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Your Austin nightclub trial update: February 6, 2013.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

Hussein Ali “Mike” Yassine, previously sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison for money laundering, has pled guilty to tax fraud.

The maximum term Yassine could get is three years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Of course, that’s based on Federal sentencing guidelines and it is possible that he will get less time than the maximum term.. I don’t want to speculate on how much he will get; unlike the fairly straightforward case Ken uses as an example, “Mike” Yassine’s case is complicated by his previous conviction, and I suspect also complicated by the “offense level”. (I am assuming the government places a higher severity on cases involving drug dealing, as was alleged against the Yassines, than it does on cases involving whale meat. I’m also assuming the government will argue that “Mike” was the leader of the conspiracy, and not just a flunky.)

It is also unclear, until the judge rules, if “Mike” will serve the tax fraud and money laundering sentences consecutively or concurrently. Heck, at this point, it is unclear if he’ll even be deported after he serves his time:

Yassine, who has a green card, has been contesting the denial of his U.S. naturalization application since 2011. The case, which was on hold during his criminal prosecution, is set for a status conference next week in federal court.

And a couple of other updates that I didn’t post to keep from boring folks:

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Notes from the police blotter: February 6, 2013.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

On August 27, 2011, Javier Benitez Jr. stabbed Octavio Olivarez, severely injuring him. Benitez shot and killed Cynthia Olivarez, Octavio’s wife.

Yesterday, Benitez was found “not guilty by reason of insanity”.

The law defines someone as insane if he or she has a “severe mental disease or defect” and “did not know that his conduct was wrong” at the time of the offense. On Tuesday, prosecutors said psychiatric witness experts had diagnosed Benitez with paranoid schizophrenia, one of the most severe mental disorders fitting the definition.

One of the reasons I find this significant is that insanity verdicts in Travis County are extraordinarily rare.

[State District Court Judge David] Crain, a district court judge for two years who served on the county court bench for more than 20 years, said the last person he remembered who was found not guilty on an insanity defense was Jackson Ngai, a former student acquitted by a jury in 2005 after he stabbed Danielle Martin, 56, his University of Texas piano professor.

Meanwhile, in California, Bobby Joe Maxwell is charged with killing three men. Why is this case interesting? Maxwell was originally charged with the murders back in 1984, but the jury deadlocked on those charges, and two other murder charges. The same jury acquitted Maxwell on three other murder charges, and convicted him of two murders. Maxwell spent a considerable amount of time in prison on those two murder charges, but the convictions were overturned in 2010.

At Maxwell’s original trial, the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Sidney Storch, one of a notorious group of jailhouse informants used by Los Angeles authorities in dozens of murder cases in the 1970s and ’80s. Storch told jurors that the defendant had confessed to the killings when they shared a cell in a Los Angeles County jail.
Storch, a career criminal, testified for the prosecution in at least half a dozen trials and received reduced sentences and other considerations for helping secure convictions. Other jailhouse informants said he taught them the art of “booking” fellow inmates in exchange for lighter sentences and other favors. The technique involved gaining access to high-profile defendants, finding information about their cases from newspapers and then contacting authorities to offer to testify against them, alleging that they had confessed.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Storch perjured himself at Maxwell’s trial, and that the DA’s office “failed to disclose to Maxwell’s attorneys Storch’s work as a sophisticated informant who had secured benefits from authorities in exchange for his help.” Storch was charged with perjury, but died before he could be tried.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 6, 2013.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

There was the local resident who was given a document with false City Hall salaries. There was the food bank coordinator who had no idea one of his volunteers was being paid nearly six figures. And there was the councilman who didn’t realize he was making just pennies on the dollar compared to his colleagues.

Among the witnesses: Bell resident Roger Ramirez. In 2008, Ramirez put in a public records request for the salaries of the mayor and council members.

Ramirez testified that he told [Rebecca] Valdez [the city clerk] the figures didn’t match what he thought was true and that the city clerk appeared worried someone would overhear him.
“The only thing I can tell you is the expression on her face was concern and she looked around with her eyes and didn’t say a word,” he said.

Also, Ricardo Gonzalez:

Ricardo Gonzalez testified that Rizzo hired him in 2005 as the director of business development and relations. He said there was no job description but that Rizzo told him his duties included coordinating Bell’s food bank, which operated as a nonprofit and relied on volunteers.
Gonzalez said all of the defendants volunteered at the food bank and he was unaware at the time that anyone was paid for such work.

The significance of this is that former council member Victor Bello was being paid $100,000 a year as “assistant food bank coordinator”.

And Lorenzo Velez:

Velez testified that he didn’t even realize the council position was paid until he received his first paycheck. He said that Rizzo told him the money was a stipend for expenses he might incur. Earlier testimony has revealed that Rizzo instructed the city clerk to prepare Velez’s salary contract to be a fraction of his colleagues’ pay.

Velez is the only council member who hasn’t been charged; his salary was $310 every two weeks.

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

Over The Hump to La Tuna.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

A long time ago, I noted the scandal over the Santa Monica sushi restaurant, “The Hump”, which closed after it was discovered they were serving whale sushi.

A few days ago, Typhoon Restaurant Inc. (“The Hump”‘s parent company), chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, and chef Susumu Ueda were indicted on federal charges. Specifically, “nine counts of conspiracy to import and sell whale meat from 2007 to 2010, a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.”

Quoth the LAT:

Yamamoto could face up to 67 years in federal prison and Ueda would served up to 10 years if convicted.

Other sources reported other possible sentences, like 77 years and even “life in prison”.

So? Well, beyond the followup aspect, Ken over at Popehat has the kind of brilliant post that only Ken can write, using this indictment to explain how sentencing in the federal system actually works.

Those numbers bear no relation to reality.

I encourage you to go read the whole post, as it shines a huge frigging spotlight on a little understood area of federal law. Cutting to the chase, Ken (who has worked both as a federal prosecutor and a defense attorney; he’s a for-real lawyer, not just someone with an Internet GED in law like me) figures that the defendants are probably looking at 24 to 30 months, and that’s if their lawyers can’t make a good argument to the judge that they should serve less time.

Lessons:
1. Maximum sentences have very little relation to actual sentences in federal law. When the government quotes the maximum sentence, they are trying to scare you. When the press quotes it, they are uninformed or lazy. Exercise skepticism. Resist emotional appeals to “how is this sentence reasonable when murderers get less?”

(FCI La Tuna.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Law | 1 Comment »

Random notes: February 5, 2013.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

In Idaho’s graceful, striated-marble Capitol, home to one of the more ardent and adamant state legislatures in the nation in standing up for the Second Amendment, lawmakers from both parties say that a torrent of public passion, even panic, about new proposed federal gun rules is pushing in only one direction: toward more guns, not fewer.

Hurrah Idaho!

First, they came for the owners of modern sporting rifles, and I didn’t speak out because I hate guns and want everyone to live in peace and harmony. Then they came to shut down the raves…

A concert company featured in a Times report Sunday detailing the drug-related deaths of 14 people who attended raves denounced the story in an online statement and took to social media to urge fans to speak out.

More:

Many of the concerts were staged with the blessing of local governments hungry for the revenue they brought in.
James Penman, the San Bernardino city attorney, said economics should never be a justification for raves. He long has urged officials to disallow the events at the National Orange Show Events Center there. Coroners’ reports show that two people have fatally overdosed at National Orange Show raves.
“The city should have zero tolerance for any activity where drugs are an integral part,” Penman said. “A rave without drugs is like a rodeo without horses. They don’t happen.”

Yesterday’s update from the Bell trial: Craig Rhudy of the “L.A. County district attorney’s office’s public integrity division” is on the stand now. So far, he’s testified that “former council members drew most of their nearly $100,000 salaries from panels that seldom met.”

Rhudy has charts.

The chart for 2006, for instance, showed that out of 20 City Council meetings, the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority met just once; the Community Housing and Public Finance Authorities each met five times, and the Surplus Property Authority had four meetings.
All of the defendants, except [Luis] Artiga, who was appointed in 2008, were paid $12,857 for each authority served in 2006.

In 2007, the Finance Authority met once, while the Housing Authority met twice. “By 2009, in spite of the fact that the panels continued to meet only sporadically, the pay for serving on each had jumped to $18,368, according to Rhudy’s chart.” In 2010, the Housing Authority was the only one that had a meeting.

And why does this matter? “In total, the defendants drew more than $1.3 million of their salaries from the authorities in question, Rhudy confirmed.”

I missed noting this over the weekend, but the LAT also ran a story on the “mountain of lawsuits” Bell is dealing with.

Former city leaders are suing the city. Bell is suing the former leaders. The city is suing its former lawyers. A European bank is suing Bell.

And the SEC and IRS are both investigating Bell’s bond sales. Here’s a great story:

Bell’s biggest concern is a lawsuit filed by Dexia Credit Local, part of a European banking group, over the city’s default on $35 million in bonds. The case involves 25 acres of undeveloped land near the 710 Freeway that Bell bought from the federal government with plans to lease it to a railroad.
Dexia bought all the lease revenue bonds the city issued to pay for the deal, which came to more than twice the city’s annual budget.
The deal went bad when an environmental group sued, arguing the city had failed to conduct the required environmental review. The judge agreed. Unable to lease the property — now worth far less than the bonds — Bell had no income to pay back Dexia.

The Richard III story has been reported everywhere, but I want to throw in a link to the Richard III Society, another group that deserves your support. And if you haven’t read it, I commend to your attention Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, History, Law, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

Today’s Austin quasi-gun show update.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

I have written previously about the activities of the Austin Public Safety Commission, an appointed “advisory body to the city council on all budgetary and policy matters concerning public safety, including matters related to the Austin Police Department, the Austin Fire Department, and the Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department.”

The Public Safety Commission, it should be noted, is different from the Greater Austin Crime Commission, which has engaged in gun buybacks in the past.

I call that point out because the Public Safety Commission issued a series of “recommendations” to the city council yesterday. As reported in the Statesman, APSC recommends:

  1. “banning the leasing of government-owned facilities to gun shows”.
  2. “vendors at such shows to conduct background screenings”. This doesn’t make a lot of sense: we’re going to ban gun shows on public property, but we’re going to require vendors to conduct background screenings at the gun shows we’ve banned? I don’t believe the city can require vendors to conduct background checks at gun shows on private property; I think this is superseded by state preemption law.
  3. “…enforcing a state law prohibiting the carrying of firearms — except by those with concealed hand gun permits — in public parks, public meetings of government bodies, non-firearm related events at schools, colleges or professional events and political rallies, parades and meetings.” Wow, that’s a daring recommendation, guys. Enforce existing law.
  4. Instruct the “Austin City Council, Travis County Commissioner’s Court and Austin Community College and Austin Independent School District boards of trustees” to “divest ownership in any companies that manufacture and sell assault weapons or high capacity magazines to the public”.
  5. “Direct the Austin Police Department and Travis County Sheriff’s Office to study gun buy-back programs and come back with recommendations.” Oh, boy, I hope they do. As you may have noted at the link above, the last gun buy-back turned into a gun show. If they have another buy-back, I’d love to take a shot at picking up some more nice older Smiths.
  6. “Collect data on guns used in crimes”. I’m not sure from the context of the Statesman article what this means. I was listening to KLBJ-AM briefly last night, and caught part of a story on the commission recommendations; apparently, what they’re looking for is information about where crime guns come from. Are they stolen, legally purchased, bought at gun shows, etc.?

It is perhaps also worth noting that former mayor Will Wynn and current mayor Lee Leffingwell are members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and that Wynn is one of the members of that group who has been convicted of a criminal offense.

The more I hear out of these people, the better a recall election sounds.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Guns, Law, Politics, Travis County | Comments Closed

More on the Patricia Cook case.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

The verdict stands.

Former Culpeper Police Department officer Daniel Harmon-Wright will serve three years in prison. (Edited to add: Well, technically, jail. “…in Virginia, sentences measured in months, like in his client’s case, the person convicted serves their imprisonment in a county jail.” This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, though: if I’m sentenced to 99 years, I go to prison, but if I’m sentenced to 1,188 months, I go to jail? I’d always thought the dividing line was: a year or less, jail. More than a year, prison.)

Harmon-Wright said he heard about the opening at the Culpeper PD in 2006 through his mother, administrative secretary to the police chief at the time. Friday, he described his colleagues at the police department as dedicated and professional saying it was “a thrill” to serve the community as part of the force. He added that after the events of Feb. 9, 2012 that he would never consider a job in law enforcement again — as a convicted felon Harmon-Wright would be ineligible to work in law enforcement or own a firearm. His lawyer said he would consider appealing the conviction.

Ah, yes, his mother. That would be the woman charged with “uttering” for allegedly aaltering her son’s police department personnel records.

(Previously. Previously.)

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 2, 2013.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

Yesterday’s development from the Bell trial: patented Rizzo confuse-o-vision!

Bell’s former top administrator went to great lengths to confuse City Council members, purposely making resolutions ambiguous and complex so they’d have trouble understanding the documents, a prosecution witness in the city’s corruption trial testified Friday.

Lourdes Garcia, the $422,000 a year “former director of administrative services” went on to testify that “former City Manager Robert Rizzo regarded council members as unsophisticated and easily manipulated”. And the things “Ratso” Rizzo did were “all justifiable because ‘it was for the greater good of the organization.'”

It gets even better.

In one instance, Rizzo complained after hearing that an employee was taking an ethics class.
“Mr. Rizzo was always giving me directions that gave me the perspective that he did not want ethics in the organization,” she said.

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

Captain Renault, call your office, please.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

The NYT would like for you to know that there’s illegal gambling going on in New Orleans.

Michael said he first saw one at church, when he was 11 or 12. He was sitting next to his grandfather in one of the pews. Just before the sermon began, his grandfather pulled him close. “I know church is going to bore you for the next 45 minutes,” his grandfather said as he slipped him a card, “so take a look at this, make your three plays, and we’ll talk about it on the way home.” Within a few years, Michael and his brother were making bets through their own bookie.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 1, 2013.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Lourdes Garcia, Bell’s former “director of administrative services”, who was paid $422,000 a year in that job, is on the stand now.

Remember former councilman Victor Bello? The guy who was paid a six-figure salary in his job as “assistant to the food bank coordinator”?

Garcia

…testified Thursday that she was ordered to draw up a contract for a departing council member that paid him nearly $100,000 a year, even though the job he was taking could have been handled by a volunteer.

Garcia also testified that Robert “Ratso” Rizzo

…told her in 2008 to prepare a document understating his salary and the pay of council members.
“What’s not true on the document?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller asked.
“The salary of the council,” Garcia said. “It doesn’t represent the full amount they were getting at the time.”
“What about the city administrator officer?”
“No, it’s not the right amount, ” Garcia said. “It’s only partial.”

I’m worried about the way things are going. So far, it seems to be “all Rizzo, all the time”, and there’s been very little discussion of what the indicted council members actually did (or did not) do. Of course, we’ve only heard from two witnesses so far. But if this keeps up, I’m concerned that the council members are going to get off by throwing Rizzo and Spaccia under the bus. And then I can see Rizzo and Spaccia getting off by, in turn, stating that they were following the directions given to them by the city council members, who would be free to testify for Rizzo and Spaccia.

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

Random notes: February 1, 2013.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Nobody needs a high-capacity assault snowmobile. Actually, I’m not even sure the general public should be allowed snowmobiles; perhaps we need to limit those to the police and military, people who have had special snowmobile training.

This is intended to enrage you:

At the 11th hour of its deadline to do so, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration on Thursday asked a judge to allow it to withdraw from a federal consent decree aimed at implementing sweeping reforms in the New Orleans Police Department.

The request is based on three factors:

  1. The consent decree “failed to disclose costs to fix Orleans Parish Prison until after the NOPD consent decree was executed”.
  2. Former prosecutor Sal Perricone and the NOLA.com comments scandal.
  3. There are questions about whether the consent decree’s provisions regulating secondary employment for police officers are compliant with federal labor law.

Previously. I am still unable to find an execution date for Antoinette Frank.

Over the past several weeks, dozens of other sheriffs from across the country have reacted with similar public opposition to Mr. Obama’s call for stiffer gun laws, releasing a deluge of letters, position papers and statements laying out their arguments in stark terms. Their jurisdictions largely include rural areas, and stand in sharp contrast to those of urban police chiefs, who have historically supported tougher gun regulations.

“C’est un Nagra. C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis.” (I’m surprised that quote, or the English translation, isn’t on the IMDB page for “Diva”.)

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Nine current and former Philadelphia Traffic Court judges were charged with conspiracy and fraud Thursday, capping a three-year FBI probe into what authorities said was rampant ticket-fixing and pervasive corruption on the bench.

The judges are being accused of pretty much what you’d expect: taking bribes to fix tickets.

According to the indictment, [Fortunato] Perri [one of the indicted judges – DB] got free landscaping and a patio for assisting one unnamed contractor with “dozens of Traffic Court citations.” He also is accused of accepting free auto services, towing, and a load of shrimp and crab cakes from Alfano, whose company, Century Motors, ran a towing service.

You know, I like shrimp. I like crab cakes. I wouldn’t go to prison for them, though.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits, Rage, Sarcasm, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: January 31, 2013.

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Rebecca Valdez is still on the stand in the Bell corruption trial. Yesterday’s revelation:

After thumbing through binders filled with documents from 2005 to 2010, the city clerk said she detected about eight agendas from 2005 to 2006 that had forged signatures.

Valdez states that she believes Theresa Diaz, the previous city clerk (who, as you may recall, moved out of the city in 2004, but allegedly continued to act as the city clerk until 2007) forged her name on the documents in question.

This exchange is also amusing:

…the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, which Deputy Dist. Atty Edward Miller has labeled a “sham.”
On Wednesday Miller read the ordinance for that authority, which said it could be created “for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, maintaining or operating an enterprise for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste.”
Miller then asked Valdez: “Have you seen an enterprise for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste in the city of Bell?”
“No,” she replied.

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

Random notes: January 31, 2013.

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Obit watch: Patty Andrews, the last surviving Andrews Sister. (NYT. A/V Club.)

If a publisher is reissuing a non-fiction book, do they have an obligation to go back and do fact checking? What if the facts have been called into question since the book was issued? What if the book is “38 Witnesses” by A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times?

In the years since, however, as court records have been examined and witnesses reinterviewed, some facts of both the coverage and the book have been challenged on many fronts, including the element at the center of the indictment: 38 silent witnesses. Yet none of the weighty counter-evidence was acknowledged when Mr. Rosenthal’s book was reissued in digital form by Melville — raising questions of what, if any, obligation a publisher has to account for updated versions of events featured in nonfiction titles. Dennis Johnson, the publisher of Melville House, said he knew about the controversy but decided to stand behind Mr. Rosenthal’s account. “There are, notably, works of fraud where revising or withdrawing the book is possible or even recommended, but this is not one of those cases,” he said. “This is a matter of historical record. This is a reprint of reporting done for The New York Times by one the great journalists of the 20th century. We understand there are people taking issue with it, but this is not something we think needs to be corrected.”

What is there to correct?

As early as 1984 The Daily News published an article pointing to flaws in the reporting. In 2004 The Times did its own summation of the critical research, showing that since Ms. Genovese crawled around to the back of the building after she was stabbed the first time (her assailant fled and returned) very few people would have seen anything.
The article quoted among others Charles E. Skoller, the former Queens assistant district attorney who helped prosecute the case and who also has written a book on it. “I don’t think 38 people witnessed it,” said Mr. Skoller, who had retired by the time of the interview. “I don’t know where that came from, the 38. I didn’t count 38. We only found half a dozen that saw what was going on, that we could use.” There were other mitigating factors as well; it was a cold night, and most people had their windows closed.

This 2009 NPR interview goes into more detail about the many problems with the popular narrative of the case.

This lead made me giggle:

George Ryan was released from a federal prison in the dark on Wednesday morning, and Illinois became a state with only one former governor behind bars.

Hey, as long as we’re talking about crooked governors:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s approval rating has fallen sharply among New York voters since he pushed restrictive gun laws through the Legislature, a poll released on Wednesday said.

And lying politicians:

…it is also curious that the White House refuses to provide any documentary evidence that he actually used the shooting range at Camp David, since he claims he uses it “all the time,” or that a presidential friend has not come forward to confirm the president’s comments.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, Law, Media, Music, Obits, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

Patricia Cook update.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

Back in May, I wrote about the case of Patricia Cook, the unarmed woman in Culpeper, Virginia who was killed by a police officer under suspicious circumstances; the officer, Daniel Harmon–Wright, was later charged with murder.

Things have moved faster than I expected: Harmon-Wright was convicted, but only of “voluntary manslaughter”, “shooting into an occupied vehicle”, and “shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in death”.

And it is possible a mistrial will be declared: “a court’s clerk reported that she found two dictionaries and a thesaurus in the jury room”, which were brought in by the jury forewoman (according to another report) and were allegedly used by the jury to look up the definition of “malice”.

(Hattip: Balko.)

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | 1 Comment »

Random notes: January 30, 2013.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

Gun control works! Just ask Chicago!

And yet Chicago, a city with no civilian gun ranges and bans on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, finds itself laboring to stem a flood of gun violence that contributed to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 killings already in 2013, including a fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl on Tuesday.

More:

Chicago officials say Illinois has no requirement, comparable to Chicago’s, that gun owners immediately report their lost or stolen weapons to deter straw buyers.

Uh, that’s not what a “straw buyer” is, Monica Davey. (Nor does Davey mention that “straw purchases” are also a violation of Federal law, though rarely prosecuted according to the WP. One wonders how much of a deterrent Chicago’s law is to people who are already violating federal law.)

(Likewise, purchasing guns in other states, bringing them across state lines, and selling them on the Chicago streets violates multiple existing federal laws. Davey ignores that fact as well.)

Edited to add: Just saw this, and found it appropriate.

 

And I said, “What about ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’?”
He said, “I can’t afford a million dollars,
and as I recall, you’ve got plenty of money.”
And I said, “Well, that’s one thing we have not.”

The Bell trial picked up again yesterday. Rebecca Valdez, the former city clerk who wasn’t actually the city clerk at first, is still on the stand.

Rebecca Valdez said that when she began working for the city, she learned the key to survival: Do whatever City Manager Robert Rizzo asked.
Valdez testified Tuesday that she was directed to sign unfamiliar documents, hand out incorrect salary information in response to a public records request from a resident and obtain signatures for doctored salary contracts.

The defense is attacking her credibility, “seeking to show that record-keeping in Bell was in disarray. Valdez testified that she signed minutes for meetings she didn’t attend, was appointed to the job in name only and sometimes made mistakes marking the times that meetings began and ended.”

And what’s this about her being the city clerk but not being the city clerk?

In 2004, then-City Clerk Theresa Diaz moved out of town, making her ineligible to hold the elected office. Valdez was given her title, but continued her job as an account clerk. Diaz continued to act as the record-keeper for the city, but Valdez testified that she was told to sign documents as the city clerk.

Also interesting:

The city clerk also testified that Victor Bello, one of the defendants, was banned from City Hall toward the end of his tenure, except to attend council meetings.
If Bello showed up, she was to tell the police chief and her supervisor. Twice a week, Valdez took Bello’s mail to his home, accompanied by code enforcement officers, she testified. Bello resigned from the council in 2008 but retained his six-figure salary after Rizzo named him assistant to the food bank coordinator.

Not “food bank coordinator”, but “assistant to the food bank coordinator”, and pulling in at least $100,000 a year. How do I get this job?

Ah, the Texas Highway Patrol Museum. You do remember the Texas Highway Patrol Museum, don’t you? Shut down by the Attorney General last year? Assets, including the building, being sold off?

Well, about that…

Lawyers for the Texas attorney general’s office said Monday that a “cloud of procedural impropriety” is casting a shadow over the pending sale of the former Texas Highway Patrol Museum, and they recommended that the building be put back on the market.

The “procedural impropriety” seems to be that the high bidder says her bid was ignored. Also, the real estate broker would make a larger commission if the other bidder got the property. There’s some technical aspects that make it unclear which bid is best; that’s why the AG recommended that the building be listed again.

(Hattip on this to Grits for Breakfast. If Ms. Wong winds up getting the building, and we’re all still here, I want to do a road trip to Rosario’s Café y Cantina.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Food, Guns, Law, Museums, Sarcasm, Theatre | 1 Comment »

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