Tru Secret Weapons - Puppet Judges

Carmen "The Clown" Trutanich's attempts to plant a "friendly" judge in office number 117 of the Los Angeles Superior Court failed dismally when Tom Griego failed to gain enough votes to win a judicial appointment in the November mid-term elections. Trutanich had endorsed Griego, and had even enabled Griego to obtain a misleading ballot designation of "Criminal Prosecutor," through the use of a controversial internal transfer, as previously reported.

But it seems Trutanich's plans to control the administration of justice went beyond trying to sick an "Unqualified" judge on voters. Thanks to an anonymous tip, TRU is False can reveal that Trutanich had planned to set up his own Kangaroo Courts where Deputy City Attorneys - "Criminal Prosecutors" according to Trutanich's Griego standard, would sit as Judge and Jury in cases involving "Administrative Penalties."

Better yet, there would be no right to a public defender to represent those forced to appear before Trutanich's version of the Star Chamber, thereby ensuring that Trutanich's Supreme Court would not have to bother with pesky details like Constitutional rights including those established in the Fourth, Fifth or Sixth Amendments.

Trutanich's secret weapon was designed to generate vast sums of revenue from the Administrative Penalties which would be shared with the City of Los Angeles and the City Attorney's Office, and was believed to be one of several money generating weapons that the Trutanich regime were designing in order to fight the budget cuts by imposing Administrative Penalties on homeowners and businesses who dared to violate the Los Angeles Municipal Code by, for example, not obtaining permits for new water heaters, or allowing the grass to grow too high in their front yard.

Although many within the Trutanich regime were said to be "horrified" and "appalled" at Trutanich's apparent ignorance of basic notions of Fairness, Due Process and Conflict of Interest, the nighttime law school graduate could not be convinced that the idea was basically unconstitutional, if not downright insane.

Trutanich assigned a Special Assistant to oversee the task force of attorneys who would develop this, the first of several similar, stunning secret weapons.  Unfortunately, early tests were not successful. Those commanded to sell the thinly disguised assault on the rights of homeowners and businesses as a simple "Regulatory Ordinance," reported that they were quite unable to keep a straight face when explaining Trutanich's vision to others.

When news of the test failures were reported to Trutanich in one of his routine secret briefings, raised voices were heard outside the closed doors of the Eighth Floor "TruBunker,"apparently similar to the ravings of a dictator who accuses those who "do not obey orders" to be "traitors."

Trutanich recently confirmed the existence of his "Secret Weapons" program when he told LA Times Reporter Jim Newton that "... suggestions from the city attorney's office on how to raise revenue — by, say, giving the office the power to collect city debts and oversee fines for violating administrative codes — are routinely allowed to "age nicely," as Trutanich put it."

Perhaps the City Council has more sense than we often credit them with - putting the brakes on a power crazed egomaniac seems like one of their better moves.