Another great report from @Calkins_Royal. Fact about Brannon, he loaned $20,000 to the DA for her ..
"Assistant DA Berkley Brannon declined to respond to questions from Voices about the investigation Thursday except to say it was being withheld." voicesofmontereybay.org/2021/04/01/sec…
maiden voyage into the world of politics in 2018. The DA ran unopposed to replace a troubled Dean Flippo.
Berk Brannon is married to Santa Cruz judged Denine Guy. So it's a small universe in the world of politics.
Berk Brannon is the number two at the DA's office and was
the DA who worked on another overtime time sheet scandal and that involves a then sheriff's sgt. named Joey Banuelos.
Brannon was awoken to the Banuelos file (that was sitting on the shelf somewhere at the DA's office in 2011) by @MontereyHerald reporter @grlreporter, who asked
Brannon why the Banuelos file seemed to be languishing despite the fact that Banuelos had been fired by then Sheriff Scott Miller for dishonesty.
Brannon read the file and returned with two felony charges against Banuelos.
And then bobbled the case.
Banuelos was accused of
lying on his OT sheets relating to "training" sessions taking place at the Laguna Seca shooting range.
Fast forward to Steve Bernal's admin (Bernal was installed by a bunch of corrupt businessmen and politicians in an effort to control what qualifies as crime in Monterey County)
and the DA decides IN SECRET that the report on Bernal's fake OT scandal should remain hidden from public view.
The current DA is running for re-election in 2022.
The guy on the left is being sentenced to 28 yrs, 8 months in prison for raping multiple women after drugging them. Some he met after @SUHSDofficial gave John Fickas access to children through the sports programs as a "coach".
No one has explained how that happened and how
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it became a thing.
John Fickas sexually assaulted a victim at former @CityofSalinas councilmember Sergio Sanchez's house. Sergio Sanchez is married to Lupe Sanchez. Lupe Sanchez is on the Board of the @MCOE_Now Board of Education.
There has been no coverage of Lupe's
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roll in the Fickas case other than to say when Fickas was in the bathroom with the drugged minor - she told her husband, Sergio Sanchez, Fickas had to leave.
"The maximum penalty it could have imposed was $10,000; they declined to do it in this case, the decision states, is because they didn't find any evidence the SVLG or Wayland intended to conceal, deceive or mislead the public." montereycountyweekly.com/blogs/fppc-din…
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Yesterday I spoke with Jenna Rinehart, commission counsel at the FPPC in the enforcement division.
The entry on the legal brief regarding Wayland's prior history of violations was not accurate.
Wayland failed to disclose the accurate source of loaned funds 2003-2004 and
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a 2008 investigation led to a $7,000 fine for Wayland.
(the total "loan" was from Don Chapin of Don Chapin Concrete and Scott Scheid of Scheid Wineries in the amount of $70,000).
That said, under FPPC rules prior violations do not necessarily mean a higher punishment.
John Fickas has a Marsden Hearing today where he will claim he had ineffective counsel following a plea deal that got him 28 years 8 months for multiple rape cases.
The twist? Fickas is a key figure in a MoCo bribery probe involving many public officials. His counsel? A 43 year
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old @GavinNewsom appointed to the local judicial bench.
Gavin Newsom made John Fickas' public defender a judge.
That smacks of a pat on the back for a job well done - putting out a huge dumpster fire.
Fickas sued Mike Hackett and Sal Jimenez (and others) on a PI claim.
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The story was NEVER reported on by @bradleyzeve's managing editor @maryrduan - who considers Hackett a WYSIWYG sort of "buddy".
Sal Jimenez is partners with his Uncle Hector Campos in Bankers Casino a card room in #Salinas.
"Endorsement Flap costs Bernal" read the headline.
That wasn't remotely accurate. The endorsement flap cost Miller - as intended.
There is a lot to this article - Chris Marohn worked on this and other issues. Chris Marohn was paid by John Phillips' campaign manager Plasha Will
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it was an effort to install a sheriff who would look the other way on the Monterey County organized crime syndicate - of sorts - with INTERNATIONAL ties.
* think Panama Papers.
Sheriff Miller wasn't able to be bought, wasn't a "team player" and after winning office in an
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unlikely upset in 2010 - Miller went on to quickly fire sheriff employees / COPS who were breaking the law. Not the patrol cops but high ranking mgmt officers.
The narcs of @MCoSheriff then targeted one of Miller's drug addicted sons - as an opening salvo into a 4 year