Rampart-FIPs - Where Are the Missing Minors?
All of us who live in LA, and in California in general, may have got a bit numb, and the U.S. Dept of Justice under the previous administration failed to send anybody here the wake up call, the coffee, the donuts, whatever it takes...
A judge who is reliably informed of “unprofessional conduct” by other judges or lawyers must initiate corrective action, pursuant to both State and U.S. codes of judicial ethics.
Standards of justice elsewhere in the U.S.
• February 2009 - two Pennsylvania judges were arrested in relationship to false convictions of
minors.
• March 2009 - the Pennsylvania Courts, of their own volition, within a month or less, set up panels to review and overturn the false convictions of such judges. The Pennsylvania judges did not engage in an extraordinary, heroic actions, they simply obeyed the law.
Standards of justice in Los Angeles County, California
• 1998-2000 - a 2-year, 200-investigator probe uncovered human rights abuses that were described as the worst abuses by police in the history of the U.S. However, at the end of the investigation, LAPD forgot to issue a report... to this date hardly any of the Rampart FIPs (falsey imprisoned persons) estimated at anywhere between 8,000-30,000 have been released, and hardly any of the perpetrators (estimated at 70-80) have been prosecuted...
• June 2001 - U.S. government and City of LA, LAPD enter a Consent Decree. Some judges and prosecutors had obviously been involved in “unprofessional conduct” relative to minors, since the case that resulted in the Consent Decree (June 2001) in the aftermath of the Rampart Scandal, U.S. v City of LA et al (2:2000cv11769), was framed around the mistreatment of minors, not adults. The cause of action was 42 USC § 14141 which prohibits "a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers or by officials or employees of any governmental agency with responsibility for the administration of juvenile justice or the incarceration of juveniles that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States."
Newspapers reported that LA could be subject to penalties in the billions, and
also criminal liability for the mayor, city council, police chief, police commission, etc. Counsel for the City of LA and LAPD apparently concurred, since City of LA, the Mayor, LAPD, Police Commission, opted to yield and enter the Consent Decree.
• September 2008 and beyond - where are the records of any overturned convictions of minors?
Can't find them, neither before the appointment of the Overseer per the Consent Decree, nor after... called and wrote the Consent Decree Bureau – no response. A decade has passed, and no corrective action was taken by the LA Superior Court!
No comments:
Post a Comment