The woman who allegedly led police on a wild chase after stealing an ambulance parked in front of a downtown San Francisco emergency is out of jail today, after a judge granted her "supervised release" following her not guilty plea Thursday.

As previously reported, 37-year-old Veronica Barahona allegedly hopped into a San Francisco Fire Department ambulance as it was parked in front of the Ambassador Hotel by paramedics responding to a medical emergency Tuesday

When the paramedics left the hotel, located at 55 Mason, at around 8 a.m., the ambulance was gone. Police located the vehicle (which was equipped with a tracking device) and followed it across the Bay Bridge. A woman prosecutors say was Barahona wrecked the vehicle near Treasure Island, in a crash serious enough that the ambulance burst into dramatic flames. She was uninjured in the wreck, and was detained by police at the scene.

In court yesterday, Deputy Public Defender Ariana Downing gave more insight into Barahona's life, saying that she is a mother of three who has struggled with addiction for years. According to Bay City News, Downing says that Barahona "was working to get her life in order earlier this year and earned a certification to be a forklift driver and work in a warehouse, but recently relapsed."

While prosecutors asked that Barahona's bail be set at $75,000, Judge Charles Crompton instead granted her supervised release, saying that she needed "treatment more than incarceration."

Meanwhile, according to spokesperson Jonathan Baxter, the SFFD is still trying to figure out what from the $225,000 ambulance can be salvaged. The blackened vehicle, which BCN reports was "among the oldest in the department’s 54-vehicle fleet and was likely to be replaced in August when nine new ambulances are scheduled to arrive," was despite its age still considered necessary.

"Whether it’s a brand new ambulance or one of the oldest," Baxter says, "it’s something that is a resource and a valuable tool for the department."

According to the San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Sargeant Michael Andraychak, Barahona has "no local address," so it's unclear where she'll be staying during her release period. She faces felony charges of "vehicle theft and theft of a special vehicle (ambulance)," and has pled not guilty to both.

Previously: Just How, Exactly, Did An SF Woman Steal That Ambulance Yesterday?

The California State Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that same-sex marriages can continue despite an emergency request from Prop 8 supporters to stop them.

"Backers of Proposition 8 had turned to the state's high court last week after Gov. Jerry Brown ordered all 58 county clerks in California to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples," reports The Chronicle. "Brown acted two days after the U.S. Supreme Court's June 26 ruling that the initiative's private sponsors lacked legal standing to defend it in federal court."

Equality California Executive Director John O'Connor had this to say:

"Yet again, detractors have failed in their attempt to halt marriage for loving same-sex couples in California. Committed gay and lesbian couples will continue to affirm their love for one another through marriage should they choose to. Marriage for same-sex couples is here to stay in California!"

California's 58 counties started issuing marriage licenses for gay couples on June 28, two days after the SCOTUS ruling. So, you know, get those wedding cakes ordered.

[Sacto Bee]
[Chron]

Sabryna Bell, 24, the woman who stands accused of kicking a two-year-old in the torso in Golden Gate Park on Monday, didn't appear in court on Thursday. Why? Because she's mentally unwell. To say the least.

Before yesterday's hearing, according to SF Appeal, "she was heard yelling expletives at her attorney from a holding cell adjacent to the courtroom." She was promptly excused from making a cameo at the arraignment, which was postponed until March 21.

Bell, if you recall, kicked a young girl visiting the city for a wedding. Luckily, the young child didn't suffer any serious injuries even though she was kicked in the torso and knocked her to the ground. After the attack, according to SF Examiner, Bell allegedly then "kicked a baby stroller that struck a mother who was holding her 3-month-old child.

Before being arrested, she also was heard screaming to a woman, “B****, I will kill your children."

Authorities suspect drugs, mental health issues or a combination of both played a role.

When Nathan Burris isn't offending the family of the woman she murdered, he's asking jurors to flip a coin in order to decide his fate. Burris, if you recall, was convicted last week of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend Deborah Ross and her friend, Ersie Everette III, at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza back in 2009. According to SF Examiner, "he doesn't care if he gets the death penalty or life in prison and has suggested jurors deciding his fate flip a coin."

Last week, the 49-year-old murderer, representing himself in his capital trial in Contra Costa County Superior Court, told the courtroom, "I did it. So what? ... No remorse, no regrets, no mercy. ... You want me to draw it out in crayon?" His behavior turned more callous as the trial prgressed. As the Chron notes, "In the audience, a dozen of the victims' family members stared hard at Burris, who occasionally giggled and - through a speech impediment - cursed the people he killed." Burris had also snapped his fingers and asked the court to hurry up so that he could be back in jail in time for Monday Night Football.

Testimony will resume on Tuesday.

Louie Sanchez, 28, and Marvin Norwood, 30, the two men accused of beating Giants fan Bryan Stow at the Dodgers opening game on March 30, pled not guilty to mayhem, assault, battery and other counts in the attacking Stow. "Police have portrayed Sanchez as leading the assault on Stow, which came March 31 at the culmination of an alleged rampage in which Sanchez and Norwood are accused of lashing out randomly at rival Giants fans at the stadium," notes KTVU.

Chief Judge Ware has ruled against anti-marriage ilk, throwing out the inane argument that Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling against Prop 8 was unconstitutional since he is a homosexual." Their complaints, if you recall, were that Judge Walker's ruling "should be invalidated based on the fact that he had a bias in the case, being himself a gay man who potentially wanted to be legally married."

They also had a separate complaint about Walker's "use of videos of the trial in public speeches, claiming the video was supposed to be sealed after the trial."

Judge Ware, however, ruled in favor of civil rights and basic human decency.

The upcoming appeals court hearing on California’s same-sex marriage ban will be televised. "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal announced Wednesday that it had granted C-Span permission to carry the Dec. 6 proceedings in San Francisco live, " reports AP. "The decision makes it possible for millions to see firsthand the two-hour hearing set for December 6, said Yousef Robb with the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which opposes Proposition 8." The live telecast will also show future generations a harrowing and shameful moment in California history when unbridled stupidity and prejudice almost wormed its way into the state constitution. [CBS 5]

Cavenia Bryant and Jamillya Edgerton, the two waste-of-space human beings who videotaped themselves brutally attacking an Oakland hair salon owner, then bragged about it on-air to radio station KMEL -- were in court today. It seems the victim, according to ABC 7's Dan Noyes, "is questioning why the Alameda County District Attorney's office has decided to file only misdemeanor battery and false imprisonment charges against suspects." The ladies, awe we use that term loosely, should have seen some sort of felony assault charges.

Even ABC7 agrees.

ABC7 Legal Analyst Dean Johnson agrees with Seals. After watching the video this morning, Johnson says if he were the prosecutor, the charges would have been felony assault, false imprisonment and conspiracy. Johnson cites the prolonged attack, the number of blows and the kicks to the head.

After the jump, View the raw footage of the attack (warning: it is explicit and violent) to judge for yourself.

After allegedly being beaten, sexually assaulted, threatened by a Guatemalan congressman, and chronically harassed by Guatemalan police, gay Bay Area resident Saul Martinez fled to the United States in 1992. Now, after years of living in the U.S., the Feds are trying to send him back to his country of origin. According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights:

In 1992, when Martinez initially applied for asylum, the U.S. had not yet recognized sexual orientation as a ground for asylum. Afraid of being forced back to Guatemala, where he feared for his life, and unaware that persecution based on sexual orientation might be a basis for asylum in this country, Martinez did not disclose his sexual orientation in his initial asylum application, stating that he feared returning to Guatemala because of his political opinion.

Unfortunately, since Martinez failed to claim sexual orientation as his reason for escape, and with a jarring disregard to Guatemala's treatment of LGBT ilk, the Ninth Circuit says he's not credible and denied his claim to stay in the U.S. Even though "Martinez’s life partner testified in court about their relationship," there's a very good chance he will be sent back to a place where he must live in fear. Again. (At the very least, aome of this mess, perhaps, might not be problem if same-sex marriage was still legal in California.)

While lawyers and civil rights advocates agree that Prop 8 will (most likely) be upheld when the State Supreme Court makes its decision, no one can say for sure if forced divorces will affect the 18,000+ couples who were legally married. In what could be the biggest debate in all of this is, well, "is." The wording of Prop 8 reads like this: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Kenneth Starr claimed during this month's hearing that the phrase “is recognized,” even in the present tense, would also nullify existing same-sex marriages that happened in the past. But as Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal points out, "Advocates who favor allowing the gay marriages to stand point to a California legal tradition of protecting what are called 'vested rights.' The idea is that if somebody obeyed the law in exercising a right, any new law must be extremely clear in its intent to take away that right." That is to say, if you want a law to work retroactively, said law must be clear about it; the gay marriage ban was not. (Also for comprehensive coverage about civil marriage equality in California, check out Stop8.org.)

Briefly touched upon last week when the final batch of Prop 8 donor names unfurled, Utah citizens and the LDS Church spent more on getting Prop. 8 passed than previously known. According to the Salt Lake Tribune:

Utahans and the LDS Church spent significantly more than previously reported on last-minute efforts to push passage of California's ban of same-sex marriage, newly filed financial disclosures show.

Donations from as many as 1,025 individual and businesses in Utah to both sides of the Proposition 8 campaign totaled about $3.8 million, according to new filings with California's secretary of state, with more than 70 percent going to groups supporting the successful measure.

This is unnerving. And, most disconcerting, not at all surprising.

The California State Supreme court will begin hearing arguments on Prop 8 starting March 5. Be sure to watch it all go down at 9am on the California Channel. (Also, hey, no way, we have a California Channel! Who knew?)

Check out Stop8.org for comprehensive coverage about civil marriage equality in California.

Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year's Day, was released from jail late this afternoon on bond. He had been at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin since Jan. 13. Another court date is set for Feb. 12. Protesters have gathered around the Oakland City courthouse. Police are on alert. Tension is in the air. We are all American Apparel. Etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.