Jennie Rodriguez-Moore's San Joaquin County Courts Blog

The Supreme Court will hold its June 2013 oral arguments in the San Francisco courtroom instead of Los Angeles, Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye announced today. June arguments are usually held in Los Angeles.

“Ongoing judicial branch budget cuts have affected all courts, including the Supreme Court, and we, like the entire branch, are required to make difficult decisions to operate within our budget,” Cantil-Sakauye said. “Our court decided that it would be prudent to hold its June 2013 oral argument calendar at its San Francisco headquarters, rather than travel to Los Angeles. .”

December 2012 and April 2013 will still be held in Los Angeles.

Armando Rodriguez, who was jailed after refusing treatment for the highly contagiuos  tuberculosis disease,  called me to update me on his progress.

Rodriguez refused treatment because he had been drinking and doing meth that weekend. “I didn’t want to hurt my liver,” he had said.

Rodriguez is in a drug and alcohol treatment program at New Directions, where he continues to also be treated for TB.

He responded to news coverage about his case, and said the newspaper “defamated all my character.”

So, he wants people to know he is doing better at New Directions.

Here is the last story we wrote, here is the first story.

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced that hate crime statistics for 2011 are down in California by 4 percent.

1,060 hate crimes were reported in 2011, compared to the previous year’s number of 1,107.

Race/ethnicity/national origin hate crimes are the most common, accounting for 57.5 percent of all hate crimes during 2011.

Other notes:

* Anti-Black hate crimes made up 29.5 percent of all hate crimes in 2011.

* Anti-Hispanic hate crimes have decreased by 43.6 percent since 2002.

* Hate crimes involving religion have increased from 198 in 2010 to 201 in 2011. Anti-Jewish hate crimes are the most common.

California lawmakers on Thursday approved SB1462, a bill that allows jail inmates who are medically incapacitated to be released early from jail.

The “compassionate release” bill, which awaits the governor’s signature, works like the state prison’s early release program for sick inmates who are not a public threat.

Click here to read the article.

The California Senate passed AB 1270, authored by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano. It now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.

Currently journalists cannot request to interview a specific prisoner to investigate conditions. 

Reporters can interview prisoners selected by prison officials.

On August 30 and 31, the state Judicial Council will hear recommendations from its Executive and Planning Committee to restructure the Administrative Office of the Courts.

“The Executive and Planning Committee has accepted in some form almost all of the proposals made by the Strategic Evaluation Committee and will bring our recommendations to the Judicial Council for approval,” said Justice Douglas Miller, chair of the council’s Executive and Planning Committee.

The meeting will take place from 1:30 p.m. to 5:10 p.m. Aug. 30 and 8:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Aug. 31 at the Judicial Council Conference Center, Hiriam Johnson State Office Building, Third Floor, Ronald M. George State Office Complex, 455 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco.

A live audiocast will be available on the court’s website.

A link to his blog here.

The Modesto Bee reported Wednesday that defense attorney Michael Platt has suffered a stroke over the weekend.

The news came as the Bee was reporting on a murder trial in which Platt is representing one of four defendants. The trial has been postponed while Platt recovers.

Platt is a former San Joaquin County Superior Court judge.

The Administrative Office of the Courts today announced the layoffof 29 employees from its organization in its second downsizing phase.

161 positions had already been eliminated previously.

The office expects to have laid off a total of 860 fulltime and parttime employees by June 30.

“This is a distressing day for all us,” said Interim Administrative Director of the Courts Jody Patel.“… Unfortunately, given the current fiscal reality that affects all areas of the judicial branch, we were forced to make this difficult decision.”