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| {{Short description|American lawyer}} | |||
| {{Infobox person | |||
| ⚫ | | name = Stephen Yagman | ||
| | image = Yagman in 2023.jpg | |||
| | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1944|12|19}} | |||
| ⚫ | | birth_place = ] | ||
| | education = ] (]) | |||
| ] (]) | |||
| ] (]) | |||
| | known_for = Federal Civil Rights; ] | |||
| ⚫ | }} | ||
| '''Stephen Yagman''' |
'''Stephen Yagman''' (born December 19, 1944) is an American ] civil rights lawyer, who also handles criminal defense and habeas corpus matters. He has a reputation for being an exceptionally zealous advocate in cases regarding allegations of ].<ref name="autogenerated1">''National Law Journal'', pg. 1, February 28, 2011, "Yagman unbowed, but getting on with life"</ref><ref name="heraldexaminer"/><ref name="dailyjournal">''Los Angeles Daily Journal'', October 26, 1987, pg. 1.</ref> He has argued hundreds of federal civil rights cases before a jury, and has been involved in over a hundred and fifty federal appeals and certiorari petitions before the United States Supreme Court. | ||
| "Yagman unbowed, but getting on with life"</ref> and a "pugnacious civil rights lawyer."<ref name="heraldexaminer"/><ref name="dailyjournal">''Los Angeles Daily Journal'', October 26, 1987, pg. 1</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | ==Youth, education and early career== | ||
| ⚫ | In ''County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct.'' (''Forsyth v. Block''), 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000), federal Ninth Circuit Chief ] |
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| ⚫ | Stephen Yagman was born in 1944 in ] to working-class parents. His father was a dental mechanic and his mother was a secretary.<ref name="dailyjournal"/> Yagman attended ].<ref name="yagnet">''Yagman, Police Misconduct and Civil Rights, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions'' (Thomson West Publishing, 2002), XLVII-LV <!--ISBN needed--></ref> After attending the ], he then graduated from ] in Brooklyn.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} | ||
| Yagman received a B.A. in American History, with co-majors in philosophy and political science. He later earned an M.A. in philosophy from ], where his graduate advisor and mentor was Professor Sidney Hook, and his master's dissertation was on the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause. He attended ], receiving a ] in 1974, where he was on the dean's list and received the Jurisprudence Award of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers.<ref>Fordham Univ. transcript, govt. exhibit 27 in U.S. v. Yagman, 06-00227-SVW (C.D. Cal.)</ref> During graduate school and law school, he taught (English, remedial reading, social studies, economics, and Spanish) in the New York City public school system in ] and ], in Title I (lower socioeconomic) schools, from 1967-74. From 1967 until their divorce in 1994, he was married to Marion R. Yagman, with whom he practiced law for many years (1978-2021). <ref name="yagmanlaw.net">; accessed April 18, 2014.</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | Yagman lodged complaints of ] against U.S. District Judge ] which "were at the center of the controversy over the effectiveness of the federal judicial disciplinary system and exerted a uniquely powerful influence on subsequent attempts at reform."<ref name="bazelon"/> The United States Judicial Conference cited Yagman in adopting its 2008 |
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| ⚫ | ==Legal career== | ||
| ⚫ | In 1986, Yagman successfully challenged a proposed nationwide suspension of federal jury trials due to budget shortfalls, in ''Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct.'', 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986). In a unanimous opinion in a related proceeding, ''Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct'' |
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| ⚫ | Yagman's legal career began before he graduated, as an attorney-intern with the ]. Yagman was mentored by former N.Y. City Legal Aid Society director Martin Erdmann, attorney ], house counsel to the ], and ] ]. After graduating law school, he was appointed by New York State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz to the office of the ] as a Special Assistant Attorney General, assigned as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for Nursing Homes, in the Manhattan office of the Special State Prosecutor for Nursing Homes. | ||
| ⚫ | In 1986, Yagman successfully challenged a proposed nationwide suspension of federal jury trials due to budget shortfalls, in ''Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct.'', 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986). In a unanimous opinion in a related proceeding, ''Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct'', 817 F.2d 480 (9th Cir. 1987), Judge ] said, "Yagman's vigilance in the protection of his clients' constitutional rights served all citizens. His fortitude and tenacity in the service of his civil rights clients exemplifies the highest traditions of the bar." | ||
| In 1994, Yagman prevented the implementation of ], by obtaining a ] barring public schools from excluding undocumented students, and then converting the preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction, after the Proposition was declared unconstitutional.<ref>''Children Who Want an Education v. Governor Pete Wilson'', 908 F.Supp. 755 (C.D. Cal. 1995), 997 F.Supp. 1244 (C.D. Cal. 1997), 54 F.3d 599 (9th Cir. 1995), 59 F.3d 1002 (9th Cir. 1995).</ref> | |||
| In January 2002, Yagman brought the first case seeking ] relief for ] detainees, Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers & Professors v. George Walker Bush & Donald Rumsfeld, 310 F.3d 1153 (9th Cir. 2002). | |||
| On November 22, 2010, Yagman was ], based on June 22, 2007 federal convictions for one count each of ] and ], and 11 counts of money laundering.<ref name="cbj201101">''California Bar Journal'', Jan. 2011.</ref> Yagman contended that the ] had selectively and vindictively prosecuted him, ignoring the difference between ], which is legal, and ], which is not,<ref name="cbj201101"/> because, as Idaho Special Prosecutor (1997–2001), he prosecuted homicide charges against FBI sniper ] for allegedly murdering ] at ] in 1992<ref>''Idaho v. Horiuchi'', 253 F.3d 359 (9th Cir. 2001)</ref> and because on January 19, 2002 he brought the first ] detainee case and won it on December 18, 2003.<ref>''Gherebi v. Bush and Rumsfeld'', 374 F.3d 727 (9th Cir. 2004), as amended.</ref> | |||
| On December 18, 2003, Yagman won the first case in which it was declared that ] were entitled to seek habeas corpus relief in ]. ''Gherebi v. Bush & Rumsfeld'', 374 F.3d 727 (9th Cir. 2004).<ref name="heraldexaminer">'']'', “Attorney Tops Cops’ Most Wanted List”, December 19, 1988, p. 1</ref><ref name="yagnet"/> | |||
| ⚫ | ==Youth, education and early career== | ||
| ⚫ | Stephen Yagman was born in 1944 in ] to working-class parents. His father was a |
||
| ⚫ | On November 12, 1997, Yagman was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi as Special Prosecutor for the ] to prosecute FBI sniper ] in the August 22, 1992 ] killing of Vicki Weaver. In 2001, Yagman won a decision from the ] declaring that federal law enforcement agents did not enjoy ] and could be prosecuted criminally for state law homicide. ''Idaho v. Horiuchi'', 253 F.3d 359 (9th Cir. 2001) ('']''). | ||
| During graduate school and law school, Yagman taught (English, remedial reading, social studies, economics, and Spanish) in the New York City public school system in ] and ] from 1967-74. From 1967 until their divorce in 1994, he ws married to Marion R. Yagman, with whom he practiced law until his disbarment.<ref name="yagmanlaw.net"/> | |||
| ⚫ | In ''County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct.'' (''Forsyth v. Block''), 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000), federal Ninth Circuit Chief ] noted that Yagman "has a formidable reputation as a plaintiff's advocate in ] cases; defendants in such cases may find it advantageous to remove him as an opponent." Some of his most notorious cases involved the ] and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.<ref>Jessica Garrison, "L.A. Officials Know To Expect Attorney's Call", ''L.A. Times'', March 22, 2006, p. B1</ref><ref name="bazelon">], "Putting the Mice in Charge of the Cheese: Why Federal Judges Cannot Always be Trusted to Police Themselves and What Congress Can do about It", 97 ''Kentucky Law Journal'' pp. 439, 455 & n. 103, 2008-2009.</ref> | ||
| ⚫ | ==Legal career== | ||
| ⚫ | Yagman's legal career began before he graduated, as an attorney-intern with the ]. Yagman was mentored by former N.Y. City Legal Aid Society director Martin Erdmann, attorney ], house counsel to the Black Panther Party, and |
||
| ⚫ | Yagman lodged complaints of ] against U.S. District Judge ] which, according to one commentator, "were at the center of the controversy over the effectiveness of the federal judicial disciplinary system and exerted a uniquely powerful influence on subsequent attempts at reform."<ref name="bazelon"/> The United States Judicial Conference cited the Yagman disciplinary case in adopting its 2008 nationwide procedures for handling complaints of misconduct against federal judges. In his 2011 book, ''Lawyers on Trial'', ] Professor of Law Emeritus Richard L. Abel rated Yagman as a "highly competent, dedicated lawyer who is a champion of unpopular causes".<ref>''Lawyers on Trial'', Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 380-83, 456, 457.</ref> | ||
| After the February 28, 1997 ], Yagman represented, '']'', the children of Emil Matasareanu, Jr., one of the robbers killed in the shootout. In the federal civil rights action filed against the LAPD and its officers, it was alleged that the officers intentionally kept on-scene paramedics away from Matasareanu so that he would bleed to death and die on the street, instead of providing him with necessary medical attention that could have saved his life.<ref>{{cite news|author=Staff|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/03/15/national/main172527.shtml|title=Jury Unsure If Cops Let Shooter Die|publisher=CBS News|date=March 15, 2000|accessdate=2011-03-02}}</ref> The jury hung 9-3 in favor of the Matasareanu family, a mistrial declared, and the case never retried. {{cn|date=April 2014}} | |||
| Yagman has tried over 200 federal civil rights actions to jury verdict and has argued over 150 federal appeals and certiorari petitions to the United States Supreme Court. | |||
| ⚫ | On November 12, 1997, Yagman was sworn in by U.S. |
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| ==Criminal conviction== | |||
| In 2003 and 2006, Yagman provided ''pro bono'' defense in two, three-month-long trials Amy Prien, a mother charged with the murder of her three-month-old son. It was alleged that Prien breast fed her infant son ] breast milk. The first trial was lost and Prien was sentenced to life in prison. After a successful appeal, in the second trial the jury hung 9-3 in favor of acquittal, and the district attorney declined to proceed to a third trial, thus saving Prien from serving life in prison. {{cn|date=April 2014}} | |||
| Yagman was convicted of one count of tax evasion, one count of bankruptcy fraud, and 17 counts of money laundering, six of which later were dismissed by the judge, on August 23, 2007. Yagman was convicted of "attempting to avoid payment of more than $100,000 in federal taxes", and he was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Yagman also failed to pay "significant amounts of federal payroll taxes" for his then-law firm, Yagman & Yagman, P.C.<ref name=":1" /> Although Yagman claimed he was singled out as retaliation, an appeals court upheld his conviction. Yagman was disbarred by the State Bar of California on December 22, 2010.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.calbarjournal.com/January2011/TopHeadlines/TH7.aspx|title=Pugnacious civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman is summarily disbarred|website=www.calbarjournal.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-29}}</ref> | |||
| Yagman served 29 months in federal prison and then worked as a paralegal and UCLA Law School lecturer for 11 years before, at age 76, passing the California bar exam again and winning decisions from both the California State Bar Court and the California Supreme Court (unanimous) that reinstated his license to practice law, in 2021.<ref name=":1" /> He also was reinstated to the Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by its chief judge, in 2021. He currently practices federal civil rights law and prosecutes cases for homeless clients, as well as for victims of police brutality, jail and prison abuses, and racial profiling.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |date=2021-10-08 |title=A fraud conviction ended his battles for civil rights. 14 years later, Stephen Yagman is back |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-08/off-the-grid-for-14-years-the-attorney-who-set-the-standard-for-civil-rights-law-is-back |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
| ==Yagman cases== | |||
| * ''Armster v. City of Riverside'', 611 F.Supp. 103 (C.D. Cal. 1985; police who stand by and observe other police commit civil rights violations may be held liable for failing to prevent the violations) | |||
| * ''Armster v. United States District Court'', 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986; wholesale suspension of civil jury trials in federal courts based on budget shortfall violates Seventh Amendment to U.S. Constitution) | |||
| * ''Cabrales v. County of Los Angeles'', 864 F.2d 1454 (9th Cir. 1988; first case in which Los Angeles County jail system held liable for inmate suicide) | |||
| * ''Children Who Want an Education v. Wilson'', 908 F.Supp. 755 (C.D. Cal. 1995; Proposition 187 declared unconstitutional and enjoined) | |||
| * ''Crumpton v. Gates'', 947 F.2d 1418 (9th Cir. 1991; an in-utero fetus may sue police for killing his father once he is born) | |||
| * ''Cunningham v. Gates'', 229 F.3d 1271 (9th Cir. 2000; elected government officials may be held liable personally for indemnifying police guilty of civil rights violations for punitive damages levied against them by juries) | |||
| * ''Dang v. Cross'', 422 F.3d 800 (9th Cir. 2005; redefines basis for punitive damages against police to include infliction of oppressive conduct) | |||
| * ''Diaz v. Gates'', 420 F.3d 897 (9th Cir. 2005; establishing principle that police may be sued under federal racketeering statute for injuring one in her employment), cert. denied sub nom. ''Parks v. Diaz'', 126 S.Ct. 1069 (2006) | |||
| * ''Erickson v. Knapp'', 938 F.Supp. 581 (C.D. Cal. 1996; police may not seize news photographer’s camera without probable cause) | |||
| * ''County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct. (Forsyth v. Block)'', 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000; defense attempt to disqualify Yagman denied) | |||
| * ''Fowler v. Block'', 2 F.Supp. 2d 1268 (C.D. Cal. 1998; holding it unconstitutional for sheriff to continue to hold in custody person ordered by court to be released, in order to check for outstanding warrants) | |||
| * ''Gherebi v. Bush & Rumsfeld'', 374 F.3d 727 (9th Cir. 2004; first case to hold that Guantanamo Bay detainees entitled to petition federal courts for habeas corpus) | |||
| * ''Green v. Baca'', 225 F.R.D. 612 (C.D. Cal. 2005; imposing $54,375 sanction on police defense counsel for concealing 11,704 pages of reports from plaintiff) | |||
| * ''Guerrero v. Gates'', 442 F.3d 697 (9th Cir. 2006; plaintiffs' excessive force claims are not barred by prior conviction arising from same events; loss of employment sufficient to state an injury to business under racketeering laws) | |||
| * ''Hammer v. Gross'', 932 F.2d 842 (9th Cir. 1991; forced blood tests may not be administered to drunk driving suspects) | |||
| * ''Hart v. Gaioni'', 354 F.Supp. 2d 1127 (C.D. Cal. 2005; establishing right to sue in federal court for the denial of the right to sue in federal court through interference with a plaintiff’s right of counsel) | |||
| * ''Hawkins v. Comparet-Cassani'', 33 F.Supp. 2d 1244 (C.D. Cal. 1998; holding unconstitutional use of 50,000-volt stun belt on prisoner who was before the court); | |||
| * ''Idaho v. Horiuchi'', 253 F.3d 359 (9th Cir. 2001; establishing right of states to prosecute criminally for homicide federal officials) | |||
| * ''In re Complaint of Judicial Misconduct'' (''Judge Manuel L. Real''), 425 F.3d 1179 (9th Cir. 2005)(finding judicial misconduct because of judge taking action on improper communication from a party) | |||
| * ''Johnson v. Campbell'', 92 F.3d 951 (9th Cir. 1996; jurors may not be challenged because they are gay) | |||
| * ''Larez v. Gates'', 946 F.2d 630 (9th Cir. 1991; setting forth seminal standards for suing government based on having a custom of police misconduct) | |||
| * ''Milstein v. Cooley'', 208 F.Supp. 2d 1116 (C.D. Cal. 2002; there is a clearly established due process right not to be prosecuted based on fabricated evidence) | |||
| * ''Moreno v. Baca'', 431 F.3d 633 (9th Cir. 2005; suspicion-less arrest and search may not be retroactively justified by police subsequent to discovery that person arrested is on parole or subject to an outstanding arrest warrant) | |||
| * ''Motley v. Parks'', 432 F.3d 1072 (9th Cir. 2005; parole search must be preceded by probable cause; unreasonable to point a gun at a baby while searching); | |||
| * ''Standing Committee on Discipline v. Yagman'', 55 F.3d 1430 (9th Cir. 1995; lawyer has right of freedom of speech to criticize federal judge and may not be disciplined for doing so, creating the so-called “Yagman Rule”) | |||
| * ''Thomas v. Baca'', 231 F.R.D. 397 (C.D. Cal. 2005; granting class action to more than 500,000 Los Angeles County jail inmates forced to sleep on the floors without bunks) | |||
| * ''Thomas v. Baca'', 514 F.Supp. 2d 1201 (C.D. Cal. 2007; holding unconstitutional forcing jail inmates to sleep on floors without bunks) | |||
| * ''Vanke v. Block'', 98-04111-DDP (C.D. Cal. 11-07-98; granting class action to 22,000 Los Angeles County jail inmates, and issuing preliminary injunction that prohibited sheriff from refusing timely to release inmates who had been ordered to be released, but whom sheriff continued to detain to search for outstanding warrants). | |||
| Yagman, now 79, has resumed taking cases against police and the government. As class counsel, Yagman represents all of the homeless people in the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Santa Barbara, and the County of Santa Barbara, in five different putative class actions.<ref name=":0" /> | |||
| ⚫ | ==Writings== | ||
| ⚫ | Yagman has written two national legal practice books, |
||
| '''Disbarment''' | |||
| ==UCLA== | |||
| At Yagman's sentencing hearing, U.S. Dist. Judge Stephen V. Wilson said of him: "he has entered a field of law that's difficult. He is always the underdog, and he is facing the establishment at its fiercest. So anyone who gets into that arena is brave and has a mission. He tried cases in my court ... very competently."<ref>November 27, 2007 sentencing transcript.</ref> The convictions were upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009,<ref>''United States v. Yagman'', 345 Fed. Appx. 312 (9th Cir 2009)</ref> and remain under habeas corpus review on the ground that they were a legal impossibility.<ref>Yagman v. United States, CV-10-09033-SVW (C.D. Cal.); Yagman v. United States, 11-56598 (9th Cir.).</ref> | |||
| In 2007, after Yagman's convictions, he was invited to co-teach and taught courses at UCLA Law School on law, morality, and social justice and on police brutality, with professor Frances Olsen.<ref name="dailynews.com">, dailynews.com; accessed June 23, 2015.</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | ==Writings== | ||
| ⚫ | Yagman has written two national legal practice books, ''Section 1983 Federal Jury Practice and Instructions'' (West Publishing, 1998, {{ISBN|0-314-22826-8}}), and ''Police Misconduct and Civil Rights, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions'' (Thomson Reuters West, 2002, {{ISBN|0-314-10293-0}}), a play, ''Guantanamo, Act IV'' (Beyond Baroque, 2004), and hundreds of newspaper columns.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} | ||
| ==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
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| * ''Los Angeles Times Magazine'', “One Angry Man”, June 28, 1998, cover | * ''Los Angeles Times Magazine'', “One Angry Man”, June 28, 1998, cover | ||
| * ''California LawBusiness'', “Sympathy for the Devil”, November 6, 2000, cover | * ''California LawBusiness'', “Sympathy for the Devil”, November 6, 2000, cover | ||
| * ] and James J. Fyfe, ''Above the Law, Police and the Excessive Use of Force'' (Free Press, 1993), pp. |
* ] and James J. Fyfe, ''Above the Law, Police and the Excessive Use of Force'' (Free Press, 1993), pp. 17–18, 146-64, 203.<!-- ISBN needed --> | ||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
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| {{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ]. --> | |||
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| | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | |||
| | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American civil rights lawyer | |||
| | DATE OF BIRTH = December 19, 1944 | |||
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| | DATE OF DEATH = | |||
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| {{DEFAULTSORT:Yagman, Stephen}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Yagman, Stephen}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 12:17, 5 July 2024
American lawyer
| Stephen Yagman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1944-12-19) December 19, 1944 (age 80) Brooklyn, New York |
| Education | Long Island University (BA) Fordham University School of Law (JD) |
| Known for | Federal Civil Rights; Constitutional Law |
Stephen Yagman (born December 19, 1944) is an American federal civil rights lawyer, who also handles criminal defense and habeas corpus matters. He has a reputation for being an exceptionally zealous advocate in cases regarding allegations of police brutality. He has argued hundreds of federal civil rights cases before a jury, and has been involved in over a hundred and fifty federal appeals and certiorari petitions before the United States Supreme Court.
Youth, education and early career
Stephen Yagman was born in 1944 in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York to working-class parents. His father was a dental mechanic and his mother was a secretary. Yagman attended Abraham Lincoln High School. After attending the State University of New York at Buffalo, he then graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn.
Yagman received a B.A. in American History, with co-majors in philosophy and political science. He later earned an M.A. in philosophy from New York University, where his graduate advisor and mentor was Professor Sidney Hook, and his master's dissertation was on the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause. He attended Fordham University School of Law, receiving a J.D. in 1974, where he was on the dean's list and received the Jurisprudence Award of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers. During graduate school and law school, he taught (English, remedial reading, social studies, economics, and Spanish) in the New York City public school system in Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant, in Title I (lower socioeconomic) schools, from 1967-74. From 1967 until their divorce in 1994, he was married to Marion R. Yagman, with whom he practiced law for many years (1978-2021).
Legal career
Yagman's legal career began before he graduated, as an attorney-intern with the New York City Legal Aid Society. Yagman was mentored by former N.Y. City Legal Aid Society director Martin Erdmann, attorney Charles Garry, house counsel to the Black Panther Party, and U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. After graduating law school, he was appointed by New York State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz to the office of the New York State Attorney General as a Special Assistant Attorney General, assigned as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for Nursing Homes, in the Manhattan office of the Special State Prosecutor for Nursing Homes.
In 1986, Yagman successfully challenged a proposed nationwide suspension of federal jury trials due to budget shortfalls, in Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct., 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986). In a unanimous opinion in a related proceeding, Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct, 817 F.2d 480 (9th Cir. 1987), Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt said, "Yagman's vigilance in the protection of his clients' constitutional rights served all citizens. His fortitude and tenacity in the service of his civil rights clients exemplifies the highest traditions of the bar."
In January 2002, Yagman brought the first case seeking habeas corpus relief for Guantanamo Bay detainees, Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers & Professors v. George Walker Bush & Donald Rumsfeld, 310 F.3d 1153 (9th Cir. 2002).
On December 18, 2003, Yagman won the first case in which it was declared that Guantanamo detainees were entitled to seek habeas corpus relief in United States courts. Gherebi v. Bush & Rumsfeld, 374 F.3d 727 (9th Cir. 2004).
On November 12, 1997, Yagman was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi as Special Prosecutor for the State of Idaho to prosecute FBI sniper Lon T. Horiuchi in the August 22, 1992 Ruby Ridge killing of Vicki Weaver. In 2001, Yagman won a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declaring that federal law enforcement agents did not enjoy sovereign immunity and could be prosecuted criminally for state law homicide. Idaho v. Horiuchi, 253 F.3d 359 (9th Cir. 2001) (en banc).
In County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct. (Forsyth v. Block), 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000), federal Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski noted that Yagman "has a formidable reputation as a plaintiff's advocate in police misconduct cases; defendants in such cases may find it advantageous to remove him as an opponent." Some of his most notorious cases involved the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Yagman lodged complaints of judicial misconduct against U.S. District Judge Manuel Lawrence Real which, according to one commentator, "were at the center of the controversy over the effectiveness of the federal judicial disciplinary system and exerted a uniquely powerful influence on subsequent attempts at reform." The United States Judicial Conference cited the Yagman disciplinary case in adopting its 2008 nationwide procedures for handling complaints of misconduct against federal judges. In his 2011 book, Lawyers on Trial, UCLA School of Law Professor of Law Emeritus Richard L. Abel rated Yagman as a "highly competent, dedicated lawyer who is a champion of unpopular causes".
Yagman has tried over 200 federal civil rights actions to jury verdict and has argued over 150 federal appeals and certiorari petitions to the United States Supreme Court.
Criminal conviction
Yagman was convicted of one count of tax evasion, one count of bankruptcy fraud, and 17 counts of money laundering, six of which later were dismissed by the judge, on August 23, 2007. Yagman was convicted of "attempting to avoid payment of more than $100,000 in federal taxes", and he was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Yagman also failed to pay "significant amounts of federal payroll taxes" for his then-law firm, Yagman & Yagman, P.C. Although Yagman claimed he was singled out as retaliation, an appeals court upheld his conviction. Yagman was disbarred by the State Bar of California on December 22, 2010.
Yagman served 29 months in federal prison and then worked as a paralegal and UCLA Law School lecturer for 11 years before, at age 76, passing the California bar exam again and winning decisions from both the California State Bar Court and the California Supreme Court (unanimous) that reinstated his license to practice law, in 2021. He also was reinstated to the Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by its chief judge, in 2021. He currently practices federal civil rights law and prosecutes cases for homeless clients, as well as for victims of police brutality, jail and prison abuses, and racial profiling.
Yagman, now 79, has resumed taking cases against police and the government. As class counsel, Yagman represents all of the homeless people in the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Santa Barbara, and the County of Santa Barbara, in five different putative class actions.
UCLA
In 2007, after Yagman's convictions, he was invited to co-teach and taught courses at UCLA Law School on law, morality, and social justice and on police brutality, with professor Frances Olsen.
Writings
Yagman has written two national legal practice books, Section 1983 Federal Jury Practice and Instructions (West Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-314-22826-8), and Police Misconduct and Civil Rights, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions (Thomson Reuters West, 2002, ISBN 0-314-10293-0), a play, Guantanamo, Act IV (Beyond Baroque, 2004), and hundreds of newspaper columns.
Sources
- Los Angeles Reader, “L.A.P.D. Death Squad”, April 10, 1992, cover
- Los Angeles New Times, “Cop Cruncher”, October 2, 1997, cover
- Los Angeles Times Magazine, “One Angry Man”, June 28, 1998, cover
- California LawBusiness, “Sympathy for the Devil”, November 6, 2000, cover
- Jerome Herbert Skolnick and James J. Fyfe, Above the Law, Police and the Excessive Use of Force (Free Press, 1993), pp. 17–18, 146-64, 203.
References
- National Law Journal, pg. 1, February 28, 2011, "Yagman unbowed, but getting on with life"
- ^ Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, “Attorney Tops Cops’ Most Wanted List”, December 19, 1988, p. 1
- ^ Los Angeles Daily Journal, October 26, 1987, pg. 1.
- ^ Yagman, Police Misconduct and Civil Rights, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions (Thomson West Publishing, 2002), XLVII-LV
- Fordham Univ. transcript, govt. exhibit 27 in U.S. v. Yagman, 06-00227-SVW (C.D. Cal.)
- Yagman official site; accessed April 18, 2014.
- Jessica Garrison, "L.A. Officials Know To Expect Attorney's Call", L.A. Times, March 22, 2006, p. B1
- ^ Lara Bazelon, "Putting the Mice in Charge of the Cheese: Why Federal Judges Cannot Always be Trusted to Police Themselves and What Congress Can do about It", 97 Kentucky Law Journal pp. 439, 455 & n. 103, 2008-2009.
- Lawyers on Trial, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 380-83, 456, 457.
- ^ "Pugnacious civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman is summarily disbarred". www.calbarjournal.com. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
- ^ "A fraud conviction ended his battles for civil rights. 14 years later, Stephen Yagman is back". Los Angeles Times. 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
- Yagman invited to teach an undergrad course on morality at UCLA, dailynews.com; accessed June 23, 2015.