To what degree former Mendocino County Auditor Lloyd Weer fits in with a felony criminal case filed by District Attorney David Eyster against Weer’s successor has been unclear for months.
On Jan. 6, however, it will be the sharp focus of a crucial court hearing on defense moves to dismiss charges of misappropriation of public funds against suspended Auditor Chamise Cubbison and former county Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy. The court hearing on the dismissal request had been scheduled for Tuesday but it was delayed because of a last-minute request for continuance by Kennedy’s new lawyer.
Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman during a hearing Tuesday ordered Weer and investigative Sgt. Andrew Porter to appear at the January hearing where she is expected to rule on the relevance of missing county emails that defense attorneys suggest might have untangled who was responsible for Kennedy collecting about $68,000 in extra pay over a three-year period during the Covid pandemic.
DA Eyster in October 2023 accused Auditor Cubbison and Kennedy of using an obscure pay code to make the disputed payments. Eyster’s move led to Cubbison’s immediate suspension by the county Board of Supervisors, who in turn are now engaged in civil litigation for denying the elected Auditor “due process.”
Prosecutor Traci Carrillo, a Sonoma County attorney hired by Eyster to pursue felony charges against the two veteran county employees, is opposing dismissal of the high-profile controversial case that rocked the county’s political establishment in late 2023.
Kennedy’s new lawyer, Public Defender FredRicco McCurry last Friday served the court with his intent to file a motion to dismiss on her behalf, joining Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian who originally cited the missing emails and Weer’s alleged deeper involvement than initially reported by investigators.
Carrillo argues the two defense lawyers are unable to demonstrate that the missing county emails are of “significant materiality” and that there is no evidence of “bad faith” by county IT officials and law enforcement investigators who initially failed to preserve documents for evidence that were recovered after an internal archival system collapsed.
Cubbison, a veteran county finance officer, at the time was embroiled in a high-profile public dispute with the DA about his own office’s spending when she was charged. Cubbison has entered a not guilty plea, contending that the extra pay stemmed from a deal between Weer and Kennedy while he was still in charge of the Auditor’s Office. Kennedy initially claimed she never discussed her need for extra pay with Weer, but the retired Auditor subsequently admitted to criminal investigators that in fact they had.
Andrian argued, however, in a new court filing on Wednesday that the lack of email documentation among Weer, Kennedy and Cubbison is critical because in fact Cubbison was “not a party to the (extra pay) agreement” between Weer and Kennedy. Further, he argues, law enforcement investigators, who once had access to the missing emails for review but did not preserve any for evidence, ignored Weer’s role because they decided “he had no involvement in the payments and was in no way responsible.”
In short, argues Andrian, they took “no steps to preserve emails that would have been relevant and very likely exculpatory.”
Andrian said that for her part, Cubbison contends “she had a conversation with Mr. Weer regarding finding a way to pay Ms. Kennedy more, when he was the supervisor.”
“Ms. Cubbison also stated that Mr. Weer spoke to HR (county Human Resources Department) regarding finding a way to pay more” while he was still the office supervisor. “
“She stated that she believed Mr. Weer had followed up with Ms. Kennedy about the request, did not know the results of the conversation, but believe the use of the 470 code was the result of that conversation,” according to Andrian’s latest sworn declaration.
Andrian also contends that “there are also notes kept by Ms. Kennedy which indicate the payments were ‘per Lloyd.’ Ms. Kennedy even stated that Ms. Cubbison told her it was Mr. Weer who would sign off on such payments.”
Weer, who has not been charged, has ducked any public comment despite repeated requests since the criminal case was filed in October 2023. There was no response from him Sunday to the latest request seeking a response to the defense contentions.
In a related but separate court filing on Wednesday, the same day of Andrian’s, Judge Moorman submitted a statement about a report from a court-appointed referee who had reviewed approximately 10,000 emails among Cubbison, Weer and Kennedy that were eventually recovered by IT technicians. They covered the crucial time beginning Jan. 1, 2018.
There were no specific conclusions released by Moorman but the judge wrote that “The court does not represent, nor has it ever represented that the emails now in its possession represent all emails ever generated during this time from between or among Weer, Cubbison and/or Kennedy (using their county email boxes) after application of exclusion criteria.”
“Whether or not other emails existed and/or may have been destroyed is the subject of the motion to dismiss filed by Cubbison on September 24, 2024,” according to Moorman.
I feel like Kennedy needs to be left out of this cause she worked and needs to be paid. The county officials are the bozos pointing fingers at each other while Eyster laughs cause he got what he wanted again because he’s disgusting and we all know it. This is so passe
Eyster is the king of adult diapers. He wants to eat steaks on our dime and when he gets told “No” he goes after the naysayer. His office is ordering .50 caliber ammo with no one saying anything and he prosecutes the ladies who watch his spending and deny his office party expenses at a local restaurant. He needs to pull up his big boy pants and stop shitting himself over there in Ukiah because it stinks up the whole county.
Eyster is such a dedicated public servant. Dedicated to utter corruption, letting Kevin Murray skate and going after a person that rightfully told him his office parties were an illegal use of public funds,. Where is the Fing State of California in taking down this scumbag?
Carrillo is the person currently stealing money from Mendocino County
So the DA’s office only saved the emails they used to charge Cubbison? Then all other files, AKA “the crime scene” just disappeared? Incompetence or intentional destruction of evidence? Maybe the CA AG should investigate the DA’s office. Either way, they should all sober up and pay for their own steaks.
One new story every few days……It seems mendofever news is a dead enterprise, and Matt has moved on to the Sf gate gig.
What was that thing flying over the Christmas light parade? I’ve never seen that before. Who was that? With all the drone and orb activity in the skies, I think people want to know these things. But absolutely no coverage here on much of anything. 🙁
San Francisco had a mini tornado last night? I gotta search out news on the Internet I guess. This stuff is stuffed people wanna know. There have been blue orb sightings flying over Ukiah, as well.
Stuff going on as a biblical proportions.
Matt, I guess you quit on us. Where did you go? I hope you’re ok.
He now works promoting northern California for tourism.