watchpaul: Her lawyer's nightmare

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Her lawyer's nightmare

◼ Kimberly Steele Gives the Outpost Her Account of Saturday’s Homicide in Arcata - Ryan Burns/Lost Coast Outpost Breaking story 5/17/15
◼ ‘The Price of Trevor’s Life’ - Kimberly Steele Talks About the Pot Deal That Left a Man Dead - Ryan Burns/Lost Coast Outpost Full Story 5/18/15

Kimberly Steele arranged the pot deal that ended with one man shot dead in Arcata. She was arrested and booked for murder, then released -- though police say they are still considering which charges to bring. Here's her story.
...“I had been working on a pot deal the whole day.”...

If I was Lost Coast Outpost, I'd print it too. But what a stupid thing for her to do. Any lawyer will tell you.

Might as well start the running coverage recap:

◼ Woman Arrested for Saturday’s Homicide in Arcata Released From Jail - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost 5/14/15

According to jail records, Kimberly Lyn Steele, who was arrested at her Samoa home shortly after the incident in Arcata’s Sunset neighborhood, was set free yesterday shortly after noon.

Hours later, the Arcata Police Department and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office raided a location at the Bear River Rancheria and took Billy Joe Giddings into custody. He and Robert Louis Huntzinger are still in jail facing murder and robbery charges.

◼ Two more arrests in Saturday homicide - Kevin Hoover/Mad River Union/City Of Arcata Press Release 5/13/15

On Tuesday, May 12th, near midnight, the Arcata Police Department arrested Robert Louis Huntzinger (age 34) at a residence located in the 400 block of Railroad Avenue in Blue Lake.

The arrest of Huntzinger was made with the assistance of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol. Huntzinger was arrested without incident.

On Wednesday, May 13th, at about 3:45 pm, the Arcata Police Department arrested Billy Joe Giddings (age 35) at a residence located in the 200 block of Brenard Road in Loleta.

◼ (UPDATED) Two Men Arrested in Connection to Weekend Homicide in Arcata - Ryan Burns/Lost Coast Outpost 5/13/15

◼ Arcata Homicide Victim Named; Two Suspects Still Sought - Andrew Goff/Lost Coast Outpost 5/11/15

The homicide victim has been identified as 38-year-old Trevor Mark Harrison, of Arcata.

◼ Homicide investigation continues; one arrest made - Mad River Union 5/11/15
◼ Arcata Police Arrest Woman Believed to Have Been Involved in Saturday Night’s Home Invasion/Homicide - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost 5/11/15

One person has been arrested in connection with the home invasion robbery that ended when a man was shot dead Saturday night, according to Arcata Police Chief Tom Chapman.

Chapman told the Outpost that his officers found Kimberly Lyn Steele, 28, at her home in Samoa on Sunday, shortly after the shooting. Steele was taken into custody for questioning, Chapman said, after which she was arrested and booked into jail on robbery charges.

“We are continuing to investigate her involvement in the homicide,” Chapman said.

◼ APD investigating shooting homicide - APD Press Release/Mad River Union 5/10/15
◼ Homicide in Arcata: Last Night’s Fatal Shooting Connected With Home Invasion Marijuana Robbery, Says APD - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost 5/10/15

Further investigation revealed that a marijuana related home invasion robbery had occurred and the victim was shot during the commission of that robbery. The suspects are described as two white male adults, possibly in their 20’s, wearing dark clothing and a white female adult described as being in her late 20’s or early 30’s with a possible first name of “Kim.”

◼ Shooting in Arcata; Police, Medical Responding to Sunset Neighborhood - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost 5/10/15

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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Sunday, May 17, 2015

Her lawyer's nightmare