Court Dates

Location:  Court sessions will be held at the René C. Davidson Alameda County Courthouse 1225 Fallon St., Oakland, CA, 94612.  Directions, a map, and travel alternatives (BART, AC Transit) are on the Superior Court website.  The public entrance is on 12th Street.

Please attend court sessions to support the Casquelourd family’s attempt to ensure that justice is served and to bear witness to the court proceedings.  We will let you know important dates to attend. We ask that you remain respectful and quiet.  Please arrive early.  Thank you.

On October 29, 2004, Martin Burgermyer was sentenced to four years in prison.

October 29, 2004, 2pm:  The sentencing hearing will be held at at 2:00pm in Department 11 7th floor 1221 Fallon Street. It is very important that family and friends attend.  Also, please write letters to the judge to let him know of Malonga's place in  your life.  Letters can be sent through Maria Suniga, 1401 LakeShore, Suite 802, Oakland, CA 94612.  The will be an opportunity for just one person to speak on behalf of the family at the hearing.

September 17, 2004: New:  The date of October 29 was set for sentencing.  The date will be decided for the Sentencing Hearing, which will be held in October.  Location:  Department (11) 7th fl. 1221 Fallon. NEW September 10:  Family and friends do not need to attend this hearing.  Once the sentencing date is set, there will be a call for family and friends to attend the sentencing.

If you want to influence the sentencing, you can write a letter to the judge.  The letter can be sent in advance to Maria Suniga, 1401 LakeShore, Suite 802, Oakland, CA 94612.  You can also bring your letter to the sentencing hearing.

August 26, 2004:  Martin Burgermeyer pled "no contest" to all of the charges and was read his rights as to what this means.  The Judge will decide what his Sentence would be.  On September 17, 2004 the date will be decided for the Sentencing Hearing, which will be held in October. The September 17 hearing will be in Department (11) 7th fl. 1221 Fallon.   Darrell Stallsworth (District Attorney) is fighting for 10 years with NO LENIENCY for good behavior.

August 26, 2004:  The Jury trial has been postponed from August 23rd to August 26, 2004. , Burgermeyer has agreed to plead GUILTY TO ALL ACCOUNTS on Thursday the 26th of August in Department 11 at 9:00am. The sentencing hearing will be scheduled in October on that day. Any questions, feel free to contact Maria Suniga at 510 272-6191.

July 19, 2004:  A TENTATIVE date of July 19 has been set for the beginning of the trial.  The District Attorney's office believes, however, that there is a very good chance that this date will be continued.  Once a firm date is set, the steps will be

• Jury Selection.  This can take 3 or 4 days
• Pretrial motions by both the prosecution and the defense.  This can also take several days
• Witness testimony begins

Community presence will be needed once witness testimony begins but is not needed for jury selection and pretrial motions.  Our presence during witness testimony will demonstrate to the jury the love and regard with which Malonga is held and how much he meant to us. 

We will continue to post information here as we have updates from the District Attorney.

April 9, 2004:  The judge and lawyers will again discuss "disposition and setting", ie, sentencing should Burgermyer plead guilty.  It is very important that the letters requested by the family be provided well in advance of this date.  These letters will be part of the package the judge will look at in determining the sentence if a Guilty pleas is entered by Burgermyer.

March 12, 2004:  The judge in this case did not commit to specific sentencing should Burgermyer plead Guilty.  For that reason he chose not to plead at this time.  A new court date was set for April 9.  See notes above for information about this date.  At this court date we will learn what plea has been entered.  If the plea is Guilty, the process for sentencing will begin.  If the defendant persists in pleading Not Guilty, then the next steps toward trial will be initiated.

February 6, 2004, 10 am, Department,  11.  Discover and Setting hearing was rescheduled to this date from January 9.  See more information in the January 9, 2004, entry. At the February 6, 2004, court date a new date was set for March 12, 2004. The Family will be meeting with the District Attorney prior to that date to discuss sentencing alternatives in the event that a Guilty plea is entered.

January 9, 2004, 10 am, Department,  11.  This hearing was rescheduled at the request of the Defense.  They requested additional time for discovery relating to the road conditions.  The DA has told the family that it is important that family and friends be there.  At this time the judge, the district attorney, and the defense lawyer will meet to discuss the disposition of the case.  At this time, any offers and plea bargains would be discussed. Dick Moore, the supervising DA for this court assured the family that he will will not make any offers and that he will press for the maximum possible punishment for these felonies.  The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison.  Following this meeting, there will be disclosure of the meeting outcomes and information will be placed on the record.

Mr. Moore told the family that if the defendant does not change his plea, a trial would begin in about 8 months.  The DA will not object to any delays requested by the defense attorney in order to reduce the probability of an appeal upon a finding of Guilty.  He expects the trial itself to take a month or more, including jury selection.

Mr. Moore also discussed various possible outcomes, depending on whether the defendant changed his plea or continued to plead not guilty.  He also said that the judge will speak to family during the sentencing phase.  Prior to this phase, letters about the impact on family, friends, and community of Malonga's passing can be provided to help guide the judge in sentencing.  The family will let us know how the letters will be collected and presented to the judge.

December 11 (Thursday), 9am Department 11.  Martin Burgermyer was arraigned and plead Not Guilty.  A trial District Attorney is assigned to the case.  Note the new location for court events.  A date of January 9, 2004 was set for Disposition and Hearing of the case.  The family spoke with Dick Moore, the supervising District Attorney for Superior Court at the René C. Davidson Alameda County Courthouse.  He described some of the next steps as well as some of  his perspectives on the case as well as the strategies.  In summary:

November 24 (Monday) 8:45 in Dept. 112.    Dozens of friends and family of Malonga attended the Preliminary Hearing for Martin Burgermyer on Monday , November 24.  At this hearing, the judge ruled that there is probable cause that a felony was committed and that Burgermyer was guilty of the three counts against him.  Burgermyer remains out on bail. 

The process begins again in Superior court, with an arraignment scheduled for December 11 at 9am, in Department 11.  Note that proceedings are moved to the Superior Court located at 225 Fallon St., in Oakland.

October 23, 2003 2pm (Thursday) Department 115, 6th floor.  The pre-trial hearing previous scheduled for September 24 and then October 7 was held on October 23.  A court date was set for the Preliminary Hearing:  Monday, November 24 at 8:45 in Dept. 112

October 7, 2003, 2pm.  The time was changed from 9am to 2pm.  About a dozen people attend the court session on October 7.  The scheduled pre-trial hearing was not held.  The Defense lawyer has requested a sample of the blood taken from Burgermyer at the scene so that their own experts can test the blood alcohol level.  This request was made several weeks ago and the coroner's office has not yet provided the sample.  This in turn caused the pre-trial hearing to be delayed.  Because of the delay in the pre-trial hearing, Burgermyer was not present.  The judge told Ted Cassman, Burgermyer's attorney that Burgermyer must be present at the next court date due to the serious nature of the charges.

The last court date, which was September 24th, was for the two attorney's (District Attorney and the defendant's Attorney) to meet to discuss opportunity for plea bargaining, and for the Judge to find out if each Attorney has their witness's in place. Also, to schedule the date of the preliminary hearing, which is when the witness's will testify and the defendant will tell his story. It is important that the mass public be at the preliminary hearing to put the pressure on the Judge to keep this as a "high profile" case.

Because the defendant's attorney was "out of the country" on September 24th, he sent an associate from his office to go to court and schedule a continuance date, which is October 7th. That's when they will schedule the date of the preliminary trial and do what they should have Sept. 24th, if everyone shows up.

September 24:  The preliminary hearing scheduled for September 24 was cancelled because Burgermyer's lawyer was out of town. The new date for the hearing will be published here when the information is available.  We do not know yet whether this will affect the October 7 hearing.

August 20, 2003:   A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Wednesday August 20.

At this hearing, Burgermyer's lawyer waived the time requirements on Burgermyer's request.  The lawyer stated that he was continuing to do "discovery" in the case.  Burgermyer was not present. 

July 3, 2003:

About 60 family members and friends of Malonga were in court to witness the arraignment of Martin Burgermyer on July 3. Two charges were entered against him: Vehicular manslaughter and DUI causing bodily injury. Burgermyer's drivers license has been withdrawn pending completion of the trial. Burgermyer pled "not guilty" to the charges. Bail was set at $80,000, the maximum for these charges. Burgermyer posted bail. An Assistant District Attorney explained that almost everyone pleads not guilty to charges, whatever the circumstances.

General Information

• Burgermyer's lawyer, Ted Cassman, has represented defendants in a number and variety of high profile cases.  He was defense attorney in the Lakireddy Bali Reddy case in Berkeley, the Andrew F. Liersch, case in Oakland, and the case of Raiders defensive tackle Darrell Russell in Alameda. 

• Directions, a map, and travel alternatives (BART, AC Transit) are on the Superior Court website.  The court is easily accessible from public transportation.  Street parking is difficult; there is a parking garage with a fee of $4.50 per day.

• There a security checkpoint,but typically there are not long lines.  Remember that no knives, scissors, etc. will be allowed in the building.

• Scheduled hearings may be rescheduled with little notice.  We will try to keep the community informed when this happens.  Please check the website and the congolese community email list for the most current information we have before going to the Court. 

• All hearings on the court's docket for the day are scheduled for the same time, so there may be a wait before the case is called.  In order to ensure that there is a seat for you in the courtroom, however, we recommend that you come at 9am or 2pm (depending on the scheduled time).  Attendees are not allowed to stand during the proceedings.

• Persons under 18 are not allowed in the courtroom.  This is enforced strictly.

• Statements made in court by the defendant or the defendant's attorney may be disturbing or upsetting; but please do not react.  The bailiffs may remove people who speak up or are otherwise thought to be disrupting the court.  It is possible that someone could be prevented from attending any future hearings in the case if the judge decides that the person is behaving inappropriately. 

• Information about the District Attorney's office can be found on their web site.

• The web site of the Sacramento County District Attorney outlines the legal process, including an "Anatomy of a Prosecution", "The Criminal Justice System", "Fundamentals of a Jury Trial" and provides definitions of some of the legal terms used.