Postmus Still Politically Active & Arrogant -- Wasn't he Awaiting a Sentencing?? Colonies II Coming?

I was in restaurant today with my wife after church and happened to overhear a former San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor and Assessor (Bill Postmus, Jr) plan fund raisers (one fund raiser was to retire someone's campaign debt)--some of the names heard-- "Josie" and "Robert" (the first names of two of our county supervisors--but neither as I recall had a campaign debt). I even heard about someone being moved into a house to be in an area to run (for what was not clear except that the "Gus" voice -- the person identified himself as "Gus" and spoke of Hesperia being a well run City) said that "he and his wife wanted to look at the house first" (does the Republican party pay for moves--wow, some perk--wonder if it shows up on the FPPC??). Postmus, "Gus" and "Jeremiah" obviously didn't see me sitting across a divider trying to enjoy a late breakfast lunch with my wife--with my visibility over the past 2 decades in political races, council meetings, etc, I am sure they would have been a little less loud. I also heard how supervisors were anxious to meet someone ["Gus"?]--could this have anything to do with the "Tapestry" Project coming up with the Hesperia City Council on Thursday? [which could lead to 10,000 to 20,000 homes being built onto top of an already over pumped aquifers]. What makes this crazy is that Postmus is awaiting sentencing on political corruption related charges of CONSPIRACY to COMMIT CRIME, LEGISLATOR RECEIVE, BRIBE PUBLIC OFFICIAL, CONFLICT OF INTEREST : CONTRACTS/SALES/PURCHASES & EMBEZZLE/FALSIFY BY PUBLIC OFFICER (by the way ALL felonies)--obviously the DA thinks in this County it's ok to let convicted felons continue to influence electeds and or the process. This is the same DA that wants to replace Kamala Harris as State AG. When Postmus sees me he says "you and your wife should retire from politics"--wow, a crook telling an honest man to quit.  Something to think about--if the Hesperia City Council and the County Board of Supervisors approve the "Tapestry" project (which will draw enormous amounts of water from the Mojave system before it drains into Victorville, Apple Valley and out to Barstow) and by that further overdraft, lead to violations of the Mojave Adjudication, won't that create Colonies II type litigation--where the City and County get sued for taking water resources from a thirsty High Desert? Is the County being set up for another piece of litigation?

District Attorney Mike Ramos is trying to create a 3rd Assistant DA slot for his girlfriend- time for some more whistle blowing and maybe a discriminatory promotion complaint??

See for breaking story: http://sbsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Sentinel-11-14-141.pdf-
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Bob's 2 cents worth?
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The total culture of fear and domination created by this DA has been emboldened by support from the recently re-elected Kamala Harris to State Attorney General, despite Ramo's record of retaliatory firings & prosecutions, sexually-influenced promotional decision-making, harassment and over-reaching. Kamala Harris will either wake up and realize that Ramos is someone she should be looking professionally at or go down with him in the public eye.
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The real crime is not in the selection of a pillow talk buddy for a newer and better paying job, but in victims' failure to file appropriate charges with governmental agencies for the preferential hired BASED upon sex and or age. How many qualified men and women have to be offended  and economically damaged by this before someone takes the step to make formal complaints.
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Heh, living in unsubsidized world of private practice ain't so bad. At least you will be doing something that is righteous (for yourselves).
 

Does the Colonies Case Decision Recognize Key Players like DA Mike Ramos might be if not a Material Witness, a potential Co-conspirator??

One of the many articles written by the local press [See: http://www.highdesert.com/articles/return-44292-vvdailypress-san-bribery.html -- article on the Colonies case], shows how the watchdog role of the press [See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lionel-rolfe/whats-wrong-with-todays-j_b_4516013.html?utm_hp_ref=los-angeles&ir=Los+Angeles for recent discussion] is a dead concept in this County and part of the reason we have local government in San Bernardino County running out of control--no one is asking the tough questions.
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With federal racketeering charges timely added to the complaint (which is not the first time I have referenced that additional approach), the appeal would have likely been unnecessary in the Colonies corruption case and golly gee, had "conspiracy" after the bribe been pled by the DA's office (re alleged cover up efforts), the Supreme Court would likely not have had to step in.
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What the Court in People v Biane, et al (the Colonies corruption case) said [and the following appears to be the trigger analysis]:  "[h]ere, as in Calhoun,supra, 46 Cal.2d at page 30,the indictment alleges that Burum and Erwin participated in a conspiracy that was more elaborate than the mere agreement that a particular bribe be accepted, but involved and depended on the conduct of numerous parties to ensure that at least three supervisors be influenced to approve the $102 million litigation settlement".

What makes this realization so key, is that Mike Ramos has been accused of using his office's powers and or his influence to intimidate/coerce public figures in the County, which is what he is accusing Burum (a former ally of DA Mike Ramos) of doing [e.g. people thinking about running against Mike Ramos like former DA Dennis Stout backing out and stating on the record in 2010 that his clients were being threatened if he (Stout) ran and more recently, there are the allegations of Frank Guzman, who ran against Ramos in 2010 who had to face a frivolous lawsuit (filed by allegedly an ally of Mike Ramos) roughly a month before the June 2010 election (an action tossed out by the court "after" the election), going after Supervisor Neil Derry for a failure to disclose payments in a campaign report on the eve of an election challenge by a long time supporter and friend, San Manuel tribal leader James Ramos, while Mike Ramos skated on his failure to report payments to his ex-wife--just to name a few].
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Through all of the bribery acts, who is a constant figure throughout and is STILL in office?
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FONTANA: Four arrested in $6 million drug bust-anything missing??

FONTANA: Four arrested in $6 million drug bust
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Hmm its no coincidence this happens in advance of Mike Ramos' fundraiser with Kamala Harris this coming week [https://www.facebook.com/events/675051655840634/] with General Kamala being the "keynote" speaker? The only problem is the suspicion the cash reported for the quantity is light for drug busts in some other counties' experience (or the street value is massively overstated), especially for the powerful La Familia level of doing business. What is interesting is one commenter on the Press Enterprise blog saying the half the cash and drugs are missing from the seized stash ii if true where's General Holder when you need him? Nothing like splashy fundraisers to deflect the fact that former County Supervisor & Assessor Bill Postmus, Jr pled to a multiple felony sheet is still running around free waiting for his testimony duties to be done, the Charter School scandal is in its 6th year without a disposition and oh yeah, the Colonies litigation is being strangled due to a combination of overcharging, the County and AG's office being overwhelmed by some good lawyering by former federal judge Larson, cookie crumble tactics and arguably prejudicial delays. The careers of Mike Ramos' and Kamala Harris' seem almost intertwined--one has to wonder why.

2014 San Bernardino County District Attorney Field of Candidates Developing?

Who is running for DA in 2014 in San Bernardino County? Well Ramos has announced he will, a former litigant (Grover Merritt)against the County DA for wrongful discharge (reinstatated & $300,000 wealthier) is rumored to be running (per sources within the Los Angeles Daily Journal) and Frank Guzman who apparently claims he was targeted by people close or friendly to Ramos prior to the last election cycle has said he will be running (per the San Bernardino Sentinel if he secures $350,000 to run -- its not clear if that was personal money or raised funds). With 2 kids in college Guzman may not be able to afford the paycut if he won and with the former litigant vs the DA's office (if he is still with the DA's office), one has to wonder how much he can ethically do or say by still being an employee of the DA's office campaign-wise. Interesting stuff. Too bad the turn out will be in the mid to low 20% range for a June election (which means that the race will be decided by 11-13% of registered voters). Kamala Harris is coming to Ramos' fundraiser on the 24th, not a good move with what is happening for her career hopes in this blogger's view.

Before Kamala Harris Takes a Bow, Maybe She Should Read This........

The link for credit purposes [which might not be a bad link to add to your sources]:
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> http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-top-twelve-reasons-why-you-should-hate-the-mortgage-settlement.html
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In a report carrier by another one of the major media outlets, it was suggested upwards of 85% of the nmortgage fraud in Harris' old stomping grounds were frauds committed by the lenders or their agents [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/business/california-audit-finds-broad-irregularities-in-foreclosures.html?_r=1]. Any deal which cuts off prosecution, like this in part does, seems to benefit people doing business in Harris' old stomping grounds?--hmmm---hope that was not an intended benefit. In sum, some of the other problems with the mortgage "settlement" deal include:

1. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks, but since the statute of limitations has already run out on securities filings [kinda like what Mike Ramos did for his buddies in San Bernardino County], this means the SEC may tag the banks for some of the very last deals before the subprime market tanked [the formula? Know your buds are breaking the law, but delay prosecution so most if not all of what they did can't be touched??]
2. With the mortgage settlement terms not yet released [funny how people claim credit in the media for something they can't be challenged on], but some details have been leaked:
a. For the top 5 servicers, $26 billion is claimed, but of that, roughly $17 billion is credits for principal modifications, which will come from mortgages owned by investors [not the mom and pop owners]. $3 billion is for refinances, and only $5 billion will be in the form of hard cash payments, the $1500 to $2000 per borrower foreclosed on between September 2008 and December 2011--like big deal, the crooks get away and the people that lost their home get some of their moving costs reimbursed--this is justice??--people who lost their homes from mortgage fraud from September 2008 to December 2011 are screwed twice!!
b. Banks will be required to modify second liens that sit behind firsts. So the banks will focus on borrowers where they do not have second lien exposure, and this also makes the settlement less helpful to struggling homeowners, since borrowers with both second and first liens default at much higher rates than those without second mortgages--so its a paper deal with no real teeth!!
Also per the Journal:
5. “It’s not new money. It’s all soft dollars to the banks,” said Paul Miller, a bank analyst at FBR Capital Markets [opps, another bailout funded by the money the banks won't have to pay back on the earlier bailout funds owed back to the government??].
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> The Times is also subdued:
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> Despite the deal's billions in earmarks, the aid will help a small portion of the millions of borrowers who are delinquent and facing foreclosure. The success could depend in part on how effectively the program is carried out because earlier efforts by Washington aimed at troubled borrowers helped few.
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6. Schneiderman’s MERS suit survives, and he can add more banks as defendants. It isn’t clear what became of the Biden and Coakley MERS suits, but Biden sounded pretty adamant in past media presentations on preserving that. Why don't we have a MERS suit in California Ms. Harris?
7. Nevada’s and Arizona’s suits against Countrywide for violating its past consent decree on mortgage servicing has, in a new Orwellianism, been “folded into” the settlement effectively bailing out a bank for breaching the earlier agreement--so what will change to make Countrywide and its succecssor any more likely to follow the rules?
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8. The five big players in the settlement have already set aside reserves sufficient for this deal, so they made the deal based on WHAT they were going to set aside--noting like handicapping the settlement negotiations!!
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9. Here are the top twelve reasons why this deal according to the "Naked Capitalism" website stinks:
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> 1. We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2000 per loan. This is a rounding error compared to the chain of title problem these systematic practices were designed to circumvent. The cost is also trivial in comparison to the average loan, which is roughly $180k, so the settlement represents about 1% of loan balances. It is less than the price of the title insurance that banks failed to get when they transferred the loans to the trust. It is a fraction of the cost of the legal expenses when foreclosures are challenged. It’s a great deal for the banks because no one is at any of the servicers going to jail for forgery and the banks have set the upper bound of the cost of riding roughshod over 300 years of real estate law--wow, if one of us forged and fabricated loan docs, we would face multiple felonies and jail time--what the @#%* !!.
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> 2. That $26 billion is actually $5 billion of bank money and the rest is your money. The mortgage principal writedowns are guaranteed to come almost entirely from securitized loans, which means from investors, which in turn means taxpayers via Fannie and Freddie, pension funds, insurers, and 401 (k)s. Refis of performing loans also reduce income to those very same investors--here we go again, allegedly adverting demise or hardship by funding with our own money??
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> 3. That $5 billion divided among the big banks wouldn’t even represent a significant quarterly hit. Freddie and Fannie putbacks to the major banks have been running at that level each quarter--message we send?? Its ok to break the law, to commit felonies, because we will only cause a small blip in your financials when fashioning a punitive remedy!
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> 4. That $20 billion actually makes bank second liens sounder, so this deal is a stealth bailout that strengthens bank balance sheets at the expense of the broader public--ah @#%&, another bailout by use of creative accounting?
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> 5. The proposed enforcement is a joke. The first layer of supervision is the banks reporting on themselves--little more than regulatory theater--giving the keys to the henhouse to the hungry fox?
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> 6. The history on servicer consent decrees shows the servicers fail to comply. Why? Servicer records and systems are poor in the best of times and they don't adjust to handle additional volumes and challenges created by that higher volume of delinquencies. --so we are doing what different?
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> 7. The cave-in Nevada and Arizona on the Countrywide settlement suit is a special gift for Bank of America, who is by far the worst offender in the chain of title disaster (since,according to sworn testimony of its own employee in Kemp v. Countrywide, Countrywide failed to comply with trust delivery requirements). This move proves that failing to comply with a consent degree has no consequences but will merely be rolled into a new consent degree which will also fail to be enforced. These cases also alleged HAMP violations as consumer fraud violations and could have gotten costly and emboldened other states to file similar suits not just against Countrywide but other servicers, so it was useful to the other banks as well--B of A is based let's see, ah, where Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi hail from??
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> 8. If the new Federal task force were intended to be serious, this deal would have not have been settled. You never settle before investigating. It’s a bad idea to settle obvious, widespread wrongdoing on the cheap. You use the stuff that is easy to prove to gather information and secure cooperation on the stuff that is harder to prove. In Missouri and Nevada, the robosigning investigation led to criminal charges against agents of the servicers. But even though these companies were acting at the express direction and approval of the services, no individuals or entities higher up the food chain will face any sort of meaningful charges--its been theatre at our expense!!
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> 9. There is plenty of evidence of widespread abuses that appear not to be on the attorney generals’ or media’s radar, such as servicer driven foreclosures and looting of investors’ funds via impermissible and inflated charges. While no serious probe was undertaken, even the limited or peripheral investigations show massive failures (60% of documents had errors in AGs/Fed’s pathetically small sample). Similarly, the US Trustee’s office found widespread evidence of significant servicer errors in bankruptcy-related filings, such as inflated and bogus fees, and even substantial, completely made up charges. Yet the services and banks will suffer no real consequences for these abuses.
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> 10. A deal on robosiginging serves to cover up the much deeper chain of title problem. And don’t get too excited about the New York, Massachusetts, and Delaware MERS suits. They put pressure on banks to clean up this monstrous mess only if the AGs go through to trial and get tough penalties. The banks will want to settle their way out of that too. And even if these cases do go to trial and produce significant victories for the AGs, they still do not address the problem of failures to transfer notes correctly.
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> 11. Don’t bet on a deus ex machina in terms of the new Federal foreclosure task force to improve this picture much. If you think Schneiderman, as a co-chairman who already has a full time day job in New York, is going to outfox a bunch of DC insiders who are part of the problem, I have a bridge I’d like to sell to you.
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> 12. We’ll now have to listen to banks and their sycophant defenders declaring victory despite being wrong on the law and the facts. They will proceed to marginalize and write off criticisms of the servicing practices that hurt homeowners and investors and are devastating communities. But the problems will fester and the housing market will continue to suffer. Investors in mortgage-backed securities, who know that services have been screwing them for years, will be hung out to dry and will likely never return to a private MBS market, since the problems won’t ever be fixed. This settlement has not only revealed the residential mortgage market to be too big to fail, but puts it on long term, perhaps permanent, government life support.
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Blogger Bob's Comment: Bad policy--the security should be re-appraised and financed at their current value and refinanced at current market interest for people still in their homes. People displaced from their homes, IF they have a legit argument and evidence to support that they were wrongfully foreclosed on, should be paid by the banks and or servicing companies for the cost of acquiring a similar home, their credit report purged of adverse references based on that foreclosure and allowed to collect all other reasonable damages resulting from the wrongful foreclosure. Use of fraudulent, forged and or fabricated documents by ANY financial institution, should not be rewarded by walk-away and laugher deals, but the managers of the offices under whose supervision the documents went out, should be prosecuted for the felonies their conduct represents.

One Third of Countrywide Loans Were Fraudulent? [CBS Report suggests so...so why no prosecution of loan officers by Mike Ramos or Kamala Harris yet??]

3 years ago our economy almost collapsed due to the mortgage crises created by lenders or professionals involved in the lending process, yet no loan officers, Wall Street execs nor financial firms have been prosecuted federally, per a CBS report that can be viewed at:
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[http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390540n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel].
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I see where there is some indication that California's Attorney General Kamala Harris ["California and Nevada join forces in mortgage probe," Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 7, 2011] is joining in an effort being made by the Nevada Attorney General--a positive step.
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On Mike Ramos, San Bernardino County District Attorney--is Mike Ramos being Shielded by the California Department of Justice's Kamala Harris??

Go to SBCSentinel@yahoo.com for December 2, 2011 and look at the long article on San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos--remarkable collection of potential issues with this guy. I am glad someone appears to be keeping tabs.
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This blogger has always been amazed at how County Supervisor Derry, who made a $5,000 omission in a campaign report, is charged with a felony in a re-election year.
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District Attorney Mike Ramos does not prosecute (nor does the State Department of Justice), his republican ally First District County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who was caught misrepresenting the source of significant contributions by the FPPC and only had to submit an amended report,
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District Attorney Mike Ramos reportedly failed to report a payment (to his wife) of twice the amount Derry get indicted for (in his "700 Form") and suffered no penalty.
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District Attorney Mike Ramos in the last election cycle where he barely staved off a run off, failed to report credit card payments for campaign purposes in his FPPC report (and even though this is one of many violations, a modest campaign fine was proposed by the FPPC).
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Biane screws up once and gets hammered, while Ramos & his buds skate it seems.
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Ramos was some co-chair of one of Arnold Swartzennegger's re-election campaign committees--he ran (and arguably still does run) a political machine with connections all the way to Sacramento (e.g. the FPPC, having a democratic attorney general running for governor attend one of Ramos' fund raisers in a race where a democratic candidate had been endorsed over incumbent district attorney Mike Ramos, the Fair Political Practices Commission and from the San Bernardino Sentinel article, it seems the California Department of Justice--how else could he repeatedly go unprosecuted for failing to go after allies breaking the law??)
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Does anyone think Postmus was the only power broker?
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Kamla Harris Not Joining New York's AJ Eric Schneiderman's Mortgage Fraud Investigation? Why?

An interesting November 7, 2011 article by Matt Stoller [former Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can reach him at Stoller@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @matthewstoller] called "50 State Settlement Chatter – $65 Million of Fundraising and the Kamala Harris Network" [found at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/matt-stoller-50-state-settlement-chatter-%e2%80%93-65-million-of-fundraising-and-the-kamala-harris-network.html], if true explains much about the lackluster approach to protecting consumers victimized by mortgage fraud in California.

California Attorney General Harris has positioned herself to either be the champion of consumers or the banking lobby. Commentators have either seen her as a progressive rising star or as another democratic hack.

Understanding how Harris thinks about politics matters as it kinda clues one into what she is likely to do next (or not do).

In Matt Stoller's article he comments:
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"Harris’s decision-making seems to be driven by personal connections and fundraising networks. This is not at all unusual, but it does contrast a bit with other types of public servants, who often see their job as serving the law itself. So what do her personal connections and fundraising networks look like?
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Well, largely she shares them with President Obama, who endorsed her late in 2010 for the AG office. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, was key fundraiser for Obama in California, having helped raise $65 million for Obama in the state, and he is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. He now works at the DOJ and has expanded the Civil Rights department to take on some elements of mortgage fraud. The DOJ has an internal directive to make mortgage fraud a top priority, but what mortgage fraud means to the DOJ are mortgage modification scams and penny ante borrowers ripping off fly-by-night lenders. West, while not the direct actor in the DOJ’s settlement talks, is in all likelihood involved in pressure on state AGs to sign on to a settlement. And it’s simply inconceivable he hasn’t dealt with his sister-in-law and political ally on the matter. Harris and West are part of a coherent political network, and much of the strength of that network has to do with reinforcing the traditional bank-friendly policies of the Democratic elite and then using that to create political support.
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The first indication that as California AG Harris was more sympathetic to the Obama side of the ledger on banking is that one of her first decisions as AG was to let off Angelo Mozilo without admitting to wrong-doing or personally paying a fine (the small money that went to restitution came from Bank of America shareholders). I suspect the issue is actually more personal to her than legal, not because she particularly cares about finance or foreclosures, but because her friends and allies are very concerned about ensuring that the banks get a release. In their view, this will cause the housing market to clear, the economy to recover, and then help reelection chances".
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While General Harris' supporters point out that she backed out of an immediate settlement a few weeks ago with the banks that screwed millions of Californians, she refused to join the joint investigation by Eric Schneiderman and Beau Biden on the foreclosure fraud crisis. The question has to be WHY?
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Is she afraid of sharing visibility on the subject? Is she worried she will look inadequate in leading her budget ravaged staff that historically is more pro-institution than pro-consumer? Or is she just on the sidelines, trying to figure out what to do? Or is she more closely aligned to the very banking execs she should be joining in the investigation of [For example, she let the mortgage mauraders at Countrywide and its CEO Angelo Mozilo off the hook in February of 2011 when he paid a mere $6.5 million to get out of a predatory lending lawsuit filed by the state of California].
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What is clear is that Kamala Harris is no progressive lie New York's AJ Eric Schneiderman.
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The Kamala Harris history?
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Harris got her start in big time San Francisco politics she was best known as the ex-girlfriend of former long-time Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who remains a powerful figure in California politics. Harris dumped Brown shortly after he became mayor but he provided key help to her campaign for District Attorney in 2003. It was a tough race against a two-term incumbent. In that race she agreed to participate in a system that mandated campaign finance limits. In the last days of the race when it was clear she had a shot at winning, she ignored the mandated spending limits she had previously agreed to assuming that the fines would be well worth the expense of spending extra money in the home stretch if she won. And she did win. Her career as San Francisco’s District Attorney was marred by allegations of massive mismanagement of the city’s crime lab which was under her jurisdiction. As a result, allegedly hundreds of criminal cases had to be thrown out of court.
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Maybe General Harris could learn from a very tough AG in hard hit Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto.
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Window dressing politics have to stop. Harris needs to decide if she wants to be a warrior for victims or an apologist for the banking smucks that are still raking us over the coals.

Kamala Harris is Not Leading in Crises Like I Thought She Would

When Kamala Harris came to San Bernardino during her campaign, I asked her how good were her budget hustling skills given the hiring freezes that had been in place since Gov Davis. I note with interest Kamala Harris complaining about the $71 million in cuts the Attorney General's office is facing [See article covering subject @ http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/233141-proposed-budget-cuts-anger-calif.-sc-ag]. $71 million can be cut into by working in more heat in the summer and cool in the winter, switching to LED lighting, not defending death penalty sentences; I think maybe conviction rates were better in the days when people had to open windows and turn the fans on. Maybe we need some televideo appearance legislation so agents and DAGs (Deputy Attorney Generals) can work from a more central and efficient location. Cut traveling to conferences. Buy the DVD's from the conferences and pass them around. If the conference is interactive, use teleconferencing--heck the regional water boards in the state do it (Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board)! I have often wondered, with CBA's (Collective Bargaining Agreements) in place that cause DDA's (Deputy District Attorneys) to show up and work their non-overtime hours, and those hours only, maybe its time to not penalize DDA's and investigators (comment directed to Human Resources Managers & union stewards) that might want to work off the clock because of professional pride/dedication. In the Sheriff's offices there are Reserve Deputies that not only donate their time, but often thousands of dollars to being able to assist law enforcement in their communities. The spirit of voluntarism was spoken of by Barack Obama as needing rebirth in this nation for us to fight through our current crises. Policy changes may be needed to not just keep an efficient department, but take it to the next level.

Jeffrey Burum, Paul Biane, Jim Erwin, 48 & Mark Kirk Indictments

"I will tell you, this is a historical day," Ramos said
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Blogger Bob's comment: What he did not add: now that I [Ramos] got the Ristow case dismissed.
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"{Ramos said] I am pleased that the matter will now move to the arena of the courtroom, where we intend to prove our case and finally see justice done. I hope this sends a strong message that corruption will no longer be tolerated in San Bernardino County."
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Blogger Bob's comment:Fighting Burum will be interesting--he won't fold and hand the DA's office "convictions" through plea deals like they got from Postmus and Aleman, caused by the lack of money to hire & keep paying lawyers.
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Burum's attorney, John Vandevelde, said "Jeff Burum has been smeared by innuendos for two years," he said. "Today's indictment means Jeff will finally have his day in court where the truth will show there was never a bribe of anyone or illegal conduct of any kind"
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Blogger Bob's comment: First, ah shucks, no bribe or illegal conduct evidence will be part of Burum's defense--come on, tease us with something. Second, it will be interesting to see how a confidential settlement arrived at thru a legally sanctioned mediation process, approved by the Board of Supervisors with access to all sorts of legal counsel, will be unraveled
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Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons called the indictment a "signal event" for the county. "We won't rest until we follow all the evidence to wear it leads," Schons said. "When public officials act corruptly, every Californian is their victim," Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said. "Let the San Bernardino indictments send a strong message that we will never tolerate this sort of abuse of the public trust."
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Blogger Bob's comment: Sexual liasons with County employees though is ok, plea deals with attempted murderers offering no jail time is ok, repeatedly filing false/misleading FPPC statements/disclosure forms is ok? Double standards for Mikey I guess.
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Ovitt released the following statement about Kirk, his former chief of staff (Kirk who faces felony charges of bribery, improper influence, conflict of interest, misappropriation of public funds, fraudulent tax return, perjury and filing a false instrument): "I am saddened about what has occurred today involving Mark Kirk," Ovitt said. "I have known Mark for eight years, I've worked with him during that period of time. He is a person of great intelligence and integrity. Although I don't know the specifics of the charges, and can't comment on the particulars, I know Mark to be a consumate professional, loving father and family man, and all around good person of high morals and character."
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Blogger Bob's comment: In the 8 years Ovitt knew and worked with this guy he [Ovitt] had no clue he was abusing my office's power. Yeah right! How does Ovitt think he got his campaign money?
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Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons called the indictment a "signal event" for the county. He said more work is still ahead in the ongoing investigation and "We won't rest until we follow all the evidence to where it leads."
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Blogger Bob's comment: Wow--who is going to sever the Siamese twins first (Harris & Ramos)

NEW AG's (Kamala Harris) INAUGURAL SPEECH

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n2021_final_speech.pdf -- (hmm Mikey is mentioned)--a thought: Proverbs 29:2 (Living Bible) "With good men in authority, the people rejoice; but with the wicked in power, they groan". Blogger Bob: "Groan".

Kamala Harris & Mike Ramos-hmmm

Star studded transition team one would think for Kamala Harris until coming up on Mikey--a quick look at one of the blogs tracking Mikey would show in the months leading up to December's nod by the new top cop, Mikey was in trouble. Interesting on how violations of campaign finance laws appears ok with our new AG?? I wonder what will happen when the Ristow affidavits eventually get Wikileaked? Interesting stuff and alignments politics makes. Is it true that when Guttierrez's trial counsel became seriously ill, the DA/AG team refused to give the attorney time to seek treatment? Nothing like setting up an ineffective assistance of counsel scenario and retrial! I truly hope that Harris was not sucker punched by Mikey's charm, that this is a tactic of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer or just maybe Mikey is not such a bad guy (I stumbled and chocked when I typed the latter).

(1) What was Mitzelfelt doing a no-no at 7:22 pm? (2) Will Ramos be alone? (3) AG Candidate Harris in SB

An observer noted that Brad Mitzelfelt and a certain staff member were talking about a real estate deal at 7:22 pm at the Outpost Cafe yesterday (7/22/2010)--that certain person has been known to walk through developer's plans at the County and is reputed to have an active real estate license. Does anyone remember the quote of Mitzelfelt in the Sun (that he now denies) that after Adelanto tossed out Nursery Products, that "we will find Nursery Products another place, like maybe in Hinkley"? Is Mitzelfelt still using county resources to favor curry with his developer buds? If this was legit county business, why wasn't it done during County time at the county's office's (and there are several of them just minutes away).
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Some sources are unproven but have some indicia of the likelihood of being reliable--one source suggested that one of the ongoing investigations is looking at some aspect of the management tier under Mike Ramos and that when its all said and done, Mike Ramos will be walking away with some others close to him--and potential replacements are supposedly being evaluated/considered as I write this.
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One of the AG candidates (Kamala Harris) is coming down here for a town hall meeting on Saturday at 4 pm at the Inghram Community Center (2050 N. Mount Vernon Avenue, San Bernardino CA 92411)--apparently Steve Cooley, her republican opponent was invited, but no word on whether he will show. Few state wide candidates have come down here as of late. That Harris would show is interesting.
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Bell was this week--will San Bernardino County be next?