11:04 PM PST on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
By IMRAN GHORI, DUANE W. GANG and JOHN ASBURY
The Press-Enterprise
California Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos announced sweeping charges Wednesday in a corruption case involving county supervisors, their staff and a politically connected developer.
Prosecutors filed criminal charges — including bribery, conspiracy and extortion — against Bill Postmus, 38, a former county supervisor and assessor; and Jim Erwin, 47, a former assistant assessor and former chief of staff to a county supervisor.
Both already face charges in a district attorney investigation that began in November 2007.
They are accused of being part of a conspiracy that resulted in the Board of Supervisors approving a $102 million lawsuit settlement with Rancho Cucamonga developer Colonies Partners in November 2006. The vote was 3-2, with then-Supervisor Postmus, Supervisor Gary Ovitt and Supervisor Paul Biane in favor.
The complaint also describes five unnamed, uncharged co-conspirators who were integral to the scheme that involved threats, extortion and bribery to reach the settlement.
Prosecutors describe 45 “overt acts” that were part of the alleged conspiracy, including showering Postmus with money, gifts and a prostitute during a county trade mission to China.
Erwin, acting on behalf of Colonies, also threatened extortion against Postmus through political mailers describing him as a drug user and gay, the complaint states. At one point, Colonies hired investigators to go through his trash to find incriminating evidence against him, according to the complaint.
The county and Colonies Partners had battled since 2002 over flood-control easements on the company’s 434-acre residential and commercial development in Upland.
Ramos described the allegations as the biggest corruption case in San Bernardino County’s history, topping even a bribery scandal that resulted in prison sentences for former county officials a decade ago.
Brown called it one of “the most appalling corruption cases in decades, certainly in the history of San Bernardino and maybe California itself.” His office joined the case at Ramos’ request in August to eliminate the perception that the case was politically motivated.
“It’s a shocking example of how money can corrupt the government process and not only bring government in discredit but cost the taxpayers so much money,” Brown said.
Ramos said the investigation against the five alleged co-conspirators continues.
“This is a big day for the citizens of San Bernardino County, but we aren’t done,” he said.
Prosecutors’ goal is to get back the $102 million that “we believe was extorted and stolen” from taxpayers, Ramos said.
According to the court complaint, the votes to settle the Colonies case were obtained through a broad conspiracy involving extortion and bribes.
It included Colonies paying more than $400,000 to political action committees with ties to Postmus, Biane and Ovitt that were set up specifically to receive the money.
NEW CHARGES
The nine counts against Erwin, who at the time of the settlement worked for Colonies as an intermediary to county officials, include conspiracy, corrupt influencing, offering a bribe to a supervisor, extortion, misappropriation of public funds and forgery.
Postmus was charged with five felonies, including conspiracy, accepting a bribe, conflict of interest and misappropriation of public funds.
Postmus’ attorney, Stephen Levine, said he could not comment on the new charges because he learned of them only Wednesday. He said he planned the “same zealous defense” as with the previous charges against his client.
Erwin’s attorney, Rajan Maline, also said he did not know enough about the new charges to comment.
Erwin already faced 10 felony counts on charges related to his failure to report gifts he received from Colonies. Postmus has already been charged with nine felony counts of grand theft, misuse of public funds, and perjury stemming from allegations he used the assessor’s office for personal and political gain.
Postmus and Erwin were arrested on those charges last year, and have pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
The pair — who were out on bail on the previous charges — were re-arrested Wednesday and taken into custody.
Ramos said investigators found methamphetamine on Postmus and plan to file additional narcotics charges against him. He already faces a misdemeanor narcotics possession charge from his arrest last year. Postmus has admitted to a drug problem and previously said he successfully completed drug treatment last year.
Postmus was being held at the sheriff’s Victor Valley Station with bail set at $225,000. Erwin was booked at the San Bernardino Central Detention Center with bail of $380,000.
Levine described prosecutors’ actions as “political theater.” He said Postmus and Erwin have been appearing regularly in court for a year and could have been charged there.
“The re-arrest of both Mr. Erwin and Mr. Postmus was done for no other purpose than to demean them in the eye of the public,” Levine said.
District attorney spokeswoman Susan Mickey said the decision to arrest them again was due to the significance of the charges and the desire to treat them like any other defendant.
CO-CONSPIRATORS
The complaint describes the five co-conspirators as two Colonies general partners, a media consultant to Colonies, a chief of staff to a member of the Board of Supervisors and a current supervisor.
Ramos said that at the advice of the attorney general and federal guidelines, those individuals’ names were not included in the complaint. He said prosecutors did not yet have enough evidence to charge them.
According to the complaint, John Doe No. 1 is a general partner at Colonies Partners who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political action committees and hosted Erwin on a trip to New York.
According to separate court documents and disclosure records, Jeff Burum, a co-managing member of Colonies Partners, took Erwin on the trip to New York. He has previously confirmed the trip but denied any wrongdoing.
John Doe No. 2 also is a general partner with Colonies who, along with John Doe No. 1, helped fund the opposition to the county’s successful 2006 Measure P, which imposed term limits and boosted supervisors’ pay.
John Doe No. 2 also co-signed a $100,000 check from Colonies to the San Bernardino County Young Republicans political action committee, according to the complaint.
Dan Richards is a co-managing partner at Colonies and paid the Young Republicans group the money, an official with the political action committee confirmed last year.
John Doe No. 3 is a media consultant to John Doe No. 1 and No. 2, according to the complaint. The consultant took the trip to New York with John Doe No. 1 and Erwin, according to the complaint.
Patrick O’Reilly, owner of Riverside-based O’Reilly Public Relations, has previously confirmed working for Colonies as a media consultant and traveling to New York. He did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday but has previously denied any wrongdoing.
John Doe No. 4 is a chief of staff to a San Bernardino County supervisor who secretly controlled the Alliance for Ethical Government political action committee, according to the complaint. On Nov. 7, 2007, and April 23, 2008, the PAC made separate $10,000 consulting payments to John Doe No. 4.
According to campaign finance documents, Mark Kirk, chief of staff to Ovitt, received two $10,000 consulting payments from the PAC on those same dates.
John Doe No. 5 is a San Bernardino County supervisor who voted in favor of the settlement and had some campaign expenses paid by the Young Republicans PAC, according to the complaint.
Biane voted in favor of the settlement and, according to campaign finance records, the Young Republicans PAC did cover some expenses for Biane’s campaign.
‘NOTHING WRONG’
An attorney for Burum released a statement accusing Brown and Ramos of “baseless character assassination fueled by political ambition and masquerading as legal argument.”
“Jeff Burum has done absolutely nothing wrong and there isn’t a shred of evidence to the contrary,” said John Vandevelde, a Los Angeles attorney.
A message left for Richards on Wednesday evening was not returned.
Biane and Ovitt both released statements defending their votes in favor of the settlement.
Biane said the amount was daunting but he was concerned that court rulings could have resulted in an even greater judgment.
“There has not been and never will be any threat or inducement that has been or can be used to influence my decisions and actions as (an) elected official,” he said.
Ovitt, who said he continued to have the utmost confidence in Kirk, said his vote was based on his own analysis of facts presented by the county’s attorneys.
“No one at any time, including my chief of staff, attempted to influence my decision or had any influence over my decision,” he said.
Paul Grech, an attorney for Kirk, said Ovitt’s statement summarized correctly Kirk’s actions.
“Mark Kirk is a man of integrity and has done nothing wrong,” Grech said.
Supervisor Josie Gonzales, who along with former Supervisor Dennis Hansberger voted against the settlement, said she was appalled by the allegations.
“I was alarmed to learn how far this web of conspiracy is alleged to have reached into county government,” she said in a statement.
Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who was chief of staff to Postmus at the time, said he was not privy to the Colonies negotiations.
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NOW… it’s getting to be a real game of poker…the machine eating, the machine…for us all to see,in real time…brown and ramos…neo-con’s from opposing camps teaming together…to keep a lid on this festering mess…and paint a picture that skews the truth…this is the corrupt fighting for power amongest themselves….look at the willingness of the AG to get involved…and I can’t think for one minute that the AG’s here to do the people’s work or uphold the law…from my point of view…more ‘political mutual masterbation’…strange bedfellows, brown and ramos…BIG RED FLAG!!!
This round of charges…jim maybe pay-back or push-back because of the information the blogs put out(thats the power they don’t have)…at any rate is shows ramos is responding….my guess his thinking is, if he can survive until the elections the voting machines will garantee his return to the DA’s office….by the smallest of margins of course!
Your so right Truthseeker!
Neo Cons? Brown is a Neo Con? Hmmmm. Don’t see how anyone that sat around protesting Vietnam and smoked dope with Linda Rondstadt can earn that label but….
Funny how Mikey is now throwing out attacks on his budget as a potential response to his investigation into corruption. Funny how his internal corruption can be OK in his mind but the Colonies deal, albeit of greater financial impact, is bad. Ok Neil, you just started to uncover bigger things when you went after Mikey’s personal police force motor pool fraud. Keep digging!
truthseekerSBC you make some excellent points.
Not only pay back for the blogs, MAYBE pay back to Derry for pushing the Ramos investigation and then getting it released to the public.
Payback for the other BOS members who voted in favor of the investigation and release of it??
Remember when the investigation of Ramos was called for, shortly there after Ramos infomred the BOS, “OK, you can investigate me, BUT I am not done with the Colonies investigation”.
If Ramos had filed the charges he did the other day long before his investigation, then I’d say no harm no foul, but the events of the other day appear to be more pay back for not getting his way than seeking justice for the taxpayers.
I know a couple of detractors will say that’s crap, but when the pac funding issue was talked about A LONG time ago and common knowledge among the powers to be, that should have been a red flag for investigators to start looking. AND it does not take 2-3 years to discover what you now see in the charges.
Overt acts 1-45 that says between Jan 2006-March 2008 or whatever is very general, and that could have been done long ago.
There are a couple of sayings in the judicial system that both cops and DA’s have used.
“arrest them, let the DA sort it out”, “charge them, let the jury decide”.
John Does 1-5 will be charged, and the jury will decide if there is reasonable doubt.
The general attitude is used when someone is pissed off, has a flimsy case, but has sufficient probable cause to arrest or file charges.
The party arresting or charging may know full well that there is insufficient evidence to obtain a conviction, but they don’t care, someone else can decide the defendants fate.
Sometimes it’s done just to CYA. Best example could have been the attitude in the Ivory Webb case. Prosecute him and keep the public off our butts, this looks bad, we don’t need the heat attitude.
Now for those idiots who might say this is all BS, consider this.
Ramos could have avoided 99% of the bad press and blog comments if when HIS office decided this corruption must be dealt with because of his great concern and desire to seek justice for the taxpayers by calling Jerry Brown from the get go and let his office handle THE entire case.
Let’s take Mark Leggio, Ramos’s and many others good friend and political supporter for more than a few politicians in this area.
When Leggio’s criminal conduct came out, Ramos asked the Riverside DA to handle the investigation. Conviction obtained, little discussion in the press. NO SHIT splatter on Ramos’s shoes. NOT even the appearance of political favoritism or misconduct.
Ramos could have played behind the scenes and let Jerry stand in front of the camera’s and in court and not subjected his office to all that has been said regarding this case and obtained the end result. A win win situation.
The greatest example of what arrogance will do for you if you can’t step back for a second and look.
The collateral damage done by all this is beyond understanding and description at this time.
Beside Jerry Brown is the man, he knows what he is doing, just ask him.
ACU…once again thank you for your insight… your indepth opinon and information, fleshes out and adds value to the important issues discussed in these blogs!