LOS ANGELES — A high-profile Beverly Hills real estate agent has been acquitted of participating in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that caused federally insured banks to lose more than $40 million.
The U.S. Attorney's office says real estate agent Joseph Babajian (BAH'-bah-jahn) was acquitted on 13 criminal counts. His partner, Kyle Grasso, and appraiser Lila Rizk were convicted Monday of conspiracy and bank and loan fraud charges in U.S. District Court.
The jury couldn't reach a verdict on eight other counts against Babajian and the federal judge declared a mistrial.
Grasso was also convicted of three counts of money laundering for his role in obtaining inflated mortgage loans for homes in some of California's priciest neighborhoods.
Babajian's clients have included Barbara Streisand, Warran Beatty, David Beckham and Janet Jackson.
Source
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorneys Secure Insanity Verdicts in Two Southern California Murder Cases
The Insanity defense is rarely successfully presented in Los Angeles courts, as California law places a high burden of proof on the criminal defense lawyers to show that the defendant did not understand right from wrong at the time of the homicide. Under California criminal law, a defendant found insane at the time of the offense is not subject to criminal punishment, and must receive mental health treatment at a state institution. Further, jurors tend to be very reticent to accept psychiatric testimony, rejecting the claim as an "excuse" or a "loophole" in the system.
The most recent murder case was litigated by Kestenbaum Eisner & Gorin, LLP in a Los Angeles downtown criminal courtroom. After a month long trial, the jury concluded last week, that the eighteen-year-old woman was insane when she suffocated her newborn, suffering from an acute stress disorder and hearing voices at the time of her baby's birth at home. Second, in a murder case tried last summer at the Van Nuys Criminal Courthouse, a twenty-year-old man with a substantial history of schizophrenia was found Insane for an assault causing death at a valley strip club. In both murder cases, the defendants were facing life in prison had the jury found they were sane at the time of the homicide. Now the two will be receiving mental health treatment at Patton, a state mental health facility in San Bernardino, California. They will remain there until, if ever, the doctors find they have regained their sanity and no longer pose a threat to society.
As part of our courtroom defense, the firm's Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys presented expert Psychiatric testimony, as well as a jury consultant. The experts explained that the symptoms from substantial mental illness such as schizophrenia often present themselves in teenage years. While psychotropic drugs address some of the symptoms, patients' dosage must be closely monitored, or the hallucinations, voices, or other symptoms continued unabated. Insufficient parental monitoring, or the parents' inability to accept the existence of the illness, leads the illness to become worse, causing more frequent psychotic breaks from reality.
Cases of insanity are devastating to all parties involved. There are no winners when a defendant is placed in a mental institution. Most importantly, the jury is recognizing the power of mental health treatment, over incarceration, for those suffering from major mental illness, while also bringing justice for the victims and their families.
Source
The most recent murder case was litigated by Kestenbaum Eisner & Gorin, LLP in a Los Angeles downtown criminal courtroom. After a month long trial, the jury concluded last week, that the eighteen-year-old woman was insane when she suffocated her newborn, suffering from an acute stress disorder and hearing voices at the time of her baby's birth at home. Second, in a murder case tried last summer at the Van Nuys Criminal Courthouse, a twenty-year-old man with a substantial history of schizophrenia was found Insane for an assault causing death at a valley strip club. In both murder cases, the defendants were facing life in prison had the jury found they were sane at the time of the homicide. Now the two will be receiving mental health treatment at Patton, a state mental health facility in San Bernardino, California. They will remain there until, if ever, the doctors find they have regained their sanity and no longer pose a threat to society.
As part of our courtroom defense, the firm's Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys presented expert Psychiatric testimony, as well as a jury consultant. The experts explained that the symptoms from substantial mental illness such as schizophrenia often present themselves in teenage years. While psychotropic drugs address some of the symptoms, patients' dosage must be closely monitored, or the hallucinations, voices, or other symptoms continued unabated. Insufficient parental monitoring, or the parents' inability to accept the existence of the illness, leads the illness to become worse, causing more frequent psychotic breaks from reality.
Cases of insanity are devastating to all parties involved. There are no winners when a defendant is placed in a mental institution. Most importantly, the jury is recognizing the power of mental health treatment, over incarceration, for those suffering from major mental illness, while also bringing justice for the victims and their families.
Source
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Arson trial under way in Carbondale wildfire
GLENWOOD SPRINGS — A 12-person jury is being asked to decide whether a rancher is responsible for starting a wildfire that burned a fisherman and homes in the Carbondale area last year.
Attorneys made opening arguments Tuesday in the criminal trial of Larry Gerbaz. They said the unusual case hinges on the question of whether the fire burned because of what Gerbaz did or some other cause.
Gerbaz faces felony and misdemeanor arson charges in connection with the April 15, 2008, wildfire. Several homes were damaged and many more were threatened. Larry Garfinkel, a retired Los Angeles police detective, was seriously burned
Gerbaz had burned a debris pile on his uncle’s property three days earlier. Prosecutors say high winds kicked up the remnants of the fire and caused it to spread after Gerbaz had gone to Denver.
“He didn’t forget to turn out the lights. He forgot to put his fire out,” prosecutor Ed Veronda told the jury Tuesday.
Veronda said several neighbors will testify they saw the fire originate on the burning debris pile, and some of them were forced to flee for their lives.
Garfinkel suffered hand and arm burns when nearby brush caught fire. He saved himself by jumping into a creek.
Defense attorney Tom Silverman told the jury Gerbaz took numerous precautions to manage and put out his fire, and the wildfire occurred during spring burning season, when many landowners in the area had obtained permits and were doing burning.
“No one knows what the point of origin was, and no one knows who was responsible, and it would be completely inappropriate to try to make Larry Gerbaz the scapegoat,” Silverman said.
He said the wind was blowing in every direction the day of the wildfire, making it impossible to trace the cause of the fire and raising the possibility that embers were blown a long distance to start the wildfire.
Carbondale Fire Chief Ron Leach testified that although winds may have been swirling, they came predominantly from one direction. He said several other landowners’ fires in the area were too far away to have been the wildfire’s source.
The trial is scheduled to last two weeks. Two full days were required just to seat a jury, partly because of the high amount of local media coverage the case has received.
Gerbaz also faces civil legal action over the fire.
Source
Attorneys made opening arguments Tuesday in the criminal trial of Larry Gerbaz. They said the unusual case hinges on the question of whether the fire burned because of what Gerbaz did or some other cause.
Gerbaz faces felony and misdemeanor arson charges in connection with the April 15, 2008, wildfire. Several homes were damaged and many more were threatened. Larry Garfinkel, a retired Los Angeles police detective, was seriously burned
Gerbaz had burned a debris pile on his uncle’s property three days earlier. Prosecutors say high winds kicked up the remnants of the fire and caused it to spread after Gerbaz had gone to Denver.
“He didn’t forget to turn out the lights. He forgot to put his fire out,” prosecutor Ed Veronda told the jury Tuesday.
Veronda said several neighbors will testify they saw the fire originate on the burning debris pile, and some of them were forced to flee for their lives.
Garfinkel suffered hand and arm burns when nearby brush caught fire. He saved himself by jumping into a creek.
Defense attorney Tom Silverman told the jury Gerbaz took numerous precautions to manage and put out his fire, and the wildfire occurred during spring burning season, when many landowners in the area had obtained permits and were doing burning.
“No one knows what the point of origin was, and no one knows who was responsible, and it would be completely inappropriate to try to make Larry Gerbaz the scapegoat,” Silverman said.
He said the wind was blowing in every direction the day of the wildfire, making it impossible to trace the cause of the fire and raising the possibility that embers were blown a long distance to start the wildfire.
Carbondale Fire Chief Ron Leach testified that although winds may have been swirling, they came predominantly from one direction. He said several other landowners’ fires in the area were too far away to have been the wildfire’s source.
The trial is scheduled to last two weeks. Two full days were required just to seat a jury, partly because of the high amount of local media coverage the case has received.
Gerbaz also faces civil legal action over the fire.
Source
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