Bonny Garcia, notorious school attorney, shares Daily Transcript Top Attorney honors with ACLU's David Blair-Loy

See all posts about David Blair-Loy.

David Blair-Loy of the ACLU shares Daily Transcript honors with Bonny Garcia, the lawyer whom the San Diego Union Tribune criticized for his shocking actions in regard to Otay Water District. The SDUT particularly criticized the indemnification agreement Garcia had with Otay.

Top Attorneys 2010

The Daily Transcript does
not evaluate the lawyers it
chooses as "Top Lawyers" of
the year; there is no panel of
experts making the choice.
Nor do all the lawyers in town
participate in the vote.
Instead, the voters select
themselves. To win, a lawyer
has to get his pals to send in
ballots. (There is even a
section for insurance
lawyers.) The Daily
Transcript seems to be
promoting itself by exploiting
lawyers who feel the need to
promote themselves. The
most highly regarded lawyers
do not seem to participate in
this contest. David Blair-Loy
has exerted himself mightily
for two years in a row to
become one of the many
"winners" of this contest.

David Blair-Loy article from the DT's online newspaper, San Diego Source

Who shares the Daily
Transcript's Top Attorney
"honor" with Blair-Loy?

See Daily Transcript story on Bonny Garcia

1. Bonny (Bonifacio) Garcia,
(2010) has become notorious
for charging outrageous fees to
school districts such as
Sweetwater Union High School
District. He also assisted in the
collapse of ethics at Otay Water
District. The district, shockingly,
indemnified him for his work,
and when the district was sued,
ratepayers (including the author
of this website) were forced to
pay Daniel Shinoff and Jeffery
Morris of Stutz Artiano Shinoff &
Holtz to defend him.

2. Another attorney from Bonny
Garcia's firm, Marie C. Mendoza,
also won. It's obvious, when
looking at the long list of winners,
that certain law firms got busy and
nominated several of their
lawyers, and everyone in the firm
voted for their fellow employees,
making sure that the few firms that
invested energy in this project had
many winners. Both of the lawyers
from Garcia's firm are in the same
category as Blair-Loy,
"Government Municipal," which
has a total of seven winners. I've
never heard of the other four.

3. Blair-Loy's school attorney pal
Dan Shinoff (yes, the one who
defended Bonny Garcia), also
won the Daily Transcript award
(in 2005). Most lawyers don't vie
for it. School districts have paid
to defend Daniel Shinoff.

A (legal) immigrant dies in Brian Bilbray's district

Reza Lavasani Dana, an Iranian tourist from Sweden who went jogging near Escondido last weekend, has been found dead.

What did Resa Lavasani Dana die from?
It appears he died from the heat (and the fact that no one stopped to help him as he was crawling along the roadside).
He seems to have crawled into the ravine looking for relief from the heat.

It's odd that he was found at the bottom of a ravine; he had been seen hobbling along the road. How and why did he (or his body) leave the road? Why didn't anyone stop to help? Were they afraid he was illegal, and therefore they didn't want to get involved?

Jogger's body believed to have been found
By J. Harry Jones
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 19, 2010 at 10:33 a.m.

The body of a man believed to be that of a Swedish tourist who went jogging Thursday in a rural area north of Escondido was found by Sheriff’s Department detectives Monday morning.

The body was located at 8:30 a.m. in a ravine off a driveway on Mountain Meadow Road. Two sheriff’s officials said there is no reason to suspect foul play at this time, but until the body can be examined the cause of death can’t be known for sure.

The general description and clothing of the man who was found match that of Reza Lavasani Dana, 33, who was last seen Thursday afternoon in the area. High temperatures that day reached the mid-90s in the area.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said witnesses came forward over the weekend saying they had seen a jogger hobbling along the road, as if his leg or ankle had been injured, but thought no more about it until seeing news reports over the weekend about the search for Lavasani Dana.

Detectives Monday morning went to the area and found the body in heavy brush at the bottom of the ravine...

Deputies Search For Vacationer Who Never Returned From Run
Channel 10 News San Diego




WHERE'S YOUR SUGGESTION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM, MR. BILBRAY?

I'm afraid you're encouragement of anger at immigrants may send the wrong message to those who feel the urge to commit hate crimes. Police need to investigate events like this one, not immigrants just looking for work.


Lawmaker plans to file brief criticizing Obama lawsuit against state
North County Times
By EDWARD SIFUENTES
July 16, 2010

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said Friday that he and a group of lawmakers plan to file a court brief in opposition to the Obama administration's legal challenge of Arizona's controversial new immigration law...

"It comes as no surprise," said Pedro Rios, San Diego director of the human rights group American Friends Service Committee. "Brian Bilbray has always pushed for anti-immigrant legislation at the local, state and federal level."

...Arizona overstepped its authority by passing the immigration law, said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties.

"Whether you think the federal government is doing its job or not is beside the point," Blair-Loy said. "The state of Arizona trespassed into the legal prerogative of the federal government. ... Arizona doesn't get to play in the immigration sandbox."


[Maura Larkins note: An acquaintance of mine remembers Brian Bilbray visiting city hall in Imperial Beach in the seventies wearing a motorcycle jacket with a swastika on the back.]


Open Congress.com:

Bilbray was born in Coronado, California, growing up in Imperial Beach, California. He worked as a tax consultant before entering politics. He and his wife, the former Karen Walker, have five children. He is a cousin of former Nevada Democratic Representative James Bilbray.

Bilbray became interested in politics during an attempt by Mayor Bert Stites to carry out an extensive program of eminent domain. He ran successfully for the Imperial Beach city council as a populist, serving during 1976–1987, and was mayor during 1978–1985. Bilbray's tenure as Mayor was marked by his attempt to build a yacht marina in the Tijuana Estuary and build a 1.5 mile breakwater off of the beach of Imperial Beach. [1] Both projects were stopped by the opposition of local environmentalists and surfers. The Tijuana River Estuary is now a National Estuarine Research Reserve and California State Park. The breakwater project was halted with the help of the then fledgling Surfrider Foundation...



Neighbor: Bilbray being investigated by grand jury
North County Times
By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT
October 27, 2006

NORTH COUNTY --- A neighbor of Republican 50th District Rep. Brian Bilbray said Thursday that he was subpoenaed to testify before a San Diego County grand jury in August and spent about an hour and a half answering questions about whether Bilbray lived in his Carlsbad neighborhood...



SAN DIEGANS GOING TO ARIZONA TO PROTEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT LAW

San Diegans, led by Mar Cardenas, are asking everyone who opposes SB1070 to come to Arizona on July 28-30th for Days of Non-compliance. They will be meeting at the Unitarian Church in Hillcrest.


From the website:

We are all Arizona! Don't let this happen here or anywhere else! We must do this as a community and as a nation.

The passage of SB 1070 by Governor Brewer sparked national outrage catalyzing a movement for immigrant rights and lending a sense of urgency to stop the hate and terrorizing of immigrants and people of color in Arizona and across the nation.

Reza Lavasani Dana found dead/Brian Bilbray supports Arizona anti-immigration law

What did Resa Lavasani Dana die from?
It appears he died from the heat (and the fact that no one stopped to help him as he was crawling along the roadside).
He seems to have crawled into the ravine looking for relief from the heat.


This post has been moved to HERE.

It's time for David Blair-Loy to stop mincing around and sue Southwestern College, already

UPDATE: July 22, 2010

I am more concerned than ever about the motivations of local ACLU head counsel David Blair-Loy. He seems deeply concerned with his own career, as evidenced by the effort he must have put in to get busy lawyers to participate in the Daily Transcript's yearly opportunity for lawyers to promote themselves.

The Daily Transcript does not evaluate the lawyers it chooses as "Top Lawyers" of the year; there is no panel of experts making the choice. Nor do all the lawyers in town participate in the vote.

Instead, the voters select themselves. To win, a lawyer has to get his pals to send in ballots. (There is even a section for insurance lawyers.) The Daily Transcript seems to be promoting itself by exploiting lawyers who feel the need to promote themselves. The most highly regarded lawyers do not seem to participate in this contest.

David Blair-Loy has exerted himself mightily for two years in a row to become one of the many "winners" of this contest.

See all ACLU posts.
See all Southwestern College posts.

David Blair-Loy, legal counsel for the San Diego ACLU, gets along too well with school attorneys. He even got an award from the bar association for "high civility" in dealing with them, and with other attorneys.

But the situation at Southwestern has gone on long enough. It's time to stop writing letters to Jonathan Pearl and Raj Chopra, and to take some action.

Witness to Police Misconduct Speaks to ACLU

Witness to Police Misconduct Speaks to ACLU
by Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger's Newsmagazine Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010 at 8:51 PM
mgconlan@earthlink.net (619) 688-1886 P.O. Box 50134, San Diego, CA 92165

Chris Carlino spoke at the annual meeting of the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) February 18 and relived her experience being pepper-sprayed by an abusive sheriff's deputy at a fundraiser for Congressional candidate Francine Busby eight months earlier. Her attorney, Mike Marrinan, and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse director Beth Givens also spoke at the meeting, and San Diego ACLU staff attorney David Blair-Loy laid out the group's local legal agenda...

ACLU defends rights of those in uniform to criticize government in public

Pendleton Marine back on Facebook
ACLU defends rights of those in uniform to criticize government in public

By Jeanette Steele,
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 14, 2010

CAMP PENDLETON — Marine Sgt. Gary Stein is back on Facebook with an Armed Forces Tea Party page Wednesday.

A day earlier, his story had sparked widespread debate over the rights of uniform wearers to criticize the government in public forums such as social media sites.

The San Diego office of the American Civil Liberties Union fired off a letter Wednesday afternoon to Camp Pendleton, where Stein is stationed, advising commanders that the sergeant’s speech had been “chilled” Tuesday when he was recalled to base just before he was scheduled to conduct a television interview about his three-week-old Tea Party site...

Marine spokeswoman Maj. Gabrielle Chapin said Wednesday that Stein can administer the Facebook site as a private individual, as long as he follows the Pentagon directives, which include a provision that blogs must be written on one’s own time and computer.

But the ACLU has concerns about the legality of the Pentagon’s entire list of rules, which say that military personnel can’t speak before political groups or advocate a political cause to the media or other group discussions.

“We have serious First Amendment problems with that,” said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU’s San Diego office.

“We think service members ought to be entitled to virtually the same free speech rights as civilians with very limited exceptions for the necessity of combat,” Blair-Loy said in an interview Wednesday.

“Is the average civilian going to assume that the Marine Corps endorses what (Stein) says, just because he says he’s a Marine? I don’t think anybody would believe that.”

Southwestern College Free Speech Zone is somewhat larger than a postage stamp

The ACLU's Best and Worst in San Diego, 2009
Voice of San Diego
January 7, 2010
Kevin Keenan

Southwestern College Free Speech Zone: ...Mario Savio... is no doubt rolling in his grave over the state of free speech on many college campuses -- including post-stamp-sized "free speech zones," like the one at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Southwestern College's president, Dr. Raj Chopra, has designated a tiny patio area as "Free Speech Plaza," while declaring the rest of the 156-acre campus out of free speech bounds. The ACLU sent a demand letter, calling on the college to revise its policies to allow free speech and assembly throughout the campus. In 2010, we resolve to resolve this matter through negotiation or litigation.

Kevin Keenan is the executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.




Here is a link to David Blair-Loy's letter to Raj Chopra.

Fallbrook Union High School free speech case settled

“There is no better place to begin standing up for and teaching basic principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press than in our schools."


Fallbrook School Leader Ready To Move Past Censorship Case
By Ana Tintocalis
January 4, 2010

...Superintendent Dale Mitchell confirms his district struck a deal with the ACLU to settle a school newspaper censorship case dating back to 2008.

The district will now pay Fallbrook High School's newspaper advisor $7,500 in the settlement. The ACLU gets $20,000.

At the time, Fallbrook High School's principal attempted to block the publication of a student-written article about the resignation of the district's former superintendent. The principal also tried to block a student editorial critical of the district's abstinence-only sex education program.

Mitchell says the campus has adopted new guidelines and procedures so this doesn’t happen again...

The district will also send letters to the students involved, exonerating them from any wrong doing.

The ACLU's David Blair-Loy says the settlement is a victory for student press rights.

“There is no better place to begin standing up for and teaching basic principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press than in our schools,” Blair-Loy said. “It does take enormous courage for students to stand up to school authorities when (officials) are violating freedom of speech.”

The campus newspaper advisor was removed from his position for insisting to run the information. Five of his journalism students alerted the Student Press Law Center in Virginia. That's when the ACLU got involved.



See also North County Times.