It seems Assistant Attorney General Melissa Mandel fell head over heals over Rex Gutierrez today during the final stages of the trial.  The angry Ms. Mandel was pretty intense from what we hear, even attacking Rex’s wife during closing arguments.

The highlight of her argument was not what she said but  rather when she went to move the podium closer to the jury box so that the jury could fully appreciate her shrillness.  She fell head over heals . . . literally.  The bailiff had to sweep her up off of the floor.

It would be her luck, that because it was closing arguments, everyone from the District Attorney’s office and the Attorney General’s office was there to witness her performance.  Hey, at least she wasn’t boring.  They got an eyeful for sure.

Adam Aleman

www.sbgrapevine.com

Are you listening US Attorney?  San Bernardino County is in crisis.  It is a crisis that mocks our justice system; one that distorts the truth; and one where integrity is a forgotten.  Bringing about justice is no longer the highest priority of our county prosecutors; winning at any and all cost  is their goal—a goal that has little to do integrity, truth or . . . justice.

There are many lesser-known stories of justice gone awry in our county. Ours  starts with a little-known manager at the local Outback Steakhouse who went on to make headlines.  His name is familiar to all of us.  It is Adam Aleman.

Aleman caught the attention of then-Supervisor Bill Postmus many years ago.  He eventually left Outback Steakhouse to become a member of Postmus’ Board of Supervisors staff.

Adam came from a hard-working family and the values he was raised with served him well.  He proved to be a quick learner and a natural politico with a strong drive for success.  But along the way to climbing up the ladder to a position as Assistant Assessor at the age of 24, something went terribly wrong.

They say power corrupts.  They also say it goes to the head.  Aleman is an excellent argument for both statements.

The public never really heard the name “Adam Aleman” until San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos announced that search warrants were served on the San Bernardino County Assessor’s office where Bill Postmus had become Assessor a year earlier and Aleman became one of two assistant assessors.  Jim Erwin was the second.

The Assessor’s Office had been the subject of a Grand Jury probe, initiated as a result of Second District Supervisor Paul Biane filing a complaint with the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit over political work being done on county time.   The complaint alleged that Postmus was running a political operation out of the Assessor’s Office.

During the Grand Jury probe, documents from the Assessor’s Office were requested as part of the investigation.  Several Assessor’s Office employees were also asked for their testimony before the Grand Jury.  Adam Aleman was one of those employees.  He was also responsible for submitting the requested documents.

Whether it was his youth, fear, arrogance, or simply the fact that values his parents tried to instill in him did not take, Aleman started down the road of deception.  Before submitting the requested documents he altered them, and then lied about it.  He also lied to the Grand Jury and destroyed county property.

After months of investigation, on June 30, 2008, Aleman was arrested and charged with nine felonies.  One year to the day, June 30, 2009, Aleman plead guilty to four felony counts.  As part of the plea agreement, those felonies will be reduced in exchange for his truthful testimony against any and all other defendants in the Assessor’s Office corruption scandal and ancillary cases.

Long before June 2009, Aleman’s “deal” had become obvious to anyone connected in anyway with the corruption scandal.  Public officials and private citizens alike were interrogated, harassed, bullied, searched, accused, and intimidated by District Attorney investigators from the Public Integrity Unit based on “intel” provided to them from Aleman.

Aleman has described himself as a “master manipulator” on one hand but on the other has said privately that he was coerced into making statements about others by the investigators.  He claims he merely told them he was passing along rumors that he expected them to check out to determine if they had a factual basis.  He also has said that he has been intimidated by them when they have played “good cop, bad cop” with him, threatened him with a long prison sentence if he didn’t cooperate, and encouraged him to lie.

To read the rest of this story, click here.

“I am always troubled when the publicity regarding a case exceeds the evidence,” Levenson said. “It creates these incredibly high expectations, and it’s very damaging to the defendants, and we don’t even know if the evidence will support the charges.”

www.inlandpolitics.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010 – 3:00 p.m.

What a difference six months can make.

After nearly a year and a half of making claims of political retaliation. The facts seem to be coming home to roost.

The defendants in the alleged conspiracy case involving the $102 million dollar settlement between the County of San Bernardino and Colonies Partners have now received substantial evidence in the case, including the grand jury testimony of current and former county supervisors, former county administrative officer Mark Uffer and his moral compass, various county staffers, and other witnesses.

The best word for me to describe what I have read is “amazing”.

By the use of the word amazing, I mean, how could any legitimate law enforcement agency in their right mind level allegations, let alone bring charges, against any person with the so-called evidence they have?

Without getting into detailed discussion of grand jury testimony evidence and angering some attorneys, here are my observations.

The bulk of the thousands of pages of grand jury transcripts and other evidence such as recordings, transcripts, emails and text messages unleashed by San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos and Attorney General Jerry Brown over the past two months, show a prosecution team desperate for headlines and grandstanding.

For those of you out there wondering why Former county assessor Bill Postmus and I were charged with numerous felonies, and five others referred to as “John Does 1-5″ were not, the answer is now clear.

There is no evidence. After all, there’s either a conspiracy or their isn’t. The evidence either supports the charging of all seven or none of the seven.

But, charging the remaining John Does would be taking on people, who are viewed as truly have the means to defend themselves, and would aggressively do so.

Ramos and Brown probably don’t have the stomach to do that.

They also figured since Postmus and I were already charged and damaged goods, the downside on our arrests would be minimal. A national news conference and great election headlines for both Brown and Ramos appears to be the sole purpose. Ramos secured reelection in June. Brown faces a tough battle in November against Meg Whitman.

The new problem for Brown is that he didn’t expect this case to start falling apart until after November. Yet it has now began.

To put it simply, several individuals, their families and businesses have all been damaged because of the politics of Ramos and Brown. Both men could care less.

Now some general points about the evidence.

The Colonies litigation and related-law is a complicated area and required people to take the time read and understand the issues in detail, which based on the testimony of many, clearly did not occur.

County staff, including former administrative officer Mark Uffer, county land use, flood control, real estate services employees, and county attorneys displayed limited knowledge of the legal issues involving county easements and their ultimate extinguishment by surcharge.

The commonsense hiring of county staff with appropriate subject matter expertise went out the door twenty years ago, thus the need for consultants galore, to handle complex county functions and tasks.

For example the in-house ability to draft and execute a decent RFP or request for proposal doesn’t exist.

But, what is even more clear is the fact that prosecutors didn’t have a clue as to the legal concepts involved and what questions to ask witnesses.

Transcripts filled with innuendo, speculation, hearsay, and opinion rule the day. The concept of fact-based questioning seems to have went into the toilet.

Prosecutors sought to capitalize on the animosity and hatred individuals had for one another, and they did. They even went as far as to use two people to try and extract information from targets, who were already represented by counsel.

Using an agent against a represented target throws the rules of evidence out the door. But the rules in this case were thrown out long ago.

Staging interview questions and answers involving the cases key witness, who appears to even had an assigned investigator-handler, is a mockery of what the justice system is supposed to stand for.

A constitutional freedom understood by most of us citizens, the right to free speech, in other words the “First Amendment”, seems to have somehow skipped prosecutors minds. The right to participate in the political process, campaign contributions and all, is one of the highest rights under the law, and a standard that our founding fathers were determined to protect.

Please see “Constitutional Law 101″.

On another front, sources say the materials subject to attorney-client and mediation privilege, will only aid the defense, not the prosecution. As you will recall, Ramos and Brown engaged in another media spectacle over their offices seeking of the material.

From the onset, this case was all about the means to an end. Not the truth.

It’s even questionable as to whether or not prosecutors ever thought they would have to try any of the cases. A calculated risk.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

I guess I had what some might call an epiphany this week.  Many of our readers would say it is about time.

You see, for the first time since the corruption scandal started, I genuinely want to see Mark Kirk, Gary Ovitt, Greg Devereaux, and others led away in handcuffs, booked and serve some jail time.  Do I believe it will happen?  No, I don’t.  I still feel the Colonies Settlement is clean.

Everything else in the Fourth District office, however,  is not so clean.  But the problem is that neither Mikey and Moonbeam or the FBI will look at the real dirt.  Mikey and Moonbeam are too busy accepting campaign donations from SEBA and SBPEA.  The FBI isn’t interested in the kind of real corruption that goes on in this county.

In this instance, it is simply not the sort of thing the FBI will get involved with.  I’m not suggesting there will not be arrests made, just not arrests of the county’s most corrupt individuals, except possibly Mikey.

So what brought about my change of heart?  It’s been a slow process over a few months.  But the final damning piece of evidence came from a handful of sources who I have spoken with in the past 72 hours.  These are all individuals close to the recent contract reopening and negotiations.  The stories of what Greg Devereaux, Bob Blough, Gary Ovitt, Mark Kirk, Scott Ryan, Mario Saucedo, Mike Yandell, Paula Ready, Dennis Hayes, and a few others did behind the scenes should land every single one of them in prison.

Scott Ryan, president of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, needs to be investigated by the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit, but we know that will never happen as he makes sure Mikey is taken care of through PAC donations.  It’s too bad he is stepping down, because he should be kicked off the Board of Directors and thrown in jail.  He is a disgrace to county employees.  He is a liar and a thief.

Bob Blough—what more can I saw about this scumbag that hasn’t already been said?  He needs to be sharing a jail cell with Moby.  And Dennis Hayes should have his Bar card revoked.  On top of his already exorbitant contract amount, he was recently given another $100,000 from SBPEA union dues for a job well done representing the employees of San Bernardino County.

But for me personally, the two that bother me the most are Mark Kirk and Gary Ovitt.  To see how little integrity either of them have is disheartening.  Both have sold out constituents and county employees alike with the help of their good buddy Greg Devereaux.

Some say the FBI is looking at Devereaux. We can only hope.  Maybe if pushed, he will spill the beans on the others to save his sorry ass.  But as I said above, I doubt they will even look.

• Written by Administrator
• Posted July 11, 2010 at 6:05 pm

• Written by Administrator
• Posted July 11, 2010 at 5:10 pm

www.inlandpolitics.com

A little less than two weeks ago California Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown was poking at Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman over the millions she had spent to date, and the fact he still had a 5 point lead in a recent poll.

Remember the invite Meg to tea comment?

Then came last Wednesday. The widely respected Field Poll had Whitman and Brown in a statistical tie. Brown stopped laughing.

So much for that lead. A lead Brown will likely never see again.

Whitman has spent nearly $90 million in defeating her republican primary challenger Steve Poizner, while at the same time propelling her name identification to that of Brown.

Since the June 8th primary Whitman has successfully focused on Brown.

Let’s face it. Brown’s record in politics isn’t quite as stellar as he would like people to believe and Whitman is going to remind voters all summer long. Brown has lost his share of elections and made his share of mistakes.

Something that he can’t run from.

Brown now bears witness to his eroding support among all minority groups. Something he never imagined could ever happen. Whitman has been reaching out to Brown’s minority and labor bases in an effort to cause defections, and it’s working. Without strong support from his base, Brown stands no chance.

With labor union members, there’s one issue that is becoming paramount. That issue? The state economy and budget collapse.

Union members aren’t stupid. They know California is in trouble. They want to know they’ll have jobs in the future.They also know Brown isn’t the solution. Whitman on the other hand brings “non-political” executive experience. Millions of Californians have purchased items on EBay and can identify with that level of success.

The routinely surfacing revelations regarding Whitman’s temper may actually help, not hurt, the republican candidate.

It might be time for a Governor who’s not afraid to smack people around, especially in Sacramento.

It definitely can’t hurt.

Imagine California with a tough Governor. What a concept. One things for certain, Whitman is no actor or actress.

Brown’s only solution-to-date of “I’m going to get people to sit down and talk” isn’t a solution at all.

It was let’s sit down and talk “about spending money” that put us into this mess. Right?

To read the rest of the story, click here.

How do you know San Bernardino County Fifth District Supervisor is saying something stupid?  Her lips are moving.

San Bernardino Sun reporter Mike Cruz today reports the following:

Gonzales said she has always been willing to cooperate and anticipates the board will approve thee waiver Tuesday.

“They better. They better hurry up,” Gonzales said. “When the (state attorney general) knocks, you better be answering that door. Quick!

“We need to act expeditiously. The people need to see us working in their best interest, while at the same time being . . . cognizant of any pitfalls or shortcomings that can arise as a result of us moving hastefully.”

This is one of those moments where her words speak for themselves but the impact on the reader is not likely anything close to what she intended.    Besides the obvious grammatical error, the Board’s obligation is to the citizens of San Bernardino County, not to an attorney general’s office more interested in politics than justice.  Making a decision that impacts a $102 million of the people’s money should not be made QUICKLY.  It can wait until all the ramifications of waiving attorney-client privilege are considered and the Board is assured that an affirmative decision will not impact the county’s standing or ability to collect in the remaining lawsuits.

Some months ago, Josie had a well respected San Bernardino County department head in her office.  She told him, “You are stupid.”  Hopefully, no one just choked on his or her sandwich.

Now that the trial of Rancho Cucamonga City Councilman Rex Gutierrez has been continued to June 1st, focus now shifts to a lesser publicized case with even greater potential to inflict major damage to the professional and political career of San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos.

The trial in question involves former District Attorney Investigator Christopher Cardoza.

Cardoza is charged with one count of grand theft related to time card fraud and fourteen counts of computer fraud for allegedly accessing criminal information without an official purpose.

Cardoza is scheduled to go to jury trial on April 19th in front of Superior Court Judge Kyle Brodie in Department S-24.

What makes the Cardoza case even more interesting is since Cardoza was employed by the District Attorney, the California Attorney General is the prosecuting agency.

To read entire story, click here.

Jim has never asked for “special” treatment in his case.  He wants to be treated just like everyone else . . . San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane, Ontario City Manager Greg Devereaux, District Attorney Mike Ramos, San Bernardino County Supervisor Josie Gonzales, San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman, among others.  Every single name mentioned has committed far more serious Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) violations than Erwin and what happened to them?  Their cases were submitted to the FPPC for consideration and fines.  But Jim was charged with ten felonies, arrested, and had bail set at $220,000.  It seems he has received “special” treatment whether he asked for it or not.