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In a move some view as a win for criminal justice reform, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced Tuesday that her office filed petitions in court to lift all 20 injunctions against street gangs in cities up and down the county.
Seven of the 20 gang injunctions court-approved orders that restrict the movements of alleged gang members were dissolved as of Tuesday, with approval from judges in San Diego Superior Court.
For decades, police and prosecutors used the injunctions to curb gang violence. But in some cases, the restrictions under the court-approved orders made it difficult for those who left that life behind to move on. Critics for years said injunctions, which stay in effect for a lifetime, impede the ability of people who put their gang days behind them to get jobs and housing. Some said the orders target communities of color.
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The owners of two vacation rental homes that were accused of operating large, raucous parties amid the pandemic have reached settlements with the city of San Diego, which took steps last year to shut down the Airbnb rentals.
While the final legal judgments worked out by the San Diego City Attorney’s Office for the two properties in La Jolla and Bankers Hill differ in scope, both stipulate that the homeowners are barred from “maintaining, causing or permitting” a public nuisance or allowing large gatherings in violation of public health orders related to COVID-19. They also are required to each pay fines of more than $30,000 and to address multiple building code violations on their properties.
America continues to battle an epidemic of gun violence. In the last month alone, our nation has suffered more than 45 mass shootings. In response to this rise in gun violence, the California Legislature continues to work for comprehensive gun safety laws. AB 1057, authored by Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, has passed the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, and would allow for the seizure of ghost guns when an emergency Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO) is served. By closing this loophole in the current law, law enforcement will be able to confiscate untraceable, handmade guns in addition to traditional licensed firearms when a person is deemed by the court to be a threat to themselves or others.
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An investigator for the San Diego City Attorney’s Office and his wife are accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the longtime owner of the former Sempra Energy headquarters at 101 Ash St., according to a civil lawsuit winding through Superior Court.
Keith Sears and his wife, Susan, are co-defendants in an amended complaint filed in February by Sandor Shapery, the San Diego investor who formerly owned the 19-story high-rise now at the center of a sweeping political scandal and a spate of litigation.
Susan Sears previously worked as a bookkeeper for Shapery Enterprises. The lawsuit says she and her husband created an American Express account they used to siphon more than $700,000 out of Shapery’s bank.
Churches hold indoor services despite public health order [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
The nation’s highest court decided Friday that California’s pandemic prohibition on indoor worship violates the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision granted an appeal by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, which challenged the state’s restrictions on church services, including its ban on singing and chanting. The split decision still allows California to cap attendance at indoor worship services at 25 percent of a building’s capacity and to restrict indoor singing and chanting.