Federal immigration authorities removed a Maryland father to El Salvador on Tuesday despite two court orders saying not to.During an emergency hearing Thursday at federal court in Baltimore, a federal judge examined what happened to Jose Serrano-Maldonado.Federal authorities admitted they made a mistake, conceding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated court orders filed in the system, even with a banner in Serrano-Maldonado’s file that said, “Do not remove.”But the feds couldn’t say why they did it anyway.The judge called this a very bad situation and demanded to know, in writing, exactly who took what steps, when and why.Serrano-Maldonado’s immigration attorney, Anna Alyssa Tijerina, is fighting for his immediate return to the United States, telling the judge that her client’s life is in danger.”He told me he is going to try and remain in his house as much as possible until this is resolved. He told me he wants to come back to the United States, even if it’s back to the detention center,” Tijerina told sister station WBAL-TV.Assistant U.S. Attorney Beatrice Thomas offered no comment outside the court when asked questions by WBAL. In court, Thomas told the judge that the government is working to fly Serrano-Maldonado back on “ICE Air” but that there’s a lot of red tape and it could take many days.The judge ordered status updates to be filed daily until Serrano-Maldonado is returned to the U.S. It’s unlikely that those daily status updates will be accessible publicly because the government said it plans to file the updates under preliminary seal.”I can’t imagine being in (the family’s) position of knowing, not knowing. At least, ‘There’s no new update today,’ is an update, right? They know something, they know that nothing was done today, but something will be done tomorrow,” Tijerina told WBAL. “For the sake of my client, for the sake of my client’s life in El Salvador, and for the sake of his family, I hope that this gets resolved quickly.”Thursday’s hearing was the first of three immigration hearings for this sole judge in the single courtroom on just one day.
Federal immigration authorities removed a Maryland father to El Salvador on Tuesday despite two court orders saying not to.
During an emergency hearing Thursday at federal court in Baltimore, a federal judge examined what happened to Jose Serrano-Maldonado.
Federal authorities admitted they made a mistake, conceding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated court orders filed in the system, even with a banner in Serrano-Maldonado’s file that said, “Do not remove.”
But the feds couldn’t say why they did it anyway.
The judge called this a very bad situation and demanded to know, in writing, exactly who took what steps, when and why.
Serrano-Maldonado’s immigration attorney, Anna Alyssa Tijerina, is fighting for his immediate return to the United States, telling the judge that her client’s life is in danger.
“He told me he is going to try and remain in his house as much as possible until this is resolved. He told me he wants to come back to the United States, even if it’s back to the detention center,” Tijerina told sister station WBAL-TV.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Beatrice Thomas offered no comment outside the court when asked questions by WBAL. In court, Thomas told the judge that the government is working to fly Serrano-Maldonado back on “ICE Air” but that there’s a lot of red tape and it could take many days.
The judge ordered status updates to be filed daily until Serrano-Maldonado is returned to the U.S. It’s unlikely that those daily status updates will be accessible publicly because the government said it plans to file the updates under preliminary seal.
“I can’t imagine being in (the family’s) position of knowing, not knowing. At least, ‘There’s no new update today,’ is an update, right? They know something, they know that nothing was done today, but something will be done tomorrow,” Tijerina told WBAL. “For the sake of my client, for the sake of my client’s life in El Salvador, and for the sake of his family, I hope that this gets resolved quickly.”
Thursday’s hearing was the first of three immigration hearings for this sole judge in the single courtroom on just one day.
OXNARD — A father who has become the sole caretaker for his two young children after his wife was deported. A school district seeing absenteeism similar to what it experienced during the pandemic. Businesses struggling because customers are scared to go outside.
These are just a sampling of how this part of Ventura County is reckoning with the aftermath of federal immigration raids on Glass House cannabis farms six months ago, when hundreds of workers were detained and families split apart. In some instances, there is still uncertainty about what happened to minors left behind after one or both parents were deported. Now, while Latino households gather for the holidays, businesses and restaurants are largely quiet as anxiety about more Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids lingers.
“There’s a lot of fear that the community is living,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center. This time of year, clients usually ask her about her holiday plans, but now no one asks. Families are divided by the U.S. border or have loved ones in immigration detainment. “They were ready for Christmas, to make tamales, to make pozole, to make something and celebrate with the family. And now, nothing.”
At the time, the immigration raids on Glass House Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria were some of the largest of their kind nationwide, resulting in chaotic scenes, confusion and violence. At least 361 undocumented immigrants were detained, many of them third-party contractors for Glass House. One of those contractors, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell from a greenhouse rooftop in the July 10 raid.
Jacqueline Rodriguez, in mirror, works on a customer’s hair as Silvia Lopez, left, owner of Divine Hair Design, waits for customers in downtown Oxnard on Dec. 19, 2025.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The raids catalyzed mass protests along the Central Coast and sent a chill through Oxnard, a tight-knit community where many families work in the surrounding fields and live in multigenerational homes far more modest than many on the Ventura coast. It also reignited fears about how farmworker communities — often among the most low-paid and vulnerable parts of the labor pool — would be targeted during the Trump administration’s intense deportation campaign.
In California, undocumented workers represent nearly 60% of the agricultural workforce, and many of them live in mixed-immigration-status households or households where none are citizens, said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. After the Glass House raid, Padilla and UC Merced associate professor Edward Flores identified economic trends similar to the Great Recession, when private-sector jobs fell. Although undocumented workers contribute to state and federal taxes, they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits that could lessen the blow of job loss after a family member gets detained.
“These are households that have been more affected by the economic consequences than any other group,” Padilla said. She added that California should consider distributing “replacement funds” for workers and families that have lost income because of immigration enforcement activity.
An Oxnard store owner who sells quinceañera and baptism dresses — and who asked that her name not be used — says she has lost 60% of her business since the immigrant raids this year at Glass House farms.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Local businesses are feeling the effects as well. Silvia Lopez, who has run Divine Hair Design in downtown Oxnard for 16 years, said she’s lost as much as 75% of business after the July raid. The salon usually saw 40 clients a day, she said, but on the day after the raid, it had only two clients — and four stylists who were stunned. Already, she said, other salon owners have had to close, and she cut back her own hours to help her remaining stylists make enough each month.
“Everything changed for everyone,” she said.
In another part of town, a store owner who sells quinceañera and baptism dresses said her sales have dropped by 60% every month since August, and clients have postponed shopping. A car shop owner, who declined to be identified because he fears government retribution, said he supported President Trump because of his campaign pledge to help small-business owners like himself. But federal loans have been difficult to access, he said, and he feels betrayed by the president’s deportation campaign that has targeted communities such as Oxnard.
“There’s a lot of fear that the community is living,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center in downtown Oxnard, on Dec. 19, 2025.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“Glass House had a big impact,” he said. “It made people realize, ‘Oh s—, they’re hitting us hard.’ ”
The raid’s domino effect has raised concerns about the welfare of children in affected households. Immigration enforcement actions can have detrimental effects on young children, according to the American Immigration Council, and they can be at risk of experiencing severe psychological distress.
Olivia Lopez, a community organizer at Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, highlighted the predicament of one father. He became the sole caretaker of his infant and 4-year-old son after his wife was deported, and can’t afford child care. He is considering sending the children across the border to his wife in Mexico, who misses her kids.
In a separate situation, Lopez said, an 18-year-old has been suddenly thrust into caring for two siblings after her mother, a single parent, was deported.
Additionally, she said she has heard stories of children left behind, including a 16-year-old who does not want to leave the U.S. and reunite with her mother who was deported after the Glass House raid. She said she suspects that at least 50 families — and as many as 100 children — lost both or their only parent in the raid.
“I have questions after hearing all the stories: Where are the children, in cases where two parents, those responsible for the children, were deported? Where are those children?” she said. “How did we get to this point?”
Robin Godfrey, public information officer for the Ventura County Human Services Agency, which is responsible for overseeing child welfare in the county, said she could not answer specific questions about whether the agency has become aware of minors left behind after parents were detained.
“Federal and state laws prevent us from confirming or denying if children from Glass House Farms families came into the child welfare system,” she said in a statement.
The raid has been jarring in the Oxnard School District, which was closed for summer vacation but reopened on July 10 to contact families and ensure their well-being, Supt. Ana DeGenna said. Her staff called all 13,000 families in the district to ask whether they needed resources and whether they wanted access to virtual classes for the upcoming school year.
Even before the July 10 raid, DeGenna and her staff were preparing. In January, after Trump was inaugurated, the district sped up installing doorbells at every school site in case immigration agents attempted to enter. They referred families to organizations that would help them draft affidavits so their U.S.-born children could have legal guardians, in case the parents were deported. They asked parents to submit not just one or two, but as many as 10 emergency contacts in case they don’t show up to pick up their children.
Rodrigo is considering moving back to Mexico after living in the U.S. for 42 years.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
With a district that is 92% Latino, she said, nearly everyone is fearful, whether they are directly or indirectly affected, regardless if they have citizenship. Some families have self-deported, leaving the country, while children have changed households to continue their schooling. Nearly every morning, as raids continue in the region, she fields calls about sightings of ICE vehicles near schools. When that happens, she said, she knows attendance will be depressed to near COVID-19 levels for those surrounding schools, with parents afraid to send their children back to the classroom.
But unlike the pandemic, there is no relief in knowing they’ve experienced the worst, such as the Glass House raid, which saw hundreds of families affected in just a day, she said. The need for mental health counselors and support has only grown.
“We have to be there to protect them and take care of them, but we have to acknowledge it’s a reality they’re living through,” she said. “We can’t stop the learning, we can’t stop the education, because we also know that is the most important thing that’s going to help them in the future to potentially avoid being victimized in any way.”
Jasmine Cruz, 21, launched a GoFundMe page after her father was taken during the Glass House raid. He remains in detention in Arizona, and the family hired an immigration attorney in hopes of getting him released.
Each month, she said, it gets harder to pay off their rent and utility bills. She managed to raise about $2,700 through GoFundMe, which didn’t fully cover a month of rent. Her mother is considering moving the family back to Mexico if her father is deported, Cruz said.
“I tried telling my mom we should stay here,” she said. “But she said it’s too much for us without our dad.”
Many of the families torn apart by the Glass House raid did not have plans in place, said Lopez, the community organizer, and some families were resistant because they believed they wouldn’t be affected. But after the raid, she received calls from several families who wanted to know whether they could get family affidavit forms notarized. One notary, she said, spent 10 hours working with families for free, including some former Glass House workers who evaded the raid.
“The way I always explain it is, look, everything that is being done by this government agency, you can’t control,” she said. “But what you can control is having peace of mind knowing you did something to protect your children and you didn’t leave them unprotected.”
For many undocumented immigrants, the choices are few.
Rodrigo, who is undocumented and worries about ICE reprisals, has made his living with his guitar, which he has been playing since he was 17.
While taking a break outside a downtown Oxnard restaurant, he looked tired, wiping his forehead after serenading a pair, a couple and a group at a Mexican restaurant. He has been in the U.S. for 42 years, but since the summer raid, business has been slow. Now, people no longer want to hire for house parties.
The 77-year-old said he wants to retire but has to continue working. But he fears getting picked up at random, based on how abusive agents have been. He’s thinking about the new year, and returning to Mexico on his own accord.
“Before they take away my guitar,” he said, “I better go.”
The Times spoke to several therapists, social workers, researchers and organizations serving Thai and Asian Americans to examine how treatment and recovery can be tailored toward their needs. These recommendations emerged: addressing a client’s practical needs, involving family and community in their care and practicing mindfulness in the context of community.
Addressing clients’ practical needs first
Gordon Hall, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Oregon, explained that Asian Americans have high dropout rates after going to therapy. Helping them solve practical problems can be a way to keep them engaged.
“[Some therapists] may spend the first three weeks on [a client’s] thoughts and feelings, and maybe that will eventually get to the person’s practical problems,” Hall said. “But for many Asian Americans, they may think: What do my thoughts and feelings have to do with this conflict I’m having with my mom, or this issue with my boss about asking for a raise?”
Natyra Na Takuathung, a case manager at Asian Pacific Counseling & Treatment Centers, works with psychiatric social worker Wanda Pathomrit to help clients, many of whom are Thai immigrants, apply for social benefits. Pathomrit meets with clients to understand their mental health anxieties, and Na Takuathung can help them apply for programs like CalFresh or CalWorks.
Pathomrit explained that she integrates case management into her therapy sessions because many clients with depression, trauma or avoidance behaviors may struggle to maintain relationships with case managers or follow through on referrals. Instead of separating the roles, she uses real-world situations — navigating the Department of Public Social Services or substance treatment centers — as opportunities to build coping skills, practice emotional regulation and foster self-compassion.
“By coaching in the moment, I help clients grow confidence and self-esteem while accessing services,” Pathomrit said. “For high-need, high-risk cases, this intensive approach is not ‘extra’ — it’s critical for progress.”
But some clients are hesitant to accept help, explained Na Takuathung, because they believe they will “burden” society by doing so.
“They had this idea that if they did not ask for public benefits, then they were ‘good immigrants,’” Na Takuathung said. “They would think it’s better that they struggled and made their own money, and even if it wasn’t enough, they would just struggle in silence.”
The choice is ultimately up to them, Na Takuathung said. But she explains how these programs can relieve some of their stress, reminding them that they do not have to feel guilty.
“You’ve been living in this country. You contributed to this country, too,” Na Takuathung said. “You deserve kindness.”
Involving family in care
In a study examining culturally competent treatments for Asian Americans, Hall and co-author Janie Hong explain that Western-based approaches tend to emphasize individualism and personal reflection.
“You go in, you have to talk about your problems, you have to verbalize what’s going on inside to a stranger within 50 minutes, and that healing happens through this vocalization of your internal experiences,” said Hong, a clinical associate professor at Stanford Medicine.
In contrast, many Asian communities are rooted in collectivist cultures, where identity and wellness are deeply intertwined with family and group harmony.
“If you’re in a community where everyone’s supposed to be taking care of you and you’re supposed to be taking care of them, if you have a problem, that implicates your whole group,” Hall said. “Approaches that are very focused on the individual … may deter Asian Americans from seeking treatment.”
As the chief clinical officer of Richmond Area Multi-Services, one of the country’s first agencies addressing Asian American and Pacific Islander communities’ needs for culturally competent services, Christina Shea has observed the value of involving family members in a person’s care.
“If you work with [a client] in the Western psychology, it helps because that’s one unit,” Shea said. “But if you work with, say, somebody from Southeast Asia [and] you work with one individual, that’s not enough. That’s not a unit, because that person is connected with the family.”
Phramaha Dusit Sawaengwong sees these dynamics frequently as a monk at Wat Thai of Los Angeles. He commonly observes conflict when immigrant parents’ high hopes and expectations clash with their children’s own career aspirations.
Phramaha Dusit Sawaengwong, monk and secretary, stands inside the temple at Wat Thai of Los Angeles.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Language barriers can exacerbate the disagreement. A common Thai word used to describe suffering is hua òk ja tàek, which means that one’s chest (heart area) is about to shatter. But parents with limited English may have difficulty conveying this sentiment to their child.
“[They] want to say something, but [they] don’t know how to say it,” he said.
Since parents often visit him at the temple for counseling help, he advises them to let their child absorb all the different opportunities available to them and to let them bloom.
“Don’t expect … just let them learn,” Sawaengwong said.
Support can extend beyond family.
Danielle Ung, a counseling and health psychology assistant professor at Bastyr University, is examining the mental health toll on Southeast Asian students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. She works with patients to identify communities where they can receive support, viewing community as “concentric circles that surround that person.”
“Community can mean friends, extended families, adopted families, even the community which you live in,” Ung said.
Pam Evagee and Ta Sanalak are volunteer teachers at Wat Thai temple who coordinate Thai-language lessons and cultural programs to foster communication and understanding between family members. They ask parents to understand how living in the U.S. can influence their child’s beliefs while explaining to the student the importance of learning traditional customs because of where their parents grew up.
“We understand the parent because we are Thai, and we understand the kid because we’ve lived here [in the U.S.] for quite some time,” Sanalak said.
Families can also support each other at Wat Thai.
Some kids may be the only Thai student at their school, explained Evagee. At the temple, they can form friendships with other Thai students who understand their challenges. And many parents will cook meals together at the temple for their children while sharing advice on handling conflicts within families.
Mindfulness is a core tenet of Buddhism. According to the Pew Research Center, 90% of adults in Thailand identify as Buddhist, and many Thai Americans continue to practice the religion.
According to Hall, many Western therapies incorporate mindfulness, but the focus remains on the individual, whereas Eastern-based mindfulness practices account for the self within a community.
“There’s what’s called loving kindness meditation, where you focus on someone who’s done something for you,” Hall said. “You might meditate on your mother to the extent that she’s taken care of you, the gratitude you have for [her] and what you [owe] her.”
Buddhist monk Phiphop Phuphong frequently employs this approach when visiting people who are ill or hospitalized.
A diabetic man who had his leg amputated expressed deep grief over the loss and shame at “becoming a burden,” feeling dependent on his mother and sister. Phuphong guided him through mindfulness exercises to help him find peace with his new reality while encouraging him to stay strong for his mother’s and sister’s sake.
“Your body is your present,” Phuphong said through an interpreter. “Bring your mind back to your home.”
Health policies and training have come a long way
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health has services to reach underserved communities. It supports cultural competency through translation and interpreting services, culturally and linguistically inclusive services and bilingual bonuses for employees. But language is just the start.
“We’re trying to cover all of our bases, but I do think there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Dr. Lisa Wong, who heads the department. “And I don’t think we’re going to make a huge amount of progress until we bring a more diverse workforce into mental health.”
Wong added that it is difficult to recruit clinical professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds because many new immigrants and their children choose higher-earning professions rather than mental health fields.
In addition, much of the training and education for practitioners are still based on Western concepts of mental health and recovery. Many evidence-based models were developed from research on predominantly Eurocentric populations, explained Carl Highshaw, executive director of the National Assn. of Social Workers’ California chapter.
“While these models have value, they often fail to capture the realities of immigrant and collectivist cultures,” Highshaw said. “We need to adapt and co-create interventions that honor cultural traditions, family systems and community networks.”
Hong appreciates that many therapists are now acknowledging clients’ cultural context. Equally important, she said, is finding methods that do not stereotype.
“Not all Asian Americans are going to respond to a problem-solving approach, and not all Asian Americans are collectivist or interdependent,” Hall added. “[Some] may really want the mainstream cognitive behavioral approach. They want to talk about their thoughts and feelings, and that may actually help them.”
Approaches that have worked for the Thai community and for Asian Americans can work for other communities too, Hall said.
For Highshaw, cultural competence is “not optional,” especially in a diverse state like California.
“Moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach,” he said. “Ensuring that interventions reflect the lived experiences, values and strengths of the communities we serve … is an ethical responsibility.”
Interpreter Supakit Art Pattarateranon contributed to this report.
L.A. County supervisors have unanimously approved an $828-million settlement for alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse, finalizing the deal while questions mount over the legitimacy of some claims in a separate multibillion-dollar payout that they agreed to this spring.
The settlement approved Tuesday brings the county’s spending on sex abuse litigation this year to nearly $5 billion, with the bulk of that total coming from a $4-billion deal made in April to resolve thousands of claims filed by people who said they were abused decades ago in county-run juvenile detention centers and foster homes.
The latest settlement involves similar claims brought by 414 clients of three law firms who opted to negotiate separately from the rest. The $4-billion settlement initially covered roughly 6,800 claims, but has ballooned to more than 11,000.
The larger settlement has come under scrutiny after The Times found nine people who said they were paid to sue. Four said they were told to fabricate the claims. All had lawsuits filed by Downtown LA Law Group, which represents more than 2,700 clients in the first settlement.
The firm has denied paying clients to sue and said it has “systems in place to help weed out false or exaggerated allegations.” The firm has asked the court to dismiss three claims on behalf of allegedly fraudulent plaintiffs this month.
Downtown LA Law Group will be required to detail any claims that came to it through recruiters, the county’s top attorney said Tuesday. The firm has denied any wrongdoing.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
The settlement approved Tuesday involves cases only from Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Team, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, and Panish Shea Ravipudi and has no cases from DTLA. But the firm nevertheless took center stage Tuesday as the supervisors pressed their top attorney on how the lawsuits were vetted.
“What were we doing prior to this article?” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, referencing The Times’ reporting from earlier this month.
The county was in a tough spot, county counsel Dawyn Harrison explained. Many plaintiff attorneys didn’t want the county interviewing their clients, she said. And a judge had temporarily paused the discovery process, providing the county little insight into the identities of the thousands of people suing.
Harrison said Tuesday that DTLA cases now will be required to go through a “completely new level of review” beyond the standard vetting that was already underway by retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Louis Meisinger. In addition to having a new retired Superior Court judge vet all their cases, DTLA must provide the county with information on plaintiffs acquired through “a recruiter or vendor,” she said.
“DTLA is required to identify every recruiter it used, a list of each plaintiff brought in per recruiter, information about any funds that changed hands, and a declaration under oath by each recruiter identifying what was done, what was said, and any monies paid,” Harrison said.
It’s an unusual request.
California law bans a practice known as capping, in which non-attorneys directly solicit or procure clients to sign up for lawsuits with a law firm.
DTLA has denied knowledge of any of its clients receiving payments to sue and said the firm wants “justice for real victims” of sexual abuse.
“If we ever became aware that anyone associated with us, in any capacity, did such a thing, we would end our relationship with them immediately,” the firm said.
The rush of lawsuits was kicked off by a now-controversial bill known as AB 218, which changed the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse and created a new window to sue. The county, which is responsible for the safety of children inside juvenile carceral facilities and foster care, has seen more than 12,000 claims and counting since the law took effect in 2020.
The allegations of fraud that now hover over these cases was the fault of “an unmanageable law,” not the county’s vetting process, Harrison said.
“AB 218 erased those guardrails and allowed decades-old claims that no one can meaningfully vet,” she said.
The county’s lawyers and politicians have become increasingly loud critics of the law, which they say has left them facing a deluge of decades-old claims with no records. Supervisor Hilda Solis said she felt the county had become the “guinea pig” for the bill.
Joe Nicchitta, the county’s acting chief executive officer, estimated that anywhere between $1 billion to $2 billion in county taxpayer money from the settlements will go to attorneys.
“The law had some very noble intentions but it has been … and I’m just going to say what I think, hijacked by the plaintiff’s bar,” he said. “They do all of the vetting, they do all of the intake, they advertise extensively. They’re incentivized to bring as many cases as possible.”
Nicchitta said he’d heard rumors that venture capitalists were poking around Sacramento to find out “whether or not we have enough cash to pay for another settlement, so that they can finance a law firm to bring another round of settlements against us.”
“It’s clear to me the system is ruptured,” he said.
Courtney Thom, who was the lead attorney on cases from Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, said she believed the county was blaming the new state law for the failures of its own lawyers.
“To blame AB 218 and say that’s what enabled the fraud is just a pathetic attempt to deflect responsibility,” Thom said. “Our firm has been saying for two years we’re concerned about fraud.”
Mike Arias, who represents clients in the latest settlement as a partner with Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Team, said the three firms involved stopped adding clients more than a year ago.
“That’s a big distinction,” Arias said. “We said, at the time, the number of plaintiffs would not change. Ethically, my view was that’s who we represent and who we’re going to negotiate for.”
Arias said the allocation for the second settlement will be done by retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler, who specializes in overseeing sexual abuse litigation. Potential payouts will range between $750,000 and $3.25 million, he said.
Victims say the money represents a sliver of justice for the abuse they say they suffered while confined in county custody — little of which has been criminally prosecuted.
One man, who is part of the settlement and asked not to be identified, said he has no idea what happened to the probation official who he alleges raped him at around 16 while he was asleep in his cell at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, knocked out on sleep medication.
“I had no control in that place,” said the man, now 34. “My body hasn’t ever felt the same since.”
The county has launched an “AB 218 fraud hotline” where tipsters can report misconduct related to the flood of sex abuse claims.
(Rebecca Ellis / Los Angeles Times)
The county recently launched an “AB 218 fraud hotline” where tipsters can report misconduct related to the flood of claims. The county says it also plans to start a hotline for victims to safely report allegations of sex abuse in its facilities.
“It is illegal for anyone to file, pay for, or receive payments for making fake claims of childhood sexual abuse,” states a banner now running atop the county website with a hand doling out hundred-dollar bills.
The county also has launched a website that asks people to report if they were offered cash to sue, which law firms were involved, and whether they were coached, among other questions.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose district includes the South Central social services office where seven people told The Times they were paid to sue, said she wanted to see the hotlines advertised as aggressively as the plaintiff attorneys advertised for their cases.
“You couldn’t turn on an urban radio station without hearing a commercial advertising these cases,” Mitchell said. “I certainly hope whatever we use, as we talk about our outreach, that we lean in as hard.”
When jurors returned to a West L.A. courtroom to deliver their verdict in a child sex abuse case earlier this month, one key person was missing: the defendant.
John Kaleel — a veteran piano teacher who has given lessons to the families of several Hollywood power players — faced allegations that he sexually abused one of his students in 2013.
Kaleel, 69, pleaded no contest in 2016 to committing a lewd act with a teenage student, but later fought to have the plea overturned after realizing the felony conviction would be grounds for deportation to his native Australia. L.A. County prosecutors then retried him and, while the case was pending, he was released on his own recognizance.
On Oct. 8 — the same day jurors in the Airport Courthouse found him guilty of five counts of sexual abuse — Kaleel slipped out of the country, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and court records.
The Sheriff’s Department did not say where they believed Kaleel had fled to. Court records show prosecutors filed an application to seek an “Extradition/Fugitive Hardcopy Warrant,” but it contained no details about how he absconded and a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to answer questions.
Kaleel’s attorney, Kate Hardie, said she last saw her client when she drove him home from court on Oct. 7, the day before the verdict was handed down, and has had no contact with him since. Kaleel has been a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. since the 1980s, according to Hardie. Attempts by The Times to contact Kaleel were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to discuss what steps it would take to get Kaleel back in custody in Los Angeles. Hardie said her client faces at least a decade in state prison at sentencing.
Hardie accused the district attorney’s office of carrying out a “vindictive prosecution” against Kaleel, who had already served a year in jail and spent time in a federal immigration detention center after his original plea deal.
Kaleel taught private lessons for more than a quarter-century in L.A., and his clients included “Hollywood industry professionals and students who have pursued successful music careers,” according to his website. The web page boasted testimonials from the creators of critically acclaimed television series, including “Mad Men” and “Orange Is the New Black,” who praised his work with their children.
Emmy-award winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created several famous cartoons, including “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack,” also referred to Kaleel as a “gift,” according to the website.
“I have never seen my three children become more inspired or enthusiastic for anything as much as they did for your piano classes,” Tartakovsky said, according to an earlier version of Kaleel’s business website.
The testimonials disappeared from the website on Monday, after The Times began contacting representatives for those quoted.
Spokespersons for Jenji Kohan, who created “Orange Is the New Black,” and Matthew Weiner, the writer behind “Mad Men,” both denied giving Kaleel any endorsements or the permission to post any comment on his website. A representative for Tartakovsky declined to comment. Court records show Tartakovsky’s wife and one of his children, a former student of Kaleel’s, testified on the teacher’s behalf at trial.
“Mr. Kaleel has always maintained his innocence and that he took his initial plea bargain on the advice of counsel to avoid a harsher sentence should he lose at trial,” Hardie said. “He later learned of the immigration consequences when he was placed in an immigration custody facility for 8 [or] 9 months and faced removal proceedings.”
Hardie argued her client was the victim of a “trial tax,” which references prosecutors often seeking to punish defendants more severely when they don’t take a plea. Hardie also said Sheriff’s Department detectives interviewed many of Kaleel’s students “and found no other student who complained of Kaleel being inappropriate.”
The alleged victim in the case first contacted the Sheriff’s Department in 2015. The boy said he was 15 when Kaleel acted inappropriately by asking “to take measurements of [the victim’s] body parts, including his penis,” according to court records.
Two years later, Kaleel convinced the boy that they should masturbate together while on a FaceTime call because that’s “what friends do,” records show. In September 2013, prosecutors alleged, Kaleel invited the boy over and they smoked marijuana together before having oral sex.
A friend of the victim also testified at trial that Kaleel attempted to engage in sexual conduct with him, but that count was not charged, according to court records. Hardie said her client had no physical contact with that boy.
After Kaleel struck a plea deal, he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and served with a deportation order. He successfully challenged his removal at the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2019, according to his former immigration attorney, Mfon Anthony Ikon.
Ikon said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security then abandoned its attempts to deport Kaleel.
Representatives for ICE and DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, Kaleel convinced a judge to overturn his plea to the initial sex crimes charge on the grounds that he didn’t fully understand the impact it might have on his immigration status, records show.
Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County prosecutor who has tried cases in the area for the last three decades, said it’s rare — but not unprecedented — for defendants to vanish on the eve of a verdict.
“It’s an unusual situation,” he said. “But people’s conduct can be very unpredictable when they’re facing tremendous time in prison.”
Between setting up a nursery and packing a go bag, some parents may find themselves stressing over what to name a new baby. Yes, there is Google and a plethora of baby name books at public libraries. But now, parents have the option of hiring a baby name consultant. Taylor Humphrey of Woodside, California, has been in the industry for a decade and has had a hand in naming thousands of babies. It all started on Instagram. Humphrey said she has had a “lifelong love of baby names,” which turned into posts on her grid exploring the etymology, numerology and spiritual meaning of names. She said expecting parents started sending her messages through the social media app.“It was happening so frequently that eventually I decided that I was going to turn this into a business,” Humphrey said. Her pricing starts at $1,500 and can run up to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on what parents are looking for. The base package includes a name report and several consultations over the phone or video call. “I work with parents who are currently trying to conceive, and they may be facing an IVF journey. I work with a lot of pregnant parents,” Humphrey said. “I’ve had a few frantic parents who are like, ‘We’re at the hospital and they’re not letting us leave. We’ve got to sign the birth certificate. What do we name our baby?’”Her clients are primarily wealthy families. Her reach extends from the Bay Area to Nebraska and even some international clients. Lauren Williams of Omaha, Nebraska, reached out to Humphrey a month before her son was due in 2023. She and her husband both had meaningful family names they were considering, but could not seem to come to an agreement on what to name their son. They thought Humphrey might be able to help them merge ideas. Humphrey did help them come up with some new name combinations as well as some names that were not already on their list, but were similar. Humphrey also told the Williams family to be patient in picking a name.“I think the most helpful or important thing that she told me in the long run was, ‘Do not name your baby until they are born and you see them.’ So, we went with that advice,” Williams said. The Nebraska parents ended up welcoming Carter Allen Williams into the world in September 2023. “Having her support has been important because otherwise it’s a really stressful decision,” Williams said. She and her husband are now expecting a baby girl in the next few weeks and have once again hired Humphrey to help them pick a name. “Generally speaking, I’m there to kind of mirror back to them and reflect what I hear them saying,” Humphrey said. “Names are so deeply personal, and they really are going to be your child’s legacy.”See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SAN FRANCISCO —
Between setting up a nursery and packing a go bag, some parents may find themselves stressing over what to name a new baby.
Yes, there is Google and a plethora of baby name books at public libraries. But now, parents have the option of hiring a baby name consultant. Taylor Humphrey of Woodside, California, has been in the industry for a decade and has had a hand in naming thousands of babies.
It all started on Instagram. Humphrey said she has had a “lifelong love of baby names,” which turned into posts on her grid exploring the etymology, numerology and spiritual meaning of names. She said expecting parents started sending her messages through the social media app.
“It was happening so frequently that eventually I decided that I was going to turn this into a business,” Humphrey said.
Her pricing starts at $1,500 and can run up to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on what parents are looking for. The base package includes a name report and several consultations over the phone or video call.
“I work with parents who are currently trying to conceive, and they may be facing an IVF journey. I work with a lot of pregnant parents,” Humphrey said. “I’ve had a few frantic parents who are like, ‘We’re at the hospital and they’re not letting us leave. We’ve got to sign the birth certificate. What do we name our baby?’”
Her clients are primarily wealthy families. Her reach extends from the Bay Area to Nebraska and even some international clients.
Lauren Williams of Omaha, Nebraska, reached out to Humphrey a month before her son was due in 2023. She and her husband both had meaningful family names they were considering, but could not seem to come to an agreement on what to name their son. They thought Humphrey might be able to help them merge ideas.
Humphrey did help them come up with some new name combinations as well as some names that were not already on their list, but were similar. Humphrey also told the Williams family to be patient in picking a name.
“I think the most helpful or important thing that she told me in the long run was, ‘Do not name your baby until they are born and you see them.’ So, we went with that advice,” Williams said.
The Nebraska parents ended up welcoming Carter Allen Williams into the world in September 2023.
“Having her support has been important because otherwise it’s a really stressful decision,” Williams said.
She and her husband are now expecting a baby girl in the next few weeks and have once again hired Humphrey to help them pick a name.
“Generally speaking, I’m there to kind of mirror back to them and reflect what I hear them saying,” Humphrey said. “Names are so deeply personal, and they really are going to be your child’s legacy.”
A decade ago, Jesus Adan Rico breathed a big sigh of relief. That was when the Chino High School student, a Dreamer, learned an immigration judge had effectively shelved his deportation proceedings. Maria Torres, who came to the U.S. at 2 years old, also had her deportation proceedings paused by an immigration judge because she recently married a U.S. citizen.
Yet just eight weeks ago, Adan Rico — now 29, married with a new child — discovered that the Trump administration had revived his deportation case, even though he has renewed his DACA status at least four times. Torres learned the government wants to bring back her case just as she was preparing for her green card interview.
“No matter what we do, no matter how far we go in school, in our jobs and with our families, it doesn’t matter. It is all hanging by a thread,” he said.
Adan Rico and Torres are among thousands of immigrants who have built lives around the assumption they are safe from being detained and deported. Now they face that threat at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security, which is giving new life to administratively closed cases in a bid to step up immigration enforcement.
Some lawyers have received dozens of motions to recalendar — the first step to reopen old cases. If lawyers don’t succeed in opposing those motions, the immigrants could wind up back in courthouses that in recent months have become a hub for arrests.
“It has been 10 years,” Adan Rico said. “And all of a sudden our lives are on hold again, at the mercy of these people that think I have no right to be here.”
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin, flanked by Madison Sheahan, left, and Todd Lyons, speaks during a news conference at ICE headquarters in May.
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
When asked about the government’s push to restart old proceedings, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin declined to address questions about the administration’s change in policy or respond to attorneys’ complaints about the process. She released a statement similar to others she has offered to the media on immigration inquiries.
“Biden chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including criminals, into the country and used prosecutorial discretion to indefinitely delay their cases and allow them to illegally remain in the United States,” she said. “Now, President Trump and Secretary Noem are following the law and resuming these illegal aliens’ removal proceedings and ensuring their cases are heard by a judge.”
Attorneys handling these proceedings say the government is overwhelming the courts and immigration lawyers by dredging up cases, many of which are a decade or more old. In several of these, clients or their original lawyers have died. In other cases, immigrants have received legal status and were surprised to learn the government was attempting to revive deportation proceedings against them.
Since the 1970s, immigration judges have administratively closed deportation proceedings in order to ease the massive backlog on their dockets and prioritize more urgent cases. The maneuver essentially deferred a case, but didn’t completely dismiss it, giving both the court and the immigrant wiggle room. The idea was that immigrants could pursue other forms of relief such as a hardship waiver or deferred status. The government could reopen the case if needed.
Across the country, immigration attorneys have received a flurry of requests by Homeland Security’s Office of Principal Legal Advisor to revive cases. The motions, attorneys say, appear similar in language, and lack analysis or reference to a change that prompted the decision. In their motions, Trump administration lawyers argue that the targeted immigrants have not been granted green cards and therefore do not have legal status to be here.
The motions urge immigration judges to use their discretion to revive cases and consider whether a person has been detained or the pending application’s “ultimate outcome or likelihood of success.”
What distinguishes immigration proceedings from cases in federal or state courts is that both the lawyers and the judges are part of the executive branch, not the judiciary branch. They answer to Secretary Kristi Noem and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, respectively.
Attorneys and clients are racing against the clock to submit opposition to these motions. Many have become in essence private investigators, tracking down clients they haven’t seen in years. Other attorneys, who have retired, are looking to other immigration attorneys to pick up their client’s case.
“The court is drowning in these motions because we’re trying to resist these,” said David L. Wilson, an immigration attorney at Wilson Law Group in Minneapolis. He first received a batch of 25 government motions at the end of May — and then they kept coming every few weeks. One case involved a client from El Salvador who had been granted Temporary Protected Status, and whose case was administratively closed in 2006.
Adan Rico, a new father who is studying to be an HVAC technician in the Inland Empire, was stunned that the government was seeking to revive deportation proceedings.
The attorney who originally represented him has since died. “If it wasn’t for his daughter calling, I would have never found out my case was reopened,” he said. “The Department of Homeland Security never sent me anything.”
Attorney Patricia M. Corrales speaks at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles office in April.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
His new attorney, Patricia Corrales, said Adan Rico’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status doesn’t come up for renewal until 2027 and it defers deportation proceedings. But Corrales, who has received about a dozen motions, said it appears the government isn’t even checking whether the individuals are alive, much less their immigration status.
One of her cases is that of construction worker Helario Romero Arciniega. Seven years ago, a judge administratively closed deportation proceedings for Romero Arciniega, after he was severely beaten with a metal sprinkler head and had qualified for a visa for crime victims.
This year, government officials filed a motion to bring back the deportation proceedings against the construction worker, even though he had died six months ago.
“They don’t do their homework,” Corrales said of the government lawyers. “They’re very negligent in the manner in which they’re handling these motions to re-calendar.”
Some attorneys have reported delays in their ability to file their opposition motions because the court is so overwhelmed.
When asked about the backlog, Kathryn Mattingly, a spokesperson for the federal immigration court known as the Executive Office for Immigration Review, confirmed that the court “must receive the underlying initial motion before it can accept a response to that motion.”
Some immigrants now in legal limbo were just steps away from finalizing their green card applications.
Maria Torres, an L.A. County resident and mother of two, said she was only 2 years old when she was brought to the U.S. by her family. She grew up undocumented, and when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program became available, applied to gain work authorization.
But in 2019, at 21, she was arrested on suspicion of a misdemeanor DUI, which put her into deportation proceedings. She took the classes and paid her ticket. With deportation proceedings open against her, she was able to get her case closed in 2022 while she sought a visa through her husband, a U.S. citizen.
Her visa was approved, and with just one interview appointment left, Torres felt blindsided when she received a call from her attorney’s office, saying the government wanted to restart deportation proceedings against her.
“I just felt my heart sink and I started crying,” she said. Her attorney submitted a motion opposing the recalendaring of the case, and they are waiting to hear how a judge will rule. In the meantime, she said, she’s hopeful she’ll have her final interview for her approved visa before then.
“People aren’t getting due process,” said attorney Mariela Caravetta. “It’s very unfair to the client because these cases have been sleeping for 10 years.”
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Mariela Caravetta, an immigration attorney in Van Nuys, said that, since early June, about 30 of her clients have been targeted with government motions to reopen their cases.
By law, she has to reply in 10 days. That means she has to track down the client, who may have moved out of state.
“It’s bad faith doing it like that,” said Caravetta, who accused the federal government of flooding the immigration courts in an effort to meet its deportation quotas.
“People aren’t getting due process,” she said. “It’s very unfair to the client because these cases have been sleeping for 10 years.”
Caravetta has convinced some judges to deny the government motions because the clients are seeking ways to legally stay in the country. In a handful of cases, she hasn’t been able to reach her clients.
The government isn’t making an effort to reach out to attorneys to discuss the cases, as is required, she added. “That would save a lot of time for everybody,” she said. Her clients may have U-visas, which give relief to migrants who have been victims of crime and who help investigators or prosecutors. But the government’s motions say, “These people have not done anything to legalize their status, we need a final resolution.”
Matt O’Brien, a former federal immigration judge and deputy executive director of FAIR, which advocates for stricter immigration laws, said the Trump administration is “enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act the way that Congress wrote it.”
He questioned why attorneys are complaining about cases being recalendared, saying “it’s akin to a motion of reopening a case in any other court.”
Yet for many immigrants whose cases are being revived, the risks are high. Judges have discretion to deny motions to reopen cases, and have done so in some situations, attorneys say. But judges have also approved the government’s request if there is no opposition from the immigrant or their attorney.
At that point, cases are put on the calendar. If it gets scheduled, and the immigrants do not show up to court, they could eventually be ruled “in absentia,” which would make them vulnerable to immediate deportation and bar them from entering the country legally for years.
It all fits with the Trump administration’s goal of increasing deportation numbers, say many immigration lawyers and former officials.
“They are getting the largest pool possible of people that they can remove, and removing them from the country,” said Jason Hauser, the former chief of staff of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “And what stands in the way from that is a working due process of an immigration system.”
In April, Sirce E. Owen, acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, issued a memo criticizing the use of administrative closure, referring to it as “a de facto amnesty program with benefits” because it offers work authorization and deportation protections. Owen, a former immigration judge, rescinded previous Biden administration guidance that offered a more proactive approach to administrative closures.
Owen stated that, as of April, about 379,000 cases were still administratively closed in immigration court and cited them as a contributing factor to the court system’s backlog of 4 million cases.
In immigration courts in Los Angeles and San Diego, attorneys are already seeing these cases come before immigration judges. Many clients have expressed shock and despair at being dragged back into court.
Sherman Oaks attorney Edgardo Quintanilla has seen about 40 cases recently, including some dating back to the 2010s. Clients, he said, are alarmed not only by the government’s legal maneuvers but by the prospect of entering a federal building these days.
“There is always the fear that they may be arrested when they go to the court,” he said. “With everything going on, it is a reasonable fear.”
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative,funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to addressCalifornia’s economic divide.
In her entire law career, Sarah McCracken has never seen anything like the email she received on June 25.
McCracken, a tenants’ rights lawyer at Tobener Ravenscroft, is currently representing a Latino family suing a landlord and real estate agent for illegal eviction after being kicked out of their Baldwin Park home last year.
A few weeks after being served, amid a series of ICE raids primarily targeting Latino communities in L.A. County, Rod Fehlman, the lawyer who appeared to be representing the agent at the time, sent McCracken’s team a series of emails disputing the lawsuit and urging them to drop the case.
He ended the correspondence with this: “It is also interesting to note that your clients are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done in regards to immigration in California.”
“It’s racist,” McCracken said. “Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it’s just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens.”
The comment arrived as ICE raises tensions between landlords and Latino tenants. According to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, ICE has been pressuring some landlords to report their tenants’ immigration status.
Bonta’s office issued a consumer alert on Tuesday reminding landlords that “it is illegal in California to discriminate against tenants or to harass or retaliate against a tenant by disclosing their immigration status to law enforcement.”
Fehlman didn’t respond to requests for comment, nor did the clients he seemed to be representing: real estate agent David Benavides and brokerage Majesty One Properties, Inc. Fehlman’s role in the case is unclear; following requests for comment from The Times, Benavides and the brokerage responded to McCracken’s complaint using a different law firm.
But according to McCracken, Fehlman serves as the defendants’ personal attorney and will likely still take part in the lawsuit in an advisory role.
Evicted
From 2018 to 2024, Yicenia Morales rented a two-bedroom condo in Baldwin Park, which she shared with her husband, three children and grandson. According to her wrongful eviction lawsuit filed in May, the house had a slew of problems: faulty electricity, leaks in the bathroom, bad ventilation, and a broken heater, air-conditioning unit and garage door.
“There was a lot that needed to be fixed, but we accepted it because we were just happy to find a place to live,” Morales said.
The real problems started in 2024, when her landlord, Celia Ruiz, started asking the family to leave because she wanted to sell the property, which isn’t a valid reason for eviction under California law or Baldwin Park’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, the suit said.
According to the lawsuit, Ruiz then changed her story, alleging that she wanted to move into the house herself, which would be a valid reason for eviction. According to the suit, Ruiz and her real estate agent, David Benavides of Majesty One Properties, constantly urged Morales and her family to leave.
In September, the pressure mounted. Ruiz penned a handwritten note saying she needed the house back, and Benavides began calling them almost every day, the suit said.
In November, assuming Ruiz needed to move back in, Morales left. But instead of moving in herself, Ruiz put the property on the market in January and sold it by March.
“I really believed she needed the house for herself,” Morales said. “I’m just tired of people taking advantage of others.”
Lawyer tactics
Depending on your interpretation of California’s Business and Professions Code, Fehlman’s comment could be illegal, McCracken said. Section 6103.7 says lawyers can be suspended, disbarred or disciplined if they “report suspected immigration status or threaten to report suspected immigration status of a witness or party to a civil or administrative action.”
In addition, the State Bar of California bans lawyers from threatening to present criminal, administrative or disciplinary charges to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute.
You could argue that Fehlman’s email isn’t a threat. He never said he’d call ICE himself, only claiming that Morales and her family “are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported.”
Morales and her entire family are all U.S. citizens. But she said she feels racially profiled because of her last name.
“It’s not fair for him to take advantage of that,” she said. “I was born here. I have a birth certificate. I pay taxes.”
Just to be safe, Morales sent her birth certificates to McCracken’s team. Even though she’s a citizen, if Fehlman reports her to ICE, she still doesn’t feel safe.
Federal agents have arrested U.S. citizens during its recent raids across L.A, and a 2018 investigation by The Times found that ICE has arrested nearly 1,500 U.S. citizens since 2012, detaining some for years at a time.
“I was already depressed over the eviction. Now I’m hurt, embarrassed and nervous as well. Will he really call ICE on us?” Morales said.
McCracken said Fehlman’s message is a byproduct of the current anti-immigrant political environment. Fehlman sent the email on June 25, the end of a jarring month that saw the agency arrest 2,031 people across seven counties in Southern California, 68% of which had no criminal convictions.
“People seem to be emboldened to flout the law because they see people at the top doing it,” she said. “It’s totally unacceptable behavior.”
An ironic twist, she added, is that Fehlman’s own client at the time was also Latino.
“I don’t know if Benavides was aware that his lawyer is making racially profiling comments, but I don’t think he’d want to work with someone like that,” McCracken said.
The case is still in its early stages. Benavides and Majesty One Properties responded to the complaint on July 17, and McCracken’s team hasn’t officially served the landlord Ruiz yet because they’ve been unable to locate her.
In the wake of the ICE comment, communication between McCracken and Fehlman halted. McCracken decided Fehlman’s rant and possible threat didn’t warrant a response, and Fehlman hasn’t said anything else in the meantime. Her team is still deciding how they want to proceed in the wake of the comment, which could justify legal action.
She called it a dangerous attempt to chill her client’s speech and a failed attempt to intimidate her into dropping the case. But he took it way too far.
“We’re at a point in time where lawyers need to be upholding the rule of law,” she said. “Especially in a time like this.”
If you’ve a business, it’s important to spread the word about it. All you need to do is take the help of an agency. But among so many agencies, how do you choose the one that works for you? The answer may help all the agencies out there. Here are some tips that matter for the businesses and agencies as well to stand apart from the crowded marketplace. ~ Ed.
When you’re setting up a new business, you already know you’re going to be at a bit of a disadvantage because no one knows who you are; therefore, they can’t trust you yet. But even for businesses that have been in the game for a little while, this can actually be an issue for them, too. Yes, you read that right! A great example would be those who run an agency. So, nowadays, it seems as if marketing and creativity agencies (and similar) are just popping up more and more.
In a way, it can feel like everyone is offering the same services. It could be something like social media management, graphic design, content marketing, or website development, the market is oversaturated with options. This alone makes it harder and harder for any one agency to stand out. But there’s one powerful way to distinguish your agency from the rest: trust.
Okay, it’s generic, but at the same time it’s true. Generally speaking, trust takes a long time to build up, but whether you’re running an agency or any other business (regardless of niche), it’s going to be the trust that makes you a go-to choice over your competitors.
Trust is About More Than Just Good Results
Sure, delivering good results is important, but trust goes far beyond that. It’s about building a solid relationship with your clients, making them feel valued, and ensuring they believe you have their best interests at heart. In a market where many agencies offer similar services, trust is what will make your clients stick with you rather than jump ship for the next flashy offer.
When clients trust you, they’re more likely to give you repeat business, recommend you to others, and continue to work with your agency even if other agencies come knocking with lower prices.
While everyone loves a good bargain, they can at least know they’re getting their hard-earned money’s worth when working with you. So, it’s essentially creating a foundation of loyalty that’s hard to break.
Why Transparency Matters
One of the biggest ways to build trust is through transparency. Now, that’s simplistic enough, right? Well, clients want to know exactly what they’re getting into when they sign a contract with you. They want to understand your process, what deliverables to expect, how long things will take, and what the costs will be. So that’s why being upfront about all these things shows that you’re not hiding anything and that you’re in it for the long haul.
Besides, a lack of transparency can quickly destroy trust. Just think about it: if a project takes longer than expected or you need to increase the budget, and the client doesn’t find out until the last minute, they’re going to feel blindsided. If you were in their shoes, you wouldn’t be happier about it either, right?
But here’s the thing: if you’re honest from the beginning and communicate any changes as soon as possible, clients will be much more likely to understand and stay with you.
Building Consistency is Key
While yes, by all means, you’re going to need transparency, it’s not only about that either. It’s also about being consistent. When clients see that you consistently deliver on what you promise, they start to trust you more deeply. This means delivering high-quality work on time, keeping communication lines open, and making sure there are no surprises along the way.
Overall, consistency is the backbone of reliability. Clients need to know that they can count on you to get the job done well and without a headache. When they see that you’re dependable time and time again, their trust in your agency grows stronger.
Stay Honest When Things Go Wrong
Okay, so it’s best to just go ahead and face it—things don’t always go as planned. It’s okay, we’re all human. Maybe a deadline is missed, or a project doesn’t turn out the way the client envisioned. But these moments, when things go wrong, are often when trust is built the most. It’s how you handle problems that sets you apart. Again, you’re human, so some mistakes are fine.
So, being honest and upfront when issues arise shows that your agency is trustworthy. Clients respect honesty, and they’re more likely to stick with an agency that owns up to its mistakes and works to make things right. So, trying to cover up mistakes or passing the blame can quickly erode trust, but working together to find a solution shows integrity.
Why Communication is the Foundation of Trust
So earlier, it was mentioned that its hard to break a foundation of loyalty once it was formed. But that’s not the only thing, however. In fact, good communication is at the heart of any strong relationship, and agency-client relationships are no different.
Now, this might be obvious, but you need to communicate with clients properly if you want to build lasting trust. Take the example above: Communicate and stay honest if things are beginning to go wrong. Overall, it’s clear, open, and consistent communication ensures that clients always know where things stand and never feel left in the dark.
Keep Clients Updated Regularly
Again, it’s obvious, but so many agencies (and other businesses) keep getting this wrong! So, one of the simplest ways to build trust through communication is by keeping clients regularly updated.
Even if everything is going smoothly, letting your clients know how things are progressing can go a long way. For example, weekly updates, progress reports, or even a quick email check-in can reassure clients that their project is on track. It doesn’t take long to give updates, and yes, they want to be in the know!
Listening to Client Needs
Well, good communication isn’t just about talking—it’s about listening too. Now, just really taking the time to listen to your client’s needs and concerns shows that you care about their business and are invested in their success, right?
Well, understanding their vision and adapting your strategies to meet their goals can make a huge difference in building trust. They absolutely need to feel heard. So, when they truly do, they’re going to feel like they’re working with a partner, not just a vendor. And that’s the key difference that builds trust.
Setting Clear Expectations
Clients need to know what to expect from the beginning. Believe it or not, so many businesses are guilty of embellishing or even saying what they want their prospective clients to hear in order to get that sale/ contract signed. That’s almost always going to end up bad, very bad!
But when you set realistic expectations and then meet them (or, better yet, exceed them), clients begin to trust that your agency knows how to get the job done. If they can rely on you to deliver exactly what was promised, that trust will continue to grow.
How Trust Helps You Stand Out in a Crowded Market
So, this was mentioned in the intro, but the goal for trust is needed in so many ways, and yes, one of them is to stand out because of the amazing reputation you have (and the loyalty you want to keep acquiring).
While yes, it’s true that many agencies offer the same services, not all can create that deep trust with their clients. Besides, you need to remember that we’re all living in a world where clients have endless options; trust is the one thing that can make your agency irreplaceable.
The Personal Touch Goes a Long Way
One of the best ways to build trust is just by adding a personal touch to your client relationships. So, you’ll need to treat clients as individuals, not just as accounts or contracts. Now, that means you’ll need to take the time to get to know their business, their goals, and even the small things that make them tick. This personal connection shows that you genuinely care about their success, not just the paycheck.
You need to remember that clients want to feel valued, and when they do, they’re much more likely to trust you. Plus, a little extra effort in building those personal relationships can lead to long-term partnerships and glowing referrals.
Trust Turns Clients into Long-Term Partners
So, this was mention a few times already, but this seriously can’t be stressed enough. So, winning over a client is great, but keeping them for the long haul is even better. Essentially, trust is the key to turning one-off projects into ongoing partnerships. When clients know they can rely on you to deliver consistent results and communicate effectively, they’re much more likely to stick around.
Wrapping Up
At the end of the day, you just need to remember that trust isn’t just another box to check—it’s the key to building a thriving agency in a crowded market. Sure, it’ll take some work, but it’s truly worth it. Now, just by focusing on clear communication, consistency, and transparency, your agency can stand out from the competition and build relationships that last. Clients don’t just want results; they want to work with an agency they can rely on, and that’s where trust comes in.
Plus, trust transforms client relationships from transactional to meaningful. It makes your agency more than just another option in the marketplace—it makes you a go-to partner that clients are excited to work with. When trust is at the heart of your agency, long-term success is never far behind.
Over to You
If you have an agency (or any other business), what do you do to help build that foundation of trust? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section to help others!
Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you’re suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected]. Thanks.
The 17-year-old accused of shooting San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall during a botched armed robbery attempt last weekend was arraigned in juvenile court Wednesday, a day after he was charged with multiple felonies, including attempted murder.
Judge Roger C. Chan read the charges against the teenager, who because he is a minor was referred to only by his initials. The allegations include personal use and intentional discharge of a firearm, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and attempted second-degree robbery,
The young man, whom police have said lives in Tracy, about 70 miles east of San Francisco, sat facing forward through the short proceeding, next to his court-appointed public defender, Bob Dunlap. His parents sat in the front row of benches reserved for the public, a few feet from their son. His mother required a Spanish-speaking translator.
Assistant Dist. Atty. David Mitchell said members of Pearsall’s family also attended the hearing, though he did not specify which relatives or whether they joined online or attended in person.
Neither the suspect nor his family made any public comments. While taking questions from the media after the hearing, Dunlap said the teenager — whom he described as a high school senior — and his parents were “very sorry” about the shooting.
“This is very, very hard on them,” Dunlap said. “They assured me, and from what little I know, that this is completely out of character for him.”
Pearsall, 23, was walking back to his car alone after shopping in one of the luxury stores in San Francisco’s Union Square district on Saturday afternoon when, according to police, a gunman confronted Pearsall and tried to rob him, targeting his Rolex watch. A struggle ensued, and the attacker’s gun fired multiple times, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said during a Saturday evening news conference. Both Pearsall and the assailant were shot.
A bullet struck Pearsall in the chest and exited through his back, missing his vital organs, according to a social media post by his mother. He was treated at San Francisco General Hospital and released Sunday.
The suspect was shot in his left arm and treated at the same hospital, according to police. Dunlap said his client is bandaged but recovering well.
Dunlap said it was too early to address questions about why the teenager was in San Francisco, or his motives. Dunlap said he has read a police report on the incident, but has not yet been able to review video of the shooting that investigators are gathering from area surveillance cameras, which he believed would shed more light on what happened.
He added that there were “extenuating circumstances” that he believed could factor into the case, but provided no details. He also said he wasn’t convinced the attempted murder charge would “hold water at the end of the day.”
A probation official revealed during the hearing that the suspect has a pending juvenile court matter in San Joaquin County. Officials provided no details on that case, though Dunlap said his client would probably be transferred back to San Joaquin County after the San Francisco proceedings conclude.
San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins has not yet said whether she would seek to try the teenager in adult court. That would require a ruling by a judge that “essentially means that the juvenile system would not be equipped to rehabilitate that minor,” Jenkins said.
Dunlap said it would be inappropriate for the case to be transferred out of juvenile court.
“I think that my client certainly should be treated as a juvenile. He is a juvenile,” Dunlap said.
Pearsall, who played for Arizona State and the University of Florida, was drafted by the 49ers in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. He was sidelined with a shoulder injury during much of the NFL preseason.
The 49ers have put Pearsall on the non-football injury list, meaning he will miss at least the first four regular-season games. Team officials have said they expect him to make a full recovery.
Samuel Woodward was motivated by hate and intent on murder when he stabbed a gay former schoolmate 28 times in a dark park in 2018, an Orange County jury concluded Wednesday.
The jury deliberated for about a day before finding Woodward, 26, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student.
The jury rejected the defense’s claim that Woodward committed the stabbing only because Bernstein provoked him.
“We are thrilled with the verdict, which holds Samuel Woodward accountable,” Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, said at a news conference. “This is a great relief that justice is served, and this despicable human who murdered our son will no longer be a threat to the public.”
The jury also convicted Woodward of a hate-crime enhancement, which applied only to Bernstein’s sexual orientation, though he was both Jewish and gay.
Woodward’s computer teemed with anti-gay and anti-Jewish propaganda from the Atomwaffen Division, an extremist group, and he kept a “hate diary” in which he boasted of pranking and scaring gay men.
Woodward faces a sentence of life without the possibility of parole when Judge Kimberly Menninger sentences him on Oct. 25.
It is technically within the judge’s discretion to depart from that sentence, but it is “politically impossible,” said Woodward’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison.
“It will not happen in this case, with this judge, especially with the prosecution and media narrative over the last six years,” Morrison said.
Morrison has criticized that narrative as “Nazi kills gay Jew,” and he spent much of the three-month trial trying to dismantle it, with limited success. He said Woodward would appeal, adding there was “a very strong record of appellate issues” involving evidence the jury wasn’t allowed to see. He did not elaborate on that evidence.
Both sides portrayed Woodward as a young man who struggled with his sexuality growing up in a conservative Newport Beach family, with a particularly disapproving father.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Walker told the jury that when Woodward decided to kill Bernstein in January 2018, he chose a weapon with symbolic significance: a knife with his father’s name etched on it.
“Who better to prove to that you’re not gay than this homophobic father?” Walker said during closing arguments. “‘I’m not gay, look what I just did.’”
Morrison acknowledged that his client was guilty of killing Bernstein, which he called a “hideous crime,” but said it was voluntary manslaughter, not murder.
“There’s no premeditation or deliberation,” he told jurors, arguing that the killing had no connection to his client’s interest in the Atomwaffen Division.
On the night of the killing, Bernstein and Woodward exchanged flirtatious text messages. They had known each other casually years earlier at the Orange County School of the Arts, where Woodward had a reputation based on his far-right, anti-gay views.
Woodward had dropped out of college and was living with his parents. Bernstein, an out gay student, was staying with his parents over winter break in Lake Forest.
Woodward suggested he was bi-curious. Bernstein texted his address. Woodward picked him up, and they went to a nearby park.
“Unfortunately for Blaze, curiosity killed him,” Walker said.
Taking the stand in his own defense, Woodward seemed nearly catatonic, his words halting and slow, his eyes cast downward, his face covered by a curtain of unkempt hair. His attorney had to keep reminding him to look up.
Woodward testified that he took two puffs on a strong marijuana joint, went into a haze and came out of it to find Bernstein touching his genitals.
By Woodward’s account, Bernstein told him he had been outed, called him a hypocrite and said something like, “I got you.” Woodward said he feared that Bernstein had taken a photo of his genitals and was texting it to someone.
Asked for details about the stabbing, Woodward repeatedly said he couldn’t remember.
Bernstein’s blood was found on the knife bearing Woodward’s father’s name, leading prosecutors to conclude it was the murder weapon. But Woodward insisted he had used a different knife.
No evidence surfaced that Bernstein took explicit photos of Woodward, and Walker, the prosecutor, called the defendant’s account “ridiculous” and “revisionist history.”
Deriding the notion that Woodward flew into a rage for fear of being outed, she said he had posted his own photo on a Tinder profile saying he was seeking other men and had sent out photos of his penis more than once.
She said that “taking a weapon with your dad’s name is very symbolic,” particularly since Woodward, an Eagle Scout, had multiple knives. The prosecutor said that by killing Bernstein, Woodward was hoping to raise his profile with the Atomwaffen Division.
“It will prove to Atomwaffen he’s not gay,” Walker said. “It will prove to his dad he’s not gay. It will prove to himself he’s not gay.”
When police searched Woodward’s belongings, they found a death’s-head mask — an emblem of the Atomwaffen — spattered with Bernstein’s blood, indicating Woodward had it with him during the stabbing.
“Why are you bringing a skull mask?” Walker said. “This is a ceremonial killing for him that is going to get him prestige and admiration, which it did. We heard Atomwaffen was proud of him for this.”
Woodward buried Bernstein in a shallow grave in the park, and, to divert investigators, sent texts to Bernstein’s phone asking where he was. Woodward’s initial account to police was that he had accompanied Bernstein to the park but that Bernstein had inexplicably wandered off.
After a weeklong search, Bernstein’s body was found when the rain washed away dirt concealing his body. No shovel was found. Dirt was discovered under Woodward’s fingernails, however, and he had dug the makeshift grave with his hands, according to Morrison — an argument that it was not a premeditated crime.
Morrison portrayed his client as a socially awkward young man who suffered for years with undiagnosed autism.
He said there was no evidence that Woodward had actually pranked and terrorized gay men beyond the account in his “hate diary,” which Morrison characterized as empty boasting.
Morrison denied that Bernstein’s fatal stabbing was “a hate-fueled crime inspired by the likes of Hitler and [Charles] Manson.”
He attributed his client’s attachment to the Atomwaffen Division to “his lifelong struggle to fit in, to make and maintain meaningful friendships,” which left him vulnerable to a group that offered fellowship and preyed on people like him. He said his client had a “starvation for human connection.”
The Santa Ana courtroom was packed Wednesday afternoon. After the jury filed in, the verdict form was passed to the judge and then to court clerk Anthony Villa, an 18-year courthouse veteran who has read more than 100 verdicts aloud without betraying emotion.
This time, his voice broke as he said “guilty,” and he struggled for a moment to continue.
The emotion was echoed among Bernstein’s friends and family as they sat together. “Thank God,” someone sobbed.
For decades, real estate commissions have been somewhat standardized, with most home sellers paying 5% to 6% commission to cover both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent.
On Friday, everything changed.
A landmark agreement from the National Assn. of Realtors paved the way for a new set of rules that will likely shake up the entire industry, affecting sellers, buyers and the agents tasked with pushing deals across the finish line.
The most pivotal rule change pertains to how buyers’ agents are paid. Traditionally, home sellers have paid for the commission of both their agent and the buyer’s agent, which critics argue stifled competition and drove up home prices.
The new rule prohibits most listings from saying how much buyers’ agents are paid, removing the assumption that sellers are on the hook for paying both agents.
The other new rule requires buyers’ agents to enter into written agreements with their clients, known as buyer brokerage agreements. These agreements outline exactly what services will be provided — and for how much.
The changes will take effect this July, pending court approval, and will have major implications on how real estate deals are done. Here’s how buyers, sellers and brokers will likely be affected.
Lower fees for sellers
The most obvious takeaway is that if buyers end up paying for their real estate agents instead of sellers, sellers are set to save a lot of money.
In February, the average Southern California home sold for $842,997. Under the old system, where sellers pay both agents 3% commission, they’d shell out $50,580. But if they only have to pay one agent 3%, they’d save $25,290.
Buyers, then, would be the ones footing the bill for their agent. The added expense might seem pricy, but Michael Copeland, a real estate agent in Palm Springs, said the final numbers might ultimately shake out the same under the new rules.
“Buyers were often told by their agents that they didn’t have to pay anything and that services were free,” Copeland said. “But that’s not necessarily true.”
Copeland said when sellers pay 6% commission to split between both agents, they pad that number into the purchase price, so buyers actually end up paying more for the home, and thus, pay for their own agent.
So under the new system, buyers may end up paying their broker 3% commission, but the price of the home might be cheaper since the seller is only paying for their own agent.
More flexibility for buyers
One of the biggest complaints about the previous system was that it left buyers out of the negotiation process. Sellers paid each agent’s brokerage 3% or so, and that was that.
Lawsuits filed against the National Assn. of Realtors alleged that the practice kept commissions artificially high and incentivized buyers’ agents to “steer” them toward properties that offered them higher commission rates.
But under the new system, more buyers will be negotiating directly with their own agents — not just how much they’ll pay them, but what services they want the agent to provide. And those expectations will be specifically outlined in the buyer brokerage agreements, which are now required.
“Some buyers may just hire an attorney and pay a fee to handle the transaction,” Copeland said. “Or they’ll want to hire an agent as a consultant. Someone they can ask questions.”
In the age of the internet, access to real estate information is at an all-time high. Buyers can know virtually anything about a home on the market: not just bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage, but how much the home previously sold for, and how much similar homes in the area are selling for.
Buyers can also receive alerts to know exactly when a house in their price range hits the market, so some savvy shoppers might opt for an agent who leaves the touring process to them, but can help them look over an inspection report and file the right paperwork in the closing stages of the deal.
If a buyer wants a robust, hands-on agent that’s available 24/7, they can offer 3% or even more. If they want an agent who can just handle the more technical elements of the deal, they could offer 1% or 2%.
Some buyers might try to handle the process themselves and not pay an agent at all.
“Good agents will be able to show their value,” said Compass agent Michael Khorshidi. “Agents who aren’t able to show their value won’t benefit from this.”
New dynamics — and roles — for agents
For many agents, representing buyers can be rewarding since they get to help someone find their dream home, but the process is often more time-intensive. Agents might spend weeks or months setting up tours for clients, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll even buy a property in the end.
For that reason, many veteran agents prefer to represent sellers. The work is often more efficient — especially in a hot market, where deals can close in days.
So if the new rules leave less guaranteed money on the table for buyers’ agents, those agents might try to switch sides and only represent sellers. Or if they’re not able to make enough money representing buyers, they might exit the industry altogether — a trend that’s already taking place in Southern California’s cold post-pandemic real estate market.
Brent Chang, a luxury agent active in San Marino and Pasadena, said the new rules could lead to agents who specialize in specific types of sales.
“Just as there are agents like me who specialize in selling landmark properties, a new group of agents will emerge who specialize in helping buyers with highly competitive properties,” Chang said.
He said agents who have a proven track record of winning properties for their clients will be able to demand higher commissions.
Or their deals can be performance based. For example, an agent could represent you for 3%, and if they get the property for you, it’s another 3%.
“Ultimately, if the ruling leads to buyers receiving better service from their agents, then it has merit,” he said. “But I suspect it’ll be a while until we understand the consequences of these changes.”
Southern California’s real estate market is as cold as the snow currently adorning the peaks of its mountains. Interest rates are up. Inventory is down. And deals are few and far between.
In slow markets, the agents at the top — those with experience, connections and plenty of clients — typically maintain a modest but steady stream of business. It’s the agents at the bottom — those just getting into the industry who’ve only managed to close a handful of sales — who starve.
As those agents have grown more desperate for leads, they’re trying alternative ways of finding them. Some are outsourcing the work overseas, and others are turning to AI or automation in a last-ditch attempt to find a seller.
During the record-breaking pandemic market, there were so many transactions that most determined real estate agents were able to make a living. More than 43,000 single-family homes traded hands in L.A. County in 2021, and more than 42,000 were sold in 2022, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
During that time, tens of thousands joined the National Assn. of Realtors, or NAR, with membership swelling to a record 1.6 million in 2022, up 200,000 since 2020. Real estate wasn’t just a solid job; it was a way to leap into a higher tax bracket.
But then the market started to freeze in 2023 as mortgage rates shot up. Only 11,539 single-family homes sold that year, and sales are at a similar pace so far this year.
Some agents are simply calling it quits. In California alone, NAR lost 9,723 members from December 2023 to January 2024 — a 4.75% decline . But even after the drop, California still holds the second-most active Realtors in the nation at 194,964, and they’re all fighting for an extremely small pool of sellers.
At the peak of the pandemic market, Tyler Andrews, 29, tried his hand at real estate in the Inland Empire, thinking he would use his outgoing personality to sell homes as L.A. residents flocked to the area during the pandemic. He got his license and helped a few friends with their house hunts, but ultimately didn’t earn any commission and stopped in 2023.
He’s one of many agents who rushed into real estate hoping for a taste of California’s latest gold rush.
From the outside, listing a house in a hot market seems like the easiest of get-rich-quick schemes. Homes sell in days, and a 3% agent’s commission on a $1-million sale comes out to $30,000. If you represent both sides of the deal, it turns into $60,000.
But the real estate industry isn’t an easy one to break into. You typically get paid only if you close a sale, and in any market, most homeowners still prefer to go with an agent with experience.
In a hot market, sellers find an agent. In a cold market, agents have to find a seller. The situation is coming to a boil in many areas, such as Leimert Park, where residents have been barraged by agents asking whether they’re interested in putting their homes up for sale.
Cold calling is time consuming — and stressful, considering the ire it draws from those on the receiving end. So some agents are handing that thankless task to machines.
A handful of companies such as Slybroadcast and Salesmsg offer “ringless voicemail,” a robocall-adjacent tool enabling agents to send pre-recorded messages straight to your voicemail box without your phone ever ringing. The messages are often meant to trick you into thinking you missed a call, saying things like, “Sorry I missed you! Give me a call back whenever you get a chance.”
In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission declared the trend a form of robocalling and said it’s illegal if the caller doesn’t have the recipient’s prior consent. But that hasn’t stopped agents from sending out such voicemails to potential clients.
“I don’t have time to cold call all day,” said one real estate agent who asked to remain anonymous due to the potential taboo of using the technology. “I have to find clients somehow, and in a market like this, you have to get creative.”
The thinking is this: An agent could spend eight hours a day calling every home in a neighborhood to ask whether they want to sell their home. Or they could send out 500 ringless voicemails simultaneously, and those who bother to call back have a better chance of needing the services of a real estate agent.
Andrews said he had heard of other agents trying such technology as the market got colder in 2023, but he never bothered doing it himself because it didn’t seem authentic. It also would’ve been an extra expense — one he didn’t have a budget for.
Mary Thompson has owned her home in Beverly Crest for more than a decade. Over the last year, she’s received multiple ringless voicemails asking whether she wants to list or buy a house.
“I was fooled by the first one. I called back and ended up on the phone with an agent for 15 minutes asking about my plans as a homeowner,” she said. “I don’t bother calling back anymore.”
U.S. consumers received more than 55 billion robocalls in 2023, 5 billion more than the previous year, according to the YouMail Robocall Index. Roughly 15 billion were telemarketing calls, and 8 billion were scams. California consistently ranks as the state with the second-most robocalls, behind only Texas.
As a response to thousands of unwanted call complaints, the FCC has established a Robocall Response Team to combat the influx of robocalls, many of which are targeted toward homeowners.
Last year, the commission shut down a robocalling campaign from MV Realty, a real estate brokerage that was sending out robocalls with misleading claims about mortgages. A whistleblower from the company told a Seattle news outlet that employees were directed how to use software called PhoneBurner and required to make at least 450 calls per day.
Other companies such as VoiceSpin give agents access to auto-dialing software, which, like it sounds, automatically dials numbers from a list. VoiceSpin claims to use AI and machine learning and enables agents to drop voicemails straight into inboxes, record calls or even use local area codes so you’re more likely to pick up.
In that case, you’d be talking to an agent, but sometimes you might find yourself unwittingly conversing with a robot.
The tech company Ylopo recently uploaded a video showcasing an AI assistant conversing with a potential home buyer planning a move to the North or South Carolina coast. The company said it’s “one of thousands of AI calls being made daily already for Ylopo clients.”
Cinc, a real estate lead generation platform, offers agents an AI-powered digital assistant that purposefully misspells words and uses emojis to make interactions with potential leads appear more human.
The NAR itself offers an AI scriptwriter powered by ChatGPT that analyzes housing trends so that agents can appear more knowledgeable about the market. Agents can even choose the tone: professional, engaging or conversational.
Earlier this month, the FCC continued its fight against robocalling by outlawing robocalls that use AI-generated voices. Since the ruling is so fresh, it’s unclear how companies utilizing the technology will be affected.
In a market as slow as this one, even finding numbers to call becomes a challenge; tech becomes useless if it’s being wasted on the wrong potential clients. So many agents are looking for leads.
On Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelance services, a glut of listings has popped up offering agents potential leads on prospective buyers or sellers. One of the most prolific is Abhishek Rai, who has racked up more than 3,000 five-star reviews offering leads on motivated sellers, vacant properties or absentee owners since joining the platform in April 2020.
Rai, who’s based in India and uses the handle @virtualguy2020, typically charges $10 for 100 leads, $50 for 650 and $100 for 1,500.
“Real estate agents have demanding schedules, and outsourcing lead generation tasks allows them to focus on other aspects of their business, such as client meetings, property showings, and negotiations,” he said.
Rai has clients across the U.S., including many in Southern California. He added that generating leads is a specialized skill and not every agent has the expertise to find them on their own.
For his leads, he combs through public records, online databases and real estate sources such as property records, tax records and foreclosure listings.
To be clear, the vast majority of agents in Southern California still conduct business the old-fashioned way. But the ones trying new things are often doing so in order to make a living.
In 2022, Realtors with 16 or more years of experience made a median gross income of $80,700, according to the NAR. But those with two years or less experience made just $9,600.
According to a report from business networking platform Alignable, 31% of real estate firms struggled to pay rent for their office in January.
AI’s subtle invasion of the real estate industry doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise because the technology has pervaded nearly every profession over the last few years. But for an industry that has long relied on human connection — handshakes, open houses, fresh flowers and other personal touches — AI’s cold, sterile seep into housing has become unnerving for some.
“When I do need a real estate agent, I need one that I can connect with,” Thompson said. “I don’t want anything to do with their AI assistant.”
Hi, I’m Dr. Harley (aka “Dog-tor” Harley). I’m the resident therapy dog here at Austin Pets Alive!, providing a much-needed listening ear, emotional support and calming presence to the humans working hard to get dogs like me adopted. My days are pretty jam-packed and I never know what they’ll bring. Sometimes my clients present with a classic case of separation anxiety, while other times I’m just a sounding board for their doggy drama. I get asked all the time what it’s like to be a four-legged therapist, so I’m pulling back the curtain to give you a glimpse into a day in the life of Dr. Harley. (All names have been changed to maintain client confidentiality.)
The named defendant in the federal lawsuit was California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, but there was never a doubt that the target was Donald J. Trump.
For a time, as the legal maneuvering proceeded through the fall, it appeared that Los Angeles could be treated to another of its celebrated courtroom dramas, this one a constitutional showdown pitting a colorful civil rights attorney against a volcanic former president in the courtroom of a judge known for his fiery judicial flair.
The case sought an order prohibiting Weber from placing the Republican presidential front-runner on the California ballot, based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.
It was also intended to be a trap. If Trump’s legal team took the bait and joined the case, then the former president could be forced to face a grilling under oath on his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
At least that was the theory of Stephen Yagman, an attorney both admired and reviled in local lore for his history of toppling sacred cows.
Over a span of two decades, Yagman broke legal ground in cases against the LAPD and the U.S. government, establishing that Los Angeles Police Department officers and their leaders can be held personally liable for civil rights violations and that prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center had a right to due process. Then he suffered an ignominious fall with a 2007 federal conviction for tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud. In his 70s, more than a decade after serving 29 months in prison, Yagman regained his law license and resumed fighting for indigent victims of government abuse.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a no less colorful figure than Yagman, has built a reputation for judicial unorothodoxy bordering on heavy-handedness. He’s held court on Skid Row and summoned mayors and supervisors to answer for their ineffective responses to homelessness. In two cases that were active at the time, Carter was holding L.A. County officials’ feet to the fire to extract a commitment for thousands of mental health beds and rebuffing efforts of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to wiggle out of a lawsuit over veterans housing.
More to the point of Yagman’s case, Carter had found in a 2022 ruling that stripped Trump legal adviser John Eastman’s attorney-client privilege that the two had “more likely than not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress, calling it “a coup in search of a legal theory.”
Would Carter, who drew Yagman’s case because it was related to the earlier one, follow through with that reasoning? Yagman hoped so.
When Trump’s lawyers took the bait and petitioned Carter to intervene, Yagman virtually frothed with anticipation.
“This court, right here and now, has a unique opportunity to prevent a truly deranged and dangerous fool, Donald Trump, who perpetrated an assault on American Democracy, from again being president of the United States,” he wrote in a motion, noting that Trump “improvidently (for him) has intervened to make himself a party-defendant to the instant action.”
He buttressed his ever eccentric legalese with a flight of literary allusion invoking both Socrates and The Rolling Stones.
“Trump is a vile man. He has no virtue whatsoever,” Yagman wrote, appending a long footnote on the Greek philosopher’s concept of civic virtue.
“And contrary to what the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger sings … Trump, as today’s embodiment of the devil … deserves no sympathy….”
But it was to no avail. Not once, but twice in the months that followed, Trump’s lawyers raised legal technicalities to knock down Yagman’s flaming rhetoric.
The first was based on standing, a slippery legal concept meaning something akin to skin in the game.
Yagman’s case made the tortuous argument that his client, a Republican voter who planned to vote for Trump, would be disenfranchised if, after the March California primary, Trump was ruled ineligible to be president.
Carter dismissed the case in November, finding his client did not have standing because “the harm he alleges is too generalized.”
Yagman had a backup strategy, an amended complaint changing his case to a class action representing all Republican voters and naming Trump himself as a defendant on a novel theory of negligent infliction of emotional distress.
His clients, he argued, were “direct victims of Trump’s acts in creating and participating in insurrection,” both on Jan. 6 and in the “innumerable viewings of those acts on television, on the radio and in numerous publications….”
Reconsidering, Carter set a hearing for Jan. 8. But, over the holidays, Trump’s lawyers convinced the judge that a hearing was not necessary. In a Dec. 22 filing, Shawn E. Cowles of the Dhillon Law Group gave eight reasons why the case had no merit, ranging from presidential immunity and 1st Amendment protection to “reasons to doubt the veracity of Plaintiff’s claim that he is a registered Republican voter in Los Angeles County.”
The argument that carried the day for the former president was based on the statute of limitations. Ignoring Yagman’s contention that the injury was repeated every time Jan. 6 imagery appeared on TV, radio or in print, Carter ruled the case “time-barred” based on California’s two-year statute for negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Yagman, whose past victories included establishing that lawyers cannot be sanctioned for making disparaging comments about their judges, showed uncharacteristic magnanimity in defeat.
Carter, he said, is a good judge and decent human being.
“I’m happy enough with it because it’s him,” he told The Times. “Part of me is really sorry to see it go, I really wanted to depose Trump. But I’m ashamed of that because it would just be me playing games. I wouldn’t get anything out of that except chuckles.”
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this story.
The holidays can be a challenging time. It’s an especially challenging time for detainees at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center.
This wind-scoured private prison lurks on the western boundary of the Mojave Desert, about 10 miles from Victorville. With a built-in immigration court, it’s something of a one-stop deportation shop.
Sundays are a busy day here. The waiting room at the Desert View Annex is crowded with families. Parents. Grandparents. More children than you would expect. The visitors are nervous, if not resigned.
A kindly man with a Sinaloan accent makes small talk with me while we wait.
“You here to visit family?”
“No. A client.”
“Lawyer?”
“Yes, in a public defender’s office.”
“You do immigration law?”
“Not really. I’m here to fix the wrongful conviction that took away my client’s green card and got him put in deportation.”
He asks for my card. “My son has a conviction like that too. Can you talk to him?”
The staff here are pleasant, kind. A guard in a blue polo shirt exchanges the IDs of people in the waiting room for visitors’ badges. Another walks us through a series of imposing steel doors to a visiting room. Some Christmas ornaments hang from the ceiling. Clumps of plastic furniture line the periphery. A play area for children sits on the far wall. A dozen men in red and orange jumpsuits greet the arrivals.
It is palpably sad. All but one or two of these men will be deported; all but one or two of these families will be missing a son or husband or father during the holidays.
A friendly guard with perfect fake eyelashes places me in a private attorney room. I hand her a stack of papers for my client Jose. Across the reinforced glass, tears well in his eyes as he signs the documents mending the legal errors that landed him here.
Jose is in his late 50s. Been in the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident since he was 6 months old. His entire family is here. He has five adult children. Six grandchildren. Elderly parents. Owns a small business. Has no contact with his country of his birth.
In the 1990s, he pleaded guilty to possession of less than a gram of cocaine. His lawyer never asked about his immigration status, nor told him the conviction would result in him losing his green card and being placed in deportation. Not understanding the immigration consequences, he pleaded guilty. He attended some drug classes and when the judge said “case dismissed,” he thought the matter was closed. But a “dismissed” case is still a federal controlled substances conviction.
Three decades later, Jose was arrested by men in windbreakers and placed in deportation proceedings.
Last Monday, I was in court for him, and a judge signed an order vacating the conviction because it violated his 5th and 6th Amendment rights. On Tuesday, Jose’s immigration attorney filed a motion to terminate removal proceedings with the judge’s order attached. With no criminal conviction to trigger deportation grounds, Jose made it home to watch his grandkids tear into presents.
He was the luckiest man in an unlucky place. Had his conviction come from other counties in California, the public defender’s offices in those counties would very likely have refused to take his case, despite having been allocated money to do so.
In 2021, the California Board of State and Community Corrections created the Public Defense Pilot Program, which provided funds so that public defender’s offices could represent clients under several statutes, including Penal Code §1473.7. This law allows defendants to vacate criminal convictions if newly discovered evidence appears; if the conviction was obtained on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin; or if it’s legally invalid because the person did not understand and appreciate the immigration consequences.
Although the other statutes in the pilot program also require a public defender’s office to open old cases where, almost always, mistakes of some kind will be found, many defender’s offices resist taking on cases involving immigrants because of workloads or concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
In my office in Ventura County, I was transferred from felony trials to the immigration unit to help as many eligible people as possible. Although this decision significantly increased the office’s workload, the positive results are tangible. In 2023, we prepared more than 200 §1473.7 cases on behalf of 93 immigrants like Jose.
If every public defender’s office in the state could make indigent representation under this statute a priority, we would see more justice and many more immigrants, who’ve been unfairly swept up, have an increased opportunity to make it home to their families for the holidays and in the coming year.
Michael Albers is a senior deputy public defender in the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office.
Celebrity real estate agent Mauricio Umansky will not face a civil trial for allegedly violating his duties as a broker in the sale of a prominent Malibu hilltop mansion that he flipped for nearly $70 million.
Real estate investor Sam Hakim and his agent dropped their consolidated Superior Court lawsuits this month against Umansky, his development partner Mauricio Oberfeld and other defendants. The legal action accused the two men of conspiring to buy the mansion in 2016 for $32.5 million — despite an alleged higher offer from Hakim — so they could fix it up and sell it for a big profit.
Umansky and his luxury Beverly Hills real estate firm, The Agency, not only represented the buyer and seller in the transaction, but Umansky had a stake in the buyer’s limited liability company fronted by Oberfeld. The 2019 lawsuit sought at least $35 million in damages, or roughly the profit made flipping the property in 2017 to the heir of a Hong Kong drink manufacturer.
Jennifer Shakouri and Alan Hearty, attorneys for Hakim, a Beverly Hills resident who runs a family real estate investment firm, said in a statement that their client, who is Jewish, decided to “put this matter behind him” amid the war in Gaza.
“In light of current global events, including the shocking attack on the state of Israel on October 7, Mr. Hakim decided his time and energy would be better served on matters other than this litigation. This led him to resolve this matter,” said the statement, which noted that as part of the settlement Umansky agreed to give money to a “pro-Israel charitable organization.”
“Regarding the issue of wrongdoing by Mr. Umansky, the court records speak for themselves,” the statement concluded.
In an interview, Umansky, who is also Jewish, said the donation by himself and his brokerage was something he would have gladly done anyway. He declined to disclose the value of the donation. He said the decision by Hakim and his agent to drop the litigation was an indication of its lack of merit.
“At the end of the day, I believe that from the beginning I did not do anything wrong,” he said.
Hakim’s decision followed the production of text messages that had long been sought by the defendants in discovery. Texts between Hakim and his broker, Aitan Segal, suggested that Hakim was first made aware of the partnership that Umansky and Oberfeld had formed to buy and flip the property through a 2017 article — not one he read in 2018 as he had claimed.
Real estate investor Sam Hakim poses in front of the Malibu mansion whose $70-million sale prompted his lawsuit against Mauricio Umansky.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
The issue of when he first knew of Umansky’s involvement is relevant to how long he had to file the case before the statute of limitations expired. Attorneys for the defendants sought to have the case terminated over the delayed production of the texts; Judge Mark Epstein rejected that bid in an October decision while leaving open the possibility of monetary sanctions.
Jeremiah Reynolds, an attorney for Oberfeld and another defendant, Matt Dugally, who also was a member of the buyer’s group and owns a luxury home builder with Oberfeld, said in a statement that neither client paid Hakim “to settle this frivolous case against them.”
“Sam Hakim voluntarily dropped his lawsuit under threat of court ordered sanctions for his failure to turn over text messages that demonstrated his case never should have been filed,” the statement said.
The Hakim lawsuit was not the first filed against Umansky over the 16.5-acre Malibu compound, a conspicuous piece of real estate featuring a 15,000-square-foot mansion overlooking the city’s pier. The compound was featured on “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” a show featuring Umansky’s spouse Kyle Richards, when the broker — the star of his own Netflix reality show — was readying it for resale.
The estate was acquired in 2006 by Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the playboy son of the president of Equatorial Guinea. He was forced to sell the home in 2014 after the U.S. government filed an asset forfeiture case that accused him of buying the mansion, a jet and other luxury items with laundered funds generated by corrupt business dealings in his native country.
Umansky was hired by Nguema to conduct the sale, with the first $10.3 million in proceeds going to the U.S. government and the remainder for the benefit of the people of Equatorial Guinea. After it was reported in the media that Umansky was a member of the group that flipped the home in 2017 for $69.9 million, Nguema sued Umansky, accusing him of self-dealing that lowered the initial sale price.
Umansky reached a settlement with Nguema, who is no longer in the U.S., that provided $6.35 million to a healthcare nonprofit working in Equatorial Guinea, as part of the asset forfeiture case that wrapped up in 2021.
The Agency’s insurance company also sued after the brokerage filed an insurance claim to help fund the Nguema settlement. The insurer accused Umansky of a conflict of interest in the deals and sought to rescind the brokerage’s policy. An undisclosed settlement was reached.
Umansky said that he was unable to comment on those cases and settlements due to nondisclosure agreements.
At the same time, Hakim’s case had been wending its way through Santa Monica Superior Court, with voluminous filings by both sides. The original complaint accused Umansky, Oberfeld and other defendants of eight causes of action, including fraud, breaches of duty and negligent misrepresentation.
Not every allegation applied to every defendant and over the years Epstein struck several, including the fraud allegation. A trial was set for next year on the remaining causes of action — including an allegation Umansky breached his duty to be an honest and fair broker — assuming the case survived a motion for summary judgment and wasn’t dismissed by Epstein.
A core issue was Hakim’s allegation that he and Segal verbally offered at least $40 million for the property, but that Umansky never passed the offer on to his client Nguema. They also claimed Umansky told them not to bother to put the offer in writing because of the unusual nature of the transaction, since Nguema would not personally benefit from a higher price.
Umansky has denied Hakim made such an offer or that he told him to not put it in writing — something he said a sophisticated investor would always do. “It’s a ‘he said, she said.’ I know what happened. And I know that there was no verbal offer made. Period. End the story,” Umansky said.
Hakim’s attorneys have disputed that there was no evidence. Last year, they submitted into the court file the transcription of a voicemail left for Umansky by Segal in May 2015. During it, the agent notes that his client is ready with an all-cash offer in the “40 range.”
Umansky dismissed the voicemail, saying it was left with him prior to Segal visiting the property. “I am well aware of that. We do that all the time, ‘Hey, I’ve got a client looking up to $60 million. What can I have? What can you show?’ That’s not evidence of any sort of offer.”
Attorneys for Umansky also have questioned whether Hakim had the financial wherewithal to make an all-cash offer that would close the deal fast, though Umansky’s and Oberfeld’s limited liability company itself needed to bring in other investors.
Perhaps the most central issue of the case revolved around when Umansky and Oberfeld reached their own agreement to buy the property. Umansky informed Nguema and the Department of Justice in June 2016 — weeks before the sale closed and long after negotiations with Hakim had ceased — that he had only recently been invited to participate in the buyers’ group.
But Epstein cast doubt on that in a ruling this year, stating there were documents indicating a “concrete February 2016 plan for a joint partnership that had long been in the works.”
“The court notes that the evidence does seem pretty clear that Umansky’s suggestion that the discussions only started a little bit before May 2016 was simply false and he knew it when he said it,” the judge wrote.
Umansky said the “judge was completely wrong in those statements” — and almost seemed to rue the case was dropped.
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, it’s not going to be heard at trial,” he said.
An admitted L.A. con artist who rubbed elbows with powerful politicians and presented himself as the right hand of a powerful Armenian crime figure was sentenced to six months in prison Monday, after spending years testifying against his former mentor and several corrupt law enforcement officials.
Edgar Sargsyan, 42, will serve the short prison sentence and then spend an additional six months confined to his home after his 2020 plea to four counts of bank fraud, bribery and lying to federal agents, according to his attorney, Robert Dugdale.
The public was barred from Sargsyan’s sentencing hearing in federal court on Monday, after Dugdale was heard expressing concerns about his client’s safety.
Sargsyan rose from humble beginnings to become a regular at the members-only Grand Havana cigar club in Beverly Hills, where he regularly socialized with celebrities. Penniless when he immigrated to the United States from Armenia in 2004, Sargsyan settled in Glendale, home to a large Armenian diaspora.
There, he scratched out a living collecting finder’s fees for bringing clients to attorneys — and also committing bank fraud. Court records show Sargsyan admitted he was part of an identity theft ring that racked up phony charges in the names of foreign exchange students who were no longer living in the United States.
Sargsyan went from small-time fraud artist to prolific criminal after meeting Levon Termendzhyan in 2010 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel’s BLVD restaurant, court records show. Termendzhyan put forward a public facade of a wildly successful entrepreneur in the oil and gas industry, but within the Armenian community, Sargsyan testified, he had “the reputation of a mafia figure.”
Sargsyan became something of an advisor, confidant and younger brother to Termendzhyan, who is now serving a 40-year sentence for fraud and money laundering. Through Termendzhyan, Sargsyan met two corrupt law enforcement officers: John Saro Balian, a narcotics detective for the Glendale Police Department, and Felix Cisneros Jr., an agent of Homeland Security Investigations.
Sargsyan also cultivated relationships with public officials by donating lavishly to their campaigns. At his office in Beverly Hills, where he held himself out as a lawyer, Sargsyan posed for a photograph with Gov. Gavin Newsom before heading to a fundraiser for the governor at a members-only cigar lounge. Newsom and his political aides previously declined to discuss his relationship with Sargsyan, though a campaign official said all of his donations were rerouted to a charity.
Like much of Sargsyan’s life, the lawyer facade was a lie. After failing the California bar exam several times, Sargsyan paid an attorney $140,000 to take the test for him. Sargsyan didn’t admit to the scheme for years, failing to tell federal prosecutors about it until the eve of a trial in which he was set to testify.
Sargsyan said he’d held back about the bar exam scheme because he was “ashamed and embarrassed” to confess he wasn’t a lawyer.
Sargsyan testified against Babak Broumand, telling the jury he gave $10,000 a month to the decorated FBI agent in exchange for secret information about investigations into Sargsyan and his associates. Broumand, who worked for two decades on a national security squad in San Francisco, was convicted of accepting bribes and is serving six years in federal prison.
During a brief conversation outside the courtroom on Monday, Sargsyan lamented that a 2022 Times retelling of his wild life story had “destroyed his character” and used an expletive in reference to the reporter who wrote it.
“Report facts … that’s the beauty of journalism,” said Sargsyan, shortly before walking into court and accepting a plea deal based on an admission that he was a prolific liar.
CUPERTINO, CA – SEPTEMBER 12: An attendee looks at a new iPhone X during an Apple special event at … [+] the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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When creating a website or developing marketing materials for yourself, a starting point might seem to be listing your awards and accomplishments. You likely have admirable credentials and skills that could be noted. If you have a long track record or experience, it could seem fitting to include these too.
While these are all valid points, individuals who see these resources may not be strongly attached to statements that focus on you. As visitors click on to your website, they might only glance at the achievements you have listed there. They’re more likely to look for material that speaks to them.
That’s why, when building a personal brand, I always encourage professionals to think about their customers and target audience first. Once you understand what they’re looking for, you can address their needs. You’ll be able to design solutions that resolve their challenges and help them improve their lives or businesses.
Follow these steps to create a personal brand that helps others connect to you.
1. Walk in Your Customer’s Shoes
I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the work of Donald Miller, bestselling author of “Building a Story Brand,” through my coach Rod Santomassimo, founder of the Massimo Group. Miller emphasizes the importance of understanding the problems you are helping your customers solve. Instead of focusing solely on showcasing your strengths, direct your attention to your customers and their needs.
2. Create Customer Avatars
Before I sat down to build my own personal website, JamesNelson.com, I spent ample time thinking about the audience. I created avatars who represented the types of visitors who would likely be interested in the site. I did the same during the process of writing my book, “The Insider’s Edge to Real Estate Investing.” It was important to know who the book was for and why they would choose it. The audience included college students and individuals who were just starting to learn about real estate and think about making their first investment. It also consisted of veteran real estate investors who might be looking to step up their game. Addressing multiple audiences can work, as long as you have meaningful messages for each one.
3. Craft A Compelling Value Proposition
Spend some time thinking about the value you provide to your customers. You’ll want to clearly define your value proposition and highlight how your products or services solve your customer’s pain points. Focus on the benefits they will gain by connecting with you. My speaking coach, Joel Weldon, is quick to note that the audience is always more interested in what’s in it for them as opposed to hearing about you. The more your marketing materials can speak to those points, the better.
4. Emphasize How They Can Improve
As you address your customer’s challenges and provide solutions, be sure to include how their lives or businesses will change. On your website or other promotions, help individuals see what they’ll be able to accomplish if they connect with you. Perhaps they’ll be able to increase their savings, build a portfolio, or reduce the length of time they need to accomplish tasks. If the customer can envision themselves in a new way, they may be more likely to reach out for what you’re offering.
5. Establish Yourself As The Expert
As you share resources, focus on providing the information your target audience is hoping to find. If you can give them what they’re looking for, they’ll start seeing you as an individual who can help solve their problems. The chances of them turning to you the next time they need a solution will increase as well.
Once you place yourself in the journey of a consumer, you’ll be able to connect with them and provide a product or service that helps them solve their problems. As you do so, think of the values you stand for, and how that sets you apart from competitors. The more you can reach customers on an emotional level and establish yourself as an expert, the more you’ll grow your network and future business opportunities.
The driver accused of killing four Pepperdine students in a high-speed Malibu crash almost two weeks ago has been released on bond, according to jail records.
Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, faces four counts of malice murder and four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said at a recent news conference, adding that the charges stem from Bohm’s “complete disregard for the life of others.”
Prosecutors say Bohm was speeding along Pacific Coast Highway at 104 mph before the fatal collision.
Bohm pleaded not guilty to the eight felony charges Wednesday in a Van Nuys courtroom, where his bail was initially set at $8 million but the amount was lowered to $4 million during his arraignment. He was released on bond on Friday.
Bohm was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence following the Oct. 17 crash, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Maria Navarro said. But he was released hours later.
In a news release at the time, the Sheriff’s Department said he was “released to allow detectives time to gather the evidence needed to secure the strongest criminal filing and conviction.”
Bohm was re-arrested on Thursday and booked on suspicion of four counts of murder. In the days between arrests, investigators collected additional evidence — including toxicology test and search warrant results and speed analyses — before submitting the case to the district attorney’s office.
Not much information about Bohm is available in public records. He attended Chaminade Prep and Oaks Christian, two pricey private schools with annual tuition of more than $20,000.
The BMW driven in the accident was paid for by his parents, Christopher and Brooke Bohm, who lived in a home in a gated Malibu community that was valued at more than $8.7 million, according to the Daily Mail.
Brooke Bohm filed for divorce in 2017, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents.
The four people killed — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams — were sisters in the Alpha Phi sorority and seniors at Pepperdine University. Authorities believe they were standing near several parked vehicles in the 21600 block of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when Bohm’s BMW barreled into the cars and then struck the women shortly before 9 p.m. on Oct. 17.
Investigators said they have determined that Bohm was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, but the onboard computer of his car shows he was traveling at 104 mph before he lost control in the deadly collision, according to law enforcement sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. It was that data, along with statements made by Bohm, saying he was aware of the posted 45-mph speed limit on that stretch of PCH, that led to the charges against him, sources say.
But Bohm’s attorney, Michael Kraut, says his client was not traveling that fast. He also has forwarded a claim to prosecutors alleging that another vehicle was involved in the crash. Last week, Kraut said his client is the victim of a road-rage incident on the night of the crash.
“They ignored evidence of a second car,” Kraut told The Times. “My client was getting away from the guy chasing him.”
Kraut said another driver “came into the lane and clipped him,” and Bohm “hit the brakes.”
“The evidence turned over showed at max [he was going] 70 mph,” Kraut said, citing the information he has received in the case, and adding that his client has “totally cooperated” with the investigation and passed a field sobriety test.
L.A. County sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Arens told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday that he had “no evidence” that the crash stemmed from an alleged road rage incident.
The collision has renewed calls for safety improvements on PCH, particularly in the area of the crash, which some call “Dead Man’s Curve.”
Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.
