🚨Jason Lee is no longer Stockton’s Vice Mayor after an unusual sequence at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. Lee attempted to resign from the Vice Mayor position, but the council did not accept that route. A substitute motion that would have allowed him to resign failed in a 4 to 3 vote. The council then voted 4 to 2 to remove him from the Vice Mayor title instead. Lee did not participate in that removal vote. The council also voted 6 to 1 to remove Lee from the city’s Audit Committee, with Lee casting the only vote against that action. So instead of leaving the Vice Mayor role through resignation, Lee was formally removed by the council. He does, however, remain a member of the Stockton City Council. Source: kcra.com/article/stockton-ja…

🚨Judge Beth Bloom has GRANTEDin part and DENIED in Desiree Perez’s motion for sanctions against Demoree Hadley, originally filed on June 30, 2026, over allegations that Demoree intentionally destroyed evidence relevant to the litigation. Perez had requested that the court dismiss Demoree’s remaining claims against her or, alternatively, issue an adverse inference jury instruction concerning alleged destroyed evidence. In her motion, Perez accused Demoree of intentionally deleting or destroying evidence, including iCloud account information, text messages, WhatsApp conversations, approximately 130,000 photographs and videos, and an alleged listening device that Demoree claimed to have discovered. Perez argued that Demoree destroyed this material while contemplating litigation and that the missing evidence was directly relevant to Perez’s ability to defend herself against the allegations, particularly the wiretapping claims. Judge Bloom noted that Demoree did not file a response opposing the sanctions motion. The judge relied heavily on Demoree’s own deposition testimony concerning what happened to the evidence. Regarding her iCloud account, Demoree testified: “I went in person to Apple and I made sure that my account before this lawsuit was filed was cleared. So, I made sure everything was deleted. I made sure that Mrs. Perez could not get access to my phone illegally anymore.” Demoree also testified that after being released from LifeSkills in April 2024, she deleted messages from her phone, including approximately 130,000 photographs and videos, keeping certain photographs of her grandparents. She explained that she deleted material to free up storage space and provided her attorney with whatever she believed was relevant to the case. As for the alleged listening device, Demoree testified that she threw it away because she had too much other evidence. Judge Bloom concluded that Perez established the necessary elements of spoliation, finding that the evidence previously existed, Demoree knew or should have known she had a duty to preserve it, and the missing evidence was important to Perez’s defense. The judge concluded: “Therefore, spoliation exists, warranting sanctions.” However, Judge Bloom declined Perez’s request to dismiss Demoree’s remaining claims, explaining: “The Court does not agree that the severe sanction of dismissal is appropriate.” Instead, Judge Bloom determined that an adverse inference jury instruction was the appropriate remedy to address the prejudice to Perez. This is significant because the judge selected a mandatory but rebuttable presumption. Under that instruction, the jury must presume that the destroyed electronic evidence and alleged listening device were relevant and favorable to Perez and unfavorable to Demoree. BUT, and this is an important distinction, Judge Bloom expressly stated that Demoree can rebut that presumption through her presentation of evidence. In other words, if the affected claims proceed to trial, jurors will begin with the presumption that the destroyed evidence would have supported Perez’s defense. However, Demoree will still have an opportunity to present other evidence challenging that presumption. The instruction does not automatically establish that Perez is correct about the underlying allegations or that Demoree loses her remaining claims. Ultimately, Judge Bloom granted Perez’s request for an adverse inference instruction but denied her request for the much harsher sanction of dismissing Demoree’s remaining claims Order: drive.google.com/file/d/1WMo…