The Year of the Rat's passed and the Year of the Ox has arrived. January, lat year, I was invited to a wedding in New Zealand. I'll never forget celebrating in a glitzy hall, drinking champagne and eating fine food. In New Zealand, I caught up with friends (who are like family). I even went
free diving for abalone with one of them. At the time, talks of a new coronavirus were hitting the news. Who would have thought that a few months later, and with a sudden jolt, our world would shutdown? It just goes to show you how little control we have over the events that happen around us.
Last year, for the Year of Rat, I said that it was time to recognize my lowly position, to take advantage of all my resources, and to launch them in the best way to accomplish the missions at hand. I believe I was able to achieve that this year. Mainly, my cases involved the pursuit of the Truth.
City of Baldwin Park and the Public Records Act Lawsuits
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Robert Tafoya, currently being investigated by the FBI.
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Against the City of Baldwin Park, my client filed two public records act lawsuit with two causes of action. In one cause of action, I'm arguing that a contractor, in this case Robert Tafoya, cannot decide what records can be released and withheld. This is the job of the City - not a contractor. And as a result, the contractor makes a huge profit by virtually denying all public record act requests.
In my second cause of action, the City withheld financial records. It appears that the City doesn't want to tell us who they're paying millions of dollars too. It appears like rampant corruption. And as we know, the City's failed its financial audit by the State Controller's Office, and currently, various public officials and administrators are being investigated by the FBI.
The public officials and administrators have done everything it can to oppose this case. The law firm of Leal & Trujillo, through Maribel Medina, filed a frivolous anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss and a demurrer. They lost on both motions and the case progressed.
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Rose Tam, Finance Director
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Before the end of the year, I received three court orders to compel a deposition (a legal interview) with the Finance Director, Rose Tam. Medina did everything she could to stop the interview from happening. Nonetheless, the court ordered the deposition to continue. So disruptive and unprofessional was Medina's behavior, that the court has now ordered that a referee has to be present at our deposition, because Medina constantly objects, talks over everyone, tells the deponent not to answer, and cancels the interview without cause. Medina has done everything she can to stop us from getting to the truth, but we'll continue to pursue it.
So should be interesting to see what the Finance Director is hiding and why certain players are doing everything to prevent her deposition.
West Valley Water District Lawsuit
Like the Baldwin Park lawsuit, the West Valley Water District won't release credit card statements. General Counsel in that case is also Robert Tafoya, same Tafoya for the City of Baldwin Park. So, no surprises, that Tafoya will do everything he can to stonewall the truth coming out. Like Baldwin Park, West Valley also failed it's audit, and Tafoya is being investigated by the FBI.
Tafoya lied to the judge on several occasions. Tafaoy stated that he released all the credit card statements. Tafoya forced my client to pay for a CD, which supposedly would have all the records. I wrote to him and said that we're only paying once, and if you don't include all the records on the CD, we shouldn't be made to pay again. Tafoya then wrote back that he doesn't now if he would charge us again. (In other words, he wasn't going to produce all the records.)
As expected, we only received 10% of the records. I contacted him and the Finance Director three times about the issue, and they both refused to answer. So you know what I did?
I subpoenaed the Bank for the records. Did that get Tafoya's attention. He demanded and huffed and puffed that I withdraw my subpoena. But if Tafoya released all the records, what's the problem with me asking the bank for them?
(In another part of this case, I appealed the trial court, because Tafoya missed the deadline to file an answer - so a default judgment issued. Tafoya lied to the judge he never received the complaint, and I told that judge he was lying, because we had clear proof that Tafoya received the complaint. The judge vacated the default judgment, and I had to appeal the judge.
In general, I'm making a statement to the courts too. This type of dishonest and deceitful practice by attorneys needs to be called out and dealt with by the courts. Our system of justice is not supposed to operate with players like this, who constantly lie and hope they're not punished or caught. More on this later.)
Baldwin Park Unified School District and the Sexual Predator School Police Chief
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Jill Poe, disgraced police chief
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If you remember last year, I outed Jill Poe as a serial sexual predator, a felon, and a fraudster. You would think after outing this information that the school board would remove her from office. Nope. The District has decided to keep her working from a satellite office at over
$165,000 a year. And guess who they got working instead?
The interim police chief, Carl Miedema, doesn't even meet the basic requirements of being a police officer. He doesn't even have basic training.
So the School District is permitting a felon at the helm and untrained interim police chief to be around our children, while they have guns, can arrest, and abuse or kill our children. Sadly, this isn't a joke. (Schools in Europe and Australia and New Zealand don't even have police officers at school.)
Besides being compulsive liars in court, the attorneys that represent the District has put out a laughable argument. Sarah Lustig, for the school district, states that Carl Miedema doesn't need basic training, because he was hired before 1999. That means for nearly 20 years, there's been a police officer at the school that's been there illegally without having basic training.
Lustig's position is wrong. One, the law doesn't say that. But two, the School District is saying because someone has seniority, they don't need to how to use a gun, especially when they're around children? (Lustig by the way was an embarrassment to LA County - when she bullied journalists, who asked for records, so they could report the truth to us. See LA Times article.)
Generally, my cases don't deal with the Baldwin Park School District. But this is certainly a wayward and rogue police unit. Parents really need to demand reform. Currently, dangerous levels of gun power are in the hands of dangerous and rogue officers, and they are being unsafely permitted around our children. Our children are not cattle that should be herded by wayward and violent and rogue cowboys. The youth of Baldwin Park need an education, not abusive policing around them.
First Amendment Case Against Baldwin Park
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Sign that caused criminal charges against critic.
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My client put up a jackass sign on his building, criticizing Ricardo Pacheco, a public official, as being
corrupt. After Pacheco was caught in allegedly taking bribes, Pacheco resigned suddenly from his position as a council member in July of 2020. As a result, the City criminally charged my client's father, an 80 year old man, with a misdemeanor and demanded that he pay over $12,000 in fines. We filed a lawsuit in federal court.
The district court denied our request to strike down the City's temporary sign law as unconstitutional. So, we appealed to the Ninth Circuit. On December 10, 2020 - we had oral argument before the Ninth Circuit. In the meantime, we'll continue to litigate at the District Court.
We're more certain now, than when we filed the lawsuit that the city's ordinance is evil and unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment right to speak freely and truthfully against those who make tyrannical laws and practices against us. Let's see where this case goes.
My traffic ticket, private criminal prosecution, and the US Supreme Court
In my traffic ticket case (related to the Jill Poe case) and in the above city case, the school district filed a traffic ticket against me illegally by paying a private law firm. I wrote all about this in my last
article. The practice of privatizing the prosecution of the criminal justice is an evil that clearly runs afoul of the Constitution. What this practice does is that it enriches a few private law firms (who later make donations to public officials), prosecutes political enemies who criticize these public officials, and judges the innocent guilty and punishes them wrongly.
This is the first time, and the first time I've had the opportunity to file a petition with the US Supreme Court. I don't know what the future holds. Even if the case is not heard, I feel like I've already won. This is because I brought sufficient attention to this hidden, corrupt, and festering issue that others may have completely missed. Hopefully, other lawyers will see the problem and advocate the arguments I've laid down.
The Year of the Rat
I mentioned last year, that the lowly and small rats were shrewd and heeded their mission to appear at Buddha's birthday. I took the journey of the rat to mean that the year of 2020 should be one, where in my position of weakness, I figured out ways to take advantage of all my strengths and marshal it against the enemy and be faithful in the mission to expose the truth and make the lives of poor more bearable.
Given that all my clients are poor, and given all that I accomplished this year, I've achieved that goal, but I need to press on.
The Year of the Ox
The ox is completely the opposite of the rat. It's huge and slow and not cunning. Nonetheless, the oxen work hard, are loyal to his farmer master, and works and tills the farm for the harvest to come.
Likewise, I'll make sure to work hard and be loyal to cause of Truth and love in hopes of a great harvest to come.
One problem I've noticed with the City of Baldwin Park is that it appears that it's been misappropriating the housing fund. In simple English - the public officials and administrators have been stealing this money, which should be going to the poor in the form of housing vouchers. I hope that for 2021 and going forward, we can make sure that this money goes to the poor to alleviate the hardship they already face daily. Our money shouldn't be going to the exorbitant salaries of administrators, public officials, and they're friends. That would be the right way to spend money, which is what it was meant for.
Happy New Year. Out with the old. And with the new. I welcome the Year of 2021 - the Year of the Metal Ox.
