THE BAKER’S DOZEN ASSAULT

Yale Choir Assaulted; No Arrests By SFPD

By Dan Noyes ABC 7 News
I Team Investigation
January 8, 2007

What especially concerns the Aziz family -- when police arrived, they detained four of the attackers who were identified by members of The Baker's Dozen, but officers did not make an arrest. And a full week later, they still haven't made an arrest.

Whitney Leigh, Gonzalez & Leigh Law Firm: "That doesn't seem to comport with traditional police practices and as a result, at least at this point, there's several violent youths or young men, actually, who are out on the street and shouldn't be."

Police investigators didn't even bother to photograph the injuries to The Baker's Dozen. The couple who held the party that night took pictures.


See the complete ABC7 News, I Team Investigation:

Portrait of New Year’s Eve Melee

By Susan Sward
SF Chronicle
January 26, 2007

Whitney Leigh, who represents one other singer along with Aziz, said, "All the families have ever wanted is for this matter to be treated the way any other matter like this should be treated, and the assertion about political pressure is specious given the stark facts of this case. There is no question the individuals who were identified by the victims at the scene should be arrested. But for the media scrutiny, a proper investigation might never have been taken into this brutal assault."

Leigh said 11 Yale singers have told police they were assaulted.

Aziz's father, Sharyar Aziz Sr., said, "Of course, if it wasn't us putting pressure on them and saying do something, I am convinced this whole incident would have died on a police blotter."

Yale Singer Sues 5 Alleged San Francisco Attackers

March 14, 2007
CBS 5 / AP

A Yale University student whose jaw was broken in two places during a confrontation outside a New Year's Eve party in San Francisco has filed a lawsuit against his five alleged attackers, his attorneys said Wednesday.

Sharyar Aziz Jr., 18, one of several members of an all-male a capella group who were injured that night, filed the civil rights suit calling the incident a "vicious, senseless and premeditated attack carried out by a gang of thugs."

The lawsuit names Richard Aicardi and Brian Dwyer, both 19; Aicardi's twin brother, James, and 20-year-old brother, Michael; and Marino Peradotto, 20.

ABC7 News photograph of Halema and her father Jamal Buzayan

HALEMA BUZAYAN - DISCRIMINATORY PROSECUTION

Muslim Teen Arrested Over Minor Fender Bender

By Dan Noyes
ABC 7 News, I Team Investigation
March 16, 2006

A Northern California police department is being accused of ethnic and religious discrimination in its handling of a minor hit and run involving a Muslim family. The I-Team has been studying the records and police audiotapes in the case.

The central question in this story is why. Why are the Davis Police and Yolo County prosecutors spending so much time, effort and tax money going after a teenage girl and her family for a minor fender bender?...

Whitney Leigh, Buzayans' attorney: "They never conducted any lineup that included a photograph of the mother which is standard police procedure and something that really surprised me in this case."...

Dan Noyes: "What do you want?"

Jamal Buzayan: "I want justice, which is in specific terms, are we treated the same as anyone in Davis or have we been treated differently? They need to answer that question."


See the complete ABC7 News, I Team Investigation:

Police bias alleged in girl’s case

By Lauren Keene
Davis Enterprise
March 24, 2006

A Davis family has taken steps toward suing local police over their teenage daughter’s arrest last summer in connection with a hit-and-run accident.

Jamal Buzayan, a plant researcher at UC Davis, says his Muslim family’s religious practices were violated when a Davis police officer took his then-16-year-old daughter into custody on the night of June 13. He also believes his family is being treated differently because of its ethnic background…

Matt Gonzalez, whose San Francisco law firm Gonzalez & Leigh represents the girl, says the incident amounts to little more than a minor fender-bender. The city of Davis, he added, employs a policy of not pursuing criminal charges in such cases if the issue has been settled among the parties involved — otherwise known as a “civil compromise.”

“Even if you believe the girl is guilty, and there is plenty of evidence to show that she’s not, you have to ask yourself, why is this case being handled differently than other hit-and-run cases?” the attorney said…

Meanwhile, the girl’s case continues to make its way through the court system. Attorney Gonzalez said the 17-year-old honor student, a senior at Davis High School, looks forward to attending UC Davis in the fall.

“She knows she didn’t do anything wrong, and she’s waiting for justice to ultimately prevail,” Gonzalez said.

Teen’s hit-run case dismissed

By Lauren Keene
April 17, 2006
Davis Enterprise

A Yolo County judge today dismissed a hit-and-run charge against a 17-year-old Davis girl whose family claimed they were the targets of police discrimination. “Case dismissed, justice is done,” Jamal Buzayan, father of Halema Buzayan, said as he left Judge Thomas Warriner’s courtroom late this morning.

Halema’s attorneys, Matt Gonzalez and Whitney Leigh, argued that the misdemeanor charge should be dismissed in light of a financial settlement the teen’s family reached last year with the hit-and-run victim.

“It’s a really good day,” Halema said. “I think it’s a great feeling to know that justice has prevailed.” “It’s an outcome that we predicted months ago,” Gonzalez added. “It’s really incredible that it’s taken this long, actually.” Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Pattie Fong, who prosecuted the case, could not be reached for comment today.

This morning, Gonzalez filed a declaration in which an expert hired by the defense concluded that the damage to the victim’s car did not match the damage to the Buzayan family’s SUV. However, it was not clear whether that declaration factored into Warriner’s ruling.

Editorial: Discretion and dismissal

Sacramento Bee
Editorial
April 20, 2006

Whitney Leigh, an attorney for the family, says that twice during court proceedings Deputy District Attorney Patricia Fong said that her office was pursuing the case because the office believed the teen’s family was going to file a lawsuit. Leigh called such a motivation “absolutely improper in a criminal case and particularly in a juvenile case where the purpose is to benefit the minor.” He’s certainly right about that.

Yolo County citizens must also wonder why so much time, money and effort were expended in a minor fender bender when the parties had settled to their mutual satisfaction. Unfortunately, [District Attorney] Henderson has not been forthcoming. Neither he nor Fong has returned phone calls from reporters or responded to critics, including other elected officials who’ve raised legitimate questions about his policies. That’s a mistake.

CLASS ACTION — MINIMUM WAGE LAWSUIT

Wage, age-discrimination suits filed against Marriott: Big hotel chain accused of violating S.F. pay ordinance

By Bob Egelko
San Francisco Chronicle
October 7, 2005

Marriott Corp. was hit by employee lawsuits on two fronts Thursday, accused of violating San Francisco's minimum-wage ordinance and of discriminating against older sales managers who failed to fit the company's purported goal of a younger, hipper image.

The wage suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court by four employees of the downtown Marriott Courtyard as a proposed class action on behalf of affected workers at all seven company-affiliated hotels in the city, including the San Francisco Marriott, the Stanford Court and the Ritz-Carlton.

Former Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, the lawyer for the workers, said it is the first private class-action suit seeking to enforce the wage ordinance, Proposition L, since it was passed by city voters in November 2003 and took effect the following February. The ordinance initially set the minimum wage at $8.50 an hour and increased it in January to $8.62, or $7.75 for nonprofit groups and companies with fewer than 10 employees. The state minimum wage is $6.75 an hour and the federal minimum is $5.15.

Marriott Hotels face class action lawsuit based on San Francisco minimum wage ordinance

By Pat Murphy
San Francisco Sentinel
October 7, 2005

A class action lawsuit based on San Francisco’s minimum wage ordinance was filed in Superior Court yesterday against Marriott Hotels, the law firm of Gonzalez and Leigh reported.

“It is believed that this lawsuit is the first class action to be brought based upon violations of the San Francisco minimum wage ordinance,” the firm said in a written statement.

Four named plaintiffs, current and former employees of Marriott International, Inc., are Joseph Aubray, Jr., Pamfilo Apostol, Francisco Serrano, and Svitlana Yakushenko.

Gonzalez defends wage law

By Justin Scheck
The Recorder
October 18, 2005

In a suit filed Oct. 6 in San Francisco Superior Court, Gonzalez and another lawyer at his firm, Enrique Pearce, filed suit against Marriott International. They claim the company pays San Francisco workers considerably less than the $8.50 per hour required by the wage law.

While Pearce – who used to be Gonzalez’s campaign manager when he was running for mayor – said he’s not sure how much money is at stake in the case, he estimates it’s “a sizable amount in back wages and liquidated damages.”

Pearce said he hopes the case’s value will stretch beyond monetary relief and will help create an atmosphere “where workers’ rights are validated in the city.”

Edwards, Glover Get Behind Hotel Workers

By Donna Domino
San Francisco Daily Journal
February 16, 2006

Filed by the law firm of former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, the suit is the first private class action seeking to enforce the wage ordinance, Proposition L, since it was passed by city voters in November 2003...

Enrique Pearce, a partner with the Gonzalez and Leigh firm said, “It’s clear that San Francisco hotels are flagrantly abusing the labor law and exploiting their workers. We see that manifest in several instances, including major hotel chains violating San Francisco’s minimum wage law and refusing to come to the collective bargaining table in good faith.”

DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER - MISAPPROPRIATION OF LIKENESS & FALSE ARREST

'Dog' reality show goes after wrong man, real lawsuit follows

By Demian Bulwa
San Francisco Chronicle
August 17, 2006

Duane Chapman and his Hawaii-based "posse" of family members, who star in A&E's most popular series, were after an elusive bail-skipper who had played for the Daly City Renegades semipro football team.

What happened next is the subject of an unusual civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Chapman's son tried to grab and restrain one of the players, but it wasn't the fugitive -- who wasn't even at the team practice on May 24, 2005. It was Daly City nightclub promoter Simaile "Cisco" Lutu, 29, whose mood quickly soured.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the 6-foot-5 Lutu said on film, easily pushing away Leland Chapman, who is much smaller. Lutu added, "Y'all about to see Dog f -- up."...

"This is reality TV run amok," said Lutu's attorney, Jim Hammer, a former San Francisco prosecutor and television legal commentator. "There's got to be a bright line between television entertainment on one hand and real police work on the other.

"When people intimidate and harass other people just to make money, it's outrageous," Hammer added. "We suspect this has been going on for quite some time and we intend to find out how often."

Is reality TV case a real dog? Stay tuned

By Pam Smith
The Recorder
August 17, 2006

Simaile Lutu, one of two plaintiffs in the suit, claims he fell victim to the longhaired Dog's "unique breed of justice" for the first time as he was playing semi-professional [football].

According to his suit, Dog and a cohort came to the Bay Area in 2005 to find a man who was wanted on a drug charge in Hawaii - someone other than Lutu, but who apparently played on the same [football] team, called the Renegades - on a bond worth $75,000. At [football] practice, the suit says, Dog, the A&E cameras, and unidentified Daly City police officers "descended on" Lutu and detained him. They eventually broadcast the encounter without his consent.

Within a week, that incident was followed by two more confrontations with police that Lutu claims were really orchestrated by Dog and his show.

"One hundred percent, [Lutu] is not the fugitive," said Jim Hammer, one of Lutu's lawyers at Gonzalez & Leigh. "The only thing they have in common is they're both Samoan."

Lawsuit claims 'Bounty Hunter' jumped the gun in duo's arrest

By Todd R. Brown
InsideBayArea.com
August 18, 2006

Simaile "Cisco" Lutu and Frisco Leaea are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by James Hammer, former homicide chief for the San Francisco District Attorney. The suit names Burlingame, Daly City and South City police among the defen-dants it says "publicly humiliated" the men during filming of the A&E program in May 2005.

"People like reality TV. It rates well and it's cheap to produce," said Hammer, whose firm, Gonzalez & Leigh LLP, filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. "I think the idea of using people against their will in it is wrong. The blurring of what's entertainment and what's real police work is very worrying."

Hammer said Lutu appears in the latest season's premiere episode, which includes Duane and Beth Chapman's wedding, being accosted by son Leland Chapman at a practice for the Daly City Renegades, a semi-pro football team whose Web site lists Lutu as a 6-foot, 5-inch linebacker on the 2004-05 roster.

The suit says even after police determined Lutu was not Samu Savea, a suspected drug dealer, they detained him twice more in incidents that did not appear in the show.

The civil rights suit, which alleges discrimination against the two Samoan-American men, says officers with guns drawn arrested Lutu at a 24 Hour Fitness club in Daly City and at Blush nightclub in Burlingame, and claims that Chapman's crew orchestrated the takedowns.

"There was no warrant out for him at all," Hammer said. "He's not a fugitive."

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT ARGUMENT

Court bangs head on ‘ethical wall’

By Pam Smith
The Recorder
March 9, 2006

Much of the California Supreme Court seemed skeptical Wednesday that anyone in the San Francisco city attorney’s office should be allowed to handle a fraud suit against two companies that were once represented by the city attorney himself...

At Wednesday’s argument, [Justice Carol Corrigan] pushed Whitney Leigh, the lawyer for two computer technology companies, to acknowledge that tension. “It doesn’t appear to me,” Corrigan said, “as though this is a slam dunk for one side or another.”

So far, Cobra Solutions and Telecon Ltd. have persuaded the lower courts that Herrera’s office should be disqualified from the underlying fraud case, which was first filed against another company about a year after Herrera took office...

Justices Hear Conflict Case

By Donna Domino
San Francisco Daily Journal
March 9, 2006

The California Supreme Court seemed split during oral arguments Wednesday over whether the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office should be disqualified from a fraud case against a former client of City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

The 1st District Court of Appeal in 2004 upheld a court decision that public confidence in the integrity of the judicial system precludes Herrera’s office from handling the case because, as the top lawyer in the office, he sets office policy. CCSF v. Cobra Solutions Inc., S126397.

The ruling was the first time a California appeal court has dealt with the obligations of a lawyer who leaves private practice to join a public law office and then initiates litigation against a former client regarding subject matter that is substantially similar to his work in the private sector.

Chief Justice Ronald M. George clearly agreed with assertions by the city attorney’s office that an ethical screen might suffice to avoid conflicts of interest. When Cobra Solutions attorney G. Whitney Leigh of San Francisco pointed out that Herrera personally took credit for filing the suit after making public corruption an issue during his election campaign, George noted that district attorneys don’t recuse themselves after running law-and-order campaigns.

Court Calls For Disqualifying Public Office

By Itir Yakar
San Francisco Daily Journal
June 6, 2006

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera's entire office should be disqualified from a fraud case against one of the city attorney's former clients, a divided state Supreme Court held Monday.

The city attorney's office failed to persuade a majority of the high court that an ethical wall was sufficient to provide a fair trial to two technology vendors Herrera represented while he was a partner with Kelly, Gill, Sherburne and Herrera.

"Public perception that a city attorney and his deputies might be influenced by the city attorney's previous representation of the client, at the expense of the best interests of the city, would insidiously undermine public confidence in the integrity of municipal government and its city attorney's office," Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote for the 5-2 majority. City and County of San Francisco v. Cobra Solutions, Inc., 2006 DJDAR 6880…

G. Whitney Leigh, a partner at Gonzalez & Leigh in San Francisco, said the high court reaffirmed what has been the state's law for decades.

"The city attorney's office and other public offices have not demonstrated in any way that the existing rules have impaired their ability to hire or recruit high quality attorneys," Leigh said.

Ruling Pulls Herrera from Bribe Suit

By Bob Egelko
San Francisco Chronicle
June 6, 2006

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office must bow out of representing the city in a bribery lawsuit against three companies because one of the firms was Herrera's client before he was elected, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a 5-2 decision, the court said a government law office is disqualified from any case against a private party that was once represented by the chief of that office. Even though Herrera, as city attorney, shielded himself from any involvement in this case, his power to hire and fire the lawyers who would handle the lawsuit creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest, the court said...

Whitney Leigh, a lawyer for Herrera's former client, Cobra Solutions Inc., said the court had recognized that "under the circumstances, the city attorney couldn't effectively be walled off from his employees, who serve at his pleasure.''...

Cobra, which denied wrongdoing, sought the removal of Herrera's office from the case, saying he had acquired confidential information as the company's lawyer that was related to the city's suit. The state's high court agreed, upholding lower-court rulings that disqualified the city attorney's office.

STANCY NESBY — IDENTITY THEFT CASE

Gonzalez represents woman suing city in identity theft case

By Charlie Goodyear
San Francisco Chronicle
April 29, 2005

A woman who was arrested repeatedly over a two-year span because San Francisco authorities didn't withdraw a bench warrant after learning it wrongly named her as a fugitive has hired former Supervisor Matt Gonzalez to help her sue the city for her troubles...

In a new suit that Gonzalez and his law partners say they will file, Nesby will say that additional information her legal team has uncovered shows that city officials failed to verify the identity of the woman who used Nesby's name. She also is accusing officials of sitting on fingerprint evidence that could have been used to quash the warrant while Nesby continued to be arrested.

According to the lawsuit, the impostor was arrested four times in San Francisco and booked into jail seven times in 1999 without police determining her real name or challenging her use of Nesby's. Nesby's attorneys say the city has withheld arrest reports and booking logs concerning the impostor, whose identity remains in question.

"Essentially, the city of San Francisco facilitated identity theft here, '' said another attorney for Nesby, Bryan Vereschagin. "How was this missed seven times? It's outrageous."

SF Judge Refuses to Find City at Fault in ID Theft Case

KCBS - 740 AM
San Francisco
June 10, 2006

An appeal is planned now that a San Francisco judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a victim of identity theft.

The woman sued San Francisco after she was repeatedly arrested for a warrant issued for another woman who had used her name.

KCBS reporter Henry Mulak says the case involves Nancy Nesby, 28, who was arrested seven times from 2002 to 2004.

Before that, someone had used her name when she was arrested then skipped out on facing drug charges. A warrant was issued in Nesby's name... "When the city issues warrants by mistake and they fail to correct it then I think there should be responsibility. There should be liability," said Matt Gonzalez, an attorney who represented Nesby.

ID Theft Has Woman Looking In The Rear View Mirror

FOXReno.com
June 28, 2005

Nesby has filed a lawsuit against San Francisco, claiming false Imprisonment and emotional distress after failing to remove her arrest warrant from state databases.

Her attorney says the case is clear cut.

"You think you've seen so many cases that you're jaded to what you're going to see," said former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez who now represents Nesby. "But this one still hits you at a very kinda visceral level. You just look at it and say this is not right."

The city said it was not responsible for correcting faulty arrest warrants.

Gonzalez said he'll appeal to the state supreme court if necessary.

"Bureaucracies don't change because people wake up and want to make them more efficient, they generally change because they're forced to take responsibility for something they shouldn't be doing," he said.

Identity Theft Victim Discusses Her Case

By Fredricka Whitfield
CNN Live Sunday
July 2, 2006

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And so Mr. Vereschagin, why is it that you insist that the city bear some responsibility in helping to clear up her name?

BRYAN VERESCHAGIN, NESBY'S ATTORNEY: Well, the city's position all along has been that they have no statutory duty to correct knowingly false warrants and bad warrants. We disagree with that. The city has also taken the position that it never arrested Stancy. But we have now learned new information and new evidence within the last month that indicates that that was a misrepresentation.

In fact, what we are dealing with are electronic warrants that are sent statewide throughout California. And San Francisco in certain of these instances was in fact having Ms. Nesby arrested even though they promised they wouldn't.

WHITFIELD: So is there some sort of database or somewhere like that that can be corrected or where police, perhaps consult to see if her fingerprints match you know, this suspect's or if she is, indeed who she says she is? It seems like there would be a simple database with that kind of information, right?

VERESCHAGIN: It's not that simple. There are local, state and federal databases that all contain varying criminal information. In this situation, San Francisco promised Ms. Nesby that they would put in sufficient information into the statewide -- California statewide warrant system which would prevent her from being arrested pursuant to these warrants.

We later found out in the course of litigating this matter that they did not put that information into statewide systems.

WARFIELD THEATER VS. CLEAR CHANNEL

Promoter sued over Warfield renaming

By Bob Egelko
San Francisco Chronicle
October 15, 2005

Bill Graham Presents "has no rights whatsoever to control the naming of this historic San Francisco theater,'' the owner's attorney, Rita Hao, said in court papers. She accused the promotion firm of "attempting to undermine the Warfield Theater name and the Warfield Theater's unique niche in the Bay Area music scene in order to cripple its competitors' first foothold in the Bay Area entertainment market,'' referring to a rival promoter that is scheduled to take over the lease in three years.

Warfield owner sues Clear Channel firm

By Matthew Hirsch
San Francisco Bay Guardian
October 19-25, 2005

According to the lawsuit, BGP had no right to rename the theater and failed to get permission from Warfield Theater LLC, which owns the trademarked name and the building. In fact, Warfield owner David Addington told us he only learned of the deal when a reporter called for comment.

The Warfield Theater, represented by the law firm Gonzalez and Leigh, is seeking to get back profits earned under the SF Weekly Warfield name, plus punitive damages and an injunction barring use of the term "SF Weekly Warfield" to describe the Warfield Theater...

"We believe it's [still] a violation of the Warfield Theater's right to name its own theater," Rita Hao, a partner at Gonzalez and Leigh, told us.

Warfield Theater Signage Dispute Is Settled

By Savannah Blackwell
San Francisco Daily Journal
February 15, 2006

Earlier this month, the Warfield's lone tenant, Bill Graham Presents, or BGP, agreed to settle a lawsuit -- and hopefully end the public grousing -- and remove the "SF Weekly" from the Warfield's name.

"We wanted to keep what's San Francisco uniquely San Francisco," said Warfield owner David Addington, who sued BGP in October to end the name change."

"A lot of the musical lifeblood of the city has pumped through the Warfield. Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead -- even Rin Tin Tin -- they've all been on stage here," he said...

"This is a simple case," Rita Hao, a Gonzalez & Leigh partner ... wrote in court papers. "Simply put, defendants Bill Graham Presents [and BGP's associated leasing company] AKG Inc. have stolen plaintiff Warfield Theater's name."

Hao also argued the Warfield name is a trademark "exceedingly strong and well-recognized in the Bay Area music industry," that Addington should be compensated for association with that moniker and that the BGP-SF Weekly deal tarnished the name's value by implying that Addington had authorized the agreement...

BGP President Lee Smith could not be reached for comment.

From now on, the words "SF Weekly" will appear on the marquee only as part of its role in sponsoring the concerts.

"It will say, 'The SF Weekly presents' and underneath that the name of the next concert," said Addington, who will receive an undisclosed sum as part of the agreement. "All of that will appear below the Warfield marquee."

SF Weekly Loses Warfield Signage

By SFBG Staff
San Francisco Bay Guardian
February 22, 2006

The SF Weekly name will no longer be displayed on the marquee of the historic Warfield theater building, according to the terms of a lawsuit settlement.

David Addington, the owner of the building, filed suit Oct. l3 to have the SF Weekly logo removed, claiming the San Francisco institution was devalued by the name of a paper that was owned by the New Times chain, headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz. "The name of the building returns to the Warfield, where it has been for 85 years now," he told us. Further, he said, the agreement "acknowledges that the building owner gets to determine what the building is called."

The Warfield victory "has resonated in a city known for its anticorporate sentiment," the San Francisco Daily Journal reported in a Feb. 15 story breaking the news of the agreement...

Addington was represented by Rita Hao, an attorney with the San Francisco firm Gonzalez and Leigh.

YOLO COUNTY GRAND JURY CHALLENGE - LACK OF RACIAL DIVERSITY

Hispanics Sue Over Yolo Grand Jury

By Dennis Opatrny
San Francisco Daily Journal
August 4, 2006

A firefight has broken out in the sleepy Sacramento suburb of Yolo County, where a handful of Hispanic residents have accused the mostly white Superior Court bench of picking mostly whites to sit on the grand jury...

The plaintiffs seek a court injunction to stop what they call a "corrupt" practice as well as a declaration that the current procedures violate their constitutional rights of equal protection and due process.

"What we're guessing is that it's largely white folks referring white friends and acquaintances turning out mostly white grand juries," Jim Hammer, one of Serena's lawyers, said in an interview. His co-counsel are former San Francisco supervisor and mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez and Whitney Leigh...

Leigh said demographic studies of Yolo County show that Hispanics compose nearly 26 percent of the population, but their membership on the grand jury has ranged from as low as 5 percent to a high of 11 percent...

Similarly, he said, Asians compose nearly 10 percent of the population, yet in the past seven years, only three Asian members have been seated on the grand jury.

Judge Denies Motion in Grand Jury Case

Housing Authority had sought to block release of annual report

By Ben Antonius
Woodland Daily Democrat
June 13, 2006

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. denied the restraining order request, but postponed a decision on the issue of racial bias to another hearing. The case will return to court on June 19.

"They have system that has excluded Asians and Hispanics and we are looking to get the court to order them to reconstitute the grand jury," said G. Whitney Leigh, an attorney for the plaintiffs, citing statistics that show both racial groups have been underrepresented on the jury in comparison to their population in the community.

The legal maneuver is the latest in several clashes during Serena's tenure between the grand jury and the housing authority, a quasi-governmental organization that owns low-income housing in Woodland, Winters, West Sacramento, Yolo, Esparto and Knights Landing...

The motion asks that the appointment of the 2006-2007 Yolo County Grand Jury, scheduled to occur as early as July 1, be delayed until procedures are in place "to ensure that Asians, Hispanics and other minorities do not continue to be unconstitutionally excluded."

Grand Jury Lawsuit Delayed

By Ben Antonius Woodland
Daily Democrat
June 20, 2006

Attorneys handling a lawsuit against the Yolo County Grand Jury will have another two months to prepare their arguments, after a Monday afternoon hearing.

U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. will meet again with lawyers involved in former Yolo County Housing Authority Director David Serena's suit, which claims the jury's underrepresentation of Asians and Latinos is related to its repeated investigations of his program.

Serena has charged that the jury's allegations in its January report of financial mismanagement are baseless, and his claims were largely vindicated by the investigator. In his investigation, commissioned by the county, retired Judge Richard Gilbert said the most of the grand jury's charges were "clearly wrong or clearly not supported by reasonable evidence."

He filed the suit in federal court in hopes of preventing the final jury report from being released, claiming it would unfairly harm him and his reputation. The judge dismissed that request, but has said he will accept arguments on the racial bias issue.

Whitney Leigh, attorney for Serena, said his client was not asking the judge to impose specific remedies on the jury to ensure racial diversity.

"There are a lot of different things you can do to get a fair cross section of the community, but the Yolo County grand jury doesn't have any procedures at all," Leigh said.

Suit targets racial makeup of body

By Elisabeth Sherwin
Davis Enterprise
July 6, 2006

On Wednesday, [Superior Court Judges] Mock and Warriner were issued a summons to respond to the civil complaint with 20 days. Robyn Weaver, the jury commissioner, also is named as a defendant.

Gonzalez, in a phone interview on Wednesday, said the exclusion of nonwhites as grand jurors is an ongoing abuse of process. "It cannot be coincidental that the grand jury never reaches Latino or Asian representation," he said. "The lawsuit raises questions about the lack of racial diversity, bringing action against individual judges for improperly recruiting jurors."...

"In my 15 years of practice as a civil and criminal litigator across the state, I have never encountered a grand jury system so deeply flawed as this one," Leigh said. "This is a renegade grand jury, infected with racial and personal bias, which insisted on re-hashing old allegations that another investigation found to be unsupported and in some cases outright false," he added.

DAVID SERENA - RETALIATORY PROSECUTION

David Serena, former Hartnell board president, faces fraud, theft charges

By George Sanchez
Monterey Herald
Aug. 08, 2006

A longtime Salinas political activist and former president of the Hartnell College board of trustees is facing fraud and theft charges in Yolo County, where he had been running a public housing agency.

An attorney for David Serena, 59, contended Monday that the charges are retaliation for a lawsuit Serena brought against the Yolo County grand jury over its alleged shortage of minority members...

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is accusing Serena of five counts of making a false or fraudulent claim, two counts of making a false statement and 12 counts of grand theft of personal property. The 19 felony charges stem from dental benefits allegedly received by the young daughter of Serena's live-in partner, his attorney said.

Serena's attorney, Matt Gonzalez of San Francisco, said the charges stem from an interview of Serena by federal investigators and the discovery that Serena had arranged for dental insurance for the child...

"This is a guy who worked there for many years," Gonzalez said. "At the end of the day, you're going after someone for a minor's dental benefits? If it really is about dental benefits, these guys are incredibly desperate and mean-spirited."...

Gonzalez said the charges are political retaliation for a lawsuit his office filed on behalf of Serena that challenges the county's grand jury for lack of Latino and Asian representation.

POLICE BRUTALITY — TASER DEATHS

50,000 volts

By Sasha Abramsky
Sacramento News & Review
November 17, 2005

“Ultimately,” said San Francisco attorney Nima Nami, of the Gonzalez & Leigh law firm, “the police are being sold a faulty product.” Last month, Nami filed a wrongful-death claim in U.S. District Court against the city of Sacramento on behalf of the Pino family for $25 million in damages. Nami’s initial legal strategy involves going after the city’s police force for using excessive force against Pino, and the sheriff’s department for failing to provide adequate follow-up care. But he believes, as expert testimony starts to corrode the safety claims made by Taser’s in-house specialists, it is just a matter of time before Taser International itself is toppled by a massive class-action lawsuit. Nami thinks that sooner or later, Tasers will have to be removed from the standard police arsenal. “It was marketed as safer than a baton, I’d choose the baton. And so would a number of officers.”

Coroner: Cordova man’s death probably not triggered by Taser

By Crystal Carreon
Sacramento Bee
February 1, 2006

A Rancho Cordova man who died in September after he was shocked by a stun gun and subdued with a baton during a struggle with sheriff's deputies experienced "sudden cardiac arrest" that probably was not triggered by the Taser, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office ruled…

"This is - right off the bat - very suspicious to me," said attorney Nima Nami, who is representing members of the Torres family. "What they're not mentioning is what witnesses will testify to ... is that he received multiple, multiple blows from the baton, including to the throat."

FREE SPEECH ACTIVISTS VS. CITY OF SAN JOSE

It’s a circus: S.J. forced to go to trial

By Julie O’Shea
The Recorder
June 20, 2005

A federal suit that accuses the San Jose city attorney’s office of conspiring in the unlawful arrests of animal rights activists has been cleared for trial...

G. Whitney Leigh, who is representing the protestors, was pleased. “This is a planned, deliberate attack against free speech activists,” said Leigh, a partner with San Francisco’s Gonzalez & Leigh...

Leigh said his clients were simply exercising their First Amendment rights.

They are suing now to “assure that in the future their rights will be abided by,” Leigh said.

Animal rights activists gain legal right to videotape and protest closer to circus

By Linda Goldston
San Jose Mercury News
August 24, 2005

Animal rights activists won the right Tuesday to take their message a little closer to patrons of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which begins its run in San Jose today...

The modification of the injunction is part of a free speech lawsuit filed against Ringling and Pavilion management after several protesters were arrested outside the arena in 2003.

Attorney Matt Gonzalez, a former San Francisco supervisor, represented the group in federal court and said the ruling by U.S. District Judge James Ware was a step in the right direction.

“Some of their videotaping caught the ire of Ringling,” Gonzalez said. “The footage showed mistreatment of an elephant that led to an investigation by the USDA. The lawsuit alleges Ringling got the city and HP Pavilion to crack down on these protesters.”

Protesters win judgment against HP Pavilion

By Rodney Foo
San Jose Mercury News
January 24, 2006

Two animal rights activists who were arrested in the HP Pavilion parking lot while protesting the treatment of circus animals were each awarded $2,400 by a federal district court jury in San Jose that found their free speech rights had been violated…

Said attorney G. Whitney Leigh, of Gonzalez & Leigh, who represented Cuviello and Bolbol, "We think evidence showed that our clients were targeted based on the content of their message.''

Leigh added, "The main point of the case is we established under federal law that the parking lot is a public forum . . . It's an important step. We think it will have wide-ranging benefits for our clients.''

Leigh said the activists are continuing their fight to win an injunction to prevent HP Pavilion Management and the city from restricting future protests at the parking lot.

FEDERAL GRAND JURY — WITNESS REPRESENTATION

Man refuses to testify in animal rights case

By Stacy Finz
San Francisco Chronicle
October 26, 2005

During the brief hearing Tuesday, Kennedy's attorneys, Whitney Leigh and Matt Gonzalez, said their client had initially been cooperative with the FBI, but had lost trust in the government.

"He has already answered these questions a number of times truthfully and still got hauled up before the grand jury," Gonzalez said. "Mr. Kennedy is not gaming the system. The government has subjected a law-abiding citizen to harassment."

Man stays out of jail in animal rights case

By Stacy Finz
San Francisco Chronicle
November 9, 2005

A man who was scheduled to go to jail Tuesday for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating an animal rights activist suspected in two East Bay bombings in 2003 has been granted a temporary reprieve by a higher court.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Monday that Michael Kennedy could remain free until the court decides his case -- likely to be within the next few months.

San Francisco U.S. District Judge Susan Illston held Kennedy in contempt on Oct. 25 for refusing to testify. She gave Kennedy two weeks to surrender to the U.S. Marshal Service so that his attorneys -- Matt Gonzalez, Whitney Leigh and Rita Hao -- would have time to appeal her decision.

SF STATE PROFESSOR ANTWI AKOM — RACIAL PROFILING

S.F. State teacher arraigned in arrest incident

By Jason B. Johnson
San Francisco Chronicle
November 1, 2005

A San Francisco State University instructor was arraigned in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of battery and resisting arrest, and his attorney said Antwi Akom is considering suing over what he called racial profiling by campus police.

His attorney, former San Francisco supervisor and former deputy public defender Matt Gonzalez, said police made a mistake by arresting his client, and they tried to cover up that mistake by accusing him of attacking them. Gonzalez said police saw Akom as threatening because he is an African American man, not because of Akom's actions.

"In our opinion, it's obvious that this is a case involving racial profiling by the San Francisco State police," said Gonzalez. "The charges were reduced, as much as they tried to portray him as some out-of-control person."

Charges Reduced Against SF State Professor

By Claudine Wong
FOXReno.com
October 31, 2005

"The real issue here is that I was racially profiled, attacked, accosted, detained, criminalized in front of my own office, my own place of work," Akom told reporters. "My family is shocked, dismayed, traumatized but we're confident that justice will prevail because I haven't done anything wrong."

Akom's attorney -- former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez -- said his client was considering filing a civil suit.

"They made a terrible mistake, they had an opportunity to deescalate what was happening and instead they made matters worse," Gonzalez said.

Criminal Charges Are Dropped Against San Francisco State U. Professor

By Paula Wasley
The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 22, 2006

Mr. Akom has contested the report's findings, which, according to one of his lawyers, G. Whitney Leigh, defines racial profiling as the exercise of legal authority based solely on a person's race. Under such a definition, said Mr. Leigh, "as long as they can come up with any other motive for their action, it's not racial profiling."

Mr. Akom's lawyers also say that investigators failed to interview a majority of witnesses to the incident and relied too heavily on police reports containing accounts by witnesses who were placed together in a room and allowed to talk with one another before making statements to the police.

A written statement issued on Friday by President Corrigan leaves open the possibility that the university will take private disciplinary action against Mr. Akom under procedures established in its collective-bargaining agreement with the faculty union. Such actions would remain confidential.

Mr. Leigh called the report's conclusions "self-serving, incomplete, and erroneous," and he criticized the university's handling of the matter. "President Corrigan has done everything possible to ensure that the only possible action for Dr. Akom to pursue is in the courts," said Mr. Leigh. He said that Mr. Akom intends to take civil action against the university and the university's police department.

Mr. Akom said he is "elated" that the criminal charges were dropped. He had previously disputed the police's version of the October incident, saying that the officers never asked him for identification and started the fight.

Message at rally: Dropping charges not enough

By Ian Thomas
Inside Bay Area
March 23, 2006

Matt Gonzalez, a former San Francisco mayoral candidate and one of Akom's attorneys, said he would "gladly debate you, President Corrigan, on the validity of your report. If you think it can be defended, name the time and place and I'll be there."

Gonzalez added, "I seriously question Corrigan's suitability to lead this university."

He questioned the timing of the release of the report followed so quickly by the charges being dropped by San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.

Brown and Renne released their report without interviewing Akom, who had been advised by his attorneys not to talk to them until the charges had been resolved.

Corrigan was not available for comment.

TAXPAYER LAWSUIT — SUPERINTENDENT SEVERANCE PACKAGE

Cutting the golden parachute

By Tali Woodward
San Francisco Bay Guardian
May 4-10, 2005

Months later, there may be a way to nullify the contract, according to attorneys Whitney Leigh and Matt Gonzalez – who opened a public interest law firm once Gonzalez finished his term as a city supervisor. It all turns on an obscure section of the California Education Code that Gonzalez and Leigh believe raises doubts about the legality of what they call Ackerman's "sweetheart deal."

They plan to file a writ of mandamus in Superior Court by May 9 requesting that the court invalidate the contract and require Ackerman to refund the payments she has received under it so far.

Lawyers Attack School Chief’s Contract Deal

By Dennis Opatrny
San Francisco Daily Journal
June 23, 2005

Out of office just six months, former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez now aspires to be watchdog of city coffers.

Gonzalez and his law partner, Whitney Leigh, filed suit Wednesday seeking to strip San Francisco School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman of what they called a “platinum parachute” and other sweeteners in her new contract.

Leigh and Gonzalez said in their petition for a writ of mandamus that the school board without proper public notice raised Ackerman’s salary by $26,000, to $250,000, and also gave her permission to quit and still collect 18 months’ pay. She also received a boost from $1,200 to $2,000 of her monthy housing allowance, according to the lawsuit...

Leigh noted that the school district faces a $22 million budget shortfall, and said it was a bad time to sweeten Ackerman’s contract “when we’re laying off teachers and staff and shutting school doors.”

Lawsuit filed to toss school chief's raise

By Heather Knight
San Francisco Chronicle
June 23, 2005

The suit was filed in Superior Court by former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez and his law partner, Whitney Leigh, on behalf of a student, teacher, parent and taxpayer.

They want a judge to order Ackerman to return the money she has earned through the increase and for her to work under her previous contract...

Leigh said Wednesday he was concerned because the district faced a $22.5 million budget gap for the 2005-06 school year and had closed five schools in recent weeks.

A lawsuit on behalf of the children of SFUSD

By Kim-Shree Maufas
San Francisco Bay View Newspaper
June 25, 2005

The School Board and Ackerman are responsible to the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Law firm Gonzalez & Leigh LLP, comprised of former Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez and his long-time associate Whitney Leigh, have filed the suit on behalf of plaintiffs Alan Wong, a student; Tami Bryant, a parent; first grade teacher Jeremiah Jeffries; and concerned citizen Jacques Fitch. Leigh is African-American, and the firm is taking on the case pro bono (free).

“It was important to pursue legal recourse, and we’re filing a lawsuit in this matter because this was the only way to hold Superintendent Ackerman and the School Board accountable,” said plaintiff Jeremiah Jeffries. “We need to stand up against the injustice in this abuse of public trust committed by former School Board President Dan Kelly, Jill Wynns, Eddie Chin and mayoral appointee Heather Hiles.

Appeal filed in Ackerman lawsuit

By Bonnie Eslinger
San Francisco Examiner
February 23, 2006

Last June, Gonzalez & Leigh, a law firm headed by former Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, filed a lawsuit claiming that San Francisco’s school board approved the new contract for Superintendent Arlene Ackerman at an illegal meeting in November 2004...

“We’re convinced the local court’s ruling was wrong and should be reversed,” said Whitney Leigh, the lawyer overseeing the appeal. “We’re talking about a significant amount of money that the public should not have to pay and would not have had to pay if the appropriate officials had complied with the law.”

CONSTRUCTION LAWSUITS

4th Street Bridge is up a creek

By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross
San Francisco Chronicle
July 31, 2006

"Not in my wildest imagination did I ever think a job could turn out like this,'' said contractor Curt Mitchell...

A job that was supposed to be done in 18 months has taken nearly 40 months, and the contractor's costs have risen to $34 million from the $17 million first estimated.

Bridge contractor Mitchell, who has worked on a number of city jobs over the years, has thrown up his hands over what he calls the city's poor designs and its refusal to pay for the changes.

He has hired former Supervisor Matt Gonzalez to represent him in his fight with the city, which is going into arbitration.

Bridge Out

By Matt Smith
San Francisco Weekly
June 22, 2005

Mitchell and his partner, Mike Silva, blame incompetent and arrogant city bureaucrats for delays and say it's absurd that they should be fined. They describe months of unreturned phone calls about design errors, an undisclosed city study about problems in the bridge's substructure, and a team of city engineers and lawyers so obsessed with preserving legal advantage that it's impossible to solve construction problems collaboratively. They say that if the City Attorney's Office follows through on its threat of fines, they'll quit the job and sue the city for $10 million.

To this end they've retained former mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez, whose law firm has made a specialty of confronting San Francisco bureaucracies, including the police, the school system, and now the city's public works contracting system. "It's a political city," says Silva, by way of explaining his decision to retain Gonzalez. "We need an attorney who knows what's going on in the city."

Last year, Gonzalez quit politics to form the law firm Gonzalez & Leigh. He says he agreed to take the Mitchell case because it "raises a larger issue with the city of -- you obviously have to go after fraud. But if you create a prevailing culture in the city where you have to put the contractor in the worst light, you're going to get situations where there's only one bid on projects, and where projects cost much more," Gonzalez says. "If that's what ends up happening, you'll not be able to rebuild Hetch Hetchy, and you'll not be able to rebuild these other projects that need rebuilding."

S.F. lawsuit cites subpar work on water system

By Justin Jouvenal
San Francisco Examiner
August 26, 2005

Former Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, who is representing Proven, defended the firm’s work and said he believes the case can be resolved without going to court. He said Proven will do any extra work The City claims it needs to do, but he also said The City had already given its seal of approval to the job.

“The City in August issued a notice of substantial completion. That basically says the construction job is complete in accordance with the contract. That’s a pretty big deal. The City then withdrew this substantial completion four months later, which I have never heard of on a project.”

Fourth Street Bridge Project Overdue And Over Budget

By Dan Noyes
ABC 7 News, I-Team Report
March 1, 2006

We've been looking into the Fourth Street Bridge Project in San Francisco -- it's more than a year overdue and millions of dollars over budget, and that's federal, state and local tax dollars. The construction company is blaming city hall...

ABC7's Dan Noyes: "Are they being ineffective or is it even worse, are they being dishonest?"

Curt Mitchell, owner, Mitchell Engineering: "In some cases, they are being dishonest. In some cases, there's documented proof that they're basically dealing, unfair dealing and bad faith."

Curt Mitchell says officials at the Department of Public Works failed to give an accurate picture of the project when they put it out to bid.

After he won the contract, Mitchell found out most of the pilings under the bridge's south approach were rotten. It cost an extra $2.2 million to fix. The bedrock was lower than the city indicated, so Mitchell had to use longer pilings -- $415,000 more expensive.

A high pressure water line had to be moved, but the city hadn't revealed it was buried under 17 feet of mud. That stopped the project for months, until the city finally decided to abandon the line.

Curt Mitchell: "So yeah, it's been a nightmare. And I think it has a lot to do with the city's ability to manage this project"...

Matt Gonzalez, attorney for Mitchell Engineering: "Imagine hiring someone to paint the fence around your house, and then when they come, you tell them you want them to paint the house as well, and when they do that, you don't want to pay them for that added work."

The former San Francisco supervisor says the Newsom administration is doing all it can to delay paying the bill on the Fourth Street Bridge, until the city gets out of a $170 million dollar budget deficit.

Matt Gonzalez: "You know, there's a lot at stake here. They don't want the public to know that these added costs are going to have to come out of general fund dollars that ought to be going into our parks and other places."

GONZALEZ & LEIGH LLP

Gonzalez teams up with Keker partner to launch own firm

By Justin Scheck
The Recorder
January 20, 2005

Matt Gonzalez, the just-departed president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and erstwhile Green Party mayoral candidate, wants the law firm he’ll open in March to be the next Keker & Van Nest. His new partner is banking on it.

G. Whitney Leigh, who has been a partner at Keker since the beginning of 2004, was Gonzalez’s roommate at Stanford Law School and later both were San Francisco public defenders. He wants his new job to mirror the one he’s leaving...

Robert Van Nest echoed the comparison to Keker and Brockett. “It’s exactly how we started – two lawyers who were good friends and former public defenders who liked to go to trial and had good reputations,” he said...

The firm’s other partners will be Nima Nami, currently a solo civil attorney specializing in financial transactions, and Bryan Vereschagin, an associate at Morison-Knox, Holden, Melendez & Prough in Walnut Creek who currently specializes in insurance fraud litigation. At Gonzalez & Leigh, he plans to represent plaintiffs in personal injury suits and toxic torts.

“We’re willing to fight on principle. It’s not going to be cheap settlements,” he said. “We’re going to go to the mat on our cases.”...

At Keker, Leigh had handled both civil litigation and criminal defense. Recent case, he said, range from intellectual property suits to employment defense. “The cases we get are so broad. The firm sort of prides itself on its ability to generalize,” he said.

Van Nest and Leigh both pointed to the pro bono defense of Zula Jones as one of the most memorable in Leigh’s time at Keker. Jones, a San Francisco human rights commissioner, had 16 federal fraud counts dismissed in late 2003.

Leigh and Van Nest also pointed to an appellate judgment that got San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera disqualified from a case for a conflict of interest.

In San Francisco v. Cobra Solutions, A103479, the First District Court of Appeal ruled last June that because Herrera represented Cobra in private practice, he could not represent the city in the case. The California Supreme Court will hear the case this year.

Matt Gets Benched

By Bernice Yeung
San Francisco Magazine
September 2005

But this March, Gonzalez settled the speculation by founding the law firm Gonzalez & Leigh with Whitney Leigh, a longtime friend and former partner at Keker & Van Nest. While a law firm may seem like an unlikely choice for the charismatic messiah of the city's young radicals, never fear. Beneath the office's corporate veneer is a group of young lawyers angling to become the champions of progressive legal causes.

They're not even listed in the phone book yet, let alone on the web, but word has spread fast about the new team. Gonzalez claims they will be devoted to pursuing political issues in court. "We've taken on cases that other attorneys won't touch," Gonzalez says vaguely. "Cases with political or public policy implications they just don't get." But how they will differentiate themselves from other lefty firms remains to be seen.

Leigh says that they're constantly approached by clients they don't have time to handle, and they're already looking for a larger downtown space.

One they have been able to take is the California Green Party-most of the firm's six attorneys are registered members-and they've accepted a case involving the wrongful arrest and detention of Stancy Nesby, who was a victim of identity fraud. They've got a sex discrimination suit against a local labor union and one involving the wrongful death of a man who police killed with a Taser gun. Perhaps the firm's most high-profile suit was filed against school superintendent Arlene Ackerman (someone Gonzalez is familiar with from his days at City Hall) over her pay raise and severance package.