Charter School Cases Delayed...Again...Ramos Just Now Turning Over 4 year old evidence? Wow!

Interesting article [Press Enterprise piece on August 21, 2011 @ /www.pe.com/columns/cassiemacduff/stories/PE_News_Local_D_cass20.3e6d82a.html]--keep in mind that when these guys got arrested, the assets were seized and none of them could hire outside lawyers. Were the charter school funds distributed as campaign funds as rumor had it? Where was the school district? Why wasn't the school district board auditing the use of the money? Why wasn't the County Superintendent of Schools (Fisher?) keeping an eye on the money? Why wasn't the State Superintendent keeping an eye on the money? How could you miss an almost exponential growth of a charter school campus system? Hard to miss and not ask what is happening to the State funds? Also there were rumors that a group supposedly met in the upstairs conference room of the Desert Community Bank in Victorville and campaign plans and funding decisions were often discussed. Does anyone really think that a charter school bought jet skiis for personal use? Was the price above list? Were the products returned for refunds and paper trails lost? Were the items traded out for cash which went into campaign activity? Or good ole fashion graft? Mismanagement of this case is at many levels. Why outside conflict counsel was not appointed and fees paid by the county to get to the information, prepare the case and find the assets before they dissipated is a question that will not get answered, but is at the core of the delay. That the defense in just now getting access to 2007 grand jury reports/evidence is a shocking and inexcusable delay. The prosecution should have given that discovery to the defense nearly 4 years ago. I remember Mike Ramos one time saying we are never going to "prosecute ourselves out of this corruption"--I agree that with such egregious delays, nothing will get done any time soon.

Tad Honeycutt , C. Steven Cox & the California Charter Academy Case(s)--Why haven't these cases gone to trial Mikey??

After the Riverside Press-Enterprise article ran ("Audit: Schools Misued Millions" on June 23, 2005), it took the District Attorney Mike Ramos' office until September 4, 2007 to file an indictment vs Tadd Honeycutt (who allegedly charged improperly $295,565 against the school budget for things like Jet Skis, custom wheels for a vehicle,a fishing trip and a guitar store spree and $752,813 for his private businesses) and C. Steven Cox (who allegedly charged for federal income tax payments, Disney merchandise, a Disney resort health spa, TV shopping network purchases, rock concert tickets, employee award banquets to the tune of $707,000). Total damages--$23,000,000 per the initial report. Both cases do not have trial dates yet despite it being four years post indictment in September.
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Blogger Bob's comments:
(1) What makes this so incredible, is that the audit data was given to Ramos almost 6 years ago;
(2) Why weren't these folks prosecuted--well take a look at the players. Honeycutt & Cox were big contributors to Ramos and or his buds. Postmus & JoAnn Almond were on the Charter School Board or the administrative company that Cox set up and one of the biggest recipients of the Charter School's largess was Former Republican Assemblyman Keith Olberg to the tune of $375,000 which Olberg "did little work to justify" (so why wasn't he prosecuted like Rex Guttierrez who was in a do-little-type job also);
(3) In a 2007 audit report that concluded "it would be fair to say that some of us were startled by the degree of...misuse of public funds, and the lack of accountability and fiscal oversight"--obviously the DA's office was not as offended, has let the defendants out on their OR, the public does not even have a trial date nor any accounting of what has been recovered (or even any plea agreements)
(4) I guess kids & school districts being ripped off is no big priority for this DA