Most Popular
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Party Crashers 08
Ralph Nader and running mate Matt Gonzalez are looking to make a difference in the upcoming presidential election. Early polling suggests they just might.
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Whistleblower
By most accounts, David Kessler's four years as UCSF's medical school dean were a rip-roaring success. So why was he fired?
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An Inconvenient Plant
One of the world's rarest plants grows in the Presidio. Plans are under way to save it — and ax thousands of trees in the process.
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The race to replace Bernie Ward on KGO
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Bob Weir's cutoffs not going to Grateful Dead archive
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Public Enema No. 2 (54)
Bondage, fellatio, feces-swapping, and intimate cleansing at the S.F. Art Institute
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Party Crashers 08 (45)
Ralph Nader and running mate Matt Gonzalez are looking to make a difference in the upcoming presidential election. Early polling suggests they just might.
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An Inconvenient Plant (26)
One of the world's rarest plants grows in the Presidio. Plans are under way to save it — and ax thousands of trees in the process.
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Wikipedia Idiots: The Edit Wars of San Francisco (117)
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The race to replace Bernie Ward on KGO (7)
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Party Crashers 08
Ralph Nader and running mate Matt Gonzalez are looking to make a difference in the upcoming presidential election. Early polling suggests they just might.
-
Whistleblower
By most accounts, David Kessler's four years as UCSF's medical school dean were a rip-roaring success. So why was he fired?
-
An Inconvenient Plant
One of the world's rarest plants grows in the Presidio. Plans are under way to save it — and ax thousands of trees in the process.
-
The race to replace Bernie Ward on KGO
-
Bob Weir's cutoffs not going to Grateful Dead archive
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More "Punk Family Values" extras: live footage and fun films
04:10PM 05/07/08 -
Spoon Books Three Fillmore Shows in Sept.
02:43PM 05/07/08 -
Gay Marriage now legal in New York state...for at least a month
02:08PM 05/07/08 -
Gigantic Putin Officiates at Presidential Inauguration, Climbs Kremlin
12:02PM 05/07/08 -
Waterbar's KFOG KaBoom! Party
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SF Weekly's Seven-Day Dish
08:51AM 05/07/08
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National Features
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The Pitch
We (Heart) Matt
The Shawnee Mission East class of '08 loves its gay homecoming king.
By Jen Chen -
Village Voice
The Cro-Mag Diaries
Remembering the brutal life and times of John "Bloodclot" Joseph, New York hardcore icon.
By Rob Harvilla -
Seattle Weekly
Being Gary Busey
Everybody thinks Jeff Swanson is somebody famous. And he does nothing to dissuade them of the notion.
By Aimee Curl -
Cleveland Scene
The Artful Dodger
Women loved Zachary Coleman. And he loved their money.
By Lisa Rab
Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal, who survived the Christmas Day tiger mauling at the San Francisco Zoo along with his brother, has been in the news lately because of a few uncomfortable run-ins with the law. As it turns out, one of the Dhaliwals' attorneys has legal problems of his own, which landed him a 30-day suspension from practicing law. The suspension, for unethical conduct, starts this week.
Shepard Kopp, the son of retired San Mateo County Judge and ex-state Senator Quentin Kopp, got in hot water because of work he once handled as an associate at the Los Angeles firm Geragos & Geragos, where he still practices law.
Kopp represented ex-con Christopher Jauregui, who lied to police during a drunk-driving arrest, identifying himself using the name of his friend Cesar Castaneda. Kopp also represented Castaneda for free.
One month after the arrest, and after Jauregui was booked and released from jail, the Los Angeles district attorney's office filed misdemeanor DUI charges against Castaneda. Later, Jauregui told Kopp, his new attorney, about the trick he played on the police.
The defense lawyer didn't tell the court or prosecutors that the case had been filed against the wrong guy. Instead, Kopp devised a plan to stall until one year past the date of arrest, when the DA could no longer file new charges. Then, Kopp would unmask the truth, the case against Castaneda would be dropped, and Jauregui would get off scot-free.
The joke, it seems, was on Kopp and his clients. Not too long after everyone came clean, an L.A. Superior Court judge refused to toss the case, the DA filed felony conspiracy charges against Jauregui and Castaneda, and the State Bar hit Kopp with ethics charges. Those charges stemmed from damaging his own clients' interests and wasting the court's and the DA's resources. In a deal with prosecutors, Kopp admitted his misconduct and accepted the 30-day suspension, plus two years' probation.
Kopp's attorney, Arthur Margolis, said the ethics rules his client violated were anything but black and white. "There wasn't any real misrepresentation," he insisted. Kopp "simply didn't disclose what appeared to be a secret of his client. If you don't confess, that doesn't mean you're pulling a fast one."
So why cut a deal with State Bar prosecutors?
"It was clear that the [State Bar] court was not going to agree with us," Margolis said.
