Gonzales v. Sandoval
Published: Mar. 8, 2005 | Result Date: Sep. 13, 2004 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: TC015899 Arbitration – $42,900
Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Compton
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Homer Hernandez
(medical)
Facts
The plaintiff Balvina Gonzalez claimed that she was sexually assaulted by the defendant Antonio Sandoval during a client consultation that occurred on June 8, 2001. Sandoval, an attorney with absolutely no history of sex abuse claims, issues or problems, categorically denied Gonzalez's claims. A criminal proceeding in 2002 resulted in the dismissal of felony charges and a misdemeanor conviction. Acting as an arbitrator and based on that misdemeanor, retired Supreme Court Judge Jack M. Newman, over Sandoval's objections, applied collateral estoppel (issue preclusion) concepts and awarded $42,900 plus costs. Judge Newman made no finding of his own as to the liability issues of whether any wrongs had occurred.
Settlement Discussions
None prior to arbitration.
Specials in Evidence
$6,000 $6,000
Injuries
Bruising to left arm and inner thigh, depression, insomnia, headaches, diminished sexual desire and anxiety.
Other Information
* * * In addition, she sees strange things that no one else can see, such as door handles moving, the Virgin Mary sitting on her windowsill, and flying objects near the ceiling. Gonzalez also stated that she has been experiencing strange skin sensations of something touching her while in bed. (c) Gonzalez has stated that she always wished to be dead. (d) Gonzalez displays psychotic features related to her severe depression, such as illusions and distortions of reality. (e) Feelings of persecution and a variety of delusions tend to negatively affect the individual's reality and at times these decisions may be acted upon. At the habeas corpus proceeding, the above-stated observations and conclusions by Gonzalez's psychologist were supported by the psychologist's interview notes of the sessions with Gonzalez. In short, these notes showed that Gonzalez had expressly described her prior and incredible claims of sexual abuse, her long-existing psychotic condition and her delusions and illusions to the psychologist. At the habeas corpus hearing, Gonzalez also admitted that prior to Sandoval, she had accused no less than four other men of sexual abuse. Most importantly, in 1994, Gonzalez went to court and made sexual abuse accusations against another man, under oath in a sworn to declaration filed in support of an application for a restraining order. At the habeas corpus proceedings, however, Gonzalez expressly admitted that she had not been sexually abused in the 1994 incident, but had only been threatened. Her incredible, indeed bizarre explanation for having made the sworn-to, but admittedly false sexual abuse accusations was that the 1994 declaration had been prepared by a court official and that she had signed the declaration without reading it. At the conclusion of the habeas corpus proceeding, Judge Doyle ruled that if the above-outlined evidence as to Gonzalez's psychotic condition were admissible, he would grant the petition and vacate the conviction. On his own, however, and without affording Sandoval an opportunity for briefing, Judge Doyle ruled that under criminal law rules of evidence, the above-outlined evidence as to Gonzalez's psychotic condition and her illusions and distortions of reality was not admissible. Judge Doyle made this evidentiary ruling despite the fact that the evidence had not been objected to by the prosecution. An appellate habeas corpus is about to be filed. In this appellate petition, Sandoval and his counsel expect to demonstrate that Judge Doyle's evidential ruling is patently incorrect, indeed that the very case cited by Judge Doyle in support of his unbriefed inadmissibility ruling show that the evidence at issue is legally admissible.
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