 |
| Satirical parody of a "fixer" |
In November's mid term elections voters faced with choices about unknown candidates usually voted according to party affiliation. But with important "non partisan" races, such as those for Superior Court Judges, voters often have nothing to go on but the candidates' name and ballot designation; three words that are supposed to inform voters about a candidate's occupation.
In the race for Judicial Office Number 117, voters were faced with a choice between Alan Schneider, a "Gang Homicide Prosecutor" and Tom Griego, a "Criminal Prosecutor." A hard choice as both candidates appear to do the things that voters approve of - putting bad guys in jail.
But in the case of Tom Griego, voters could not have known that according to the Metropolitan News Enterprise, the closest Griego ever got to putting anyone in jail for the past 10 years, was sitting at a desk reading a manual about crime. So how was it that Griego was able to obtain what the Met News called a "misleading" ballot designation?
The answer appears to be that Trutanich manipulated things so that Griego could fool voters who knew nothing about him. Griego, a civil lawyer in the City Attorney's office, requested a transfer to the criminal division for the sole purpose of being able to call himself a "Criminal Prosecutor," when the truth was that he was nothing of the sort.
Trutanich surprisingly agreed to the transfer even though at the same time he was telling everyone that the budget crisis meant he needed as many lawyers as possible to transfer to the civil division because the Airport, Port and DWP pay for legal services. So, the only reason for Trutanich to transfer Griego out of civil must been to "make it happen" and aid and abet voter deception.
Maybe Trutanich thought a little deception is not such a bad thing, after all, he called himself an "Environmental Lawyer" because he defended environmental criminals. But in the case of Griego, Trutanich not only allowed this deception to be conducted in his name (Trutanich endorsed Griego) but he also kept back one important fact about Griego's ability to be a judge. The Los Angeles County Bar Association routinely assesses the qualifications of those who seek to become judges. In the case of Griego's opponent LACBA rated Alan Schneider as "Well Qualified." But Griego? LACBA rated Griego "Not Qualified." Nevertheless, Trutanich thought it was 'OK' to try to sick an unqualified candidate on the electorate, all nicely dressed up with an endorsement and an attractive ballot designation.
Many will find Trutanich's central role in this conspiracy to con the public deeply disturbing. Trutanich campaigned on "Honesty" and "Openness" and "Transparency," and should have been the one person you would expect to do everything in his power to prevent this obfuscation of justice. But that's all part of Tutanich's facade, and it's disgusting.
Other blogs raised questions about Tom Griego, but TRU is False tells you the rest of the story.
3 comments:
If Trutanich really did what you say, then the State Bar would be all over him like a cheap suit. But Trutanich did nothing wrong, even the Met New article that you linked does not say what Trutanich did was illegal. It's perfectly legal for candidates to give themselves the best ballot description they can, and if they go too far, then he courts will stop them - that's what happened with John Eastman. So this articles is just a hit piece against Trutanich and not a very good one either!
People in the City Attorney's office were disgusted when they heard what Trutanich had done with Tom Griego. The guy was a deadbeat do-nothing whose only achievement was being Chief of Staff to former councilman Mike Hernandez - the grotesquely fat blob who had to resign over his cocaine habit, and who now 'works' for Jan Perry and Bernard Parks.
What was really pathetic about Griego is that everyone in the office knew that the only reason he was given a job in the criminal division was to try to get him elected as a judge. Tom didn't have a clue what to do, so he was allowed to do nothing. In the meantime, all the other deputies had to pick up the slack and then Trutanich axed a bunch of them from the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program because of budget concerns. But there was plenty of budget to pay Tom.
Stupid move Trutanich. You pissed off a lot of people in the office with that, and many more in the communities that depended on that program. At least Griego didn't win, and now that the deception is over, I guess he can go back to whatever the hell he was doing before.
Tom Griego would have made a terrible judge. I am glad that he lost and disappointed that Trutanich got involved in the whole affair. To be fair, Griego started his campaign to become a judge before Trutanich became City Attorney, and I think Griego helped Trutanich with the Latino community, so it's only fair that Trutanich should return the favor, but that's the sort of pay to play corruption that Trutanich said he would not tollerate.
Post a Comment