Breaking News
Yagman Back in Office, Time in Custody Nets New Client
by Tibby Rothman
June 26, 2006—If law enforcement agencies believe that the recent indictment of high-profile civil rights attorney Steve Yagman will slow the lawyer down, they may be incorrect.
Yagman—who holds a successful record litigating police brutality cases on behalf of victims and is also known for his blistering dismissals of powers-that-be—was briefly jailed on Friday, June 23 on federal charges related to tax evasion and fraud.
According to Yagman, he used his time in a cell at the US Marshals Federal Holding Facility productively. He gained a new client and discovered a new type of “over-detention.”
Over-detention is a means by which law enforcement agencies hold prisoners beyond their sentences. In this instance, Yagman alleged that law enforcement had held a prisoner in the Los Angeles County Jail rather than transfer him to Federal custody in a timely manner. Conditions at Los Angeles County Jail are said to be much harsher than those in federal facilities: as such it would be punitive to leave a prisoner in LA County.
Yagman told VenicePaper that his own few hours in custody were illuminating because he witnessed the experience of others who were under law enforcement custody and saw “how unnecessarily harshly they treat people who are just poor wretched people.”
The attorney’s practice is based in Venice where he has been a fixture in a Boardwalk office building known for the quality of the lawyers who work within it and the landmark cases they have participated in.
Yagman has previously opposed in court two agencies who are currently involved in prosecuting him—the FBI and the IRS. Yagman was appointed as a special prosecutor the Ruby Ridge case in the 1990s--the case involved the shooting of a 'survivalist' by the FBI.
According to a Los Angeles Times story on June 24, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles "vehemently denied" that the case was due to retribution.
More recently, Yagman sought class-action status on behalf of the detainees of the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay in a suit related to the alleged violation of their civil rights.
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