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OP-ED: Thousands of African-Americans Jailed by Void Restraining Orders

Published

8 years ago

January 12, 2015

By Conrad Baldwin

Did California’s courts issue thousands of void and unenforceable restraining orders between 1999 and 2007? Did those void orders cause the false arrest and jailing of thousands of young African-American men, many of whom may still be in prison?

The answer is yes, according to this author and legal researcher in my new book, “The Void Generation: How a Generation of Void Restraining Orders Voided the Lives of a Generation,” which was selected for review in the current issue of Forum, the official publication of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, by assistant editor and veteran Deputy L.A. County Public Defender Al Menaster.

“The Void Generation” demonstrates with 47 public documents that between 1999 and 2007, the governing arm of the State courts, the Judicial Council of California, published 13 void and unenforceable restraining order forms, then refused to supply the courts with an alternative form.

With no valid forms available for their use, California’s courts were compelled to issue all of their restraining orders on void and unenforceable forms, which may have caused the false arrest of thousands of young African-American men who were jailed without a warning notice or a prior court hearing for allegedly violating California Penal Code Section 12021(g)(2) by “owning or possessing a firearm.”

The public documents illustrating “The Void Generation” demonstrate that a Notice Regarding Firearms and a Firearm Restriction notice printed in the restraining order forms published by the Judicial Council between Jan. 1, 1999 and Jan. 1, 2007 violated state and federal law by:

Requiring respondents to give up any firearms they “owned or possessed” without a court hearing;

Ambiguously stating the court “has authority” to order firearms surrendered, not that it “will”;

Failing to warn the restrained person they were prohibited from “owning or possessing a firearm”.

“The Void Generation” includes two official Judicial Council reports, one from April 17, 2000 and the other from October 5, 2000, which detail the invalid firearms prohibition notices contained in the restraining order forms DV-110, DV-130, and MC-220.

Also included are excerpts from the Minutes of two Judicial Council meetings on April 28, 2000 and Oct. 27, 2000 demonstrating that the Judicial Council failed to revise the invalid firearms prohibitions in these three restraining order forms until July 1, 2000 and Jan. 1, 2001, long after these mandatory forms were voided by the Jan. 1, 2000 enactment of the 1999 California Senate Bill 218.

According to the judicial forms illustrating The Void Generation, the Judicial Council failed to revise many of California’s restraining order forms to prohibit “owning or possessing a firearm” for more than four years after the enactment of Senate Bill 218, and failed to revise the firearm restriction notice in the criminal court restraining order Form MC-220 to correctly refer to a prior court hearing until that form was finally discontinued on Jan. 1, 2007.

An included Judicial Council report admits Council staff refused to publish an alternative “one-page form that could be attached to the appropriate forms” to warn respondents they are prohibited from “owning or possessing a firearm” because “attaching the warning to every restraining order might be burdensome to court clerks and individuals.”

An included study by California’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center found that over 12,000 people may have been arrested and jailed between Jan. 1, 1999 and Jan. 1, 2000 for allegedly violating these void restraining orders. And an included study by three professional researchers from the UCLA School of Public Health reports that almost two-thirds of those arrested for allegedly violating these void restraining orders were young African-American men between the ages of 25 and 34.

“The Void Generation” includes binding decisions by several appellate courts that no court can issue, enforce, or uphold a void order and that no statutes of limitations apply to a void order. These decisions confirm that all of the restraining orders issued on these void Judicial Council forms can now be set aside and their innocent victims freed from false imprisonment and compensated for their damages.

“The Void Generation” concludes with a quote from the 1958 appellate case of Fritz v. Krugh, holding that a void order “as we all know, grounds no rights, forms no defense to actions taken thereunder, and is vulnerable to any manner of collateral attack“ and even years later, “when the memories may have grown dim and rights long been regarded as vested, any disgruntled litigant may reopen old wounds and once more probe their depths.”

“And it is then as though trial and adjudication had never been.”

Conrad Baldwin is the author of “The Void Generation: How a Generation of Void Restraining Orders Voided the Lives of a Generation.”

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Gov. Newsom Requests Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for Counties Impacted By Storms

Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a request Tuesday for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for nine California counties, including Monterey County. If approved, the move will pave the way for federal aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be provided to local governments and individuals impacted by storms in February and March.

Published

2 days ago

March 31, 2023

Oakland Post

Monterey County Sheriff, Tina Nieto, provides California Governor Gavin Newsom an update on the Pajaro River levee repair near the township of Pajaro, Calif., in Monterey County on March 15, 2023. Floodwaters breached the levee around midnight on March 10, 2023. (Ken James/California Department of Water Resources via Bay City News)

By Thomas Hughes
Bay City News
Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a request Tuesday for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for nine California counties, including Monterey County.
If approved, the move will pave the way for federal aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be provided to local governments and individuals impacted by storms in February and March.
In addition to Monterey County, the request included Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, along with Calaveras, Kern, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Tulare and Tuolumne counties.
Four other counties were added to a previous emergency declaration from the governor, including Alameda, Marin, Modoc and Shasta counties.
“Over these past months, state, local and federal partners have worked around the clock to protect our communities from devastating storms that have ravaged every part of our state. We will continue to deploy every tool we have to help Californians rebuild and recover from these storms,” Newsom said.
If approved, aid from FEMA can be used for individual housing assistance, food aid, counseling, medical and legal services. It will also cover some storm-related costs like debris removal.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors has requested additional state aid to help undocumented residents receive direct assistance that they aren’t eligible for from FEMA.
The governor said in a press release that funding from the state’s Rapid Response Fund would be made available to those residents and will ensure that families with mixed immigration status can access federal aid.
A local resources center opened Wednesday at the Watsonville Veterans Memorial Building at 215 E. Beach St. The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. through April 7. The center is staffed with personnel from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and Monterey County emergency staff who will help guide Monterey County residents through the recovery process.
An eviction moratorium was passed by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will provide limited eviction protection for residents who lost income because of the storms. If the Presidential Disaster Declaration is approved, FEMA assistance could help some eligible residents receive money to help pay rent, which will not be forgiven during the moratorium.

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Activism

20 Years Later, Breast Cancer Emergency Fund a Testament to Faith Fancher’s Enduring Legacy

When a woman is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, chemotherapy and radiation often make her too weak to work. If she is working a low-paying job or unemployed, the mounting bills can become overwhelming. For 20 years, the Women’s Cancer Resource Center (WCRC) has provided a lifeline. The Berkeley-based non-profit organization administers the Faith Fancher Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, which gives cash grants of up to $595 to low-income women in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties who are battling breast cancer.

Published

2 days ago

March 31, 2023

Oakland Post

Faith Fancher, a KTVU reporter, died of breast cancer in 2003

By Tammerlin Drummond

For 20 years, the Women’s Cancer Resource Center (WCRC) has provided a lifeline. The Berkeley-based non-profit organization administers the Faith Fancher Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, which gives cash grants of up to $595 to low-income women in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties who are battling breast cancer.

Grant recipients have used the money to help pay for food, utilities, rent, car insurance, medical co-pays and other necessities. One woman who was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer said she used her $595 grant to buy an oxygen concentrator.

“You could say the air I breathe is because of your generosity,” she said. “I am so incredibly grateful to you and am feeling better every day.

The fund is named in honor of Faith Fancher, a popular television reporter at KTVU who died in 2003 after a valiant battle against breast disease, the web site says. Fancher saw her own cancer as an opportunity to use her public profile to raise awareness and educate others about the importance of early detection.

Fancher founded an organization called Friends of Faith that was dedicated to raising funds for low-income women with breast cancer.

It was 20 years ago this March that Fancher first approached the Women’s Cancer Resource Center about setting up an emergency grant program for women going through breast cancer treatment.

One of the earliest recipients was a 50-year-old homeless woman who used her $595 grant to pay for moving costs into housing she could afford.

“Faith understood the financial burden that low-income individuals faced when diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Dolores Moorehead, who oversees the fund at the WCRC. “This was the first fund dedicated to financial support being offered in the East Bay.”

Over the past two decades, the Faith Fancher Breast Cancer Emergency Fund has given out $992,000 in one-time cash grants. There have been 2,500 beneficiaries, including women and some men with breast cancer.

Ricki Stevenson, a founding member of Friends of Faith, reflected on Fancher’s legacy and the enduring impact of the emergency fund that she created.

“It says that Faith continues to be a presence and it wasn’t just about her,” Stevenson said. “It was so all of the other sisters who come behind us they now have help even though they don’t have the same resources.”

Rosie Allen, another founding member of Friends of Faith, said Fancher left a lasting impact. “Twenty years later Faith is no longer with us, but the breast cancer emergency fund lives on and the need is even greater than ever.”

The Friends of Faith used to host an annual 5K walk/run at Lake Merritt to honor Fancher after she died. It raised funds for the emergency fund and other Bay Area non-profits that provide services to breast cancer survivors.

After Friends of Faith disbanded in 2017, the To Celebrate Life Foundation, former Friends of Faith board members and community members have continued to support the breast cancer emergency fund.

Shyanne Reese used her grant to help pay her rent while she was going through breast cancer treatment.

“I often reflect on how I wish I could share with Faith the impact her life and friends made on me in a non-judgement environment, relieving the financial stress of simply paying the rent so that I could focus on healing,” Reese said.

“With your support, we are able to continue this fund and support our community members when they need us most, said WCRC Executive Director Amy Alanes.

To donate to the Faith Fancher Breast Cancer Emergency fund, visit https://tinyurl.com/FaithFancher.