​A Riverside County jury this week awarded $16.5 million to an area man and his wife after the panel agreed that a doctor's negligence left the husband paraplegic following a back injury, the Beverly Hills law firm representing him announced.

The victim, 41-year-old Trent Hughes, was off-roading in Glamis, Ariz. on Nov. 2, 2003 when he hit a bump and injured his back. He went to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and waited for the on-call doctor to treat him. His lawyers say Christopher Pham was supposed to report to the emergency room within 20 minutes of being called, but that the doctor didn't finally get around to performing surgery on Hughes' fractured spine until two days later.

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One side story that developed over the course of the Proposition 8 trial was how Courage Campaign -- the grassroots, Los Angeles-based political organization -- seemed to out-hustle gay rights behemoth Equality California.

Ted Soqui

Prop. 8 protestors hitting the streets in West Hollywood.

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This thought popped into our heads on Wednesday, when Courage Campaign founder Rick Jacobs announced that the group's live-blogging site dedicated to covering the Prop. 8 trial in San Francisco attracted 1.4 million views.

That's a darn big number, especially for a weeks-old Web site.

Jacobs and his colleagues blogged daily from inside the courtroom, which was a response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that blocked a delayed video feed from coming out of San Francisco.

Prop. 8 Trial Tracker, as a result, received an enormous amount of attention from assorted journalists and bloggers, engaged the public and generated tons of comments from them, spread the word around the world about what the lawyers and witnesses were saying about gay marriage, gay parenting, homophobia, and a host of other issues, and helped to inspire L.A. filmmaker John Ireland to produce video reenactments of the trial.

Equality California, on the other hand, couldn't claim such accomplishments, even though it's considered by the mainstream media as the powerhouse gay rights organization in California and a major player in the national gay rights movement.

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After 12 days of testimony at the high-profile Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco, lawyers for both sides of the gay marriage lawsuit have rested their cases. The last piece of business for the attorneys will be closing arguments, which will be given several weeks from now.

Patrick Range McDonald

Proposition 8 protestors in West Hollywood in October, 2008.

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The last day was once again a contentious one, with Prop. 8 plaintiffs' lawyer David Boies, who wants to overturn Califorina's same sex marriage ban, aggressively cross-examining pro-Prop. 8 witness David Blankenhorn.

Boies and Blankenhorn clashed in court on Tuesday over whether or not marriage was established for the purposes of procreation, among other issues.

But by noon on Wednesday, testimony was completed, live-bloggers in the courtroom such as Courage Campaign founder Rick Jacobs were probably exhausted, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker told attorneys that on February 26 he'll schedule a date for closing arguments.

So the Prop. 8 lawsuit probably won't go to the judge for full deliberations until March.

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The cross-examination of anti-gay marriage witness David Blankenhorn by attorney David Boies turned into quite the sparring match at the Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Prop. 8 witness David Blankenhorn

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According to San Jose Mercury News reporter Howard Mintz, the cross-examination turned into "more than an hour of nearly uninterrupted skirmishing" and "degenerated into an argument in open court."

It sounds as if Boies, who's known to be a tough interrogator and wants to overturn Prop. 8, was doing his job.

Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values, testified that marriage is an important institution for reasons that mostly revolve around procreation.

Proposition 8, according to Blankenhorn and Prop. 8 defense attorneys, was therefore necessary to keep gays and lesbians from mangling "traditional marriage."

Unsurprisingly, Boies took exception to Blankenhorn's testimony, and the two men clashed in court.

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As testimony for the Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco nears its conclusion, Claremont McKenna College government professor Kenneth Miller, a witness for anti-gay marriage lawyers, took the stand and said gays and lesbians have political clout in California.

Claremont McKenna College

Professor Kenneth Miller

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It's one of those key legal points for Prop. 8 defense attorneys, who want to uphold the same sex marriage ban.

The defense wants to persuade U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who's presiding over the case, that since gays have political power, they don't need special protections from the court and, as a result, Proposition 8 should remain in place.

Prop. 8 plaintiffs' attorney David Boies, who wants to overturn the gay marriage ban, disputed Miller's claim during several hours of cross examination, pointing out that no gay man or woman has been elected to statewide office in California, among other things.

Miller will take the stand again this morning.

Lisa Keen of Keen News Service reports that the professor wasn't exactly a star witness for the defense during his first day in court.

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​Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn resigned Monday after pleading guilty to a conflict-of-interest charge as part of an agreement with the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. The deal came as jury selection was set to begin in his trial for alleged corruption.

Dorn had cast the deciding vote on the Inglewood City Council to extend a low-interest, home-loan program to city employees. He then took out a $500,000 loan under the program for himself. He used the money to pay of his mortgage, and he has since paid off the low-interest debt.

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Proposition 8 plaintiffs' attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies are expected to rest their case today in San Francisco.

Patrick Range McDonald

Proposition 8 protestor marches in Westwood in November, 2008.

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Olson and Boies have spent nearly two weeks trying to persuade U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that Proposition 8, which took away the existing right of gays and lesbians to legally marry in California, is unconstitutional and should be overturned.

Last Friday, the plaintiffs' attorneys called U.C.-Davis psychology professor Gregory Herek to the stand, who testified that most research shows that gays and lesbians do not have a choice over their sexual orientation.

Proposition 8 defendants' lawyers, who want to uphold the gay marriage ban, spent hours cross-examining Herek since the question of choosing one's sexual orientation goes to whether or not gays and lesbians should receive protections from the court.

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Thursday, January 21, was a day many people in the gay community had been waiting for -- William Tam, a leading voice of the Proposition 8 campaign, received a grilling at the Proposition 8 trial from attorney David Boies, who's made a solid gold reputation as an intelligent and relentless interrogator.

Prop. 8 plaintiffs' attorney David Boies

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Tam took the stand yesterday after lunch recess, with Boies carefully making the connection between Tam and the pro-Prop. 8 campaign, according to San Jose Mercury News reporter Howard Mintz.

"Tam's testimony," Mintz writes, "is a key ingredient in the plaintiffs' effort to show that hostility and animus toward gays and lesbians fueled the passage of Proposition 8."

Within a few minutes, Boies was adeptly making that case.

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​Attorneys for the victim of Roman Polanski indicated they will file papers asking a judge in the 33-year-old case to sentence him to time already served, KTLA reports.

An attorney for Samantha Geimer, who was 13 when Polanski had sex with her, wants the director sentenced "in absentia" for the crime. Polanski is being held under house arrest in Switzerland as the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office attempts to extradite him for sentencing.

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President Barack Obama took a hit at the Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco on Wednesday, when Stanford University professor Gary Segura said Obama is "not a reliable ally" of the gay community.

Then presidential candidate Barack Obama with Prop. 8 supporter Rich Warren

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The criticism of the president was a key legal point made by the Prop. 8 plaintiffs' lawyers, who want to overturn California's gay marriage ban, to show that gays and lesbians are not politically powerful and need legal protections from the courts.

San Jose Mercury News reporter Howard Mintz writes that "Segura had some pointed criticism for Obama, observing that while he's spoken out strongly in favor of gay rights, he has not taken any real steps to back same-sex marriage or change the military's policy."

"This is not a reliable ally," Segura said in court. "We have to look at the disconnect between rhetoric and action."

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