People v. Multani CA5

FACTS

Rama Dawar was a silent partner in a limousine business with Multani; he contributed about $40,000 to the business in exchange for 50 percent of the profits. When the business started failing and bills were left unpaid, Dawar contacted Multani to find out what was happening. Eventually, two limousines were repossessed and Multani stopped communicating with Dawar. On July 22, 2010, Dawar filed a civil lawsuit against Multani to recoup his capital investment. Dawar obtained a default judgment when Multani did not respond to the litigation. Multani’s wife, Rachael Singh,2 had worked for Dawar as an interpreter in a language translation business he owned. On September 26, 2010, after a fight with Multani, Rachael called Dawar to warn him that Multani was going to harm him “physically” and “emotionally,” and was going to plot something against him. Dawar did not believe Multani could harm him, but decided to make an on-line police report just in case it was true.

1 Both the information and the abstract of judgment list the defendant’s name as “Daljit Singh aka Daljit Singh Multani.” During trial, the trial court and the parties referred to the defendant as Mr. Multani.…