Tobias slaps Pekin with $800 charge
The latest motion of many from Michael Pekin in the Los
Valientes civil lawsuit ended in an $800 sanction Wednesday against
the Salinas lawyer.
Tobias slaps Pekin with $800 charge
The latest motion of many from Michael Pekin in the Los Valientes civil lawsuit ended in an $800 sanction Wednesday against the Salinas lawyer.
Pekin’s motion brought civil lawyer Nancy Battel, who is representing the People of San Benito County, and Judge Harry Tobias into court to request that the evidentiary hearing be rescheduled.
Tobias charged Pekin with $800 after telling him that his motion is “not the appropriate way to do this in a civil action.”
Pekin wanted to reschedule an evidentiary hearing prior to the conclusion of the discovery phase of the case, where both sides in the case present their respective evidence, Battel said. Pekin did not return a call seeking comment by press time.
In a civil action, a motion to dismiss must be made and evidence has to be presented at that time. Pekin has not filed a motion to dismiss.
“Tobias said there was no statutory basis [for Pekin’s motion] and awarded sanctions against Mr. Pekin and his law firm,” Battel said, after the court appearance. “In essence [the judge] wanted to send a message to Mr. Pekin that he needs to be mindful of the appropriate way to bring his request before the bench.”
Battel has requested sanctions against Pekin throughout the course of the hearing, but in all cases except the most recent one, Tobias has said the sanctions deal with discovery issues and would need to be decided by the discovery referee at a future date.
During the discovery phase of the trial, judges decide if there is enough information to go forward with a trial. A discovery hearing is scheduled for June 16. Battel plans to request additional sanctions against Pekin and his law firm as Pekin and his son, Patrick, failed to complete a deposition required for the discovery phase.
Battel is also requesting a clarification on a court order that the District Attorney’s office turn over all intra-office communications that reference Pekin, Patrick Pekin, Amanda Hernandez or any of the alleged Los Valientes members by name.
“In his movings of papers, they argued that they don’t need to do any more discovery,” Battel said.
The DA’s office had to hire a computer specialist to search for all the intra-office memos, “a great cost, in essence, to the people,” Battel said.
In court, Hernandez said they would still be requesting the information during discovery, despite Pekin’s motion that they had all the information they need.
