My Dear Nieces and Nephews:
You are probably
wondering how your Auntie knew it was coming, but she did. You see, your Auntie
has confidants, which she will protect with every fiber of her being. And you
wouldn’t believe who some of the confidants are. There are ALOT of people in Orange
County who are VERY unhappy with the current regime.
Auntie Alibi is looking forward to the rebellion! But in the meantime:
We were waiting for
the press release and photo op from HOOVLER, which answers the question for
today: WHERE WAS DAVID HOOVLER??? In this little performance, HOOVLER absolves,
pardons, vindicates and releases from criminal culpability our little Leigh, Mr. I-did-not think-it-would-be-noticed
Benton.
This is getting way
tooo easy. (BTW earlier today there was a photo of Hoovler in front of the
thousand page report, pointing to it as if he was on a game show, like our very
own Howie Mandel of Deal or No Deal fame. Sad, though, is that the news website
decided to take it off before Auntie could really study it. You may listen to
the video, but your Auntie doesn’t have the patience or stomach to do so at
this point, it would be too painful!)
HOOVLER SAID: “This report is not critical of any named
individuals, to do so would allow the individual to present a legal challenge
to the publication of the report. In the grand jury’s opinion, and most
particularly in my opinion, the need to provide the public with a factual
report supersedes the importance of naming
any individuals, who would not otherwise be subject to a crime.”
Like your Auntie
said, way tooo easy! (Piece by piece):
“This report is not
critical of any named individuals,” now
why would you empanel a Grand Jury to NOT name the person you were
investigating? (Is this guy really a lawyer?)
“…would allow the
individual to present a legal challenge to the publication of the report.”
Not true, but it
would create a detailed record that Mr. Benton was investigated, if his name
was in there. Nice favor, Hoovler, honey!
“…in my opinion,
the need to provide the public with a factual report supersedes the importance
of naming any individuals,”
Let’s get this
straight. The Grand Jury was impaneled to look into a potential conflict of
interest (because the Ethics committee did not)on the part of Mr. Benton but does
not name him in their report. Who did they name? Goofy? Donald Duck? And for
G@d’s sake, how can it be factual if the report does not name the person being
investigated??? Are you really buying into this nonsense??? Just what is going
on in this county? Do the mighty triumvirate think we are that STUPID?
There were some
recommendations that seem to make sense, your Auntie is sure that they will be
implemented as sure as the “Pay to play” OC campaign finance law is being
enforced.
Here is the press
release with some details. Take a look and we will discuss it later. FYI Little
Leigh is referred to as “the legislator”.
http://www.orangecountygov.com/filestorage/124/898/2483/11877/04-30-14_Hoovler_Announces_Release_of_Grand_Jury_Report_Recommending_Changes_to_Orange_County_Ethics_Law.pdf
Legislator Katie
Bonnelli jumped into the fray with this to say:
“Obviously this
needed to be investigated and we need to move forward, I appreciate as a member
of the Rules Committee that we will be looking at this, the adjustments to the
ethics law that we should be doing. It is a document that hasn’t been revisited
in a while and now it is time to revisit it.”
Smart move, Katie. It hasn't been "visited" since 1994! Yes! 1994!!!
But we are getting a little sick of the term "move forward" when it means "we are not going to focus on this anymore". "OH, let's just forget about it, let's move forward"
And now your Auntie is going to move forward... but it means something else when she says it.
This is unbelievable and it is so obvious but what exactly can we do? Keep up with the public pressure and hope they listen? Like they listened to us at the Valley View hearings?
ReplyDeleteProsecutors, if they want to, are supposed to be able to get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. But Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler has failed to get a grand jury to return an indictment against Orange County Legislator Leigh Benton. Now that Hoovler's dropped the ball, will Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pick it up?
ReplyDeleteeven one proverbial ham sandwich from a menu of former and current members of the state Legislature for engaging in what she thinks may have been criminal activity in the hiring practices at the state's probation agency.Former Chief Judge of New York's Court of Appeals Sol Wachtler was once (in)famously quoted as saying that district attorneys have so much influence on grand juries that they could get a grand jury to 'indict a ham sandwich".Now that Mr. Hoovler's Office has failed to secure an indictment (and bear in mind that f