alien shoots woman on a pier” story, and there’s something I’m wondering about. Set aside for the moment the whole “five-time deportee” thing. Ignore the “gun belonged to a federal agent” thing.
The guy claims he was shooting at sea lions. So? Well, aren’t sea lions generally out to sea? Or at least in the water? Like at a 90 degree angle to the actual pier? Okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly 90 degrees; it could be 45 or 30. But my point is, the sea lions would be in the water; you’d have to swing the muzzle pretty far around to “accidentally” shoot someone on the pier. Then again, your average drug addict is probably not exactly well known for muzzle discipline.
(Edited to add: Mike the Musicologist informs me that they guy has changed his story: “the gun went off accidentally”. Three times.)
(Hattip to Tam on the shirts. I’m planning to order one soon.)
I’ve written previously about Kelly Siegler, the former Harris County prosecutor (famous for re-enacting a stabbing during a murder trial) who helped get Anthony Graves off of death row and Charles Sebesta disbarred for hiding exculpatory evidence. I’ve never met Ms. Siegler, but I’d like to: I have enormous respect for her role in the Graves/Sebesta case, and she’s another person that I’d enjoy having some good barbecue and a large orange with.
So this makes me a sad panda, but honesty requires me to note it:
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This does raise a question in my mind (and please remember that I Am Not A Lawyer): is the prosecution required to disclose all evidence, even evidence that they don’t believe to be true? Or that is clearly not true?
The “don’t believe to be true” is kind of slippery; I’d tend to think that simple “don’t believe it” isn’t enough to bar disclosure. But let us say that the DA investigator is interviewing someone who claims to be a witness to the murder. And let’s say that witness has spent the past 30 years marinating every one of his brain cells in pruno, Sterno, Thunderbird, and anything else he can get his hands on. And let’s say the witness tells the investigator, “Yes, I saw that man stab the victim. And then the UFO came down with a bunch of little green men, and the guy with the knife climbed on board the UFO, and then it took off again.” Is the prosecution required to give that statement to the defense?
(And, if they did, would any defense attorney actually use that statement in court?)