District Attorney Mike Ramos

Sunday, December 5, 2010 – 01:30 p.m.

Last week another round of perjury for San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos.

Last week another list of excuses and deflections by his biggest defender.

The editorial board of The Sun seems to be on its heels over the latest screw-up by Ramos, but rushed to his defense none-the-less.

Last week the California Fair Political Practices Commission announced it intended to fine Ramos and his campaign treasurer, San Bernardino-based certified public accountant Marvin Reiter, for nine errors on Ramos’ campaign finance disclosure.

Most of the some $9,000 in omissions were credit card charges related to hotels and bars.

The lastest episode comes on the heels of Ramos being caught for failing to disclose a $10,000 payment he made to his wife from his campaign funds in 2009 for alleged campaign work.

A practice which is now banned under state law.

Both Ramos and Reiter have admitted to the latest offense.

There is circumstantial evidence to believe Ramos turned to his campaign credit card as a source to supplement his income in the second half of 2009 after his county-issued government credit card use fell under the scrutiny from at least one county supervisor and a reporter for The Sun.

The investigation into questionable activities by reporter Joe Nelson was quashed by editor Frank Pine as not being newsworthy.

In their latest defense of Ramos, a Sun editorial makes a comparison of Ramos’ conduct to that of Jim Erwin, former chief of staff to county supervisor Neil Derry.

Ramos gave the go ahead to charge Erwin for what Ramos alleges were intentional and deliberate omissions from his statement of economic interest under penalty of perjury. Something the Sun says is much different than Ramos’ violations, even though Ramos’s two incidents involves the same form and declaration under penalty of perjury.

The only visible difference being that Ramos says his omissions were all just accidents, mistakes, and just innocent oversight.

Ramos may have a very difficult year ahead for himself.

He’s likely to be called as a witness in the Erwin case and also has a potential of having to appear at a deposition in a lawsuit filed by one of his many former mistresses.

The attorney for the plaintiff in the case has sworn declarations from five other former mistresses of Ramos. Ramos has publicly denied carrying out extramartial affairs with any women, including his own employees.

Ramos is also dogged with allegations of looking the other way for friends and political benefactors.

The Sun has definitely ball and chained themselves to Ramos. But sources inside the newspaper do say the media outlet is starting to grow weary of Ramos and his unethical behavior.

It’ll be interesting to see how long the paper can cover for San Bernardino County’s illustrious DA.