Baldwin Park's City Attorney is as Bad as They Get

Robert Nacionales-Tafoya - Baldwin Park's City Attorney

Baldwin Park's City Attorney, Robert Tafoya, failed once again in court. It's not only that he fails in court, he just is unprofessional when he commits slanders me there - which keeps happening, by the way.

Today, we had a conference as to when trial would be set in the second Public Records Act case. For those of you who don't know, Manuel Carrillo Jr., Director of Parks and Recreation, and Craig Graves, Financial Director, have been running a sham non-profit. We're accusing them of laundering money through this non-profit. You can read all about it here. Manny Carrillo Launders Money

But instead of the City suspending or investigating Manny Carrillo, my inside sources say that Lozano, Carrillo, Raquel Garcia, and others fired a boxing coach who was making minimum wage. (I've actually heard this from multiple sources as this point.) City Suspends Boxing Coach

Then, illegally, the City is paying for Robert Tafoya to illegally defend Manny Carrillo and Craig Graves. Now; hey wait?! How does that make sense? Carrillo and Graves are being sued as the directors of non-profit, not as the City Directors. If we can only have all our attorney's fees paid for by a city.

Today's lawsuit is about the fact that Carrillo and Graves don't want to release documents regarding how the non-profit has accounted for money. In short, the two, laundered it and gave it to someone - who knows who, but I would suspect that part of it went back to themselves.

So, the boxers sued for records. It was in this case that Robert Tafoya forged a document - misrepresenting my signature to the court. You can read about it here. Tafoya Misrepresents Signature

The judge asked why I didn't serve him. Once again, Tafoya was playing his bad faith litigation games. He's extended this case for almost a year by complaining to the court that he didn't understand what his clients were being accused of. And I knew Tafoya was just trying to not have this case go to trial. Well - too bad for all of them - it's going to trial. Finally.

Now, the last judge granted Tafoya's request because he was substituting for our main judge, but this judge saw Tafoya's games. (In general, it appears that the judges are getting sick and tired of this character.)

But, being the nasty attorney he is, he wouldn't accept service of the documents. I asked him three times by email. So, can he really complain that I served him on the last minute? To that, Tafoya told the judge, same judge he forged a document to, that I was an "odious liar." The judge was furious that Tafoya couldn't keep his temper and language under control, the judge rebuked the nasty attorney.

Now is this the type of behavior we expect of city attorney's? Jeez. And, I didn't lie. I have witnesses and emails, that he wouldn't accept service. Tafoya was also mad because I filed a memorandum of costs for losing the First Public Records Act case.

The court costs were small. It was roughly $2,000, but because he refused to pay for it, I had to charge the City 7 hours of my time. That raised the bill to $4,500. After he puts in his time to object to the matter, let's add an estimated 10 hours, the bill comes out to $7,000. Now is this the kind of attorney you want wasting the tax payer's money? See, how he took a bill of $2,000 and sucked 2.5 times that amount from the taxpayer. It's greed and stupidity, I tell you. I don't understand why the City Manager, Shannon, doesn't put an end to all this, after all he's where the buck stops. (But the rumors are suggesting that being too afraid of his job security - he's paralyzed to make a decision.)

In any event, going back to the court case, the judge was so disgusted with Tafoya, that he set a trial date and told Tafoya he could do whatever he wanted to do. I was so happy. Finally, we get to go to trial on this, and we can hold that desert rat of a finance director and that piggy parks and rec directors accountable. And I'm going to do everything in my power, to make them pay all my attorney's fees. Remember, in my last case, I got $38,500. This is going to be a bigger chunk of money - I predict.



PS: Up next - how Tafoya was so dumb, he cost the City more money by not paying me timely. I had to charge the City interest. The question is how much did Tafoya charge the city to fight me on the interest.