I had my worst trial court experience ever. I knew something was wrong at the hearing. The first thing that happened was that there was a substitute judge named William Barry. The court didn't send me notice. The court appointed counsel, William C. Price hasn't been sending me any service copies of the documents he filed in court. I found the whole thing strange.
In California - within time limits - everyone has the right to recuse one judge. So, I orally disqualified him. Barry said that I couldn't do this. I told Barry that I would email him the recusal documents, or we should continue the hearing until 1:30, so I could come to court to file it. Barry still refused. (Barry was actually reversed by the Court of Appeal before, because he blocked a litigant from blocking him or her from filing paper work.)
Barry then ordered sanctions against me and later told me I had to self-report to the bar. (See; I knew something was wrong.) When I tried to dispute what he was doing, Barry muted me; so I couldn't make my record. His last words to me was that I was disruptive and unprofessional.
Anyways, I appealed him and the appellate court said I was right. The first recusal is the first one presented to the court, in this case, my oral recusal challenge. The second ruling the court held was that an oral peremptory challenge is valid.
You know what was weird after that? I got a notice from Los Angeles Superior Court that Judge Barry would no longer be coming back to the bench.
Anyways, I reported Barry to Judicial Performance (which is the agency that oversees judges). Judicial Performance wrote to me and said I should check with Judicial Council to see if he was even authorized to sit on the bench during this hearing. In other words, Barry might not have even been permitted to hear this case.
Anyways, I've been finding at least two of these conservatorship judges, Judge Barry and Judge Jonathan L. Rosenbloom, to engage in unjustified amounts of arbitrariness. The Epoch Times has written its first piece on the abuses of the conservatorship processes.
I wrote an opinion on what I believe to be the unconstitutionality of the conservatorship process. You can read it on Cerritos News, titled: "California State Legislature Needs To Enact Laws That Require a Probable Cause Determination In Conservatorship Hearings".
The other appeal I came close to winning was against the City of Baldwin Park. I argued that the City was illegally indemnifying Manuel Carrillo, the Director of Parks and Recreation, by providing him an attorney, when Carrillo was being sued for non-city activity and instead for illegally running the City's sham alter-ego nonprofit. Carrillo was taking thousands of dollars in funds and then laundering them into gift cards that he can't account for.
After the nonprofit was dissolved, the City started up another nonprofit, called the Baldwin Park Charitable Relief Foundation. The officers are the same directors of the City of Baldwin Park: Director of Parks and Recreation, Manuel Carrillo; City Manager, Enrique Zaldivar; and Finance Director, Rose Tam.
I didn't win that in appeal in 2016, but you can read the opinion here. (It was a close call.)
Incidentally, the law firm representing Carrillo on appeal appears to be under FBI investigation right now for a bribery scheme that involved the granting of marijuana distribution licenses. The firm is Albright, Yee & Schmit, and Cristeta Paguirigan-Summer, a disbarred attorney who works for Albright, was a consultant representing the Jade Effect, a marijuana company.
Cristeta was an avid donor to state Senator, Susan Rubio. Cristeta was previously disbarred for forgery.
The Carrillo-appeal was my first appeal. I appeared in front of Norman Epstein. I have nothing but the greatest respect for him. Funny that my trial mentor also appeared in front of him, when he was a litigator.
To end, I recall Ulysses S. Grant's quote: "Man proposes and God disposes."
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