Tag Archives: The Daily Breeze

Lunada Bay Boys Defendants Blakeman And City of PVE File Timely Oppositions To Plaintiffs’ Motion For Sanctions, Blakeman Throws His Co-Defendant Frank Ferrara Under The Bus To Some Extent

November 30, 2017 Mike Leave a comment

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.

OK, so the Lunada Bay Boys plaintiffs filed a motion for sanctions against defendants Brant Blakeman, the City of PVE, and some others. The motion is here. And a couple weeks ago Judge James Otero ordered all relevant parties to brief Rozella Oliver, the magistrate judge in the case, on the issues. She turned around and set a briefing schedule and a hearing, which will happen in her courtroom on Spring Street on Wednesday, December 6, at 1:30 p.m.

That order required Blakeman and the City defendants to file briefs in opposition by November 27, which they did, and which are the reason for today’s post.¹ The issue is, of course, whether these particular defendants destroyed evidence, mainly text messages, after they had a legal duty to preserve it. No one seems to deny that they did destroy the texts, so the argument is mostly about precisely when their duty to preserve evidence was activated.²

You might recall that at some point various Ferraras argued that their duty to preserve only attached when they were served with papers in the suit, but Rozella Oliver wasn’t buying it. She said that because Frank Ferrara had been interviews by the Daily Breeze prior to service he knew about the suit and ought to have not destroyed his texts. Well, Blakeman turns that argument to his own account by asserting that because he wasn’t interviewed by the paper, there’s no evidence that he knew about the suit prior to service.

Anyway, here are the briefs filed, and there are selected transcriptions from Blakeman’s pleading after the break:

Continue reading Lunada Bay Boys Defendants Blakeman And City of PVE File Timely Oppositions To Plaintiffs’ Motion For Sanctions, Blakeman Throws His Co-Defendant Frank Ferrara Under The Bus To Some Extent →

Lunada Bay Boys Case: Magistrate Judge The Honorable Rozella Oliver Recommends Sanction-Slaps For 67% Of The Ferrara Defendants, Additional Depositions Concerning Discovery Shenanigans Of Those Same Ferraras And Sang “Friend N A Pirate” Lee, Allowing Plaintiffs To Argue Inferences From Missing Evidence Before Jury!

October 23, 2017 Mike Leave a comment

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.

Perhaps you recall that on Thursday, October 12, the plaintiffs and defendants Charlie and Frank Ferrara and Sang “Friend N A Pirate” Lee appeared before Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver to discuss the plaintiffs’ motion that these defendants be sanctioned for destroying a bunch of obviously incriminating text messages.

Today Oliver issued a Report and Recommendation on Motion for Sanctions. The document is well worth reading, as it summarizes the entire background of discovery disputes between the plaintiffs and these three defendants in a comprehensive, comprehensible style.

This paper is in the form of a recommendation to Judge Otero rather than an order. I don’t know for sure why this is, but I’m guessing it’s because this matter is beyond the traditional powers of Magistrates and Oliver is allowed to deal with it because Otero specifically granted her the authority to do so. His having done so, I’m guessing, makes it pretty likely that he’ll accept her recommendations, especially given their prudent, moderate nature.

In particular, she says that there’s no evidence showing that Sang Lee spoiled evidence on purpose when he had a duty to preserve it. She does recommend that the plaintiffs be allowed to depose Lee again to explore the issue of evidence. To emphasize that she’s not punishing him she recommends that he and the plaintiffs split the cost of his depo. The Ferraras, that is, Charlie and Frank, come off quite a bit worse, and you can turn the page to learn their fate and read a teensy bit of the document itself.
Continue reading Lunada Bay Boys Case: Magistrate Judge The Honorable Rozella Oliver Recommends Sanction-Slaps For 67% Of The Ferrara Defendants, Additional Depositions Concerning Discovery Shenanigans Of Those Same Ferraras And Sang “Friend N A Pirate” Lee, Allowing Plaintiffs To Argue Inferences From Missing Evidence Before Jury! →

Cory Spencer v. Lunada Bay Boys

Tiffany Bacon, Lunada Bay Boys Defense Attorney For Two Thirds Of The Ferraras In The Case, Files Opposition To Plaintiffs’ Motion For $32,000 In Sanctions In Advance Of Tomorrow’s Telephonic Hearing On The Matter, Passively Threatens Retaliatory Abuse Of Process Claim Against Plaintiffs On Charlie’s (But Not Frank’s) Behalf

August 22, 2017 Mike Leave a comment

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.

Last week, in yet another thrilling episode in the seemingly neverending saga of discovery disputes in the astonishingly labyrinthine Lunada Bay Boys case, the plaintiffs filed a motion asking magistrate judge Rozella Oliver to make Charlie Ferrara, Frank Ferrara, and their lawyers, Bremer, Whyte, Brown, & O’Meara, represented in the instant matter by Tiffany Bacon, cough up $32,000 in sanctions for failure to abide by the Court’s orders regarding discovery.

Well, there’s a telephonic hearing on the matter tomorrow at 10 a.m., and yesterday Tiffany Bacon, attorney to the particular Ferraras involved here, filed an Opposition to the Motion as well as a big old declaration in support of the opposition and a little tiny objection to evidence, mostly arguing that the fact that Frank Ferrara was quoted in the Daily Breeze about the case before he was served, being hearsay, isn’t adequate evidence that he was aware of the case before he was served.

As the hearing is tomorrow and Rozella Oliver is characteristically quite prompt with orders we should know the outcome within the next few days. Stay tuned, and turn the page for a transcription of some excerpts from the opposition to the motion.
Continue reading Tiffany Bacon, Lunada Bay Boys Defense Attorney For Two Thirds Of The Ferraras In The Case, Files Opposition To Plaintiffs’ Motion For $32,000 In Sanctions In Advance Of Tomorrow’s Telephonic Hearing On The Matter, Passively Threatens Retaliatory Abuse Of Process Claim Against Plaintiffs On Charlie’s (But Not Frank’s) Behalf →

Cory Spencer v. Lunada Bay Boys

Best Excuse Ever For Not Complying With Discovery Order: Lunada Bay Boy Defendant Michael Papayans Can’t Hand Over His Cell Phone Cause The LAPD Confiscated It When They Arrested Him In 2016 For Beating Up A Mets Fan At Dodger Stadium Cause His Mom Told Him To. All Parties To Case Ask Judge Rozella Oliver To Order LAPD To Lend It To Them For A Few Days For Analysis

July 3, 2017 Mike Leave a comment

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.

Ah, goodness, how can this case get any weirder? Well, here’s today’s episode. The parties filed this joint stipulation asking the Honorable Rozella Oliver to order the LAPD to lend them defendant Michael Papayans’ cell phone so that the plaintiffs can carry out a forensic analysis as part of the discovery process. And the request is uncontroversial from all sides, since the LAPD told the parties that they’d be happy to hand it over in response to an order from the court. So I’m expecting an actual order soonest.

But the rest of the story is pretty interesting. It seems that Michael Papayans isn’t just a localist surf-thug, he’s a multitalented all-round generic thug as well. You see, the LAPD has the phone because Michael Papayans was arrested in 2016 for helping his mom beat up a Mets fan in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.³ And evidently even this isn’t the limit of the guy’s thuggery…
Continue reading Best Excuse Ever For Not Complying With Discovery Order: Lunada Bay Boy Defendant Michael Papayans Can’t Hand Over His Cell Phone Cause The LAPD Confiscated It When They Arrested Him In 2016 For Beating Up A Mets Fan At Dodger Stadium Cause His Mom Told Him To. All Parties To Case Ask Judge Rozella Oliver To Order LAPD To Lend It To Them For A Few Days For Analysis →