Criminal charges were dismissed Tuesday against Mendocino County Auditor Chamise Cubbison, who was, in fact, labeled a “whistleblower” by Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman.
Moorman’s ruling ended a high-profile case that spanned two years, rocked county government, and provoked allegations that District Attorney David Eyster had targeted Cubbison, a fellow elected county official after she challenged his office’s spending.
Tuesday’s decision was a stinging rebuke to Eyster and an emotional victory for Cubbison, co-defendant Paula June Kennedy – the county’s former Payroll Manager – and the lawyers who represented them.
“The judge did the right thing,” said Chris Andrian, a noted Sonoma County defense attorney who represented Cubbison. Kennedy attorney FredRicco McCurry, a Mendocino County Public Defender, had pleaded with Judge Moorman to toss the case “in the interest of justice.”
Cubbison’s civil attorneys said Tuesday evening that now that she is free of the criminal case, they will push for her return as the elected Mendocino County Auditor/Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector.
San Francisco attorney Therese Cannata said, “On behalf of Ms. Cubbison, we will be demanding immediate reinstatement.”
Cannata said Cubbison, suspended from her $176,000 post without pay and benefits in October 2023, will also vigorously pursue her pending civil lawsuit against the county Board of Supervisors for denying her due process.
The court’s dismissal of the criminal case increases Cubbison’s potential for collecting significant civil damages from the county, including attorney fees, loss of wages and benefits, and professional reputation.
The financial stakes are high.
DA prosecution and county costs defending against the civil litigation are already estimated to be 3-4 times the $68,000 in disputed extra pay paid to Kennedy for work during the Covid pandemic that DA David Eyster claimed in October 2023 amounted to felony misappropriation of public funds.
Eyster increased the ante for taxpayers when, within four months of accusing Cubbison of criminal misconduct, he hired outside prosecutor Traci Carrillo of Santa Rosa at $400 per hour to try the case. Civil attorneys defending the county Board of Supervisors already have billed about $120,000 in fees and services.
Cubbison had to pay out of pocket to retain Andrian and his investigator, Chris Reynolds, to fight Eyster’s criminal charges.
Cubbison and her supporters believe DA Eyster targeted her for challenging him. Eyster initially blocked her interim appointment as Auditor in 2022 and then secretly promoted a plan of some county administrators and members of the Board of Supervisors to merge the county’s two key finance offices in hopes of eventually creating a Department of Finance under board control.
Eyster seized the moment when the disputed internal pay issue surfaced about Kennedy collecting $68,000 in extra pay during the COVID pandemic. The DA turned his team of investigators on the case after the sheriff’s office submitted its results. In October 2023, the DA filed felony charges against Cubbison and Kennedy, accusing them of misappropriating public funds.
For Cubbison, Tuesday’s dismissal was also vindication for being blamed by county Supervisors for the tangled state of county finances, mainly without merit.
Cubbison risked a criminal record after she refused Eyster’s original offer to only to face a misdemeanor charge if she resigned from her post.
From the beginning, the Cubbison case was complicated by Eyster’s contentious relationship with the Auditor and two others who served before her.
Cubbison ran afoul of Eyster after she challenged DA office spending, including for staff dinners he labeled “training sessions.”
For 17 months, more questions than answers were raised as the case moved sluggishly through the courts.
How the original investigation was handled by Sheriff Lt. Andrew Porter, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, was scrutinized during the preliminary hearing. Porter acknowledged during his testimony that he had access to county emails and other documentation when he started to probe the Kennedy extra pay. However, he still did not act to preserve them. Within months, it was discovered that the county archival system had collapsed, throwing case documentation efforts into disarray. Eventually, many documents were retrieved, but no one, including a court-appointed master, could determine how much relevant material might be missing.
In recent days, documentation issues took another turn when it was learned that top county officials and former Auditor Lloyd Weer had been provided regular bi-monthly reports since 2019 showing Kennedy had been open about using a miscellaneous county pay code to add extra money to her paycheck.
During testimony at the preliminary hearing, Weer, CEO Antle, and others said they were unaware of the payments. Still, the internal payroll documents produced by the DA’s office at the last minute showed otherwise.
Moorman was critical of what she learned as witnesses were cross-examined during the preliminary hearing. Ultimately, the judge said she believed Cubbison and Kennedy had been transparent and had not engaged in illegal activities over the pay issue.
“If anybody had read the reports, it was clear what she(Kennedy) was doing. She was transparent about serious pay issues that no one at the county management level had resolved,” said Moorman.
Moorman also believed Cubbison did not know the details of a likely extra pay arrangement between Kennedy and Weer before she took charge of the office when Weer retired early.
According to Moorman, Cubbison acted as a “whistleblower” when she informed the County Counsel’s Office of Kennedy’s threatened legal action if her chronic pay issues were not resolved.
Moorman said about Cubbison, “She did the right thing. She did not try to cover anything up.”
Moorman blamed evidentiary problems on Lt. Porter, who she felt had acted unprofessionally regarding the white-collar crimes issues involved.
“He failed to preserve email evidence when he had access to it before the system collapsed,” said Moorman. “The system collapse wasn’t his fault, but his failure to preserve evidence when he had access was,” said Moorman.
The judge also found that the investigator didn’t follow up on questionable issues relating to retired Weer and Kennedy.
Moorman was scornful of Weer’s role in the case and his denial on the witness stand that he might have mistakenly let Kennedy think she had permission to use an obscure county pay code to reimburse herself, a salaried employee, for the chronic hours she was putting in.
“I don’t believe him,” declared Moorman. The judge cited Weer’s evasive answers as a prosecution witness and his “defensive demeanor.”
Moorman expressed dismay about the “willful ignorance” shown by county officials who testified during the preliminary hearing that they knew nothing about the 470 county code Kennedy was accused of using to pay herself. The code is typically used within departments to cover miscellaneous expenses up to $1,000 without approval from the Board of Supervisors.
Moorman said the exculpatory evidence turned over by District Attorney Chief Investigator Andrew Alvarado during the final days of the hearing only underscored in her mind how “transparent” the defendants had been about events leading up to Eyster’s decision to file felony charges.
The documents showed that county payroll reports detailing Kennedy’s extra pay had been distributed twice monthly to top county officials, including Weer and CEO Darcie Antle and her staff over three years, yet no one questioned why.
“It was all there if anyone had bothered to look,” said Moorman.
Moorman’s decision to dismiss the criminal case brought relief to the faces of Cubbison, Kennedy, and their lawyers. The two exonerated employees showed signs of relief as they hugged their attorneys following Moorman’s statement that their criminal case was dismissed.
McCurry earlier pleaded with Moorman on Kennedy’s behalr.
“There is no evidence of any criminal intent. There is only evidence that this employee worked herself into a state of exhaustion,” said McCurry.
McCurry added, “The taxpayers still owe her for work done under very difficult circumstances.”
Cubbison lawyer Andrian said the prosecution evidence was questionable and, in most instances, unable to be documented beyond any reasonable doubt.
Prosecutor Traci Carrillo said she respected Moorman’s decision “based on how the evidence came out and the various issues that presented themselves.”
“This is exactly the type of case that sometimes needs to simply play out and be challenged at a preliminary hearing in a transparent manner (versus a grand jury proceeding) to further evaluate the totality of the evidence,” said Carrillo.
County supervisors that did this are now going to be sued. Rightly so. BUT they will force a tax on the county residents so we pay for their malfeasance. The county is broke. All I gotta say is sue them til they ain’t got nothing left.
Thank you, Mike Genelia for great reporting. I am grateful for our discerning and clearheaded Judge Moorman. Those in county positions who subjected Chamise Cubbison to this nightmare should be examined for possible criminal actions.
I hope the BOS can resolve the claims against the county possibly they could 1) provide retirement formula for Cubbison and Kennedy (The county would need to reimburse the retirement system for early retirement cost). 2) Reimburse Cubbison for the cost of defense.
I’m sorry the county spent so much money on this case especially When money is need for infrastructure repairs
Not a win for the People or for the rule of law.
This never should have come to court. The employees could have had arbitration. But the DA was reactionary too quickly & forgot about the actions & emails of the past. As a DA this should have been escalated instead of extremely escalated. The employees were working during Covid. And the combining of offices has been a fiasco. The entire distraction of that fact made Cubbison a scape goat and deflection of energy went to this court case. When the energy should have gone to doing the work of cleaning up the two office combination fiasco. Instead of a DA trying to push his need to impress employees with nice dinners. Employees deserve nice dinners of course ….just not if it’s uncovered under policy. If it was…all trainings would be at nice resturants by every boss or manager with unlimited money. It’s not rocket science. It’s sad Cubbison was to be treated as a criminal because she was working through so many changes. Both these ladies were just working. Let’s not forget that.
The DA was running his department like a fiefdom and didn’t appreciate interference with his own idea of how he decided to spend County funds, legal or not. They hatched a scheme to get rid of a pesky whistleblower and now it’s coming back to bite them. And taxpayers. If DA Eyster had any self-respect he’d resign.
This never should have come to court. The employees could have had arbitration. But the DA was reactionary too quickly & forgot about the actions & emails of the past. As a DA this should have not been escalated instead of extremely escalated. The employees were working during Covid. And the combining of offices has been a fiasco. The entire distraction of that fact made Cubbison a scape goat and deflection of energy went to this court case. When the energy should have gone to doing the work of cleaning up the two office combination fiasco. Instead of a DA trying to push his need to impress employees with nice dinners. Employees deserve nice dinners of course ….just not if it’s uncovered under policy. If it was…all trainings would be at nice resturants by every boss or manager with unlimited money. It’s not rocket science. It’s sad Cubbison was to be treated as a criminal because she was working through so many changes. Both these ladies were just working. Let’s not forget that.
Thank goodness Judge Moorman wasn’t swayed by that DA that we seem to be stuck with. He’s just a big bully that hopes everyone will be too scared of to protect themselves. Using taxpayers money to wear people down to a point that they don’t have enough money left of their own to defend themselves. This dude should have been recalled and removed from office years ago. The fact that county supervisors also also seem to have colluded with Eyster is astounding.
The DA was also prosecuting a man Shayne wrede for killing my nephew and then while out on bail killed another man in ft Bragg he made a plea deal he gets seven years and with time served he will be back in ft Bragg in less than two years this man is extremely dangerous he has a violent criminal history and yet the day spent very little time on this case he spent more time and money on trying to out the auditor than the wrede case putting Mendocino residents at risk with a known killer being returned to the streets of ft Bragg . His sentencing is this Friday Feb 28th I hope many people show up and protest because it seems to me the da doesn’t have the best interest of Mendocino residents in mind.
The Judge is correct in her decision. It’s going to cost the taxpayers a lot for the actions of the DA and the other county employees that went along with this scheme. They forget who they work for and should be thrown out of office.
All because the Auditor was doing her job of protecting the County money. Too bad the Supervisors don’t understand the concept.
As a former Mendocino County employee, I can tell you that every department supervisor in Mendocino County takes their employees out to lunch, dinner, etc. under the guise of “training” and yes they take all the employees out on the taxpayer’s dime. I once went to the Mendocino Hotel with several coworkers to read a very simple one page nonsense flyer to justify the cost of the outing.
These are not law abiding people. Shame on you all!!
Taxpayers are on the hook for a lot of costs that were spent playing political games. Which is why the likes of Eyster and the BOS play them. No personal consequences.
With that in mind, I recommend that their salaries, benefits and pensions are used to settle with Ms. Cubbison before a cent of taxpayer money is.
Darcie Antle, David Eyster, and a few supervisors need to be removed. Let the losses due to their malfeasance continue to pile up, rightfully so. Mendocino is too small to let a small cabal of corrupt ego maniacs run the show into the ground over checks and balances.
Shame McGourty came out of retirement. Who knows how many emails he lost to “spam.” LOL.
If anyone buys that lie…
Dear Truth. You are mistaken in saying every County Manager, Supervisor, has taken employees to meals on taxpayer dime.
This is a big deal. Dave, Darcie, Ted & Mo need to resign. Mendo deserves so much better. Watch the finger pointing commence.
A county with a vibrant history of black market activity? Sounds like Mendo is looking at its own dirty laundry for the first time and acting surprised.
Eyster is a TOTAL PRICK. DUI DAILY. He regularly post comments about him drinking copious amounts of alcohol and then driving around. He freely shares his drunken Follies on Facebook regularly. Nobody cares he can just DUI away. I would imagine that in the mornings when he shows up for work he probably still has alcohol in his system given the propensity to imbibe. His little co-defendant Mz Antel has much the same tendencies. In a way they are lucky that the case was dismissed because all of the other illegal Follies they were involved in are probably pretty culpable and will certainly be entertained in the ensuing civil suits good luck!
Eyster and his minions need to pay professionally and personally for their part in this debacle. I can’t even imagine what this is going to cost the County. I hope Ms Cubbinson makes the County pay through the nose! I am so pleased with the results.
Good to hear the felony case was dismissed. I can’t imagine the expense and stress the auditor has been through. The actions of county administrators have been very questionable for many years. Good people have been forced out of their jobs they gave a lot to.. They would like to return to work also.
What about all the other lawsuits against the county from former employees ?
What is the total cost to the taxpayers?
The total cost will always be hidden in non disclosures so the shady practices can continue to be covered up. This is what happens when we continue to elect politicians instead of business people to run the County.
A lot of overtime has been donated to the county by very good employees over the years.
Eyster and Ed Rooney are swimming in a river of dirty money.
???…what an absolute joke! Taxpayers pay for the bogus case & now we get to pay for the much deserved lawsuit that’s coming. Arrest Eyster & abolish qualified immunity!
Ms. Flubbison, I truly hope you never oversee another red cent. Shame on you, the other one, and the DA.
Weird comment she did NOTHING ILLEGAL OR WRONG. Thinking this comment is from DUI Dave or an affiliated crony.? TRUTH WINS IF WE DONT DIE FIRST!!! Thank the lord Cubbison has temerity.
Asinine reply Cherry. The law eludes this whole County because of people like YOU. Get some proper legal knowledge before you spew nonsense BS. Shame on you too!!
Gotta love a narcissist and a great narcissistic comment. That’s the huge problem with law and management in Mendocino County, too many lofty headed souls with holier than thou complexes. David vs Goliath mindsets in Sodom and Gomorrah. Good work Moorman for letting truth prevail and denying trumped up pipe dream charges. The huge problem is too many obtuse, vapid souls hold power and privilege. Those souls bully to no end do as I say not as I do is the mantra of this power corrupt crew.
I can’t unsee the headline of “Judge delivers blow to DA” like a drug deal.
Hezekiah 3:12 – “The Lord weighs not the pride of men in their creeds, nor does He favor one tongue over another in praise. But He looks upon the heart that loves mercy, walks humbly, and seeks justice, for in these He is well pleased.”
Define “justice” for each and all. Pretty impossible.
Sometime the road to justice is a long, winding and dusty trail. I am grateful for those who take a clar stand against injustice and immorality. I am thankful for justices like Ann Moreman and Keith Faulder and some other justices who are not afraid apply the oath they’ve taken. To be stewards of the people despite the challenges of often discredited and shady colleagues they/we should all be able to trust. Trust no one. Just keep smiling and checking the FACTS!
Faulder and eyster are coconspirators
Any fool could see that the Cubbison Case would be a debacle from the git go. The final tab will be enormous and guess who gets the bill. We are all losers in this!
And nothing changes
Where is Luigi when we need him?
Talk about the weaponization of the local DA’s office by DA Easter…. Now it’s time to call in Kash Patel and the FBI to investigate David Eyster.
DA Easter yields so much corrupt power the Supervisors illegally fired her from an elected position. Now the county will be sued. Too bad Eyster was illegally using Asset forfeiture monies for his very own parties on the county’s tag. All this has been forwarded to the FBI.