1 1 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA 2 COUNTY OF ALAMEDA 3 BEFORE THE HONORABLE IOANA PETROU, JUDGE PRESIDING 4 DEPARTMENT NUMBER 15 5 ---oOo--- 6 7 PACIFICA DIRECTORS FOR GOOD ) GOVERNANCE, et al., ) 8 ) Plaintiffs, ) 9 ) vs. ) 10 ) ) 11 PACIFICA FOUNDATION RADIO, et al.,) ) 12 Defendants. ) ) 13 AND RELATED CROSS-ACTIONS. ) __________________________________) 14 15 16 Reporter's Transcript of Proceedings 17 Monday, May 6, 2014 18 19 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL: 20 For Plaintiff: 21 Siegel & Yee 499 14th Street, Suite 220 22 Oakland, CA 94612 By: DAN SIEGEL, ESQ. 23 ALAN S. YEE, ESQ. 24 25 Reported By: Patty Lee Hubble, CSR #3058 OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 2 1 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL: 2 For Defense: 3 Aroplex Law San Francisco, CA 4 By: AMY SOMMER ANDERSON, ESQ. 5 6 Law Offices of Eric C. Jacobson Post Office Box 67674 7 Los Angeles, CA 90067 By: ERIC C. JACOBSON, ESQ. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 3 1 INDEX 2 PLAINTIFF'S WITNESSES PAGE 3 EDWARDS-TIEKERT, BRIAN 34 4 Direct Examination by Mr. Siegel 34 5 Cross-Examination by Mr. Jacobson 43 6 Cross-Examination by Mr. Ms. Anderson 76 7 Recross-Examination by Mr. Jacobson 95 8 Redirect Examination by Mr. Siegel 100 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 4 1 INDEX 2 DEFENSE WITNESSES PAGE 3 4 UZZELL, RICHARD 109 5 Direct Examination by Ms. Anderson 109 6 Cross-Examination by Mr. Siegel 122 7 Cross-Examination by Mr. Jacobson 133 8 Redirect Examination by Ms. Anderson 136 9 10 ROSENBERG, TRACY 138 11 Direct Examination by Mr. Jacobson 138 12 Recross-Examination by Mr. Siegel 155 13 Recross-Examination by Mr. Jacobson 160 14 Direct Examination by Mr. Jacobson 162 15 Recross-Examination by Mr. Siegel 170 16 17 REESE, SUMMER 174 18 Direct Examination by Mr. Jacobson 174 19 Cross-Examination by Mr. Siegel 192 20 Redirect Examination by Mr. Jacobson 207 21 22 23 24 25 OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 5 1 E X H I B I T S 2 COURT'S EXHIBITS DESCRIPTION IDEN EVID 3 4 1 Pacifica Radio calendar, archive 174 174 5 6 7 ---oOo--- 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 6 1 MONDAY, MAY 6, 2014 2 ---oOo--- 3 THE COURT: Good morning, everybody. 4 Step on up, counsel. 5 Appearances on Pacifica Directors for 6 Good Governance vs. Pacifica Foundation Radio, et 7 al, case number HG14720131. 8 MR. SIEGEL: Good morning, Your 9 Honor. Dan Siegel and Alan Yee of Siegel & Yee for 10 the Pacifica Foundation and Margy Wilkinson. 11 MS. ANDERSON: Amy Anderson for 12 Pacifica Directors for Good Governance. 13 THE COURT: Counsel, you're appearing 14 this morning or not? 15 MR. JACOBSON: Um, I'm appearing for 16 Summer Reese. But your first item is PPGG -- 17 THE COURT: Just come on up. 18 MR. JACOBSON: Okay. 19 THE COURT: Your appearance. 20 MR. JACOBSON: Good morning, Your 21 Honor. Eric C. Jacobson appearing for Summer Reese. 22 THE COURT: Feel free to have a seat, 23 everyone. 24 We are here on both matters. We're 25 here on the OSC re preliminary injunction on one OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 7 1 side and request for temporary restraining order on 2 the other side. I have everyone's papers including 3 the papers that Mr. Jacobson -- first of all, 4 Mr. Jacobson, this arrived here after 4:00 o'clock 5 yesterday and it's not file stamped. 6 Was this actually filed with the 7 clerk? 8 MS. REESE: Yes, Your Honor. 9 THE COURT: Do you have a 10 file-stamped version or can we tell online, 11 Ms. Williams? 12 MR. JACOBSON: I'll look, Your Honor. 13 THE COURT: Meanwhile, Mr. Jacobson, 14 I don't see any request for leave to file papers 15 that are more than twice the length permitted by 16 California Rules of Court 3.1113. Why should this 17 not be stricken? 18 MR. JACOBSON: Your Honor, this was 19 prepared under enormous time pressures, and 20 candidly, there was inadequate time to research the 21 superparticulars. I apologize if I greatly exceeded 22 the pages on this. My understanding was based on -- 23 THE COURT: Counsel -- 24 MR. JACOBSON: Can I -- 25 THE COURT: No. Research -- I'm not OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 8 1 quite sure what you are referencing by research. 2 This is the same rule that applies to every single 3 opposition paper filed in any case. It's a 4 15-page limit. 5 MR. JACOBSON: If I may. I've been 6 practicing in federal courts for the last 12 years, 7 before that in the state courts. I have no excuse 8 about violating the rules on the length of the 9 filing. I concede the point and ask that you at 10 least take into consideration the fact that we're 11 under enormous time pressures to educate the Court 12 about this very serious matter, with very little to 13 no time compared to what it would take in any type 14 of normal situation. 15 One last point, I made an inquiry 16 about whether there was any applicable rule for an 17 opposition to a TRO and I was told there is no 18 specific rule for an opposition to a TRO in 19 particular. So I allowed myself the luxury -- 20 THE COURT: So, Counsel, I recommend 21 next time you actually read the rules. California 22 Rule of Court 3.1113, I believe it's subdivision 23 (d), says: 24 "An opposition to anything, other 25 than a motion for summary judgment, OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 9 1 has a limit of 15 pages. If it's more 2 than that, it is to be treated as a 3 late filed paper. It's then up to the 4 Court whether to consider it or not." 5 I will think about it. I will consider 6 the declarations that were attached to it. 7 MR. JACOBSON: May I put in an 8 ex parte application for exceeding the page limit? 9 THE COURT: It's too late. I will 10 take you as having made the request and I will use 11 my discretion to do so, you don't need to do that. 12 Have we confirmed that this is even 13 filed? 14 THE CLERK: No, it's not filed, Your 15 Honor. 16 THE COURT: Ms. Reese, do you have a 17 filed version? 18 MS. REESE: I dropped it off with a 19 check for $445 yesterday at the clerk's office, 20 right before 4:00, and came across the street to 21 here. 22 THE CLERK: It's in the drop box. 23 THE COURT: Back to the big picture, 24 the big picture for the papers on all sides. As 25 counsel notes there are a lot of different issues in OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 10 1 here. A lot of the issues, though -- and I say this 2 to everyone, as to all the papers -- really don't 3 have to do with what is in front of the Court here 4 today, right? Because we're really not here to 5 determine whether Mrs. Reese's termination was valid 6 in the sense as to whether there actually was cause. 7 There are a lot of things in here that are not at 8 issue. 9 The things that I am deeply 10 interested in, because I think it goes straight to 11 the heart of the request on -- I'll just say all 12 sides rather than both sides -- I would really 13 appreciate it if you could focus on a few things: 14 Whether the Board had the authority to take the 15 actions that it took on -- I believe it was 16 February 9th of this year; whether it had the 17 authority to take the actions it took on 18 March 13th of this year. 19 And I think really it's up to 20 plaintiffs to show any irregularity given the 21 declarations that have been filed. 22 And also whether there is any 23 evidence that I missed in here, somehow, that the 24 January 30th, 2014 employment agreement of Ms. Reese 25 was approved by the Board. I would like to know if OFFICIAL TRIAL REPORTERS - 925.200.1389 11 1 there is any evidence of Board approval. 2 So obviously say what you wish, but I 3 want you to know at the outset that those are the 4 questions that I think to be the most pertinent to 5 the hearing this morning that really go to the heart 6 of things I need to decide in regard to these 7 motions as opposed to, bigger picture, all the 8 additional issues that will have to be dealt with 9 down the road. 10 All right. Let's start with either 11 Mr. Siegel or Mr. Yee. 12 MR. SIEGEL: Well, Your Honor, first 13 of all, I think the January 30th agreement is 14 critical to the Court's consideration as Margy 15 Wilkinson indicated in her declaration.