Tag Archives: Kurt Franklin

Lunada Bay Boys Case: Charlie And Frank Ferrara Withdraw Motion For Summary Judgment, City Of PVE Releases A Bunch Of Formerly Confidential Material Proving Among Other Things That Former Police Chief Jeff Kepley Wanted To Charge Bay Boys As A Gang, More Papayans Text Messages, Powerful Plaintiffs’ Opposition To City Defendants’ Motion

For background take a look at this excellent article from the Times on this lawsuit. Also see here to download all pleadings in this case. You can also read all my posts on the case.

There’s so much going on right now that I barely have time to list the recent paper filed in the Lunada Bay Boys case, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff here.

• First of all, recall that during last week’s hearing on sanctions against defendants Charlie Ferrara, Frank Ferrara, and Sang Lee, magistrate judge the honorable Rozella Oliver strongly hinted to the Ferraras’ attorney, Alison K. Hurley, that she really ought to consider withdrawing her clients’ motion for summary judgment. Well, I suppose that when judges hint, smart people listen, and, additionally, it seems that Alison K. Hurley does as well. Thus on Monday the Ferraras filed this notice of withdrawal of their previous motion.

• Next we have the Plaintiffs’ supplemental brief in opposition to City defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The overarching issue is that the City of PVE has been so remiss in its duties to release documents that they’ve made it impossible for the plaintiffs to respond effectively to this motion for summary judgment. This is worth reading, and there’s a partial transcription at the end of this post.

• Also, this item comes with a statement of supplemental facts and a bunch of exhibits. These contain tons of super-interesting, formerly confidential, documentary evidence. The point is to enumerate all the ways in which the City defendants failure to provide this new evidence, some of it obtained as recently as yesterday, hindered the plaintiffs’ response. The new evidence is fascinating. There’s a list of links and descriptions after the break.

• Finally, there’s a supplemental brief in opposition to the individual defendants’ motions for summary judgment, which plays a role parallel to the analogous document for the City defendants. This too is well worth your attention, and there’s a partial transcription after the break. This also comes with a statement of supplemental facts, also worth reading, with lots of new creepy Bay Boy texts and so on.
Continue reading Lunada Bay Boys Case: Charlie And Frank Ferrara Withdraw Motion For Summary Judgment, City Of PVE Releases A Bunch Of Formerly Confidential Material Proving Among Other Things That Former Police Chief Jeff Kepley Wanted To Charge Bay Boys As A Gang, More Papayans Text Messages, Powerful Plaintiffs’ Opposition To City Defendants’ Motion

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Get To The Bay And Rouste [sic] Those Kooks! Newly Obtained Papayans Text Messages Prove Bay Boy Conspiracy To Deny Cory Spencer Access To The Water — Also, News From Thursday’s Hearing On Sanctions Against Charlie And Frank Ferrara And Sang Lee For, Among Other Things, Destroying Evidence

For background take a look at this excellent article from the Times on this lawsuit. Also see here to download all pleadings in this case.

I apologize for having neglected the Lunada Bay Boys case lately, but I’ve just been so overwhelmed with the Skid Row Neighborhood Council matter that I haven’t had time for much else. There have, however, been a number of interesting developments in this matter as well.

First of all, recall that the cell phone of Bay Boys defendant Michael Papayans was in LAPD custody after his notorious arrest for beating up a man in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium. Once the LAPD gets its hands on evidence it seems that they don’t give it up so very easily, and thus, in July, the Honorable Rozella Oliver, magistrate judge in the case, ordered them to hand it over for analysis. Well, they evidently did so, and, on October 9, a bunch of text messages from the phone were filed with the court. You must read these texts! It seems to me that they pretty much prove the plaintiffs’ case. Here are some highlights:

  • Yeah get down there I’ll be up as soon as I can my dad should be going out soon
  • Yea, only 5 guys out and he’s out, I’m going
  • I hate this guy
  • Are they in the water
  • He’s in the water. Only five guys out. Get down here boys. I’m out there
  • Kooks up there
  • Get him Charlie, just go shake his hand, tell him we missed him and can’t believe he didn’t make any of these latest headlines, he should be ashamed
  • Lol ok I’m on my way !
  • Michelle get to the bay and rouste [sic] those kooks
  • there are two kooks he’s got a little baldheaded white guy with them he looks like a boogie board or to fuck what a joke!
  • The kook is here at the bay right now
  • I don’t know how I get put on these threads but its hilarious :)


And the other news is that the hearing on sanctions against defendants Charlie and Frank Ferrara and Sang Lee for discovery shenanigans took place on Thursday as scheduled. What a wild ride!
Continue reading Get To The Bay And Rouste [sic] Those Kooks! Newly Obtained Papayans Text Messages Prove Bay Boy Conspiracy To Deny Cory Spencer Access To The Water — Also, News From Thursday’s Hearing On Sanctions Against Charlie And Frank Ferrara And Sang Lee For, Among Other Things, Destroying Evidence

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Who Is In Charge Of The Palos Verdes Estates Police Department? Jeff Kepley Is Definitely Out, But Other Than That No One At The City Is Talking, At Least They’re Not Talking To Judge James Otero

For background take a look at this excellent article from the Times on this lawsuit.ames Also see here to download all pleadings in this case.

A very peculiar pleading in this most peculiar of cases hit PACER last night, in . It seems that PVE police chief Jeff Kepley retired at some point recently. Since he’s being sued in his official capacity rather than his personal capacity, it appears that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25(d) requires that Jeff Kepley be dropped from the suit and his successor named instead:

Public Officers; Death or Separation from Office. An action does not abate when a public officer who is a party in an official capacity dies, resigns, or otherwise ceases to hold office while the action is pending. The officer’s successor is automatically substituted as a party. Later proceedings should be in the substituted party’s name, but any misnomer not affecting the parties’ substantial rights must be disregarded. The court may order substitution at any time, but the absence of such an order does not affect the substitution.

So, very reasonably, it seems, plaintiffs’ attorney Kurt Franklin filed a Suggestion to the Court that the acting Chief, who seems to be Mark Velez at this point, be substituted in.1 This seems to be fairly inconsequential in that the rule seems to say that the substitution happens irrespective of whether anyone acknowledges it, but it also seems like the kind of thing one would want to tell the court about. If it comes up later and one knew about it and didn’t tell the court, how weird is that going to look?

Not that the City of PVE is worried about such niceties. As with everything to do with the City’s involvement in this case, the events leading up to this filing have an air of shady incompetence, evasion, and deception. It hasn’t yet been proven that this weirdo little City on a Hill has anything to hide, but they surely do act as if they do. So what’s one more little item like not telling the court that the freaking chief of police retired?

As always there’s a transcription after the break, as well as a timeline of key events.
Continue reading Who Is In Charge Of The Palos Verdes Estates Police Department? Jeff Kepley Is Definitely Out, But Other Than That No One At The City Is Talking, At Least They’re Not Talking To Judge James Otero

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Lunada Bay Boys Plaintiffs Reply To Opposition To Their Motion For Administrative Relief, Include Fascinating Transcript Of Yet Another Telephonic Hearing About Discovery Transgressions By Defendants

For background take a look at this excellent article from the Times on this lawsuit. Also see here to download all pleadings in this case.

A couple weeks ago the plaintiffs asked Judge Otero to deny all the various and sundry motions for summary judgment filed by all the various and sundry defendants in this tangled web of a lawsuit. The basis of this plaintiffs’ motion is their pretty darn plausible assertion that approximately none of the defendants are cooperating with their discovery obligations, making it impossible for the plaintiffs to reply effectively to the defense motions.

Of course, both the City defendants and the individual defendants filed the usual eleventy-jillion briefs in opposition. And yesterday the plaintiffs filed their reply to the opposition. This was written by Kurt Franklin, and is very much worth reading.1 There is a transcription after the break. The hearing on this motion is scheduled for September 5, 2017 in James Otero’s courtroom 10C in the First Street Federal Courthouse.

The reply came with the usual batch of exhibits, among which is this gem of a transcript of the July 25 hearing before the Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver about Sang Lee’s discovery failures. If you’ve been following along, this was the hearing after which Oliver issued an order requiring Lee to hand everything over that very day. Another good read is this excerpt from the Steve Barber deposition in which he admits to being a Bay Boy buddy and also discusses at length the phone-carrying habits of the PVEPD.
Continue reading Lunada Bay Boys Plaintiffs Reply To Opposition To Their Motion For Administrative Relief, Include Fascinating Transcript Of Yet Another Telephonic Hearing About Discovery Transgressions By Defendants

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Lunada Bay Boys Private Investigator’s Report On Who Blew The PVEPD Sting Filed Unredacted! Jeff Kepley Seems To Acknowledge Existence Of Bay Boys As A Settled Fact! Tony Dahlerbruch Evidently Don’t Know Nothing ‘Bout Nothing!

For background take a look at this excellent article from the Times on this lawsuit. Also see here to download all pleadings in this case.

So a couple days ago the plaintiffs in the Lunada Bay Boys case filed a ton of papers to go along with their opposition to the City of PVE’s motion for summary judgment. Among this stuff was a totally redacted copy of the private investigator’s report on who leaked advance notice of a planned PVEPD sting operation to catch some Bay Boys.

The City claimed that the contents were confidential, hence the redactions. The plaintiffs disagreed, and asked Judge Otero to make it public. Yesterday Otero agreed, and today the judge filed yet another order requiring the redacted report to be made public. And, subsequently, the plaintiffs filed the whole unredacted report! (As usual, there’s a transcription of this lengthy PDF after the break).

The report is completely inconclusive and basically says that too many people knew about the sting, so it’s not possible to figure out who leaked it. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in there, though. In particular, PVE chief of police Jeff Kepley speaks about the Bay Boys as if their existence is an established fact. Turn the page for some more commentary and, as usual, a transcription of the report itself.
Continue reading Lunada Bay Boys Private Investigator’s Report On Who Blew The PVEPD Sting Filed Unredacted! Jeff Kepley Seems To Acknowledge Existence Of Bay Boys As A Settled Fact! Tony Dahlerbruch Evidently Don’t Know Nothing ‘Bout Nothing!

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Lunada Bay Boys Plaintiffs Oppose City Defendants Motion For Summary Judgement By Filing More Than 50 Documents Including A Bunch Of Deposition Excerpts And Jalian Johnston’s Freaking Text Messages!

For background take a look at this excellent article from the Times on this lawsuit. Also see here to download all pleadings in this case.

So a couple weeks ago defendants the City of PVE and its seemingly erstwhile chief of police Jeff Kepley (collectively known as “the City defendants”) filed a motion asking the court for summary judgment. This was the first of a long line of such motions filed by all the other defendants. And this afternoon the plaintiffs responded to the City defendants’ motion with over fifty documents.

There’s no way I can describe all of these individually, and I even had to write a script to generate links for all of them, which you can find after the break. The links are functional but not pretty, and you can find them with highly selected brief descriptions after the break.

The documents include tons of fascinating deposition excerpts from many of the defendants along with, finally, Jalian Johnston’s freaking text messages, which are about as stupid as one would expect. There’s also a transcript of part of the infamous Brant Blakeman video. This is essentially Aladdin’s cave, and I’m sorry I can’t provide more detail, but read, read, read, and enjoy!
Continue reading Lunada Bay Boys Plaintiffs Oppose City Defendants Motion For Summary Judgement By Filing More Than 50 Documents Including A Bunch Of Deposition Excerpts And Jalian Johnston’s Freaking Text Messages!

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