The Brief

A Washington D.C.-based health care clinic that performs abortions has filed a lawsuit against Beverly Hills, accusing city officials of colluding with a landlord to prevent them from opening a location there.

Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold, City Manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey, Deputy City Manager Keith Sterling, City Attorney Laurence Wiener and Chief of Police Mark Stainbrook are all named in the lawsuit filed last week by DuPont Clinic.

The clinic was set to open on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and had signed a lease with Douglas Emmett Inc. But the lawsuit alleges the city and the landlord colluded to rescind the lease after caving to pressure from anti-abortion protesters, despite “the right to abortion enshrined in the California Constitution.”

In a statement, the city said the decision to rescind the lease agreement wasn't theirs.

"The City is already home to medical offices that offer reproductive health services and has been very clear on its position of strongly supporting a person’s right to choose," the statement added. "The decision to rescind DuPont Clinic’s lease was not made by the City of Beverly Hills."

In September 2022, the lawsuit states that DuPont entered into a lease agreement with Douglas Emmett, and a month later began discussions with the city about the clinic.

“The City expressly confirmed to DuPont that the City approved of DuPont's intended use of the Premises, and DuPont began planning the construction of its clinic,” the lawsuit states.

According to Jessica Corpuz, an attorney for DuPont Clinic, the city and landlord were aware of the services the clinic planned to provide.

However, Corpuz added, everything changed when a group of anti-abortion protesters got wind of the intended use of the clinic.

“That's really when the city got involved to an extent that they had not been prior,” she said.

First, the lawsuit alleges, the city held up permits.

Wiener, the city attorney, then asked the clinic to sign a letter stating that they will not violate any California laws, according to the lawsuit.

“That is not something that is required of any other medical practice, that would not have been a request if DuPont Clinic was opening a dentist practice,” Corpuz said. “He was doing this specifically because they're an abortion provider.”

Eventually, Corpuz said, the city “begrudgingly” issued the permits.

But Corpuz said police then sent a letter the landlord warning that the clinic would attract violence and vandalism and the safety, putting the security of other tenants at risk.

“Once the chief of police sent that letter, Douglas Emmett clearly felt that it had no option and that it bowed to the pressure of the city and it sent a letter to DuPont quote-unquote rescinding the lease,” she said.

A representative for Douglas Emmett said the company "has a well-established policy of refraining from discussing leasing matters with external entities. We will respond following the legal framework."

The lawsuit also outlines meetings city officials allegedly had with anti-abortion protesters.

The city, Corpuz added, told the protesters that the clinic would not open and that the landlord rescinded the lease — information she said was shared on the eve of a big protest.

DuPont Clinic also filed a lawsuit against the landlord in August, in part, citing a letter it received from Douglas Emmett attorneys who said part of the reason for rescinding the lease offer was due to the discovery that the clinic would be providing “late term abortions” and attract potentially unsafe conditions.

“DuPont Clinic provides an absolutely critical service,” Corpuz said. “These are people who often can't get treatment elsewhere. These are people who need critical life-saving care, and DuPont Clinic planned to open here in order to provide that.”

Following the Dobbs decision and the reversal of Roe v. Wade, California emerged as a haven for abortion rights. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws protecting pregnant people’s rights to an abortion, even requiring insurance companies to cover the procedure. Protections were also enshrined in the state constitution.

At the time of the Dobbs decision, Beverly Hills also lit up City Hall in pink and council members unanimously supported a resolution in favor of abortion rights.

“Beverly Hills really advertised itself as a place that was safe for abortion care. And Douglas Emmett, the landlord, was fully supportive of this mission,” Corpuz said. “Everyone says these things, but when it came down to actually supporting an abortion clinic, the city tripped over itself instead of supporting this clinic.”

The push to ban gas-powered leaf blowers has gained an unlikely figurehead: Cate Blanchett, the Australian actress.

“Leaf blowers need to be eradicated from the face of the Earth,” she said in an interview in March. Her complaints have gone viral on TikTok and other social media platforms. “It’s a metaphor for what’s wrong with us as a species,” Blanchett said. “We blow shit from one side of our lawn to the other side, and then the wind is just going to blow it back!”

Her complaints about leaf blowers — equal parts entertaining and earnest — stretch back nearly 20 years, and now the mood has caught up with her. Today, more than 200 local governments in the U.S. have restricted gas-powered lawn equipment or provided incentives to switch to quieter, less-polluting electric tools. The first bans date back to the 1970s, but the trend picked up after the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, when newly homebound workers discovered just how inescapable the whine of their neighbor’s leaf blower can be.

“With every year that passes, more and more communities across the country are taking action to address the shocking amount of pollution and noise from gas lawn equipment,” said Kirsten Schatz, clean air advocate at the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, called CoPIRG.

Gas-powered leaf blowers aren’t just annoying; they’re bad for public health. Closing the windows can’t shut out their low-frequency roar, which can be louder than the World Health Organization’s recommended limit of 55 decibels up to 800 feet away. The unwanted sound can lead to high levels of stress, along with disturbing people’s sleep and potentially damaging hearing over time.

Leaf blowers’ two-stroke engines also churn out a noxious blend of exhaust: fine particulate matter, smog-forming gases, and cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde. By one estimate, running a gas-powered leaf blower for an hour emits as much smog-forming pollution as driving a car from Los Angeles to Denver.

And while lawn and garden equipment is only a small slice of global carbon emissions, leaf blowers and other gas-powered tools “pack a big punch for the amount that they create based on the size of their engines,” said Dan Mabe, the founder of the American Green Zone Alliance, a group that works with cities and landscapers to shift to electric equipment. In 2020, fossil-fueled lawn and garden equipment in the U.S. released more than 30 million tons of CO2, more than the emissions of the city of L.A.

Cities and states across the country have taken different approaches to dealing with the problem. California’s law banning the sale of new gas-powered blowers took effect last January, while cities like Portland and Baltimore are phasing out their use. Some places, like Wilmette, Illinois, have enacted seasonal limits, either permanently or until a full ban takes effect. Others, like Colorado, attempt to sweeten the deal of buying electric lawn care equipment, offering a 30 percent discount.

But implementing the bans is proving more challenging than many expected. Many communities are frustrated that the new rules are not being properly enforced, said Jamie Banks, the founder and president of Quiet Communities, a nonprofit working to reduce noise pollution.

Westport, Connecticut, fought for years to get a seasonal restriction on gas-powered blowers, only to find that local officials were not enforcing it, Banks said. Noise complaints are not exactly at the top of police officers’ priority lists, and sometimes ordinances are written in a way that’s hard to carry out — police aren’t usually expected to go around town taking noise readings, for example. Some communities are taking a deliberate approach to the problem: Banks pointed to a group of towns in the greater Chicago area, including Wilmette, that are trying to create consistent policies across the region and working with the local police.

Then there’s the matter that swapping gas blowers for ones powered by electricity isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. While the costs are comparable for homeowners — you can get electric blowers at a big-box store like Home Depot for around $200 or less, cheaper than most gas ones — electric blowers are more expensive for commercial landscapers. They require multiple batteries for workers to get through the day. While a typical professional gas-powered blower runs for $550, a comparable electric one costs $700 and requires thousands of dollars worth of batteries. Landscapers also have to buy hundreds of dollars worth of charging equipment and find ways to charge safely on the go.

Plus, it can be difficult to meet the standards customers expect with electric leaf blowers, which are less powerful than gas ones. “If you have customers that are demanding that you get everything off the ground, and you better do it quickly, and you’d better not charge me too much money, it’s really tough,” Banks said.

Bans have already generated a political backlash in some Republican-led states. Texas and Georgia have passed laws prohibiting local governments from regulating gas-powered leaf blowers. The Western States Petroleum Association, an oil industry group, launched a Latino-focused messaging campaign in California that pushes back against laws to electrify vehicles and leaf blowers. But leaf blowers aren’t just a culture-war lightning rod; in some places, they’re leading to personal conflict. In Evanston, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago, several landscape workers allege they’ve been harassed by people reporting violations of the local ban.

The American Green Zone Alliance noted in a recent statement that “heavy-handed bans on gas-powered leaf blowers can unintentionally create stress and hardship for workers who often labor for low wages, with limited benefits or control over their working conditions.”

Although there remain a lot of details to work out, the organization is still pushing lawn care to go electric. “We are trying to convince our industry, ‘Look, we need to accelerate this,’” Mabe said.

The alliance is advocating for incentives that are sufficient to make the new equipment affordable for landscaping businesses operating on razor-thin margins. (In the end, lower fuel and maintenance costs for electric blowers can save companies money if the equipment is properly cared for, Mabe said.) Seasonal bans on gas-powered leaf blowers may be more feasible in some places than year-round ones, because they leave short windows for using the fossil-fueled devices in the spring and fall to take care of heavy cleanup jobs.

Another solution: Customers could loosen their expectations and accept a scattering of leaves, instead of demanding a perfectly manicured lawn. “Now, if that aesthetic was more relaxed, that could help change things,” Banks said. “Maybe they wouldn’t need to carry so many batteries.” Leaving some leaves on the ground is, at least ecologically speaking, a good thing — decaying leaves fertilize the soil and form a protective layer that provides shelter for snails, bees, and butterflies.

And of course, in many cases, a leaf blower isn’t needed at all: You can do as Blanchett advises and take matters into your own hands with a good-old fashioned rake.

On a scorching summer day, dozens of farm laborers paused their work picking banana peppers in a remote field 26 miles from Fresno and filed into a pop-up medical clinic. It was a chance to pick up medication and take basic health assessments, such as blood pressure and glucose monitoring.

For almost a decade, the University of California San Francisco has been fielding mobile clinics like this one in rural Fresno County to support a hard-to-reach population of unauthorized immigrants who otherwise would avoid routine health care.

The program gathered steam through the COVID-19 pandemic and during California’s decade-long expansion of health care to immigrants who are in the country without authorization. But this year, doctors are starting to notice that laborers aren’t showing up for care like they used to.

The doctors sense the decline in participation is connected to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement activity. UCSF mobile health clinic director Dr. Kenny Banh said patient visits to his rural mobile health vans started dropping at the beginning of the year, when President Donald Trump took office for his second term, vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.

“There’s a lot of distrust. I come from the university, I have a white coat; people are worried. We do as much as we can to tell them how we protect their data,” Banh said.

Dr. Kenny Banh, director of the mobile health unit for UCSF-Fresno, at a health fair at Harris Ranch in Coalinga on Oct. 18, 2025.

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According to UCSF, visits to their mobile clinics dropped by around 36% as enforcement activity increased in California. In 2024, the mobile clinics would see on average 34 patients per outing, but in the past few months, the number of patients had dropped to around 22 per outing. People are also less willing to sign up for Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for lower-income households, because they fear giving the government their data if they aren’t authorized to be in the country, Banh said.

It could get worse.

California scaled back the law that allows all income-eligible residents regardless of immigration status to receive health insurance through Medi-Cal by temporarily limiting enrollment next year. And, counties are bracing for Medicaid cuts under the budget law Trump signed earlier this year that they say will make it harder for them to sustain programs serving distinct populations, like the one that brings health care to rural farmworkers.

“It's going to be more restrictive in terms of work requirements, more regular re-enrollments, and more stringent requirements on states to comply with federal mandates,” Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young, an assistant professor of public health at UC Merced. “This is a push-out. The policy is really designed to restrict people from accessing Medicaid, or you know, in California, we call it Medi-Cal.”

UCSF-Fresno Medical student Darlene Tran checks the blood pressure of a farmworker in an equipment barn during part of the Rural Mobile Health program visit at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

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Getting health care to remote communities

The mobile clinic Banh leads is part of a larger initiative from the Fresno Department of Public Health to reduce chronic and communicable diseases among hard-to-reach populations in the county. It gained funding most recently through a COVID-19 relief law that Fresno County steered to the clinics, which were led by UCSF and Saint Agnes Medical Center.

The COVID-19 money is running out, but the program has another year of funding locked in.

Farmworkers harvest banana peppers at a farm near the town of Helm on July 1, 2025.

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Farmworkers line up in an equipment barn to get a check-up by the staff of UCSF-Fresno, part of the Rural Mobile Health program, at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

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Farmworkers line up in an equipment barn to get a check-up by the staff of UCSF-Fresno, part of the Rural Mobile Health program, at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

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Clinics from both organizations can be found at community events, food distribution drives in rural communities, schools, and sometimes at farm working sites. The Saint Agnes mobile clinic van has two exam rooms inside for patients to receive care.

A patient walks into the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit mobile clinic, parked in the parking lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on May 21, 2025.

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Patient and Parlier resident Javier Hernandez getting his blood pressure and blood sugar test during a check-up.

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Doctor Nicholas Gill is pulling blood sugar testing strips from a container during a check-up examination in the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit mobile clinic, parked in the City Heritage Park parking lot in Parlier on May 16, 2025.

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According to Ivonne Der Torosian, vice president of community health and well-being with Saint Agnes Medical Center, the program is designed to provide medical school students an opportunity to serve the community and create access to health care.

“We are explicitly contracted to go out to rural Fresno County and serve agricultural workers, partner with employers of those farming workers, and also provide services to their families.”

UCSF-Fresno staff member checks the blood sugar of a farmworker during a check-up in an equipment barn during a Rural Mobile Health program visit at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

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Community health workers also provide health education and make referrals to nearby primary care providers for individuals who cannot be treated on-site.

“We do basic screenings, including primary and preventive care, for many of the families we serve. We’re looking at connecting them to primary care providers,” Der Torosiran said. “We are providing vaccinations, we are providing glucose monitoring, and looking at their hypertension and blood pressure readings. So, really basic services they would get in a primary care setting."

Dr. Ebraheem Quadri examines a patient in the parking lot outside the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit clinic, located in Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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No nearby hospital

Dr. Navdeep Lehga, a resident physician, recently began a shift in the Saint Agnes medical van in Mendota’s Rojas Pierce Park. It’s an agricultural community just less than one hour west of Fresno. A line of people awaited her on the curb to pick up food from the distribution center and to see her and her team for a check-up.

A resident sits on a chair in front of the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit mobile clinic parked in the parking lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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As the morning progressed, Navdeep saw patient after patient in the mobile clinic's exam room or went outside to see patients in the parking lot, checking blood pressure with a gauge strap on their patients' arms and glucose levels with finger pricks.

Dr. Navdeep Lehga sets up equipment in the exam room of the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit mobile clinic parked in the parking lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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Dr. Navdeep Lehga checks a patient’s blood sugar in the exam room of the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit clinic, parked in the lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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Dr. Navdeep Lehga checks a patient’s blood sugar in the exam room of the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit clinic, parked in the lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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Larry Valenzuela

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She said most of the patients she sees are farm workers and immigrants. Much of the rural population doesn’t have easy access to medical care — the nearest hospital is 35 miles away. Some of her patients may seek out the medical van for primary care because they don’t know where else to go.

“That's why they come here. We give them the gist of what's going on. But we're limited on our supplies and what we can check,” she said.

Lehga says the number of people coming to the van has slowed down since immigration enforcement has kicked up. She has heard patients speaking to staff during the intake session talk about their fears of coming to the van and seeking out health care after a summer of intensified immigration raids.

Dr. Navdeep Lehga examines a patient in the parking lot outside the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit clinic, located in Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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“We did notice there used to be a lot more patients coming before they have gotten scared and they don't want to because they're not sure who will show up,” Lehga said. “They did feel comfortable before coming here because they knew it was safe. Now I think patients are more scared to come in general just because they don't know who can show up.”

Dr. Arianna Crediford, chief resident physician with Fresno St. Agnes Rural Mobile Health, said that visits to the van have dropped by 15 to 20% this year.

“We can speculate that it’s because of the issues with immigration at this time, that seems to be a big influence with farmworkers and food packing,” she said.

Crediford said she’s heard some patients mention the worry about seeking care and what that might imply for them but they have made it clear that they don’t collect immigration information and that they don’t need to talk to them about it at all.

UCSF-Fresno staff member checks the blood sugar of a farmworker during a check-up in an equipment barn during a Rural Mobile Health program visit at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

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Larry Valenzuela

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“The idea that people have to be scared to receive health care is heartbreaking. It would really put their health conditions at risk, conditions that require weekly sometimes monthly follow-up. We’re the last line of defense that they’re able to go to besides emergency rooms when they come in with an actual life-threatening event. The day this population can’t comfortably and safely seek care their health is going to be put in danger because of that,” said Crediford.

The population, which is often uninsured, suffers from high rates of hypertension, diabetes or high blood sugar, and high cholesterol, oftentimes without treatment, Banh said. Frequently, the rural health team is the only health care provider patients see.

A farmworker harvests banana peppers at a farm near the town of Helm on July 1, 2025.

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Larry Valenzuela

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With fewer patients showing up for preventive care, Banh said, people will inevitably get sicker and end up in the emergency room. That costs more money and threatens to overwhelm the health system.

“People don’t disappear because you changed policy. They still need care. What you’re doing is delaying care until the outcomes are worse, and there’s not much you can do but hospitalize the patient,” he said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

The email was urgent and alarming.

The message appeared to come from the L.A. Field Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It said Patty Lui’s toy business in downtown L.A. was under federal investigation, and she had 24 hours to contact the agency — “whether individually or by legal representative on your behalf.”

Text of a fabricated email Zargarof used to convince his client to send $10,000 to defend against nonexistent investigation.

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State Bar of California court filings

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By the time Lui suspected something was wrong, she said she’d paid her attorney, Ronen Zargarof, tens of thousands of dollars. According to findings from the California State Bar, Zargarof charged Lui for a number of “fictitious services.”

Zargarof’s license is currently suspended, according to State Bar records. In October, more than three years after the email about the fake ICE investigation, the State Bar Court recommended Zargarof be disbarred. They found that Zargarof, who was already working for Lui on another matter, knew the purported ICE email was fake. There was no urgent ICE investigation.

Lui told LAist that when she ended up sending Zargarof about $90,000.

“I was really rushing it and I really believed in what he said,” Lui told LAist.

Zargarof did not cooperate with the State Bar’s investigation into his dealings with Lui, who ultimately complained to the bar, or contest the charges set forth in the accusation filed by the bar against him, court documents show. The California Supreme Court still has to rule on whether Zargarof will be disbarred.

Zargarof has not responded to LAist's requests for comment on this story. According to civil court filings, he also ignored multiple orders to provide discovery materials in his case.

The documents show that Zargarof’s defense lawyers argued in February 2021 that he was unable to attend a deposition because he was out of state with no estimated return date. The lawyers then filed to leave the case in April, shortly after Zargarof was ordered by the court to attend a deposition the following month. Zargarof did not attend the deposition, court records state, and the court ruled against him in a default judgement.

How to protect yourself

George Cardona, chief trial counsel of the State Bar of California, said people navigating immigration law are especially vulnerable to misconduct and misrepresentation.

The State Bar files charges against 100 to 200 attorneys each year, Cardona said. Those charges can lead to disciplinary actions like suspension, disbarment or fines.

“ Of the cases we file, a fair number involve misappropriations of funds or misrepresentations,” Cardona told LAist. “We have had other cases, particularly in immigration context, involving fabricated documents.”

As federal immigration cases have ramped up this year with the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies, there may be even more risk.

Cardona recommends anyone needing a lawyer to look into the attorney you plan to hire before trusting them to represent you in court.

A search of court records in late 2021, when Lui first hired Zargarof, could have turned up a judgment against him for more than $170,000. According to court filings, Zagarof was ordered to pay damages of $76,500 for breach of contract and $48,500 for “tort causes,” including battery, assault, domestic violence, negligence and infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff is listed as a “Jane Doe.”

“The Court finds Defendant's conduct was willful, wanton, oppressive and malicious,” the order states.

When it comes to keeping yourself safe from fraud, Cardona said, the first thing you should do is search for a lawyer on the State Bar of California's webpage before deciding whether to hire them.

“ First, it can confirm that they're a lawyer, and second, it will show if they have any disciplinary history,” he said.

Cardona said people posing as lawyers is especially prevalent in immigration cases.

After checking whether a lawyer is licensed or has a history of disciplinary actions, he said you should look online for reviews or check with friends who may have an attorney they know first-hand.

The lawyer will be acting on your behalf, Cardona said, “ so it's important to have someone you can trust.”

A cautionary tale

Lui initially hired Zargarof to handle a separate, civil employment case in November 2021.

She told LAist that she never met Zargarof in person. November is a particularly busy time for her business making and selling teddy bears, Lui said, and for a few weeks it seemed Zargarof was on top of the case.

“ He was always telling me that he just came out from the court and this is what I need,” Lui said, “I need to pay and pay and pay.”

Zargarof began asking for more money to cover various fees, she said, pushing her to quickly send him money.

“ I’d have to rush to send him a wire,” Lui told LAist. “I was so nervous.”

According to the State Bar’s findings, some of Zargarof’s fees were for “fictitious services,” including $2,500 to have her daughter dismissed from the civil case against Lui, and $6,000 for proceedings before the “Labor Board of Los Angeles County.”

The State Bar noted in court documents that Lui’s daughter was never accused of any wrongdoing in the case, and that the “Labor Board of Los Angeles County” does not exist.

The bar described in court filings how Zargarof made up these scenarios to charge Lui fees for services he never provided.

Zargarof sent text messages to Lui, which were quoted in court filings and provided more information on the investigation.

“There were two search warrant[s] . . . for your computers and files. We are dismissing those today,” Zargarof messaged Lui.

Zargarof said that he knew an “immigration experts partner,” named Tracey Pierantoni, and directed Lui to pay $10,000 into Pierantoni’s bank account.

“They are going to charge a flat rate of 5 [thousand] per file = 10k so I think it will be cheaper for you to wire them before 130 today instead of putting it on card,” said one message included in court documents.

There was no ICE investigation, according to the court documents, and Tracey Pierantoni Zargarof is not a licensed attorney in the state of California.

Court documents allege that Pierantoni Zargarof is one of several family members Zargarof used to accept payments from Lui.

Pierantoni Zargarof denies any involvement in the payments, and told LAist she intends to file charges against Zargarof for identity fraud.

“I have nothing to do with his criminal activity," Pierantoni Zargarof said when asked for comment. She added that she hasn't seen him in two or three years and doesn't know where he is or how to reach him.

Details from the State Bar Complaint

While Lui was trying to keep up with her business and pay Zargarof’s fees, court records document that Zargarof ran up a $25,000 bill on Lui’s credit card to pay for a hotel stay at the Rosewood Miramar Beach in Santa Barbara.

Zargarof told Lui he was using the card to hire private investigators for her case, she told LAist. Once she learned that wasn’t true she went to her bank with a fraud claim.

She also made a complaint to the State Bar of California in August 2022, which led to disciplinary charges against Zargarof in April 2025.

Lui said her bank was able to return the money that was charged to her card, but she hasn't been able to recover tens of thousands of additional payments that the State Bar found were for "fictitious services.”