Courts
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Courts Paul Luna isn't finished with PARKatlanta
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 5:09 PM
- Joeff Davis/CL File
- Workers in 2010 install PARKatlanta equipment near Paul Luna's Lunacy Black Market (note the banner)
The suit asserts that the city’s arrangement with PARKatlanta is a violation of the city charter that was undertaken without the consent of the Georgia Legislature, and says that Luna believes the city “improperly delegated part of its police power by entering into a contract that allows a private entity to enforce parts of the city of Atlanta Code of Ordinances. He also believes the City of Atlanta in conjunction with ParkAtlanta has used the parking ordinance as a revenue measure where the scheme of the ordinance is such that the receipts will be continuous and will exceed the cost of installation, maintenance and regulation.”
Luna, who's long butted heads with PARKatlanta (see photo above), first filed suit over the outsourced parking enforcment last August. The case was tossed out by a Fulton County Superior Court judge, Land says, because the Atlanta Municipal Court judge who presided over the case wasn't properly served.
Monday, March 19, 2012
LGBT / Courts / Cops More money paid out to Eagle Raid victims
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 4:14 PM
- Joeff Davis / CL File
The GA Voice just reported that a $330,000 settlement was reached in a third lawsuit filed by victims of the APD's 2009 unconstitutional raid of the Atlanta Eagle.
Here are the details ...
As part of the settlement, [the plaintiffs' attorney Dan] Grossman also requested the Atlanta Police Department be mandated the police chief fire officers who destroy evidence in a civil case.Several officers involved in the raid on Midtown gay bar the Atlanta Eagle on Sept. 10, 2009, were accused of destroying evidence but not fired.
"If an officer thinks, oh, well, I'll just get a three-day suspension for deleting cell phone records, then nothing keeps him or her from doing it," Grossman said.
A court order also mandated the city pay Grossman $25,000 in attorney's fees for working to ensure the APD implemented the policy changes mandated from the original lawsuit that resulted in a $1.025 million settlement.
That brings the total city payout for the raid up to $1.475 million.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Guv'ment / Courts Ga. Supreme Court: City violated Open Meetings Act
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 9:46 AM
- Joeff Davis
- Atlanta Progressive News Editor Matthew Cardinale during a press conference this morning on the steps of City Hall. "Open government is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue," he said, "it is a citizens issue."
The Georgia Supreme Court today decided 4-3 that the City of Atlanta violated the state's Open Meetings Act when it refused to tell the editor of a local news site how members of the Atlanta City Council voted to change the rules regarding public comment at meetings. Matthew Cardinale, the editor, publisher, fact-checker, typesetter, and bookkeeper of Atlanta Progressive News, sued the city and represented himself in the case.
Here's the rundown from the court's opinion summary (PDF):
The case stems from a vote taken in 2010 during the Atlanta City Council’s annual retreat, which was advertised as a “public meeting” and held at the Georgia Aquarium. On the second day of the retreat, the council voted on whether to amend its rules regarding public comment at its committee meetings. By a show of hands, the Council voted 8-to-7 to maintain the existing rules. The minutes of the meeting do not reflect how the members voted but state: “After an extensive discussion, it was determined that the membership was not in support of amending the existing law.”After obtaining a copy of the minutes, Matthew Cardinale, editor of Atlanta Progressive News, asked the City for the vote tally to see how individual members voted. When he was unable to get the vote’s breakdown, Cardinale filed a “pro se” complaint (he’s representing himself) in Fulton County Superior Court, claiming that under the Georgia Open Meetings Act, he had a right to the information. At issue in this case is the wording in the Act, which states: “In the case of a roll-call vote, the name of each person voting for or against a proposal
shall be recorded, and in all other cases, it shall be presumed that the action taken was approved by each person in attendance unless the minutes reflect the name of the persons voting against the proposal or abstaining.”In his lawsuit, Cardinale sought not only a declaration that the City acted illegally by not disclosing the information, but also that the individual defendants be charged with a misdemeanor crime and charged a $500 fine. The City filed a motion asking the court to dismiss Cardinale’s complaint, arguing that the Act did not require a detailed record of the vote and that Cardinale had failed to state a claim against the City that would entitle him to some relief. The trial court granted the City’s motion to dismiss Cardinale’s lawsuit, and he then appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals. That court upheld the lower court’s ruling, finding that nothing in the Act “demands detailed information on non-roll-call votes….”
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Courts Task Force for Homeless court hearing on Friday…finally
Posted by Scott Henry on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 6:27 PM
And yet I was told just minutes ago by one of the attorneys involved that the long-anticipated and, one can only hope, final, hearing will, indeed, take place tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Fulton County Superior Court. Get there early, as the room may already be Occupied.
For those who haven't followed the tortuous progress of this case, here's the briefest of recaps: In May 2010, a newly formed nonprofit called Ichthus Community Trust bought two outstanding liens totaling $900,000 for the ginormous shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine. Ichthus then foreclosed, prompting a lawsuit by the Metro Task Force for the Homeless, which has operated the shelter since 1997. The suit also named Central Atlanta Progress as a defendant, claiming it had conspired with city officials and other groups to illegally wrest the property away from the Task Force. The Task Force also filed suit in federal court against the city, making many of the same claims, but the case was tossed out this past September.
Even though — or more likely because — things don't seem to be going their way, the Task Force lawyers have spent the past month deposing everybody in sight, including representatives of Ichthus, the city-owned Gateway homeless center, the United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness and scads of others. We'll see how that works out for them.
Oh, did I mention that the Task Force owes about $300,000 in overdue water bills or that it hasn't paid rent to its new landlords? I've also been told it hasn't paid its gas or electric bills in recent months, but I guess such worldly concerns don't matter when you've got God on your side.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Courts Grand jury indicts Victor Hill, world's greatest sheriff, on 37 counts
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 5:21 PM
We're working on getting our hands on the indictment. In the meantime, we pass the mic to Rhonda Cook:
While grand jury proceedings are usually secret, Hill was allowed to sit in the proceedings and to talk to the panel because he was an elected law enforcement official.Layla Zon, district attorney in the Alcovy Circuit, which includes Walton and Newton counties, was brought in as a special prosecutor to avoid any appearances of conflicts or political vendettas.
Hill has repeatedly said politics is behind the criminal case and that it only started after he announced he would be running for sheriff this year.
[Current Clayton County Sheriff Kem] Kimbrough took issue with the allegation.
“It’s not political,” Kimbrough said. “It’s all about accountability and the integrity of the office we hold.”
Yes, you read that right. Hill announced last year that he'd try to unseat Kimbrough and regain the sheriff's badge. His lawyer tells WSB's Mark Winne that his client will fight the charges. We'll be watching!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Courts Ga. Supreme Court declines hearing on hero Richard Jewell case
Posted by Eric Celeste on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 2:04 PM
- CL File
- Lawyer Lin Wood, left, and Richard Jewell in 2006. Jewell died in 2007.
Yesterday, the bulldog Supremes denied the Jewell estate's petition for certiorari in its ongoing case against the AJC and several staffers. You'll recall that '96 Olympic bombing hero Jewell, who passed away in 2007, was identified by the AJC (and other news organizations that followed its lead) as a suspect in the bombing. Jewell always felt that his reputation was permanently damaged by the paper's coverage, and the subsequent media attention that followed.
Despite the paper's legal victory — an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is his lawyer's only option, and that doesn't sound likely at this point — AJC's actions are grounds for a still-relevant debate in media circles. Given that social media has put pressures on daily newspapers to be even more aggressive in breaking news, the lessons from the case seem especially worth discussing these days. (This despite the tone of the AJC and its lawyers. The wording in this story — describing the case as having "dragged on"; the long uninterrupted chest-thumping by the paper's legal house organ; etc. — made me queasy.)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Courts Consultant to pizzeria: hire "hot chicks"
Posted by Eric Celeste on Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 9:51 AM
I know this story is a week old, but, you know, holidays, blah blah blah.
I really think this AJC story buries the lead, though. It says that a bartender at Varasano's Pizzeria off Peachtree Road believes he was fired because the pizza joint instituted a "hot chicks" policy to increase business. He was let go, he filed suit. (As the story notes, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated the claim and dismissed the case last year.)
But the huge unanswered question is this: How much did the consultant (allegedly) get paid to say "hire hot chicks"?! Isn't that sort of like suggesting the pizzeria "offer coupons" or "stay open during football games"? I want that gig!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
News / Courts Peachtree-Pine shelter eviction order granted
Posted by Scott Henry on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 6:54 PM
In the Task Force's second major setback in recent weeks, a Fulton Superior Court judge ruled this past Monday that the owners of the shelter building could put its occupants out on the street as soon as Oct. 27. Previously, a federal judge had ruled that the city has sovereign immunity against the Task Force's complaints and could thus proceed in collecting unpaid water bills for the property. Last week, in light of the federal ruling, city attorneys issued another ultimatum: Hand over a cool $237,600 by the end of the month or no more wa-wa.
Either of these rulings represents an existential crisis for the Task Force.
If the shelter doesn't pay the three-year-old delinquent bill and the city shuts off the water, the building would likely be condemned by the Fulton County Health Department and the occupants will be turned out by county marshals.
If, however, an eviction notice is served on Oct. 27, then the occupants could be tossed out by Fulton Sheriff's deputies.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Crime / Courts Troy Davis prosecutor vs. 'The Doubt Campaign'
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 4:52 PM
According to Spencer Lawton, there are two Troy Davis cases. There's the one based on facts and the law that resulted in the convicted murderer's recent execution. And then there's the Troy Davis case that remains undecided in the court of public opinion, the one that might mean an innocent man was put to death.
Lawton, who served as chief prosecutor in Davis' case, still insists that any lingering doubt concerning Davis' guilt was craftily manufactured by opponents of the death penalty. He calls this "The Doubt Campaign."
In a piece he wrote for the Daily Report, Lawton addresses several points that have produced doubt, in particular a lack of physical evidence, witness recantations and the emergence of Sylvester Coles as a possible suspect.
On physical evidence ...
There was physical (ballistic) evidence and persuasive circumstantial evidence.
Ballistics evidence established that shell casings from an event earlier in the day (in which Davis was later convicted of shooting another man in the face) matched casings recovered from the scene of Officer Mark MacPhail's murder.
On the seven witnesses who recanted their testimony after the fact ...
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Crime / Courts Alleged Midtown shooter won't face the death penalty
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 5:13 PM
At a court hearing earlier today, the state announced that it won't seek the death sentence for Nkosi Thandiwe, the 22-year-old security guard accused of killing 26-year-old Brittney Watts, paralyzing Lauren Garcia and wounding Tiffany Ferenczy when he opened fire in a Midtown parking garage in July.
CL contacted District Attorney Paul Howard's office for comment, but hasn't heard back.
Thandiwe was supposed to enter a plea today, but was granted another hearing on November 16 when his attorney, Rickey Richardson, argued he hadn't been notified about today's hearing and that a psychological evaluation of his client has yet to be completed. The AJC interpreted that as a "hint" that Thandiwe's defense will revolve around his mental health.
