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Vern asked from just outside the Superior Court courtroom of Judge Margines, where one is not supposed to be blogging, that this report be posted:
Juice friend Cynthia Ward has prevailed in part against corporatist Anaheim council candidate Steven A. Lodge, ensuring that he must list his occupation as “construction publicist” rather than “retired policeman.” Lodge does get to call himself “Chavez” — but not as a sole middle name. He will be listed on the ballot as “Steven Albert Chavez Lodge” — whether that will be catnip to Latino voters (and whether his signs will have a very small “Steven Albert” on them) is left to the reader. It is not presently clear who is responsible for the court costs.
[This paragraph is from Greg, having taken a call from Vern upon his leaving court.] Ward’s high-priced attorney Fred Woocher did not make his own appearance in court, but sent some associates instead. Also presumably high-priced attorney Steve Chavez Baric, last seen in these pages pushing for Claudia Alvarez‘s right to run for another term on the Santa Ana City Council, did appear himself. Baric told the court that he had personally had S. A. Chavez Lodge testify in court using the name “Chavez” before — my guess is that this may perhaps have been before a Latino-dominated jury, which doesn’t exactly testify to its common usage if so, but that’s just a guess — and this jogged the judge’s memory of such an occurrence. The previously announced tentative ruling, that Steve could not use the name “Chavez,” was thereby (wait for it!) “dis-Lodged.” (It’s odd when a judge himself turns out to be the one with a personal memory that decides a case — but that’s where things ended up today.) [Back to Vern!]
MORE DETAILS TO COME when I get out of here.
I’ve been thinking about Steven’s insistence on trying to tie this whole lawsuit to unions and the OCEA – Maybe he put more thought into that nonsense than I gave him credit for, maybe there is some political calculation behind a Republican candidate doing that.
He really has nothing to run on besides his support from the Disney-Pringle establishment, and a Spanish middle name which is now controversial and a subject of jest.
If he can present himself as the Republican candidate whom unions most hate and fear, that WOULD appeal to a certain sector of the electorate. I understand Steven is also going before the OC GOP Central Committee tomorrow night to ask for their endorsement – one more reason to burnish his Sudden and Supposed Anti-Union Cred.
Lemme show you labor-bashers out there just some of the ways in which that would be absurd:
1. This is a 54-year-old retired cop living large on his 3%-at-50 pension, buying an Anaheim Hills spread with his public spoils. A living, walking reminder of the worst, most unaffordable deal our craven OC politicians ever made with labor.
2. He is the ideological twin of his DINO running mate Jordan Brandman, who, as part of a secret deal between OCEA and Disney, actually HAS labor’s endorsement (to the chagrin of many of us Democrats and progressives who generally back labor.)
3. As I’ve written before, there aren’t likely to be any big labor questions coming up in the next few years in Anaheim anyway, thanks to the sweetheart deal OCEA wrung out of the three Council corporatists earlier this year, (who were joined by longtime labor supporter Lorri Galloway, who probably regrets that vote, as it came at the very moment the OCEA was preparing to stab her “Let the People Vote” initiative in the back.)
4. Steve’s career as a public employee has been particularly expensive to taxpayers, from his $615,000 settlement for excessive force in 1990 to his worker’s compensation claim against the City of Santa Ana earlier this year.
In short, any Anaheim voters who are primarily motivated by hostility to unions – for one thing, this year’s Council election doesn’t offer you any great choices or opportunities, but in any case Steven Albert Semi-Chavez Lodge is not your man.
I think we should now begin to focus much more of our attention on the far more dangerous Jordan Brandman.
Who will be paying Cynthia Ward’s legal bills in this matter?
I don’t know why people presume that there will be legal bills to pay. Woocher is entirely able to proceed pro bono if he chooses. Since Ward had nothing to gain from the suit, I’d presume that that would not even be an in-kind contribution to her personally.
The fact that the tentative ruling favored her would suggest that there’s no way she would be ordered to covered S.A.C. Lodge’s legal fees and costs.
That is just a load of hooie Diamond and you know it.
I figure that Cynthia got jobbed. The high priced attorney offers to take her case and says “don’t worry about the legal bill.” CW probably didn’t even know who was behind Woocher – she got jobbed.
I don’t follow your reasoning. Based on the tentative ruling, she was about to win, but then Baric remembered that he had used Steve ACL as a witness (in front of the same judge) and that he was sworn in using the middle name “Chavez “(probably for similar reasons as his sudden adoption of “Chavez” here, and the judge remembered this. That was unforeseen. She didn’t get “jobbed,” she got unlucky that the opposing lawyer was able to capitalize on something that perhaps no one else was in a position to remember.
Diamond – nice attempt at a dodge of the issue.
When I say she got “jobbed” it was not in reference to the decision/ruling of the court. I was continuing our conversation regarding who is paying for Cynthia’s legal bills.
That is where I believe that she got jobbed. She had – and probably still has – no direct knowledge of who is really behind paying Woochers bills in this case. Although, we are all starting to figure that out now. CW got jobbed.
I guess that I don’t understand what you mean by “jobbed.” I don’t think that she’s going to get some unexpected huge legal bill in the mail. Maybe someone arranged for Woocher’s firm to take the case by paying him specifically for this, maybe he’s doing it pro bono, maybe he’s on retainer with someone. Which of these counts as “jobbed” in your opinion?
I do know that she seems to be worried about how she and her husband are gonna cover this.
That should be spelled out in whatever retainer agreement that she signed. If she didn’t sign one, that creates its own problems.
Once again, as a Trustee of an Independent Special District, taxpayers are entitled to know where my income (or reportable gifts) come from, but you are not entitled to information regarding how and where I spend that income. My agreement with my attorney is a business deal between us, and I would no more share the details than tell you my weight (REALLY none of your business) or share details about my marriage or kids. If you think I have done something wrong, file a complaint with the FPPC, otherwise the discussion is off the table. You can keep asking, but I am not answering, not because I have anything to hide but because it is none of your damn business. Unless you are offering to donate to help?
Hey, check out the Register for an instance of mantequilla not melting in S.A.C.’s boca:
As I noted in a comment there: since this is obviously and transparently Chavez’s political campaign strategy, it follows that he thinks, apparently shamelessly, that he is insulting Hispanics.
from now on, please refer to me as willie paco deville and i expect a taco discount at avila’s
Avila’s specialty chicken soup is the bomb!
Story on Ch 5 news is coming up (posted at 6:33) per a teaser…
The closest I can claim to a Law Degree is watching countless noontime Perry Mason shows on KDOC at the laundromat, but did anyone else get a creepy feeling that OC judicial procedure owes the great Mr. Mason a debt, when a case (at least the Register account) turns on an attorneys convenient memory (supporting court transcripts, anyone?), causing a judicial forehead slap, and an “Oh, yeah, NOW I remember!” from the bench? I can hear William Tallman (D.A. “Ham” Burger!) now, yelling “Objection! Hearsay!” Has anybody checked if Raymond Burr (and Andy Griffith, for that matter!) are spinning in their graves?
The Register?? we broke this story HERE, before court even adjourned!
I, know, and thanks. I got up late,and just happened to hit that page first. (How do you think I can be at the laundromat at noon?) I will make tOJB my new home page, OK? No offense intended.
Now you’re talking! That’s what I like to hear, Jacques Tuerco!
Okay,now that we’re past that, what about those transcripts? Did the judge even ASK for specific DAYS that Officer Steve allegedly used that name, or is this (yet) another example of the famous Cali “Sorta equal justice under law”? Can I go down next week with my (hypothetical) speeding citation and reply ” Aw come on your honor, you KNOW that ol’ beater can’t go THAT fast!” and skip off with a wrist slap? Ya think it’s time maybe the OC Muppets paid more attention to Judicial Elections (Already enough of a joke, with a non-competitive YES/NO vote?
A conversation I’ve been having with Cynthia in the Register’s comments section probably more properly belongs here, so I’ll move it here:
And so I have done. I’m still waiting for final word from the appropriate parties; I hope to post it later today.
Thank you, it was on my TO DO list, so you saved me a step.
The Anaheim clerk’s office didn’t get back to me yesterday, as I was told would probably happen, and I’m in LA for most of the day, so I’m afraid that it may have to go back on your list. I hope to be back before 5, but it’s not certain.
i find it interesting that ms. ward can claim that how she spends her money is her business and nobody else’s (a position that i support) but that she and other liberals can then argue that romney needs to disclose what he made and how he spent it. there seems to be some sort of duality there that does not make sense
Wow, you’ve been missing a lot of the flavor of this story if you think that Cynthia Ward is a liberal. Maybe you assumed that just because me and Greg have been backing her in this action?
Cynthia is a true conservative that opposes corporatist RINOs and DINOs. I’m a progressive that opposes corporatist RINOs and DINOs. Chavez Lodge is a corporatist RINO. (Although Cynthia says she was only concerned with the merits of the case, not her opposition to Chavez-Lodge.)
I have no idea what she thinks of Mitt Romney and his tax records. My first reaction is that Cynthia’s not running for office, and Mitt is, for Pete’s sake.
perhaps i am missing some of the flavor and am looking at it with a cynical eye which coupled with the fact that my only connectio to anaheim is to pass through it on the 5, leads me to paraphrase a great line
“it’s anaheim, vern”
She’s not a liberal.
Romney doesn’t have to release his tax records. He can just be presumed to be hiding something important.
So can Cynthia, of course — which is why neither one of them will be elected President this year.
Willie, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Since we do not know each other, I would invite you to please pop over to RedCounty.com and look for what I have written there over the last 3 years or so. While the site is scheduled to go dark I believe the lights are still on and you can check my profile, there is an entire Q and A section for writers that tells much about me, and of course a couple hundred posted pieces. Go check it out, and then let me know if you still perceive me as a liberal. Also please read my posts regarding OCEA and their chosen candidates over the years, and let me know if there is any truth to the rumors that I am nothing more than a “union puppet.” I look forward to your answers.
Nice to “meet” you.
CW
Diamnond said : “Maybe someone arranged for Woocher’s firm to take the case by paying him specifically for this. ..”
Duhhhhhhh …..
Cynthia was “jobbed.”(*) She likely did not know who was behind Woocher. She saw a situation that she thought was wrong (btw – I think that it was wrong too) and accepted legal help without really knowing who was behind that help.
“jobbed” definition per urbandictionary.com – “To be the victim of a conspiracy; to lose a seemingly fair contest because of deceit.”
The deceit in this case being that Cynthia was set up to be the “front” person and she didn’t even know it.
I think you just really really want to believe Chavez Lodge’s story that the unions are picking on him. Please read the second half of my story above, if you haven’t.
John Leos, running against Lodge, is the candidate of the city employees union.
I rest my case.
WHAT case?
If it was her initiative, how was she “set up to be the front person”?
How is she the “victim” and of what “conspiracy”? Let’s say that someone else wanted to cause trouble for Lodge. The only means they had available, through this lawsuit, was by pursuing the truth. That’s exactly what Cynthia wanted — to pursue the truth. And she got it.
It’s like she had a toothache and needed a root canal, and a dentist, possibly paid by someone else, offered her a root canal — and you’re saying that she’s the victim of a conspiracy to give her a root canal. I don’t see victim, conspiracy, or deceit.
Now Greg, let’s think this through, perhaps Skallywag/Junior has something there.
After years of busting OCEA in the nuts on the blogs (really, look at my past posts at RedCounty.com, if there is not a dartboard with my photo affixed to it at OCEA headquarters, I have done something wrong) so after all these years, Nick Berardino comes up with the perfect plan:
Let’s get Cynthia Ward to file a lawsuit for us! We manipulate her to use our lawyers, and we tell her not to worry about a bill, and then after she has done our bidding, we nail her with the Invoice she can’t pay (after all she is ONLY a housewife) and she is screwed! Or better yet, we turn her in to the FPPC and the District Attorney for accepting a “gift” from us.
Union hacks gathered in a smoke-filled back room chuckle gleefully while rubbing their greedy, public trough-feeding hands together, congratulating each other in successfully taking out the Anaheim candidate threatening their anointed Leos, while simultaneously screwing over their arch-nemesis, political blogger, bad-ass Anaheim activist, and Queen of the Porcupines, Cynthia Ward.
Oh my God, you are right, I am so screwed. Thank you for pointing out the folly of my ways. I will never trust a public employee again.
How did I even get here? It’s all so foggy, one minute I was having drinks with a couple of maintenance guys from Anaheim Parks department and the next thing I know I have signed documents to file a lawsuit, and my panties were on backwards. Where did all this chocolate syrup come from? I feel so ashamed….
Hurry, help me find someone to deprogram my brain before they call my cellphone and a secret machine that emits a sound only I can hear triggers my compulsion to act on behalf of public employee unions. My next assignment is to get photos of Jordan Brandman in bed with a chicken. Stop me before I act again! AAAgh!
Cynthia, you weren’t supposed to figure this out until after the election.
Well Greg, the chocolate syrup was a dead giveaway. I’m just that sharp.
“Let’s get Cynthia Ward to file a lawsuit for us (without her knowledge)! We manipulate her to use our lawyers, and we tell her not to worry about a bill ..”
Yup – you got that part right. That is my assertion – I added the part in parentheses.
Tell me skallywag, since I know what City you live in, and I know it isn’t Anaheim, what is your beef with me? Who do YOU work for? Oh, you say that you do not have an agenda, but apparently i do? Yeah, how does that work?
http://www.theliberaloc.com/2011/06/16/santa-ana-business-owner-files-ethics-complaint-against-city-planing-commissioner/
Clearly everyone who files a Petition or Complaint is backed by some nefarious special interest…
Oh look over here, there must be a hidden agenda in asking Council to actually abide by the Brown Act, who “jobbed” you into doing this?
http://www.voiceofoc.org/blogs/article_5545a242-d22c-11df-8299-001cc4c03286.html
OK, don’t you two blow off all of your ammunition here and now! We’re going to do this properly: set up a cage match and charge admission..
A cage match or even a debate will not be necessary between CW and me Greg. I agree with every comment that she has taken concerning Mr. Lodge. She has laid the case out against his candidacy for Anaheim very well. I am disgusted that those who support conservativism would champion such a person.
One thing I do disagree with Ms. Colony Rabble on Mr. Diamond is – that judge was frickin’ LAME – bringing up that BS about “I remeber that Chavez dude from years ago” – give me a frickin’ break! If you’re going to make a ruling – make a frickin’ ruling – but don’t base it on stupid s**t. It encourages people to think that your decision was based on something other than the issues at hand.
Thank you. Really. Mike I respect you, I want us to work together please, not bicker over something stupid that genuinely has no bearing on what I am doing and why.
Now can we get on with the business of pulling together to take this candidate out to the woodshed? He showed up at Central Cmte last night, looking for the GOP endorsement, and according to reporting over at OCPolitical, told bold faced lies, such as no ties to Brandman and they have never been to an event together. One need only scroll to the top of this very page to see that is a load of hooey.
I still do not have a horse in this race, although I am likely leaning toward Lucille Kring. I have not talked to her since her run against Correa, and I need to catch up with her, but I do know that Lodge is not an option whatsoever. It is time for all true conservatives to close ranks and fight for the integrity of our local governments, from those who would seek to turn them into their personal piggy banks. When a candidate is so bad that they are opposed by conservatives, liberals, and unions, that is saying something, and we all need to set aside the differences of the past and work together. Please.
I believe that the judge may well have remembered SACL testifying as “Chavez Lodge.” My problem is that he may have done so at that time for purely tactical reasons — if he was testifying before a majority Latino jury, for example, or if he had been involved in a bust against a Latino defendant and they wanted to implicitly defuse the charge that he might have been motivated by anti-Latino bigotry.
I don’t fault the judge for wanting to err on the side of allowing someone to use his given birth name. (You have to imagine me blinking back a tear as I say that get the full effect.) That doesn’t mean that the judge didn’t get snookered, though. I suspect that SACL has only (or mainly) used “Chavez” when to his tactical advantage. Of course, I’d love to see his Social Security card….
I’ll bet that you believe in the Tooth Fairy as well Mr. Diamond.
Wait. There’s no such thing as a Tooth Fairy? Mo-o-o-m?!
I don’t fault “his honor” for allowing Lodge to use his given name at all – I fault the judge for using stupid, unnecessary excuses for doing so. And that causes some suspicion of motive.