In a surprise move, attorneys for the LA Alliance for Human Rights on Tuesday, June 3, withdrew their subpoenas seeking testimony from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and two council members, saying they feared the city would use the fight over their appearances to delay a court case on homelessness.
The Alliance’s attorney, Matthew Umhofer, told reporters the group feared the city would appeal any decision to compel the testimony of the elected officials, which could stall the hearing for months while the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in. Instead, he said, the Alliance believes there is already enough evidence on the record for the judge to rule.
“We’re taking away the city’s ability to delay a decision on this issue,” said Umhofer, an attorney with Umhofer, Mitchell & King LLP.
In a statement to Southern California News Group, Theane Evangelis, a lawyer from the law firm, Gibson Dunn, which is representing the city, said subpoenas lack legal merit.
“The Alliance lawyers apparently recognized that there was no legal basis for their subpoenas – they should never have issued them in the first place,” she said. “The city is complying with the agreement settling a 2020 lawsuit and it is indisputable that thousands of new housing units have been built and homelessness is down in L.A. for the first time in years.”
The move came as a sometimes-contentious evidentiary hearing entered its final stretch. The hearing, presided over by U.S. District Court judge David Carter, stems from a 2020 lawsuit brought by the Alliance, a coalition of business owners and residents that accuses the city and county of failing to adequately address the homelessness crisis.
At the center of the case is a 2022 settlement, in which the city agreed to create 12,915 new shelter beds over five years and provide housing for at least 60% of unhoused people in each council district.
The LA Alliance contends the city has failed to meet those terms and is asking the court…
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