San Fran Court Observation Court

San Fran Court Observation

Court Visited: Northern California Federal District Court

Judge: Harold Baer Jr.

Plaintiff: United States

Defendant: Douglas Alan Goldberg

Sentencing Hearing

Holding: Goldberg was sentenced commensurate with a plea deal arranged in 2010 as a return favor from the government for testifying against former fellow CDR employees Z. Stewart Wolmark, Evan Zarefsky and Matthew Rothman (who were sentenced that same day to terms ranging from 18 months to 6 months)

Your Remarks: Pretty basic sentencing based on the fact that the sentence was already agreed to in advance between the defendant and the authorities and Goldberg presumably met the terms of the deal.

Based on some research the author of this response gave, this was part of a much larger scheme that involved municipal bond rigging at places like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Wells Fargo and General Electric Company. United States v. Rubin/Chambers is a related case in Manhattan, NY. Rubin faces 35 years in jail.

Court Visited: Northern California District Court

Day/Time: April 11th, 2013

Judge: Three Judge Panel (Reinhardt, Karlton & Henderson)

Plaintiff: Coleman and Plata (two different cases)

Defendant: Plata and Brown (respectively, as with the two cases above)

Issue: Prison Population Order Violated

Holding: The three judge panel unanimously struck the appeal on the part of the two parties involved to State of California's order to vacate or modify the court's population reduction order. The defendants must immediately comply with the June 30, 2011 order, as amended in January 2013, to reduce the overall prison capacity to 137.5% of capacity. The court condemned California governor Brown for insisting that mental health services were not compromised in California prisons due to prison over-crowding.

Your Remarks: Largely a continuation of a prior event, but a worthwhile development nonetheless. Basically, it's a matter of some people in California government having a spat with the courts regarding whether inmates are being treated and otherwise processed effectively given the significant overcrowding in California prisons.

Court Visited: Northern California District Court

Day/Time: April 11th, 2013

Judge: Robert Seeborg

Plaintiff: Joe Quirk

Defendant: Sony Pictures

Issue: Copyright Infringement Accusation

Holding: Summary judgment was given to Sony Pictures and Mr. Quirk's accusations about copyright infringement was dismissed. The ruling was justified on the grounds that Quirk's claim was inherently flawed and that copyright pertains to "expression, not ideas."