C I T Y L I G H T S NEWS TICKER


Gangsters’ paradise O’side killers get more than 75 years in prison Two Oceanside gangsters will make one more appearance in a San Diego courtroom this month, on February 24, before they spend the rest of their lives in state prison, officials say.


C I T Y L I G H T S By Reader staff writers


Give up the keys, drunkie Bill would mandate training for booze servers Dozens of UC San Diego medical students gathered with California assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez on February 19 to promote Gonzalez’s proposed Assembly Bill 2121, which would mandate participation in a pro- gram that provides education to servers of alcoholic beverages. The measure began with UCSD students


including Nicole Herrick, who lost two friends in 2015, when a drunk driver traveling the wrong way on SR-163 crashed into her class- mates’ vehicle. “If you search for ‘UCSD students killed


David Lemoe Tua and Roland Isaac Seau Roland Isaac Seau, 25, and David Lemoe


Tua, 32, were both declared guilty of second- degree murder and attempted murder last October, after a jury trial. Earlier this month, Tua was sentenced to 75 years to life in state prison; Seau was sentenced to 102 years to life. In the summer of 2013, the body of Loui-


gie Bermas, 21, was found in the street by Oceanside police. Bermas had been beaten, strangled, and stabbed before he was dumped in the 600 block of Arthur Avenue, according to police. A companion who had been with Bermas that same night, on August 14, 2013, was also stabbed, but he escaped and was later able to testify. The survivor reportedly belonged to a


gang from Fallbrook and had invaded rival gang territory to spend time with a female; the woman lived in Oceanside. She testified that she also liked to spend time with David Lemoe Tua. Convicted murderers Seau and Tua are


both members of the Bloods gang, accord- ing to prosecutor Jon Oliphant. Photos of their alleged gang tattoos were dis- played as evidence in court. In Oceanside, the Bloods gang is mostly made up of Samoans, and they also go by the names Deep Valley Bloods or West Side DVB, experts testified. Bermas was not known to be in any gang,


but the prosecutor asserted that because he was in the company of a rival gang member and was wearing the color blue that night, he was offensive to Seau and Tua. Members of the Bloods gang are said to display the color red. Tua and Seau are expected to make


an appearance before judge Richard Mon- roy the morning of February 24, in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse in Vista.


Eva Knott Nicole Herrick at the podium (Lorena Gonzalez to her left) “The problem is that because there’s


no state education requirement, there’s no standardization in the classes offered. And because they’re not mandatory, few people take them,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve spoken to a number of people who know they’ve served people who’ve drank too much. But they don’t even know what they’re legally allowed to do to stop them from driving.” If passed, the bill would not take effect


until July of 2020. Gonzalez expressed confi- dence, going so far as to predict a unanimous vote of support. “We’re going to see if there’s any legis-


lator willing to say ‘no’ after hearing what these kids have to say once they come up continued on page 30


by a drunk driver,’ the horrifying reality is that our story isn’t the only one that comes up,” Herrick said, citing another wrong-way drunk-driver accident that involved student fatalities in December, calling the current situation “a public health crisis.” Under AB 2121, all alcoholic beverage


servers and their managers would have to complete a training course once every three years. The course would emphasize the identification of intoxicated patrons and techniques to prevent overserving and drunk driving. Such courses already exist, but atten-


dance for bar and restaurant workers is optional. According to the California Medical Association, 18 other states and the District of Columbia currently have laws similar to the one Gonzalez is proposing.


Credit card fees are speech


...at least until an appeals court says otherwise


By Thom Senzee I


t’s late 2014. A young man takes his girlfriend to a Mission Valley yogurt


shop. After he decks out a medium cup of vanilla tart with all manner of toppings and his girl opts for a little crumbled graham cracker on her mango sorbet, the couple gets whacked at the counter by a buck-fifty sur- charge because they paid with a credit card. That’s in addi- tion to the $7 for froyo. It jus t so


happens the guy works for an attorney and knows the fee was illegal. Next day, he calls the store’s owner, who agrees to stop charging the fee. For more than four


decades, California con- sumers were protected by a


Neal Obermeyer


state law, the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971, that prevented merchants from penalizing credit-card- using customers with a sur- charge. Those days ended 11


C I T Y L I G H T S


tutionally limits merchants’ freedom of speech. Under the old fee ban,


wrote Morrison England, chief of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Dis- trict of California, in his judg- ment of Italian Colors Restau- rant, et al. v. Harris, “Plain- tiffs cannot frame their price how they would like, even though they are allowed to speak with their customers generally about the credit card industry and the merchant fees that the industry charges.”


Check your receipt for credit-card-use surcharges months ago.


A federal judge ruled that banning retailers from charging extra for


swiping a card or paying for that $7 cup of frozen yogurt with a credit-card-linked smartphone app unconsti-


Sacramento-based Judge


England’s ruling came on March 26, 2015, in a case brought by a handful of plaintiffs — led by an Oak- land restaurant called Ital- ian Colors — challenging the state’s longstanding ban on


PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY BOYD


2 San Diego Reader February 25, 2016


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