Laurinda Keys

3 weeks ago | dailyjournal.com | Laurinda Keys

The Los Angeles Superior Courts' first county-wide survey, released Thursday, shows support for a plan to close some of its 36 courthouses in favor of digital kiosks, mobile units and storefronts, some manned by judges, to provide services more easily and at less cost. A new website, informational videos and allowing the public to conduct more business online are among the plans.

2 months ago | dailyjournal.com | Laurinda Keys

Orange County Superior Court Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, who was fired by current District Attorney Todd Spitzer for his handling of a murder case with torture under a previous DA and was then elected to the bench, might be called as a witness in the defendant's retrial, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said in a Daily Journal interview today. "It's a possibility," Sanders said, discussing the possible reaction jurors might have to a jurist as a witness.

2 months ago | dailyjournal.com | Laurinda Keys

Orange County Superior Court Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, who was fired by current District Attorney Todd Spitzer for his handling of a murder case with torture under a previous DA and was then elected to the bench, might be called as a witness in the defendant's retrial. "That's a distinct possibility," Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders told the Daily Journal Wednesday, discussing how jurors might react to a jurist as a witness and the evidence he will be able to present about misconduct.

2 months ago | dailyjournal.com | Laurinda Keys

Orange County Judge Jeffrey Ferguson's testimony in his murder trial that he drank every day during work was stunning. Not because no judge has done it before, but because there are no reports of a judge publicly admitting it or being held accountable for it, extensive research for this article shows. Whether his admission has any retroactive effect on the cases he handled is now up to the presiding judge, district attorney, public defender and private attorneys who represented clients before him.

Dec 3, 2024 | dailyjournal.com | Laurinda Keys |Craig Anderson

The legality of a presidential pardon as broad as that granted to Hunter Biden is unusual and has never been adjudicated, said experts reacting Wednesday to a Los Angeles federal judge's agreement to dismiss the tax and gun case before him while rejecting the way the pardon was communicated to the court and raising the question of whether it might not be completely constitutional.