Prosecutor Confirms Records Sought By KPBS Exist In DA’s Office

See all posts regarding the Jason Moore/Bonnie Dumanis political prosecution issue.

Prosecutor Confirms Records Sought By KPBS Exist In DA’s Office
By Amita Sharma
KPBS
May 5, 2014

The office said it will decide by Monday whether to release records.

Records concerning a prosecution of Chula Vista officials are at the San Diego County District Attorney's Office after all.

A month ago, officials in the office of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said the records requested by KPBS did not exist.

KPBS asked the DA's Office in early March for records, including emails, about a call former Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla said he received from Dumanis in late 2005. Padilla said Dumanis asked him to appoint her aide to a vacant council seat.

A recent KPBS story noted that within weeks of Padilla's refusal, Dumanis began investigating the entire Chula Vista City Council without revealing her call to Padilla. In late March, the DA's Office told KPBS it did not possess records related to the request.

KPBS sent another Public Records Act request two weeks ago seeking the same records from Deputy District Attorney Patrick O'Toole. He oversaw the Chula Vista investigations. Within hours, O'Toole wrote that he had the records and sent them up the chain of command for consideration.

The DA's Office also told KPBS in March that records pertaining to the investigation are legally exempt from disclosure.

"To the extent your request is for 'records pertaining to or discussing the Padilla or Castaneda investigation, or any investigation pertaining to this,' these records are exempt from disclosure under the 'investigative files' exemption," wrote Deputy District Attorney Julie Reizen in a letter to KPBS.

Reizen also cited the "deliberative process" privilege.

But Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said neither of those exemptions apply to records such as emails discussing the call to Padilla, or how it might have affected subsequent investigations.

"The communications, the email communications that raised questions or doubts, were not part of the investigative file for the prosecution," Scheer said. "The deliberative process privilege is a much abused, very broad privilege. They have to justify a determination that the public interest in keeping it secret outweighs the public interest in making it public. There's no reason to keep it secret except to avoid embarrassment."

Scheer added that even if the records were legally exempt from disclosure, Dumanis could choose to release them.

The DA's Office said it will decide Monday whether to release the emails.

Justice at last for Jason Moore? Prosecution by Bonnie Dumanis for taking two hours off work now proven to be political

It's about time that the abusive political prosecution of Jason Moore should be rectified. Steve Castaneda also seeks information about the political prosecution he endured.

See recent revelation: Phone Call Raises Questions About DA Dumanis’ Chula Vista Investigations

News Of Dumanis Call Prompts Request To Strike Plea Deal
By Amita Sharma
KPBS
April 24, 2014

An aide to former Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla wants to undo his 2008 misdemeanor guilty plea.

Jason Moore's defense attorney says his client should have been told about District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis' call when he was charged.

The request follows news of a call San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis made before she investigated Chula Vista city officials.

In 2007, former Padilla aide Jason Moore faced five felony charges for perjury. Moore was caught spying on the political enemy of his boss at an event during work hours. Prosecutors said Moore lied about when he submitted a request to take time off from work. Moore ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in a deal with the DA’s office.

Moore’s attorney Knut Johnson said that deal would have never been cut today. Johnson says revelations in a KPBS story this week changed everything.

The story reported that Dumanis called then-Mayor Padilla in 2006 just weeks before she started investigating Chula Vista city officials. Padilla said Dumanis asked him to appoint her own aide to a vacant Chula Vista City Council seat. Padilla refused and soon afterward, she launched her probes.

"If the district attorney called up Mr. Moore’s boss and tried to get that boss to make a city council seat available for one of her employees and then when refused a week later started an investigation that included subpoenaing Mr. Moore to the grand jury, that was undisclosed and we should have known about that," John said. "It's such an obvious conflict of interest."

Johnson said he plans to file court papers arguing that Moore’s plea deal was obtained illegally. The DA’s office said it had no comment at this time.



Here's one of my early posts about the Jason Moore case:

Is Jason Moore the Dale Akiki of Bonnie Dumanis?
May 20, 2007

Tanya Mannes writes about Bonnie Dumanis' mysterious "Public Integrity Unit" in this morning's San Diego Union-Tribune:

"In existence about 14 months, it has filed charges against one person: Jason Moore, a former Chula Vista mayoral aide." Jason Moore worked for Steve Padilla, a Democrat who was in a run-off election against Republican Cheryl Cox.

The investigation of Moore, for taking two hours off work to take pictures of Cheryl Cox with David Malcolm at a Cox fundraiser, began in August 2005, well before the November election. Oddly, Bonnie Dumanis says, that in the future, in most cases, "we will not investigate a complaint until after an election."

Bonnie says her office is determined to be nonpolitical. When will that start, Bonnie? Specifically, when will you investigate complaints against Cheryl Cox and her associates?
v Dumanis did not even announce the existence of her "Public Integrity Unit" until March 1, 2007. Jason Moore was indicted on March 27, 2007.

O'Toole and Dumanis have each claimed to be personally interested in prosecuting perjury. But Dumanis' office recently refused to investigate proven perjury regarding illegal actions committed at Chula Vista Elementary School District when Bertha Lopez and Cheryl Cox were trustees of CVESD.

UPDATE April 25, 2014:

Maura Larkins' note: I imagine that readers are more likely to believe me regarding illegal actions and perjury committed by school officials in the South Bay after the recent revelations of pay-for-play deals with contractors. See related posts. I think these revelations will hurt Bonnie Dumanis in her contest against Bob Brewer in the upcoming election for district attorney in San Diego. But I hope that Bob Brewer, if he wins, won't give all public officials a free pass. I worry about that since Bob Brewer has made most of his money defending powerful white collar players. And he even has Bonnie's henchman Patrick O'Toole, who savagely prosecuted Jason Moore and Steve Castaneda, in his camp. That's sort of scary...

I just discovered that Bertha Lopez pled guilty yesterday to an extremely small potatoes transgression: accepting a gift over the limit. Bonnie Dumanis has not gone after the serious, truly high-stakes corruption in schools. I blame Bertha Lopez for harming students by rubber-stamping corrupt actions by both Republicans and Democrats in schools, but I believe that her prosecution by Bonnie Dumanis was largely political. Obviously, Bonnie Dumanis didn't want a trial because Bertha might have revealed too much about the corruption she knows about.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: "Two more Sweetwater school board members pleaded guilty Thursday to minor charges in the South County political corruption investigation, effectively ending a case once described as the worst corruption scandal in a decade on a muted note. Board President Jim Cartmill and trustee Bertha Lopez each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of accepting gifts over the state limit. They will be sentenced in June."

In a related case, another political target of Bonnie Dumanis also asks for follow-through on the new information about the D.A.'s political motives.

Ex-Chula Vista Councilman Wants DA To Release Emails
By Amita Sharma
KPBS News
April 22, 2014

Former Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Castaneda called on District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to release emails connected to his 2008 prosecution.

Former Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Castaneda called Thursday on District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to release emails connected to his 2008 prosecution.

Castaneda's request followed a KPBS report that Dumanis investigated him and his colleagues after failing to get her aide appointed to a vacant Chula Vista council seat.

In 2006, Dumanis opened an inquiry into whether Castaneda received favors from a developer. That was months after then-Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla said he refused Dumanis' phone request to appoint an aide, Jesse Navarro, to a vacant council seat. Castaneda was later indicted on accusations of lying to a grand jury.

A jury acquitted him on most of the charges and hung on others.

Castaneda said he should have been told about Dumanis' call to Padilla. He now wants the District Attorney's Office to release all emails regarding his case because he wants to know "what happened and why it happened."

"Frankly, if she were on my side of the prosecutorial desk, she'd be at a grand jury right now," Castaneda said. "And she's hiding behind her status and her position, and I think she owes it to not only me and my family, but she owes it to the people of San Diego County."

A Dumanis spokeswoman released a statement on the matter saying, "Mr. Castaneda's criminal case is closed and we will not allow the District Attorney's Office to be used as a political pawn."

KPBS also asked for the same emails but was told the records didn't exist and would be exempt from disclosure anyway.

Phone Call Raises Questions About DA Dumanis’ Chula Vista Investigations

Update: See Justice at last for Jason Moore? Prosecution by Bonnie Dumanis for taking two hours off work now proven to be political

ORIGINAL POST:

“If you have a prosecutor personally requesting something that is refused and soon thereafter there is a criminal investigation that would effectively open up the opportunity that the prosecutor had requested, the appearance of impropriety is that the prosecutor is using his or her office to obtain this benefit.”

Phone Call Raises Questions About DA Dumanis’ Chula Vista Investigations
The chief prosecutor in the investigations says a phone call by Bonnie Dumanis to the then mayor of Chula Vista should have been disclosed and the District Attorney's Office should have recused itself from the probes.
By Amita Sharma
KPBS News
April 21, 2014

As Bonnie Dumanis campaigns for a fourth term as district attorney, a prosecutor in her office and some former elected officials in the South Bay are raising questions about whether she blurred the boundary between politics and law enforcement in a high-profile case six years ago.

At issue is the prosecution of former Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castaneda, who was accused in 2008 of lying to a grand jury. A jury acquitted him on most charges and hung on others.

At the time, the case perplexed people in the media and legal circles who suspected political motives. KPBS recently learned of a phone call Dumanis made in late 2005 that some now say could lend credence to those suspicions.

Jesse Navarro

”I received a call from Bonnie in my office, asking me, encouraging me to support one of the candidates who was an employee of hers in her office and a friend,” said former Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla, who needed to fill a vacant City Council seat at the time.

The employee was Dumanis aide Jesse Navarro. Padilla said he told Dumanis that Navarro wouldn’t do because he needed to replace outgoing Councilwoman Patty Davis with another female Democrat.

“She was disappointed,” Padilla said. “She felt strongly about Jesse.”

Critics have long accused Dumanis of improperly wading into politics by endorsing candidates. But they argue the 2005 phone call to Padilla crossed a new line. It melded politics and prosecutor, undercutting her credibility and raising questions about her motives in the events that followed.

Just weeks after the call, Dumanis’ office opened an investigation into Padilla and the rest of the Chula Vista City Council for allegedly not attending redevelopment corporation meetings but collecting pay for them. No charges were filed.

The office did charge Padilla’s aide Jason Moore in 2006 with lying to a grand jury about spying on his boss’s political opponent at a fundraising event. In a deal with prosecutors, Moore pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

That same year, Dumanis launched a probe into whether then-Councilman Castaneda had received special favors from a developer. A grand jury later indicted Castaneda for perjury.

Dumanis declined a request for an interview for this story. Her spokesman said the office cannot discuss past or present investigations.

Former federal prosecutor Jason Forge

Former federal prosecutor Jason Forge, who is not aligned with any of the three candidates in the district attorney's race, said the series of inquiries following Dumanis’ call to Padilla creates a perception problem.

“If you have a prosecutor personally requesting something that is refused and soon thereafter there is a criminal investigation that would effectively open up the opportunity that the prosecutor had requested, the appearance of impropriety is that the prosecutor is using his or her office to obtain this benefit,” Forge said.

Patrick O'Toole statement

The chief prosecutor in all of those investigations — Deputy District Attorney Patrick O’Toole — also declined an interview for this story.

But he provided a written statement, saying he was unaware of Dumanis’ call to Padilla until early 2008, but if he had known about it he would have insisted the office recuse itself from prosecuting Castaneda.

O’Toole wrote that he first learned of the call in a letter from the Chula Vista Better Government Association, which claimed Dumanis abused her power by trying to influence the Chula Vista council appointment process, among other allegations. O’Toole said he tried to discuss his concerns with Dumanis’ top staff member, Assistant District Attorney Jesse Rodriguez, but “was interrupted and told just to do my job,” O’Toole wrote.

Rodriguez also declined to be interviewed for this story.

O’Toole said at that point he still doubted Dumanis had called Padilla to get her own employee appointed to the vacant Chula Vista council seat. He said he believed that if the call had been made, the office would have told him because of the obvious conflict of interest.

O’Toole said he got confirmation of that call around the time of the Castaneda trial in April 2008. Padilla was a witness in the case.

“Steve Padilla informed me that Bonnie Dumanis had contacted him and requested that he appoint Jesse Navarro to the vacant Chula Vista City Council Position,” O’Toole wrote. “I believe that Steve Padilla also offered that he thought the Castaneda prosecution was 'politically motivated,’ which I thought was strange because Steve Padilla was saying something sympathetic to Steve Castaneda when previously he and Steve Castaneda had each been highly and publicly critical of the other during the previous mayoral primary race.”

O’Toole is supporting former federal prosecutor Bob Brewer in his bid to unseat Dumanis.

O’Toole said had he known about the call, at the very least he would have recommended that Castaneda’s lawyer, Marc Carlos, be told of the conflict of interest. But O’Toole did not address in his written statement why he himself didn’t tell Carlos about the call once Padilla confirmed it. He declined to answer that question, saying he would not go beyond what he had put in his statement already.

Carlos first learned of Dumanis’ 2005 call from KPBS recently.

“If she was trying to do something to get a political favorite in a position of power at the expense of my client, it clearly shows a vexatious prosecution,” Carlos said. “It's illegal for one. And it's unethical. It's certainly something I needed to know."

Former federal prosecutor Forge agreed. He said at a minimum, the defense should have been informed of Dumanis’ call to Padilla.

“That way the defense can make their own assessment of whether they think this is a significant conflict,” Forge said. “The defendant can raise the issue with a judge. And then that third party — the judge — can make a determination about whether or not the fairness of the criminal proceeding is affected by this conflict.”

Steve Castaneda

Former Councilman Castaneda said he had heard scuttlebutt of Dumanis’ call to Padilla while he was being investigated in 2006. But Castaneda said he never raised it as an issue because he didn’t think he could prove the call took place. He said Padilla’s recent confirmation of the call cements his belief that political considerations played a role in his prosecution. Castaneda said it also explains why the District Attorney's Office insisted he resign as a part of a plea deal.

"It is interesting that on the one hand she's asking that a staff member be appointed, I'm indicted,” Castaneda said. “I'm offered a bargain which is rescinded within 24 hours, before I even have an opportunity to say yes or no. These things are circumstantial. But they all lead to the same supposition -- there's something more here than meets the eye."

Patty Chavez

Beyond disclosing information about the call to the defense in the Castaneda case, there was precedent for recusal within the district attorney's Chula Vista investigations.

When the District Attorney's Office asked to question Chula Vista City Councilwoman Patty Chavez in its probe of the redevelopment corporation, her attorney, Colin Murray, balked.

Chavez was in the middle of a re-election race and one of her opponents was Dumanis aide Jesse Navarro.

When Murray learned of Navarro’s connection to the district attorney, he asked that Dumanis recuse herself from the case.

“Why were these subpoenas being issued, including one for my client, when somebody within Bonnie Dumanis’ kitchen cabinet was running for my client’s seat,” Murray asked. “I thought it was improper.”

The District Attorney's Office granted the request.

This story was edited by Lorie Hearn, executive director and editor of inewsource, a KPBS media partner. See also SDER inewscource posts.