Santa Cruz County Crime & Justice Digest

Miguel Solorio, 44, has been exonerated for a murder he didn’t commit, with a judge ordering his release from incarceration after 25 years. Solorio worked with attorneys from the Northern California Innocence Project for his freedom.

Some venues in the San Diego area rely on paying workers under the table in cash, for rates that work out below minimum wage, an investigation by Voice of San Diego has found.

An evaluation of 34 adult prisons in California by the Office of the Inspector General found that 11 provided inadequate medical care and 23 provided adequate care. None were deemed proficient, the top designation.

Capitola law enforcement leaders will restart efforts to form a community policing committee after a previous attempt failed to recruit a representative group of local residents.

One of the few areas the Supreme Court has agreed on in recent years is free speech. Now, the high court will decide if protections extend to a woman who sued after being cited in 2017 for honking 14 times as she drove by a political protest.

Prison Policy Initiative released a new report that delves into the sheer magnitude of criminalization in the U.S., where reliance on incarceration outpaces most of the globe.

The council will receive a report on Rail Trail Segments 10 and 11 as well as an update on the years-long effort to form the Police Chief’s Advisory Committee.

More than 40 states are suing the social media giant. The legal actions allege that Meta has deceived the public about the harms of Facebook and Instagram, which the attorneys general say “exploit and manipulate” children.

The judge's ruling put a renewed spotlight on long-running claims of rampant anti-Black racism at the Fremont plant where all four Tesla models are produced.

As countywide efforts to increase the availability of overdose remedies ramp up, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office Coroner's Unit has been weighed down by a growing backlog of deaths, many related to drug overdoses.

Survivors who were sexually assaulted while imprisoned got an audience at the state Capitol, sharing their stories while testifying at a California Legislative Women’s Caucus briefing about abuse by staff at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.

Lined up behind City Hall, members of the Scotts Valley Police Department stood “unparalleled in the county,” said Vice Mayor Randy Johnson.

A bipartisan bill would create a state ombudsperson to intervene when public records requests are denied. But an advocacy group is concerned that it will encourage state agencies to go to court.

“It is not lost on me for one second that had I stayed back in Iran, I wouldn’t even have the right to think about becoming a judge,” Judge Leila Sayar said.

Attila Colar went to prison for lying to the government. After California gave him another contract as a provider in a rehabilitation program, a federal jury convicted him of fraud for using the personal information of Bay Area parolees and others to collect government COVID funds.

In rapid-fire votes in suspense file hearings, lawmakers determined the fate of hundreds of bills on crime, transgender students and more.

The federal judge monitoring medical care in the Monterey County Jail repeatedly scolded the health care provider in a recent hearing over the size of fines it will have to pay for persistently poor performance.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has closed two state prisons and he has plans to shut two more by 2025. A new contract for correctional officers offers new perks to the guards who stay.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced that Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Erika Ziegenhorn will fill the vacancy left when long-time Judge Paul Burdick retired in late July.

San Francisco isn’t going to take last week’s robotaxi decision by the California Public Utilities Commission lying down. Joined by the city's transit authority board, fire department and board of supervisors, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed motions on Wednesday to halt the unrestricted expansion of autonomous vehicles for commercial use.

A state appellate panel has set aside a lower court's ruling favoring a local group’s clean syringe distribution efforts.

As the California Legislature reconvenes for the final five weeks of its session, the leader of the Assembly Public Safety Committee is under the spotlight. But Reggie Jones-Sawyer isn’t backing down.

Recent media attention to the thefts has given Lumen Gallery owner Cierra Ryczek positive opportunities to speak to community members about her intentions in hanging the flag.

After months of back-and-forth, a superior court judge denied requests to release a sexually violent predator from a state hospital without a designated address.

Locally elected sheriffs manage California jails and are responsible for the safety of the inmates they hold. Record deaths in San Diego’s jail are shaping a plan for new statewide oversight.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to make prisons a friendlier place for inmate families. An updated strip-search policy has some worried that families will face intrusive encounters during their visits.

Two recent reports on sexual harassment complaints filed against Cal State employees conclude inconsistent data collection makes it difficult to determine a reliable number.

The Biden administration’s app rule makes it harder for migrants to assert a right to asylum, advocates say. Lawsuits are sparking debate about immigration control, safety.

Just over a month after the community gathered to restore a street art project with the help of the vandals convicted of damaging it, the downtown Black Lives Matter mural was defaced once again.

Thousands of Californians died from opioid overdoses in 2021. In response, many communities are making it easier to obtain life-saving overdose reversal drugs while some families are calling for tougher criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers.

California’s experimental new program targets methamphetamine addiction by rewarding patients with gift cards for negative drug tests.

Thirteen Republican state attorneys general have sent a cautionary letter to the CEOs of the 100 largest U.S. companies, highlighting the potential legal ramifications of using race as a factor in employment practices.