Judge

A National Labor Relations Board judge has ordered NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to rescind disciplinary actions against five scientists who shared emails at work about a Supreme Court decision on background security checks for JPL employees. Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol ordered JPL to purge disciplinary letters related to the case from the employee files of Dennis Byrnes, Scott Maxwell, Larry D'Addario, Robert Nelson and William Bruce Banerdt. The five were accused of violating rules against unsolicited spam and bulk email.

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making emergency contraceptives available to consumers of all ages without a prescription. Calling government efforts to restrict the sale of drugs such as Plan B "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the medications would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon Eastern time on Monday.

Re "The case for citizen jurors," Opinion, May 3 AB 1401 is a bill in search of a problem. The need to expand the pool of jurors to include noncitizens due to high no-show rates has no empirical support. Our no-show rate is generally predictable, which is why we summon more jurors to satisfy the need. As a Los County Superior Court judge, I have spoken to thousands of citizens answering the call of jury service. I convey to them that they should view their summons as an invitation to be considered "citizen judges" in a trial.

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making Plan B emergency contraceptives available to all consumers without a prescription. Ruling that government efforts to restrict the drug's sale were "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the drug would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon on Monday.

A Pico Rivera man convicted of fatally shooting a 19-year-old gang member and burying the body in his backyard has had his murder conviction reduced to voluntary manslaughter, authorities said. Robert Charles Redd, 53, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison rather than the mandatory 40-years-to-life term he would have received for second-degree murder with the use of a firearm, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brandon K. Wong. Wong said Superior Court Judge Raul A. Sahagun reduced the conviction, saying he disagreed with the murder verdict that Norwalk jurors reached in April and believed that Redd shot Joseph Rubalcaba while in fear for his life, but that his fear was unreasonable.

A Los Angeles judge on Friday denied a request by a camp ranger carjacked in Big Bear by Christopher Dorner to block the release of $1 million in reward money. Richard Heltebrake, who unsuccessfully sought the reward, contends he deserves it because his call to 911 helped tip off authorities. But on Friday, Judge Luis Lavin declined to grant a temporary restraining order that would have stopped authorities from disbursing the money to four people. Lavin made his decision citing lack of irreparable harm and because Heltebrake had not properly served several parties who may have opposed the order.

A camp ranger, carjacked in Big Bear by Christopher Dorner and who then called police, is expected to ask a judge Friday to block the release of $1 million in reward money. Richard Heltebrake, who unsuccessfully sought the reward, contends he deserves it. He is expected to show up in a downtown L.A. courtroom Friday to ask an L.A. County Superior Court judge to grant a temporary restraining order stopping authorities from disbursing the money. Heltebrake called 911 after he was carjacked in the Big Bear area Feb. 12 by Dorner, who took off in Heltebrake's white pickup.

A judge ruled on Thursday that The Times could not be stopped from reporting on testimony from the top manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in a deposition for an open-government lawsuit. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin said that in asking the court to deny Times reporters access to the testimony and a prohibition against articles about it, the commission sought “essentially a gag order.” “This is a public matter,” Lavin said of the lawsuit brought against the commission by The Times and a 1st Amendment group, Californians Aware.

Over the objections of Los Angeles County mental health officials, a judge Thursday ordered an 86-year-old murder defendant to remain in the government's care and not be released to a family member. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Norman Shapiro said that Nattie Kennebrew, who in 2009 allegedly shot and killed a handyman and tried to kill the manager at the Hollywood apartment building where he lived, must remain at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino and that the county must pay for his care.

A group of lawyers that made millions of dollars putting online viewers of pornographic films in the courtroom hot seat may soon be feeling the heat of federal investigators. U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II in Los Angeles found that Prenda Law Inc., four lawyers and related companies repeatedly deceived the court in a copyright infringement case and said that he would refer the matter to state and federal authorities. Wright said in a court order assessing $81,320 in legal fees and penalties that he would ask the U.S. attorney's office, the Internal Revenue Service and federal and state bar associations that oversee lawyer discipline to look into the Prenda operation.