Derry
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 – 03:00 p.m.
A San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge set aside a misdemeanor conviction of a former county supervisor Wednesday morning.
Earlier this month, Former Third District Supervisor Neil Derry petitioned the court to dismiss his 2011 conviction of failing to properly report a single campaign contribution. A contribution made to his campaign committee back in 2007.
Derry’s probation was also summarily terminated.
Judge J. David Mazurek, finding good cause, and over the objections of the Attorney General’s Office, granted the request of Derry attorney Rajan Maline.
Deputy Attorney General Stephanie Chow, who filed a ten page opposition, appeared in court.
Investigators for San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos originally investigated the case, but handed it off to the state for prosecution.
Former Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons as a favor to Ramos, and relying solely on the facts developed by Ramos’ office, originally charged Derry with two felonies and one misdemeanor. At the time a superior court judge insisted the two felony counts be dropped.
Derry plead guilty to the single misdemeanor, which at the time he said “resolving the matter was in the best interests of his family and constituents”.
The conviction was the principle cause of Derry’s defeat in last November’s election at the hands of San Manuel Tribal Member James C. Ramos, who is a close friend and political ally of the District Attorney.
The two Ramos’ are not related.
Derry is Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for the public relations firm Desmond and Louis, and the current Vice-Chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Party
About fricken time…the ag staying with this matter,to the last gasp is telling.
Congratulations to Neil Derry!
This action should certainly confirm once and for all that the prosecution was selective and politically motivated.
Sorry Repairman, but you won’t be able to ask the rhetorical question “is Neil Derry still on probation” any more.
I look forward to reading about this in The Sun and The Daily Bulletin.
I fully expect for the coverage to be 1% or less than the coverage when the charges were announced.
Congratulations Mr. Derry. Too bad for the dooped voters who voted for Ramos….they are too stupid to understand facts. They just want a rich manipulated person (who may be a nice guy) hoped they could snag casino money for themselves. Greedy stupid voters
Good, Now Derry can run against that dufus we just elected! God Help all of us in Pioneer Town, the county under Supervisor “won’t show up” is canceling the pipeline for our water.
Fat James Ramos belongs in prison.
Red Anonymous: Or should we say Mike Ramos’ bitch? Bigotry? Incompetence? You must mean Mikeys insatiable desire to prosecute white guys over similarly situated hispanic democrats….say in Victorville?
Get a life and take your whoring phishing to Morongo Casino with you,
Bell huh… (from July ’11)
Dear Mr. Villa (Robert)- Thank you for returning my call and leaving me a voice message regarding my plea to consider leniency for Mr. Edwin Snell of San Bernardino County. I was sorry to hear that you only received a total of six such requests and that this was not sufficiently adequate for the DA’s office and the court to consider reduction of the sentence that has been imposed. I believe that I also mentioned my first-hand knowledge of continuing impropriety by City of Bell public officials, which I have encountered in my attempt to recover monies owed my consultant firm, and the prime consultant (D&J), for services performed on various projects in the City. I have attached my recent correspondences with the Bell City Council, as well as newspaper articles pertaining to Mr. Snell, to this e-mail.
I would very much appreciate your looking into this situation as well as providing the information to the appropriate LA County Deputy District Attorney that is currently involved in the City of Bell investigation and indictments. I would humbly request that the situation involving the interim Bell City Manager and the contract City Engineer be thoroughly investigated as soon as possible, as it involves health, safety and welfare matters as well as county, state and federal funding. I very much appreciate your attention to these concerns, which I feel shows the true nature of the culture of corruption that continues to surround the City of Bell, and also a culture that I believe has significantly contributed to the confusion involving Mr. Snell’s incident.
In addition, the following petition is being finalized and properly executed before formal submission:
“Dear Honorable Governor Jerry Brown:
We the undersigned come together before you to request the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Edwin (ET) Snell from California State Prison. We believe Mr. Snell is a political prisoner set forth by the corrupt City of Bell. According to your own words, “how in the world” where city officials of Bell were being paid more than the President of the United States and “This is an outrage,” and “I’ve never heard anything like this in my entire life” the undersigned are stating the same in regards to the incarceration of Mr. Snell.
Mr. Snell’s investigation as an activist into the salaries of the City Manager, City Council Members and three police officers that include two captains and a lieutenant for the City of Bell where The Los Angeles Times (article dated August 7, 2010) provide a list of unusually high salaries that included one of the police captains and a police lieutenant may be why the City of Bell was able to produce a restraining order against Mr. Snell and with Ms. Valdez’ testimony of a terrorist threat led to his arrest.
Mr. Snell plead “no contest” to an alleged terrorist threat on Friday, July 15, 2011 as he had priors that could have placed him unjustly in prison for many more years. The two witnesses against Mr. Snell, currently employed by the City of Bell, alleged this bogus crime and were involved in the City of Bell scandal. One is Ms. Valdez who received partial immunity to testify as she participated in providing falsified documents regarding the salaries of the City Manager and City Council members as City Clerk which is a crime, and Ms. Ana Gutierrez who filed the report on behalf of Ms. Valdez who is the Management Analyst for the city.
Both Valdez and Gutierrez are also alleged to be making an exorbitant amount of money in salary and benefits that includes allegations of two private loans each from public funds. The Los Angeles Times also stated, “For several weeks, Bell officials have refused to provide documents requested by The Times under the state Public Records Act, by community activists and by a sitting member of the city council.” As of recently, requests for Public Records are still not being provided.
Mr. Snell acting pro per was not able to put up a self-defense argument with his priors hanging over his head, this along with his age and condition of his health. The outcome of a lie detector test was not allowed as evidence nor did the District Attorney take into consideration the moral turpitude of the women who made these allegations against Mr. Snell, yet his past record was used against him regardless that his accusers testimony to the District Attorney was fraught with discrepancies.
Honorable Governor and elected officials of all people, we ask that you no longer ignore the voices of the thousands of signatures and letters that we’ve produced, and the results of the most recent polls in favor of his immediate release. We ask all politicians and officials to support true justice. Honor the voices of your constituents. Call for immediate unconditional executive clemency for Mr. Snell.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned”
Red:
P.S. You and Ramos will learn the same lesson, you should not pick a fight with innocent people with the courage to fight back and when pushed are willing to employ a larger arsenal. The only remaining question is how innocent people rebuild their lives from the abuse they endured through all the accusations. I have faith that Larson will guide them through the rebuilding process as well.
Larson and Company will unleash serious whipass – this will be beauuuuuutifulllllllll!
#8 BRAVO!
anonymous sometimes #22
Nice set-up question. Now I’m sure Observer will answer it for you, telling you it’s all a political vendetta by a mean , nasty, corrupt D.A..
anonymous sometimes #22
I meant to ask you about your own situation. Have you been caught in some type of corruption and your looking for a way out of it? You know, trying to figure out how the big boys do it.
Repairman, it wasn’t a “set-up” question. And yes, I am caught up in what I believe is corruption, except I am on the receiving end of it, not the perpetrator of it. And the DA’s office turned a blind eye to it. I have finally complained my way out of the local level to the Attorney General level and am wondering if I can expect them to take it seriously, or if I am fooling myself that government on any level is honest and just. So, I’m just gathering my facts for the next level.
ObserverOfFacts, thanks for your opinion.
#25 Thank you!
Repairman:
District Attorney Mike Ramos was caught diverting $10,000 of his campaign contributions directly to his wife. This is double the amount of the fully reported campaign contribution that Neil Derry allegedly laundered. Neil Derry was charged with 2 felonies, but Mike Ramos was only fined. Do you have any explanation?
Repairman:
You never responded to my comment about the Santa Clara County Supervisor who was charged with five (5) felonies for gambling away over $100,000 of county money at casinos.
Neil Derry was charged with two (2) felonies for allegedly laundering a single $5,000 campaign contribution that was fully reported.
Repairman:
By the way, we are nearing the four month mark of James Ramos tenure as County Supervisor. Have you seen any actions that suggest that he is focusing on creating jobs, or doing any of the other things that he talked about during his campaign?
On thing is for sure: He and his “spokesman” are certainly taking a low profile.