National Roundup

California
LA city, county seek dismissal of lawsuit over homelessness
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city and county of Los Angeles are seeking dismissal of a sweeping lawsuit about homelessness that demands local government find shelter for thousands of people living on the streets.
Attorneys for the city and county filed dismissal motions in federal court last week.

The lawsuit was brought last year by the LA Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition that includes businesses, residents, landlords, homeless people and others who allege that inaction by the city and county has created a dangerous environment.

The alliance filed an amended complaint in November after an appeals court struck down a court order that would’ve required the city and county to offer shelter to all unhoused people living in downtown’s Skid Row area within six months.

Skip Miller, a lawyer for LA County, called the lawsuit well-meaning but legally flawed.

“LA County understands and shares the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis of homelessness in our communities. Unfortunately, this lawsuit has never been the right vehicle to get us there — not when it was originally filed and not now in its amended form,” Miller said in a statement Friday.

Daniel Conway, policy adviser for the alliance, said the city and county should be focusing resources on getting as many people off the streets as possible.

“This would have the benefits of saving lives, providing treatment and services, reducing crime and violence in our neighborhoods, and reclaiming public spaces for the entire community. Instead the city and the county of Los Angeles spend taxpayer dollars grasping at every legal escape hatch,” Conway said in a statement Sunday. “We hope their New Year’s resolution is to get serious about comprehensively addressing homelessness.”

A hearing was set for Jan. 24 before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter to discuss the dismissal motions.

Georgia
Judge could dismiss 2004 murder charges
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge is deciding whether he will agree with prosecutors’ request to dismiss murder charges in a 2004 fatal shooting where charges were filed after the involvement of a true crime reality show.

Muscogee County Assistant District Attorney Robin Anthony on Nov. 22 filed a motion to drop the murder charges against Rebecca Haynie and Donald Keith Phillips in the death of William Kirby Smith Jr. in Columbus.

The Ledger-Enquirer reports Anthony wrote that “the state believes it cannot meet the standard of proof at trial.”

The state wants the charges dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could later be refiled. Defense lawyers want the charges dismissed with prejudice, meaning they couldn’t be refiled.

Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Gil McBride told lawyers after a Wednesday court hearing that he will decide what to do by Christmas.

Anthony said her current boss, acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry, does not intend to refile charges, but acknowledged a future district attorney could bring them back.

Haynie and Phillips are charged with murder in the 2004 homicide of Haynie’s then-husband Kirby Smith inside Kirby’s Speed Shop in Columbus. Prosecutors alleged Haynie, who was Kirby’s estranged wife, conspired with her lover Phillips to kill Kirby, shooting him twice.

Prosecutors already were facing a possible dismissal for disobeying court orders to provide materials to the defense, including evidence related to “Cold Justice,” a show that featured the suspects’ arrests.

Foss Hodges, one of Haynie’s attorneys, told McBride his client shouldn’t face the threat of future prosecution.

“They would have to live with that for the rest of their lives,” Hodges said. He said prosecution delays in sharing evidence have already “irreversibly violated” the defendants’ right to a speedy trial.

Phillips attorney John Martin also asked the judge to block further prosecution. He said prolonged delays have drained the defendants’ finances. “The reason for the vast majority of the delay rests with the state,” he added.
During a preliminary hearing in 2014, investigators said they immediately considered the estranged wife a suspect, as she and Smith were involved in a contentious divorce, and Smith claimed evidence of his wife’s infidelity.
But police didn’t arrest the pair until June 15, 2014, after producers of the “Cold Justice” show got involved. The arrests were featured in an episode that aired a month later.

Defense attorneys demanded materials from the show. McBride ordered prosecutors to hand it over, but they never did, McBride punished prosecutors by ruling they could not use evidence from “Cold Justice.”

Haynie attorney Jason Sheffield called the hearing “a momentous day” for his client, saying the state now concedes there are alternate theories about who killed Smith.

“The state has decided and finally concluded that it cannot win this case if it were to go to trial,” Sheffield told WRBL-TV. “The state concedes that this is a circumstantial case at best.”


Washington
Judicial conduct commission files charges against district judge
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct announced it has filed a statement of charges against former Clark County District Court Judge Darvin Zimmerman.

The commission found probable cause that Zimmerman allegedly violated the Code of Judicial Conduct when he was caught on courtroom cameras in March disparaging a Black man who was fatally shot by Clark County sheriff’s deputies last year, as well as his father, the Columbian reported.

The commission said Zimmerman violated the code “by making comments about a controversial incident and the related impending case(s) that displayed racial bias, indicated a lack of impartiality, and implied that he had a personal channel of communication with the sheriff’s department regarding pending and impending cases.”

Zimmerman has 21 days to respond to the charges. If he does not, it will be treated as an admission of the allegations, according to the statement of charges.

His attorney could not be reached for comment Friday evening.

Following criticism and calls for his resignation, Zimmerman retired on June 30. He had temporarily stepped away in March after self-reporting his comments to the commission. His son is a sheriff’s deputy and a member of the interagency drug task force that was trying to arrest Kevin Peterson Jr., who was shot in 2020.