Thousands more official county emails thought destroyed or corrupted have been recovered, further ensnarling a pending criminal case against Mendocino County’s elected Auditor and a former county payroll manager.
Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman at a hearing Thursday visibly displayed her frustration with the legal zig zags surrounding a high-profile criminal case filed by District Attorney Dave Eyster against suspended Auditor Chamise Cubbison and veteran county employee Paula June Kennedy.
The two veteran county employees each face a single felony charge of misuse of public funds. Both have entered not guilty pleas.
The controversial case has dragged on since last October, and only now is nearing a preliminary hearing where the public might get its first look at the facts surrounding a case that has rocked the county’s political establishment and roiled the county in debate over the DA and Board of Supervisors’ role in the controversy.
Now, however, that may not happen depending on Moorman’s decisions after attorneys provide her written, detailed accounts that she demanded Thursday.
Moorman refused for now to cancel the scheduled July 25 preliminary, declaring information in support of a motion for continuance filed by Kennedy’s lawyer, Public Defender Mary LeClair, lacked specifics.
Moorman, however, agreed to give defense attorneys LeClare and Chris Andrian and outside prosecutor Traci Carillo until next Tuesday to provide her written, detailed accounts of what is going on behind the scenes, and why yet another delay should be granted.
“It is not fair to Ms. Cubbison, Ms. Kennedy or the public to have this case linger like this,” declared Moorman.
The stakes are high because contents of the newly recovered internal documents might support defense contentions that in fact the extra pay deal was originally upon by former Auditor Lloyd Weer and Kennedy and not Cubbison after she came acting Auditor upon Weer’s retirement, as Cubbison has argued in her defense.
Moorman during her cryptic comments Thursday made note of a “mysterious third-party culpability in this case.”
DA Eyster early in the case publicly suggested that Weer and Kennedy agree that it was Cubbison who hatched the extra pay scheme, leading him to take the extraordinary step of criminally charging a fellow elected county official. Cubbison had been the target of Eyster’s ire after she challenged his own office spending, including using public funds to cover costs of annual staff parties that are banned under county policies.
Throughout Thursday’s brief hearing, Moorman flashed her displeasure, warning attorneys that if any evidence develops of tampering with release of information that might prove critical to the case, “We will be holding another kind of hearing.”
Specifically, there were references to the “Brady Rule,” which requires prosecutors to disclose favorable information to the defense during pretrial discovery process in criminal cases.
It is not the first time the high-profile case has been delayed.
Earlier this year hundreds of pages of internal documents were finally turned over during the pre-trial discovery process by county officials, including information held back by the District Attorney’s Office.
Then it was learned that the county allegedly suffered a ‘breach’ of its internal information system and that only emails of Cubbison and Kennedy but not former Auditor Weer had been preserved.
The case began to stall again when it discovered last month that a “voluminous batch of what was previously thought to be destroyed and/or corrupted county emails had been recovered,” according to a motion filed by Public Defender LeClair on behalf of Kennedy.
LeClair in her motion said special prosecutor Traci Carillo of Sonoma County – hired by Eyster after he stepped back from the case – informed her and Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa on June 28 that thousands of newly recovered county emails might be relevant to the pending criminal case.
Following a meeting in the DA’s office on July 2 with the attorneys and investigators involved, an analysis by defense IT specialist Chris Reynolds and DA Investigator Andrew Alvarado suggested that 1,358 emails might have a direct link, said LeClair.
LeClair said she as a precaution is seeking access to thousands more emails “previously thought to be lost, and subject to exclusions based on confidential identifying information and any valid legal privileges assert by County Counsel.”
LeClair told Judge Moorman that as a result she could not be adequately prepared for next week’s preliminary hearing.
Andrian and prosecutor Carillo said they supported the continuance.
An exasperated Moorman fumed, and then said, “The public has a right to know what’s going on.”
Moorman warned that if any evidence develops that anyone within the county system attempted to conceal possible relevant information, “I will haul them into this courtroom, and we will have a very different kind of hearing.”
Moorman cut short attorneys’ attempts to elaborate on the possibility of ‘third party culpability’ in case that led to the sudden suspension of the county Auditor by the Board of Supervisors, and sparked a pending civil lawsuit filed by Cubbison accusing board members of denying her due process.
“I am not here today to hear oral arguments. I want facts, and I want them put in writing,” said Moorman.
Oooooh this is getting good!!!
Funny how evidence always seems to go missing when it’s government officials being accused of something wrong. Thousands of emails don’t just become “corrupted” magically, and it would be noteworthy news if they did.
Shades of Hillary?