Supervisor Paul Biane

11:34 PM PST on Sunday, February 14, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

In summer 2007, San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane became concerned that improper political activity was taking place inside the office of then-Assessor Bill Postmus.

Biane, then Board of Supervisors chairman, directed staff to turn over to prosecutors copies of e-mails showing that political campaign work was being done on county computers and on county time in the assessor’s office.

The move triggered an investigation that is still active and has led to the arrests of five people and a round of bribery, conspiracy and extortion charges unveiled last week.

And, with five unnamed and uncharged co-conspirators part of that new criminal complaint, the investigation now touches Biane himself.

The complaint alleges the county’s $102 million legal settlement with developer Colonies Partners in 2006 was obtained through a broad scheme of conspiracy, bribery and extortion.

Prosecutors charged Postmus, a former supervisor, and former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin with more than a dozen criminal counts.

The two are accused — along with the five uncharged John Does — of participating in an illegal plan to settle the county’s lengthy legal battle with Colonies over flood-control easements on the company’s 434-acre Upland development.

Those unnamed co-conspirators include a current Board of Supervisors member and the chief of staff to another current member.

Based on details in the criminal complaint, public records and statements, Biane appears to be one of those John Does.

The complaint accuses the unnamed supervisor of accepting a bribe to vote for the Colonies settlement.

“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 elected official,” Biane said in a statement last week.

Humble Beginnings

District Attorney Mike Ramos described the allegations as the biggest corruption case in county history, topping even a bribery scandal that resulted in prison sentences for former county officials a decade ago.

But the investigation had humble beginnings.

The district attorney’s office began looking into the questionable e-mails after Biane had them turned over in August 2007.

As part of the inquiry, investigators discovered that then-Assistant Assessor Adam Aleman, a close Postmus aide, destroyed public records and submitted altered documents to a grand jury, according to court documents.

By June 2008, prosecutors felt they had enough evidence to arrest Aleman. They charged him with six felonies.

With Aleman facing the prospect of jail time, his attorney contacted prosecutors in October 2008, saying Aleman wished to provide information about other felonies in San Bernardino County, court records show.

Aleman told investigators about a trade trip to China during which a member of Colonies Partners, to lay the groundwork for a settlement in the land dispute, showered Postmus with expensive dinners, drinks, cash and the services of a prostitute, according to court records.

Jeff Burum, a co-managing member of Colonies, fits the description of the unnamed Colonies partner in court documents. Other court documents confirm his identity.

Among other details, Aleman told of $100,000 donations to political action committees that prosecutors say were bribes and a trip to New York where Burum gave Erwin a Rolex watch.

Aleman eventually would accept a plea agreement that will reduce his felonies to misdemeanors in exchange for his testimony.

Burum has denied all wrongdoing and consistently said the settlement was legal, with a judge and a retired California Supreme Court justice signing off on the deal.

Erwin, who acted as an intermediary for Colonies during the settlement talks in 2006, joined Postmus as an assistant assessor in January 2007, the same month he accepted the gifts from Colonies.

He was arrested in March 2009 on suspicion of 10 felonies for failing to report the gifts.

He pleaded not guilty to those charges.

probe grows

With Erwin’s arrest, the Colonies settlement appeared to interest prosecutors, according to court documents, even as they continued pursuing allegations that Postmus misused the assessor’s office for personal and political gain.

Rancho Cucamonga City Councilman Rex Gutierrez, who worked as Postmus’ intergovernmental affairs officer in the assessor’s office, was arrested in May 2009 on suspicion of misappropriation of public funds and grand theft.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Two months later, in July, Postmus himself was arrested for grand theft, misuse of public funds, perjury and possession of narcotics. He has pleaded not guilty and consistently has denied all wrongdoing.

In the new arrests, Colonies appeared to play an increasing role.

Gutierrez is accused in court documents of getting his job at the assessor’s office at the request of Burum. The documents said the developer needed the councilman’s vote on projects in Rancho Cucamonga. By late July, Ramos officially declared that the Colonies settlement was a target of his investigation, confirming what many had already suspected.

A month later, he asked the state attorney general for his support in the investigation and subpoenaed top county officials, including supervisors.

Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor and current Loyola Law School professor, said Friday it is not uncommon during the investigative stage for cases to start off small and build into something larger.

What’s more unusual, she said, is how the five John Does were not charged along with Postmus and Erwin.

“By the time you bring charges, you want to find out who all is involved in the scheme,” she said. “If you have been doing a global investigation, it is unusual to be prosecuting them in pieces.”

Ramos spokeswoman Susan Mickey said Friday that corruption cases are complex.

“We are charging what the evidence shows we can charge at this time,” she said.

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