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The Adams Testimony.

Thursday, November 7th, 2013

Were you wondering what Angela Spaccia, former assistant city manager of Bell, looks like wearing a bathrobe and smoking a cigar?

Wonder no more.

What does this have to do with corruption in Bell? Well, Spaccia texted that photo to Randy Adams, the former police chief, and it was introduced as evidence during Adams’ testimony yesterday. I think the prosecution’s intent is to establish that the Adams/Spaccia relationship went beyond the bounds of “professional”: not necessarily romantic, but perhaps a closer friendship than either one is letting on. (In turn, I guess this is intended to make the jury question Adams’ testimony for Spaccia.)

In other news, Adams was shocked, shocked! that the city of Bell was willing to pay him $457,000 a year to be Bell’s police chief. But Randy Adams appears to be much like the great Clay Davis: he’ll take any motherf—-r’s money if he givin’ it away!

It is perhaps worth pointing out that Mister Shocked, Shocked I Am:

…who had recently retired as Glendale’s police chief, wanted a salary in excess of $400,000.

It is also worth reminding folks that before he moved over to Bell, Adams was paid half as much in Glendale and ran a much larger department. And let’s not forget that little disability pension thing, but I suspect that will come out in the cross-examination.

I hate to jump to conclusions here, but I’m not sure calling Adams as a defense witness was the brightest thing Spaccia’s council could have done.

In the meantime, since you’ve got it stuck in your head anyway….

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: November 6, 2013.

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

Politics depress me. In general and in specific. (I’m not sure how I feel about the Astrodome being declared dead.)

But there is at least one bright spot. Voters in the bankrupt municipality of San Bernardino threw out several elected officials in a recall election.

Those given the axe:

  • “Longtime councilwoman” Wendy McCammack. This is interesting because Ms. McCammack was also the top vote-getter in the San Bernardino mayor’s race. However, there were a total of 10 candidates, and she got “just under” 25% of the vote. I wonder how many of the eight other candidates are going to throw their support to her, and how many will support “Carey Davis, an accountant and political newcomer”.
  • City attorney James Penman. City attorney is an elected rather than appointed position? Interesting.
  • Robert Jenkins, “charged with more than 30 felony and misdemeanor counts related to allegedly posting ads on Craigslist for sex partners and directing them to a former partner and another man”.

I haven’t been giving much attention to the Angela Spaccia/Bell trial. Most of what I’ve seen in the LAT has been the usual back and forth we’ve seen in the other trials: “City council approved!” “Did not!” “Did too!” “Rizzo’s a big poopy head and it was all his fault!”

(There have been a few amusing bits I missed covering. Among them:

(Former city attorney) Edward Lee said that even though his name was on most of the contracts, he did not recall signing them, raising the possibility that his name was forged or that the papers were slipped to him in a stack of other documents that required his signature.

The contracts in question being those for Spaccia and Robert “Ratso” Rizzo. This is interesting: while I can’t find the story now, I do recall reading that former Bell finance director Lourdes Garcia slipped contracts for Spaccia and Rizzo into stacks of other documents that were signed blindly by city officials.)

Things are getting a little more interesting. Randy Adams, the former police chief of Bell, is testifying for the defense today. You may remember former chief Adams from such hits as “I’m looking forward to see you and taking all of Bell’s money?!”, “Hire me and give me my disability pension“, and “I don’t know why he is not a defendant in this case”.

Note to self: stop off at grocery store on way home, stock up on popcorn.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

You can’t touch this.

Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

So Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, former city manager of Bell, is going to prison. He’s expected to be sentenced to somewhere between 10 to 12 years (the actual sentencing is scheduled for March), and he’ll probably do about half that time.

Ratso also has to pay compensation to the city of Bell. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been a final decision on the amount (I’m guessing that will be part of his sentencing) but it could be up to $3.2 million.

Where will that money come from? Rizzo sold his house at a loss, and it looks like the same thing is happening with his ranch.

Two places the money won’t come from: Rizzo’s retirement account, and his pension of $116,628 a year.

…city officials say they are legally prevented from going after the pension and the retirement account — which appear to be Rizzo’s main remaining assets — limiting how much the city can get back from him.

More:

State law says that an elected official convicted of a felony loses his pension, but an appointed city official like Rizzo is not covered by the law.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | 2 Comments »

That ’70s post.

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

Ah, the 1970’s. What a time.

Remember Alexander Calder, the noted sculptor? Died in 1976? Well, he had a dealer, Klaus Perls, that he worked with exclusively. It was, by all accounts, a close and very friendly relationship.

Was.

In a recently amended complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court, the Calder estate says the Perlses surreptitiously held on to hundreds of Calder’s works and swindled the artist’s estate out of tens of millions of dollars. Perhaps most surprising, it says that Perls, a dealer with a sterling reputation who campaigned to rid his industry of forgeries, sold dozens of fake Calders. The suit depicts Perls as a tax cheat who stashed millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account, a secret his daughter said she maintained by paying off a former gallery employee with $5 million. She added that Calder had his own hidden Swiss account.

It looks like the Perls family stipulates at least part of these claims, specifically the parts about the Swiss bank accounts. But they also claim that part of the reason Perls had a Swiss bank account is so he could transfer profits to Calder’s Swiss bank account.

In court papers, Mr. Wolfe, the Perls lawyer, said, “Alexander Calder and Klaus Perls were kindred spirits in that they both had an aversion to paying taxes.”

I knew there was a reason I liked Alexander Calder’s work.

The 1970’s were also a time when it was much easier to get your hands on explosives. Especially if you were 17 years old. And if you were peeved at the California Department of Water and Power.

The blast ripped apart a 4-foot-wide steel gate that regulates the flow of water to the aqueduct. Windows were blown out of the gatehouse atop the spill gates and its concrete floor buckled.
About 100 million gallons of water meant for Los Angeles were instead flushed into Owens Lake, which had been dry since the Department of Water and Power opened the aqueduct in 1913.

Nobody was injured. Mark Berry, one of the two men responsible, spent 30 days in juvenile detention. And he now works for the DWP.

(I love this telling detail: “The air was filled with the banana-like smell of nitroglycerin.”)

(And this one: “Berry said his father, as yet unaware that his son was one of the culprits, boasted to a neighbor, ‘If I ever find out who bombed the gates I’ll buy him a steak dinner.'” Gardner Dozois and Edward Abbey, please call your offices.)

(Since I made a “That ’70s Show” reference, I believe I have to link to this Penny Arcade. Especially since I am all about fish out of water prison dramas.)

Posted in Art, California Über Alles, Clippings, Explosives, Law, Sarcasm, TV | Comments Closed

Notes from the legal beat.

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

The courts are busy. Here’s a couple of quick things:

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law | 2 Comments »

Banana republicans watch: more Rizzo.

Friday, October 4th, 2013

The LAT‘s second day story on Robert “Ratso” Rizzo’s plea answers a few questions from yesterday.

His attorney said Rizzo would probably be required to pay between $1 million to $3.2 million in restitution to the city.

We already knew that Rizzo was rolling on his former assistant, Angela Spaccia. You may remember that the former Bell city council members who went on trial adopted the “throw Rizzo under the bus” strategy. Now that Rizzo is taking a plea and cooperating, his plan is to throw Spaccia under the bus:

[James] Spertus [Rizzo’s lawyer – DB] accused Spaccia of coming up with plans to boost the salaries and benefits of Bell administrators while persuading other officials that the increases were proper. He said she also acted as Rizzo’s bookkeeper and hatched a plan to file fraudulent tax filings for Rizzo and for herself. Spertus said he expected federal prosecutors to file charges against Rizzo and Spaccia in connection with the alleged tax scheme sometime in the next several weeks.

I don’t think Spaccia has anyone left to roll on. Possibly the council members, but if Rizzo’s already rolling on them as part of his deal, why does the prosecution need Spaccia?

And how do the people of Bell feel, now that Ratso’s pled guilty? Relieved and disappointed, according to the paper.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Banana Republicans watch: October 3, 2013.

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

This is a great day.

Somebody (I believe it was Harlan Ellison) once wrote that the most eloquent speech of Spiro Agnew‘s career in politics was “Nolo contendere“.

Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, former city manager of Bell, gave that same speech today.

Longtime Bell city administrator Robert Rizzo, who became a national symbol for public corruption for alleged graft in the small city, pleaded no contest to 69 charges, prosecutors said Thursday.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement that Rizzo had agreed to serve 10 to 12 years in state prison, which she described as the largest sentence ever in an L.A. County public corruption case.

10 to 12 years in state prison. I have only one thing to say about this:

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!

(The comments at the LAT do raise some interesting questions: is this part of a deal where Rizzo is going to roll on the other council members? Remember, all but one of the indicted council members still have retrials pending. Also, Angela Spaccia, Rizzo’s former assistant, is still facing trial; will he roll on her? And there’s no mention in the LAT that Rizzo will have to pay any restitution.)

Edited to add: The LAT is still updating coverage:

Rizzo also plans to testify against his former second-in-command, Angela Spaccia, who is still facing trial on similar charges, according to his attorney, former federal prosecutor James Spertus.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

TMQ Watch: September 24, 2013.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

Before we jump into this week’s TMQ, how about a little musical interlude?

After the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Geek, Law, NFL, Sarcasm, Sports, TMQ watch, TV | Comments Closed

Random notes: September 6, 2013.

Friday, September 6th, 2013

How long is forever?

If you bought a memorial stone at the former Crystal Cathedral, forever ends soon:

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which bought the enormous glass and steel church last year, has begun ripping out the memorial stones as it begins major renovations to modernize the campus and convert the nondenominational megachurch to a Catholic place of worship. Over the next several years, most of the 1,800 stones will be removed, diocese officials said, and there are no plans to reinstall them. Instead, digital photos of the stones are now on display at a diocese-sponsored Web site.

By the way, Robert Schuller has been diagnosed with cancer.

There’s a new update in the case of Bruce Malkenhorst, former city administrator of the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon: the California legislature is considering a new bill…

Under the bill, to be introduced Friday, executives convicted of felonies could appeal the reduction of retirement benefits only to the public retirement system that cuts the checks. They could sue that agency but not their former employer.
Cities would be responsible only for benefits approved by officials of the appropriate retirement system. In the case of Malkenhorst, that is CalPERS.

My first thought on this: aren’t we talking about an ex post facto law?

“They might be able to say, ‘You are a crook, so you are not entitled to that income in the first place,’ ” said Edward McCaffery, a USC professor of law, economics and political science. “But to do that by passing a law that cuts off his ability to sue the city — I think that looks like a retroactive messing with a contract,” he said.

A better argument comes later in the article:

“Malkenhorst’s contract is with CalPERS,” Reeves said. “They are the payor and he needs to sue them.”

I’ve written previously about Louis Scarcella, the former NYPD detective whose cases are being re-investigated. The NYT asks a fair question: where were the prosecutors when all this was going on?

Answer: la la la la I can’t hear you…

But even some of those who were suspicious of Mr. Scarcella acknowledged that they mostly kept their concerns to themselves, saying that his ability to clear cases had made him popular with the bosses.
“Some prosecutors were leery; they didn’t trust it,” said one former investigator, who did not want to be identified publicly while criticizing his former supervisors. “He was one of the best detectives in the city. He’s turning over all these cases, and the bosses loved him. You’re going to go to the boss and say, ‘This doesn’t look right’?’”

More:

Jeffrey I. Ginsberg, a former assistant district attorney who also prosecuted two of the convictions under review, said the cases might look bad in retrospect, but they needed to be considered in the context of the 1980s and ’90s, when the crack epidemic was helping fuel a crime wave.
“The witnesses often came in orange jumpsuits,” said Mr. Ginsberg, referring to the outfit worn by inmates. “I was not afraid to go to trial on a weak case. I was not afraid to lose. I was not lying and cheating to get a conviction.”

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: August 30, 2013.

Friday, August 30th, 2013

About a month ago, I noted the case of Bruce Malkenhorst, former city administrator of the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon (later convicted of misappropriation of public funds) who was suing Vernon for the difference between the pension Vernon said they’d give him and the actual pension that he was given by the state.

Vernon has taken the gloves off. You see, back in 2002 or thereabouts, people were starting to become suspicious of Malkenhorst. The LAT was tailing him:

Although time sheets routinely showed Malkenhorst working between 40 and 52 hours a week, he sometimes kept a far more abbreviated schedule at City Hall.

And the city attorney at the time, Eduardo Olivo, started investigating Malkenhorst as well.

In the report, Olivo wrote that the city reimbursed Malkenhorst for golfing, including participation in the Bob Hope Classic. The report also alleged that the city reimbursed him for $21,000 in property taxes he paid on land he owned in Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties.

There’s more. The full report ran to 85 pages. And of course the city responded by firing Malkenhorst.

Wait, did I say Malkenhorst? I meant Olivo, the city attorney that prepared the report. They also sued Olivo for “breach of contract”. And Vernon has gone to great efforts to keep the report and supporting data secret:

Greg Tsujiuchi, a former assistant to the city administrator, told a district attorney’s investigator about a particularly bizarre instance in which Fresch insisted that he burn magnetic tapes that were an important backup for original hard copies of city records.
Tsujiuchi said he took the tapes to one of Vernon’s fire stations and had baffled firefighters set them ablaze. He regretted doing so and told Olivo, who told Tsujiuchi about the report. Not long afterward, Tsujiuchi resigned.

“Fresch” is Eric T. Fresch, who replaced Olivo as city attorney, and later replaced Malkenhorst as city administrator. By the way, Fresch died last year.

Anyway, the gist of the story is: now that Malkenhorst is suing, all of the sudden, the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon is being very open about Olivo’s report, even providing copies of it to the LAT. I wish the paper would post the whole report as a PDF, but you can’t have everything. Otherwise, where would you put it?

(Side note: no change of venue for Robert “Ratso” Rizzo.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Random notes: August 27, 2013.

Tuesday, August 27th, 2013

Back in July, I noted the rhythmic gymnastics scandal. There’s a new development:

The governing body for rhythmic gymnastics has cleared dozens of judges who were suspected of cheating on qualifying tests last year, despite an investigation that concluded some of the test scores “could only have occurred by cheating.”

More updates, this time on “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”. It took in $966,952 last week. This is not good, as the cost of running the show is over $1 million a week.

The producers have also been optimistic about earning back the show’s $75 million capitalization, but that feat would require weekly box office grosses in the $1.5 million range for several years.

Only the police should have guns department:

An apparent booze-fueled dispute over loud music between two groups at a Chino campground over the weekend escalated to the point where men from both sides drew guns and opened fire.

There were no deaths or injuries, as both sides “did not fire at each other, he said, but into the air”. Of course, what goes up must come down, somewhere…

It turns out that the rival gun-toting campers were both Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Sports, Theatre | Comments Closed

Random notes: July 30, 2013.

Tuesday, July 30th, 2013

Latest update on the “Rebecca” case (previously):

A former Long Island stockbroker accused of bilking the producers of a planned Broadway musical production of “Rebecca” pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges on Monday, admitting that he had conjured up fictitious overseas investors and a phantom loan as part of a sham effort to rescue the financially troubled show.

Memo from the Department of “Here’s a Shocker”:

Fifty-five percent of respondents to a 2009 agency-wide survey who said they were resigning or thinking about it cited poor management as the main reason, according to a 2010 report on retention by the agency’s internal watchdog that mirrored the findings of a 2005 report. Although the CIA’s overall rate of employee turnover is unusually low, the report cited “challenges” in the retention of officers with unique and crucial skills, such as field operatives.

More:

“Perceptions of poor management, and a lack of accountability for poor management, comprised five of the top 10 reasons why people leave or consider leaving CIA and were the most frequent topic of concern among those who volunteered comments,” the inspector general’s report says.
CIA employees complained of “poor first-line supervision, lack of communication about work-related matters and lack of support for prudent risk taking,” the report says.

Some bars in West Hollywood and other cities are boycotting Stolichnaya vodka over Putin’s “anti-gay” regulations, “banning ‘propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,’ including gay pride events and providing children with information about homosexuality.” Fair enough; a boycott seems like a reasonable response, though I don’t know how much good it will do. (I’m not convinced boycotts work against the batshit crazy.) But:

West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran, who has been encouraging bars to join the boycott, said protesters in West Hollywood plan to dump the contents of Stolichnaya bottles into a gutter to raise awareness of Russia’s laws. The protest is planned for Thursday in front of Micky’s bar and will use bottles filled with water, not vodka, he said.

Wouldn’t this be a more effective protest if they actually dumped the vodka? If they are worried about the environmental impact of dumping vodka into the gutter, couldn’t they pour it down the sink instead, like they do with unfinished drinks? Is the environmental impact of dumping vodka that great, especially since I suspect much of the alcohol will evaporate in the storm sewers?

And what are they going to do with the vodka that was in the bottles? Or have they been saving empties for this protest?

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Mixology, Theatre | Comments Closed

A couple of random bits for July 27, 2013.

Saturday, July 27th, 2013

This one goes out to Lawrence and a couple of other friends.

I have written previously about NASA’s “System Failure Case Studies” site, where the organizations posts brief analysis of significant failures and the lessons learned from them.

NASA recently redesigned the site: I find it slightly more aesthetically pleasing than I did previously. And one of the things they’ve covered recently is the Piper Alpha disaster.

Some other recent SFCS articles of note:

  • the crash of a F-22A Raptor, apparently due to a combination of pilot hypoxia and bad ergonomics (especially when pilots were wearing night vision and cold weather gear).
  • The Halifax explosion. It seems to me that this event is mostly forgotten today, but I vividly remember reading a first hand account from one of the survivors in a really old Reader’s Digest at my grandmother’s house:

    The Mont-Blanc drifted toward the Halifax shore and then blew apart, with a shockwave equivalent to 2,989 tons of TNT expanding across Halifax at more than 4,900 feet per second and reached across 325 acres. The pressure and temperature (in excess of 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the origin) pushed a fireball of hot gas and debris into the sky that rained shrapnel on people in the streets below. The water around the Mont-Blanc was immediately vaporized and a 52-foot tidal wave swept three city blocks deep into Halifax’s Richmond neighborhood. Windows were reportedly shattered over 50 miles away from the epicenter.

  • And the Xcel Energy fire, which comes across as just total all-around incompetence:

    Although Xcel and RPI recognized the penstock as a permit required confined space, neither treated it as such during the recoating work…Entry procedures were not developed and the required daily permits were incomplete and lacking detail pertaining to the hazards of the day‘s work activities. Air monitoring was performed almost exclusively at the entrance, about 1,450 feet away from the actual work area within the penstock. Neither RPI nor Xcel provided the CSB with a documented basis for declassifying the penstock space as non-permit required…Xcel and RPI managers did not plan or coordinate the immediate availability of qualified confined space technical rescuers and equipment outside the penstock, although the use of flammable solvent in the open atmosphere of the permit space created the need for immediate rescue because of the potential for Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) conditions

    Xcel and RPI killed five workers because of these failures.

On another note, I greatly enjoy the Priceonomics blog, which has covered topics like how does SkyMall work (and their questionable ties to Xhibit Corp), what charities do with those donated cars, and the economics of starting a bike shop.

The latest article has some ties to something I wrote about previously – the pot growers of the Emerald Triangle. Or, as Priceonomics puts it:

Legal Weed is Hurting San Francisco’s Hippies

Some quotes:

“The hippy kids used to be able to sell their weed real easy at high prices,” he tells us. “There were lots of customers and they made enough in a few days to travel for a few weeks. Now though…” At which point Kenny repeats the complaint made by drug dealers throughout the park, that California’s legal dispensaries for “medical marijuana” have depressed prices and stolen away their customer base.

While legalization increased the supply of weed in California, the segment suggests that increased transparency – rather than increased supply – explains the price drop. Chuck, a dealer who switched from selling weed in California to New York and quadrupled his income, told WNYC, “There’s plenty of weed in New York. There’s just an illusion of scarcity, which is part of what I’m capitalizing on. Because this is a black market business, there’s insufficient information for customers.”

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Explosives, Law | Comments Closed

Please continue to be careful out there.

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

A while back, I wrote about Sutchi Hui. Mr. Hui was crossing a San Francisco street when he was struck and killed by Chris Bucchere, who was on a bicycle at the time. The San Francisco DA charged Mr. Bucchere with felony manslaughter.

Mr. Bucchere has now pled guilty to that charge.

“I believe justice has been served,” Gascon told reporters. “Mr. Bucchere has been held accountable to a level that’s historic in the state. His conduct was egregious. He will be providing 1,000 hours of community service. We hope many of those hours are spent talking about traffic safety.”

However, according to the article, Mr. Bucchere will not serve any time in prison. Or perhaps I should say the DA is not requesting any under this plea agreement. Mr. Bucchere will not actually be sentenced until August 16th. The SF Chron says that Mr. Hui’s family agreed to the plea, and that Mr. Bucchere will serve three years on probation. And:

After six months, Gascon said, a judge could reduce the charge to a misdemeanor.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cycling, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: July 23, 2013.

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

Do you remember the “Bait Car” incident? In brief, an LA County sheriff’s detective swore under oath that he’d read a suspect his rights; that testimony was contradicted by video taken of the arrest for the “Bait Car” TV series.

Now:

Prosecutors concluded that Det. Anthony Shapiro “willfully, knowingly and intentionally” made false statements when he claimed to have fully read suspects their Miranda rights, according to a memo obtained by The Times. Footage shot by television cameras for the TruTV program “Bait Car” shows that Shapiro never fully read the suspects their constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning, prosecutors said.

And what is the DA’s office going to do about this? Not a damn thing.

Despite the findings, the district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges against Shapiro. The office concluded that Shapiro’s false statements did not amount to perjury because they did not play a key role in the decision to arrest the men or in the outcome of the preliminary hearing where Shapiro testified, according to the memo.

Meanwhile, in the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon, Bruce Malkenhorst used to be the city manager. He resigned (and was later convicted of misappropriating public funds). As city manager, he took home $911,000 a year; his pension was the largest in California, more than $500,000 a year.

At least it was until the California pension board cut it back to $115,000 a year, stating that some of his salary was improperly obtained.

So now the 78-year-old Malkenhorst is suing Vernon to make up the difference. His lawyers are making a novel if improbable argument: Because it paid him a high salary, the city is responsible for keeping his retirement benefits at the higher level even though CalPERS balked.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law, TV | 3 Comments »

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