News Release
P.O. Box 433 Torrance CA 90508-0433
Tel: 310.618.9596 Fax: 310.618.1950
Cell: 818.720.3719 [email protected]
Criminal Justice Columnist, Counter Punch Magazine
Commentator, Black Talk Radio
“Public relations guru”-Los Angeles Times 1996
Former 1st Vice President, LA Newspaper Guild
Member, CWA Local 39521, Pacific Media Workers Guild
For Immediate Release: April 22, 2015
For Information: Jan B. Tucker, 818.720.3719
Lawsuit Pits Goliath Attorney Against David Reporter
in Aftermath of Mayday 2007 Litigation
Trial has been set in the case of Gregory A. Yates vs Patricia Nazario on June 11, 2015 in Department 36 of the Los Angeles Superior Court (111 N Hill St) in which Yates, an attorney who represented then-KPCC reporter Nazario against the City of Los Angeles after she was beaten by a police officer at a Mayday 2007 immigration demonstration, is suing her. Yates now claims Nazario libeled him in her creation of a website, which exposes his alleged malfeasance. Nazario contends the website is a public service based on a collection of public records.
Yates gained fame through his representation of victims of LAPD “Ramparts” division abuses. He also later represented Native American tribes in Tribal Trust fund litigation against the federal government, winning multi-million dollar settlements, but the quality of his representation has been called into question in a Detective’s Diary on-going investigation into why those tribes wound up with approximately one-third less than tribes represented by the Native American Rights Fund and other law firms.
Nazario’s website, www.gregoryyates.org, cites a litany of cases, including complaints against Yates for Breach of Contract, Malpractice, and his 1986 State Bar discipline records in which his license was suspended for two years. Other lawsuits posted on the website, include:
- Vensel v Yates in which Yates had to pay $100,000 and mediation fees over allegations that he botched the handling of a medical malpractice case and then abandoned the client
- Moreno v Yates in which a law firm alleged that Yates stiffed them on fees they were entitled to from representation of “Ramparts” litigants
- Taschner v Yates, another case of a law firm alleging that Yates withheld fees from them in “Ramparts” litigation
- FAMCO v Yates, a lawsuit involving over $11,000 worth of embezzled checks
- Rubin v Yates, in which Rubin alleged that following a traffic accident that Yates assaulted him and called him a “fucking faggot.”
According to Nazario, who wound up receiving nothing from the jury verdict in her favor while Yates took the entire award, Yates has consistently used his lawsuit to pressure her into taking down her website and to demand that she try to get other journalists to stop reporting on Yates’ questionable business practices. “During settlement negotiations Yates’ attorney, Neville Johnson, demanded that I get another blog that I have no control over taken down,” said Nazario. “Even more telling is that while they sued me, Johnson and Yates were offering me money to settle.”
Jan B. Tucker, who was the target of Johnson’s demands, said that when he belatedly found out that Johnson had issued but never served him with a subpoena that was seeking access to his own journalistic files on Yates, he launched his own inquiry on Johnson. “That produced a very interesting look into Johnson’s own malpractice litigation history that I have recounted at http://janbtucker.com/blog/2015/03/03/neville-lawrence-johnson-whats-he-up-to-and-why/,” Tucker explained.
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For additional background: http://janbtucker.com/blog/2012/08/29/greg-yates-paul-ingels-in-the-skeletons-closet/
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