Thursday, October 18, 2007

Day 555 and Officers removed from Moore civil suit

Officers removed from Moore civil suit
A federal judge overseeing the wrongful death and civil rights violation lawsuit brought against the city of Eureka by the son of Cheri Lyn Moore granted a motion Wednesday to dismiss complaints against individual officers at the scene.

In a motion filed Oct. 3, the defendants' attorney, Nancy Delaney, argued the complaint fails to specify what the specific officers did or did not do to cause Moore's rights to be violated. The Eureka Police Department and former Police Chief David Douglas are also named in the suit.

By granting the motion, Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that Lt. Tony Zanotti, Lt. Todd Wilcox, Sgt. Lynne Soderberg, Officer Robert Mengal, Detective Ron Harpham, Officer Terry Liles and Officer Rodrigo Sanchez should be removed, pending a chance for the plaintiff's attorney to amend the complaint...

...District Attorney Paul Gallegos said recently that he is considering convening a criminal grand jury to decide whether to pursue criminal charges in the incident.

If Gallegos does decide to ask a judge to convene the jury, Kaupp said it could have serious ramifications on the civil trial.

”It has a huge affect on what we're doing,” Kaupp said. “If the grand jury is impaneled, I believe the defense attorney will instruct any potential suspects to take the Fifth.”

Kaupp said that means he would have to wait until the conclusion of any criminal proceedings to get the testimony of those individuals. Grand jury or no, Kaupp said the civil trial won't get underway any time soon, as there is still plenty of evidence to be gathered and dispositions to be taken.

”It's going to be a long time,” Kaupp said. “There are a whole bunch of steps that have to take place before the trial starts, so I think we're looking at least a year or a year and a half.”

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like the Moore family has themselves a top-notch attorney. I thought they stopped issuing law degrees on the back of Captain Crunch boxes. Except, of course, the ones issued to PVG and his band of incompetents at the DA's Office. Maybe the Moore's attorney can get a job there after his law suit goes down the drain.

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  2. Sounds like, looks like, seems like DA Gallegos' plan to after EPD with the power of a grand jury is being used to assist the lame attorney in the civil case.

    After all DA Gallegos has all the information, all the reports, so why can't he make the decision to file charges against the EPD (IF charges are warranted!!!) ? Why?

    DA Gallegos used his office and the power of the grand jury to go after Debi August and that was a big flop. DA Gallegos used the grand jury to go after the Blue Lake Chief of Police, again a big flop.

    There is something seriously wrong here.

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