Federal court postpones arguments in ADA case over Boudin recall
SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco Superior Court judge on Thursday postponed argument on the legitimacy of thousands of Bay Area lawsuits brought in federal court under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Judge Richard Ulmer said that he did not want to "spend judicial resources" on the dispute until he found out if the successor to recently recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin will pursue the case.
Ulmer directed the district attorney's office to file a declaration by Aug. 4 stating whether the new district attorney expects to continue to prosecute the civil case. If the new district attorney elects to proceed, the judge said that he will then reschedule the hearing.
The court's decision appeared to take Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Markoff, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, by surprise. Markoff argued that the case was no different than any of the other 5,600 active cases the San Francisco District Attorney's Office is handling at present. In his view, a new district attorney might change the caption of the case, but wouldn't affect its prosecution. The judge did not agree.
He said that there was a big difference between the case and many of the others in the District Attorney's Office, because the other cases weren't filed "in the middle of a political campaign, like this one was."
Markoff responded that that he did not think that had any relevance, but the judge said, "you might not, but I do."
The lawsuit was originally filed in April by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his Los Angeles County counterpart, George Gascon, against the San Diego law firm Potter Handy LLP and 15 of its lawyers.
The complaint alleges that the firm knowingly relied on false allegations from its disabled clients so they could get their ADA cases into federal court.
Shortly after the complaint was filed, Potter Handy partner Dennis Price gave a statement saying that the lawsuit was filed for political purposes, and he specifically referred to then pending recall efforts against Boudin in San Francisco and Gascon in Los Angeles.
"Both DAs are facing serious recall threats for the perception of not faithfully executing the duties of their offices and are filing these claims in order to generate support," Price said, vowing that the firm would fight the suit.
At that time, Boudin was in the middle of the recall process, which he subsequently lost. Several hours after the hearing Thursday, Mayor London Breed announced that Brooke Jenkins, a former San Francisco prosecutor who left the District Attorney's Office to help recall Boudin, was appointed to replace Boudin.
Hoon Chun, a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, argued that his office was also a plaintiff and would continue the suit regardless of a decision from a new San Francisco district attorney.
The judge asked Chun about the status of recall efforts against Gascon in Los Angeles. Chun said that petitions had been submitted but it has not been determined if they were sufficient for a recall election. Even if they were, Chun said, an election could not be held earlier than November.
That argument did not change the judge's mind. He remarked that the case "will still be young then."
