Yolo County

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.

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 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.

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.

Gangs operating in Yolo County:

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:

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

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.