Dear All,
The hearing on Friday is now off, because CNL-City of La Quinta, have filed the enclosed objection alleging prejudice. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth as Judge Vassey is from the Los Angeles area and if anything, would NOT be an insider. I attended the Hearing last Friday in which the City appeared (Katherine Jensen), and the Judge did not buy her anger and vehemence over two pages, and simply gave the other side two pages, and moved on. (Springer and Zeilenga participated by phone).
I am going to share with you what Ms Jensen wrote to Jed Springer about this Judge, and remember I was there at Springer’s request. Here is what she communicated regarding Judge Vassey last evening:
From: Jenson, Kathy [mailto:kjenson@rutan.com]
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 6:08 PM
To: Jeffrey Z. B. Springer
Cc: Jennifer T. Taggart; rzeilenga@szrlaw.com; Tammy Hong
Subject: RE: Save Our La Quinta Neighborhood – Request for Continuance of the Hearing
My understanding is that Judge Vassie is just filling in while our judge for all purpose is on vacation. He is retired — apparently some thirty years on the bench in Inglewood doing criminal. You and Rick did not have the benefit of watching first hand, but I have to say he seemed very disorganized and not able to follow the arguments of counsel or the basics of the matters before him. For what its worth, he seems to have had a somewhat checkered history with the Council on Judicial Performance over sending lawyers to jail for contempt violations. No offense to him, but I was thinking it may be in all of our interest to have this matter heard by our assigned judge. My understanding is that Judge White will be back on Aug. 23.
M. Katherine Jenson
Rutan & Tucker, LLP
611 Anton Boulevard, 14th Floor
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-641-3413 Direct
714-546-9035 Fax
