News News Archive Email A Friend April 25, 2024 California Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA Will Honor Workers’ Memorial Day at Four Events in California on April 28th-29th 2024. Cal/OSHA Joining Partners in Arcadia, Richmond, San Diego and San Francisco. April 23, 2024 California Division of Workers' Compensation Launches Online Portal for Submission of QME Medical-Legal Reports April 22, 2024 California Division of Workers’ Compensation Posts Updated Time of Hire Notice April 22, 2024 Sullivan on Comp Launches ChatSOC. It's an Innovative Chatbot for California Workers' Compensation Professionals Integrated with an Authoritative Legal Treatise
| | AIG/Matrix Embezzlement Defendant Cara Cruz-Thompson Hires New Attorney. Court Agrees To Waiver Preliminary Hearing Until January 5th 2010 By Lonce LaMon - December 23, 2009Cara Cruz-Thompson, in a bold action to vigorously defend herself and to free herself from jail, fired her attorney, Michael Currier, yesterday, and hired Brian Gurwitz, a 15-year veteran lawyer who was admitted to the California State Bar in 1994 and who graduated from McGeorge School of Law of the University of the Pacific, in California.
Cara hired Brian Gurwitz on her own with the help of her brother, Daniel Lambert, and her daughters, Ashley Thompson and Jennifer Thompson. Therefore, Cruz-Thompson is now the only defendant in this case with a privately paid attorney who is not court appointed and court paid.
Cara expressed to this writer back in early December that she felt she would have been out of jail by now if she had been able to afford her own attorney. She did not mean this comment as any slight against Michael Currier, her court appointed attorney and counsel to date. She just knew the reality: that as a court appointed counsel he did not have the funds to dedicate the time to her case. She never got to talk to him except in court, and she felt that he was simply spread way too thin.
Also, Currier had been able to plea bargain a 4-year-deal for Cara, which would have allowed her to get out of jail after 2 years, upon certain conditions. But Cara had a melt down over the idea of two more years in custody, and couldn't accept the deal. So, she turned it down. Then she appealed to her family to find her a lawyer whose time she could pay for. So, now she is hoping Gurwitz can get her out of jail as soon as possible.
It's Cara's family that has come up with a sum of money to put towards her defense. Thus, the rest of the defendants, along with all the defense lawyers and the DA, have agreed to reconvene on the 5th of January in order to give Gurwitz time to prepare and learn the case, although he still believes strongly that that still will not be enough time. He even argued at length with the Judge at the very end of the proceedings, even after the defendants had been escorted out of the Court Room, about the short time frame he has to get himself prepared.
"I won't be ready," Gurwitz told Judge Streger.
"Your client does not appear in most of the counts. You have sufficient time," Streger insisted. She is an even tempered and very pleasant woman.
"For the record, the court greatly overestimates that..." Gurwitz emphasized.
"We'll deal with it on the 5th," Streger replied amiably.
Streger also finally told Gurwitz, "There are only 5 separate statutes that are involved in this case. Only 3 that involve your client."
Still, there are other reasons for the waiver until January 5th, as well. "There are multiple reasons," Mary Kreber, George Martinez's attorney, said to George. Although I could not hear what the multiple reasons were that Mary cited, as she was speaking in a low voice to her client, I know that Mary was not happy on Friday, December 18th, for the short amount of time she had to study the exhibits from the DA's witnesses. She voiced many objections concerning the short amount of time she had to review them since she first received the CD, so her objections about the short time for her to study the DA's exhibits most likely also came into play here.
Also, the Holiday Season played in as a strong factor, too. Although the defendants will have no enjoyment from the Holiday Season being that they are in custody, Judge Streger did say, "Have a Happy Holiday Season. And for the defendants, do the best you can. We will reconvene on January 5th."
While these proceedings were going on about this continuance, the three male defendants were chained together in a way I didn't notice they had been chained last Friday. This time they had thick chains around their waists, while their wrists were handcuffed with chains separating their hands. Hector Porrata's left hand was then hand-cuffed to George Martinez's right hand, and then George's left hand was hand-cuffed to Rene Montes' right hand. They all sat together in front of me in three contiguous chairs, and then there was a gap where Cara was seated just to the right of Hector, in the same manner as last Friday--hand-cuffed from her left wrist to the arm of her chair.
Again, Hector Porrata could not resist staring at Cara and gaping at her. He couldn't take his eyes off her in the same way that he could not last Friday. He started talking to her naturally as if he just couldn't help himself, and of course, the Deputy leaning against the jury box saw it and exploded: "I thought I told you not to talk! So, you're just going to 'dis' me like that? I told you not to talk! I don't know if you're discussing the case, or what, but the point is we said, 'NO TALKING!'."
So, the Deputy continued with his fit and went on to insist that Hector and Cara were going to have to be separated, but somehow Hector managed to answer that, okay, he would stop talking to Cara. And he did... but that didn't stop him from staring at her with longing, which he continued to do for the duration of the entire proceeding.
Gil Carreon, Hector's attorney, kneeled down in front of Hector and spoke to him at length in a whisper. He spoke in Spanish, not in English. He most likely both spoke in a whisper and in Spanish for confidentiality reasons.
It was a very cold day yesterday with some high winds at the Santa Ana Orange County Court House. Cara, who is very thin, must have been very cold in just the mustard colored short-sleeved jail tunic she was wearing. This day she appeared very controlled and calm. She was not on the verge of tears at all during the proceedings. Her medium-long brown hair with gold highlights fell loose against her back along her shoulder blades.
The agreement was finally settled that the proceedings will continue on January 5th, 2010, in Court Room C-53, and will continue on Mondays through Thursdays. The Court will hear other matters on Fridays. The Court, as is customary, will be closed on the third Wednesday of every month.
Readers may write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@adjustercom.com
|