No details were available in court computer records on the minute orders since that document is not scanned.
Whatever the funding request was for, was denied.
One day day before the pre trial for Marci Kitchen, a minute order appointing Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis for all purposes was filed.
The pre trial for Kitchen was was on 4/11. There was no mention of this in court. On 4/12, it looks like the District Attorney's office filed disqualification of Judge Elvine-Kreis according to CCP 170.6. Further court records say recusal.
Judge Elvine-Kreis, before his appointment was the Supervising Attorney at Conflict Counsel. Kitchen is now represented by that office.
Why was this information not addressed at the 4/11 hearing?
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=170.6.&lawCode=CCP
So John, funding requests are always Ex Parte and are not for public consumption and most importantly view by the DA. The reason is that the order should have an explanation of why their is a need for the funding. That might mean if the DA were to see it, they could gain an extra advantage and learn a theory of the defense in advance. It might be overblown because of course any report ultimately prepared by an expert must be turned over, if the expert is going to be called. The defense can keep secret an expert report if they ultimately decide to not call them. That happens way more than you think. I have never seen grant/deny of a funding request ever discussed during a Pre-Trial hearing ever.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explaination Allan. I just mentioned the funding order. In my post, what I was more concerned about was appointing Judge Elvine-Kreis for all purposes. I know minute orders are routinely prepared for those as well, however I explained my concerns about why he should not have anything to do with this case. Other minute orders are accessible to the public. This was not. Happens a lot in Humboldt Superior Court. This is not just some case, it is THE case raising a lot of concerns in the community and there have been reasons for those concerns. Transparency in local courts needs to be improved. Minute orders are not lengthy.
DeleteSo I see. That type of assignment is rare in Humboldt but more common in smaller and even larger jurisdictions. I think that Judge Elvine-Kreis assumed the bench before his office took over Kitchen’s case. I think under no circumstances could he handle a case that his office was handling at the time he became a Judge. Cases after that are more gray area. In general there is probably not a prohibition against him handling those cases, a little more unclear if being handled by an attorney that he used to supervise. Probably OK. With a Judge Cockrum gone are there any lawyers still in that office, that he supervised. I don’t think so. Reavis is acting PD. For some reason, the DA’s office wanted him off the case. I never filed a 170.6 in a case ever as a prosecutor. I always took the view point that we were the good guys and Justice will prevail no matter who the Judge is. Another factor is some Judges take DQs personally. It builds bad blood between the DAs and a Judge who in the future you will have to appear in front of. Having said that Kitchen is a BIG deal and I am sure the DA wants to have a Judge assigned carefully. I think if memory serves me correctly they have DQd him before. Why not addressed at hearing? He was appointed and then DQd. All on the up and up. The only thing is to appoint a new Judge for all purposes. They probably hope they get Reinholtsen is my guess.
ReplyDelete