City Attorney S Office

A former employee has sued Kaiser Permanente, claiming that the HMO "blackballed" her for participating in a criminal investigation into the alleged dumping of a homeless woman on skid row. Irene Hernandez, 50, of Downey said Kaiser's hospital in Bellflower quit employing her as a registry nursing assistant after she cooperated with the Los Angeles city attorney's office investigation into alleged patient-dumping by the hospital giant.

Theirs is a classic Los Angeles political rivalry -- rarely discussed in public but obvious to all who are close, alluded to with raised eyebrows and snickering asides, laced with ethnicity and thick with practical implications, most recently in the spirited debate over a lawsuit that led to the fire chief's resignation.

A Superior Court judge handed a defeat to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday, refusing to grant a restraining order requiring that the city be notified in advance of strikes by one of its unions. Judge David P. Yaffe turned down the city's request for a temporary restraining order against the Engineers and Architects Assn., which represents more than 7,500 professionals who work for the city.

The following will make a lot more sense if you understand a few things about Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge. The first is that he truly believes Los Angeles is the best city on the planet. The second is that "The Wizard of Oz" is his favorite movie. So, imagine LaBonge's reaction over the summer when someone handed him the new route for the Los Angeles Marathon and LaBonge noticed that the course didn't visit many quarters of his beloved city.

A biologist and environmentalist charged with vandalism in the Ballona Wetlands reached an agreement in court Friday with the city attorney's office to provide an ecological report and lead field trips of a portion of the wetlands in exchange for prosecutors dropping the charges in 18 months. Roy van de Hoek, well known in conservation circles for his fervor and activism, was charged with cutting down nonnative invasive plants in the wetlands without permission.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted behind closed doors to appeal a recent federal court ruling that struck down the city's prohibition on sleeping on sidewalks. The prohibition, part of the city's attempt to reclaim downtown from the homeless, was overturned by an appeals court last month. The council's vote was notable because it was taken in closed session and the results were not publicly announced by the city clerk.

A jury Wednesday awarded more than $1.5 million to a former Los Angeles prosecutor who said City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and other supervisors retaliated against her for reporting mistakes and misconduct by other attorneys. In addition to the award of $1,525,938 to Lynn Magnandonovan, the city could also be on the hook for her legal fees, which are expected to exceed $2 million, said Samuel J. Wells, one of her attorneys. "This was an indictment of the city attorney's office," he said.

Bernard C. Parks, the former Los Angeles police chief and now a city councilman, has been hauled into court so many times by attorney Stephen Yagman he's lost count. William J. Bratton, the current chief, once took a helicopter to Orange County for a few minutes of testimony in a Yagman case. Bratton was on call again last week, although in the end was not compelled to take the stand.

Asked by the Los Angeles Police Commission about the legality of withholding the names of officers involved in shootings, the city attorney's office recommended that the commission "carefully consider" its options but left to the panel the decision whether the public interest in disclosure outweighed officers' claims of privacy.

The head of the Los Angeles Housing Department complained in a letter released Monday that City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's office failed to file criminal or civil actions in 275 rent-control cases, despite evidence that the ordinance was violated. Delgadillo's chief deputy responded that some of the cases submitted by the Housing Department were resolved in internal hearings and others were so sloppy and incomplete that prosecutors could not prove criminal wrongdoing.