Local News

Jury Convicts MS-13 Gang Member of Kidnapping and Murder

FRESNO - On Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, a jury found Israel Alberto Rivas Gomez, 27, a citizen of El Salvador unlawfully residing in Mendota, guilty of kidnapping and murder in aid of racketeering, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Rivas Gomez was a member of La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). This violent criminal street gang engages in racketeering, including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking. On Dec. 18, 2017, Rivas Gomez and other MS-13 gang members kidnapped a 19-year-old man in Mendota, drove him to a remote location approximately 30 minutes away, and used a knife and machete to murder him, all in furtherance of MS-13's criminal gang enterprise.

DMV Employee Pleads Guilty to Issuing Commercial Driver’s Licenses to Unqualified Drivers in Exchange for Bribes

FRESNO - Ulises Pena, 39, a former California Department of Motor Vehicles employee in Bakersfield, pleaded guilty Monday to illegally producing California commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) in exchange for bribes, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court records, Pena was a Motor Vehicle Representative at the DMV and was responsible for processing driver’s license applications. From January 2015 through August 2016, he arranged for the passage of written tests for students from co-defendant Bikramjit Singh Pannu’s truck driving school who were having trouble passing the tests in exchange for payments from Pannu. Pena improperly accessed the students’ DMV records and altered them to show that the students had passed the tests when that was not true. His alterations caused the fraudulent issuance of CDLs to unqualified students.

Governor Gavin Newsom Signs Good Government Bill To Close State Agency Lobbying Loophole

LOS ANGELES - Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1783 to close a loophole in state law that allowed former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to influence decision-making at the Department of Insurance without registering as a lobbyist.

AB 1783 by Assembly Member Marc Levine (D - North Bay) arose from a government corruption scandal involving the Department of Insurance and the workers' compensation insurer Applied Underwriters.

Lozano Smith Tops Nationwide Ranking Diversity Snapshot and Glass Ceiling Report

FRESNO - For the third year in a row, Lozano Smith was named by Law360 as a leading law firm in the areas of diversity and gender equity within the 101-250 attorney category. The firm ranked first overall in Law360's Glass Ceiling Report, a data-driven review of female attorney representation at law firms, and third overall in the Diversity Snapshot.

Lozano Smith ranked first in diversity amongst its equity partnership, first in gender equity amongst its nonequity partnership, and in the top five throughout several other diversity and equity categories within Law360's national reports, including:

Sherri Papini Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Lying About Being Kidnapped and Defrauding the California Victim Compensation Board

SACRAMENTO - Sherri Papini, 39, of Redding, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison to be followed by 36 months of supervised release for making materially false statements to FBI agents about the circumstances of her own hoax kidnapping and committing mail fraud based on her being a kidnapping victim, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced today.

Papini was ordered to pay $309,902 in restitution for losses incurred by the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.