“Fluor Says Conflict Requires Transfer of Afghan Bombing Case” —

• “Fluor Corp. said someone else must preside over a lawsuit accusing it of failing to stop a November 2016 suicide bombing attack in Afghanistan because the current judge has a presumed conflict of interest involving a family member, and 11 related cases have already been transferred to the other judge.”
• “Hencely, a U.S. army specialist severely injured in the attack, says Fluor negligently employed bomber Ahmad Nayeb as a private contractor at the base, while knowing he was a former Taliban member.”
• “Fluor said the court advised the parties by email May 3 that Judge Bruce H. Hendricks—whose niece by marriage is one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers in those cases—has a presumed conflict of interest that disqualifies her from presiding over the othercases.”
• “The court said disqualification is mandatory because Hendricks’ impartiality might be reasonably questioned, according to Fluor.”
• “Hendricks’ niece has an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of this case. And the resolution of any issue in the case could affect the resolution of all the other cases in which her niece is counsel, Fluor said.”

“Mike Feuer and the fallout of the highly questionable LADWP settlement” —

• “There are political scandals, and there are corruption scandals, and then there’s the level of scandal that becomes a movie starring Jack Nicholson…
• “Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog has called for the release of the videotape of a deposition Feuer gave in the city’s lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm that was hired to modernize the LADWP’s billing system. “He [Feuer] recited, ‘I don’t recall’ over 60 times,” according to a statement posted on the organization’s website on January 23 that accused Feuer of ‘withholding the video tape of the deposition from the public because it would no-doubt show the insincerity on the face of a man notorious for his micromanagement.'”
• “The video of the deposition is ‘safely locked in a court reporter’s cabinet’ because Feuer dismissed the city’s case against PwC in September 2019. Feuer said it was too hard to gather evidence because some of the lawyers who were witnesses in the case were invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refusing to testify.”
• “PwC accused City Attorney Mike Feuer’s office of secretly controlling the outcome of the class-action suit, digging up evidence that the attorney representing Antwon Jones and LADWP ratepayers had been retained by Feuer’s office at around the same time he represented the ratepayers. A few months later, the FBI raided the city attorney’s office and the LADWP.”
• “Are you following this? The middle of these movies can lose you if you step out for popcorn. The lawyer representing you, the ratepayer, had a conflict of interest because he also worked for the city that you, the ratepayer, were suing. Actually, there were a few lawyers involved in this, but Robert Towne would probably consolidate them into one character for dramatic simplicity.”
• “Antwon Jones has recently filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles alleging violation of civil rights and waste of taxpayer funds. The lawsuit says the city and others used Jones as an ‘unwitting pawn’ to reach a settlement that ‘was the product of collusion and a fraud on the court.’ Jones’ lawsuit asks the court to stop the city and Feuer from ‘illegally expending and wasting more taxpayer funds to conceal and cover up their misconduct.'”
• “Feuer released a statement saying, ‘I’ve always acted with complete integrity, and always will. Any claim that even remotely suggests otherwise is not only absolutely false, it’s malicious.'”
• “In October, Feuer’s office was hit with a $2.5 million fine by the same judge for ‘serious abuse of discovery by the city and its counsel,’ lawyer-speak for hiding evidence from the court, in the LADWP case.”
• “Feuer’s running for mayor in 2022.”