Attorneys For Brenda Cedarblade File Letter of Complaint with District Attorney, Yolo County Sheriff, and Woodland Chief of Police

Complaint Alleges “Non-Responsiveness” to Series of Violent Threats, Acts of Violence and an Overall Pattern of Harassment

imageYolo County

On December 17, 2008, attorney Matt Gonzalez from the San Francisco based law firm of Gonzalez and Leigh, fired off a complaint addressed to Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, Sheriff Ed Prieto, and Woodland Police Chief Carey Sullivan.

The complaint “expresses concern” with:

“the Yolo County Sheriff Department’s and the Woodland Police Department’s seeming non-responsiveness to a series of violent threats, acts of violence, burglaries, criminal trespasses, and an overall pattern of harassment (some of which are described below) directed at my clients, and all of which were reported to both the Yolo Sheriff’s Department and the Woodland Police Department.”

The letter lays out four instances including shots fired onto property on May 25, 2008, multiple incidents of burglary and criminal trespass dating to April and May of 2008, threats, and the publication of private and confidential information on a web site.

Mr. Gonzalez writes:

On May 25, 2008 my clients reported three shots fired from a field North of their property at 41070 County Road 18C, Woodland, 95695. The shots were fired from a high powered rifle onto their property while Ted Wilson and several of his employees were working. Two of the bullets sailed over Mr. Wilson’s head and hit the roof of the horse arena on my clients’ property. After hearing the shots fired and the bullets land, Mr. Wilson located a white pick-up truck and four men in a field northwest of his property. Ms. Cedarblade immediately called the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department for assistance.

Upon arriving, the Deputy Sheriff confronted four men in the same white pick-up truck located by Mr. Wilson. As relayed to my clients’ from the deputy, the men possessed a high-powered long-range rifle, methamphetamine, and were all residing illegally in the United States. The men told the deputy they were using the gun to “shoot squirrels”.

According to the complaint, the shooting constitutes several crimes including “assault with deadly weapon” and “discharge of firearm at occupied building.”

However, authorities did not follow up on these complaints and made no arrest.

“Following the shooting Mr. Wilson and Ms. Cedarblade unequivocally told the deputy they wished to press all charges against the shooters. However, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Cedarblade understand that the Sheriff’s Department made no arrest of the shooters, and conducted no further investigation…”

Mr. Gonzalez writes:

“Given the shooters’ purported explanation, and the clear commission of several crimes, the failure to investigate or file charges raises serious questions about the Yolo County Sheriff Department’s policies and procedures for investigating crimes, and their apparent disregard of serious violent conduct directed at my clients.”

The next incident allegedly occurred in April of 2008.

“Ms. Cedarblade and Mr. Wilson arrived at home to find that unknown persons had entered their home, as well as the historic ranch on their property. The trespassers left green cards, $2000 in cash, drugs and drug paraphernalia. Ms. Cedarblade also discovered old family photos of her family scattered around her bedroom, as well as childhood drawings and report cards, all things that were not previously in her possession. They also found rat poison spread over their bed and kitchen counter. After notifying the Sheriff’s Department, the deputy declined to conduct any investigation or collect any evidence, and told my clients to keep the green cards and the $2000 cash.

On May 22, 2208, my clients discovered photos and documents related to the former occupation of Ms. Cedarblade’s father, a former navy defense contractor who worked on classified missile systems, inside their home. The photos and documents – which mayor may not be classified – were not previously in the possession of my clients, and appeared to be part of the personnel file of Ms. Cedarblade’s father, including his security clearance.”

According to Mr. Gonzalez, though this burglary was reported, no investigation was conducted by law enforcement.

The third incident involved a threatening phone call claiming that there was a hit out for Ms. Cedarblade who then reported this to the Sheriff’s department.

“The Deputy told Ms. Cedarblade that a “hit” could mean a hit on a government records search, and did no further investigation – this despite providing the deputy with the name of the caller.”

Furthermore private information was allegedly posted on a web site, however, there was never any investigation into this matter by the Woodland Police or the Sheriff’s department.

Mr. Gonzalez concludes:

“My clients turned over all information concerning the above incidents, as well as other instances of harassment, to both the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department and the Woodland Police Department. But, to their knowledge, neither Department conducted any serious investigation into any of the above incidents, or any other of the reported incidents, despite clear evidence of criminal activity. In fact, my clients expressly requested a criminal investigation to the Sheriff’s Department and were told, through their previous attorney, that the District Attorney’s office was too busy to do any investigation.”

The Vanguard will be following up on this story in the coming days and will report upon any further development.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

Author

  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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52 comments

  1. I am glad that Brenda has found someone to take up her cause against these ineffective and inept county officials. All citizens of this county deserve safety and justice, not just Prieto’s and Reisig’s crones.

  2. I second the …anonymous… prior to mine’s sentiments. Ms. Cedarblade had been in the position of having a resource that the county wants but doesn’t want to pay for, acts of violence and intimidation directed against her by unknown persons for an extended period of time, and apparently deliberate inaction by the county agencies charged with ensuring public safety. If you can’t tell from the article, there’s more circumstantial evidence of motive on the part of Yolo County, which hopefully will come out eventually.

  3. Our supposedly …full-time… county supervisors — who the hell knows if any of them put in 40 hours a week? — should investigate this matter.Assuming that her allegations are entirely true, this inaction by law enforcement brings up two questions: 1. Is their non-responsiveness due to some past problem between the sheriffs and Ms. Cedarblade? (That would not excuse it in any way. But it might answer why this has happened to her.) 2. Are there many other people in Yolo County who have experienced similar problems with the sheriffs and the DA?An unrelated but very interesting question, again assuming that Ms. Cedarblade’s charges are true, is why would someone specifically target her in this manner? Given that she (and Mr. Wilson) allege a pattern of crimes, it appears that someone is out to get her. Why her?

  4. …As relayed to my clients’ from the deputy, the men possessed a high-powered long-range rifle, methamphetamine, and were all residing illegally in the United States….I’m down with the notion that local law enforcement does not have to investigate whether a suspect in a criminal complaint unrelated to immigration is legally in the United States. However, I am not down with the idea that once they know the person is an illegal alien — it does not say here how they knew — that local law enforcement ignores that. Our sheriffs ought to report any known illegal aliens to federal authorities and let the feds decide what to do.

  5. This is scary. I would like to think that if people were threatening me, that law enforcement in Yolo would help. This does not give me confidence. I hope she gets some answers.

  6. I’m not sure why a personal attack on Ms. Cedarblade is warranted here. I would believe that Mr. Gonzalez would not have taken up her cause without her producing sufficient evidence to back up her claims.

  7. As far as I can ascertain you are unlikely to be a clinician and moreover you are not her clinician and therefore have not diagnosed her, therefore on my blog this is out of line.Furtheremore, you have violated rules for language use. So if you have legit point make it without the namecalling.

  8. Well, this is how law enforcement treats mentally ill people. They don’t take their complaints seriously, and they allow mentally ill people to continually be exploited, harassed and bullied by criminals. For the most part, law enforcement doesn’t care about the victimized and victims, especially when the perpetrators of the crimes are affiliated and related to Yolo county sherriff’s and court system.

  9. …Please note that any posts that use profanity or engage in name-calling or other potentially slanderous attacks will be subject to deletion….In other words, if you don’t want your post deleted, don’t use bad words or call people names. It’s not a difficult concept.

  10. Childhood drawings and photos, paperwork from high security clearance files of her father appearing in her home?Nothing stolen. Things of a personal nature being placed in her home?What kind of action is she expecting law enforcement to take?

  11. …What kind of action is she expecting law enforcement to take? …I don’t know, maybe she wanted to find out just why the hell someone was in her house messing around with her personal things? Seems a reasonable question.

  12. That would make sense.However, she is claiming that she has never had possession of these personal items. That someone came in and brought these personal items and left them in the home. Did she ask the member of her family who previously had these items if they came over and left them?

  13. Mr. Gonzalez took the case because it is a paycheck. It doesn’t matter if he will prevail in court, Mrs Cedarblade will pay him anyways. There is an easy way to find out if Sheriff’s Deputies actually responded to her calls and what the calls were for, Contact the Dispatch Center. There are always two sides to a story and I would like to hear the other side of this one from the Sheriff, DA and Chief of Police. Mrs Cedarblade has been making allegations for some time now without proving anything.

  14. How did Brenda know that the suspects who fired shots toward her land, have methamphetamine with them? If they did, the Sheriff would have certainly arrested them immediately. So how did Brenda know the suspects had meth?

  15. I have not learned that much more today. I spoke with an attorney at the Gonzalez-Leigh law firm, he told me that they will meet with the Woodland Police Chief, no response from Reisig or Prieto. Neither Prieto nor his assistant have returned my calls. I’ll try again tomorrow.

  16. Dear Doug and all,I thank you for covering this. We are grateful Matt Gonzalez and his team took our case. I have been politically active, and on the wrong side of the good ole boy politics in Woodland since 2000. Woodland is totally different than Davis and there is little transparency, but the new council and city manager are working to correct this. To answer some of the questions here. My husband and our worker were shot at directly, during the day and he went back and detained the people until the deputy arrived. The deputy came back to our ranch and we told him we wanted the people arrested and to know who they worked for. They were in a newer truck. When the deputy returned he told us that the people shooting at us were illegal and it was a 22 gun. That said, I do not believe 4 guys decided to get up that morning out of the blue and shoot at us. I believe they may have been hired, I do not know by whom and if this is the case, the people behind it are the ones we want called to task. A week before I filed a report of the threats and calls I had received. Prior to this, I had people that identified themselves as union members come in my store and threaten me, me follow me into Walmart etc

  17. …Mr. Gonzalez took the case because it is a paycheck. It doesn’t matter if he will prevail in court, Mrs Cedarblade will pay him anyways….Knowing Matt, that’s certainly not true. He doesn’t take clients and cases unless he believes he can win. He has more prospective clients than he can possibly represent. He tends to take cases he believes in.

  18. If you look at the …ANON… posts here, they seem to correlate in time, with Rexroad typing on his computer during the Supervisor meeting. He was pretty pissed off.Is it appropriate for Matt to be blogging during the meeting or paying attention to his job?

  19. …I had a CEQUA lawsuit going with the county….It is purely trivia, but The California Environmental Quality Act is CEQA — pronounced SEE-kwa — not CEQUA.For those who don’t know what it’s about, CEQA is the state law which applies to all lesser government agencies in California and requires them to account for environmental impacts of projects they approve. Often times, CEQA requires the production of an Environmental Impact Report. If there are impacts which can be mitigated, then CEQA usually requires mitigation of some sort.

  20. David:It’s a shame that you’re assisting this sad woman with her endless claims. These play better with a Davis crowd because folks in Davis are unaware of her reputation or her previous claims. I would advise you not to give her the publicity she endlessly seeks. She has done so many harmful deeds in Woodland we’ve all lost count and this is just the latest in a series of inflammatory claims and lawsuits she has filed. You may continue carrying her water but you’d be advised to check with some more credible people who can fill you on this woman’s endless self-promotional campaign. In Woodland she did all she could wage an unrelenting war on the poor and homeless, she has made a number of racist remarks through the years (the green cards is typical in this continuing screed) and she has been caught in innumerable lies. You should be more responsible than to give someone like this a forum.

  21. I thought her lawsuit was about people breaking into her home. It seems that it is about perceived retaliation for her political activities. I can see people approaching her in public to talk to her about her political campaigns and activities. This happens all the time in Davis when people take a visible and vocal stand on something. Just ask Eileen Samitz about her experiences during the …Grocery store wars…. Annoying, yes, but not really criminal. Just how much money and time does the community want to spend on making her happy. Could we ever spend enough? It is not clear what she wants. Does she want political satisfaction or does she want law enforcement to investigate crimes committed?

  22. It’s interesting to note that this complaint is about and to both the Sheriff and the Police Chief, but, and this is typical of Cedarblade’s rants, if you read through you note that none of the …evidence… she cites is in any way even remotely relevant to the Woodland police. Cedarblade’s residence is outside the city limits. Consequently there is no role her for the city police. If she has a complaint it is with the sheriff’s office in whose jurisdiction she resides. Unfortunately this is vintage Cedarblade where she tars everyone in the hopes of making something stick. Too bad she manages to convince people that she’s anything but delusional.

  23. I agree with the person posting at 6:22.I’ve met Brenda Cedarblade on numerous occasions, and each time she told me stories about a conspiracy against her. The conspirators were different, and the alleged crimes were different, but always she was the target of a government conspiracy.First, it was the federal government who were trying to shut down her store. Then it was the city trying to condemn her building. Now the County is- well, what are they doing? Planting evidence?Next year she’ll have a different story, and she’ll go looking for someone new to listen to her stories.

  24. For the record, the posts occuring here are typical of a …Matt Rexroad… campaign. Matt owns a political marketing firm called Meridian Pacific and other companies that take down political candidates using …Grass Roots… campaigns. Like I said politics are totally different in Woodland compared to Davis. 1/22 ANON – To the person that wrote…check with some more credible people who can fill you on this woman’s endless self-promotional campaign. In Woodland she did all she could wage an unrelenting war on the poor and homeless, she has made a number of racist remarks through the years (the green cards is typical in this continuing screed)… I am not racist or crazy and this comment is totally unwarranted, probably from the Woodland Spin doctors. I also asked the Deputy to try and find the person to return their birth records. …and she has been caught in innumerable lies…. Please site references……You should be more responsible than to give someone like this a forum…. You were allowed to post, at least I sign my name.Rich- Sorry I misspelled, CEQA… California Environmental Quality Act.ANON… I’ve met Brenda Cedarblade on numerous occasions, and each time she told me stories about a conspiracy against her. The conspirators were different, and the alleged crimes were different, but always she was the target of a government conspiracy. …Please identify who you are, to lend creditability to your claims.I wish to address 1/22/09. I have no idea who you are or what you are talking about here. The City of Woodland began the process to appraise the store for the court house re-location recently. Acquiring building here, was just on the City Council agenda. We suspected this was coming, it was written in the Downtown Specific Plan years ago….First, it was the federal government who were trying to shut down her store…. I do not know anything about the Federal Government, I think you are the one that is crazy. Paul Petrovich tried to buy the store years ago and when I would not sell it, he had a person from his company Petrovich Development in Danville write an offer and try and buy it. And yet another associate of his called, and when we refused we were threatened with them working with the City to take the building by Eminent Domain….Then it was the city trying to condemn her building. Now the County is- well, what are they doing? Planting evidence?…What are you talking about? The City is not trying to condemn the store. You are probably confused from the mailings sent out about us. There were multiple mailings, 4 color professional glossy fold out, political in nature that came out Oct 31. Sent first class. We estimate it may have cost $15,000 to produce and mail. You can see it on Supervisor Matt Rexroad’s blog, he posted it. We have a gated property, yet the photos contained were taken on site. It requested the County condemn the Historic home on our ranch. The home was an original Yolo County homestead built in 1868. You can see our house on our website http://www.historicnelsonranch.com There was another 10 page document dated Oct 21, 2008 citing the numerous reasons the home should be condemned and our purchase agreement and sent to various agencies sent to the Planning Dept, County Counsel, Grand Jury, Marco Lizarrga, DA – Jeff Resig, County Supervisors, Chamber of Commerce, Woodland Journal, Daily Democrat and Republican Club.Our property was owned by the UC Regents, prior to our purchase. The doc. contained information from their archives. I did a public info request to see who obtained the docs. The person, Butler, that requested the Docs, is from …Freedom Ca… and they were sent to a PO Box. I do not understand the point.I in no way think the …County… is involved in planting evidence or constructing the criminal activity that has occurred. What we want is equal justice and the criminal activity investigated and our bank information removed from the Internet. What you have here is only the tip of the iceberg as to what happened over the past year. It began in April. I think much of what was done, was …constructed… this way. Again, we have a reward for information leading to the arrest of people behind these activities. Brenda Cedarblade

  25. …If you look at the …ANON… posts here, they seem to correlate in time, with Rexroad typing on his computer during the Supervisor meeting. He was pretty pissed off….If he is typing during a meeting it is public information. Make a request to see all of his e-mails under the public information act.

  26. Only if he’s using public resources.However, I doubt Matt is going to hide behind anonymous postings, it is not his style. He’s said much of what has been said here about Ms. Cedarblade under his own name.

  27. Cedarblade’s second response is so typical. If you read it you begin to get a flavor of the claims this woman makes, they are increasingly broad in their scope and endless in their variety. She wants people to identify themselves. I think not. She, more than anyone, knows what happens when people stand up to her. Come Brenda, you should take responsibility for the different acts you’ve incited, the reprisals against good people and the non-stop harassment of anyone who dares oppose you. You need help. Please get it somewhere than from the public trough.

  28. Doug,I think there is a real argument that if he is doing personal business during meetings that is subject to full disclosure. There is past case law where supervisors sent notes back and forth to each other and the courts determined that was public information. I can’t see how e-mails are any different.Is someone advising him during board meetings?Is he making comments about citizens during meetings?I think we have a right to know what he does when he is sitting in the publics chair.Concerning this statement: Cedarblades store is located in Woodland. She has had problems in her store that the police have responded to….It’s interesting to note that this complaint is about and to both the Sheriff and the Police Chief, but, and this is typical of Cedarblade’s rants, if you read through you note that none of the …evidence… she cites is in any way even remotely relevant to the Woodland police….

  29. Check out this Sacramento News and Review article from December 20, 2001. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=10092Note any similarities to today?Brenda as victim.Unidentified assailants, never caught.Break-ins at her store.Crazy, nefarious dealings of a …Bad Supervisor… out to …get her….Please, folks, the woman is a certifiable liar and no one should get taken in by her antics.Put an end to the madness, don’t carry her water.

  30. A lot of us are giving this more credence than we might have because of our past relationships with Matt Gonzalez and his law firm. He gives her claims credibility because he turns down most prospective clients.

  31. Look, Matt G. may have done a great job in SF, and based on his politics, I can understand liking him a lot, but even he can be suckered. Good people do not lie, and they want to believe that the person in front of them would also never lie. Let’s be clear, Brenda cries and it comes across so heartrenderingly true. And yet she is a pathological liar.If Matt Gonzales didn’t do his homework really well, or if he, too, fell into believing Brenda blindly, then he was wrong to take her as a client and he will likely end up with egg on his face. But who will really notice? Will anyone in SF care that he loses one case in Woodland? I don’t think so.If you really know Matt G. or care about his otherwise good reputation…how about cluing him in?

  32. …And yet she is a pathological liar….Please. If you are going to call other people names, have the guts to do so using your own name. I have no idea if your charge is true or false. But it surely violates the golden rule to call someone …a pathological liar… when you are hiding behind a wall of anonymnity. Would you like someone to treat you in that manner? How is Ms. Cedarblade supposed to prove your charges false?I’m a fan of blogs. I think they allow ordinary joes like me and you to express our opinions and engage in issues. But I decry anyone using a blog to do what Anon 2:22 has done, here.

  33. The complaint filed covers:1) The Sheriffs Department not arresting 4 men who were using a rifle to shoot squirrels north of her property and the bullets had hit the roof of their barn.2) Someone broke into their home and ranch and left green cards, $2000 and personal items of hers.3) Someone left personal items of her father in her home.4) Someone posted personal information on a website.Her first post alleges:1) Needing her husband’s passport, cameras and paperwork returned. (?)2) Union guys threatening her at her store over her getting in the way of good union jobs.3) A dead rattlesnake was laid across her husband’s hat.4) Something about a website posting of …tick toc tick tock…. She wants the creators of the website investigated.5) Issues with her conditional use permit and people petitioning the government to revoke her permit.6) That Matt Rexroad hates her because she has taken political stands in opposition to his stands and is running a campaign to ruin her and her businesses. The second post seems to be a rant.1) Matt Rexroad is posting anonymously to this blog or has organized a campaign using people who are posting here to discredit her.2) Lots of information about her property and her store. There is an obvious history here that readers of this blog in Davis have little or no information about. This is too confusing to follow and I wonder why, we in Davis, should concern ourselves with her troubles. It isn’t clear what she wants or what will make her happy. I listened to her recent public comment at the Supervisor’s meeting. It was likewise unfocused and confusing. If she wants more of a response, she needs to narrow her testimony down to the specific wrong she wants corrected and how she thinks she wants it corrected. A general statement of wanting things …investigated… is not specific enough.

  34. A dead rattlesnake was laid across her husband’s hat? Perhaps she mistook a hat band for a snake? Perhaps it was a snake hatband? Or was the hat on her husband’s head when the rattlesnake was laid on it?There are a number of wise insightful posts on here from people who have direct experience with Ms. Cedarblade. These accusations mirror to a …T… a number of accusations she made in the early 90’s. Once again there was a breakin, once again important papers purportedly related to her ongoing persecution of the homeless were taken. She also filed a report claiming a number of silver bridles were taken from her shop although the crime was never solved and she filed and insurance claim. It’s part of an endless campaign she resurrects every time someone starts holding her accountable. She needs to find help and find it fast. I feel very sorry for her but I also know that no one should buy what she’s selling. She’s a tortured person who needs help.

  35. The hat was hanging up in a hat holder which positions the hat upside down. It was a freshly killed rattlesnake.We are making progress. Today, Matt Gonzalez and his team successfully got ScribD to take down my husbands social security number and other personal information taken down off of the site that the person using the Charles Shaw blog website created about us used to post documents. We requested law enforcement do this, but they said posting our Social Security numbers and other personal information was civil and we should hire an attorney. We did. While being shot at is criminal, we also hired Matt G. and his team to address this and a number of other issues, that I am happy to keep you apprised of as they are resolved. I am not at liberty to discuss the reasons the store is included, but I can say the City of Woodland police have been very helpful.I am done addressing the slanderous attacks by …Anon’s…. So sign your name and I will address your issues.Fact- Someone shot at us and we want it investigated.Fact – Someone posted our SS number etc… up on a website using personal documents.Fact

  36. Brenda:You of all people are saying others should form a campaign committee? You who were linked to the illegal funneling of campaign dollars to the Sieferman and Flood Wall campaigns. You who were linked to a publication that was cited in court by an assailant as the reason he attacked a local resident? You who have made numerous false statements about others both in presentations and in printed material?Oh, Brenda. You are too precious by far. And as for being anonymous, all I can say is that the last person who stood up to you ended up being physically attacked for it. So get used to it baby. Given your past actions everyone has reason to be concerned with their safety.

  37. Wow. Everyone who knows this woman knows she needs help. Serious, long-term help. Unfortunately, the …media… keep quoting her and publicizing her although I did note that the Sacto. Bee. has apparently learned because they didn’t quote her the other day. It’s important that the rest of us not become …enablers… in her own sadly evident dysfunctions.