{"id":391124,"date":"2025-11-20T01:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T01:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391124\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T01:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T01:18:11","slug":"contempt-of-court-hearing-begins-in-federal-case-over-city-of-las-homelessness-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391124\/","title":{"rendered":"Contempt-of-court hearing begins in federal case over city of LA’s homelessness response"},"content":{"rendered":"

A downtown hearing kicked off Wednesday, during which a federal judge will consider holding the city of Los Angeles in contempt of court. The hearing is the latest step in a long-running legal saga<\/a> regarding the city’s response to the region\u2019s homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n

The hearing was ordered by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who has been overseeing a settlement in a lawsuit brought against the city by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown business and property owners. L.A. Alliance sued the city, and county, in 2020 for failing to adequately address homelessness.<\/p>\n

Several witnesses<\/a> are expected to testify during the contempt-of-court hearing, including Gita O\u2019Neill<\/a>, the new head of the region\u2019s top homeless services agency, and Matt Szabo<\/a>, the L.A. city administrative officer. <\/p>\n

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger watched at least part of Wednesday\u2019s hearing in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Why now?<\/p>\n

Carter said in court documents<\/a> that he\u2019s concerned \u201cthe city has demonstrated a continuous pattern of delay\u201d in meeting its obligations under court orders. During a hearing last week<\/a>, the judge pointed to several delays, including recently reported issues related to data and interviewing city employees.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that similar concerns have come up at previous hearings. Carter told attorneys for the city in March 2024 that he \u201cindicated to the mayor that I\u2019ve already reached the decision that the plaintiffs were misled\u201d and \u201cthis is bad faith,\u201d according to court transcripts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The judge said in a Nov. 14 order<\/a> that he\u2019s concerned the \u201cdelay continues to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contempt hearing is expected to cover whether the city has complied with court orders and provided regular updates to the court under the settlement agreement.<\/p>\n

Reducing delays<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the city<\/a> have pushed back against the hearing, filing objections<\/a> with the judge and making an unsuccessful emergency request<\/a> with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block it from happening.<\/p>\n

City authorities also asked the appeals court to press pause on the judge\u2019s order to appoint a monitor in the case to make sure the city stays on track with the settlement. The city argued that Carter handed the monitor \u201ca blank check to interfere with the democratic process,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The appeals court partly denied<\/a> the city\u2019s request. It allowed Wednesday\u2019s hearing to move forward, but it agreed to pause the appointment of Daniel Garrie as monitor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In light of that response, attorneys for the city<\/a> have argued that looking at the city\u2019s cooperation with Garrie \u201cwould be inappropriate\u201d during the hearing and that L.A. \u201ccannot be held in contempt for either the substance or the manner of its compliance with the order,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Previous hearings related to the settlement have elicited tense questioning of witnesses and harsh words from the judge, who has been vocal about reducing delays and moving the case forward.<\/p>\n

In an opening statement Wednesday, Theane Evangelis \u2014 one of the attorneys representing the city<\/a> \u2014 urged the judge to \u201cturn down the heat\u201d on the closely watched case. Evangelis said the \u201ccity is constantly under fire\u201d in court while L.A. has made \u201cenormous strides\u201d in getting people off the streets.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Mitchell, lead attorney for L.A. Alliance, said the city treats transparency as a burden.<\/p>\n

She said Wednesday that the \u201ccity still fights oversight harder than it fights homelessness\u201d and that the court should address L.A. ‘s \u201cconsistent\u201d delays throughout the case.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

The hearing is expected to continue past Wednesday, potentially resuming Friday or early next month, when more witnesses can appear in person.<\/p>\n

City authorities told the court<\/a> they believe a one-day hearing won\u2019t be enough time to go over all the evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A downtown hearing kicked off Wednesday, during which a federal judge will consider holding the city of Los…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":391125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,12917,186066,12915,12916,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-391124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-city-of-l-a","11":"tag-homelessness-settlement","12":"tag-judge-david-o-carter","13":"tag-l-a-alliance","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115579394668012111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}