watchpaul: TIM STOEN'S LETTER TO THE FPPC

Friday, April 07, 2006

TIM STOEN'S LETTER TO THE FPPC

Paul Gallegos' and Tim Stoen's efforts to privately fund the PL lawsuit took many forms.

In this letter to the FPPC regarding Raising Funds for prosecution of District Attorney Lawsuit Against Pacific Lumber Company, Stoen actually asks:

"5. If necessary, could I make a contribution from my personal funds to pay for deposition costs even though I am the attorney prosecuting the case?"

The full text of that letter will be posted as the first comment in this post.

The next post is the FPPC's response.

Do you think it is OK for the prosecuting attorney to be so vested in the lawsuit he is prosecuting against you that he will put his own money in to fund it?

What else will Stoen and Gallegos do "for the cause"?

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RELATED:
Read second - GALLEGOS' REQUEST FOR OPINION
The complete text of Paul Gallegos' REQUEST FOR OPINION, which he submitted to the Attorney General's Office

TIM STOEN'S LETTER TO THE FPPC
Paul Gallegos' and Tim Stoen's efforts to privately fund the PL lawsuit took many forms.

THE FPPC RESPONSE TO STOEN
The full text of the FPPC's response to Tim Stoen's letter regarding "Raising Funds for prosecution of District Attorney Lawsuit Against Pacific Lumber Company."

SUBMISSION TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINIONS DEPARTMENT regarding Gallegos' Request for Opinion and Salzman's Plan

1 comment:

Rose4/07/2006 5:17 PM
Stoen's letter to the FPPC - Available as a Public Records Act Request
The letter that prompted the FPPC Advice Letter...File No. A-03-185

Humboldt County DA letterhead

dated August 13, 2003

Fair Political Practices Commission
428 J Street, Suite 620
Sacramento, CA 95814

Attn: Dixie Howard:

Re: Raising Funds for prosecution of District Attorney Lawsuit Against Pacific Lumber Company

Dear Ms. Howard:

Thanks you so much for sending me a copy of the FPPC Advice Letter, Your File No. A-03-130, addressed to the Ventura County District Attorney and Sheriff. In that letter the FPPC appears to approve the District Attorney and Sheriff raising money from citizens and organizations to pay a private law firm representing them in their official capacities, subject to the following three conditions:

(1) all payments made at their behest must be disclosed and treated as a contribution,
(2) all payments must be made to a single committee bank-account, and
(3) all contributors must be notified of the specific amount allocated to each such committee.

FACTUAL SCENARIO

If I have interpreted your advice letter correctly, I would appreciate very much your responding to a number of questions based on a highly similar factual scenario involving the Humboldt County District Attorney's office. In February 2003, our office filed, in the name of the People of the State of California as plaintiff, a civil action against the pacific Lumber Company under Section 17200 of the Business and professions Code (the Unfair Competition Law). The Board of Supervisors has not given us any money in our budget to pay for the costs of prosecuting this action. We anticipate needing $20,000 to pay for necessary depositions as part of our discovery costs.

The lack of county money to pay for necessary costs in prosecuting this action has caused our office a major dilemma. Section 17206(a) requires our office to bring an action, "in the name of the ..."

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"...people of the State of California," if any person violates any provision of the Unfair Competition Law ("Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall be liable for a civil penalty..., which shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California... by any district attorney...."). But we cannot keep this statutory obligation unless we raise money from the citizens to pay for the necessary expenses of prosecuting such an action.

To resolve this dilemma, our office proposes, subject to your approval, to solicit citizens and organizations to raise money toward these expenses by such activities as concerts.

QUESTIONS

Assuming (a) that all funds raised are deposited in a single bank account in the name of the District Attorney's campaign committee, (b) that these amounts are treated as contributions and duly reported, and (c) that all contributors are advised in advance that all of the moneys contributed will be used for the prosecuting of the lawsuit against Pacific Lumber, our questions are as follows:

1. May the District Attorney solicit citizens and organizations to put on concerts and engage in other activities to raise funds to pay for costs in prosecuting the lawsuit?

2. May such funds be used to pay for depositions and other non-attorney costs?

3. May such funds be used to retain the assistance of a private law firm, which would be paid for work done on an hourly basis?

4. What is the limit, if any, as to the amount of contribution any single person could make?

5. If necessary, could I make a contribution from my personal funds to pay for deposition costs even though I am the attorney prosecuting the case?

a. If so, what contribution limit, if any, would I be subject to?

Thank you for your kindness in responding so quickly to out past inquiries. We are most appreciative.

Sincerely,

Timothy O. Stoen
Assistant District Attorney
County of Humboldt

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Paul Gallegos

The Humboldt County Grand Jury found that "Weak leadership and poor managerial practices" have undermined the office... Implicit in all evidence gathered by the Grand Jury - including interviews with the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) - is the unfortunate truth that the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) exhibits a limited understanding of how things are done in the department" Gallegos "lacks the global perspective needed to keep the department operating efficiently," and quotes an unnamed staff member as saying, "The D.A. (Paul Gallegos) does not fully understand the functionality of many of the things we do here" - Years later, in his own words: "I’m not an administrator, they didn’t elect me to be an administrator, they elected me to make sure this office runs..."

Douglas & Zanotti

CASE TOSSED The district attorney misrepresented the law and failed to provide evidence of former Eureka Police Chief David Douglas' and Lt. Tony Zanotti's innocence during a criminal grand jury inquiry into the 2006 shooting death of Cheri Lyn Moore, defense attorneys argued in court documents filed Thursday... ”Our judicial system stands as a real and necessary check on the grand jury indictment process,” one of the documents states. “This court has the authority and the means by which to halt this prosecution, which is justified neither by the undisputed facts, nor by the law.”

Gallegos has taken what was "arguably the state's best small DA's office, with a cutting edge CAST program that "trained the trainers"... into a bunch of time serving bureaucratic wannabee brown nosers, lightly sprinkled with a couple of earnest learners who are sure to split as soon as possible.

One weeps for Max Cardoza who won Angellel, and for Maggie Fleming who won so many impossible victories. Mired in Humboldt for personal reasons, they have to suffer the ignominy of working for Paul, with Yougo, yes, yougo who has freed more people as a prosecutor than he did as a defense attorney. As has Paul. Anonymous comment

Gallegos has answers for everything. I’ve never met anyone whose answers came so quickly, with such polish - except about his law school(s). He likely sounded the same way when promising to get prosecutors off their anachronistic “at will” status and onto civil service status. It never happened. Indeed, he told them, “Disloyalty will not be tolerated” – a real morale builder.

He sounds great. What progressive doesn’t want to believe in him? But it’s a myth. He’s an intellectual lightweight and self-aggrandizer who tries to please everybody with glib answers. Jim Fahey for The Arcata Eye

The Humboldt County DA's office is one of the most exciting prosecutorial
offices in California.

Its District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, is willing to charge anyone who commits
wrongdoing--no matter how wealthy, sacrosanct, or ruthless. He believes in total equality before the law. He also plans to be innovative in promoting programs of prevention and treatment. He wants to make it the best prosecutorial office of its size in the nation.... Gallegos' Help Wanted ad

Gallegos' OWN Quotes

★ ...District Attorney Paul Gallegos said he believes the statute of limitations clock, even on misdemeanors, doesn't start running until law enforcement knows or reasonably should have known of the offense. In this case, Gallegos said, that means the statute of limitations would not run out at least until Feb. 8, 2009, or one year after Gundersen's arrest and the discovery of the photographs in question...

★ "...some people actually molest out of different feelings, some times out of feelings of love....” DA Gallegos explaining why Child Abuse prosecutions were down

★ “I never said that the information was not available under the Freedom of Information Act. Quite the contrary, I informed you that our use of force policy is not a public record.” Paul Gallegos to the Times Standard 5/25/07

★ ...“One is that I do everything to make people happy which means I don’t stand for anything except for just something,” he said. “The other is I stand for something and I try to be a leader and take some people, a group of people, a community someplace and I say guess what folks, this is who I am. I stand for your beliefs. We share these beliefs or we don’t. You get the option to judge that. This is who I am and I am committed to leading us this place, wherever it is...." Eureka Reporter Gallegos defends record, looks ahead 7/3/2005

★ Note the difference between what he SAID, and what he DOES..."...So what are these issues? Top on Gallegos' list is the proliferation of "garbage cases," small-time crimes and overcharged cases that he said are clogging up the court system.

Garbage cases, said Gallegos, come in two forms: Cases that would lose if actually brought to trial and cases that are overcharged for the crimes committed. The idea behind filing both kinds of garbage, he said, is to get the defendant to plead guilty, netting a conviction without having to go into court.

Again, the IRONY is astounding! Look at what he SAYS, and then think about what he DOES! "Probably 95 percent of the cases that are filed plead guilty. In fact, there are a lot of cases that are filed on the assumption they will plead guilty, because of the time and expense involved in defending them. But these cases shouldn't even be filed in the first place, because if they were challenged, they would lose," Gallegos said. Better yet: If they weren't filed at all, it would save the county time and money...." North Coast Journal 2/21/02 Too bad he didn't take his own advice.

★ “Tim’s a stud,” he said. “He really is; anyone would be stoked to have him.” Gallegos on his second in command right hand man Assistant District Attorney Tim Stoen. (Former second in command right hand man to Jim Jones/People's Temple.)

NOTE:

"Helping Crush Progressivism" - ie: exposing the predatory litigious orgs and those who seek power for power's sake.... The original purpose of watchpaul is to post important documents relating to Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos and his handlers who seek to gain power through the acquisition of political offices. This includes, but is not limited to, the manipulations of "Humboldt Watershed Council," "EPIC," "Baykeeper," and other activist groups - the unregulated orgs. It also includes the master manipulators, such as Richard Salzman and Ken Miller.

Links to key stories and documents are also included in the sidebar, so that you do not have to try to scroll back through what has become a lengthy series of posts. I encourage you to use the Search and Labels features as well.

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Friday, April 07, 2006

TIM STOEN'S LETTER TO THE FPPC

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