A pretty good article earlier this week in the Davis Enterprise on the rape case of three men who had been accused of rape, sodomy, kidnapping and charged with 63 counts. Sound familiar? Except this time the accused facing near certain life times, were found innocent by a court of law that issued the verdict on Tuesday.
We did not sit through the trial and we only know press accounts of the case, but it has all of the familiar elemnts.
This past weekend, the Woodland Daily Democrat printed an op-ed of mine on the issue of the District Attorney’s Office report on the shooting of Luis Gutierrez. I did not replicate the article here due to the fact that I have said everything on these pages that I did in the op-ed and more so. The op-ed generated 144 comments on the Daily Democrat site.
Today, Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad, a former Mayor of Woodland, has written a response that was published on the Daily Democrat site. When I first met Mr. Rexroad, I told him that he and I would likely be adversaries quite a bit. What I have found is that there are times when I disagree with him, but there have also been times when we have been on the same side of the issue. This is probably the issue of the biggest disagreement between the two of us.
It was just last week, prior to the Thanksgiving break that the District Attorney finally released their report and the concurrence by the Attorney General’s Office on the more than six month old shooting of farm worker Luis Gutierrez as he walked on Gum Ave following an appointment at the DMV.
If you missed it last week the Vanguard embarked on a lengthy analysis of the District Attorney’s report, concluding the findings in the report are not nearly as clearcut as the District Attorney claims. Given the circumstances involved, it seems reasonable that the shooting may have been justified, but the situation from the beginning was escalated by questionable actions by the officers involved.
by Eric Alfaro – In People of The State Of California vs. Santiago Rodriguez Ochoa, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office charged an 18 year old with six criminal counts; one of the counts being subject to a gang enhancement. The case was first prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Hamilton in the Yolo County Court.
A 37 page District Attorney report concludes:
“When considering all of the facts and circumstances known to them at the time, the use of deadly force by the deputies was objectively reasonable and justified and therefore does not warrant the filing of criminal charges against Sgt. Johnson, Deputy Oviedo or Deputy Bautista.”
The parents of Ricardo Abrahams have settled a portion of their law suit, the portion that sued the city of Woodland and four police officers for the tasering incident on May 28, 2008 where Mr. Abrahams eventually died not from the Taser strikes but rather from positional asphyxia–being improperly handcuffed in a prone position. The coroner concluded that the weight of the victim contributed to his death.
The settlement agreement was for 300,000 dollars. Under the agreement there was no acknowledgment of wrongdoing on the part of the city of Woodland or its four officers involved in the incident.
If you read the press clippings that were covered in the local paper, a West Sacramento man with a history of violence against police has been convicted of a felony stemming from a confrontation he had with officers this spring. According to a press release that was covered in all of the local papers, including the Sacramento Bee, a Yolo County jury convicted Anthony Gino Roman, 43, on one felony count of resisting a police officer in the performance of his duties by use of force or violence.
As usual however, the District Attorney’s office presented a very one-sided view of what happened and the local papers, including the Bee never bothered to try to get the other side of the story.
On Friday a modest crowd of 100 people, many of them friends and family of Mr. Gutierrez gathered at the Woodland DMV. After a brief address by organizer Al Rojas and a few words by Jose Santos Gutierrez, the father of Luis, the crowd clan with candles and flashlights solemnly marched down Gum Avenue to the Highway 113 overpass where Mr. Gutierrez was pursued and shot. They stopped at the top to kneel in prayer and remembrance.
by Eric AlfaroGangs operating in Yolo County:
On October 21, the Woodland Daily Democrat ran a story entitled “Alternative to Prison Offers a Second Chance.” It was a story that chronicled the Yolo County Drug Court, which offers non-violent drug offenders treatment rather than jail time. According to the article, Yolo county has one of the most rigorous programs in the state, even granting eligibility to people who commit crimes to feed a drug addiction such as multiple DUIs, grand theft auto, petty theft and drug possession.
A day later, by chance, the Davis Enterprise also ran a story on drug court entitled “A Second Chance: Drug Court Offers Alternative to Prison.” It was different story, written by Lauren Keene, which chronicled a 44 year old alcoholic.
Organizer Rev. Ashiya Odeye from the Justice Reform Coalition told the Vanguard late Monday:
In June, a jury convicted Dev of 76 felony counts including 23 counts of forcible rape; 23 counts of forcible sexual assault; 27 counts of lewd acts with a minor; and 3 counts of attempting to dissuade a witness. The jury hung on three of the counts and returned not guilty verdicts on 13 others.
He writes:
“So I heard all about the nut jobs forming their own investigation panel yesterday at the Capitol. Good for them.Then just now I look over at the Daily Democrat website and it all became clear that these people are not qualified to investigate anything.”
Yesterday, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office announced that they have completed their investigation and that the completed investigation will now be forwarded to the Office of the California Attorney General where it will be further analyzed and reviewed before any conclusions are announced. At this time, it is unknown how long this process will take for the Attorney General.
There is enough confusion in the public as to what happened in the Gore case that it seems worthwhile to at least attempt to put together a timeline of events that are in the public record. The concern here goes back again to the article the Vanguard printed on Monday about the bias of local media. The local media was willing to print a story that was 90 to 95 percent straight out of the District Attorney’s press release.
Credit should go to the Daily Democrat who at least attempted to balance the story on Wednesday with quotes from the statement I sent. The Davis Enterprise refused to print from my statement and also refused to print my letter to the editor. Apparently, the Enterprise did not even know that this was part of settlement agreement, which Debbie Davis, the editor, called “speculative.” The Enterprise printed a very short follow up yesterday using information confirmed by both Mr. Gore’s lawyer and the county.
Rick Gore, a Yolo County District Attorney investigator, has resigned from his position. Gore has also apologized for making accusatory statements of District Attorney Reisig’s unethical behavior. This resignation comes at a moment when the District Attorney’s office has been caught in a number of unflattering positions.
According to reports, Gore voluntarily resigned and retracted statements that were delivered to District Attorney Reisig in a letter on March 5, 2008. That letter delivered to Reisig was also forwarded to the Yolo County Counsel, the office of Yolo County Human Resources, the State Bar of California and the Attorney General’s Office of California.
The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday released a statement claiming that former Investigator Rick Gore, has resigned, apologized, and retracted a letter that was leaked to the Vanguard in March of 2008.
“In March 2008, The People’s Vanguard of Davis blog published Mr. Gore’s March 5, 2008 letter in which Mr. Gore made allegations of unethical legal practices and the creation of a hostile work environment for employees.”
On March 7, 2008, the Vanguard published the article “Senior Investigator For Yolo County District Attorney’s Office Accuses Reisig of Ethical Malfeasance And Much More.”
Hardly a day or week goes by without hearing about a complaint of media bias, generally from the nation’s right. To the right wing, there is little doubt that the nation’s media appear to be biased in one direction. What is perhaps not as well publicized, perhaps due to the fact that the left do not have their own FOX Noise to response, but to the left, the nation’s mainstream media appear biased in the other direction.
The truth as usual is probably found somewhere in between. However, from my perspective one of the most interesting observations made by leftist critic Noam Chomsky in his book “Manufacturing Consent” was the reliance on the media for official government sources. At a national level depending on the regime, that may taint news coverage, although these days media attempt to balance most reports by covering the views of the opposition.
Last week the Vanguard broke the news that a Yolo County District Attorney Investigator Randy Skaggs has filed a lawsuit against Yolo County, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, DA Jeff Reisig and Chief District Attorney Investigator Pete Martin for among other things a violation of right to privacy and whistle-blower retaliation.
The key charge was a breach of privacy related to a personnel investigation and the allegation that the DA’s office had initiated this investigation in retaliation for Mr. Skaggs’ involvement in whistle-blowing in a case where he believed the DA’s office had failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.
by Eric Alfaro – It is very clear that local politicians can easily become interconnected with other politicians for the sake of re-elections. This process becomes rather vulgar when convictions and ideals are ignored for the sake of political endorsements and alliances. This is already evident in Woodland. Political parties are blurred, almost indistinguishable-only one political party really exists, the party of the opportunist. It is no surprise that this sacred covenant has attracted much attention. Recently, the Yolo District Attorney was sued for obstruction of justice; a multi-layer allegation. What this means is that corruption, if at the highest point of Yolo County authority, is most likely also in small areas within the subordinate ranks. Sheriff Ed Prieto is no rookie to allegations of mismanagement, just recently he fired a sheriffs deputy for killing a dog.