Stephen Yagman - Legal Career

Legal Career

Stephen Yagman's legal career began before he graduated from Fordham Law School, as an attorney-intern with the New York City Legal Aid Society. Yagman was mentored by former N.Y. City Legal Aid Society director Martin Erdmann, attorney Charles Garry, house counsel to the Black Panther Party, and former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark. Following graduation, Yagman was appointed to the office of New York State's Attorney General as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for Nursing Homes (the Special Prosecutor post then was held by now-Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney Charles J. Hynes). Following his practice in New York, Yagman opened a law practice in Los Angeles where he specializes in cases of police misconduct, civil rights in federal courts, including over 200 federal police misconduct trials, and has briefed and argued over 150 federal appeals.

After the February 28, 1997 North Hollywood shootout, Yagman represented, pro bono, the orphaned children of Emil Matasareanu, Jr., one of the robbers who was killed in the incident. In the federal civil rights action filed against the LAPD and its officers, it was alleged that the officers intentionally kept on-scene paramedics away from Matasareanu so that he would bleed to death and die on the street, instead of providing him with necessary medical attention that could have saved his life. The jury hung 9-3 in favor of the Matasareanu family, a mistrial was declared, and the case never was retried.

On November 12, 1997, Yagman was sworn in by U.S. Dist. Judge Robert M. Takasugi as Special Prosecutor for the State of Idaho to prosecute FBI sniper Lon T. Horiuchi in the August 22, 1992 Ruby Ridge killing of Vicki Weaver (where he also served pro bono). In 2001, Yagman won a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declaring that federal law enforcement agents did not enjoy sovereign immunity and could be prosecuted criminally for state law homicide. Idaho v. Horiuchi, 253 F.3d 359 (9th Cir. 2001)(en banc). In January 2002, Yagman brought, pro bono, the first case seeking habeas corpus relief for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and in December, 2003, won the first case in which it was declared that Guantanamo detainees were entitled to seek habeas corpus relief in United States courts. Gherebi v. Bush & Rumsfeld, 374 F.3d 727 (9th Cir. 2004).

In 2003 and 2006, Yagman, pro bono, defended in two, three-month-long trials Amy Prien, a mother charged with the murder of her three-month-old son. It was alleged that Prien breast fed her infant son methamphetamine-laced breast milk. The first trial was lost and Prien was sentenced to life in prison. After a successful appeal, in the second trial the jury hung 9-3 in favor of acquittal, and the district attorney declined to proceed to a third trial, thus saving Prien from serving life in prison.

Yagman has prosecuted many cases, such as:

Armster v. City of Riverside, 611 F.Supp. 103 (C.D. Cal. 1985)(police who stand by and observe other police commit civil rights violations may be held liable for failing to prevent the violations);

Armster v. United States District Court, 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986)(wholesale suspension of civil jury trials in federal courts based on budget shortfall violates Seventh Amendment to U.S. Constitution);

Cabrales v. County of Los Angeles, 864 F.2d 1454 (9th Cir. 1988)(first case in which Los Angeles County jail system held liable for inmate suicide);

Children Who Want an Education v. Wilson, 908 F.Supp. 755 (C.D. Cal. 1995)(California’s anti-immigrant Proposition 187 declared unconstitutional and enjoined);

Crumpton v. Gates, 947 F.2d 1418 (9th Cir. 1991)(an in utero fetus may sue police for killing his father once he is born);

Cunningham v. Gates, 229 F.3d 1271 (9th Cir. 2000)(elected government officials may be held liable personally for indemnifying police guilty of civil rights violations for punitive damages levied against them by juries);

Dang v. Cross, 422 F.3d 800 (9th Cir. 2005)(redefines basis for punitive damages against police to include infliction of oppressive conduct);

Diaz v. Gates, 420 F.3d 897 (9th Cir. 2005)(per curiam)(en banc)(establishing principle that police may be sued under federal racketeering statute for injuring one in her employment), cert. denied sub nom. Parks v. Diaz, 126 S.Ct. 1069 (2006);

Erickson v. Knapp, 938 F.Supp. 581 (C.D. Cal. 1996)(police may not seize news photographer’s camera without probable cause);

County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct. (Forsyth v. Block), 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000)(defense attempt to disqualify Yagman denied: Chief Judge Alex Kozinski stating: “Stephen Yagman has a formidable reputation as a plaintiff’s advocate in police misconduct cases; defendants in such cases may find it advantageous to remove him as an opponent.”);

Fowler v. Block, 2 F.Supp. 2d 1268 (C.D. Cal. 1998)(holding it unconstitutional for sheriff to continue to hold in custody person ordered by court to be released, in order to check for outstanding warrants);

Gherebi v. Bush & Rumsfeld, 374 F.3d 727 (9th Cir. 2004)(first case to hold that Guantanamo Bay detainees entitled to petition federal courts for habeas corpus);

Green v. Baca, 225 F.R.D. 612 (C.D. Cal. 2005)(imposing $54,375 sanction on police defense counsel for concealing 11,704 pages of reports from plaintiff);

Guerrero v. Gates, 442 F.3d 697 (9th Cir. 2006)(plaintiffs’ excessive force claims are not barred by prior conviction arising from same events; loss of employment sufficient to state an injury to business under racketeering laws);

Hammer v. Gross, 932 F.2d 842 (9th Cir. 1991)(en banc)(forced blood tests may not be administered to drunk driving suspects);

Hart v. Gaioni, 354 F.Supp. 2d 1127 (C.D. Cal. 2005)(establishing right to sue in federal court for the denial of the right to sue in federal court through interference with a plaintiff’s right of counsel);

Hawkins v. Comparet-Cassani, 33 F.Supp. 2d 1244 (C.D. Cal. 1998)(holding unconstitutional use of 50,000-volt stun belt on prisoner who was before the court);

Idaho v. Horiuchi, 253 F.3d 359 (9th Cir. 2001)(en banc)(establishing right of states to prosecute criminally for homicide federal officials);

In re Complaint of Judicial Misconduct (Judge Manuel L. Real), 425 F.3d 1179 (9th Cir. 2005)(finding judicial misconduct because of judge taking action on improper communication from a party);

Johnson v. Campbell, 92 F.3d 951 (9th Cir. 1996)(jurors may not be challenged because they are gay);

Larez v. Gates, 946 F.2d 630 (9th Cir. 1991)(setting forth seminal standards for suing government based on having a custom of police misconduct);

Milstein v. Cooley, 208 F.Supp. 2d 1116 (C.D. Cal. 2002)(there is a clearly established due process right not to be prosecuted based on fabricated evidence);

Moreno v. Baca, 431 F.3d 633 (9th Cir. 2005)(suspicion-less arrest and search may not be retroactively justified by police subsequent to discovery that person arrested is on parole or subject to an outstanding arrest warrant);

Motley v. Parks, 432 F.3d 1072 (9th Cir. 2005)(en banc)(parole search must be preceded by probable cause; unreasonable to point a gun at a baby while searching);

Standing Committee on Discipline v. Yagman, 55 F.3d 1430 (9th Cir. 1995)(lawyer has right of freedom of speech to criticize federal judge and may not be disciplined for doing so, creating the so-called “Yagman Rule”);

Thomas v. Baca, 231 F.R.D. 397 (C.D. Cal. 2005)(granting class action to over 500,000 Los Angeles County jail inmates who were forced to sleep on the floors without bunks);

Thomas v. Baca, 514 F.Supp. 2d 1201 (C.D. Cal. 2007)(holding unconstitutional forcing jail inmates to sleep on floors without bunks);

Vanke v. Block, 98-04111-DDP (C.D. Cal. 11-07-98)(granting class action to 22,000 Los Angeles County jail inmates, and issuing preliminary injunction that prohibited sheriff from refusing timely to release inmates who had been ordered to be released, but whom sheriff continued to detain to search for outstanding warrants).