Tag: los angeles

California Attorney General Investigating LA Redistricting Amid Leaked Audio Scandal

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s attorney general said Wednesday that he will investigate Los Angeles’ redistricting process as three of its City Council members face calls to resign over a leaked recording of them using racist language to mock colleagues while they schemed to protect Latino political strength in council districts.

The announcement from Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat like the three council members, comes amid growing calls to address the way politics can still influence the redrawing of district maps after the census count each decade. He said the investigation could lead to civil liability or criminal charges, depending on what is found.

“We’re going to gather the facts, we’re going to work to determine the truth and take action as necessary to ensure the fair application of our laws,” Bonta said.

“It’s clear an investigation is afternoon needed to help restore confidence in the redistricting process for the people of LA,” he added.

Bonta spoke in Los Angeles while the council itself was trying to conduct business nearby despite the uproar triggered by the recording of crude, racist comments from a nearly year-old meeting, which also provided an unvarnished look into City Hall’s racial rivalries. Those involved in the closed-door meeting were all Latinos, while Bonta is the first Filipino American to hold the top law enforcement job in the nation’s most populous state.

Three council members — former City Council President Nury Martinez, who is taking a leave of absence, and Councilmen Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo — are facing calls from President Joe Biden and others to resign after the recording surfaced online.

The council reconvened Wednesday, possibly to censure the three members, with the minimum of 10 out of 15 members necessary for a quorum but was unable to do business because

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State attorney general will investigate LA redistricting

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

California Atty. Gene. Rob Bonta said Wednesday that his office would investigate the Los Angeles redistricting process that took place last fall, saying an inquiry is needed to “restore confidence” in the line-drawing of the city’s 15 council districts.

The announcement comes days after The Times published a recording in which then-council President Nury Martinez is heard making racist remarks while talking with fellow Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera about how the city’s council district boundaries should be redrawn. This conversation focused on how the group could maintain Latino political power while also ensuring they and their colleagues would have districts that help them win reelection.

“We’ll be conducting our investigation, and when it’s full and thorough and comprehensive and complete, we’ll have something to share about what liability there might be, either civil or criminal,” said Bonta, a former member of the state Assembly who was appointed attorney general last year.

Bonta said his office had reviewed information — which he didn’t detail — and the law “to determine whether we feel we have a good-faith basis to launch an investigation.”

“And after conducting that process and completing that process — it was not complete yesterday, but it’s now complete — we believe we have a basis … for an investigation,” Bonta said.

Calls for resignations and government structural reforms reverberated across LA after the leaked audio surfaced.

A group of 30 civic leaders sent a letter Wednesday to act City Council President Mitch O’Farrell asking for the council to support a ballot measure to amend the City Charter to create an independent redistricting commission.

At one point in the recording, Herrera, head of the LA County Federation of Labor, is heard telling the councilmembers: “My goal in life is to

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California attorney general to investigate LA City Council after leak of audio with racist remarks

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

California’s attorney general announced Wednesday his office will investigate the Los Angeles City Council to determine whether any laws were broken after an audio recording of racist remarks surfaced this week.

“The investigation comes on the heels of leaked audio revealing deeply concerning remarks tied to the city’s 2021 redistricting efforts,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

The independent probe will seek to determine whether there were any violations of state or federal voting rights laws and transparency laws, Bonta said.

City Council members Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo have apologized for their roles in a meeting last year, which was secretly recorded.

Martinez resigned as council president this week, and she announced Wednesday that is resigning from her seat on the council.

In the leaked audio, Martinez likened the Black son of council member Mike Bonin, who was 2 years old at the time, to an animal. She is also heard on the recording implying that the county’s progressive district attorney shouldn’t be supported because he’s “with the Blacks.”

The 2021 audio was from a political strategy meeting attended by a handful of Latino Democrats on the council. It was first reported Sunday by the Los Angeles Times.

The meeting, which Bonta said was about redistricting, was attended by the three council members, as well as Ron Herrera, the president of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Bonta said in the statement that he was “deeply appalled” by the remarks from some of Los Angeles’ highest-ranking officials.

“Their comments were unacceptable, offensive, and deeply painful,” he said. “There is no place for anti-Black, antisemitic, anti-Indigenous, anti-LGBTQ, or any kind of discriminatory rhetoric in our state, especially in relation to the duties of a public official.”

The recording surfaced on

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A$AP Rocky Lawyer Calls Alleged Shooting Claim An Extortion Attempt

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

A$AP Rocky‘s defense lawyer Joe Tacopina shared new information with relli-lawsuit-1234594385/” data-ylk=”slk:Rolling Stone” class=”link “Rolling Stones about the rapper’s pending civil and criminal case surrounding an alleged shooting. Tacopina alleges the claims were made by a “jealous” A$AP Relli in an attempt to obtain money from the accused.

“Rocky didn’t shoot him by any stretch,” Tacopina and before describing the alleged violent and incident as a “false scenario” and “a plain classic attempt at extortion.”

More from VIBE.com

According to Tacopina, Relli, whose real name is Terrell Ephron, has made multiple attempts to receive financial gain from Rocky, real name Rakim Meyers. Rocky’s attorney also claims the confrontation where the shooting allegedly occurred was initiated by Ephron.

A$AP Rocky Court

Rapper A$AP Rocky (R) pleads not guilty to assault charges during his arraignment hearing at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on August 17, 2022 in Los Angeles, California

“He’s a failed associate – ex-associate – of Rocky’s, and he’s jealous,” claimed Tacopina. “He was trying to get money from Rocky. He wanted Rocky to support him. He made it clear. There were repeated attempts where he tried to ask for money in lieu of not causing problems for Rocky. That’s what he said. We have all this memorialized in text messages and otherwise, so it’s an extortion.”

Ephron’s civil legal team responded to the allegations made by Tacopina in defense of his client. In a statement to hospital, they assert: “The merits of the present case against A$AP Rocky [have] been thoroughly investigated by both law enforcement and the Los Angeles District Attorney prior to the decision to not only arrest A$AP Rocky but charge him.”

A$AP Rocky was charged with assault with a firearm in August after being accused of shooting Relli during a November 2021 encounter in

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Bert Fields, legendary lawyer to A-list clients, dies at 93

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bert Fields, for decades the go-to lawyer for Hollywood A-listers including Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, George Lucas and the Beatles, and a character as colorful as many of his clients, has died at age 93 .

Fields died Sunday at his home in Malibu, California, with his wife, art consultant Barbara Guggenheim, at his side, according to an announcement from Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, the law firm he helped make a Hollywood powerhouse.

Fields had been suffering from long-term neurological effects of COVID-19, firm spokesman Seth Horowitz said.

“Bert Fields was a gentleman; an extraordinary human being,” Cruise, a longtime client, said in a statement. “He had a powerful intellect, a keen wit, and charm that made one enjoy every minute of his company. I loved him dearly and always will.”

Fields was known for his fierce advocacy in the courtroom and his personal flair outside it, with bespoke suits, chauffeured cars and an unmatched set of talents.

“He was extremely witty and charming with all the elegance of a true gentleman,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said in a statement. “But he also had the determination and grit of a street fighter.”

Law partner and close friend Pierce O’Donnell called Fields “the greatest lawyer of his era” and “truly a Renaissance man: advocate, author, historian, actor, raconteur, recording artist, and a music enthusiast who knew every Cole Porter lyric. ”

His cases included a multimillion-dollar judgment for Beatle George Harrison against his former business manager, and a win for Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Pictures in an attempted injunction against the release of the director’s film “Amistad,” and a successful attempt by Warren Beatty to prevent cuts to a TV showing of his film “Reds.”

Powerful clients meant taking on powerful opposition. Many of Fields’

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Bill Cosby’s Attorneys Reportedly Asking for a Retrial In Playboy Mansion Sexual Abuse Civil Case That Granted Alleged Victim $500,000 in Damages

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

It appears that Bill Cosby‘s attorneys are asking for a retrial in fighting back against a recent lawsuit that found the comedian liable of sexually abusing a woman named Judy Huth and awarding the alleged victim $500,000 in damages.

The incident alleged reportedly occurred in the 1970s at the Playboy Mansion when Huth was a teenager. According to court documents retrial-of-womans-sexual-abuse-suit/”obtained by Los Angeles Magazine on July 27, Cosby’s lawyers asked Judge Craig Karlan to overturn the July 12 judgment that favored Huth.

Bill Cosby’s attorney’s reportedly asked for a retrial in the sexual abuse civil case that granted Judy Huth $500,000 in damages. (Photo: @billcosby/Instagram)

During Huth’s testimony in the civil case, which took place back in June, she claimed “The Cosby Show” star inappropriately touched her and forced the then 16-year-old to perform a sexual act on him in 1975.

While recounting her story, Huth also mentioned that the alleged assault occurred in a game room at the Playboy’s Mansion. Following Huth’s testimony, her attorneys mentioned that the sole reason why she was at the residence was because of Cosby. According to her lawyers, Huth and her then-17-year-old friend Donna Samuelson were brought to the residence after meeting Cosby on the set of his film “Let’s Do It Again.”

Despite the jury reaching a verdict on June 21, Cosby’s attorney denied any misconduct and claimed inconsistencies in Huth’s recounts of what happened. One of the inconsistencies included the year change of when the alleged event actually took place.

Los Angeles Magazine also reports that Cosby’s lawyers demands a trial because of “irregularity in the proceedings of the court, jury or adverse party, jury misconduct, excessive damages, insufficient evidence to justify the verdict and errors in law.”

In addition to the retrial, the new outlet states

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Modeled after Texas abortion law, California enacts first-of-its-kind measure targeting ghost guns and assault weapons

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

California punched back Friday against two recent landmark US Supreme Court decisions as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law.

His action comes one month after conservative justices overturned women’s constitutional right to abortions and undermined gun control laws in states including California.

Newsom stitched the two hot-button topics together in approving a law allowing people to sue anyone who distributes illegal assault weapons, parts that can be used to build weapons, guns without serial numbers, or .50 caliber rifles. They would be awarded at least $10,000 in civil damages for each weapon, plus attorneys fees.

California Gov. Newsom Highlights New State Efforts To Stem Gun Violence
California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a news conference where he signed state Senate Bill 1327 into law on July 22, 2022 in Los Angeles, Calif.

David McNew / Getty Images


“While the Supreme Court rolls back reasonable gun safety measures, California continues adding new ways to protect the lives of our kids,” Newsom said in a statement released before he signed the bill. “California will use every tool at its disposal to save lives, especially in the face of an increasing extreme Supreme Court.”

Lawmakers patterned the bill, at Newsom’s request, after a Texas law allowing citizens to sue anyone who provides or assists in providing an abortion. The US Supreme Court gave preliminary approval to the Texas law, but California’s law will automatically be invalidated if the Texas law is eventually ruled unconstitutional.

Newsom ran $30.00 worth of full-page advertisements in three Texas newspapers Friday criticizing what he said is Gov. Greg Abbott’s hypocrisy on gun safety. The ads parrot a comment by Abbott but substitute gun violence where he mentions abortion.

“Governor Newsom should focus on all the jobs and businesses that are leaving California and coming to Texas,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae

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