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Calif top court: Docs can't withhold care to gays
Court Feed News | 2008/08/20 15:32
California's highest court on Monday barred doctors from invoking their religious beliefs as a reason to deny treatment to gays and lesbians, ruling that state law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination extends to the medical profession.

Justice Joyce Kennard wrote that two Christian fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian have neither a free speech right nor a religious exemption from the state's law, which "imposes on business establishments certain antidiscrimination obligations."

In the lawsuit that led to the ruling, Guadalupe Benitez, 36, of Oceanside said that the doctors treated her with fertility drugs and instructed her how to inseminate herself at home but told her their beliefs prevented them from inseminating her. One of the doctors referred her to another fertility specialist without moral objections, and Benitez has since given birth to three children.

Nevertheless, Benitez in 2001 sued the Vista-based North Coast Women's Care Medical Group. She and her lawyers successfully argued that a state law prohibiting businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation applies to doctors.

The law was originally designed to prevent hotels, restaurants and other public services from refusing to serve patrons because of their race. The Legislature has since expanded it to cover characteristics such as age and sexual orientation.



Killer of 11 train passengers faces sentencing
Court Feed News | 2008/08/20 12:33
A man who killed 11 people by causing a commuter rail disaster in Glendale faces sentencing, one month after a jury recommended he serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

During the penalty phase of Juan Alvarez's trial, jurors cried openly as survivors of the dead came forward to describe the anguish of their losses and the emptiness of their lives since the accident in 2005 robbed them of spouses, sisters, fathers and mothers.

Superior Court Judge William Pounders, who has presided over many high profile trials in a long career on the bench, admitted outside the jury's presence that he also had been affected by the survivors' testimony.

"I've never been so emotionally affected by evidence," said Pounders, who does not have the option to increase the penalty to death at the sentencing hearing Wednesday.

The prosecution described Alvarez as a remorseless, smirking defendant who didn't think of the case as a tragedy.

The defense painted the 29-year-old as a mentally disturbed man who was almost aborted by his mother, was shaped by a childhood of horrific abuse and became a methamphetamine addict. They said he drove his sport utility vehicle on the railroad tracks in a misguided attempt to get the attention of his estranged wife. They said he changed his mind at the last minute but it was too late to get the vehicle off the tracks.



Lawyers return to court over 1993 Ark. slayings
Headline News | 2008/08/20 12:30
 It took a jury 13 days to convict and sentence Damien Echols to death for the 1993 slayings of three second-graders.

Now, nearly 15 years later, Echols is hoping to convince the judge who oversaw his original case to grant him a new trial. His attorneys say DNA tests clear him and the two others in prison for the crime.

Attorneys for Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, known to supporters as the "West Memphis Three," were to appear Wednesday before Craighead County Circuit Judge David Burnett, along with the case's original prosecutor.

Together, the lawyers and judge will lay out a schedule for a three-week slate of hearings in September on DNA evidence and claims of juror misconduct in their 1994 trials over the murders of 8-year-olds Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

Burnett has barred both prosecutors and defense lawyers from speaking with reporters about the case, saying he was tired of reading about it in the newspapers. It dominated newspapers and television sets throughout Arkansas and the nation after police found the three boys' water-soaked bodies in a drainage ditch a day after their May 5, 1993, disappearance from West Memphis.

The boys' hands were bound to their legs by shoelaces and their bodies showed signs of suffering severe beatings. One boy's body had been mutilated. A month passed and the community posted a $30,000 reward before police arrested the three teens. Misskelley told investigators how he watched Baldwin and Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys as he ran down another trying to escape.

A separate jury gave Misskelley, who refused to testify against the other two, a life-plus-40-year sentence for the killings. Baldwin received a life sentence without parole after standing trial with Echols, who preened at times during the trial and quoted Shakespeare to reporters. Echols was sentenced to die.



Court: Accused Nazi eligible for extradition
Legal World News | 2008/08/20 10:32
An 86-year-old man accused of killing a Jewish teenager in Hungary during World War II can be extradited to Hungary to face charges, an Australian judge found Wednesday.

Lawyers for former Hungarian soldier Charles Zentai said they will appeal the decision, handed down in Western Australia's Perth Magistrates Court. If it is upheld, Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus will make the final determination on whether Zentai should be extradited.

Zentai, an Australian citizen, is listed by the U.S.-based Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center among its 10 most wanted Nazis as having "participated in manhunts, persecution, and murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944."

Hungary accuses Zentai of torturing and killing 18-year-old Peter Balazs in a Budapest army barracks on Nov. 8, 1944, for failing to wear a star that would identify him as a Jew.

Zentai, who emigrated to Australia in 1950, has denied the allegations.



Sheppard Mullin Launches Video Game Industry Group
Law Firm News | 2008/08/19 15:48
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP has launched a Video Game industry group.  The interdisciplinary team includes a core group of 20 attorneys from among the firm's eleven offices and most practice groups, including Intellectual Property, Entertainment and Media, Business Trial, Corporate, and Labor and Employment.  

"The idea to formally launch a video game team was conceived by associate Shawn Foust, based on his interest, enthusiasm, and desire to align his practice with his industry knowledge.  Shawn is entrusted with leadership in this initiative and will work closely with a core group of partners, who bring decades of experience representing gaming and tech clients," commented Robert Beall, Sheppard Mullin's administrative partner and Business Trial practice group leader.  "This burgeoning team is an excellent example of the entrepreneurial opportunities available to the firm's associates, and the teamwork our clients value."

Working most closely with Foust are partners James Chadwick, Shaun Clark, Bob Darwell, Bob Gerber, Keith Gercken, Tom Hopkins, Ed Komen, Brian Pass, Kent Raygor, Neil Smith and Marc Sockol. In addition, associates Bethany Hollister and Oscar Cisneros have been instrumental in developing the team. In recent years Sheppard Mullin has represented Activision, Aruze, Comcast, Electronic Arts, Game Show Network, Namco Bandi Games America, Zeebo, among others.

"The video game industry deserves a firm that is willing to commit to servicing the full range of unique issues game companies face," observed Foust.  "By combining our extensive legal experience with our industry knowledge, we aim to protect our clients' businesses, products, and services, and help ensure that innovation will continue to define this amazingly vibrant industry."  

Foust is an avid gamer and draws upon an understanding of games developed through years of playing and studying interactive entertainment.  His practice is devoted to tackling the cutting edge legal issues facing businesses in the entertainment, new media, and technology industries.  

About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Sheppard Mullin is a full service AmLaw 100 firm with more than 520 attorneys in 11 offices located throughout California and in New York, Washington, D.C. and Shanghai.  The firm's California offices are located in Los Angeles, Century City, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Orange County, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Del Mar Heights.  Founded in 1927 on the principle that the firm would succeed only if its attorneys delivered prompt, high quality and cost-effective legal services, Sheppard Mullin provides legal counsel to U.S. and international clients.  Companies turn to Sheppard Mullin to handle a full range of corporate and technology matters, high stakes litigation and complex financial transactions.  In the U.S., the firm's clients include more than half of the Fortune 100 companies.  For more information, please visit www.sheppardmullin.com.


Court protests halt hearing in immigrant killing
Lawyer Blog News | 2008/08/19 14:37
Courthouse protests have caused a brief interruption in the preliminary hearing of three teenagers charged in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in a small Pennsylvania town.

About 40 protesters outside the courthouse in Pottsville have been told to keep quiet or they'll be forced to move. The protesters are from workers and immigrants' rights groups.

A defense attorney complained about the distraction and the hearing was recessed for several minutes until the protesters quieted down. There have been no arrests.

Luis Ramirez was attacked July 12 when he crossed paths with a group of teens in the town of Shenandoah, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

A judge is deciding if there is enough evidence against the three to send the case to trial.



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