Conrad Murray.

​With Jackson family members Joe, Katherine, La Toya and Germaine inside the courtroom and hundreds of fans outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, a court clerk announced that jurors have concluded Dr. Conrad Murray is guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Murray was charged with manslaughter after Jackson was essentially found dead at his Holmby Hills residence on June 25, 2009. (Paramedics were called, and he was taken to UCLA Medical Center -- where he was officially pronounced -- but doctors who treated him that day testified that they believed he had been dead for some time).

Prosecutors argued that Murray, who had financial troubles, was willing to do whatever it takes to make Jackson happy and, on that day, administered an overdose of the powerful sedative propofol to the King of Pop.

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By Mark Cromer

Mark Cromer

John Quigly and Julia Posin stand where government bulldozers wiped out 240 Arcadia Woodlands trees.

​Los Angeles County prosecutors today offered the 'Arcadia Four' tree-sitters -- who protested the county's destruction of 249 old-growth oaks north of L.A. -- a plea deal including fines that would range up to $3,000 with added fees and surcharges.

The four weren't interested, and defense attorney Colleen Flynn's comment crackled with a clear-eyed, high-voltage warning to District Attorney Steve Cooley's office: "We're sending a message: We're going to litigate this case to the hilt."

A trial could badly embarrass Los Angeles County, Sheriff Lee Baca, and county officials, and here's why:

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TapouT's Punkass and Skyskrape.

​Grab your tissue box, folks, because this is one hell of a tear-jerker. Okay, ready? Here we go: Michelle Thomas, a 32-year-old ometime model who worked for the mixed-martial-arts clothing and lifestyle company TapouT says in a lawsuit that her bosses actually made her watch television on her own time.

Say what? For real, yo. Say what you will about child labor in China or sweatshops in Mexico, but when it comes down to it America has a worker exploitation problem that we all must own up to.

Television on your own time? That's a crime. And so ...

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Loughner could be en route to SoCal.

​A possible gift to L.A.'s television news stations, the Washington Post reported late Sunday that the trial of Tucson massacre suspect Jared Loughner will be moved to San Diego to take negative publicity in Arizona about the 22-year-old out of justice's equation.

We reported recently that both the U.S. District Court judge and the defense team in the case are from San Diego, leading to early speculation about whether or not Loughner's case would be moved.

Our sister publication OC Weekly also notes that San Diego is the closest federal jurisdiction to Tucson.

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​

Did Princess Cruise Lines have a serial sexual predator working aboard one of its ships?

According to California resident Marisa Foppoli, who filed a lawsuit earlier this week in Los Angles Superior Court against the third largest cruise line in the world, the answer is yes.

It was the wee hours of the morning last January, Foppoli claims, when a man who worked aboard the "Island Princess," cruising from Acapulco to Florida, grabbed her and pulled her against him.

Foppoli says the man began groping her and tried to kiss her, before forcing her toward a deserted part of the ship. Foppoli claims she tried to ward off her assailant and slip away, but he physically prevented her from escaping.

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Loughner, accused of murder, times six.

​A Southern California federal court judge was tapped to takeover the murder case of Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old accused of killing six people and injuring 14 outside a Tucson Safeway over the weekend.

Because the Tucson region's U.S. District Court chief judge, John Roll, was killed in the rampage, his fellow jurists recused themselves in order to avoid the appearance of bias.

Reacting to the appointment of San Diego U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns, and to the involvement of two Southern California defense attorneys in the case, experts said it was possible the trial could be moved to San Diego.

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baileyandelliott.com

O.J. gets off.

​While most of the world continues to think, yeah, O.J. did it, his former attorney, F. Lee Bailey, dredged up what he claims is evidence sat on by the defense that would have further proven his client's innocence.

That would include, he claims, a witness who observed the real killer leaving Nicole Brown Simpson's Brentwood condo the night she was stabbed to death in 1994.

The revelations come in the form of a 20,000 word book proposal Bailey published this week on his website three years after he says no publishers bit. He would still take a deal, though (surprise).

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Fresno Bee

The Kardashian Kard.

​L.A.'s favorite rich girls (besides, you know, Paris and Lindsay and Vanessa Bryant), the Kardashian sisters (Kim, Khloe and Kourtney), are being sued by a debit card company after they pulled out of an endorsement deal.

Damned if they do, damed if they don't.

This is the same debit card that promised exorbitant fees, including $99.95 for opening an account, a $9.95 activation fee, $7.95 per month in dues, and up to $6 for ATM withdrawals. The Attorney General of Connecticut wondered aloud if the fees were even legal.

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Patrick Range McDonald

Los Angeles Mormon Temple in Westwood in 2008.

​The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to allow Imperial County officials to defend Proposition 8 in court.

Imperial County Board of Supervisors and a deputy clerk sought to overturn an August ruling by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who found the anti-gay marriage ballot measure to be unconstitutional.

Today's decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit shows that having proper legal standing to defend Proposition 8 continues to be a major hurdle for the ballot measure's proponents.

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Leslie Dutton with Richard Fine: She's nice, and eats judges.

​L.A.'s bizarre legal story of 2010 was the solitary confinement jailing of elderly attorney Richard Fine on "contempt of court" -- and boy does Fine have contempt for Los Angeles Superior Court judges who greedily grab $57,000 "bonuses" totalling $300 million.

Richard Fine challenged the judges' nasty enrichment scheme as illegal. It probably is, but it's abetted by the legislature and L.A. County Board of Supervisors. As journalist RonKayeLA.com explains, Fine's 18-month jailing was a rare U.S. political imprisonment. He got freed after Leslie Dutton, Full Disclosure Network queen, relentlessly videotaped sources outing the judges' money scam:

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He's tall, judge, he's tall.

​Steve Martin has been tweeting funny observations from jury duty -- possibly in Los Angeles -- this week.

Tweeted The Jerk: "Defendant running for exit. Not to escape, but out of disgust. Judge wearing NOTHING under his robes. We are adjourned until tomorrow." And ...

"REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Lunch break. Discussing case with news media gives me chance to promote my book."

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Jamie McCourt.

​By Gene Maddaus and Dennis Romero

Judge Scott Gordon dealt a major blow to Dodgers owner Frank McCourt on Tuesday, voiding a 2004 marital agreement that would have deprived his ex-wife Jamie of a stake in the team.

The ruling does not automatically make Jamie a co-owner of the Dodgers but it does strengthen her hand.

From Tuesday morning's decision:

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Pro-gay marriage lawyer Ted Olson

​Nearly a year after court proceedings first started for the Proposition 8 federal lawsuit, attorneys for both sides argued their cases in front of a three-judge panel at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco today. Pro-Prop. 8 lawyers seek to overturn U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that the anti-gay marriage ballot measure is unconstitutional.

Mercury News reporter Howard Mintz notes that Judge Stephen Reinhardt continually wondered aloud if the court should decide that gays have a broad constitutional right to marry or simply that Prop. 8 unfairly stripped away an existing right of gays in California to marry.

It could be a signal of where the U.S. Ninth Circuit judges may be heading in their decision to either uphold or overturn Walker's ruling, and how far-reaching or not they may go.

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Ted Soqui

Gay marriage supporters in West Hollywood.

​The Proposition 8 hearing is underway at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, with pro-Prop. 8 attorney Charles Cooper laying out his case for why anti-gay marriage forces have legal standing to appeal U.S. District Court Vaughn Walker's ruling that the anti-gay marriage ballot measure is unconstitutional.

The hearing has been split into two sessions -- one for the question about legal standing and the other about the merits of Walker's decision. It can be viewed live on C-Span and at the American Foundation for Equal Rights web site.

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U.C. Davis law professor Vikram Amar

​So let's say that U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling on Proposition 8 stands as it goes through the appeals process and the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California is found to be unconstitutional. Will that decision apply to all gays and lesbians? Or just to the two couples who filed the lawsuit?

U.C. Davis law professor Vikram Amar has been going around and telling anyone who listens that Walker's ruling may only apply to the two couples who sued in federal court. U.C. Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky thinks Amar is full of hogwash.

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Ted Soqui

Gay marriage supporters at a West Hollywood rally in August.

​On Wednesday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals approved a request by C-SPAN to televise a Proposition 8 hearing on December 6. Two cameras will be allowed in the courtroom, which will also serve as a pool feed for other media organizations.

In August, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker found Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, to be unconstitutional. Pro-Prop. 8 forces, which successfully fought to keep cameras out of the courtroom for the initial trial, are appealing Walker's ruling.

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ABC7

Amy-Erin Blakely says her breasts were unwelcome at her former workplace.

​When are large breasts a liability? When your boss tells you to cover them up more -- that they're distracting coworkers. Really?

That's the contention of Amy-Erin Blakely, a Florida woman who hired Los Angeles' favorite, news-making attorney, Gloria Allred, to rep her in a lawsuit against the Devereux Foundation, her former employer.

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NBA

Mike Smith: Thief or just a bad friend?

​
Update: An Orange County jury acquitted him Tuesday. Smith says, "I'm relieved, obviously, but mostly I'm just grateful to the judge and jury who saw to it (that) the truth came out." First posted on Oct. 27 at 8:03 a.m.

When you borrow $735,000 from a pal and don't pay it back, is that grand theft? That's the quandary facing Clippers basketball announcer Mike Smith, whose trial on alleged grand theft from his late friend Bill Steinriede started in this week in Orange County.

We feel sorry for him: Not only does he announce for a team no one within 3,000 miles cares about, but his friend (the lender) died, and now he's facing serious charges thanks to an eager Orange County District Attorney's office.

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​How did Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, primary physician to Anna Nicole Smith, get acquitted of all charges by a Los Angeles jury and the other two -- Smith's friend Howard K. Stern and psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich -- get really light convictions?

The three were accused by District Attorney Steve Cooley's prosecutors of some heavy-hitting stuff that led up to the actress-model's drug OD.

Now Eroshevich's license will be reviewed (probably yanked) and she and Stern might even be off to the stir for a short stint. Did Cooley screw this up?

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Zuma Dogg

Zuma Dogg beats an LAPD ticket in a big way.

​You are free to do what you want to do on the Venice boardwalk, a federal judge ruled this week. Local activist Zuma Dogg, who brought the case against the city's lottery system of distributing permits to performers and vendors, was victorious.

He told the Weekly Wednesday afternoon that it was likely he would bring a civil suit against the city for allegedly violating his free speech on the boardwalk.

"The city of Los Angeles was arrogant," he said at an meeting on the matter Wednesday morning captured on video. "The city failed ... My damages will be millions."

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