California has the dubious distinction of being the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to releasing police disciplinary records, but last year lawmakers approved SB 1421, which went into effect on January 1. Now, in response to a California Public Records Act (“CPRA”) request, recor...
The Latest News, Posts, Articles, and Media Appearances from Tully & Weiss
Washington Governor Pardoning Thousands with Weed Convictions
Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced he will pardon thousands of state residents with misdemeanor marijuana convictions. He recently instituted the Marijuana Justice Initiative (“MJI”), which will expedite the clearances of approximately 3,500 people convicted of low-level marijuana crimes. T...
New Year Brings New Superior Court Judge in Contra Costa County
Although Judge Linda Lye, 45, was officially appointed a Contra Costa superior court judge in late November by Governor Jerry Brown, an appointment during the holiday season is close enough to the New Year to count. Lye was named as a replacement for the notorious Judge Bruce C. Mills, a man barr...
Denver Cannabis Business Owners Pleads Guilty to Drug and Racketeering Charges
Most Denver cannabis businesses work hard to comply with Colorado's cannabis laws. In any industry, there are always exceptions, and three owners of a large cannabis retailer, Sweet Leaf, pleaded guilty on January 25 to charges of drugs and racketeering. The three men made a plea deal and will ea...
Police Don’t Have to Release Body Cam Footage in Alabama
On Thanksgiving night, 21-year-old Emantic (“E.J.”) Bradford Jr. lost his life to a police bulletwhile trying to direct shoppers away from gunfire at Alabama's Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, the state's largest indoor mall. The young man was a hero, but he was also a black guy with a gun. Here, t...
Court Recommends Three-Month Suspension for California Prosecutor
It's possible that prosecutor Andrew Ganz will have his license to practice law suspended for three months, based on a recommendation by State Bar Court of California Judge Pat McElroy after Ganz was found guilty of prosecutorial misconduct. The State Bar of California not only suspended Ganz's l...
Cutting Prison Time Doesn’t Reduce Recidivism
We send people to prison to punish them and hopefully have them learn their lesson. But is there a limit to the cost-benefit ratio when it comes to locking people up? According to a new study, reducing the average federal prisoner's length of stay by less than one year could save taxpayers millio...
After Felony Charges Dropped, Avenatti Believes in The Rule of Law
Hundreds of thousands of people are hit with false domestic violence accusations every year. When the accused is a celebrity, in this case, one with only two degrees of separation from the U.S. president, things can get really complicated. Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing the infamous ...
Nearly 34,000 Inmate/Attorney Phone Calls Recorded – 3,300 Times the Number Originally Reported
Back in August, the Orange County Board of Supervisors ordered an investigation into how over 1,000 inmate phone calls with their legal counsel were improperly recorded. Beginning in 2015, the county jail's contractor for inmate phone services, Global Tel Link, began recording these calls, which ...
New York Creates Commission to Investigate Prosecutorial Misconduct
Our criminal justice system suffers from an epidemic of wrongful convictions which come to us compliments of dirty cops and dirty prosecutors. Misconduct by law enforcement is usually at play when innocent men and women are convicted of crimes they didn't commit. According to the National Registr...
On the Wrong Side of the Law
Prosecutors Can Face Felony Charges Under New California Bill When innocent men and women face the death penalty because a dishonest, sociopath of a prosecutor concealed exculpatory evidence, the villains seldom face any consequences. We have seen time and again where an innocent man was set free...
Kansas Prison Taping Case May Involve More Than 1,000 Lawyers
Attorney-client privilege is part of the foundation of our criminal justice system. Inmates and their attorneys don't expect that prison authorities will listen in on and record their private conversations, but that is what may have happened in Kansas. In late September 2018, U.S. District Judge ...
Feds Can Take Years to File Charges Against Cops
When Eric Garner died in 2014 after a New York City Police Department officer put him in a chokehold, the news went viral. He'd been accused of the heinous crime of selling single cigarettes. Garner told the NYPD officers who came to arrest him that he wasn't selling cigarettes and was tired of t...
Police Using Victim’s Right Law to Evade Identification
In 1983, Marsy Nicholas, a student at the University of California Santa Barbara, was stalked and killed by a former boyfriend. Just one week later, her mother was in a grocery store – right after visiting Marsy's grave – and came face-to-face with her daughter's killer. No one had informed the f...
Latest ‘Serial’ Episode Proves That For Victims Of Police Brutality, The Trauma Endures
“How do you quantify the intangible damage a cop does when he kicks your ass?” asks host Sarah Koenig, in an episode that tackles the aftermath of Jesse Nickerson and Emirius Spencer's run-ins with police. Oxygen by Gina Tron, October 31, 2018 “The Snowball Effect,” the seventh episode of the n...
U.S. Cops Charged with Over 400 Rapes in Nine Years
Between 2005 and 2014, police officers in the United States were charged with committing 405 rapes. Let that appalling number sink in. What's worse is that these are just the incidents that were reported and charged. The true number of rapes is most certainly far higher than that. Think about tha...
Governor Jerry Brown Signs Bills Making Police Misconduct More Transparent
Nearing the end of his governorship and likely the finale of his legendary political career, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law two bills that dial back California's strict laws regarding police misconduct. With his signature, California joins every other state in the union in permitting access...
As Activists Hack the Bail System, California’s Bail-Free Future Looks Bleak
Governor Jerry Brown's bill to end cash bail in California will go into effect on Oct. 20, 2019. But what will this really mean for all the people who are unjustly sitting in jail in our state today? A New York Times editorial compared California's new proposed system to “taking Advil for cancer,...
L.A. County Deputy Faked Evidence – But Prosecutors and Judges Never Informed
In 2003, during the course of an assault investigation, LA County Sheriff's Deputy Jose Ovalle decided to pour taco sauce on a shirt to make it appear bloodstained. Ovalle was supposed to collect crime scene evidence and report on it. The suspect's bloody shirt disappeared prior to being booked i...
‘Serial’ Explains How Prosecutors Are The ‘Most Powerful People In Any Courthouse’
Oxygen by Gina Tron, October 15, 2018 The fifth episode of the new season of “Serial,” aptly named “Pleas Baby Pleas,” focuses on prosecutors and the plea deals they make. “Prosecutors are the most powerful people in any courthouse,” host Sarah Koenig says. “Defense attorneys will tell you they...
Seattle to Vacate Over 500 Marijuana Convictions
Seattle doesn't have a large African-American population. Only about seven percent of the city's residents are black, but they represent a gross disproportion of the number of people convicted of marijuana possession. Now, more than 500 people, nearly half of them are people of color, will have t...
‘Serial’ Examines ‘No Snitching’ Code, Even After A Baby Has Been Shot To Death
Sarah Koenig sat down with Davon Holmes and Robert “RJ” Scott –t wo witnesses to horrific crimes where children were shot to death – who maintained that they would never snitch. Oxygen by Gina Tron, October 9, 2018 The fourth episode of “Serial's” newest season, which has been focusing on exami...
Sheriff of New Jersey’s Most Populous County Resigns After Racist Recording Released
If anyone doubted that racism still exists within the ranks of law enforcement, even top law enforcement officials, all doubts should cease after the recent resignation of Michael Saudino, the sheriff in Bergen County, New Jersey. Saudino was caught on tape making racist remarks about not only bl...
How California Confidentiality Laws Protect Police Misconduct
Back in the 1970s, Los Angeles police officers took the easy way out when they were upset with misconduct complaints: they shredded 30 years' worth of documents. While more than 100 criminal cases against law enforcement officers required dismissal, the public wasn't exactly enamored when it lear...
California Regulations on Law Enforcement Misconduct Needs Opening Up
Stephon Clark, 22, armed only with a cell phone in his grandmother's backyard, lost his life in a hail of police bullets on March 18, 2018. His death at the hands of Sacramento police officers made national headlines, and Clark's family has accused the Sacramento Police Department of covering up ...