May 27, 2010 -
PRLog -- Los Angeles, May 27 – in letter to the editors of the Los Angeles Times, [1] Joseph Zernik, PhD protested the deficient reporting by the Los Angeles Times, for over a year, on the case of 70 year old, former US prosecutor Richard Fine, who is held in solitary confinement for over a year. In his letter, Dr Zernik protested the failure of the Los Angeles Times to correctly report the key facts in its multiple articles on the case. It is indisputable that Richard Fine was arrested on the morning of March 4, 2009 at the Court of Judge David Yaffe, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, at the Mosk Courthouse, on North Hill Street, City of Los Angeles. However, Dr Zernik pointed out that no warrant for the arrest was ever discovered. For over a year Sheriff Lee Baca insisted on denying access to the California public records, which were the arrest and booking records of Richard Fine. Instead, the Sheriff repeatedly produced false and deliberately misleading records - unverified computer printouts, which claimed that Richard Fine was arrested on location and pursuant to the authority of the "San Pedro Municipal Court". [2] No such court had existed for almost a decade. Moreover, Dr Zernik pointed out that Sheriff Deputy at the Superior Court of California, San Pedro Annex, insisted that Richard Fine was never booked there either, and that no booking facilities existed at the place at all. As emphasized in the Human Rights Alert letter to the Los Angeles Times, Richard Fine was only one person, but survey of the inmate data in Los Angeles County jails demonstrated that about half the inmates - thousands of persons - were held by Sheriff Lee Baca under false and deliberately misleading records. [3] Such conduct of the justice system in Los Angeles County, which the US Supreme Court refused to hear, was suggested by Human Rights Alert to the US Senate Judiciary Committee - as subject for discussion in the confirmation hearings of Elena Kagan. [4] It was also listed as one of the hallmarks in submission to the United Nations, [5] as part of the first ever UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Human Rights in the United States, scheduled for November 2010. Human Rights Alert also requested the Los Angeles Times’ assistance – in asking Sheriff Lee Baca to produce the California public records, which were the warrant and booking record of Richard Fine.
Human Rights Alert claimed that conditions prevailing in the Los Angeles justice system were a Human Rights disgrace of historic proportion!
LINKS
[1] 10-05-27 Human Rights Alert letter to the Los Angeles Time re: Deficient reporting on the Richard Fine case.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32048327/[2] 10-01-08-Supervisor-
Antonovich-Los-
Angeles-County-
repeat-mailing-
of-January-8-
2010-response-
from-Sheriff-
Lee-Baca-in-
re-Richard-Fine-
papers-inclu
http://www.scribd.com/doc/25555341/[3] Alleged False Imprisonment of Numerous Other Inmates in the Los Angeles County Jails, Revealed
in Data Surveys of Los Angeles County Jails
10-01-04-Los-
Angeles-County-
Sheriff-s-Department-
Online-Inmate-
Information-
Center-Data-
Survey-
Jose-Martinez-
s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24809956/10-01-05-Los-
Angeles-County-
Sheriff-apos-
s-Department-
Online-Inmate-
Information-
Center-Data-
Survey-
John-Smith-s
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/24816245/
10-01-16-Los-
Angeles-County-
Sheriff-apos-
s-Department-
VINE-vs-Online-
Inmate-Information-
Center-
Data-Survey-
Jose-Martinez-
amp-Jose-Rodriguez-
s
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/25315610/
10-01-11-Los-
Angeles-County-
Sheriff-apos-
s-Department-
Online-Inmate-
Information-
Center-Data-
Survey-
Jose-Rodriguez-
s
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/25064776/
10-03-14-Los-
Angeles-County-
Sheriff-apos-
s-Department-
Online-Inmate-
Information-
Center-Survey-
of-
Consecutive-
Booking-Numbers-
s
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/28350775/
10-01-11-Los-
Angeles-Law-
Library-Catalog-
Data-Survey-
California-Code-
s
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/25067457/
[4] 10-05-26-Human-
Rights-Alert-
Proposed-Questions-
for-the-Senate-
Judiciary-Committee-
in-Confirmation-
Hearing-of-Elena-
Kagan
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/31986396/
[5] April 19, 2010 Human Rights Alert submission for the 2010 UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of
Human Rights in the United States by the United Nations:
• Press Release:
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/30200004/
• Submission:
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/30147583/
• Appendix:
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/30163613/
# # #
Human Rights Alert, a Los Angeles County, California, NGO, is committed to monitoring Human Rights violations by the US government, and reporting such violations, including, but not limited to the 2010 Universal Periodic Review of the US by the UN.
