oth sides vow to see the case through to the end, but neither
side knows when the case might actually be decided
Hollister – While a judge denied the district attorney’s motion to make the Los Valientes pay $1 million in damages for alleged civil rights violations, the saga surrounding the anonymous group is far from over and attorneys on both sides are planning their strategies for their upcoming legal battles.
District Attorney John Sarsfield and special prosecutor Nancy Battel are scheduled to depose a half-dozen suspected Los Valientes members in the next few weeks, and are continuing to gather evidence to bolster the district attorney’s allegations that the anonymous group violated the civil rights of eight local elected officials and business owners through extortion and by filing false lawsuits.
And Los Valientes attorney Mike Pekin, who is also named in the suit, plans to continue with his discovery efforts in the case to prove that Sarsfield’s prosecution of the Los Valientes is discriminatory and without merit. Pekin is seeking a 2004 report of an investigation into the district attorney’s office stemming from a sexual harassment suit filed against the county and Sarsfield by two women in his office. A summary of the report, which was leaked to the Free Lance last year, sustained allegations that Sarsfield had an affair with his office manager and discriminated against several office employees for political reasons. Although the report was sealed by San Benito County Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias in 2005, he also ruled that the summary of the report is a public record.
“The plan is to find out what constitutes my alleged extortion,” Pekin said Friday. “I need to further investigate his extra-marital affair because that appears to be the basis for his extortion claims.”
Sarsfield said the sexual harassment case and the allegations of an affair had nothing to do with Pekin. He said the extortion charge stemmed from a letter Pekin sent to a former special prosecutor in Sarsfield’s office, Nancy Miller, on the eve of a grand jury hearing involving election fraud in 2004. The letter threatened to expose Sarsfield’s personal secrets if he didn’t cancel the grand jury.
Sarsfield said he was continuing with the case against Pekin and Los Valientes. The names of the people Sarsfield plans to depose will be released March 27, he said. *”The purpose of the depositions is to get more information on the illegal activities of the Los Valientes and Mr. Pekin,” Sarsfield said. “We want to find out exactly what they did and what their motivation was.”
The cost of the case, Pekin said, will continue to climb.
“In fact, the cost just doubled,” he said. “Mr. Sarsfield is now forcing the county to pay two attorneys.”
Sarsfield has already paid Battel $115,000 to prosecute the case and recently hired Monterey attorney Jon Giffen at $155 an hour to represent him. Giffen represented the prosecutor during a deposition Thursday, which was conducted by Pekin. Since Sarsfield is an elected official, the county will have to pick up Giffen’s tab. The county auditor stopped paying the district attorney’s office bills after learning that Sarsfield had overshot his services and supplies budget by $71,000 paying Battel to prosecute the case.
Sarsfield said the funding problems wouldn’t hold up the case.
“We’re rockin ‘n’ rollin,” Sarsfield said. “We’re not going to stop.”
Pekin believes the length of the case is solely dependent on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors.
“It’s all up to the county,” he said. “How long will it continue to fund this case? If Mr. Sarsfield gets another dollar it’s going right to me, I’m at the top of his list. The county is in for a long and expensive proceeding.”
Last week, Tobias delivered a nearly-fatal blow to the Los Valientes case. Although he didn’t rule in favor of the Los Valientes, he said Sarsfield and Battel failed to prove that the group violated the civil rights of a host of politicians and business owners through violence or threats of violence. Sarsfield is seeking nearly $1 million in damages from the group for allegedly engaging in extortion and filing false lawsuits.
In 2003, Pekin and the Los Valientes, which has been called both a criminal street gang and a group of citizens fighting corruption, filed a suit against former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti claiming he used his position on the Board of Supervisors to profit financially. Among the allegations, the suit claims that the Churchill Nut plant was rezoned quickly from an agricultural use to a manufacturing use, helping Scagliotti make a $1.2 million profit in a land deal.
The victims named in Sarsfield’s civil suit include former Pinnacle Publisher Tracie Cone, Scagliotti, San Benito Tire owner Bob Cain, former Planning Department Director Rob Mendiola, Supervisor Pat Loe and former Supervisors Ruth Kesler and Bob Cruz. Sarsfield contends they all had their civil rights violated by the original Los Valientes suit.
