The city and attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union have walked away from a settlement in the case over San Diego police officers collecting DNA from minors without parental notification. In July of this …
October 26, 2017
Back to profile
Stories by Dorian Hargrove
Case of teens swabbed for DNA at impasse
Coronado High water-polo coach to stay dry
San Diego Superior Court judge Eddie Sturgeon on October 20 denied a legal request from former Coronado High School water-polo coach Randy Burgess to return to his job as a teacher. Sturgeon ruled that the …
October 21, 2017
Wilmark – a few steps from being mobsters
In May 2015, Bernard Vinluan’s job at Willmark Communities became more secret agent than apartment leasing agent. Vinluan waited for the employees to clock out of the office before he made his move. He snuck …
October 18, 2017
Army and Navy Academy sex-abuse case cavalcade
Two former cadets at the Army and Navy Academy have filed lawsuits against the Carlsbad military academy over sexual assaults they suffered by former administrators. According to its website, the academy has operated for 100 …
October 17, 2017
Jehovah's Witnesses look in other direction
Attorneys for the Jehovah's Witness church appeared before a state appellate court yesterday (October 11) in hopes of overturning the $4000 daily sanctions that a trial court ordered them to pay for refusing to turn …
October 12, 2017
Nationals coach suspended for "revenge porn"
A San Diego woman is suing the former professional baseball player and current hitting coach for the Washington Nationals baseball team, Jacque Jones, for posting nude photos of her on social media; she had sent …
October 9, 2017
Lemon Grove councilman sued for free-speech stifling
A government subcontractor says Lemon Grove city councilmember Jerry Jones retaliated against him for posting negative comments about Jones's politics on his Facebook page. Marcus Bush, a former consultant for Rick Engineering, has filed a …
October 5, 2017
Ladies Get Drinks — not you, man
A retired United States Marine captain is suing a restaurant in Mission Hills for hosting a ladies and non-binary-only party and for refusing to allow him access or give him drink specials that the attendees …
October 3, 2017
San Diego police to deliver ShotSpotter report
The audio sensors that the San Diego Police Department installed to alert them to gunfire in four southeastern San Diego neighborhoods works 16 percent of the time, according to data collected since the ShotSpotter system …
October 2, 2017
Run over while sunbathing in Ocean Beach
A woman who was run over by a police department all-terrain vehicle while sunbathing in Ocean Beach has agreed to settle her lawsuit against the City of San Diego. Court documents show that Christine Frear …
September 28, 2017
North Park Jack in the Box court case surprise
San Diego Superior Court judge Gregory Pollack ruled today that a complete overhaul of the North Park Jack in the Box was within the scope of the permit. The ruling should put to rest what …
September 25, 2017
Hotter water for San Diego's fire department
An emergency medical technician for the City of San Diego says the fire department denied her a job because of her gender. Nicole Pappas filed a lawsuit against the department on September 13 for discrimination, …
September 24, 2017
Black man walking with cane arrested
A 66-year-old man who was out on a morning walk in July of this year says a San Diego Police Department officer arrested him because he is black. Raymond Wiley, 66, filed a claim, typically …
September 21, 2017
Coronado water-polo coach banned from campus
Randy Burgess won 715 games during his 33 years of coaching water polo at Coronado High School. He led the boys’ team to 16 section championships and the girls team to three titles before he …
September 20, 2017
People living in cars and RVs stand up to city
Two months ago, a group of homeless people in San Diego filed a class-action lawsuit against the city's practice of ticketing people for pitching tents on public sidewalks. Now comes word of another potential class-action …
September 17, 2017
Severance pay for Julio Fonseca called "illegal"
San Diegans for Open Government attorney Cory Briggs has threatened to sue San Ysidro School District if district officials do not recover the $400,000 in severance pay it awarded to former superintendent Julio Fonseca after …
September 16, 2017
San Diego pornographers accused of hustling models
Two more women have filed lawsuits against San Diego-based amateur pornography website, GirlsDoPorn.com. The new complaints make 16 women who allege that the website's owners lied to them about distribution and later posted their names …
September 12, 2017
College Area excluded from granny-flat permitting?
San Diego city councilmember Georgette Gomez, a longtime champion of affordable housing, believes the College Area surrounding San Diego State University should be off limits for construction of granny flats. In an August 27 memo …
September 11, 2017
Petco's rat problems mount
Attorneys for the family of a ten-year-old boy who died after getting bitten by a rat his grandmother bought at Petco have accused company executives of hiding documents in order to defeat a 2014 lawsuit …
September 8, 2017
Dave Roberts never apologized to Kristin Gaspar
The husband of San Diego County supervisor Kristin Gaspar says his wife's former opponent, Dave Roberts, defamed him and his business in an attempt to win the election. Paul Gaspar, owner of Gaspar Physical Therapy, …
September 7, 2017
New mom dies at 39
The husband of a woman who died days after a pediatric doctor discharged her has filed a lawsuit. On August 19, 2016, Dahlia Salinas Tatman, then in her third trimester of pregnancy, was admitted to …
September 7, 2017
Now Jen Campbell's going after Zapf's seat
On August 28, a former president of the California Democratic Club, Dr. Jennifer Campbell, filed papers with the city clerk's office to register as a candidate in the District 2 race. Campbell is the fifth …
September 1, 2017
Judge orders Jehovah’s Witnesses to release molestation files
Did Jehovah’s Witnesses’ policies create a “pedophile’s paradise”?
August 30, 2017
Patient says former Charger molested her
An unnamed woman has accused a former Chargers player of sexually assaulting her in October of last year while she was under sedation at a UCSD hospital. The 52-year-old woman filed a civil lawsuit against …
August 28, 2017
Lawsuit against Lyft following alleged rape
A woman who was allegedly raped by a Lyft driver in Cardiff in December 2016 has filed a lawsuit against the company and the driver in state court. The lawsuit, filed by the unnamed victim, …
August 25, 2017
Rocky road: Civita residents to push back plan
On Thursday, August 24, San Diego's planning commissioners will consider a proposal to build a freeway connector from Mission Valley through the heart of one of San Diego's largest master-planned communities and into Serra Mesa. …
August 22, 2017
County worker’s racial slur didn’t infer he was a “lover”
Tyler Fowler, an appraiser for the County Assessor's Office who is African-American, says her supervisor Mark Sitzer made racially disparaging remarks on numerous occasions and county administrators failed to address it. She is suing Sitzer …
August 18, 2017
City to pay for public-records case fumble
A state appellate court on August 15 ruled the City of San Diego failed to turn over documents requested in a Public Records Act request and is liable to pay attorney fees. On August 7, …
August 17, 2017
Contraceptive device nightmare
An El Cajon woman is one of 73 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court against the Bayer Corporation. The major pharmaceutical company is being sued over their permanent contraceptive device, Essure. …
August 15, 2017
Chula Vista Fire Department heads back to court
Two months after settling a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former deputy fire chief for $2.1 million, attorneys for the city of Chula Vista are preparing for another trial in an unrelated discrimination case filed …
August 12, 2017
Black teenagers stopped in Memorial Park, patted down, handcuffed
The city of San Diego has "substantially settled," according to the federal court's website, a lawsuit filed on behalf of a black teenager who was coerced into giving his DNA sample to police without parental …
August 5, 2017
El Cajon councilman sued over Miss Middle East pageant
In El Cajon city councilmember Ben Kalasho’s words, he created the Miss Middle East Beauty Pageant to “empower” Middle Eastern women and award them the freedom to “wear what you want, marry who you want, …
August 2, 2017
Lockheed Martin to pay $5.8 million to clean up bay
Aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay the Port of San Diego $5.8 million to clean up the contamination in San Diego Bay. In 1970 Lockheed Martin leased a 61,000 square-foot property …
August 1, 2017
Owner of fact-checking website, Snopes.com, considers lawsuit allegations to be fake news
Snopes.com, the fact checking-website with ties to San Diego once commissioned by social media giant Facebook to determine fake from] factual news, is in financial peril. The website's founder, David MIkkelson, is now soliciting donations …
July 28, 2017
San Diego cop worried she might have miscarriage, blamed for late notice
The City of San Diego will pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a San Diego police officer who said her supervisors discriminated against her for becoming pregnant. On August 1, city councilmembers are …
July 27, 2017
District Attorney yet to file charges against former Poway Schools chief
It's been more than one year and two months since former superintendent for Poway Unified School District John Collins was placed on administrative leave over accusations that he collected $345,263 in vacation pay over the …
July 24, 2017
Former Chipotle co-CEO to revamp La Jolla home
Former Chipotle co-CEO Montgomery Moran, who stepped down from his role in the burrito chain in December 2016, looks to add 4000 square feet on to his La Jolla home at 7348 Vista Del Mar …
July 20, 2017
Another mess for San Ysidro School District
“It’s a typo,” Arturo Sanchez-Macias, assistant superintendent for San Ysidro School District says. The “it” to which Sanchez-Macias refers is the date, January 15, 2016, on a settlement agreement between the district and a San …
July 19, 2017
The potholes of Harbor Drive
The City of San Diego had been warned numerous times about potholes and dangerous road conditions on Harbor Drive near the Naval shipyard. Those complaints specifically stated the potholes and depressions in the street were …
July 17, 2017
Top female researchers claim old boys network at Salk Institute — updated
San Diego's Salk Institute has long been regarded as a bastion for scientific advancements. Two longtime researchers say those advancements do not apply to gender rights and equal pay for the institute's female scientists. In …
July 13, 2017
Card room operator sues city for permit denial
Stanley Penn, the longtime owner and operator of San Diego card room Lucky Lady, has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Diego for refusing to renew the 43-year-old card room's permit. The current …
July 10, 2017
Port sues coastal commission for nixing hotel
In a July 5 legal complaint, the San Diego Unified Port District, the agency responsible for managing the San Diego Bay and surrounding tidewaters, has accused California Coastal Commissioners of overstepping their boundaries by striking …
July 7, 2017
Man gets $1.5 million in accidental police shooting
Elected officials in National City have agreed to pay 22-year-old Jesus Flores a $1.5 million to dismiss the lawsuit he filed after a National City police officer accidentally shot him during a March, 2015 traffic …
July 6, 2017
Maintenance assessment fee fight flares up in Del Cerro
After 15 years of trying, residents of San Diego’s Del Cerro neighborhood may finally have a maintenance assessment district to call their own. Maintenance assessment districts are mechanisms wherein property owners within a certain area …
July 5, 2017
Judge says no to regulating SDSU mini-dorms
On June 30, San Diego Superior Court judge Ronald Styn temporarily struck down San Diego's mini-dorm ordinance in San Diego's College Area. A group called College Area Students, Tenants, and Landlords Association filed the lawsuit …
June 30, 2017
Civic San Diego employee says agency is ripe for corruption
Civic San Diego's attempt to generate revenue by becoming a fiscal agent for those companies and organizations looking to make charitable donations is, according to Civic San Diego's asset and contract manager John Anderson, "ripe …
June 29, 2017
City engineers nix changes at Kansas and El Cajon Blvd.
From 2001 to 2010, according to a city commissioned traffic study, eight pedestrians were struck by vehicles while crossing El Cajon Boulevard at Kansas Street in North Park. In 2012 the intersection was named the …
June 27, 2017
Food and parking enough for San Diego police watchdogs
Members of San Diego's Citizens Review Board on Police Practices, an oversight board on law enforcement, will have to be satisfied with the occasional free meal, validated parking at city hall, and unrestricted attendance to …
June 23, 2017
Gordon Kovtun is an engineer, not a gay porn star
Gordon Kovtun is not a “sissy.” And, he is not a “bottom boy.” Despite what it says on the Wordpress.com profile with his name on it, “gay porn” is not his sole interest. Also, those …
June 21, 2017
San Diego police sex suit includes nepotism charge
Today, June 20 San Diego city councilmembers are expected to approve a settlement to a woman sexually assaulted by former San Diego police officer Christopher Hays. Terms of the tentative settlement are not yet public, …
June 20, 2017