Stephen Yagman (born December 19, 1944) is an American federal civil rights lawyer, who also handles criminal defense and habeas corpus matters. He has a reputation for being an exceptionally zealous advocate in cases regarding allegations of police brutality.[1][2][3] He has argued hundreds of federal civil rights cases before a jury, and has been involved in over a hundred and fifty federal appeals and certiorari petitions before the United States Supreme Court.
Yagman received a B.A. in American History, with co-majors in philosophy and political science. He later earned an M.A. in philosophy from New York University, where his graduate advisor and mentor was Professor Sidney Hook, and his master's dissertation was on the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause. He attended Fordham University School of Law, receiving a J.D. in 1974, where he was on the dean's list and received the Jurisprudence Award of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers.[5] During graduate school and law school, he taught (English, remedial reading, social studies, economics, and Spanish) in the New York City public school system in Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant, in Title I (lower socioeconomic) schools, from 1967-74. From 1967 until their divorce in 1994, he was married to Marion R. Yagman, with whom he practiced law for many years (1978-2021). [6]
Legal career
Yagman's legal career began before he graduated, 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 U.S. Attorney GeneralRamsey Clark. After graduating law school, he was appointed by New York State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz to the office of the New York State Attorney General as a Special Assistant Attorney General, assigned as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for Nursing Homes, in the Manhattan office of the Special State Prosecutor for Nursing Homes.
In 1986, Yagman successfully challenged a proposed nationwide suspension of federal jury trials due to budget shortfalls, in Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct., 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986). In a unanimous opinion in a related proceeding, Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct, 817 F.2d 480 (9th Cir. 1987), Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt said, "Yagman's vigilance in the protection of his clients' constitutional rights served all citizens. His fortitude and tenacity in the service of his civil rights clients exemplifies the highest traditions of the bar."
In January 2002, Yagman brought the first case seeking habeas corpus relief for Guantanamo Bay detainees, Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers & Professors v. George Walker Bush & Donald Rumsfeld, 310 F.3d 1153 (9th Cir. 2002).
On December 18, 2003, Yagman 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).[2][4]
On November 12, 1997, Yagman was sworn in by U.S. District 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. 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 County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct. (Forsyth v. Block), 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000), federal Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski noted that 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." Some of his most notorious cases involved the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.[7][8]
Yagman lodged complaints of judicial misconduct against U.S. District Judge Manuel Lawrence Real which, according to one commentator, "were at the center of the controversy over the effectiveness of the federal judicial disciplinary system and exerted a uniquely powerful influence on subsequent attempts at reform."[8] The United States Judicial Conference cited the Yagman disciplinary case in adopting its 2008 nationwide procedures for handling complaints of misconduct against federal judges. In his 2011 book, Lawyers on Trial, UCLA School of Law Professor of Law Emeritus Richard L. Abel rated Yagman as a "highly competent, dedicated lawyer who is a champion of unpopular causes".[9]
Yagman has tried over 200 federal civil rights actions to jury verdict and has argued over 150 federal appeals and certiorari petitions to the United States Supreme Court.
Criminal conviction
Yagman was convicted of one count of tax evasion, one count of bankruptcy fraud, and 17 counts of money laundering, six of which later were dismissed by the judge, on August 23, 2007. Yagman was convicted of "attempting to avoid payment of more than $100,000 in federal taxes", and he was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Yagman also failed to pay "significant amounts of federal payroll taxes" for his then-law firm, Yagman & Yagman, P.C.[10] Although Yagman claimed he was singled out as retaliation, an appeals court upheld his conviction. Yagman was disbarred by the State Bar of California on December 22, 2010.[10]
Yagman served 29 months in federal prison and then worked as a paralegal and UCLA Law School lecturer for 11 years before, at age 76, passing the California bar exam again and winning decisions from both the California State Bar Court and the California Supreme Court (unanimous) that reinstated his license to practice law, in 2021.[10] He also was reinstated to the Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by its chief judge, in 2021. He currently practices federal civil rights law and prosecutes cases for homeless clients, as well as for victims of police brutality, jail and prison abuses, and racial profiling.[11]
Yagman, now 79, has resumed taking cases against police and the government. As class counsel, Yagman represents all of the homeless people in the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Santa Barbara, and the County of Santa Barbara, in five different putative class actions.[11]
UCLA
In 2007, after Yagman's convictions, he was invited to co-teach and taught courses at UCLA Law School on law, morality, and social justice and on police brutality, with professor Frances Olsen.[12]
Writings
Yagman has written two national legal practice books, Section 1983 Federal Jury Practice and Instructions (West Publishing, 1998, ISBN0-314-22826-8), and Police Misconduct and Civil Rights, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions (Thomson Reuters West, 2002, ISBN0-314-10293-0), a play, Guantanamo, Act IV (Beyond Baroque, 2004), and hundreds of newspaper columns.[citation needed]
Sources
Los Angeles Reader, “L.A.P.D. Death Squad”, April 10, 1992, cover
Los Angeles New Times, “Cop Cruncher”, October 2, 1997, cover
Los Angeles Times Magazine, “One Angry Man”, June 28, 1998, cover
California LawBusiness, “Sympathy for the Devil”, November 6, 2000, cover
Jerome Herbert Skolnick and James J. Fyfe, Above the Law, Police and the Excessive Use of Force (Free Press, 1993), pp.17–18, 146-64, 203.
Related Research Articles
Arthur Raymond Randolph is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed to the Court in 1990 and assumed senior status on November 1, 2008.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a progressive non-profit legal advocacy organization based in New York City, New York, in the United States. It was founded in 1966 by Arthur Kinoy, William Kunstler and others particularly to support activists in the implementation of civil rights legislation and to achieve social justice.
Raymond Corley Fisher was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Judicial immunity is a form of sovereign immunity, which protects judges and others employed by the judiciary from liability resulting from their judicial actions. It is intended to ensure that judges can make decisions free from improper influence exercised on them, contributing to the impartiality of the judiciary and the rule of law. In modern times, the main purpose of "judicial immunity [is to shield] judges from the suits of ordinary people", primarily litigants who may be dissatisfied with the outcome of a case decided by the judge.
Stephen Roy Reinhardt was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Los Angeles, California. He was the last federal appeals court judge in active service to have been appointed to his position by President Jimmy Carter.
H. Candace Gorman is a Chicago, Illinois-based civil-rights attorney, known for representing two Guantanamo detainees and also for her work to uncover secret "street files" maintained by the Chicago Police.
In United States law, habeas corpus is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's detention under color of law. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. A persistent standard of indefinite detention without trial and incidents of torture led the operations of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be challenged internationally as an affront to international human rights, and challenged domestically as a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution, including the right of petition for habeas corpus. On 19 February 2002, Guantanamo detainees petitioned in federal court for a writ of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention.
Atsushi Wallace Tashima is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He is the third Asian American and first Japanese American to be appointed to a United States Court of Appeals.
Kim Anita McLane Wardlaw is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. She is the first Hispanic American woman to be appointed to a federal appeals court. Wardlaw was considered as a possible candidate to be nominated by Barack Obama to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Percy Anderson is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Melvin Theodore Brunetti was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Cormac Joseph Carney is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
David Ormon Carter is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Consuelo Bland Marshall is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
James V. Selna is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Keith Fink is an American attorney, author, and academic. He represented a business in a contract dispute with Ellen DeGeneres dubbed by the media as "Iggygate".
Paul Jeffrey Watford is an American lawyer who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2012 to 2023. In 2016, The New York Times identified Watford as a potential Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. Watford resigned his judgeship in 2023 and became a partner at the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Ian Wallach is an American lawyer and founding partner of the Law Offices of Ian Wallach, P.C. He is a legal news commentator who has appeared on regional, national, and international television and radio shows speaking on current legal issues.
Richard Barry Sobol was an American lawyer who specialized in civil rights law. He worked primarily on desegregation cases in Louisiana.
Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365 (1986), was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that clarified the relationship of the right to effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment to other constitutional rights in criminal procedure. In this case, evidence against the defendant was probably seized illegally, violating the Fourth Amendment, but he lost the chance to argue that point due to his lawyer's ineffectiveness. The prosecution argued that the defendant's attempt to make a Sixth Amendment argument via a habeas corpus petition was really a way to sneak his Fourth Amendment argument in through the back door. The Court unanimously disagreed, and held that the Fourth Amendment issue and the Sixth Amendment issue represented different constitutional values, and had different requirements for prevailing in court, and therefore were to be treated separately by rules of procedure. Therefore, the habeas corpus petition could go forward. In its opinion, the Court also gave guidance on how to apply its decisions in Stone v. Powell and Strickland v. Washington.
References
↑ National Law Journal, pg. 1, February 28, 2011, "Yagman unbowed, but getting on with life"
↑ Jessica Garrison, "L.A. Officials Know To Expect Attorney's Call", L.A. Times, March 22, 2006, p. B1
1 2 Lara Bazelon, "Putting the Mice in Charge of the Cheese: Why Federal Judges Cannot Always be Trusted to Police Themselves and What Congress Can do about It", 97 Kentucky Law Journal pp. 439, 455 & n. 103, 2008-2009.
↑ Lawyers on Trial, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 380-83, 456, 457.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
