Hope everyone’s enjoying this heat when driving to 8 different courts on this lovely Tuesday. A few items of interest to everyone:
- We blasted this letter off today to start the fun on the discovery costs project. We hope they respond positively to our demand letter of sorts, but if not we’ll send out a form motion for everyone to use if we end up having to litigate this issue. I can’t imagine the prospect of 147 private lawyers filing these motions sounds fun to them, so hopefully they’ll come around.
Link to letter: http://rccdba.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Costs-of-Discovery-Letter-Final-7.13.20-1.pdf - Apparently there have been some issues with private counsel showing up to video arraignments via the ante rooms and wanting to have conferences with their clients once court has started. This cannot be accommodated, per the PD’s office. They are more than happy to make that happen BEFORE court begins, and many of the ante rooms are supposed to be open for this purpose as early as 8AM. If you’re having issues accessing these rooms that early, let me know.
Further info on video arraignments, from the PD’s office:
When having an appearance in a video arraignment department, counsel can reach out to the assigned Public Defender for that department and inform them who they are representing. The assigned PD will coordinate with you so that you can visit with your client prior to the hearing, if you wish, as well as facilitate when you are virtually brought into the Courtroom. This way it is more respectful to counsel’s hectic schedule and has less down time just waiting for a moderator.
I have included a breakdown of the departments, anteroom locations and assigned PD’s.
Department 301
AM Calendar: Depts 33, 34, 41, 42 (Riverside)
Public Defender assigned: Karen Dong kmdong@rivco.org
PM Calendar: Depts 3T and Blythe (Indio and Blythe)
Public Defender assigned: Alex Hallowell ARhallowell@rivco.org
Department 303:
AM Calendar: Depts 21, 22, 32, 53, 54, 61, 62 (Riverside)
Public Defender assigned: Zoha Khan Zkhan@rivco.org
PM Calendar: Depts S104, S204, B101 (Southwest and Banning)
Public Defender assigned:
for Southwest: Whitney Ryan wrryan@rivco.org
for Southwest: Kathleen Pedro knpedro@rivco.org
for Banning: Michael Micallef mjmicallef@rivco.org
for Banning: Jeff Hurwitz jahurwitz@rivco.org
Ante room Locations:
Banning department 301, 303
Blythe department 260
HOJ department 41
Southwest department S204
Indio department 3T
Stay safe and cool out there.
Sincerely,
Graham D. Donath, President
Riverside County Criminal Defense Bar Association