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California program to lease land under freeways faces scrutiny after major Los Angeles fire

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 23:27:03 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The area under an elevated Los Angeles freeway that burned last weekend, damaging a section of a key thoroughfare in the car-dependent city, was stacked with flammable materials on lots leased by the state through a little-known program that now is under scrutiny.

The blaze Saturday burned about 100 support columns, forcing the closure of a vital mile-long stretch of Interstate 10 near downtown that is used by hundreds of thousands of people daily.

It could take crews working around the clock between three and five weeks to repair the freeway, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

Newsom said the state would reassess the practice of leasing land under roads to bring in money for mass transportation projects.

Details of that program remain opaque. Newsom’s office directed questions about whether the state has any regular inspection protocols to state transportation officials. The California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, did not respond to questions about inspections or provide information about how many properties the state leases.

State Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, who represents part of downtown Los Angeles, said officials should disclose how many sites are leased under the program, the terms of contracts, how much money the program generates and how the state ensures companies comply with the contract requirements.

“Some of those actions could have prevented what we now see happened underneath the 10,” Santiago said.

Apex Development Inc. has leased the land under I-10 since 2008. One condition of Apex’s contract stipulated it not allow flammable or hazardous materials to be stored there.

The fire that spread quickly over 8 acres (3 hectares) was fed by pallets, cars, construction materials, hand sanitizer and other items being stored under the freeway in an industrial neighborhood. No injuries were reported but at least 16 homeless people living in an encampment there were taken to shelters.

No arrests have been made and Newsom has said investigators are trying to determine if more than one person was involved in what officials said was likely arson.

Prior to the fire, state officials filed a lawsuit against Apex saying the company owes $78,000 in unpaid rent.

The lawsuit also says Apex was subleasing to six other companies. That can be legal if the company received permission from state and federal regulators but Apex did not, Newsom said.

Apex has confirmed the litigation but has not answered other questions through a lawyer.

Owners of two of the companies that subleased the property said they had warned of fire danger and other hazards related to homeless people living under the freeway. Luis Cartagena of Eagle Wood Services said he stopped using the space for his wood pallet business more than a year ago because he was losing so much to theft.

“There was a lot of homeless people there, drug dealing, prostitution and there was a lot of theft,” he said. “I couldn’t leave anything.”

Rudy Serafin said he’s been leasing space under I-10 from Apex since 2009. He uses it to store supplies for businesses in the garment district including hangars, boxes and bags. He also stores office supplies including hand sanitizer, which is flammable.

He estimates he lost $800,000. “I don’t know what I am going to do. I am 49 years old. I have no other resources. This is my livelihood. This is what I feed my kids with,” he said.

Serafin said he’s been unable to get insurance for his business because of concerns about homeless people using cooking fires in the area. He said he and other businesses called the city repeatedly to request a cleanup of the encampment. The city removed homeless people from the space once, but the encampments quickly returned, he said.

The city didn’t respond to a request for comment about whether they had received complaints or removed people from the site. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass warned Monday against assuming homeless people started the blaze.

Serafin said he and other contractors received a notice from the state transportation agency in May saying Apex wasn’t paying its rent. Serafin and other business owners stopped paying Apex, but lost access to their properties. They resumed paying and tried to work directly with Caltrans but the agency’s lawyer said he couldn’t negotiate with them, Serafin said.

Serafin said he signed a contract with Apex in 2009 but couldn’t find it.

The danger of storing flammable materials under elevated interstates has drawn the scrutiny of federal investigators in the past. After a 2017 fire collapsed a section of Interstate 85 in Atlanta, the National Transportation Safety Board criticized the Georgia Department of Transportation’s decision to store construction materials beneath the bridge without assessing the fire risk. The department said it immediately changed storage practices.

California Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant said investigators have identified where Saturday’s fire started and what caused it after sorting through the rubble for evidence, but did not specify what they found. He had no information on a suspect and said investigators are talking to witnesses.

An estimated 300,000 vehicles use the stretch of freeway daily, which runs east-west across the heart of the metropolis and connects with other major freeways. The city has been urging people to avoid the area, take buses and trains, or work from home.

On Wednesday morning, Javier Ramos inched along with his father who was driving to his weekly physical therapy appointment in an industrial area blocks from I-10 as trucks and tractor-trailers cut in and out of the traffic to get to nearby warehouses.

It had already taken them about 20 minutes to get to Sacramento Street from East Los Angeles and their GPS showed they still had 33 minutes — at least — left in their travel. Normally the trip takes 45 minutes.

“We can’t do nothing about it,” he said, adding that next week they will leave earlier.

The Federal Highway Administration, meanwhile, announced Wednesday the immediate availability of an initial installment of $3 million in emergency relief funds to offset I-10 repair costs. Caltrans district director Gloria Roberts said work was on schedule.

___

Taxin reported from Orange County, California. Associated Press writers Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; Christopher Weber and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles; Jeff McMurray in Chicago; and Anisha Frizzell in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Jury hears Manuel Ellis’ last words at trial of Washington officers accused in the Black man’s death

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 23:07:58 +0000

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Jurors heard the last words of Manny Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who was punched, shocked with a Taser, put in a chokehold and held face down, during opening statements Tuesday in the trial of three Washington police officers accused in his death.

“I can’t breathe, sir. I can’t breathe, sir. I can’t breathe,” Washington Assistant attorney General Kent Liu told jurors, describing Ellis’ last words on March 3, 2020.

“When the first paramedics arrived on the scene, they found Mr. Ellis unresponsive,” Liu said. “His eyes were fixed in place, his pupils were dilatated. Mr. Ellis stopped breathing, his body starved of oxygen. He died on the street. He died right there, right on the street.”

Ellis did not die from an overdose, Liu told the jury. He died of oxygen starvation caused by the officers.

“Four witnesses will tell you Mr. Ellis never fought back,” Liu said. “We are here today because this should not have happened. Mr. Ellis did nothing wrong.”

Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, both white, are charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine, who is Asian American, is charged with manslaughter. All three have pleaded not guilty.

It’s the first trial under a 5-year-old Washington state law designed to make it easier to prosecute police who wrongfully use deadly force. A jury of eight men and four women was seated Monday afternoon.

Ellis, was walking home with doughnuts from a 7-Eleven that night when he passed a patrol car stopped at a red light. Collins and Burbank sat inside.

attorney Brett Purtzer, representing Burbank, said during his opening statement that the officers tried to question Ellis about attempting to get into a stranger’s car.

When Ellis approached the patrol car, he was “fixated” on Burbank, Purtzer said. Ellis told Burbank, “I’m going to punch you in the (expletive) face,” and started beating on the window, Purtzer said.

The officers got out of the car and tried to take Ellis into custody, but he threw one officer to the ground with “super-human strength,” Purtzer said.

Burbank used his Taser, but it had little effect, Purtzer said. Collins tried to hold Ellis in what Purtzer called a lateral neck restraint, “but that didn’t work.” The officers tried to get control of his arms and Burbank called for help on his radio. Other officers arrived.

Ellis was “screaming, violent and extremely high on methamphetamine,” Purtzer said. “They were exhausted after the fight. He’s still fighting, he’s still resisting so they need to put the hobbles on him. The officers are saying, ‘Don’t fight. Stop resisting,’ but Mr. Ellis is still fighting.”

Witnesses have said they did not see Ellis try to open the door of another vehicle, strike the window of the police cruiser or swung his fists at the officers.

It was the drugs coupled with his bad heart that caused Ellis’ death, Purtzer said, a defense echoed by attorney Anne Bremner who was representing Rankine.

“The evidence is undisputed that he had a large heart and compromised lungs,” Bremner told the jury. “It comes from their own medical examiner. That level of meth would have killed anybody in this room.”

The Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide and said it was caused by a lack of oxygen during the physical restraint.

Rankine arrived after Ellis was already handcuffed and face down. He knelt on Ellis’ upper back as the man pleaded for breath.

Bremner said Rankine did what he was trained to do. He used just enough force to restrain Ellis. He was trying to hold him down to keep him from hurting himself or anyone else, she said.

“Officer Rankine did his job,” she said. “He did it with care. He didn’t do anything wrong or criminal.”

She said Ellis was “in a state of what is called excited delirium. People can actually die of that alone.”

The term is controversial. California lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit “excited delirium” as a medical diagnosis or cause of death in police custody.

Bremner concluded opening statements.

Prosecutors called a video expert as their first witness. Video evidence will be key in the case against the officers.

Ellis’ sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, said earlier Tuesday that the video and witness statements will prove the officers committed a crime.

“From the beginning of this case, it was clear to me that the officers’ defense strategy would be to try and assassinate my brother’s character,” she told the Associated Press in an email. “Let’s be clear, Manny is not on trial. The focus of this case needs to be on the three Tacoma police officers and the extreme police brutality that occurred on March 3, 2020, not defaming my brother’s character when he can’t defend himself.”

The trial in Pierce County Superior Court, which will run four days a week, is expected to last until early December.

The post Jury hears Manuel Ellis’ last words at trial of Washington officers accused in the Black man’s death appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Johnson Fistel, LLP Announces That It Has Filed a Class Action Lawsuit on Behalf of Block, Inc. Investors – Alleging Violations of the Federal Securities Laws

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 06:45:42 +0000

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP announces that it has filed a class-action lawsuit of persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Block securities during the period November 4, 2021 and April 4, 2022, including all former shareholders of Afterpay securities who acquired unregistered Block, Inc. Class A common stock (and/or corresponding SQ CHESS Depository Interests (“CDI”)) (“Block Shares” or “Square Securities”) in direct exchange for Afterpay shares pursuant to Block’s January 31, 2022 acquisition and stock-for-stock merger with Afterpay (the “Merger” or “Acquisition”). The action was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and is captioned Hart v. Block, Inc., et al., Case 3:23-cv-00455.

What actions may I take at this time? If you purchased Block securities and suffered significant losses on your investment, contact Johnson Fistel, LLP to submit your losses:

Lead plaintiff motions for the Block, Inc. class-action lawsuit must be filed with the court no later than 60 days from this notice.

CASE ALLEGATIONS: The complaint alleges, among other things, that defendants made certain material misrepresentations and omissions concerning the Merger. Additionally, the complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, the defendants: (i) deceived the investing public, including Plaintiff and other Class members, as alleged herein; (ii) artificially inflated and maintained the market price of Block securities; and (iii) caused Plaintiff and other members of the Class to purchase or otherwise acquire Block securities at artificially inflated prices. The complaint asserts non-fraud, strict liability claims under §§12(a)(1), 12(a)(2), and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 against Block and certain current and former Block and Afterpay officers and directors, as well as scheme liability claims under §§10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased or otherwise acquired Block, Inc. securities during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice. An investor’s ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

About Johnson Fistel, LLP:
Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com. attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Contact:
Johnson Fistel, LLP
Jim Baker, 619-814-4471
jimb@johnsonfistel.com

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