The federal civil rights lawsuit filed yesterday by four homeless residents of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Catholic Worker, and the LA Community Action Network, was assigned today to District Court Judge S. James Otero (I have the order here). In 2013 Judge Otero decided the big lawsuit against the misuse of VA property in Westwood, thus enraging a bunch of ritzy Brentwood people who think their dogs are more important than not only the lives of veterans but than the property rights of Los Angeles founding mother Arcadia Bandini Stearns de Baker, who donated the property to the VA explicitly for the sake of veterans. Anyway, he did the right thing there, and perhaps he will here too, although the gossip around the MK.org water cooler is leaning towards a motion to switch the case over to Judge Gutierrez, probably based on a “substantial amount of factual overlap” or some such thing. We shall see, I suppose.

Picture of James Otero is copyright-free for the usual federal reasons.