Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman’s Feb 25 decision to toss out the felony prosecution of Mendocino County Auditor Chamise Cubbison and former Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy is a damning indictment of how the controversial criminal case was managed from the beginning.
The official court transcript describing Moorman’s findings should be accessible as a matter of the public record and can be accessed here.
Supporters of the reinstated county Auditor, and Kennedy are celebrating the case’s outcome. Thy two veteran county workers were accused of criminally misappropriating public funds to pay Kennedy about $68,000 in extra pay over a three-year period during the Covid pandemic.
Cubbison and Kennedy’s professional reputations were shattered and their personal lives put in upheaval during a 17-month long ordeal that ended with Judge Moorman’s strongly worded dismissal.
Judge Moorman in her decision makes no direct note of District Attorney David Eyster’s actions in the politically laced case, and his secret attempts to assist county supervisors and executives in a plan to force consolidation of the two key county financial offices, do away with their elected positions, and eventually shift control to the Board of Supervisors.
However, court records and documents show it was Eyster’s decision to file charges against Cubbison and Kennedy and then hire a special outside prosecutor at the rate of $400 per hour to take the controversial case to trial. The District Attorney did so after conducting his own year-long review of the case including further investigation by DA investigators.
Eyster in the meantime attempted to pressure Cubbison into resigning in return for a misdemeanor criminal filing. Cubbison, proclaiming her innocence, chose to fight.
Eyster filed charges against Cubbison and Kennedy in October 2023. The case dragged on for 17 months before Moorman’s ruling quashed his efforts and Cubbison won immediate reinstatement to her position. Typically, criminal cases clear preliminary hearings and go on to trial because the legal bar is low.
Now, pending Cubbison civil litigation will determine how much damages taxpayers will pay if Cubbison claims of denial of due process are upheld against the county Board of Supervisors and a list of “John Does” including Eyster and CEO Darcie Antle.
Moorman’s commentary zeroes in on the evidence and testimony of key witnesses Eyster relied upon and turned over to Special Prosecutor Traci Carrillo of Sonoma County to pursue prosecution.
Moorman’s ruling also underscores the “willful ignorance” she found on the part of county administrators.
Excerpts from Moorman’s ruling focusing on three key figures in the case:
- Moorman on Chamise Cubbinson
- “Regardless of anything else that I may say today, there’s vastly insufficient evidence for — for the Court to find anybody acted with criminal negligence, whether she had authority to have these payments made. And, again, this was completely transparent.”
- Moorman on Paula June Kennedy
- “And the evidence with regard to Ms. Kennedy is that, as Mr. McCurry laid out, working these extraordinary hours, every county employee for the County of Mendocino should be thanking her for having been paid during that time frame.· She was working all nights and weekends, not able to use the CTO that she had accumulated. · · · · ·The evidence is clear to me that she was frayed emotionally by the time all of this came to light, that she was suffering under an inordinate amount of stress, not only because of the responsibilities to her job but also the stress that she was experiencing because she couldn’t get any relief, because she couldn’t take any time off because there is no one else to do the job.”
- Moorman on Former Mendocino Audtor Llyod Weer
- “And I think Mr. Weer, the evidence of the commencement of the 470 payments that show up from the very first time they were paid, his statements to Detective Porter, his evasiveness on the witness stand, his purported failure of recollection, his willful and deliberate ignorance by not reading his email all to me point to the fact that he said something to her that made her believe she had authority.”
It’s called the Mendo Shakedown, and David Eyster has been using this tactic on anyone he wants to terrorize, since he took the D.A. position in Mendocino County, myself included. He has been robbing and stealing from the residents of Mendocino county for nearly 15 years. Many of us know he’s been lining the sheriff’s department’s overtime pockets with cannabis money since the beginning, including Chamise Cubbinson. Her standing up and confronting him about his spending of “asset forfeiture money” on parties at the broiler steakhouse among other wildly inappropriate purchases, was an example of extreme courage in the face of a deranged district attorney who believes he is above the law, and can use the leverage, of the power his office wields, to force residents and county co-workers to bow in the face of arrest, public humiliation, and multiple felonies, Chamise is a local hero, who stood up to the bully, and fought back, and won. Now, once again, the residents of this county will have to cover the tab (incoming settlement amount) for his actions. The question now is, when and how will David Eyster be held accountable for his dirty deeds? How did Tom Allman (previous Mendocino County Sheriff) successfully deflect state and federal officials from ending David Eyster’s reign of Mendo Shakedown terror for nearly 15 years? After arresting countless innocent residents, public officials, and now elected public officials, will someone please say to Mr Eyster, “No Sir, this time it is you who is under arrest!”
Or, at least “Mr. Eyster have you no shame ?”
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I have mixed feelings about a recall rather than voting him out at the next election. Recalls are notoriously difficult to win. Moreover the Cubbison civil case against the county is ongoing. Unless I miss my bet the County is going to wind up paying her a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until all the egg is on his face before a vote? There is a reasonable chance he won’t run and his electoral prospects aren’t great.
Due to the shift of DA and Sheriff elections to sync presidential elections, those elected to those positions in 2022 had their terms extended by two years to 2028. We simply can’t allow to have Eyster stay in office another four years. If he won’t resign, which the BOS should urge him to do by passing a no confidence resolution, then he should be recalled as was recenty done with the DAs in SF and Alameda county. An interim replacement would be appointed by the BOS with a special election set for 2026
Problem is his term was extended by two years until 2028 per Gavin Newsom re Sheriff and DA terms syncing with presidential election years. We simply can afford to have this guy around that long. If he’s recalled or resigns, then the BOS will appoint a temporary replacement until a special election is held in November 2026 which is the process that unfolded in Alameda County after Pamela Price was recalled. But Eyster is way, way worse than her.
Have to wonder how many innocent people Eyster & his office have put behind bars. Probably an awful lot of them.
Pretty sad also, if you have money, you can just pay him off and he’ll change a felony to a misdemeanor is that something and they get away with it bribery
What is even more concerning, is that many people, just like Chamise, are innocent, and therefore deserve neither felonies or misdemeanors. In our society, many are viewed as guilty until proven innocent, and when an innocent person’s misdemeanor conviction (to avoid felonies), is recorded, society then thinks the innocent person is guilty of something, and in turn, got away with something. When the reality is the person was innocent and has been unjustly humiliated through devices such as mug shots, community service, fines, and forced resignations.
This may not apply to most readers here, i don’t know. The Mendocino County Superior Court has great difficulty getting enough people to show up for jury duty. Sure it’s a big county and, for example, it takes 1:20 to get there from Fort Bragg. But if you want to be sure that justice is done, show up.
I signed up, was told I was accepted by the Grand Jury judge but was then informed three days before the swearing in that I was no longer needed. Since I am considered too conservative, my belief is someone in the power structure (my guess is a former GJ Chairwoman) talked the judge out of it. So, there is no wonder why the GJ can’t fill the positions because only insiders are wanted.
Even if you’re too conservative you still would have the responsibility to carry out your GJ duties fairly. Are you suggesting that because you are “too” conservative you would not be able to do that?
Why haven’t we heard anything from the D.A. or the Supervisors about the finding of innocent when they were both so quick to tout the arrests?
The silence is deafening
Behavior like this from the DA is why many people in our country have a distrust of the legal system. The judge in the end did what was right, so it did work, but for Kennedy and Cubinson to have to go thru that process is just wrong.
Looks like the Grand Jury needs to take a close look at the District Attorneys office.
He did not earn the nickname, Eyster the Shyster by accident.
It seems Moorman has to ignore Eyster’s corruption. If she speaks to it Eyster the Shyster will have her removed from future cases as prejudiced, giving him more leeway to continue his abuse of Mendocino County residents. Recall now!
Eyster made sure to keep his fingerprints off the case so there was nothing Moorman could do about him directly — although dismissing a case he pushed like crazy is its own punishment. It is up to us to vote him out.
Eyster is like The Great Oz in The Wizard of Oz. He sits behind his curtain spinning his wheels and whistles looking bigger than he really is. It’s absolutely ridiculous that no issue has been brought up with his behavior in this case. Everyone is talking about and everyone acknowledges that he was very inappropriate but ,nothing is done about it. Now the negligent actions reviewed in the civil court is going to be massive. It’s not over yet. Congratulations Chamise and PJ this should have never happened to you. Management needs to do wake up and their jobs time to quit playing games.
To say nothing of the despicable way he retaliated against Amanda Carley as a domestic violence victim.
Ed Rooney is Eysters go to man, no mention of him though
Strange
Thank You Mike for digging out the details, and for your previous articles. I thought the way the BOS dismissed our elected County Auditor Cubbison, without allowing her public comment or respond, was OUTRAGEOUS. The behind the scene stories covered since, here in Mendofever (in previous articles) IMhO; shows the black eye of dirty laundry that kcreated this money sucking mess that I am sure is not over yet. Thank you Judge Moorman for dismissing this case along side giving us your reasons Why.
Did I read that correctly, he offered her a lower charge to resign her career? Does this show more of his original intention for the charge? He’s the DA! He’s making a deal, when he is the accuser. Wonder where on the timeline. He should have recused himself in any deals. Then she was fired by the council anyways.
What a brave person to defend herself in court when a DA was against her.
Yep you did. This type of manipulation gets lawyers disbarred. Not Shyster. Carry on.
We all know why Eysler did it… he didn’t want anyone looking into his dirty “Civil forfeiture” scheme making all that dirty money.
DA has to much power the whole legal system needs a change. Since the Da filled the charges and has all the money from the cannabis cases that he wheels and deals with he should pay any civil suit damages
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