An Appalling Example of California Justice . . .

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by sabray

the prosecutor has a boss that vetted the case. well usually

The Lake County District Attorney, Jon E. Hopkins, made the call on prosecuting Bismarck Dinius. Like all DAs, his "boss" is / was the state Attorney General. When it became obvious that a miscarriage of justice was underway, an appeal was made to the then-Attorney General, Jerry Brown.

Brown's office claimed to have taken an in-depth look at the case and declined to get involved. There was speculation at the time that Brown might be contemplating another run for governor and felt that taking on a corrupt local law enforcement agency / district attorney would open him up to a charge of being "soft on crime" and cost him support.

There was also speculation that the AG decided to let the DA and sheriff stew in their own juices - if they thought they could win such a transparently-flawed case, then go for it. By not taking the case out of the local jurisdiction, Brown's office left them twisting in the wind and vulnerable to an outraged electorate.

As it turned out, that was their undoing.

Jerry Brown was just elected governor of California for the second time in his political career. Maybe he's more clever than some people give him credit for.

TaoJones

[TaoJones]

Here we go again . . .

Yesterday, there was a tragic collision on a Los Angeles area lake (Puddingstone Reservoir) that was, in some ways, similar to the tragic collision in northern California that was the basis for this thread. The report in the LA Times is pretty thin - possibly even misleading - but here's a link: Three people killed, four injured as jet ski collides with boat - latimes.com.

A commenter below the story who claims to be an eyewitness states that the speedboat T-boned the JetSki with the three women on it, and the JetSki had just started out and hadn't gotten up to speed.

If the driver of the speedboat survives his injuries, it will be interesting to see how the LA County DA's office deals with this, given the widespread knowledge about the outcome of the Dinius case at the heart of this thread. That resulted in the firing (finally) of the off-duty deputy who'd been driving the boat, and election losses for both the Lake County Sheriff and District Attorney.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the driver of the speedboat was an off-duty police officer who had been drinking?

TaoJones

[zeehag]

l.a. trmeless says the jetski crashed into the powerboat---as if trying to make the jetski the bad guy--i know jet skis have a lot of bad press but it doesnt have to be from misstatements, as perhaps this is.... which hit which.....

[sabray]

So far there are not pictures of empty booze bottles and blood sloshing around in a cockpit.. No one yet has been accused of an afternoon in a bar. it's not here we go again yet. Tragic but different so far.

[jannpage]

Just because the Law Enforcement people decide to arrest and the Statesw attorney decided to prosecute, does not mean a jury will convict. We still have a trail by our peers. It would not be the first time that a Jury tuned thumbs down to a prosecutor. I agree it smells a bit. It also wouldnot be the first time the police took care of one of their own. or tried too. They may succeed and they may not. Even people like OJ did end up in civil court and paid a bunch. It may be a long while befor the lady sings.

[Hiracer]

Courthouse News Service

"LAKEPORT, Calif. (CN) - A sheriff's sergeant says he was fired for truthfully testifying that he was ordered not to give a standard alcohol test to an off-duty police commander who crashed a speedboat into a sailboat, killing a woman."
"James Beland sued Lake County in Lake County Superior Court."
" Beland also claims that when a hearing officer found he had been fired without cause, the Board of Supervisors met in special session and changed the cause of his firing."
" In his 13-page complaint, Beland says he'd worked for the Lake County Sheriff's Office since 2000, "had a prior military background and was a federal police officer for the U.S. Protective Services and a civilian police officer on a military base," and that his "evaluations as a deputy were largely spotless."

* * *

" "Since the date of the boating accident (4/29/06), plaintiff was subjected to nineteen different job related disciplines. Some of the disciplines were for aiding other officers, while still others covered large periods of time (1½ years), looking for things to discipline plaintiff about and silence him."