Court Hearing

The legal battle over the estate of Thomas Kinkade received a hearing earlier this week in a court in San Jose, with the artist's estranged wife squaring off against Kinkade's girlfriend, who was living with him at the time of his death in April. The hearing was held to decide whether the estate fight will be held in open court or in private arbitration. Amy Pinto-Walsh, the artist's girlfriend, has submitted to the court a handwritten document that she says shows Kinkade bequeathed her his mansion and $10 million to establish a Thomas Kinkade Museum, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to decide who should raise a 3 1/2-year-old girl who was given up by her single mother: the South Carolina couple who adopted her at birth or her biological father, who invoked his rights as a Cherokee Indian to claim his child. The justices spent part of the morning as family court judges, and they did not envy those who must decide such emotionally trying disputes every day. "Domestic relations pose the hardest problems for judges," said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

A court hearing for Oakland A's slugger Jose Canseco on gun possession charges was postponed while lawyers sought to work out a settlement in the case. Canseco was excused from appearing Monday and was represented by Los Angeles lawyer Robert Shapiro as the hearing was delayed until Aug. 18. Assistant Dist. Atty. Gregg Lowder said he and Canseco's lawyer have an "agreement in principle" but have yet to finalize it.

Can a private company own rights to your DNA? The nine justices of the Supreme Court will consider that question Monday as lawyers for Myriad Genetics make their best case that the company should be able to keep its patent on two genes known to influence the risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Challenging that notion will be lawyers representing the Assn. for Molecular Pathology and other scientific organizations, which argue that allowing genes to be patented slows or shuts down scientific research involving those genes.

An Antelope Municipal Court judge on Thursday issued a continuance until March 2 for the preliminary hearing of former Antelope Valley College football players David Brown, Bradley Cole Jr. and Gene Washington. The three Lancaster men have each been charged on one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. They were named in the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl at a Lancaster apartment on the morning of Oct. 5, 1991.

One year after Torrance halted its lawsuit against Mobil Oil Corp. concerning operation of the company's local refinery, legal sparring continues between the two, with the latest round centering on an abruptly canceled court hearing. Attorneys for the city had hoped to use a hearing scheduled for Wednesday as a chance to speed what they believe is the sluggish progress of safety adviser Westinghouse Electric Corp., appointed last May to monitor activities at the refinery.

Thomas (Ski) Demski still is no closer to getting an exemption from city noise ordinances to fly his giant American flag. The Long Beach City Council spurned a request Tuesday by the bumper-sticker entrepreneur which asked them to put a ballot measure before voters that would grant him the exemption. Demski, however, said he is not yet ready to take his case directly to the people.

A judge has ruled that a Norwalk man whose former girlfriend put up their baby for adoption in Oregon without his permission cannot see the child before a court hearing next month. Jackson County Circuit Judge L. A. Merryman denied a motion to open the adoption file and allow Mark Hylland to see his 5-month-old son, who was adopted by an Oregon family. Merryman ordered attorneys for both sides to file written arguments within two weeks on whether the adoption was valid.

Micheal Ray Richardson, banished from the National Basketball Assn. for cocaine abuse, faces two court hearings on charges of driving with a revoked license and threatening his wife, police in Hackensack, N.J., said. Richardson was released from the Bergen County Jail on Monday night after a friend posted $2,500 bail on a domestic violence complaint, authorities said. Despite a February court order not to harass his wife, Richardson continued to do so Tuesday, according to Allendale (N.J.

It was a murder investigation that began more than three years ago when a pair of hikers discovered Ron Baker's mangled corpse lying near the mouth of a railroad tunnel at a Chatsworth park. Baker, a 21-year-old astrophysics major at UCLA, had been stabbed 18 times. His throat was slashed so badly his head had nearly been severed from his slightly built body. Los Angeles police detectives initially thought the body was that of a transient who had been hit by a train.

Chris Brown is due in a downtown courtroom Friday afternoon for the first time since February when prosecutors accused him of failing to complete court-ordered community service. Prosecutors had argued that proof of the R&B singer's service for a 2009 assault conviction was fraudulent. Superior Court Judge James Brandlin has yet to rule on whether Brown must serve additional community service time in Los Angeles County. If the singer does not fulfill his obligation to the court, he could be sent to jail.

The crowd cheered and clapped Tuesday morning as the LGBT pride flag was raised and flapped for the first time over City Hall Plaza in Long Beach. The ceremony -- which marked the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on California's Proposition 8 -- was part of the Courage Campaign's California Mayors United Against Proposition 8 movement. Mayors from at least 25 cities are participating in the movement, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  FULL COVERAGE: Battle over gay marriage   A letter signed by the mayors was sent to the Supreme Court before it heard the two gay rights-related cases it is considering this week.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Backers of gay marriage expressed satisfaction with the arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, saying they believed the justices supported their position. Jon Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group, said the hearing assured him that California gays are likely to be permitted to marry again. He said the most devastating admission for the proponents came when Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, was asked whether there was any rational basis for treating gay people unequally in any setting, such as employment, other than in marriage.

Hollywood again sounded off on same-sex marriage Tuesday, as many celebrities took to Twitter -- and went to Washington -- in anticipation of the Supreme Court hearing on California's Proposition 8. Actor-director Rob Reiner was the first person in the public line to go into the courtroom, saying afterward in a statement that Tuesday was a "historic day for all those who believe in freedom and equality. " "I'm proud of the powerful argument presented today by our legal team, and the courage and perseverance displayed by our plaintiffs over these last four years," the statement said.

WASHINGTON - Karen Bartlett, a New Hampshire woman, took a generic prescription pain medication called sulindac for shoulder soreness and suffered what a lower court described last year as "truly horrific" injuries. She endured burns across much of her body, spent two months in a medically induced coma and underwent 12 eye surgeries. She is now nearly blind and unable to eat normally because of burns to her throat. She was at the Supreme Court on Tuesday to hear arguments on whether Americans who are hurt by generic drugs can ever hold the drug maker liable for their injuries.

WASHINGTON - Jesus Gonzalez, a Catholic school janitor from Yuma, Ariz., tried to register to vote on the day he became a U.S. citizen. He tried again when he got a driver's license, but he was rejected both times. He became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that came before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, testing whether Arizona and other states can demand extra proof of citizenship before residents can register to vote. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued Arizona, contending Gonzalez and 31,000 other eligible voters were wrongly rejected when they tried to register.

In a case prosecutors hope will spur other prospective jurors to tell the truth, a Torrance Superior Court juror has been charged with felony perjury for not disclosing his criminal record. Larry Antonio Jones is the first person in at least 30 years to be prosecuted by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office for lying during jury selection, an office spokeswoman said.

As the state attorney general's office prepares to defend Proposition 187 at a critical court hearing next week, its performance was attacked Wednesday by partisans on both ends of the political spectrum. Sponsors of the anti-illegal immigration initiative, which won by an overwhelming margin in last month's state election, asked Wednesday to enter the case as "friends of the court," declaring that they are displeased with the representation of Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren's office.

HOUSTON - The couple, farmers from a village in the Mexican state of Veracruz, had traveled more than 1,200 miles to see their 26-year-old daughter, who was dying from an inoperable spinal tumor. Jose and Ninfa Sanchez, both 48, had applied to cross legally at the Texas border city of Hidalgo under a program called humanitarian parole, designed to allow foreign nationals to come to the United States for emergencies, such as medical crises, court hearings or funerals. It was up to U.S. border officials to decide whether the parents could see their daughter, Maria, before she died.

WASHINGTON - On a cold February night three years ago, police in suburban Arlington, Va., received a frantic call. A young woman said her roommate had been abducted at gunpoint by a short, clean-shaven man who sped away in a silver SUV. At dawn, a motorist spotted the victim in a snowy field near a highway, raped and strangled, but alive. An alert officer, hearing the lookout report, recalled that he'd jotted down the license tag of a silver Dodge Durango whose driver lurked near bars at midnight, leading to the quick arrest of a short, clean-shaven Marine named Jorge Torrez.