Was San Ysidro School District smart to destroy documents?

Destroying evidence seems to be a successful ploy. It certainly worked for Halliburton (see story below).

What should SYSD's lawyers, Gil Abed and Dan Shinoff, do? Resign on principle?

Halliburton shares up despite destroying evidence
Adam Shell
USA TODAY
July 26, 2013

Halliburton shares rise despite guilty plea related to destroying evidence in 2010 oil spill in Gulf of Mexico.
Oil services firm will plead guilty to a criminal charge in Gulf oil spill disaster

Investors focus instead on $3.3 billion stock buyback announced last night
Shares of oil services firm are up about 30% this year

NEW YORK — Wall Street is shrugging off news that oil services firm Halliburton has admitted to destroying evidence related to the environmentally damaging 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, pushing shares up more than 3.7%.

After the market close Thursday, Halliburton said it will plead guilty to the criminal charged filed by the Justice Department and pay a fine of $200,000. It also made a voluntary contribution of $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Investors opted instead to focus on the oil services firm's announcement yesterday that it is planning on buying back $3.3 billion of its shares, as well as the company's quarterly earnings beat announced Monday.

CRIMINAL CHARGES: Halliburton admits destroying Gulf oil spill evidence

The stock was up 27.8% for the year heading into today's trading session, which tops the 18.5% gain for the broader market represented by the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index.

The oil rig blowout three summers ago in the Gulf of Mexico not only caused massive environmental damage, but also hurt the local economies of numerous states along the Gulf Coast, which rely on tourism and fishing profits. The explosion at the oil rig killed 11 workers and polluted hundreds of miles of coastline.

Halliburton was a contractor involved in the drilling of the faulty BP well, which was operated by Transocean.
v Halliburton rose $3.70 to $45.98.

Transocean shares dropped 80 cents, or 1.7%, to $47.69. BP's stock fell 11 cents, or 0.3%, to $43.58.

The government charged Halliburton with destroying computer simulations that it conducted a few months after the spill that were related to the process of using cement to seal the pipes in oil wells.

Criminal contempt is the appropriate charge for destroying and creating evidence at trial

Chula Vista Elementary spoliated evidence in this case. Obama jokes with Clooney at star's gala fundraiser By JIM KUHNHENN Associated Press May 11, 2012 ...Obama told the crowd that his famed "Hope" poster from the 2008 campaign was based on a photograph of Obama sitting next to Clooney when Obama was a U.S. senator. Clooney had been in Washington advocating on behalf of Darfur. "This is the first time that George Clooney has ever been photo-shopped out of a picture," Obama said. "Never happened before, never happen again." In fact, the artist who created the poster, Shepard Fairey, used another photograph of Obama but said he relied on the Obama-Clooney picture to avoid a copyright infringement case with The Associated Press. He pleaded guilty in February to criminal contempt for fabricating and destroying evidence...

Former Glaxo Lawyer Indicted

I don't think our Judge Judith Hayes of San Diego is going to be happy about this. The Justice Department has indicted a lawyer, Lauren C. Stevens of Durham, N.C.. Hayes doesn't even want lawyers to be criticized on the Internet, much less indicted for concealing evidence and obstructing justice.

Here's what our Judge Hayes had to say on the subject to a woman who criticized a law firm on the Internet:

"Take this law firm off the website...save yourself some trouble. A lawyer does what a lawyer does in every case, and if we had people putting up websites for every lawyer they didn't like we'd have so many websites the Internet would be boggled, if that is something that can happen electronically."
--Court Reporter's transcript April 6, 2009 Dept. 68 San Diego Superior Court

Note to Judge Hayes: The Internet seems to be doing just fine despite the burden of the millions of people who express their views online. What would happen if every victim decided to expose wrongdoing by lawyers? I think the result would be a more reliable justice system in which lawyers turn over evidence instead of hiding it.


November 9, 2010
Former Glaxo Lawyer Indicted
By DUFF WILSON
New York Times

A former vice president and associate general counsel for the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been indicted on charges of making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation into illegal drug marketing, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.

The criminal charges are part of the government’s long-promised crackdown on individual executives for their roles in pharmaceutical company cases, which have resulted in billions of dollars in fines and payments by the companies.

Lauren C. Stevens of Durham, N.C., is accused of lying to the Food and Drug Administration in a series of letters in 2003 denying the company had promoted a drug for off-label uses, according to federal prosecutors. She had claimed the company did not have promotional slides the F.D.A. had sought during its investigation, the indictment said...