We’ve Been Assigned Our Third Judge in Three Years in the California Public Records Act Litigation For UC Berkeley’s Ted Agu Football Death Cover-Up Documents
November 27, 2019‘Newsletter of Intent,’ Covering College Sports Reform, Has New Article About Our Work and Public Records Act Litigation in Cal’s Ted Agu Football Death Cover-Up
December 3, 2019by Irvin Muchnick
Contrary to our previous item, our California Public Records Act case has not been assigned to a new judge. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Brand is still the one.
This enhances the likelihood that there will be a ruling next week on our motion challenging the University of California Regents’ assertion that attorney-client privilege blocks release of an April 2014 email from Solly Fulp, then Berkeley’s deputy athletic director and chief operating officer, to his father Ian Fulp. The sparse unredacted content so far strongly suggests that the email was a collection of Cal administrators’ thoughts on how to handle public questions as soon as the Alameda County medical examiner produced the autopsy of football player Ted Agu.
(Agu died in February 2014 and the initial cause of death findings were announced two months later.)
Earlier this week we were told that Judge Brand had moved from the Hayward to the Oakland courthouse effective mid-November. The parties of our case received no direct notification of this move or how it affected the case. By email, Concussion Inc.’s attorney Roy S. Gordet queried the court clerk’s office. The clerk said Muchnick v. UC Regents would stay at the Hayward Hall of Justice, Department 511, under a new judge.
That information was wrong. Yesterday the court published a notice of assignment of the case to Department 22 in Oakland, Judge Brand’s new home.
This is not our first encounter with puzzling administrative announcements by this court. In April the court issued an order that the case was “dropped,” then rescinded the order when we pointed out that we were still there.
And a happy holiday season to all.
“Concussion Inc. to Court: University of California’s Evidentiary Challenges to Our Public Records Act Case Motion on Ted Agu Football Death Cover-Up Are ‘Harassing’,” November 24, https://concussioninc.net/?p=14087
Comprehensive headline links to our six years of Ted Agu death coverage: https://concussioninc.net/?p=10877