Sunday, December 31, 2006

Spin and Reality

Quoted in the Times Standard's Year End Recap Paul Gallegos has this to say:
"While crime has continued to go down, we are still trying to catch up on the backlog of cases, especially homicides, from the past,” Gallegos said. “Hopefully, we will have tried all of them by the end of 2007.”

Gallegos described 2006 as a good budget year “because we were able to begin the slow process of rebuilding from the losses caused by the budget crisis. Unfortunately, it will take a couple of years of rebuilding to be where we need to be to do the job that we want to do. Morale is good despite the work load and the long hours.”

The biggest challenges have been dealing with the lack of resources and treatment options for the drug and alcohol addicted and the mentally, as well as the recent police shootings.

”My firm belief continues to be that if we can meaningfully address drug and alcohol abuse and addiction and mental illness, we will profoundly improve the quality of life for all people in Humboldt County,” he said. “My personal hope is that my office can assist Humboldt County in becoming ranked as one of the best places in the country to live.”


Really? The slow process of rebuilding from the losses caused by the BUDGET CRISIS?
C'mon, man. your office must be swimming in money - hundreds of thousands of dollars not being spent on all those unfilled positions, saved because all but three of your experienced prosecutors are gone. Maybe you better rehire the PR man to come up with some new BS line for the New Year.

Morale is good? IN the DA's Office? Is that why they are all leaving?

"The biggest challenges have been dealing with the lack of resources and treatment options for the drug and alcohol addicted and the mentally, as well as the recent police shootings?" Are you kidding?

The North Coast Journal is more in touch with the reality of the situation: "THE YEAR IN GALLEGOS - A take-no-prisoners election challenge from within the office, red-handed plagiarism, terminal short-handedness, high-profile cases ignored or overturned on appeal -- all in all, it was a pretty quiet year for District Attorney Paul Gallegos. But as the list would indicate, even Gallegos' down times pretty much out-Richter those of most anyone else you could care to name.

The first half of the year was taken up by the election. Gallegos was running for the office for the third time in four years, including the failed, Maxxam-financed recall attempt against him in 2004. This time, his challenger was Deputy DA Worth Dikeman, a veteran Humboldt County prosecutor, who had announced that he'd seek to oust Gallegos nearly a year previous, back in the summer of 2005. The race was not friendly, from either side -- Dikeman charged Gallegos with incompetence, Gallegos' proxies charged Dikeman of racism and bias toward the police. Gallegos won by a healthy margin -- 53-46 -- but not near as healthy as his 60-40 recall win.

A couple of prosecutors quit. Dikeman was fired. In August, news broke of a horrible case of animal abuse out in the hinterlands, with 41 dogs found dead or dying of neglect just over the border in Trinity County. It turned out that the alleged perpetrator, Roberta Bugenig, had just moved there from the Bridgeville area, where the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office had filed felony animal abuse charges against her in 2004. Gallegos' office had declined to prosecute the case. The discovery of these facts prompted condemnation from animal rights activists.

Seemingly in response -- in fact, it was never quite clear -- Gallegos published an opinion piece titled "Vigilantism A Force Of Anarchy" in the Times-Standard. The piece's odd phraseology prompted the Eureka Reporter's Heather Muller, who had originally reported the Bugenig case, to do a Google search; as it turned out, much of the op-ed had been lifted straight out of an academic paper on The Ox-Bow Incident.

Not all the post-election news was as embarrassing -- or not yet, at least. In November, Gallegos finally filed the long-delayed appeal of his office's sprawling fraud lawsuit against the Pacific Lumber Co., which had been tossed out of court a year and a half prior. The suit, along with Gallegos' generous medical marijuana policy, is the thing that first defined his tenure in the office, and gave him a reputation as a crusading people's prosecutor. Will the appeal bring back some of the magic?

16 comments:

  1. There is not much reality or truth in Mr. Gallegos' end of the year statement. The moral of the DA's office is in the toilet, an all time low. And Mr. Gallegos knows that. Most of the community knows that. Gallegos's supporters know that. He speaks of budgets like the reason he is short staffed is because of the budget. He cannot attract enough crappy lawyers to fill the open positions. His reputation is out there, who would want to be a DA in Humboldt County these days? Who is he trying to kid? He's lying again. The next thing he will put out an Op Ed in the T/S saying "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". As mentioned on an earlier post many of the invesitgators are leaving, his latest attorney is leaving (after 6 weeks ?) and the office manager is going to work for the Sheriffs Dept. The DA's office is a sinking ship. A stinky sinking ship.

    Thanks for the informational post Rose. People need a running account of the surfing DA's deeds and mis-deeds. I'm sure there is more you/we don't know about.

    Have a good 2007. I appreciate your efforts, as do others.

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  2. So is he actually back from his tropical vacation? Or did he send that in by email?

    I can't wait to see how much lower he can drag the DA's office this next year.

    Should we just rename this year to Year Of The Criminals?

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  3. There's always hope that the AG will take notice and step in-any takers on getting Jerry Brown involved?

    Rose, you have done as much as any human being could ever do to bring the needed information to light. The previous poster stating we all know isn't *quite* true yet, but your blog has made huge strides in getting the information out there.

    Some ideas for drawing attention to Humboldt's plight:

    Link outside news to this blog.

    Call/email Jerry Brown and ask him to look into the matters Rose has highlighted here.

    Pray

    Write letters to our local papers, to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Los Angeles Times.

    Happy New Year Rose! Hope you can keep this up for another go at getting the village idiot out of office.

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  4. We can also rename pablo, Paul "Nifong" Gallegeos, simply because he lied to get reelcted. Seems the 2 have a lot in common. Roy

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  5. I will have to say you are a very interesting person, to follow MR. DA for so long---that is a feat in its own...

    So, what will you do next year, same song and dance......

    or--just enjoy life, and say, politics are politics....

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  6. This isn't politics. This is about truth, and the integrity of the judicial system itself - and if you have any doubt about that you need to read Salzman's Plan, and read the attempts Gallegos and Stoen made to implement Salzman's plan - to SOLICIT, accept and use special interest money to fund a public lawsuit.

    It is about the DA's office being used as a weapon by activist groups. It's all there, the other Richard, in their own words. It's about Gallegos allowing himself to be used, at the expense of the legitimate business of the PEOPLE of Humboldt County and the State of California. It is about a decade long effort to "get" one company, and that goal being pursued at the expense of children - read that: NO child abuse prosecutions, decimation of the Child Abuse Services Team, dismantling of the Victim Witness Unit, allowing grants to slip away, and making no effort to remedy the situation.

    It is about the incredible mismanagement that is running YOUR DA's office into the ground, RMostranski.

    This blog is here and will be here to counter the outright lies and public relations spin that has dominated, and it will be here until Paul Gallegos removes himself from that office and returns to private practice.

    Is that what you mean by the same old song and dance?

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  7. yes, same old song and dance.

    Well, I guess we will be waiting for MR. DA to do something, and If not, we will have to endure is vice--plain and simple...

    And, it is so nice that your Blog will be around for a while---keeeps us all guessing on the next matter of the day...

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  8. Didn't need to wait long. Gallegos is planning to give Jeffrey "yougofree.com" Schwartz a raise to reward him for his hard work on the Child Abuse Services Team. Elevating him to the highest paid level he has. Same with Klein.

    It's on the BOS Consent Calendar for tomorrow.

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  9. How can the board make a guy a 4 who has NEVER WON A TRIAL as a prosecutor? He's only gone to jury once, and that hung. How many CAST cases has he filed? This is a bad joke.

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  10. Has anyone read the pathetic piece of shit that Gags filed as the PL appeal.

    I know that he didn't write it because although it is incoherent, has spelling errors, grammar errors etc., he is just to lazy to have done anything with Tim Stoens case.

    Whoever did write it has evidently never written an appellate brief. It is all wrong in so many ways that I wish I were a fly on the wall at the court of appeal. Wonder what the other side will file. This case is so DOA.

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  11. Fly on the wall are you kidding??? Where can we get seats to see this in person-make sure the cellphone is charged first...this is so Youtube!

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  12. And, Thank You 11:59. Happy New Year to you, too.

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  13. Just out of curiousity, RMostranski, what do you think of "Salzman's Plan" to solicit, accept and use special interest money to fund a public lawsuit?

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  14. It has merits.

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  15. And what would those be?

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  16. rmostranski is as irrelevant now as he was in the campaign. Rich get a real life.

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