Aleman
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/20/2010 02:44:02 PM PST
It’s been more than a year since Adam Aleman has been able to truly relax.
“I always instinctively peek around the corner to see who’s there,” Aleman said Friday. “I’m always aware of my surroundings.”
Since June 2008, the 27-year-old former assistant assessor for San Bernardino County has been up to his neck in criminal charges after allegedly lying to a Grand Jury, falsifying records and destroying a government laptop.
In October of that year, Aleman approached the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office with information, hoping to make a deal.
The story he told in that October 2008 meeting touched off a massive state and local investigation that culminated this month with criminal charges in a wide-ranging corruption scandal that rocked the offices of three county supervisors and Rancho Cucamonga-based developer Colonies Partners LP.
Former Supervisor and former Assessor Bill Postmus – Aleman’s one-time boss – and former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin have been charged with myriad crimes in the scandal.
And according to court records, Aleman’s testimony remains the linchpin of the ongoing investigation that prosecutors have said could result in additional charges against powerful local politicians and businessmen.
“I can’t go into specific details, but ever since this investigation shifted and expanded, there have been covert and childish, but no less threatening, attempts to intimidate and frighten me through direct scare tactics and intimidation,” Aleman said.
County prosecutors declined to say Friday whether Aleman is their primary witness in the Colonies case or whether they’re providing additional security for him.
Bribery alleged
Two weeks ago, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos and state Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. announced criminal charges against Postmus and Erwin in the corruption case.
Court documents also allege that Supervisor Paul Biane and Supervisor Gary Ovitt’s chief of staff, Mark Kirk – identified as John Does – accepted $100,000 bribes to secure a $102 million settlement for Colonies Partners.
Colonies co-managing partners Jeff Burum and Dan Richards – also identified as John Does in court papers – are suspected of blackmail and paying the bribes to end a four-year lawsuit over flood control easements on property Colonies was developing in Upland.
Only Postmus and Erwin have been charged, but Ramos and Brown said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges could be filed.
Defendants in the criminal cases, their attorneys and the uncharged, alleged co-conspirators say Aleman is a liar who is manufacturing evidence as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors for a more lenient sentence.
“After hundreds of interviews and literally thousands of taxpayer-funded hours spent by the district attorney, there isn’t a shred of evidence of a single improper action by Jeff or Colonies Partners – except for the uncorroborated, character-assassinating testimony of a lone individual charged with the crime of preparing and offering false evidence,” Burum’s spokesman, Jason Kinney, said in a recent statement. “Not a single person has verified or supported this individual’s outrageous, baseless claims. In fact, numerous people have risen up to contradict him.”
A speedy rise
In his early 20s, an age when many people are still trying to find a direction in life, Aleman was running political campaigns.
His sharp political instincts caught the attention of Postmus, then chairman of the Board of Supervisors. Postmus hired Aleman as a special assistant in 2004, and later as manager of Postmus’ successful 2006 campaign for assessor.
When Postmus took office as assessor in 2007, he hired Aleman to a six-figure post as an assistant assessor, a role for which Aleman needed a waiver because he hadn’t completed his college degree.
As Postmus’ right-hand man, Aleman was an insider with access to the central players and events that would later become the subject of the corruption probe.
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This must be a difficult lesson for Adam, but he wanted to run with the Big Dogs. It looks like he learn how to howl at the moon.
Joe Nelson and the newspaper continue to show bias in their reporting, they often forget the words allegedly in front of everyone else mixed up in this fiasco but with the only truly guilty party, whom has admitted it, they say allegedly lied, falsified etc… Go figure.
Allegedly falsified and lied. What does Aleman’s guilty plea mean?
The Sun/Daily Bulletin pander to the DA.
Mountain of evidence? Isn’t that what Garcetti said about his case against OJ. Read the arrest affidavit for Postmus/Erwin. If they have a mountain of evidence, where is it? It sounds like their mountain is really a one witness mole hill. Aside from the word of an admitted perjurer, what does this case have. If Alemen was such an insider, why was he only able to implicate Postmus/Erwin? An insider should have been able to provide enough evidence to charge the other five conspirators if he was a real insider. Actually he looks more like an outsider who is reporting heresay and rumors.
Adam, Bubba thinks you got a purdy face, no wonder you made a deal with Mikey to literally save your own backside at the expense of Postmus and Erwin. If you continue to lie about not knowing how widespread the corruption actually is into the 5th Floor, you will be invalidating the terms of your plea bargain and end up in CIM with your buddies after all, incl. John Does #1-#5 and a few others to be named (or unnamed) by Mikey and Moonbeam later. Do they make a cell big enough for the lot of you (Bubba doesn’t need his own bunk, he’ll be sleeping with u)o;?
Aleman if you have not figured out that Ramos will throw you under the bus again,then you are a lost cause.
If you hung out that much with Postmus and paid attention you would know where there was other dirt within this County, and not just in your little circle of friends.
If you told EVERYTHING you knew and it was outside the Assessors office and Ramos is ignoring that to protect some of his buds, YOU better speak up.
If what Sharon says is true and you have been telling others that you were tricked by the DA’s office, they put words in your mouth etc, and others will testifie to those stories, your TOAST..
If that Jury doesn’t believe what you say, JUST ONE of them, YOUR TOAST!!
And if you told Joe Nelson something negative about the DA’s office and he didn’t print it to protect Ramos, YOU better speak up.
And if your taking advise from your friend Michael Eagleson, remember he is not a combat veteran from any wars around here, and he plays both sides of the fence. So trusting him would be quite a gamble too.
I have met bubba, unlike Stevie Wonder. He is big and mean, he doesn’t play and only asks ONCE for whatever he wants. HE was at every jail I every worked at. HE never goes away and his sentence is life without the possibilty of parole.
ACU, I didn’t realize you were a licensed attorney. Where do you get off telling Aleman what he needs to do? If you felt compelled to give Aleman advice about Bubba, I would think you would be providing the same advice to Postmus and Erwin. But of course you won’t because you are their mouth piece. They are using you to intimidate Aleman. Let’s face it you only know what they tell you. You have no first hand information. Perhaps you should do some fact checking. Just a thought.
publius let me know when you want to man up and meet for coffee, you can bring your bodyguard if that makes you feel comfortable, I don’t need one.
Then you can tell me all about life. Just a thought.
ACU, You are such a tough guy. It would be a waste of time to meet with you. As I said before, when I am ready, you will discover who I am. I know the waiting can be nerve racking, don’t dispare. How about answering my question. You had written about what a supposed great cop you were on this blog for several months. How about using your super cop skills and find out the truth before you spout off about this matter. You have no first hand knowledge about this case. You are being played. You can take that to the bank.
ACU, You are such a tough guy. It would be a waste of time to meet with you. As I have said before do not worry I will let you know who I am in due time. I understand the waiting can make you anxious, don’t despair. In the meantime how about you using your great cop skills and investigate this matter for yourself. Once you have, you will realize I am right and you been played. Just a thought.
I will be patient publius, just for you.
Glad to hear that ACU, now go begin your investigation, you will not be disappointed.
Yes I will get on that right away, and my opinion of your office and boss will be the same.
As in all cases, the liars are liars by a matter of degrees. It is what the jury believes that puts the “alleged” conspirators in the cell with Bubba. Because the thickets of conspirators are so thick, you have to make a deal with someone. I personally don’t see Aleman as a big fish, but I would love to see the prosecutions web stretched a bit farther (regardless of how superficial many of you think it is). I don’t trust any of the involved parties. They are all sponsors of personal pocket lining 101. Let’s knock the whole house of cards down. Embarrassment, collusion, inferred corruption: it’s all good.
Publius there you go again defending Adam and his stories. What will come out in time is why you and your boss are so vested in him and I predict politics as usual, not the integrity that you profess to represent. Again I ask what will she say when placed under oath because the time is coming near, I suggest she tell the truth, but I predict she takes direction and just tries to get her story straight.Problem for her is when she lies she will have to remember the lie and who she told the truth to and who she lied to, not an easy task for the tin woman without a brain.
Hey Dougie, I am not supporting Adam, rather I am appalled at ACU’s arogance. Read the first comment of this post.
LOL publius your going to be appalled a lot more before this saga is over.
Don’t despair. I know your working hard to impress your boss.