10,000 Gallons of Contaminated Water, 1,256,000 Pounds of Contaminated Soil to Be Removed From Ponte Vedra

Three cheers for Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County Commissioner Jeanne Moeller, who rightly raised concerns in her 2006 campaign about contaminated soil at AMCD facilities. AMCD wanted to sell the land without telling people it was contaminated. Commissioner Jeanne Moeller and Commissioner John Sundeman have pressed for years for AMCD to investigate and remedy 60 years of environmental pollution in St. Johns County.

At last night's AMCD meeting, AMCD heard from consultants from MACTEC that AMCD must remove 10,000 gallons of contaminated water and 1,256,000 pounds of contaminated soil from its Ponte Vedra facility. The primary contaminants are arsenic and petrochemicals.

AMCD commissioners dealt with the issue like thinking, caring adults, unlike some other government polluters that exemplify what Al Gore wrote in "Earth in the Balance" -- Americans in dealing with environmental issues too often act like a "dysfunctional family."

In sharp and marked contrast to AMCD's growing environmental ethic, our City of St. Augustine City Commissioners didn't even discuss its 611,294 gallons of sewage pollution of San Sebastian River, putting the puny $3000 fine and consent order on the "consent agenda," without discussion.

TEXANS FOR PUBLIC JUSTICE: Profile of Lobbyist Van B. Poole

Bush Donor Profile
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Van B. Poole
Occupation: Lobbyist
Employer: Poole McKinley & Blosser
Home: Tallahassee, FL
A onetime Exxon marketing manager, Van Poole was an insurance executive for 20 years at Krieg Kostas & Poole. He spent 12 years in the Florida Legislature, including a stint as House Minority Whip. When he was governor, Pioneer Robert Martinez appointed Poole to head the Florida Department of Business Regulation. Poole made a failed U.S. Senate bid in 1982 and chaired the Florida Republican Party from 1989 to 1993. He also held minor posts in the campaigns or administrations of Presidents Ford, Reagan and the first President Bush. Governor Jeb Bush appointed Poole’s lobbyist wife, Donna Maggert Poole, chair of Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission. Jeb Bush and two Florida Congressmen, including E. Clay Shaw, appointed Poole in 2001 to the Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission headed by Robert Martinez. Congressman Shaw then paid Poole $10,000 to lobby to keep his district safe during redistricting. Van Poole’s lobby shop has produced three Bush Pioneers (see James Blosser and Justin Sayfie). Poole reported 39 Florida lobby clients in 2003, including Accenture, AT&T, Dell, GM, Microsoft, PhyAmerica and the Seminole Tribe. The firm ran into conflicts after it hired Pioneer James Blosser, who was the top lobbyist for H. Wayne Huizenga’s empire (including Blockbuster Video, AutoNation, National and Alamo car rentals and sports teams). After Blosser led Huizenga’s efforts to tap tax dollars for new Dolphins, Marlins and Panthers stadiums, new Marlins owner John Henry hired Poole McKinley & Blosser to help publicly fund a $400 million new stadium. The firm resigned when Henry decided to fund it with a tax on rental cars—part of Huizenga’s empire. All apparently was forgiven, with the firm lobbying for Huizenga’s AutoNation in 2003. Another recent Blosser client is JM Family Enterprises, which sells, finances and insures vehicles (see Paul Anderson). JM’s billionaire owner, James Moran, was convicted of tax cheating in the 1980s and the company did not pay corporate income taxes in Florida for most of the 1990s. JM subsidiary Southeast Toyota, the world’s largest independent Toyota distributor, shook down local and state governments for $15 million in corporate welfare in 1999 after threatening to move to Georgia. The firm also lobbies for Pioneer George Dean Johnson’s Advance America. Its Cash Advance Centers are the leading source of small “payday loans” to the working poor at predatory interest rates. Advance and other payday lenders allied with out-of-state banks in 2002 to evade limits that some states imposed on the industry’s excesses.

NEW TIMES: Con Man's Lobbying Dream Team Included Will McKinley

By Bob Norman
Tue., Mar. 3 2009 @ 8:04AM

With his fraudulent viatical company Mutual Benefits coming under fire from state regulators, convicted felon Joel Steinger decided he needed to buy the influence of the state legislature. To do that he first purchased the people who had their ears -- the lobbyists.


McKinley: A Man For Sale
We know that Steinger's right-hand man in his quest to buy influence was Russ Klenet, husband of then-state rep and current Broward County mayor Stacy Ritter. Also hired by Mutual Benefits was Alan Mendelsohn, the Hollywood ophthalmologist and Florida Medical Association official who has Charlie Crist's ear and the ability to raise huge amounts of money from GOP political donors.

Steinger also scooped up Peter Antonnaci, another Crist appointee, former statewide prosecutor, and the state's former deputy attorney general. That's right, one of the state's top lawman signed on to work for a convicted felon and a company that had already been banned by five states for its fraudulent conduct. Oh, he also served four years as a member of the state's Commission on Ethics.

Rounding out Steinger's lobbying dream team was Will McKinley, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Florida. McKinley is a former partner of Broward-based lobbyists Jim Blosser and Justin Sayfie who now works for the large Dutko Poole McKinley lobbying firm. Klenet names McKinley as a Mutual Benefits hire in a 2007 deposition.

Interestingly, Klenet joined the Dutko firm with McKinley in early 2007 shortly after his wife Ritter was elected to the Broward County Commission. While Klenet claimed (dubiously) to stop representing clients before the commission at that time, his new firm, and specifically McKinley, was hired by health care giant Vista to lobby (successfully) for the county's health insurance contract (on which Ritter voted). Klenet has since left the Dutko firm.

Small world, and when it comes to politics in Florida and Broward County, small and dirty. How a convicted felon and known con man was able to buy -- and you can bet he doled out well over a million dollars for his cadre of cronies -- a veritable Who's Who of Tallahassee heavyweights lays bear the amoral ethos permeating the state capital and county seat.

AMCD Awards No-Bid Contract to Former Florida Republican Chair and Executive Director

POOLE


McKINLEY

December 11, 2009
Honorable Christine A. Varney, Esquire
Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Robert F. Kennedy Justice Department Building, Room 3109
Washington, D.C. 20580 via fax to (202) 616-2645

RE: NO-BID CONTRACT TO DUTKO, POOLE AND McKINLEY BY ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL COMMISSION OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA

Dear General Varney:

1. Last night, the ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL COMMISSION OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA (AMCD) voted 3-2 to award a $3500/month no-bid contract for FEMA lobbying. The award is to the firm of DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY to attempt to obtain FEMA grants for AMCD for a controversial, wasteful multi-million dollar building project. AMCD has $5.5 million in its coffers now and the chances of obtaining a FEMA grant are slim, as pointed out last night by Commissioner Jeanne Moeller.

2. Last night’s vote is contrary to the antitrust laws. I request that the Antitrust Division kindly investigate.

3. Do the circumstances of the contract award amount to a badge of fraud?

4. No other firms were invited to bid.

5. No need for any grant or lobbing contract was ever established.

6. No actual contract was presented.

7. No presentation was made by DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY.

8. Instead, AMCD voted 3-2 to accept a proposal from DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY that was solicited by Commissioners VIVIAN BROWNING and RONALD RADFORD.

9. The proposal was a surprise to AMCD Chair Janice Bequette: she received a letter sent by DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY that was so half-baked and disorganized that it referred to AMCD as being “Lojack.” Has the public interest been hijacked by anti-competitive practices?

10. AMCD has a history of anti-competitive practices, including purchase of a $1.8 million Bell Jet luxury helicopter without competitive bidding, claiming it was “sole source.” The helicopter in quo was unadorned by any equipment that could kill a single mosquito. In 2007, citizen outage persuaded AMCD to kill the deal, but only after there was a videotaped Sunshine violation involving two Board members and their then-counsel, after a meeting where the then-Chair attempted to arrest former Army Captain Donald Girvan for speaking his mind at a public meeting. In December 2006, AMCD Director Ruide Xue told me that the no-bid helicopter contract was “a Christmas present” for then-Commissioner MARY TARVER WILLIS. Fortunately, it was rescinded, thanks to outspoken citizens and Commissioners Jeanne Moeller and John Sundeman, both of whom also voted against last night’s no-bid contract.

11. Does the no-bid contract for DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY deprive other, more qualified firms with actual FEMA experience of an opportunity to bid?

12. Does it deprive St. Johns County of the honest services of their public officials at AMCD?

13. Please ask your staff to work with the FBI, Homeland Security Inspector General and the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department.

14. Please obtain all of the documents and telephone toll records for AMCD, RADFORD, BROWNING and DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY.

15. From the hostile tone that RADFORD adopted when I spoke against the proposal last night, interrupting me and accusing me of “slandering” him, it appears that the gentlemen “doth protest too much.” Mr. RADFORD was angry and emotional because I asked questions about the no-bid contract he rammed through for the benefit of the former Chair and the former Executive Director of the Florida Republican Party, Messrs POOLE & McKINLEY. RADFORD has long experience in government contracting and should be considered a target of any investigation.

16. Thank you in advance for a thoroughgoing Antitrust Division investigation of anti-competitive practices by DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY and AMCD.

We sincerely appreciate the excellent work that you have done turning around the Antitrust Division and enforcing the antitrust laws without fear or favor.

Sincerely,


ED SLAVIN
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
904-829-3877


c: Honorable Richard L. Skinner
Honorable James Lee Witt
AMCD
 
December 11, 2009
Honorable Richard L. Skinner
Inspector General
Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Drive, SW, Bldg 410
Washington, D.C. 20538 via fax to (202) 254-4285

RE: NO-BID CONTRACT TO DUTKO, POOLE AND McKINLEY BY ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL COMMISSION OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA

Dear General Skinner:

1. Last night, the ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL COMMISSION OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA (AMCD) voted 3-2 to award a $3500/month no-bid contract for FEMA lobbying. The award is to the firm of DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY to attempt to obtain FEMA grants for AMCD for a controversial, wasteful multi-million dollar building project. AMCD has $5.5 million in its coffers now and the chances of obtaining a FEMA grant are slim, as pointed out last night by Commissioner Jeanne Moeller..

2. Last night’s vote is contrary to public policy. I request that the DHS Inspector General please investigate.

3. No other firms were invited to bid.

4. No need for any contract was ever established.

5. No actual contract was presented.

6. No presentation was made by DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY.

7. Instead, AMCD voted 3-2 to accept a proposal from DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY that was solicited by Commissioners VIVIAN BROWNING and RONALD RADFORD.

8. The proposal was a surprise to AMCD Chair Janice Bequette: she received a letter sent by DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY that was so half-baked and disorganized it referred to AMCD as being “Lojack.” Has the public interest been hijacked by anti-competitive practices?

9. AMCD has a history of anti-competitive practices, including purchase of a $1.8 million Bell Jet luxury helicopter without competitive bidding, claiming it was “sole source.” The helicopter in quo was unadorned by any equipment that could kill a single mosquito. In 2007, citizen outage persuaded AMCD to kill the deal, but only after there was a videotaped Sunshine violation involving two Board members and their then-counsel, after meeting where the then-Chair attempted to arrest former Army Captain Donald Girvan for speaking his mind at a public meeting. In December 2006, AMCD Director Ruide Xue told me that the no-bid helicopter contract was “a Christmas present” for then-Commissioner MARY TARVER WILLIS. Fortunately, it was rescinded, thanks to outspoken citizens and Commissioners Jeanne Moeller and John Sundeman, who also voted against last night’s no-bid contract.

10. Does the no-bid contract for DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY deprive other, more qualified firms with actual FEMA experience of an opportunity to bid?

11. Does it deprive St. Johns County of the honest services of their public officials at AMCD?

12. Please ask your staff to work with the FBI, Antitrust Division and Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department and obtain all of the documents and telephone toll records for AMCD, RADFORD, BROWNING and DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY.

13. From the hostile tone that RADFORD adopted when I spoke against the proposal last night, interrupting me and accusing me of “slandering” him, it appears that the gentlemen “doth protest too much.”

14. Mr. RADFORD was angry that I asked questions about the no-bid contract he rammed through for the benefit of the former Chair and the former Executive Director of the Florida Republican Party, Messrs POOLE & McKINLEY.

15. Thank you in advance for a thorough IG investigation of anti-competitive practices by DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY and AMCD.

Sincerely,



ED SLAVIN
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
904-829-3877

Enclosures

c: Honorable Christine Varney
Honorable James Lee Witt
AMCD

 
December 11, 2009
Honorable James Lee Witt
James Lee Witt & Associates
116 Ottenheimer Plaza
President Clinton Avenue
Little Rock, AR 72201 via fax to 501.244-.2203

RE: NO-BID CONTRACT TO DUTKO, POOLE AND McKINLEY BY ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL COMMISSION OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA

Dear Mr. Witt:

We sincerely appreciate the excellent work you did as FEMA Administrator.

I am writing to let you know that the ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL COMMISSION OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA (AMCD) voted last night to award a $3500/month no-bid contract for FEMA lobbying to the firm of DUTKO, POOLE & McKINLEY to attempt to obtain FEMA grants for AMCD for a controversial, wasteful multi-million building project.

I have filed complaints about this questionable contract and enclose them for your information and comments.

Sincerely,



ED SLAVIN
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
904-829-3877


Enclosures

Mosquito Board tables PR job

By JENNIFER EDWARDS

A majority of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District commission agreed the district needs a public relations consultant but they tabled action because the initial costs were too expensive.

Many of the commissioners say they want the consultant to help educate the public about what the district does and how to protect themselves from mosquito-borne illnesses. However, the district faces an entrenched reputation for contentiousness and the specter of a county takeover.

Commissioner Jeanne Moeller, who brought the topic before the commission, said a specialist was needed because "I don't think people understand what AMCD does."

But Commissioner John Sundeman said that the notion was politically motivated.

"I smell a rat," he said. "This has nothing to do with public education. It's about improving this board's image with the public."

In 2007, then-County Commission Chairman Tom Manuel told the district that the county was going to take over the district and the airport. The commission researched the matter and found that it would take legislative action for the county to take over the district.

That has not happened before in Florida, but the spectre of takeover remains for district commissioners.

The County and District also were recently involved in a dispute over county zoning of a proposed new district headquarters.

"Celebrities ... do C-A-R. Confess, Apologize, and R is for Rehab," Sundeman said. "That's what I suggest. But leave the taxpayers' money alone."

But Moeller named a different reason for hiring a public relations specialist.

"We have hired a public education specialist who is very good in the school system," she said, but said adult education was a different matter.

"I'm not so certain we can't do it better and more efficiently," she said.

Commission Chair Janice Bequette agreed, saying "People need to know what we do and how to protect themselves. If we can do that better with professional help, I'm for that."

Three public relations companies attended the meeting to pitch their services. Costs ranged from a la carte work at $50 per hour to more than $60,000 annually.

Moeller moved to table, saying she did not realize how costly hiring a consultant might be when she raised the matter.

"I would like to us to really think about the presentations," she said. "The cost was a little more expensive than what I thought. Do we need a PR person? I'm not sure. But I do think we need some help with communications skills."

Commissioner Vivian Browning also said a public relations consultant would benefit the district.

She suggested that the commission consider hiring a public relations consultant on call or on retainer.

"I do think it's good to have someone there ... and to be able to call them to duty," she said.



The brass tacks:

* * The Anastasia Mosquito Control District Commission is considering hiring an outside public relations consultant.
* * So far, bids have ranged from a few thousands to more than $60,000 per year.
* * Many of the commissioners say that they want the consultant to help educate the public about what the district does and how to protect themselves from mosquito-born illness. However, the district faces an entrenched reputation for contentiousness and the spectre of a county takeover.
* * Discussion on the issue was tabled after commissioners learned of the costs, which ranged from $50 an hour to more than $60,000.

USDOJ: Minister and Wife Charged with Human Trafficking and Immigration Violations for Exploiting Woman from Swaziland

For Immediate Release
December 9, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Northern District of Georgia
Contact: (478) 752-3511

Minister and Wife Charged with Human Trafficking and Immigration Violations for Exploiting Woman from Swaziland -- Defendant Allegedly Enticed Victim to Travel to the U.S. from Africa Intending to Force the Victim to Work as Their Housekeeper and Nanny

ATLANTA, GA—JUNA GWENDOLYN BABB, 54, and MICHAEL J. BABB, 53, a minister, both of Ellenwood, Georgia, were arrested today by FBI and ICE agents following their indictment by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, forced labor, document servitude, which is confiscating someone’s passport and visa, and harboring an alien for financial gain. Bond was set at $20,000 at a hearing this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn Brill. The indictment in this case, handed down last week this week by a federal grand jury in Atlanta, had been sealed until the arrests today.

In Washington, D.C., Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division said, “The Department is committed to prosecuting individuals who engage in schemes to exploit and compel the labor of vulnerable persons.”

FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Greg Jones said, “Cases such as this where lives are exploited because the individuals find themselves in circumstances without many other options is sad and tragic. When individuals create such circumstances with the sole or primary purpose of exploiting these individuals, it is simply deplorable. The FBI, along with the U.S. Department of Justice and its many law enforcement partners has made tremendous efforts to bring the growing problem of human trafficking to the public forefront and to give some measure of relief to those being exploited.”

Kenneth Smith, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Atlanta said, “The defendants in this case trafficked in a human being, using the victim's desire for a better life to lure her into a situation where she was deprived of her basic human rights. Many people are unaware that this form of modern day slavery still occurs in the United States. The victims can be domestic servants, sweat shop employees, day laborers or workers in the sex industry who are lured here by the promise of prosperity and forced to work as indentured servants. ICE is committed to giving them the help they need to come forward as we work to end human trafficking with vigorous enforcement and tough penalties.”

According to Acting United States Attorney Yates, the indictment, and information in court: Between about March 2005, and continuing until on or about February 7, 2007, JUNA GWENDOLYN BABB and MICHAEL J. BABB allegedly conspired to compel the labor of the victim by enticing her to come to the United States from the Kingdom of Swaziland, Africa, by falsely promising her a lucrative, short-term opportunity to provide catering services at the wedding of a family member of the BABBs. However, upon the victim’s arrival to the United States, the couple allegedly conspired to, and did harbor her for the purpose of obtaining and maintaining her labor as a housekeeper and nanny in their home through the use of debt and threats of arrest and imprisonment.

Specifically, after the victim's arrival in the United States, the defendants confiscated her passport and return airline ticket, and told the victim that she owed them a debt for the costs of her travel to the United States. The BABBs allegedly then compelled the victim's labor by using the debt that they claimed the victim owed them, and by threatening her with arrest and imprisonment by immigration authorities once her tourist visa expired. The couple then allegedly required the victim to clean the homes of their friends and associates, and to assist with MICHAEL BABB's construction business. The indictment also alleges that the defendants required the victim to work long hours every day of the week, for which the victim was grossly underpaid on those few occasions that the BABBs paid her at all for her labor and services.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment contains only allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

(NEWS MEDIA NOTE: There is a brief video statement related to this case available at http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/press/videoindex.html. Broadcast video clips are available for selected news releases and can be accessed for download and use from the office website for a limited period. Generally, these video clips will be taken off the website within a few days to allow server room for new clips, so be advised to download as soon as they are available.)

This case is being investigated by Special Agents of the FBI and ICE.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephanie Gabay-Smith and Richard Moultrie, Jr., and Justice Department Trial Attorney Karima Maloney of the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

For further information please contact Sally Quillian Yates, Acting United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.

USDOJ: Taiwan LCD Producer Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay $220 Million Fine for Participating in LCD Price-Fixing Conspiracy --$860m Fines in LCD

For Immediate Release
December 9, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Northern District of California
Contact: (415) 436-7200

Taiwan LCD Producer Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay $220 Million Fine for Participating in LCD Price-Fixing Conspiracy -- Fines Obtained in LCD Investigation Total More Than $860 Million

WASHINGTON—A Thin-Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) producer and seller has agreed to plead guilty and pay $220 million in criminal fines for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the sale of liquid crystal display panels, the Department of Justice announced today.

According to a one-count felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Chi Mei Optoelectronics participated in a conspiracy to fix the prices of TFT-LCD panels sold worldwide from Sept. 14, 2001, to Dec. 1, 2006. According to the plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, Chi Mei has agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing antitrust investigation.

TFT-LCD panels are used in computer monitors and notebooks, televisions, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. By the end of the conspiracy period, the worldwide market for TFT-LCD panels was valued at $70 billion. Companies directly affected by the LCD price-fixing conspiracy are some of the largest computer and television manufacturers in the world, including Apple, Dell, and HP.

According to the charge, Chi Mei carried out the conspiracy by agreeing during meetings, conversations, and communications to charge prices of TFT-LCD panels at certain pre-determined levels and issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached. As a part of the conspiracy, Chi Mei exchanged information on sales of TFT-LCD panels for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices.

Chi Mei, which is based in Tainan, Taiwan, is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. Each violation carries a maximum fine of $100 million for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

Including today’s charges, as a result of this investigation, six companies have pleaded guilty or have agreed to plead guilty and have been sentenced to pay or have agreed to pay criminal fines totaling more than $860 million. Additionally, nine executives have been charged to date in the department’s ongoing investigation.

Today’s charge is the result of a joint investigation by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Field Office and the FBI in San Francisco.

Anyone with information concerning illegal conduct in the TFT-LCD industry is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Field Office at 415-436-6660.

Another Bigshot Republican Crook Convicted of Corruption

Good riddance to bad rubbish (Joe Bruno), once the Republican lord of all he surveyed in the New York state capital of Albany. See below.

NY TImes: Bruno, Former State Leader, Guilty of Corruption

December 8, 2009
Bruno, Former State Leader, Guilty of Corruption
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DANNY HAKIM

ALBANY — Joseph L. Bruno, the former Senate majority leader who, until his retirement last year, was one of the most powerful figures in New York politics, was found guilty on Monday of concealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from a businessman who sought help from the Legislature.

The conviction marked a humiliating fall for Mr. Bruno, a Korean War veteran and a former boxer, whose jovial manner masked the iron hand he used to rule the Senate with almost untrammeled authority for nearly 14 years. He retired amid a federal corruption investigation.

The verdict also blackened the already tarnished reputation of Albany’s political establishment, casting a harsh light on the ways lawmakers blend official and personal business and raising questions about why it took a federal prosecution to uncover Mr. Bruno’s conduct.

After deliberating for nearly seven days, the jury of seven women and five men in Mr. Bruno’s trial found him guilty of two felony counts of mail fraud. The jury found Mr. Bruno not guilty on five counts of mail or wire fraud and could not reach a verdict on another count.

Mr. Bruno, 80, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31 and faces up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine on each felony count. But Judge Gary L. Sharpe has broad discretion in sentencing, and Mr. Bruno’s defense was expected to appeal.

“I am very, very disappointed in the verdict,” Mr. Bruno told reporters on the steps of the federal courthouse here. “The legal process is going to continue. In my mind and in my heart, it is not over until it’s over. And I think it’s far from over. Thank you all, have a good night and merry Christmas.”

The jury entered the courtroom at 4:16 p.m. and as the verdict on first counts were revealed — not guilty on the first and second, no verdict reached on the third — the mood among Bruno supporters in the courtroom grew almost euphoric.

But as Judge Sharpe read out a guilty verdict on the fourth count, the mood turned. Mr. Bruno’s normally upright frame sagged. “We established at this trial that Bruno exploited his office by concealing the nature and source of substantial payments that he received from parties that benefited from his official actions,” Andrew T. Baxter, the acting United States attorney for the Northern District of New York, said in a statement.

The federal statute under which Mr. Bruno was charged, which makes it a crime for officials to use wires or the mail to deprive constituents of their “honest services” by concealing conflicts of interest, are set to be reviewed by the Supreme Court and could be struck down in whole or in part during the coming months, potentially aiding any appeal.

“We await Round 2,” said Kris Thompson, a Bruno aide.

Jurors acquitted Mr. Bruno on all the counts concerning his work for Wright Investors’ Service, a Connecticut-based investment company that paid Mr. Bruno $1.3 million dollars to solicit pension fund investments from labor unions that had interests before the Senate. They also acquitted him of an array of charges involving other companies that paid Mr. Bruno consulting fees while seeking grants, contracts, or legislative action from state officials.

But they appeared to be more troubled by evidence concerning Mr. Bruno’s relationship with Jared E. Abbruzzese, an Albany-area entrepreneur who sought the Senate leader’s help for an array of ventures, from a nanotechnology company seeking state money to telecommunications firms seeking investment capital.

Jurors convicted Mr. Bruno on one count involving $200,000 that consulting firms run by Mr. Abbruzzese paid Mr. Bruno in 2004. They also convicted him on one count involving a horse-breeding partnership that Mr. Bruno and Mr. Abbruzzese dissolved in 2005, with Mr. Abbruzzese forgiving Mr. Bruno $40,000 in debt and paying him $40,000 for a horse that prosecutors said was virtually worthless.

Those payments, jurors found, were little more than gifts that Mr. Abbruzzese awarded to Mr. Bruno in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in state grants that Mr. Bruno had previously obtained for one of Mr. Abbruzzese’s companies, Evident Technologies.

Prosecutors also suggested at the trial that the payments to Mr. Bruno were intended to help Mr. Abbruzzese and a group of business partners win rights to the state horseracing franchise, a decision over which Mr. Bruno had significant sway. (The franchise went elsewhere.)

The verdict capped a month-long trial that captivated the state political establishment and laid bare the unseemly side of New York’s Legislature, where most lawmakers have second jobs in the private sector but are required to disclose very little about what they are paid to do.

“The prosecutors and agents involved in this case take no pleasure from what the trial revealed about the culture of the New York State Senate,” Mr. Baxter said in his statement.

It is not known exactly how much Mr. Bruno has spent on legal bills, but it is believed to be well into seven figures. His legal team included Abbe D. Lowell, a prominent Washington lawyer who defended the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and William J. Dreyer, a highly regarded Albany defense lawyer.

Prosecutors called more than 70 witnesses and presented a trove of more than 200 e-mail messages, as well as handwritten notes, calendar entries and memoranda, many culled from the historically secretive Senate.

The trial also delved into Mr. Bruno’s private business, which spanned work for more than a dozen companies during more than a decade and a half, earning Mr. Bruno roughly $3.2 million in fees.

He earned the bulk of that money from Wright, while failing, prosecutors said, to fully disclose his ties to the firm. Mr. Bruno resigned from Wright in December 2007, shortly after The New York Times disclosed Wright’s ties to a host of Albany-area labor unions.

Mr. Bruno did not take the stand in his own defense, and his lawyers instead presented only seven witnesses, including friends and former business associates, to bolster his case. Characterizing Mr. Bruno as a victim of overzealous prosecutors, his lawyers portrayed him as a devoted public servant who tried to faithfully adhere to the law, routinely seeking the advice of Senate ethics lawyers.

His lawyers relied chiefly on cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses, seeking to unravel the links prosecutors drew between Mr. Bruno’s official acts and the business he brought in for his clients.

The official benefits Mr. Bruno delivered for those who did business with his clients, his lawyers argued, were indistinguishable from the legislative action and earmarks he sought for all his constituents, and were driven by a sincere desire to create jobs and help working people.

Jurors refused to answer questions as they left the courthouse flanked by federal marshals.

Mr. Bruno’s own remarks to reporters were uncharacteristically short. Clearly dejected, Mr. Bruno stood in the cold showing little of his trademark brio until a young woman yelled out “I love you, Joe!” as he walked toward a waiting Mercedes-Benz sedan.

“Thank you very much,” he replie

NY Daily News Columnist Errol Louis: Joe Bruno's conviction proves that in Albany, it takes a thief

Errol Louis

Thursday, December 10th 2009, 4:00 AM
Joe Bruno, the ex-boss of the state Senate convicted on corruption charges this week, earned every bit of the legal troubles and disgrace that will consume his remaining days on Earth.

His crimes - taking $280,000 from a pal seeking favors from government - are grimy enough. Bruno, facing up to 40 years behind bars, could end up spending the rest of his life in prison.

But this is about more than one pol's tumble from power, even one who spent many long years as a symbol and sustainer of a low culture of hustle that is rotting Albany from the inside out.

Far more important than Bruno's fate is the future of his most important aiders and abettors: the millions of New Yorkers who have ignored warnings from good-government groups, editorial pages and other reform voices about how badly state government has gone off the rails.

With New York facing billions of dollars in punishing fee and tax hikes, along with cuts to every conceivable public agency and service, voters had better get serious about chasing the thieves from the temple of state government.

Consider this: During the 14 years he served as Senate majority leader and president, Bruno controlled state budgets totaling more than $1.3 trillion.

And for much of that time, he was secretly collecting fees to sign up labor unions - including some with business before the Senate - with a Connecticut-based investment firm.

The fact that there was any question of whether Bruno's self-serving business sideline was legal is the problem. State lawmakers are considered part-time employees, free to ply various trades on the side.

But disclosure rules - written by the Legislature - make it extraordinarily difficult to determine who they represent, what those clients are purchasing and whether it creates a conflict of interest.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, for instance, is part of a well-known personal injury law firm. Who he represents at the firm and how much he earns from whatever work he's doing remains secret.

Allowing legislators to control a trillion dollars worth of budgets without disclosing their true clients and paymasters is an open invitation to the double-dealing that brought about Bruno's downfall.

Power in the capitol is tightly and personally held by three men: the governor and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly. They control the salaries, staff, physical offices and discretionary budgets of the other 210 legislators.

Members of the Senate and Assembly go about the business of holding hearings and drafting legislation, but it's often a sham. Legislation, no matter how important to the public - even when co-sponsored by a majority of lawmakers - will never see the light of open debate or a floor vote if one of the bosses decides to kill it or trade it away in a back room.

Congestion pricing for New York City, a West Side stadium, a law to give farmworkers basic rights like overtime - all have perished in Albany back rooms.

Year after year, Bruno used his power as majority leader to block floor votes to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour.

In 2002, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, when six new state Enterprise Zones were created to foster faltering business, Bruno made sure all of them were in his upstate power base.

Reformers howled that Chinatown, crippled economically by the attacks, needed a zone designation. Bruno called them "cry babies" and refused to budge.

And all the while, he was taking bribes.

But Bruno is not alone. Others in Albany have followed his shabby lead. The parade of recently convicted legislative felons is, literally, too long to list here.

Reforms currently on the table include term limits for state officials and mandatory disclosure of side clients and fees. Either reform would do a world of good.

But there is no substitute for sustained, focused voter action.

To any and all honest men and women considering a run for office: get off the fence and make your move in 2010. Our state needs you more than ever.

elouis@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/10/2009-12-10_joe_brunos_conviction_proves_that_in_albany_it_takes_a_thief.html#ixzz0ZP5aX9Ge

USDOJ Press Release: Former New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno Convicted of Scheming to Defraud the Citizens of New York

For Immediate Release
December 7, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Northern District of New York
Contact: (315) 448-0672

Former New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno Convicted of Scheming to Defraud the Citizens of New York of His Honest Services

ALBANY, NEW YORK—United States Attorney Andrew T. Baxter and Special- Agent-in- Charge John F. Pikus of the Albany Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation announce the verdict of a federal jury in Albany following the three-week trial of Joseph L. Bruno, the Former Majority Leader of the New York State Senate. After seven days of deliberation, the jury convicted Bruno on two felony counts, acquitted on five counts, and were unable to reach a verdict on one count of the indictment. The jury found Bruno guilty on the following “honest-services” mail fraud charges:

* Count 4, which involved Bruno’s dealings with two entities related to Jared E. Abbruzzese—Communication Technology Advisors LLC and Capital & Technology Advisors LLC—that made “consulting” payments to Bruno, which the government contended were not commensurate with legitimate services provided by Bruno; and
* Count 8, which related to Abbruzzese’s $80,000 “purchase” of a virtually worthless horse from Bruno, which the government contended was a disguised gift to Bruno to compensate him for “consulting fees” that another entity related to Abbruzzese stopped paying to Bruno.

The jury acquitted Bruno on five wire/mail fraud counts, which involved Bruno’s activities relating to other entities with which Bruno had private business arrangements—Wright Investors’ Service (Count 1), Asentinel (Count 2), two other entities related to Jared E. Abbruzzese (Counts 5 and 6), and BB Gardner Management Corporation (Count 7). The jury deadlocked on Count 3, which involved the activities of Bruno relating to Leonard J. Fassler and various related entities that made “consulting” payments to Bruno, which the government contended were not earned by Bruno for legitimate services.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe declared a mistrial with respect to the one count on which the jury was deadlocked. The United States Attorney’s Office will consider whether to re-try Bruno on that count following post-trial motions and after appropriate internal deliberation. Sentencing was scheduled for March 31, 2010 before Judge Sharpe. Joseph L. Bruno faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count on which he was convicted. The parties consented to a bench trial on the government’s asset forfeiture demand.

United States Attorney Baxter made the following statement regarding the Bruno verdict: “We commend the jury for their dedicated and patient service. The jury’s guilty verdict on two felony counts reflects their unanimous determination that Joseph L. Bruno deprived of the citizens of New York of his honest and faithful services, contrary to federal law. I am extremely proud of Assistant United States Attorneys Elizabeth C. Coombe and William C. Pericak, who made a fair and cogent presentation of the government’s case, reflecting the highest principles of federal prosecutors. We appreciate the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor in developing this seminal case and assisting with the prosecution.”

Bruno was charged with carrying out a scheme to defraud the State of New York and its citizens of the right to his honest services by soliciting private business from, and entering into direct and indirect financial relationships with, persons or entities who were pursuing interests before the New York State Legislature or other state agencies. The indictment further alleged that Bruno concealed and failed to disclose the existence and true nature of such financial relationships, and the resulting conflicts of interest while taking discretionary official actions benefitting parties with whom he had those relationships. While New York State legislators are part-time officials permitted to pursue other employment or business activities, the indictment alleged that Bruno improperly exploited his official position and concealed conflicts of interest, contrary to state ethics and reporting laws, with respect to his private “consulting” business. Each count of the indictment alleged particular uses of the mails or the interstate wires in furtherance of the alleged scheme.

United States Attorney Baxter continued: “As the Senate Majority Leader, Joseph L. Bruno had a fiduciary relationship with the State of New York and its citizens requiring disinterested decision making and candid disclosure of the potential motivation behind his official acts. We established at this trial that Bruno exploited his office by concealing the nature and source of substantial payments that he received from parties that benefitted from his official actions and the resulting conflicts of interest.”

“The prosecutors and agents involved in this case take no pleasure from what the trial revealed about the culture of the New York State Senate, under the leadership of Joseph L. Bruno. Federal law enforcement in the Northern District of New York will continue to strive to ensure that public officials who breach their public trust will be held accountable, notwithstanding the challenges presented by the state’s inadequate legislative ethics and disclosure laws.”

FBI Hires WILLIAM HEDGCOCK WEBSTER, superannuated political hack, to "investigate"

In 1992, ex-Judge WILLIAM HEDGCOCK WEBSTER met with the Department of Energy Manager for Oak RIdge Operations, JOE BEN LA GRONE, and his General Counsel, C.S. "Tyler" Przybylek. JUDGE WILLIAM WEBSTER fell asleep, the victim, it was thought, of jet lag taking a redeye flight from Los Angeles. WEBSTER and MILBANK, TWEED, HADLEY & McCLOY did a superficial, outcome-oriented report on a case involving a worker intentionally exposed by Oak RIdge National Laboratory to a toxic, hostile working environment. JUDGE WEBSTER shocked DOE officials by falling asleep. How poetic. Thanks to JUDGE WEBSTER and Congressman JOHN MICA and other Repugs, America's skies were less safe, and regulators were once again asleep at the switch.

Now the FBI has hired WILLIAM HEDGCOCK WEBSTER (see below) "to conduct an independent review of FBI policies, practices, and actions prior to the tragic events at Fort Hood. Following the November 5, 2009 shooting."

This over-rated mediocrity with a reputation for corporate coverups can be expected to bill FBI for his mendacity at the prevailing rates of MILBANHK, TWEED, HADLEY & McCLOY, for whom he lobbied against airline safety measures before 9/11. See New York Times article, below.

N.Y. TIMES: WILLIAM H. WEBSTER LOBBIED AGAINST AIRLINE SAFETY BEFORE 9/11


November 5, 2002
CORPORATE CONDUCT: THE CHAIRMAN; Webster's Public Service Image Not Duplicated in Private Sector
By ALEX BERENSON
As a public servant, William H. Webster has an impeccable résumé.

Mr. Webster, who last week became the head of a new government board that will oversee the accounting industry, is the only person to have served as the director of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. He has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a special medal from the American Bar Association for outstanding leadership.

But outside Washington, Mr. Webster's record is less than perfect. Since he retired from the C.I.A. 11 years ago to build a lucrative second career as a corporate lawyer, Mr. Webster has repeatedly taken positions that critics say have been at odds with his reputation.

A lawyer who sued General Motors for making unsafe pickup trucks says that after the automaker hired Mr. Webster with great fanfare, he permitted G.M. to shelve his report into whether the company had improperly destroyed documents relating to the case.

Some labor leaders say that Mr. Webster has not devoted enough time to his $100,000-a-year position on a government-created board that monitors the Teamsters union.

And a former chief economist with the Federal Communications Commission says that Mr. Webster's involvement with NextWave, a telecommunications company that defaulted on billions of dollars of payments to the F.C.C., should disqualify him from being the accounting board's chairman. NextWave was a ''bottom feeder,'' said Gerald Faulhaber, a Wharton School professor who served as the F.C.C.'s top economist in 2000 and 2001. ''Do I feel comfortable with my watchdog being involved with these guys? No.''

Mr. Webster, who did not return repeated calls or e-mail messages for comment on his corporate life, now faces criticism for his short stint as the head of the audit committee at U.S. Technologies, a nearly bankrupt Internet company that is under criminal investigation for possible fraud. In August 2001, U.S. Technologies fired BDO Seidman as its auditor after the firm said that the company's financial records were disorganized and that some transactions had not been recorded.

Mr. Webster and Gregory Earls, the chief executive of U.S. Technologies, said last week that U.S. Technologies did nothing wrong and that the company fired BDO Seidman because its audit was expensive and slow. But the accounting firm has now asked a federal judge to release it from its client confidentiality agreement with U.S. Technologies so that it can respond to what it says are ''false and misleading'' statements from Mr. Webster.

Even before these problems came to light, Mr. Webster's appointment as head of the board sparked sharp criticism from Democrats and some big investors. They said he was not knowledgeable about accounting and -- at 78 -- too old to take on a tough and time-consuming new post.

Still, many in Washington say that they respect Mr. Webster. Even the Democrats who criticized his appointment to the accounting board were careful to say that they were not attacking him personally. ''He is a top-notch civil servant,'' said Griffin Bell, the former attorney general who asked Mr. Webster in 1978 to head the F.B.I.

Before Mr. Webster took that job, the agency conducted a background check with interviews of 500 people who knew him, Mr. Bell said. ''And not one thing turned up against him.''

Soon after Mr. Webster left the government and became a partner in the Washington office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in 1991, he took a surprising position. In 1992, the Air Transport Association, an airline trade group, hired him to lobby against fingerprinting and background checks for security screeners and airline employees who worked in secure areas. Facing opposition from the airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration delayed for four years before adopting a weakened requirement for background checks.

Representative James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, told The Los Angeles Times last year that he was ''flabbergasted'' that Mr. Webster had once lobbied against the proposal. ''I looked him square in the eye and asked, 'Would you be taking this position if you were still director of the F.B.I?' '' Mr. Oberstar said.
In 1993, General Motors hired Mr. Webster to conduct an internal inquiry into whether it had destroyed documents relating to the safety of pickup trucks that had been made from 1973 to 1987 and that had fuel tanks mounted outside the vehicles' frames. Mr. Webster was hired one month after a Georgia jury returned a $105 million verdict against the company. (The verdict was later overturned on appeal, and G.M. settled the case and three others.) Mr. Webster never released his report, said James Butler, the plaintiff's lawyer who won and later settled.

''Why announce in a public press release if you're going to have the former F.B.I. director do an investigation if you're not going to report the results?'' Mr. Butler asked, suggesting that the findings may have been unfavorable. Mr. Webster should not have permitted the findings to be silenced, Mr. Butler said.

Mr. Webster's performance on a government-created board that monitors the Teamsters union for corruption has generated criticism and praise. In the late 1990's, some Teamsters complained that the union's pension funds had been depleted under the board's watch.

A labor leader who is not a Teamster and has observed Mr. Webster serve for the last decade on the board said he thought Mr. Webster did not take the responsibilities very seriously and worked only a few hours a month on the board. But Marick Masters, a business professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said he thought Mr. Webster had done a good job on the board, considering its limited resources.

''These aren't full-time appointments. They don't have large staffs. You have to be somewhat limited in what your expectations are about what these boards can do,'' Mr. Masters said. ''It's very difficult for one board to get in there and really investigate everything.'' He said he thought Mr. Webster would do a good job as head of the oversight board.

Mr. Webster's position on the board of NextWave Telecom has also raised concern. Congressional investigators have said they will examine Mr. Webster's role at NextWave in addition to his work at U.S. Technologies. NextWave is a bankrupt wireless company whose main asset is a set of airwave licenses that the company won in an auction from the government in 1996 but never paid for. Since 2000, the Federal Communications Commission has been trying to recover the licenses from NextWave and sell them to other companies. NextWave has sued the government to keep the licenses.

''NextWave came in, and they got more licenses than anyone else,'' said Mr. Faulhaber, the Wharton professor. ''And then at their earliest opportunity, they defaulted.''

Mr. Webster knew or should have known that NextWave's actions were not in the consumers' or the government's best interest, Mr. Faulhaber said. He said Mr. Webster should not serve on the accounting board, which demands someone whose reputation is above reproach.

''He may be a perfectly fine fellow,'' Mr. Faulhaber said. ''But this is a Caesar's wife situation.''

USDOJ Press Release: Director Asks Judge Webster to Conduct Independent Review

For Immediate Release
December 8, 2009


Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691

Director Asks Judge Webster to Conduct Independent Review

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III has asked Judge William H. Webster to conduct an independent review of FBI policies, practices, and actions prior to the tragic events at Fort Hood. Following the November 5, 2009 shootings, Director Mueller ordered an immediate, preliminary review of the FBI’s actions, as well any relevant policies and procedures that may have impacted FBI efforts before the shootings. The preliminary review has been completed, and Judge Webster will now lead an independent, outside effort that will look both at the initial findings and allow for additional review as he and his staff determine.

“As a former FBI director, director of central intelligence, and federal judge, Judge Webster is uniquely qualified to undertake this task and look at the procedures and actions involved in this matter,” Mueller said. “He, in the past, has led independent reviews of various FBI systems and broader policies and provided valuable recommendations. In this case, Judge Webster will have complete access and whatever resources necessary to complete the task.”

Judge Webster will coordinate his review with similar reviews underway by Department of Defense (DOD) and DOD-appointed officials, and will follow the DOD time frames. Mueller emphasized that Judge Webster’s review will be careful not to interfere with the ongoing, Army-led shooting inquiry and military legal proceedings.

“We must be sure that the systems we have in place give investigators the tools they need to carry out their responsibilities. At the same time, we must ensure constitutional protections and the confidence of the American public we serve,” Mueller said. “It is essential to determine whether there are improvements to our current practices or other authorities that could make us all safer in the future.”

A lawyer's duty is to represent clients zealously within the bounds of the law, not to kiss the right-wing Republican Sheriff's behind

See below. Good for attorney Gennusa -- she has guts. We need more like her.

DID SHERIFF'S DEPUTY THREATEN RETALIATION AGAINST CIVIL RIGHTS PLAINTIFF?

Over on the St. Augustine Record website, someone (possibly a Sheriff's Deputy) has possibly violated federal criminal laws against obstruction of justice, threatening attorney Gennusa's career for having filed a lawsuit against SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR.

Here's what the anonymouse poster (kidrock) wrote: " CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTY vs SHERIFF DEPT. = NO FUTURE CLIENTS By kidrock | 12/10/09 - 04:27 I don't care who was right and who was wrong, it was not a good career move on Gennusa's part of future clients. David Shoar is a great Sheriff and his reputation will not be tarnished by this.....however hers will be greatly impacted. Who in their right mind will retain the most hated attorney within the Sheriffs Dept.?"

"Most hated?" That's practically a concession that the poster is a deputy (or political patronage hire).

Has SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR no shame?

Several civil rights lawsuits pending against St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar -- we don't need reactionary, sadistic or racist police officers

In addition to the lawsuit by attorney Anne Marie Gennusa and her client, Mr. Sturdivant (see below), federal court records reflect that there are two other federal civil rights lawsuits pending against St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, including one filed November 24, 2009 by West Augustine residents roughed up by deputies at a peaceful graduation party, and another filed October 31, 2009 by a Texsa motorist harassed by deputies after a road rage incident.

Under the circumstances, controversial right-wing Republican St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's airy remarks about attorney GENNUSA's lawsuit (below) are rooted in deep-seated hostility toward civil rights litigation.

Sheriff Shoar's pig-ignorant comments about our Constitution and Bill of Rights (below) reflect the pained cognitive dissonance of a defendant in multiple civil rights cases. Several of those cases involving SHOAR's practices as Police Chief and Sheriff have already resulted in payouts of millions of dollars (including the $3.5 million settlement with Marshall Burns, tackled into paraplegia outside Christoper's (now Auggie Dog's) by one of SHOAR's officers when DAVID SHOAR (f/k/a "HOAR" was St. Augustine Police Chief)(the officer is apparently still with SAPD).

We have too many police officers without compassion, education or ethics.

We have too many police managers who are unqualified bigots.

That's a function of: (a) the political nature of the Sheriff's office; (b) the authoritarian history of Ku Klux Klan terrorism and one-party rule in St. Johns County; (c) our corrupt St. Johns County political machine; (d) and the youth, inexperience and lax training of many police officers. At Flagler College, local deputies and police officers have used the "n-----" word to describe African-Americans during classes, referring to whom they would like to shoot and kill.

We don't need sadistic, racist police officers (sado-cops) on the public payroll.

The New Zealand Police Act bans hiring of police officers under age 25, because their brains are not yet fully formed. Reckon we need to do the same here?

As long as police officers think they're above the law, they will break it.

As United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis wrote 81 years ago, government official lawbreaking promotes anarchy:

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding....Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means-to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal-would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face."

Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 479, 485 (1928)(Brandeis, J., dissenting).

Attorney sues sheriff's office -- Suit claims attorney-client protection violated

By RICHARD PRIOR

A lawsuit filed Wednesday against a St. Johns County detective claims the officer interfered with an attorney whose client was about to be arrested and secretly recorded their conversations.

In addition to Detective Thomas Marmo, St. Johns Sheriff David Shoar is named in the suit filed by Anne Marie Gennusa and her client, Joel Studivant.

The plaintiffs claim the sheriff's office violated several basic constitutional rights that protect attorney-client privilege.

Shoar said it's the "most frivolous" suit he's ever seen.

The suit alleges that Shoar "has a practice, policy and/or custom of videotaping and audio taping attorney- client conversations without the knowledge or consent of the attorney or client."

Marmo was investigating Studivant for a violation of an injunction, a first-degree misdemeanor, on June 8.

They were joined by Gennusa in an interview room at the sheriff's office, according to the suit filed by the Jacksonville law firm of Sheppard, White, Thomas & Kachergus.

At Marmo's request, Studivant agreed to write out his version of events. Marmo then left the room.

Neither Gennusa nor Studivant were told "their actions and conversations would be video- and audio-recorded while in the interview room," the suit alleges. "Specifically, Defendant Marmo did not mention the fact that the interview would be recorded, nor were there any signs posed apprising Plaintiffs of this fact."

Gennusa went to find Marmo, who told her he was going to arrest her client. Gennusa took the unfinished statement, put it in her purse and told Marmo she was going to keep it, according to the suit.

"Defendant Marmo became visibly disturbed and demanded that Ms. Gennusa give him the statement," the suit alleges. "As Defendant Marmo demanded the statement, he stood blocking the doorway and Plaintiffs were not free to go."

He then "forcefully ripped the piece of paper containing Mr. Studivant's statement out of Ms. Gennusa's hand ... with such force that he broke the fingernail on Ms. Gennusa's left ring finger."

Studivant was then arrested, handcuffed and booked into the jail.

"The audio-video recording made of this incident demonstrates a complete disregard and disrespect for the fundamental rights of a criminal defendant and his attorney," attorneys William Sheppard and Matthew Kachergus said in a joint statement.

"What occurred also was an unconstitutional invasion of the privileged relationship between an attorney and her client, which undermines the foundation of our justice system," the attorneys said.

Shoar sounded surprised Wednesday evening when told about the suit.

"Absolutely unbelievable," he said several times.

"This may be the most frivolous lawsuit I have ever encountered in my career," said Shoar. "It is cases like these that cause members of the public to be very critical of the effectiveness of our civil justice system in America."

Gennusa and Studivant are asking for actual and compensatory damages, punitive damages, and payment for attorney's fees and costs.

They also want the Sheriff's Office to stop "secretly audio and video recording attorney-client conversations."

Following the confrontation, Marmo filed a complaint with The Florida Bar, alleging Gennusa "tampered with evidence, hindered a police investigation and acted outside the scope of her authority as an attorney for her client."

A ruling from the Bar's Grievance Committee on Oct. 12 found that Gennusa "remained professional ... and sought legitimate means to resolve the matter. The evidence provided does not support your allegations that (Gennusa) acted unethically."

Studivant's case has not yet been resolved. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 16 in county court.

FOLIO WEEKLY: "BY THE GROSS"

"BY THE GROSS

A $1 fine for every 203.76 gallons of sewage.

-- St. Augustine activist and blogger Ed Slavin, calculating the levied by the state Department of Environmental protection against the city of St. Augustine for a May 2009 sewer-line break that spilled 611,294 gallons of raw sewage into San Sebastian River. DEP fined St. Augustine $33,000, but forgave $30,000 of it in light of a proposed mitigation project."

Think Progress: GOP congressman opposes timeline because Afghanistan extremists ‘wait centuries to get even.’

Earlier this week, President Obama announced that he will be sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. While many on the right praised him for deciding on a troop surge in the central Asian country, others attacked him for suggesting that American troops will begin drawing down from the country within 18 months. The Orlando Sentinel reports that one GOP congressman, Rep. John Mica (R-FL), had a particularly absurd attack on the the idea of a timetable, claiming that setting a withdrawal timeline would be a mistake because militants in Afghanistan patiently “wait centuries to get even“:

“I’m taken aback by his deadline,” said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park. “These guys wait centuries to get even. Eighteen months is nothing for them.”

Mica apparently feels comfortable signaling to the Afghans that we may be in their country for centuries. But as Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) — who first proposed a timetable for withdrawal back in August — has said, “Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do.”

Petition to be filed challenging $3000 fine for 611,294 gallon raw sewage spill in San Sebastian River

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has granted us an extension until 12/24 to file Petition for Review of its $3000 fine against the City of St. Augustine (after credit for a pollution prevention project) for dumping 611,294 gallons of sewage in San Sebastian River earlier this year. The fine was originally to have been $90,000 due to a long and sordid history of illegal pollution by our Nation's Oldest City.
This is yet the latest example of environmental racism by the City of St. Augustine, which Dr. King called the most lawless city in America in his June 11, 1964 letter to rabbis during desegregation demonstrations. Where else in the world would they dump 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir and think they'd get away with it? Where else would they fail to inspect a sewage pipe after reports of sewage pollution and a shrimp trawler hitting the sewage pipe, which never had warning signs to boaters? See www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
We shall overcome!
Cheers,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, FLoirda
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-829-3877

EPA Press Release: EPA Fines Puerto Rico Air National Guard for Improperly Managing Underground Petroleum Storage Tanks

EPA Fines Puerto Rico Air National Guard for Improperly Managing Underground Petroleum Storage Tanks


Contacts: Elizabeth Myer, (212) 637-3860, myer.elizabeth@epa.gov, or Brenda Reyes, (787) 977-5869, reyes.brenda@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – Dec. 9, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a complaint to the Puerto Rico Air National Guard, part of the U.S. Air Force, for improperly managing underground tanks used to store diesel fuel and gasoline at its facility in Toa Baja. Leaking underground storage tanks pose significant threats to soil, surface water and ground water. EPA cited the Puerto Rico Air National Guard for failing to properly monitor its storage tanks for leaks and maintain records of release detection for two underground storage tank systems; the Agency is seeking a civil penalty of $154,353.

“Out of sight does not mean out of mind when it comes to underground storage tanks, which is why it is critical that facilities monitor their tanks and make sure they are not leaking,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck. “Given the close proximity of the Air National Guard facility to the coastline, leaks from its underground petroleum storage systems could have caused a serious environmental problem.”

The Puerto Rico Air National Guard‘s Toa Baja facility is about 10 miles west of San Juan and is located near the popular Punta Salinas Park. The two underground storage tank systems at the facility are subject to the requirements laid out under Puerto Rico’s underground storage tank program. The tanks have been emptied as the facility no longer requires a fueling station.

EPA’s complaint also cites the Puerto Rico Air National Guard for failing to give the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB) required information about these underground storage tank systems. EQB is responsible for implementing and enforcing the requirements of the Puerto Rico Public Policy Act of 1970, which set forth requirements for owners and operators of underground storage tank systems.

Petroleum releases from underground storage tanks can contaminate water, making it unsafe or unpleasant to drink, pose fire and explosion hazards, and can have short and long-term effects on people’s health. About 625,000 underground storage tank systems exist nationwide, and more than 375,000 leaking tanks have been cleaned up over the last decade.

For a Google Earth aerial view of this site, visit http://www.epa.gov/region2/kml/punta_salinas_radar_site.kml. (Please note that you must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view the map. To download Google Earth, visit http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html).

Former U.S. Army Officer Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Role in Bribery Conspiracy in Al-Hillah, Iraq

white spacer
For Immediate Release
December 8, 2009 U.S. Department of Justice
CRM
(202) 514-2008/TDD (202) 514-1888

Former U.S. Army Officer Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Role in Bribery Conspiracy in Al-Hillah, Iraq

WASHINGTON—Curtis Whiteford, a former colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, was sentenced today to five years in prison for his participation in a wide-ranging bribery conspiracy in Al-Hillah, Iraq, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. U.S. District Court Judge Mary L. Cooper for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Division, also ordered Whiteford to pay $16,200 in restitution and to serve two years of supervised release following his prison term.

Whiteford, 53, of Deweyville, Utah, was charged in a 25-count indictment unsealed on Feb. 7, 2007, along with former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Debra M. Harrison, former U.S. Army Reserves Lt. Col. Michael Wheeler, and civilians William Driver and Seymour Morris Jr., with various crimes related to a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority-South Central Region (CPA-SC). Whiteford was the second-most senior official and highest ranking military officer at CPA-SC in Al-Hillah. A federal jury convicted Whiteford and Wheeler on Nov. 7, 2008. Whiteford was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery and the interstate transport of stolen property (ITSP). Wheeler was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud, ITSP and possessing unregistered firearms. Wheeler will be sentenced at a later date. Harrison pleaded guilty on July 28, 2008, to one count of honest services wire fraud for her role in the scheme. Driver pleaded guilty on Aug. 5, 2009, to laundering portions of more than $300,000 stolen from the CPA-SC by Harrison, his wife, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10, 2009. Morris was acquitted at trial.

According to testimony at trial, Whiteford and Wheeler conspired from December 2003 to December 2005 with at least three others—Robert Stein, at the time the comptroller and funding officer for the CPA-SC; Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen who owned and operated several companies in Iraq and Romania; and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Bruce D. Hopfengardner—to rig the bids on contracts being awarded by the CPA-SC so that more than 20 contracts were awarded to Bloom. In total, Bloom received approximately $8 million in rigged contracts. Testimony revealed that Bloom, in return, provided Whiteford, Harrison, Wheeler, Stein, Hopfengardner, and others with more than $1 million in cash, SUVs, sports cars, a motorcycle, jewelry, computers, business class airline tickets, liquor, promise of future employment, with Bloom and other items of value.

Bloom admitted he laundered more than $2 million in currency that Whiteford, Harrison, Wheeler, Hopfengardner, Stein, and others stole from the CPA-SC that had been designated for the reconstruction of Iraq. Bloom then used his foreign bank accounts in Iraq, Romania, and Switzerland to send some of the stolen money to Harrison, Stein, Hopfengardner, and other Army officials in return for them awarding contracts to Bloom and his companies.

On Jan. 29, 2007, co-conspirator Robert Stein was sentenced to nine years in prison for related charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering, as well as weapons possession charges, for his role in the same scheme. Stein was also ordered to forfeit $3.6 million for his role in the bribery and money laundering scheme.

On Feb. 16, 2007, co-conspirator Philip Bloom was sentenced to 46 months in prison for related charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering for his role in the scheme. Bloom was also ordered to forfeit $3.6 million for his role in the bribery and money laundering scheme.

On June 25, 2007, Lt. Col. Bruce Hopfengardner was sentenced to 21 months in prison for conspiracy and money laundering related to this scheme. Hopfengardner was also ordered to forfeit $144,500.

These cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys John P. Pearson and Kevin Driscoll of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, as well as Trial Attorney Ann C. Brickley. The cases are being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the FBI-Washington Field Office.

FDEP Means "DON'T EXPECT PROTECTION."

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Enforcement Manual contains a gap, one that shows FDEP has a deep credibility gap regarding criminal prosecution. The December 2003 version of Section 3.8 of the Enforcement Manual at the link below says only 17 words, in haec verba:

Identification and Referral of Potential Criminal Cases NOTE: This chapter is in the process of being updated.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/legal/Enforcement/enforcement.htm

Six years later, the chapter has not been "updated" and FDEP rarely prosecutes polluters. So much for radical anti-regulatory Republican Governors JOHN EDWARD BUSH a/k/a "JEB BUSH" and CHARLES CRIST. You can count on Republicans to be shills and satraps serving polluters like our CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

As my late friend David Thundershield Queen said it best, DEP stands for "Don't Expect Protection."

Three more Kluckers incarcerated

In Arkansas, three cross-burning, knuckle-dragging, ethically-challenged Neanderthals are going to prison for menacing a young family simply for having friends who were African-Americans. Three cheers for the FBI and Department of Justice. Let freedom ring! See below.

USDOJ Press Release: Four Arkansas Men Sentenced on Civil Rights Charges in Cross Burning Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
December 8, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Western District of Arkansas
Contact: (479) 783-5125

Four Arkansas Men Sentenced on Civil Rights Charges in Cross Burning Conspiracy

WASHINGTON—Jacob Wingo, Clayton Morrison, Darren McKim, and Richard Robins were sentenced today and yesterday in federal court in Hot Springs, Ark., on federal civil rights and obstruction of justice charges related to a conspiracy to drive a woman and her children from their home in Donaldson, Ark., because the victims associated with African-Americans.

Wingo, 20, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, three years of post-incarceration supervision, a fine of $10,000, and a $300 special assessment; Morrison, 29, was sentenced to 15 months in prison, three years of post-incarceration supervision, a fine of $5,000, and a $300 special assessment; McKim, 38, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, three years of post-incarceration supervision, a fine of $5,000, and a $200 special assessment; and Robins, 42, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, three years of post-incarceration supervision, a fine of $5,000, and a $200 special assessment. A fifth defendant, Dustin Nix, 21, was sentenced on Nov. 6, 2009, to a prison term of 12 months and one day, three years of post-incarceration supervision, a fine of $5,000, and a $200 special assessment.

Each of the defendants pleaded guilty in September 2009. In the plea proceedings and documents filed in court, Wingo admitted building a cross, transporting it to the victims' home and attempting to set it on fire. Morrison admitted to helping prepare the cross and accompanying Wingo and Nix to the victims’ home in order to burn it. McKim and Robbins admitted encouraging Wingo and Nix to build the cross and to burn it at the victims’ home, as well as driving to the victims’ home on a separate occasion to threaten and intimidate them. McKim also admitted to providing materials to Wingo and Nix for them to use to build the cross.

“The defendants in this case threatened a young family with violence simply because they associated with persons of another race. Threats of this kind have no place in this country, but they are regrettably all too common,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez. “Aggressive prosecution of hate crimes is a top priority for the Civil Rights Division, and these convictions should send a message to those who would carry out similar criminal acts.”

Special Agents from the FBI’s Little Rock Field Office investigated this matter. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Quinn for the Western District of Arkansas, and Special Litigation Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Benjamin Hawk of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

USDOJ Press Release: Six Remaining Defendants Plead Guilty in $18 Million Fraudulent Investment Scheme

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For Immediate Release
December 8, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Florida
Contact: (305) 961-9000

Six Remaining Defendants Plead Guilty in $18 Million Fraudulent Investment Scheme

Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Miami Field Office, announced that defendants Jimmy L. Barker, Jr., Theodore Ginocchio, Ronald Bowsky, Jack Maddock, Robert Pozsony, and Rodger Brownson each pled guilty on Friday, December 4, 2009, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a scheme that defrauded more than 600 investors throughout the United States. Codefendants Robert Ladrach and Marc Rifkin previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and are awaiting sentencing in this matter.

According to documents filed in the case, from about 1999 through mid-2008, 3001 AD, LLC (“3001 AD”) and its affiliates operated as a virtual reality video gaming company that developed, marketed, and sold high-tech video game products. Initially, 3001 AD and its affiliates operated “Beta Zones,” which were virtual reality video game centers installed in popular theme parks. In 2004, 3001 AD and its affiliates began touting the Trimersion First Person Shooter Video Game Accessory as an in-home accessory that allowed players to immerse themselves in video games played on common, commercially available video game consoles.

The defendants raised approximately $18 million from investors by selling equity interests in 3001 AD, Trimersion, and numerous affiliated entities with similar names. Investors were attracted to based on materially false and misleading representations and omission of material facts. The misrepresentations and omissions gave investors an unrealistic expectation of profits. In fact, many investors were promised $29,000 profit annually on each $5,000 invested. To bolster these claims, investors were falsely led to believe that prominent entrepreneurs and well-known companies were considering significant investments in 3001 AD, and its affiliates. In truth, however, the Beta Zones that were operated never generated sufficient profits to distribute returns to investors, only approximately 2,000 Trimersion headsets were ever delivered to 3001 AD and its affiliates, and very few Trimersion headsets were ever sold.

According to court records and the pleas in this case, instead of using the investor money to develop and produce virtual reality gaming equipment, the defendants misappropriated investor funds to pay large undisclosed sales commissions and to pay for unauthorized personal expenses.

A sentencing hearing has been set for February 12, 2010. At sentencing, each defendant faces a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of up to twenty years. In addition to imprisonment, the Court may order each defendant to pay fines and restitution.

In a related case, defendant Michael Weidgans pled guilty to one conspiracy to commit securities fraud, which provides for a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of up to five years. A sentencing hearing for this related matter has also been set for February 12, 2010.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman stated, “Investment fraud schemes erode the public’s confidence in our economic system and lead to increased economic instability. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with the FBI’s Corporate and Securities Fraud Squad, remain committed to the investigation and prosecution of these investment frauds.”

FBI Special Agent in Charge John V. Gillies states, “This is a stark reminder that promises of large returns with little risk should immediately send up red flags and make investors run the other way.A strongregulatory and enforcement system is the keyto a robust securities market andthe FBI and its partners are committed to investigate those who illegally enrich themselves by swindling investors.”

Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the FBI and the and cooperative efforts of the Miami Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Dwight O’Quinn and Oliver Benton Curtis III.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Lobbyist Paula Hawkins, Ex-Senator, Dies

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Hawkins was lobbying for Big Pharma against President Clinton's health care plan: Paula Hawkins, a consultant to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, who maintains the title "Senator" on her congressional lobbying report, despite being defeated in her
bid for a second term in 1987....
According to FEC records, the pharmaceutical industry has made $4,981,856 in PAC campaign contributions since 1991, and $1,484,026 in "soft" money to the political parties. The PRMA, with roughly 90 employees and a $32 million budget, embarked upon a $7 million ad campaign in late 1993.
They hired Robinson, Lake/Sawyer Miller, the merged public relations and advertising agency; Hugh Newton and Associates; and former Sen. Paula Hawkins, R-Fla.


http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/WELL-HEALED.pdf

"Contrary to tradition, against the public morals, and hostile to good government, the lobby has reached such a position of power that it threatens government itself. Its size, its power, its capacity for evil, its greed, trickery, deception and fraud condemn it to the death it deserves."
- Hugo L. Black

"The consumer is the only [person] in our economy without a high-powered lobbyist in Washington."
- John F. Kennedy

December 5, 2009
Paula Hawkins, 82, Florida Ex-Senator, Dies
New York TImes
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON — Paula Hawkins, a tart-tongued conservative Republican who served a single term as a senator from Florida, fighting to protect children and blazing a trail for women while shunning the label of “feminist,” died Friday in Orlando, Fla. She was 82 and lived in Winter Park, Fla.

The cause was complications of a fall after several health problems, including a stroke, in recent years, her daughter Genean McKinnon said.

In her 1980 campaign, Mrs. Hawkins described herself as “feminine” as distinct from “feminist.” Her opposition to abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment made her anathema to the National Organization for Women, which picketed her appearances and accused her of embracing positions strictly in accordance with her Mormon faith.

Mrs. Hawkins was elected in the Reagan landslide, and despite the opposition of NOW, her victory scored some firsts for women. She was the first woman elected to a full Senate term without being preceded in politics by a husband or father. (Hazel Abel of Nebraska, who also had no political family ties, was elected to the Senate in 1954, but only to serve the final two months of the term of the incumbent, who had died in office.) She was also the first woman to be a senator from Florida.

At a news conference soon after her victory, a male television reporter condescendingly asked Mrs. Hawkins who would do the laundry now that she was going to be busy in the Senate.

“I don’t really think you need to worry about my laundry,” she replied, smiling with her lips but not with her eyes. “O.K.?”

Just before moving to Washington, she said she saw abortion as “tampering with human life.” Moreover, she said in an interview with The Washington Post: “The men have a lot to lose. I think it has emasculated the male, to say this is a women’s issue only.”

Mrs. Hawkins was the leading sponsor of the Missing Children’s Act of 1982, which requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to enter descriptive information on missing children into a national computer database that can be used by law enforcement agencies across the country. (That year, she shocked her colleagues by disclosing in a Congressional hearing that she had been molested as a child by a neighbor.)

Mrs. Hawkins supported get-tough laws against drug traffickers. She also fought for legislation to help stay-at-home women enter the job market after being widowed or divorced and to take into account years spent at home raising children when calculating women’s pension benefits. In 1984, she was co-chairwoman of the platform committee at the Republican National Convention.

Paula Fickes was born in Salt Lake City and attended Utah State University. In 1955, Mrs. Hawkins, a former model, and her husband, Gene Hawkins, an electrical engineer and businessman, moved to Florida, where she was active in civic affairs before being elected to the State Public Service Commission in 1972. She became known as a consumer advocate and was re-elected to the commission in 1976.

She was seriously injured in 1982 when a television studio backdrop fell on her. Thereafter, she had chronic neck and back pain. She underwent surgery in 1986, when she was up for re-election. The time in the hospital and recuperating at home hampered her campaign, and she was defeated by Bob Graham, a Democrat, who was then governor.

Besides her daughter Genean and her husband, both of Winter Park, her survivors include another daughter, Kelly McCoy, also of Winter Park; a son, Kevin, of Denver; a sister, Carole Fickes of Sacramento; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

No attorney-client privilege for Florida govermnent

There is no applicable privilege for government attorneys outside of civil or criminal or administrative litigation. As Governor Crist’s Commission on Open Government reform states in its final report at pp. 11, 25:

11. Government Attorneys and the Attorney-Client Privilege
The attorney-client privilege protects communications between an attorney and
the attorney’s client. This privilege is limited under Florida law when the client is a government agency.
There are two exemptions designed to protect the communications between an
agency attorney and the government client: one an exemption for certain records
prepared by an agency attorney for use in civil or criminal litigation or an adversarial administrative proceeding; and the second for meetings between the agency attorney and the government client. Both exemptions are limited in scope and applicability…..
Because of Florida’s historical presumption of openness to the records and meetings of government, communications between an attorneys and their government clients were not protected by the attorney-client privilege.
http://www.flgov.com/pdfs/og_2009finalreport.pdf

This truth will come as a shock to the RONALD WAYNE BROWNS and GEOFFREY DOBSONS of St. Augustine, limited lawyers who long advised both governments and developers.

What do you reckon?