U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra’s mayoral campaign not only produced a scandalous telephone ad in the Los Angeles mayoral race but later erased the message after it had prompted an investigation, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Wednesday.
Although the actions did not constitute a crime, the district attorney’s report could spell political trouble for both Becerra and Los Angeles Councilman Nick Pacheco, a Becerra supporter connected to the telephone bank that issued the calls.
In the prerecorded telephone calls made days before the April 10 election, a woman posing as county Supervisor Gloria Molina attacked former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and his record on crime.
Although Becerra said he had no involvement in the calls, Molina said Wednesday that she felt “personally abused and personally hurt by Xavier Becerra and his campaign.”
Molina told reporters that the congressman could not hide behind his aides and that, even if he did not personally authorize them, had to accept responsibility for the calls.
Molina’s strong statements could hurt Becerra, who has benefited from her support and enjoyed a squeaky-clean image.
“There’s no way to see this in a positive light,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and a longtime friend of Becerra. “I can’t imagine him knowing. On the other hand, he is the candidate and he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his campaign.”
Late Wednesday, Becerra said he had offered an apology to Molina and Villaraigosa. In a two-page statement issued from his attorney’s office, the congressman said his campaign staff had long denied involvement in the calls.
Becerra said he had told his staff not to engage in negative campaigning. “I can’t express how disappointing and frustrating it is to now learn that those instructions and responsibilities may have been ignored in this case,” he said.
Pacheco, a rising force at City Hall, also found himself entangled in the scandal. The nonprofit organization that he co-founded, Cal Inc., leased its telephone bank to La Colectiva, which made the controversial calls. And one of his top aides was a pivotal figure in the inquiry.
The calls targeted rival mayoral candidate Villaraigosa just days before the April election, in which he finished first out of six major candidates. He is now in a runoff with City Atty. James K. Hahn; Becerra finished fifth with 6% of the vote.
In the calls, made to 80,000 voters, a woman identifying herself as “Gloria Marina” declared: “Please don’t hang up. This is an emergency call.” She then made allegations about Villaraigosa’s record on crime.
One day after the calls began, Molina asked Cooley to investigate them. Seven weeks later, the district attorney said that even though his office found no crime committed, it was important for the public to know what happened.
“Although those responsible for this reprehensible conduct will not face criminal prosecution, this office remains hopeful that the court of popular opinion will rule that this type of underhand political ‘dirty tricksterism’ will not be tolerated,” Cooley wrote in a letter to Molina.
A detailed report on the investigation combined with other information obtained by The Times shows that investigators first interviewed people at La Colectiva on April 2, two days after the calls were made.
“After . . . it became clear that investigators from this office were focusing on La Colectiva,” the report says, Floyd Monserratt, a top aide to Pacheco who was working as a volunteer for La Colectiva, became concerned and spoke with Becerra campaign manager Paige Richardson. At that point, the report adds, Richardson told Monserratt to change the recorded call. During the switch, the “Marina” recording was erased.
Over the course of the probe, investigators found themselves stymied by some of the Becerra campaign’s top officials, prosecutors said.
Monserratt initially denied any knowledge of the controversial calls.
Several days later, Cooley said, investigators tried to reach Monserratt but were unsuccessful until an attorney representing him contacted the district attorney’s office. But on May 1, under oath, Monserratt explained La Colectiva’s role in making the controversial calls.
Richardson also failed to cooperate with authorities’ efforts to get to the source of the phone calls, the report says. As early as April 5, a district attorney’s investigator spoke to Richardson at the campaign’s headquarters, where she denied any knowledge of the calls, according to Cooley’s office. Last weekend, Richardson refused to speak to an investigator who flew to her New Mexico home.
By then, prosecutors had interviewed two other members of the Becerra campaign who said Richardson had given them a script for the call. One, press deputy Allyson Laughlin, said she believed it was “inappropriate” to record the call because as press deputy “her voice was so recognizable,” the district attorney’s report says.
Richardson then asked Veronica Del Rico, a scheduling aide, to record the announcement, prosecutors said. Stephen Mansfield, an attorney for Del Rico, said his client was a low-level employee who was presented a script by her superiors. She asked whether the call would be ethical, legal and accurate before recording it, he said.
The prosecutors’ report also says Richardson and deputy campaign manager Scott Nunnery made the decision to have the caller identify herself as “Gloria Marina.”
“Ms. Richardson and Mr. Nunnery laughed at the idea, and Ms. Richardson said something like, ‘It would be a slap in her face since she just endorsed Villaraigosa,’ ” the report states.
Richardson’s attorney has denied that she originated the recorded call. Nunnery did not return calls for comment.
“The D.A.’s report is inaccurate in many respects,” Richardson’s attorney, Fred Woocher, said in a statement Wednesday. “At this point, however, she sees no value in pointing her finger elsewhere or in spreading the blame.”
On Tuesday, Becerra said in a statement that he had just learned the district attorney’s investigation was focusing on La Colectiva. On Wednesday, in a more detailed statement, he said he had heard “rumors” of the connection weeks ago and asked his campaign attorney to look into it.
Becerra said his attorney reported back that all staffers denied involvement.
Cooley took issue with the notion that the congressman only recently become aware of the focus on La Colectiva. Indeed, Cooley said that, although his office only recently contacted Becerra, there was no doubt the congressman’s campaign was under scrutiny.
“After all, we had been interviewing his campaign staffers for several weeks,” Cooley said. He also disputed Pacheco’s claim that the councilman was instrumental in finding out who was behind the calls.
“That is not an accurate representation,” Cooley told reporters. “He surfaced only because we contacted him last Friday.”
In a letter dated Tuesday to the district attorney, Pacheco said he encouraged Monserratt to share what he knew of the calls with prosecutors.
“That assertion would be inconsistent with our investigation and the statements of Mr. Monserratt,” Cooley said. Adding that Pacheco could have done more to let investigators know about the calls, the district attorney said: “One would think that Nick would have known his information would be helpful.”
Pacheco said he was “stunned” that Cooley told reporters he failed to quickly disclose his knowledge of the calls. “All I can tell you is I was hearing secondhand stories,” Pacheco said. “I’m stunned a prosecutor would want an investigation started with secondhand rumors.”
*
Times staff writers Tina Daunt and Matea Gold contributed to this story.
Most presidents battling the perception of being too chummy with Russia might think twice about picking up the phone offering congratulations to the Russian leader on his election.
Most presidents, that is, except for President Trump.
TRUMP’S CALL TO PUTIN
On Tuesday, Trump recounted for reporters his “very good call” to congratulate newly reelected President Vladimir Putin, after Russian officials had already confirmed the two leaders had chatted.
“We had a very good call,” Trump said, “and I suspect that we’ll be meeting in the not-too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control.”
Not a fan of the call: Arizona Sen. John McCain. “An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections,” McCain said in a statement and online.
COAST-TO-COAST LAWSUITS AGAINST TRUMP
There’s new legal and political jeopardy for Trump in both California and New York. A former Playboy Playmate is suing to break a confidentiality agreement that keeps her from discussing the president, at the same time that a judge in the Empire State has rejected his request to quash a lawsuit stemming from a charge of sexual assault.
— Trying to persuade Trump to back down from his increasingly public battle with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Republican leaders turned Tuesday to the approach that has worked for Fox network personalities: They talked to him through the television screen.
— A study says the coalitions behind the nation’s two major political parties have grown steadily apart over the past decade. Democrats are increasingly racially diverse, younger and college educated. Republicans have remained overwhelmingly white and non-college-educated.
The small city of Los Alamitos is making big news for its rejection of California’s new “sanctuary state” law that limits the immigration assistance provided by local law enforcement officers.
— New state legislation would end a city of Los Angeles policy giving council members veto power over proposed homeless housing projects in their districts.
— Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on a two-week visit to the U.S. that will include a visit to Los Angeles to meet with entertainment and defense executives, and Silicon Valley to meet with tech leaders.
During a volleyball tournament trip to Las Vegas in March, Chatsworth coach Sina Aghassy confiscated all his players’ cellphones and put them in his backpack to make sure they focused on their sports assignment — with one exception.
Anyone waiting to learn if they were accepted to a college could briefly have access to their phone.
The players are standing in a hallway listening to their coach evaluate their performance when Grant Wang, the team’s star 6-foot-6 senior, decides to open his phone to check whether he got a message from MIT.
“I opened it up a couple minutes before it was supposed to come out and all I see is confetti,” he said. “I was in shock and all I did was make a noise.”
Aghassy, not knowing what the noise meant, said, “Can you quiet down a bit?”
“Five minutes into his talk, I started breaking down crying. I got overwhelmed by emotions,” Wang said.
Volleyball standout Grant Wange of Chatsworth High has never received a grade other than A in high school.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Teammates didn’t know if it was good news or bad news as they saw his tears.
“My teammate whispers to me.”
Wang tells the good news, “I got into MIT.”
“Everyone breaks out cheering and going wild.
Wang had kept it a secret that MIT was his dream school. He was so disappointed in the fall when he was put on the deferred list that he didn’t think he’d get in.
He’s never received a grade other than A in Chatsworth’s magnet program focused on STEM. He’s such a math whiz that he took geometry in eighth grade and finished all his math classes, from chemistry to calculus, last school year. This year he’s focused on AP Physics.
He already owns three rings — one playing for Chatsworth’s state championship basketball team with Alijah Arenas and two City Open Division volleyball titles. He’s going for a third ring this season as Chatsworth is expected to be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the volleyball playoffs. He gave up basketball for volleyball, a sport he didn’t start playing until his freshman year.
“I love the sport. I always put in extra work,” he said.
Redondo Union High volleyball players (from left) Tommy Spalding, Vaughan Flaherty and Carter Mirabal are headed to MIT this fall.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Unlike the Redondo Union trio, he doesn’t surf and plays no instruments even though his Redondo Union friends are looking for a drummer to start a band. Wang knows math formulas, but drumming? “I cannot,” he said.
“In college, I’m going to learn how to drum so I can join the band,” he joked.
His size and improving skills make him a good volleyball prospect for the future. He seems all set except for dealing with cold weather.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in weather under 60 degrees for two days,” he said. “My parents said, ‘Good luck,’ they would send me some hot Korean soup during tough days.”
Asked how he became such a good student, Wang said, “My mom and dad always put me in academic settings trying to get me to learn as much as possible.”
B’s on a report card are not allowed in his family.
He offered a rousing endorsement for his educators at Chatsworth.
“All the teachers put their heart and soul into us,” he said.
As for his volleyball coach, he appreciated Aghassy giving access to his phone for just a few minutes and apologizes for disrupting his speech.
What a memory it will be for years to come telling the story of being in Las Vegas and learning he got into MIT.
WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether the police use of phone tracking data violates the Constitution’s protection against “unreasonable searches.”
Most of the justices sounded wary of barring investigators from obtaining precise location history from Google or cellphone providers if it helps find a murderer or a bank robber.
“I’m trying to figure out why this was bad police work,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh told an attorney representing the defendant, Odell Chatrie.
He said a police detective in Virginia was seeking clues to find a bank robber and sought a “geofence warrant” from a judge that told Google to turn over data from phones that were near the bank during the hour of the robbery.
“In the end, he got three names,” Kavanaugh said, including Chatrie, who pleaded guilty. He said these searches have proved to be practical for finding criminals.
But other justices said the court should not rule broadly to endorse digital searches of vast data bases held by private companies.
What about emails or Google photos, asked Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
All three said this information deserves more privacy protection than location data.
In the past, the court has said the 4th Amendment protects against government searches that intrude upon a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” The two sides in this case differ on whether a digital search of location data violates privacy rights.
Gorsuch said he was generally skeptical of broad searches if the government had no particular suspect.
Is it OK to search “all the rooms in a hotel for a gun or all the storage units or all bank deposit boxes for the pearl necklace that has been stolen?” he asked.
Eric Feigin, a deputy solicitor general, said the government probably could not obtain a search warrant for all storage units or hotel rooms, but a Google search is different because it is a software filter.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. proposed a narrow ruling.
Perhaps unwittingly, Chatrie had agreed to have Google store his location history data. Roberts said he could have turned off the public location data, and for that reason, he may have lost his right to appeal.
“If you don’t want the government to have your location history, you just flip that off,” he said.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. agreed. Chatrie “voluntarily disclosed to Google the information about where he was going to be,” he said.
Eight years ago, Roberts wrote an opinion for a 5-4 majority that said investigators needed a search warrant before they could obtain 127 days of cell tower records that helped convict a Michigan man of several store robberies.
Four of the court’s liberal justices joined that majority, but only two of them — Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — remain on the court.
Since then, Kavanaugh, Barrett and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson have joined the court.
The National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other civil liberties groups backed Chatrie’s challenge to the government’s use of geofence warrants.
Chatrie had “a reasonable expectation of privacy in his location history given both its sensitive and revealing nature and the fact that it was stored in his password-protected account,” Washington attorney Adam Unikowski told the court. “There was not probable cause to search the virtual private papers of every single person within the geofence merely because of their proximity to the crime.”
Feigin, the Justice Department attorney, said a ruling for Chatrie “would impede the investigation of kidnappings, robberies, shootings and other crimes.”
He agreed, however, that email should be protected because it involves personal communication.
The justices will hand down a ruling in Chatrie vs. U.S. by the end of June.
Former USC receiver Makai Lemon was in Pittsburgh on Thursday night — and it appeared he would be staying there long term.
Until it very suddenly didn’t.
About two hours into the first round of the NFL draft, Lemon was sitting in the green room — the backstage area for players waiting to be picked — when he received a call from the host city’s home team. A celebration erupted around the former Los Alamitos High star as he was informed that the Steelers were about to select him with the 21st overall pick.
Lemon had one question:
“Why is Philly calling me?”
It turns out that Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan was a bit premature with the call. The Dallas Cowboys were still on the clock at No. 20 but were expected to draft a defensive player. And that’s what they did with UCF edge rusher Malachi Lawrence — but only after trading down with an NFC East rival at No. 23.
The Philadelphia Eagles pulled off the last-second deal to move ahead of the Steelers and snatch away Lemon in real time. Footage from the green room shows a confused Lemon still on the phone with Pittsburgh but being told by someone in the room with him: “Philly just traded for you! … Philly’s taking you right now!”
“I answered the phone and it was the Steelers,” Lemon told reporters afterward. “My phone kept ringing. I look and it was the Eagles. They traded up, and they were going to pick me. I feel like everything happened for a reason. They traded up, so it means a lot that they really wanted me. So I’m all-in, and they’re going to get everything that I’ve got.”
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman acknowledged in a news conference that “it took us a couple minutes to contact the player” after they had moved into position to pick him.
“The clock got down a little bit lower than we would have liked,” Roseman said, “but we were able to get in touch with him and obviously select him.”
Roseman was asked if the Eagles made the move because they thought the Steelers were about to draft Lemon at No. 21.
“We just felt like this was a player that we wanted to go up and get, just based on where our board was at that time, where we were picking,” Roseman said. “Just felt like it made a lot of sense based on our board. And obviously, when you have a player that you like that’s ranked higher on your board than where you’re picking, you think at every pick that he’s going to be selected.
“That’s just the way the draft is, you think everyone’s thinking the way that you are. And so certainly for us, we didn’t want to sit on our hands. We wanted to go get him. And so that’s why I made a trade.”
The Steelers pivoted quickly, choosing Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor moments later.
Last season at USC, Lemon was a consensus All-American and won the Biletnikoff Award for outstanding receiver after making 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. In his three seasons with the Trojans, Lemon had 137 catches for 2,008 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Lemon’s arrival in Philadelphia would seem to indicate that the Eagles are ready to move on from star receiver A.J. Brown, who has been rumored to be on the trading block. If they wait until June 1 to trade Brown, the Eagles would be able to split his $40-million salary cap hit over two seasons.
Roseman didn’t have any light to shed on the matter Thursday night.
“A.J. is a member of the Eagles,” Roseman said. “We don’t have any trades that have been made or that are done. We’re taking this one day at a time. We’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow. We’ll continue to address anything we have to with our roster, not only through this draft weekend, but we’ll continue to look for ways to improve the team throughout the offseason and into training camp.”
There would even be standing desks so people could work in there too, along with power sockets and coat hooks etc.
The airline manufacturer said it would make the most of unused space in the cabin, and make it easier to stay connected especially on long haul flights.
Boeing chief designer Tom Eaton said it could become more like a “mini office”.
He explained: “A space like this can offer so much versatility to help people communicate and remain connected.
“And it is nice to be in a space where you don’t feel like you’re disrupting people.”
It comes as a number of airlines have started rolling out superfast Starlink onboard.
Virgin Atlantic was the first UK airline to launch Starlink WiFi onboard, followed by British Airways.
The Sun’s Assistant Travel Editor Sophie Swietochowski recently tried it out for herself.
Our favourite plane essentials
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She said: “I didn’t need to pay a penny extra to use it on board my British Airways plane – nor will any other customers.
“The new WiFi model operates differently to its current one. On its typical internet-enabled aircrafts, passengers currently have to create a British Airways account in order to gain access to free messaging services, but that’s not the case for its Starlink aircrafts – a simple click of a button will get you online in seconds.
“Downloading your Netflix shows ahead of travel will become a thing of the past, with high speed streaming enabled, and pre-ordering your Uber ahead of landing will make the overall process of travelling much smoother.
“Personally, I’m most pleased that I could catch up on boring home and work admin, so that it didn’t eat into time in my holiday destination.”
The Aircrafts Interior Expo also had a number of other interesting cabin designs.
Passport holders have been urged to change a key phone setting before they arrive at airports to travel. Failing to do so could see them facing delays in queues
Passport holders have been told to change a phone setting (stock image)(Image: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
We all love jetting off abroad at this time of year, but sometimes making simple mistakes at the airport can lead to risking delays in queues. While many people worry about their clothing, and what they have packed in their cases, something they should actually be paying more attention to is their mobile phones.
Little you may know, using a certain setting can actually lead to people spending more time in queues at security, and delaying their travel journey. Nobody wants to have to face lengthy queues when they start their holiday so an expert has shared some key travel tips to help passport holders out.
You may not realise, but a dim screen is one of the most common reasons boarding passes fail to scan at the gate. Experts say a few simple phone tweaks before you leave home can save serious stress on travel day, and the changes take seconds to complete.
According to William Thackray, IT expert at AGT Computer Services, a dim screen is one of the most frequent and easily avoidable causes of delay at airport security and boarding gates.
He said: “Scanners need a clear, bright image to read a barcode or QR code reliably. In bright airport lighting, a screen that’s sitting at its default brightness – or that’s been dimmed to save battery – can cause a failed scan.
“It sounds trivial, but it holds up the queue and it’s completely avoidable.”
What you need to do
Before you leave the house, drag your screen brightness to maximum. On an iPhone, swipe down from the top right corner to access the Control Centre and pull the brightness slider to the top. For Android, swipe down from the top of the screen and do the same.
While you’re at it, William recommends a few other quick changes that can make the whole airport experience smoother. To begin, he said it’s a good idea to screenshot your boarding pass.
Don’t rely on an app that needs a signal or a Wi-Fi connection to load. A screenshot lives on your phone and opens instantly.
He said it’s also a good idea to turn off auto-lock. If your screen goes dark mid-queue, you’ll be unlocking your phone and re-opening your boarding pass with a line of people behind you.
Go to Settings > Display and bump your screen timeout up to at least two to three minutes before you travel. This could make a big difference.
You should also make sure your phone is fully charged. It sounds obvious, but some airports – especially when travelling to the US – can ask you to power up your device at security.
A dead phone can mean real delays, or worse, having your device taken for additional screening. William added: “None of these things take more than a minute to sort before you leave the house.
“But, on a busy travel day, that one minute of prep can be the difference between breezing through and being that person holding everyone up.”
WASHINGTON — A man carrying a gun and a cellphone entered a federal credit union in a small town in central Virginia in May 2019 and demanded cash.
He left with $195,000 in a bag and no clue to his identity. But his smartphone was keeping track of him.
What happened next could yield a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court on the 4th Amendment and its restrictions against “unreasonable searches.”
Typically, police use tips or leads to find suspects, then seek a search warrant from a judge to enter a house or other private area to seize the evidence that can prove a crime.
Civil libertarians say the new “digital dragnets” work in reverse.
“It’s grab the data and search first. Suspicion later. That’s opposite of how our system has worked, and it’s really dangerous,” said Jake Laperruque, an attorney for the Center for Democracy & Technology.
But these new data scans can be effective in finding criminals.
Lacking leads in the Virginia bank robbery, a police detective turned to what one judge in the case called a “groundbreaking investigative tool … enabling the relentless collection of eerily precise location data.”
Cellphones can be tracked through towers, and Google stored this location history data for hundreds of millions of users. The detective sent Google a demand for information known as a “geofence warrant,” referring to a virtual fence around a particular geographic area at a specific time.
The officer sought phones that were within 150 yards of the bank during the hour of the robbery. He used that data to locate Okello Chatrie, then obtained a search warrant of his home where the cash and the holdup notes were found.
Chatrie entered a conditional guilty plea, but the Supreme Court will hear his appeal on April 27.
The justices agreed to decide whether geofence warrants violate the 4th Amendment.
The outcome may go beyond location tracking. At issue more broadly is the legal status of the vast amount of privately stored data that can be easily scanned.
This may include words or phrases found in Google searches or in emails. For example, investigators may want to know who searched for a particular address in the weeks before an arson or a murder took place there or who searched for information on making a particular type of bomb.
Judges are deeply divided on how this fits with the 4th Amendment.
Two years ago, the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans ruled “geofence warrants are general warrants categorically prohibited by the 4th Amendment.”
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s liberals in a 4th Amendment privacy case in 2018.
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Historians of the 4th Amendment say the constitutional ban on “unreasonable searches and seizures” arose from the anger in the American colonies over British officers using general warrants to search homes and stores even when they had no reason to suspect any particular person of wrongdoing.
The National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers relies on that contention in opposing geofence warrants.
Its lawyers argued the government obtained Chatrie’s “private location information … with an unconstitutional general warrant that compelled Google to conduct a fishing expedition through millions of Google accounts, without any basis for believing that any one of them would contain incriminating evidence.”
Meanwhile, the more liberal 4th Circuit in Virginia divided 7-7 to reject Chatrie’s appeal. Several judges explained the law was not clear, and the police officer had done nothing wrong.
“There was no search here,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in a concurring opinion that defended the use of this tracking data.
He pointed to Supreme Court rulings in the 1970s declaring that check records held by a bank or dialing records held by a phone company were not private and could be searched by investigators without a warrant.
Chatrie had agreed to having his location records held by Google. If financial records for several months are not private, the judge wrote, “surely this request for a two-hour snapshot of one’s public movements” is not private either.
Google changed its policy in 2023 and no longer stores location history data for all of its users. But cellphone carriers continue to receive warrants that seek tracking data.
Wilkinson, a prominent conservative from the Reagan era, also argued it would be a mistake for the courts to “frustrate law enforcement’s ability to keep pace with tech-savvy criminals” or cause “more cold cases to go unsolved. Think of a murder where the culprit leaves behind his encrypted phone and nothing else. No fingerprints, no witnesses, no murder weapon. But because the killer allowed Google to track his location, a geofence warrant can crack the case,” he wrote.
Judges in Los Angeles upheld the use of a geofence warrant to find and convict two men for a robbery and murder in a bank parking lot in Paramount.
The victim, Adbadalla Thabet, collected cash from gas stations in Downey, Bellflower, Compton and Lynwood early in the morning before driving to the bank.
After he was robbed and shot, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective found video surveillance that showed he had been followed by two cars whose license plates could not be seen.
The detective then sought a geofence warrant from a Superior Court judge that asked Google for location data for six designated spots on the morning of the murder.
That led to the identification of Daniel Meza and Walter Meneses, who pleaded guilty to the crimes. A California Court of Appeal rejected their 4th Amendment claim in 2023, even though the judges said they had legal doubts about the “novelty of the particular surveillance technique at issue.”
The Supreme Court has also been split on how to apply the 4th Amendment to new types of surveillance.
By a 5-4 vote, the court in 2018 ruled the FBI should have obtained a search warrant before it required a cellphone company to turn over 127 days of records for Timothy Carpenter, a suspect in a series of store robberies in Michigan.
The data confirmed Carpenter was nearby when four of the stores were robbed.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, joined by four liberal justices, said this lengthy surveillance violated privacy rights protected by the 4th Amendment.
But he described the Carpenter decision as “narrow” because it turned on the many weeks of surveillance data.
In dissent, four conservatives questioned how tracking someone’s driving violates their privacy. Surveillance cameras and license plate readers are commonly used by investigators and have rarely been challenged.
Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer relies on that argument in his defense of Chatrie’s conviction. “An individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in movements that anyone could see,” he wrote.
The justices will issue a decision by the end of June.
SUPERSTAR Cher was left “speechless” when she found out she had a secret granddaughter aged 15.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, the girl’s mum Kayti Edwards says she told the chart legend the bombshell news in an emotional phone call last year.
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Superstar Cher was ‘speechless’ when she found out she had a secret granddaughterCredit: GettyKayti with daughter Ever, 15Credit: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner
Ex-model Kayti had a brief romance with 79-year-old Cher’s second son Elijah Allman in 2010 which led to the birth of their daughter, Ever.
Kayti, who lives on a ranch in Joshua Tree, California, explained: “Cher got in touch with me last June and asked if it was true, so I had to confess.
“She said she had heard something about it from Elijah back in 2021, but didn’t know if it was just crazy talk.
She claimed he was “substantially unable to manage his own financial resources due to severe mental health issues”.
The pair later resolved the matter privately.
But in June last year, Elijah — who is Cher’s son from her second marriage to the late musician Gregg Allman — was hospitalised for several days after a second overdose.
Kayti explained: “He came back into my life just recently.
“I didn’t know anything about his state.
“But he asked me if he could come to Joshua Tree as he needed to get out of Hollywood.
“As soon as he stepped out of the car, I knew he wasn’t well.
“A few weeks later, he overdosed and was hospitalised, and this was when Cher got in touch.
“She wanted to know what had happened and then she asked me if it was true regarding Ever.
“That’s when I had to tell her the situation.”
Kayti, who owns a horse rescue centre, told how Cher invited her and Ever to her Malibu home last September.
“We went to the house and stayed the night,” she said.
“She was lovely and kind and we had dinner.
“Cher asked Ever if she wanted to see her closet and showed her a pair of jeans she had worn in concert.
“It was a cool experience for her.
“Cher was very childlike.
“They played in the pool and she spoke to Ever about school and asked her about boys.
Cher was wed to Gregg Allman from 1975-1979Credit: GettyElijah last summer, a few weeks after he went into hospitalCredit: London Entertainment for The U.S. Sun
“She was like a kid herself.”
The Believe hitmaker, who played a glamorous gran in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, has previously told how she longed to be a grandma.
On the 2018 press tour for Mamma Mia!, the singer said: “I don’t have any grandchildren.
“I wish I did, I really do.”
Kayti said Cher is still “processing the news” after the shock reveal, but she and Ever — who is a straight-A student — are building a relationship.
She went on: “Cher sent her a Christmas card and present.
“It was a Chrome Hearts hoodie.
“And then for her birthday, she sent her some money and Chrome Hearts sweats.
“She called her and they spoke on the phone.
“Cher is really trying.
“It’s an adjustment and I’m not pushing any relationship.
“It has to come naturally.
“Elijah and his wife always said Cher didn’t want to be a grandma and to keep Ever away, so I was nervous to introduce her, but it’s been nothing but a good experience.”
Kayti said Elijah wanted to be a part of Ever’s life, which is why he went to Joshua Tree.
She said: “He wanted to see her and have a relationship with her, but he wasn’t in any fit state.
“She thought he was just a family friend at that point.
“I had to shelter her from him and, when he gets better, he will appreciate that.
“Cher is also very protective of Ever and the family dynamic and she knows Elijah’s state and wants to protect that from her, too.
“He needs to get back to being the guy I once knew, and Cher agrees.
Elijah reportedly told cops he was a “prospective father”, which caused mass speculation online.
Days later, he was arrested again for allegedly breaking into a house.
He is currently in jail awaiting trial in New Hampshire.
Kayti and ex Elijah pose for a snap in a photo boothCredit: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-RaynerKayti Edwards with The Sun’s US editor Scarlet HowesCredit: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner
With her voice cracking, Kayti said: “Elijah did this.
“I’m only speaking about this now because I want this to be my story.
“I would have kept it under wraps.
“I have to say, Cher loves her son.
“He needs help and, regardless of what anyone says, she goes to any lengths to help him.”
Kayti, who is the step-granddaughter of Mary Poppins star Julie Andrews, said: “I know what it’s like to have a famous grandma and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
“I craved the ideal of grandma baking cookies in the kitchen with me, but it wasn’t like that.
“We had cooks and were raised by nannies.
“To talk to my grandma, I had to call her assistant.
