Judge reopens discovery in money bail lawsuit

A federal judge reopened discovery in a challenge to the cash bail system in San Francisco on Wednesday, more than two years after the case began.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted a defense request and reopened discovery through June 30. Buffin et al. v. City and County of San Francisco, 15-CV4959 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 28, 2015).

The California Bail Agents Association filed the motion to reopen discovery last week, citing recent court cases elsewhere and several questions raised by Gonzalez Rogers at a hearing in January. The agents won a right to defend the bail system a year ago after several state and local entities declined to do so.

In her request, agents association attorney, Harmeet K. Dhillon, said Gonzalez Rogers raised several questions in her Jan. 16 order denying summary judgment to both sides. The owner of Dhillon Law Group in San Francisco said her side needed additional time to gather evidence to show that proposed alternatives to cash bail were more restrictive and less effective than the current system.

She also noted a pair of recent court rulings, including In re Kenneth Humphrey, 2018 DJDAR 943 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. Jan. 25, 2018), in which the court ordered San Francisco County judges to consider a defendant's ability to pay when charging cash bail.

In a response filed Tuesday on behalf of San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, one of the original defendants who refused to defend the bail system, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera argued that additional discovery was unnecessary.

Herrera wrote that the additional information sought by Dhillon "strays far from what this case is about" and "proposes to burden a remarkable number of local and non-local public agencies and non-profit organizations with subpoenas."

But Phil Telfeyan, the executive director of Equal Justice Under Law, which brought the case on behalf of two women who were jailed in San Francisco, said: "It's a very reasonable request to reopen discovery at this point in the case, and it was our position heading into today's hearing.

We hope that additional discovery will help the judge get a complete picture of the facts and show her that the sheriff is operating an unconstitutional system."

At a hearing in December, Gonzalez Rogers' questioned whether Telfeyan had the necessary experience to represent the proposed class, and subsequently ordered him to add additional counsel. Last month, she approved Telfeyan's motion to add Latham & Watkins LLP partners Robert E. Sims and Steven M. Bauer as pro bono attorneys.