Open thread on Cotchett's PL filing

I'm paraphrasing, but back when Tim Stoen stood before the Board of Supervisors asking to bring Cotchett's law firm in to do the PL suit, he said this was a slam dunk case - that all he needed was 4 pieces of paper and two expert witnesses and this case would be over in two days...

Typical Stoen histrionics.

"...Gallegos' complaint, Cotchett said, is legally sound... "This is an extremely well-written complaint," Cotchett said. "The district attorney (and his staff) did a full and complete investigation
before they filed..."

Oh really?

Much has been revealed since that first day about how the PL suit came about, with Ken Miller in Stoen's office helping draft the suit, and of course it was laughed out of court. Didn't even pass demurrer, didn't even go to trial.

There were big numbers being thrown around back then - "... In the lawsuit, Gallegos is asking PL pay damages of up to $2,500 per tree for every one cut as a result of its alleged deception surrounding the Headwaters deal. The district attorney's office has estimated the company cut 30,000 trees it shouldn't have been allowed to cut, which appears to mean the damages the district attorney is seeking are in the neighborhood of $75 million. Of that, the Bay area firm would want more than $10 million plus expenses...."

But, somehow, I don't think this is about money, and I don't think we know all there is to know about who is behind this effort. There is a big story here waiting to be told.

There are questions that have to be answered. How did Cotchett come to be involved in the first place? How did Stoen get brought in? Was John Burton involved? How about Pete McCloskey? What are his links to Burton? How did Ken Miller pull this off?

And why is Cotchett "jonesing" after this suit to this day? Is it the money?

I'm starting to wonder if Cotchett is all that smart. His statement that Miller's suit was well-drafted is ludicrous.

And if some of the points which have been brought up in the discussion on the Humboldt Herald are true, he has really screwed up this time.

That being that the Statute of Limitations has long since expired since the "whistleblowers" objections were discovered while the Headwaters deal was being finalized, if I read it correctly.

My opinion has been and remains that Hurwitz ought to sue Ken Miller and his dedicated cronies (including Fenton Communications and Michael Shellenberger) for their decade long effort to destroy Pacific Lumber Company, to use the power of government offices to steal his land, for their ongoing and vicious defamation of him and his company. It would be a groundbreaking thing. The activists and their power are a new and untested thing, and the use of the internet to spread the defamation is a new thing.

Consider this an open thread on the latest Cotchett/Palco filing.

And would the person who posted that information at Heraldo, please email me with information. I see you have also drawn the connection between Burton and this whole sorry mess. Help us understand this process.

Sidenote: Cotchett also gave Gallegos' campaign three grand, if I remember correctly. It's high time I posted those 460s.

More on heraldo - besides the rhetoric, check the comments, though he seems to be deleting them as fast as they come in.