Source: http://hesseeinvestigations.com/headline_cases
Timestamp: 2019-11-20 17:38:56
Document Index: 181227091

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1962', '§ 1959', '§ 924', '§ 1951', '§ 1959', '§ 924', '§ 1959', '§ 1959', '§ 1951', '§ 2113', '§ 924', '§ 1959', '§ 1951', '§ 2113', '§ 1959', '§ 1951', '§ 1959']

Hessee & Associates Investigative Services - HESSEE INVESTIGATIONS IN THE NEWS
HESSEE INVESTIGATIONS
This page contains a sample of some of the high profile cases that Hessee and Associates have worked on with our client's attorneys.
Updated April 19, 2018 03:29 PM
Charges against one of three Placer sheriff’s officials accused in a jail abuse case last year have been dismissed, according to the attorney for former Sgt. Megan Yaws.
Yaws originally was charged with filing a false report in the case, but that count was later amended to being an accessory and was dismissed Wednesday in Placer Superior Court for lack of evidence, attorney Jonathan Gonzales said.
“At the preliminary hearing the judge found there was insufficient evidence," Gonzales said, adding that Yaws is now contemplating whether to seek legal action against the sheriff’s department.
“The reality is after she’s been in the news and painted as this horrible person, which she is not, it’s pretty hard for her to get any job in law enforcement,” Gonzales said.
”Our office respectfully disagrees with that ruling by the Judge and we are in the process of reviewing several legal options available to us in the case against Ms. Yaws,” said Jeffrey Wilson, Placer County assistant district attorney, in an email Thursday.
Lt. Andrew W. Scott of the Placer County Sheriff’s Investigation Division said in an email Thursday, “We are aware of the dismissal of criminal charges against our former employee, Megan Yaws. While the charging and filing decisions on criminal cases rests with the District Attorney’s Office, this dismissal in no way affects our decision to terminate Ms. Yaws. The behavior uncovered through our internal investigation does not meet the standards expected by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. The District Attorney will decide how to proceed in this matter and we would refer any additional questions to them.”
Online court records show charges still are pending against Deputy Robert Madden and Officer Jeffrey Villanueva, with both facing a court hearing May 1.
The three were arrested in 2017 in a case announced by Sheriff Devon Bell, who said evidence had been found of excessive force against inmates at the Auburn jail. Since then, a number of lawsuits have been filed by inmates claiming they were abused in the jail, including one that was settled in November for a payout of $100,000 and no admission of wrongdoing by the county.
Murder Charge Dropped Against Mother
Accused Of Drowning Child
40 Years Ago﻿
CBS13: Why, 40 years later, is this coming out?
Thomas’ Husband: Well, I don’t know. She’s got a daughter that’s not there.
CBS13: I saw those comments that her daughter made. Is she pretty hurt by those comments?
Husband: Who wouldn’t be? Wouldn’t you?
Some who live near Thomas says she’s the only one who knows the truth.
“I think that she should be watched, maybe,” said neighbor Dennis Hurley. “It’s been a long time, but the evidence I guess was circumstantial. But people could be nervous.”
July 14, 2013 7:21 PM﻿
Placer County DA Will Not File Charges In Fatal Rocklin Stabbing﻿
July 29, 2013 9:34 AM﻿
ROCKLIN (CBS13) – A 20-year-old Rocklin man who stabbed another man to death at a house party in July will not face criminal charges. The stabbing was done in self-defense, according to Placer County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Wilson.
Zachary Kachmar, 20, was at the Rocklin home of 51-year-old Robert Earl Vickney, Jr. on July 13 when he accidentally broke a shot glass. Vickney, who was reportedly heavily intoxicated, got angry and attacked Kachmar, who was seated. Vickney began to choke Kachmar, and as Kachmar was beginning to lose consciousness, reached for a knife that was lying nearby and stabbed Vickney in the chest.
Kachmar is 5-feet-9 inches tall and Vickney was 6 feet tall and 220 pounds.
Kachmar’s mother, Natalie, found out something was wrong when police arrested Zachary at their home on a murder charge.
“It’s been terrifying hearing the news that somebody in the community has been killed, and my son being involved,” she said.
On July 16, the murder charge was dropped and Kachmar was released.
In a statement issued Monday, Wilson said: The death of Robert Vickney was truly an unnecessary and avoidable tragedy. His death was a result of the irresponsible consumption of alcohol combined with a volatile temper and the complete absence of a sober or mature influence to control an escalating situation.”
Vickney’s death is the first homicide in Rocklin since 2007.
Placer DA seeks death penalty in Loomis triple-slaying﻿
By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer ﻿
“We have to start moving this case along - I’m concerned about it,” Penney said.
DEATH PENALTY DROPPED FOR TORRES!
by Pamela A. MacLean • November 13, 2015 •
Nine alleged gang members accused of a dozen murders, racketeering and armed bank robberies face a 73-count indictment Friday following a federal investigation called “Operation Daybreak.”
The men are allegedly members of the Salinas-based Norteno gang.
The indictment accused the defendants of 12 murders, seven attempted murders and seven bank robberies over a two year period.
The men are accused of hunting down and shooting rival gang members and others suspected of being gang rivals. One of the killings occurred on the campus of Alisal High School in Salinas.
Those accused include Dandiel Chavez, 33, Victor Skates, 26, Eduardo Lebrong, 36, Eder Torres, 29, Julian Ruiz, 26, Antonio Cruz, 28, Terrell Golden, 24, Anthony Lek, 28 and Robert Loera, 35.
U.S. v. Chavez, No. 15-cr-285
Judge says Robbers Fire arson investigator ‘less than accurate’﻿
Placer County DA reevaluating case against Bryon Mason
﻿Bryon Mason had a spring in his step as he walked out of the courtroom Tuesday.
The next step for the Placer County District Attorney’s office appears headed back to the drawing board in the prosecution of the man it alleged started the 2,650-acre Robbers Fire between Foresthill and Colfax in July 2012.
The DA did not file any new charges against Mason on Tuesday, his first court appearance since Judge Colleen Nichols ordered his release March 5 upon ruling there had been insufficient evidence to hold him over for trial on felony arson charges.
Nichols said in her ruling that Cal Fire investigating officer Cpt. Michael Gallagher lacked full credibility as a witness in the preliminary hearing as he gave “less than accurate” testimony and at times was “untruthful and unwilling to acknowledge his mistakes.”
Nichols did say in her ruling that Mason “is clearly held to answer on a lesser included offense of unlawfully causing a fire,” but when she asked if the prosecution would be filing that charge Tuesday, the DA declined to pursue it at that time.
Mason left Placer County Superior Court Dept. 13 in North Auburn with a smile on his face, free to head back home to his wife and two children who he spent more than seven months away from while in jail.
He had been released on March 5, but Tuesday marked the first time he walked away without another court date looming, without having to report to a probation officer, as Nichols removed his supervised release.
“It’s obviously a horrific shock to anybody who has little-to-no experience with the criminal justice system to be in custody for seven months and be away from a couple young sons and his wife,” Auburn-based attorney Thomas Leupp said of Mason, who declined comment. “That’s an obvious hardship on anyone and he’s delighted to be out of custody and be back with his family. We’re waiting to see what happens and what the next steps are.”
As to the original felony charges, Gallagher’s testimony had been key, Nichols said, to determining whether Mason met the condition of “maliciousness” that is required for someone to be guilty of arson.
Mason asked people to leave the Shirttail Creek swimming hole before he threw a firework into it on July 11, 2012, and it exploded in water, but a spark from it may have been what started the Robbers Fire, according to Leupp’s preliminary hearing brief.
The fire raged for 12 days, forcing evacuations of Foresthill and Iowa Hill residents for nearly a week. It burned one remote cabin that had been inhabited one week out of the year, four outbuildings and threatened 170 more homes.
Nichols pointed out several problems with Gallagher’s account of the area where the fire started. He testified that the rock wall on the right side of the waterfall had been 15 feet, but Nichols said photos showed that it had been between 25 and 35 feet high.
When the inconsistency had been pointed out, he stuck to his estimate, Nichols said in her ruling.
Asked to circle the 5-foot area where the fire started, Gallagher circled an area with at least a 20-foot radius, which Nichols said “did not help his credibility” and gave her “further pause.”
“It gives me concern we are just trying to prove something regardless of the facts of the case,” she said.
Gallagher also testified the fire started in a “flat, horizontal area,” which Nichols said “was a bit shocking considering the photos … show the area of the fire was anything but flat.”
She said she found it “troubling” that the court had been under the impression after the DA’s questioning of Gallagher that he was “on top of the ledge and doing the investigation himself,” when, in fact, cross examination made it clear Gallagher used a telephoto lens and binoculars to observe the area from roughly 50 feet away.
“He testified that he was able to get a clear view and determine micro and macro indicators at the point of origin, but yet he later clarified that neither he nor the other investigators were able to get to the point of ignition,” Nichols said. “In another breath, he said it was flat.”
Instead of arson, she said all the evidence points to the fire being started recklessly.
“There is no evidence to support the conclusion that a reasonable person would find it highly probable that the firework would explode in the water and then send sparks up and out of the water 25 to 35 feet up a nearly vertical rock ledge,” Nichols said, “and that would be accomplished with somewhere between 10 and 15 witnesses and his wife and children standing next to him.”
Gallagher has been employed by Cal Fire since 1980 and has investigated about 1,000 fires – 200 of those in his current capacity as a fire origin investigator. He has testified in about six different cases as a fire origin expert, with four of them being arson and the other two caused by negligence.
When contacted for a comment on Gallagher, Cal Fire public information officer Daniel Berlant said, “We still don’t want to comment on the ongoing litigation while the District Attorney makes their decision of what the next step is.”
“Our investigation is complete and is with them,” Berlant said, “so we don’t want to say or do anything to impact their ability to prosecute this case.”
The DA’s office did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
“They are reevaluating their case at this time, I think,” Leupp said.
He said Mason is looking forward to getting back to work – he had been employed by a “major retailer” for the past six years – and that he is remorseful for what happened.
“Certainly the place where the fire occurred is a place where he went with his family and friends many, many times. It was an area that he enjoyed,” Leupp said when asked whether Mason was sorry about what happened. “He was very sorry about the fire and he was incredibly remorseful, and the officer testified at the preliminary hearing that the young man was very, very remorseful for what had happened.”
San Jose: Man charged with murder in downtown shooting of SJSU nursing student ﻿
PUBLISHED:August 9, 2013 at 9:13 am| UPDATED:August 12, 2016 at 2:33 pm
SAN JOSE — Prosecutors have charged a 23-year-old man with murder, alleging the San Jose resident fired a bullet across a busy downtown street that killed a San Jose State nursing student who was riding in a car that just happened to be passing through.
When he was arrested at a Beacon gas station in the area, police searched him and found a handgun and what appeared to be crack cocaine. Police said Thursday they were determining whether the gun was the one used in Chico’s killing — bullet casings were recovered at the shooting site.
VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) " Police in Northern California are investigating the kidnapping for ransom of a woman who remains missing even though four suspects have been arrested in the case.
Man accused of hitting Kevin Johnson in face with pie accepts plea deal, avoids jail time
Local activist Sean Thompson pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor disturbing the peace Thursday in the case of his 2016 pie attack on former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, ending months of court hearings and speculation that Johnson would have to take the stand at a second trial.
At a hearing in Sacramento Superior Court, Thompson was sentenced to time served, meaning his case was dismissed after prosecutors accepted the deal of a lesser charge offered by Thompson’s attorneys. Thompson had been charged with misdemeanor assault. A second misdemeanor battery charge also was dismissed.
“We had a really long road to get here,” Thompson’s attorney Claire White said Thursday. “We had been making the offer from the beginning for (disturbing the peace). He didn’t cause any harm to anyone, but he was beaten to a bloody pulp. He’s a civil disobedient who isn’t afraid to take responsibility for his actions.”
Thompson in September 2016 had crammed a coconut cream pie into then-Mayor Johnson’s face at a fundraiser at Sacramento Charter High School in Oak Park. Johnson had responded with a flurry of punches, bloodying Thompson before he was restrained by Johnson’s security detail.
Thompson had maintained his attack on the former mayor was an act of “political theater” to protest what he saw as Johnson’s failure to address homelessness in Sacramento.
Johnson had said he reacted in self-defense. However, Thompson’s attorneys later argued at trial that the former mayor’s response went beyond self-defense and reached the level of “street justice.”
Thompson initially was charged with felony assault and misdemeanor battery on the former mayor. A Sacramento Superior Court jury in May deadlocked at trial on whether Thompson committed those crimes. By June, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office had refiled misdemeanor charges against Thompson, to the chagrin of his lawyers who called the new filing a waste of taxpayer money.
Prosecutors on Thursday said the plea deal made sense for both sides at this juncture.
“Our sole objective for this prosecution has been to hold Mr. Thompson accountable for his conduct in assaulting former Mayor Johnson regardless of the ultimate punishment assigned by the court,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi said in a statement. “We are also keenly aware of the practicalities of such a prosecution and the resources necessary to accomplish it.
“At this point in time, we are faced with a victim who does not wish to pursue the case further and a defendant who is willing to accept some measure of responsibility for his actions. The plea agreement provides finality to the incident and allows all parties to move forward with their lives.”
The deal, offered Wednesday evening, White said, came after Johnson and wife Michelle Rhee were handed subpoenas compelling the couple to testify at an impending second trial, and after Thompson’s attorneys announced they planned to argue for the release of a 2007 police report detailing an inquiry into alleged sexual assaults by Johnson against a minor and adult.
Thompson co-counsel Jeffrey Mendelman had said calling upon Johnson to testify about what happened after he was struck with the pie would “bring truth to the courtroom” and “bring into relevance the alleged victim’s credibility.” Mendelman, at the time, added that defense attorneys were eager to present previous allegations of sexual misconduct at a second trial, saying jurors “will get to hear about prior acts and make a determination.”
The Sacramento Bee reported in 2008 that investigators opened the case in May 2007 when a Sacramento High School teacher told police a 17-year-old said that Johnson touched her inappropriately. The report never crossed Sacramento County prosecutors’ desks and no charges were ever filed. A subsequent review by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department agreed with the police findings that no criminal charges were warranted.
Following the Thursday hearing, White said the subpoenas of Johnson and Rhee, along with the possibility of the report’s release, likely “pushed the DA to do the right thing.”
“As attorneys, we have to pull out every card in the deck for our client,” White said, calling the report a “very powerful tool.”
“When the DA is faced with an alleged victim who could be impeached, it affects the decision,” she said.
Attorney Claire White, right, with Sean Thompson, speaks Thursday, June 8, 2017, after the Sacramento County DA's decision to refile a misdemeanor charge against Thompson for striking then-Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson with a pie during a charity event last year.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article171768127.html#storylink=cpy
Manny CrisostomoThe Sacramento Bee
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article150633522.html#storylink=cpy
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article150633522.html﻿
Sacramento federal court jury acquits 4 in local mortgage fraud case﻿﻿
Here's how the FBI puts it (not legal advice?): It's "some type of material misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission relating to a real estate transaction which is relied on by one or more parties to the transaction." One thing that looks like it might be mortgage fraud is: X borrows $100 to buy a $100 house, misrepresenting his income and intent to live in that house. X then sells the house to Y at an inflated price, say $150, and Y borrows $150 to pay the purchase price by similarly misrepresenting his income, intentions, etc. X has now made $50, which he splits with Y, and then they default on both mortgages and walk away with their $50. A Sacramento real estate agent named Yevgenity Charikov and his friends were accused of running more or less this scam in 2006 and 2007.
But hang on, Charikov said: Actually banks in 2006-2007 didn't care at all about anyone's income, or their intent to live in any houses. They were just churning out mortgages for the securitization market. They'd make loans to anyone. Sure, maybe our mortgage applications were full of lies, but those lies weren't material, and no one relied on them. So we couldn't have committed criminal mortgage fraud.
This argument worked: On Friday a federal jury acquitted Charikov and his friends. It also strikes me as obviously correct, and sort of wonderful, and something that everyone should be happy about. Charikov's lawyers took a populist view, arguing to the jury and anyone else who would listen that the real culprits are the evil banksters etc. etc. But if you're an evil bankster you should like this result even more. After all, when the evil banksters packaged and sold these mortgages to investors, those packages were also full of lies. And so those banks are out tens of billions of dollars for fraud settlements. But hang on, they might say: Sure we lied a lot about those mortgages. But where is the evidence that anyone cared? The mortgage machine needed to be fed, and we fed it, just like this Charikov character. It's only fraud if the victim wasn't in on it.
Elsewhere in mortgage fraud, Goldman agreed to pay $3.15 billion to buy back mortgage-backed securities worth $1.95 billion from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to settle Federal Housing Finance Agency fraud claims. So that's $1.2 billion if you're keeping score I guess. The Financial Times is keeping score, and wonders how the Department of Justice, other regulators (FHFA, state attorneys general, etc.), and the banks figure out the numbers that go on these cases. "It is a black box," says a bank lawyer, and that seems about right. I complained last week about the sheer repetitiveness of these settlements -- Bank of America has settled its Fannie Mae claims five times now -- and the opacity is similarly frustrating. There's no clarity of "here's what they did, here's how much of it they did, and here's how much it costs them." It's just "here's what we were able to negotiate this time, isn't it big?"
The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to require more disclosure about borrowers' income and credit scores in asset-backed securities. But here's a good post from Adam Levitin about subprime auto lending and ability-to-pay requirements. His argument is that "The advent of securitization and the sweatbox business model have broken the lender-borrower partnership." Securitization is what we were just talking about: If you're lending money to people for like a minute before you securitize the loans and sell them to muppets, you don't actually care if the people will pay you back, so you can just accept any old lies about their income. This destroys the old notion -- "the lender-borrower partnership" -- that a bank has good incentives only to lend money to people who can pay it back. It's no longer the bank's money. And then the "sweatbox model involves a lender that is willing to treat the loan's principal as a loss leader: if the lender collects enough in interest and fees over time, the lender may still make a profit even with the loss of some of the principal." Levitin's proposed fix is to forbid banks from making loans unless they think that they'll get paid back, which sounds super obvious and unnecessary until you look at how loans are actually made.
Bill Ackman delivered 1,500 pages of documents to Allergan, representing requests from holders of more than 30 percent of Allergan's shares to hold a special meeting of shareholders to vote on the takeover proposal from Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Pershing Square. Here is Pershing Square's press release, which says that "Allergan is now required to call the meeting no later than December 20, 2014," though in the next sentence it adds that Pershing Square and Valeant are preemptively suing to make it do that. Here is Allergan's press release, which puts a brave face on things ("many stockholders have explicitly conveyed their view that the requests are not an endorsement of Valeant's offer"), and promises to review the requests and get back to everyone. In 1,500 pages of forms you can probably find something filled out wrong, and the question is, if there is a mistake, will Allergan be petty enough to deny shareholders their special meeting? Given the nastiness of this battle so far, I can't wait to find out the answer.
There won't be that many Goldman Sachs partners this year.
This year's partner class will be "no more than 70 employees," "people familiar with the matter" told the Wall Street Journal. It would be funny if those people familiar with the matter also dropped a few names, like, "no more than 70 people, Jane Smith is looking pretty likely, but John Doe has no shot."
Companies are buying back less stock as prices go up. If a Dutch company buys an American one it doesn't have to pay American corporate taxes any more, even if the Dutch company is basically Bain Capital. Burger King might buy Tim Hortons. "The issue of cyber resilience is a bit of a sleeper issue." A Leverage-Based Measure of Financial Instability. Investment-grade whisky. It's getting easier to get drunk at the Harvard Club.
BofA $16.65 billion mortgage settlement has quick impact, but not one AG Holder would want﻿
Aug 25 2014 Stuart Gittleman, Compliance Complete
Sacramento is in the federal court system's Eastern District of California. The district includes the state's Central Valley, which has been called "Ground Zero" for fraud during the credit and housing bubble.
Federal judge Lawrence K. Karlton let the defense argue, reportedly for the first time in a federal criminal trial, that lenders didn't care whether a loan application was truthful and that the falsity of an application was not material because the loan would have been approved whether it was true or false.
"Bill Black testified that the two mortgage lenders in our cases ? were involved with what he calls 'control fraud'[and] actively encouraged stated income 'liar loans' without caring at all whether the stated income (and other info) was true or false because they knew they were going to package and sell the loans to others," John Balazs, one of the defense lawyers, told Compliance Complete.
"[A]s a result, any misrepresentation was not 'material' to the lender's decision whether to approve the loan. ? [a]nd materiality is a necessary element to convict for mail fraud," he added.
Balazs noted "statements in the BofA and [JPMorgan Chase] settlements to support this ? the Clayton Holdings reports that showed most loans did not even meet the lender/investors own guidelines."
"As far as I know," the jury was the first to hear the criminal defense that lenders ignored lies and missing documentation during the lending and securitization stampede, but it should be a precedent, Balazs sadi. " I'd hope this type of materiality defense would be allowed in future cases," he said.
Black and the defense attorneys told the Sacramento jury that if Holder and the U.S. Attorneys and state attorneys general who touted the settlement could not find even one banker to charge civilly, not to mention criminally, for Bank of America's admitted misconduct, it's wrong, not just unfair, to prosecute borrowers.
Jailing borrowers will not reform an industry if a borrower's ability to repay is unimportant to lenders because they quickly pass potential problems to other participants in the system, said Black and the defendants' lawyers.
"The big banks and other lenders made as many loans based on patently false information as they could, packaged them as securities and passed them up the chain to Wall Street's investment and management bankers, who peddled them to an unsuspecting public," Tim Pori, another defense lawyer involved in the case, told The Sacramento Bee after the verdict.
"No bank executives have been prosecuted. Sure, there have been multibillion-dollar settlements with some big banks, but none of their officers, the ones who really pulled the strings, will ever see the inside of a cell," Pori added.
In addition to the materiality defense, Balazs said he hopes "the verdict causes [U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner]to readjust [his] priorities and investigate criminally the true culprits of our country's financial collapse, the mortgage lenders' officers who committed the real fraud, not those who allegedly lied on the industry's 'liar's loans'."
"Criminal trials are inherently uncertain endeavors. [The verdict] not dissuade us from pressing forward in the many other mortgage fraud cases currently pending in this courthouse," Wagner told The Bee.
Wagner's office has convicted many mortgage fraudsters at the strip-mall level, but he may also be a less-sung hero behind another large mortgage settlement, the $13 billion one last November with Chase. The bank reportedly settled with Holder, Wagner's boss, after Wagner threatened to file a highly detailed complaint against the bank unless it accepted Holder's more innocuous version. ﻿
In mortgage fraud prosecution, defense lawyers blame lenders and win ﻿
Wednesday, August 27, 2014﻿
By Hadley Robinson Daily Journal Staff Writer ﻿
Defense attorneys tried a novel theory in a mortgage fraud case in Sacramento, and got a novel outcome: complete acquittal.
In a trial charging four defendants with defrauding mortgage lenders by lying on loan applications, attorneys used a "materiality" argument to convince a federal jury that their clients were part of a much grander financial scheme that led to the housing collapse.
The four solo attorneys argued, through evidence and testimony from a law and economics professor, that even if the loan applications contained false or misleading statements, it did not matter. Lending agencies, they said, were often not required to verify the veracity of such declarations.
"Whatever was said on these applications was immaterial because the banks were so eager to bundle these loans into securities that they would take anybody's false credit score," said Vallejo-based defense attorney Tim A. Pori.
The attorneys argued that the lenders in the case, Aegis Wholesale Corp. and Greenpoint Mortgage Funding, did not care whether information was true or false. U.S. v. Charikov et al., CR12-0003 (E.D. Cal., filed Jan. 5, 2012).
"We aggressively put the lenders on trial and argued there was no scheme to defraud the lenders," said John P. Balazs, a Sacramento-based attorney who represented one of the defendants. "They were the ones in fact committing the fraud."
Legal observers say the materiality argument has not worked in such cases in the past, partially because other judges have not allowed the evidence, but that more defense attorneys are likely to try.
"The difficulty has been in getting judges to allow its admission," said Matthew R. Jacobs, general counsel at the California Public Employees' Retirement System who represented clients in several mortgage fraud cases as a litigator at DLA Piper. "That's the first time that I'm aware of in this district that [the evidence] has been permitted."
It is a rare loss for Eastern District U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, who has aggressively pursued cases involving mortgage schemes since he took office in 2009. Wagner co-chairs the Department of Justice's Mortgage Fraud Working Group and has often called the district "ground zero" of the housing crisis .
The office has charged 295 defendants with some sort of mortgage fraud since 2008, according to its own statistics. In 2014 so far, 16 press releases have been published boasting guilty pleas and sentences in this area.
The government fought against the defense's materiality arguments in pretrial motions protesting the admissibility of such evidence, and calling it irrelevant to the charges, but U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton allowed them.
"The United States anticipates that defendants will make this case into a referendum on the lending and mortgage industry," prosecutors wrote in the motion. "This case is about what the defendants did. It is not about what the lenders could have done or should have done."
In a prepared statement, Wagner said the loss would not slow the office in prosecuting mortgage fraud. Eastern District prosecutors are currently trying a mortgage fraud case, and have three more such trials scheduled to begin by early October.
"Criminal trials are inherently uncertain endeavors," Wagner wrote in the statement. "We have had tremendous success in convicting scores of persons in mortgage fraud cases over the last several years, but it is unrealistic to expect that we will get the outcome we are seeking in every single case."Â
Balazs said he hopes the government refocuses its efforts on prosecuting individuals involved in mortgage fraud at the corporate level, such as bank executives.
"They just go after this low hanging fruit," he said. "They go after the real estate agents or the small people and that doesn't really have any impact."
Judge orders release of Robbers Fire arson suspect ﻿
Blaze charred 2,600 acres in Placer County
UPDATED 7:24 PM PST Mar 08, 2013
FORESTHILL, Calif. (KCRA) —A judge has ordered the man accused of causing a wildfire in Placer County -- which cost more than $13 million to fight -- to be released from custody.
A man accused of starting a wildfire that burned nearly 3,000 acres in Placer County was charged with arson Monday.
A 28-year-old man was arrested in Sacramento County on suspicion of recklessly starting the Robbers Fire in Placer County with a pyrotechnic device, Cal Fire officials said Friday.
The Placer County judge found there was not enough evidence to hold Bryon Mason of Sacramento, 28, over for trial.
"It's sad that they didn't have enough evidence to convict him. But we've talked about it for a long time, and it sounded like they really didn't have enough to pin him to begin with," said Foresthill resident Kevin Reid.
"I'm kind of disappointed. I just want -- if he's the right guy -- I want him to be able to be accountable for it," said Joann Ortiz whose family was forced from their home during the fire.
Mason pleaded not guilty to charges of arson and recklessly starting the so-called Robbers Fire that broke out July 11, 2012.
The Placer County District Attorney’s Office said Mason started the fire with an illegal firework.
If tried and convicted, Mason could have faced up to 14 years in prison.
In a statement, the district attorney's office said it disagrees with the judge's ruling and said it "remains committed to seeking justice for all the victims of the Robbers Fire including those firefighters who placed themselves at risk in order to mitigate the damage caused by the defendant's action."
A court date of April 2 has been set for further proceedings in the case.
The fire charred more than 2,600 acres near the communities of Foresthill and Iowa Hill.
It burned one vacation home and injured a firefighter.
While waiting to see if prosecutors file lesser charges against Mason, some Foresthill residents suggested he steer clear of their community.
"He probably should stay away from up here because there are some (people) up here that would take out their frustrations on him," said Reid.
Rocklin Stabbing Suspect Released from Custody as DA Looks at New Details﻿
July 16, 2013, by Cecilio Padilla﻿
20-year-old Zachary Kachmar is a free man – at least for now.
“He was so mellow. When somebody said, Zach, I said how could that possibly be?” said John Bittman.
Kachmar was supposed to face murder charges today in the death of 59-year-old Robery Vickney Jr., who died Saturday after police say he was stabbed in the chest by Kachmar.
But the District Attorney continued court proceedings to July 29, as investigators determine if charges will still be filed. Prosecutors now say Kachmar may have acted in self-defense.
“He’s a good kid. For me that was hard to believe he would do anything like that,” said Bittman, a long-time neighbor of Kachmar.
Investigators said while Kachmar was at Vickney’s home for a birthday party, a confrontation happened that led to the stabbing.
Kachmar was in the Placer County Jail since Sunday morning.
In a Facebook post, Kachmar’s mother, Natalie writes:
“I’m overwhelmed with joy that they have released my beautiful loving kind son!!! Thank you so much for all the love and support. My heart goes out to the the Vickney family for this tragic accident.”
Hung jury forces judge to dismiss Savage case﻿
Jury stuck on one witness’s testimony
By: Jon Brines Gold Country News Service
With a Roseville jury deadlocked on guilt or innocence, Judge Colleen Nichols used her authority to dismiss the case against Placer County Lt. John Savage Tuesday with no possibility of a new trial. “I’m smiling today,” Savage said after the ruling. “I think today we are in a position now where we can move on with our lives.” Savage was accused of gross negligence in firing a gun into the air outside his then-Rocklin home in October 2009. After two-and-a-half days of deliberations jury foreman and Rocklin resident Chris Randolph said the final vote was 9-2 in favor of not guilty and one juror who remained undecided. Prosecutor Matt Block was disappointed with the result but said he accepted it. “The jury took the responsibility seriously and deliberated for a while,” Block said. “Speaking with them it seems they really wrestled with their decision and I don’t take that lightly.” Without a gun or bullet casings found in the case, Randolph said the verdict hinged on one witness: Danielle Wunder. Wunder, an 18-year-old neighbor, was the only witness who said she saw Savage with an object outside his Lakebreeze Drive home when the shots were fired. During the weeklong trial, two dozen other neighbors testified they heard three to seven shots but didn’t see the shooter. Savage denied accusations by the prosecution that the gun he allegeldy fired was in his car. Savage did not allow Rocklin Police officers to search his or his wife’s vehicles the night shots were reported fired. He also refused to submit to a residue test to determine if he had fired a gun, saying in his testimony on the stand that he thought the test is “inaccurate.” Savage faced a fine and up to one year in jail. Randolph further revealed what the jury discussed during deliberations. “It’s not necessarily that the rest of the group didn’t believe her testimony but we didn’t necessarily know whether she saw what she thought she did,” Randolph explained. Randolph said there were contradictions with what she said on scene that night, later when she was interviewed a second time by police and then when she took the stand last Tuesday. “I think a young person in a tense situation is more likely to confine certain memories together,” Randolph said. “I don’t think she had any ill intent but she even seemed confused about what it was she was seeing. I can’t hinge one person’s fate on that.” Wunder could not be reached for comment Tuesday. One of the juror’s who voted guilty during the deliberations, who didn’t want to be identified, said Wunder’s age helped her credibility. “I thought he was guilty. Based on the eye witness,” the Auburn resident said. “She was a young girl who was nervous. I believe her first statement was true and she was influenced by her mother (Linda Wunder).” Linda Wunder was also called as a witness in the case. The defense tried to undermine her credibility by pointing out she had a bad relationship with the defendant, got him evicted and her own brother was a detective for the agency that investigated the crime, Rocklin Police. Randolph said the defense’s accusation of a conspiracy by the District Attorney to put Savage on trial to show their office is tough on law enforcement was not a factor. “Conspiracy wasn’t anything we put a lot of weight into,” Randolph said. “It was considered but pretty quickly set aside.” Savage’s own testimony wasn’t compelling to the jury either, according to Randolph. “The general sentiment was not to pay attention to the defendant’s own testimony because he has the most to gain by it,” Randolph said. Savage’s brother Steven said he had a heart-to-heart conversation with John Savage before the trial and he believes he is innocent. “I know from the bottom of my heart that he is not guilty,” Steven Savage said. “He cares about his job and will do as good of a job for the community as anyone.” Lt. John Savage continues to work as a watch commander for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office based out of Auburn. That’s something Savage said he is looking forward to continuing. “I can’t be more happy with the place I work,” Savage said. “They looked at the entire case and kept me in my position. They believed in me. That says a lot about my department.”
Federal Murder Charges Unveiled In 73-Count Indictment Against Gang Members﻿
Superseding Indictment Includes Broad Range of Charges, Including Racketeering and Armed Bank Robbery
SAN JOSE – A 73-count superseding indictment was unsealed today charging nine defendants with racketeering, murder, attempted murder, armed bank robbery, robbery affecting interstate commerce, and the use of firearms, announced Acting United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch. The arrests followed an investigation referred to as “Operation Daybreak,” so named for the early morning attacks that characterized the alleged criminal activity in this case.
Eight of the defendants- Daniel Chavez, AKA Youngster (age 33); Victor Skates, AKA Demon (age 26); Eduardo Lebron, AKA Warlord (age 36); Eder Torres, AKA Flaco (age 29); Julian Ruiz, AKA JJ (age 26); Antonio Cruz (age 28); Terrell Golden, AKA G (age 24); and Anthony Lek (age 28) are alleged to be Salinas-based Norteño gang members, while the ninth defendant, Robert Loera (age 35), is alleged to be an associate of the gang. According to the superseding indictment, all nine defendants conspired to commit murder and other violent crimes as part of a criminal RICO enterprise tied to their Norteño gang activity. The superseding indictment alleges that, over a two year time period, the defendants committed 12 murders, seven attempted murders, and seven bank robberies.
With respect to the murders and attempted murders, the superseding indictment alleges that the defendants hunted for rival gang members and other enemies, and shot and killed them and others suspected of being rival gang members. One of the homicides charged in the superseding indictment occurred on the campus of Alisal High School in Salinas, California.
“We greatly appreciate the tireless efforts of the Salinas Police Department in reducing violent crime in the Salinas Valley,” said U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch. “Operation Daybreak has been a critical part of exposing crime in the area. While there remains more work to be done, today’s indictment is the result of collective leadership of the Salinas Police Department, and the FBI.”
"This years-long investigation involved thousands of investigative hours by Salinas police detectives with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” said Chief Kelly J. McMillin of the Salinas Police Department. “This case demonstrates what we have known for many years; that very few individuals drive the majority of violence in Salinas. It should also serve to remind us all that the role of prevention and intervention efforts cannot be overlooked and in fact must be strengthened further to ensure other young men never think it's okay to shoot another. The Salinas Police Department would like to thank the people of the Office of the United States Attorney, Northern District of California, for their incredible dedication to bringing these individuals to justice."
As alleged in the superseding indictment, the armed bank robberies occurred in the cities of Salinas, Watsonville, and San Jose. In addition, there was an armed robbery of a Zales jewelry store in Gilroy.
All nine defendants have been charged with the crimes set forth in the first four counts of the superseding indictment:
racketeering conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d);
conspiracy to commit murder and assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959;
use of firearms in furtherance of crimes of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c); and
robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a).
Daniel Chavez a/k/a Youngster
Murder in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(1) and 2
Use of Firearm Causing Murder, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(j)
Assault with a Dangerous Weapon in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(3) and 2
Attempted Murder in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(5) and 2
Conspiracy to Commit Robbery Affecting Interstate Commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1951(a) and 2
Robbery and Conspiracy to Commit Robbery of Banks and Credit Unions, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d), and 371
Use of Firearm in Furtherance of Crime of Violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c)(1)(A) and 2
5-14, 21- 33,
46-48, 65-67,
Victor Skates a/k/a Demon
Attempted Murder and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(3), (5) and 2
Conspiracy to Commit Robbery Affecting Interstate Commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) and 2
Robbery and Conspiracy to Commit Robbery of Banks and Credit Unions, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d), and 2
5-17, 21-25, 29-34, 38-44, 46-55, 59-64, 68-70
Eduardo Lebron a/k/a Warlord
Murder in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(1)
35-37, 49-58
Eder Torres a/k/a Flaco
5-7, 29-31,
65-67, 71-73
Julian Ruiz a/k/a JJ
Only charges in counts 1-4
Only counts 1-4
5-7, 18-20,
24-28, 59-64,
Terrell Golden a/k/a G
Conspiracy to Commit Robbery Affecting Interstate Commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a)
5-7, 24, 25
Accessory After the Fact to Attempted Murder and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(5) and 3
5-7, 45
The defendants are all currently in law enforcement custody in various jurisdictions, including in the custody of the United States Marshals Service. Defendants are scheduled to appear before the Honorable Lucy Koh, United States District Judge, on Wednesday, November 18, 2015, at 9:30 a.m.