I’ve been sitting here for the past hour and a half trying to
decide how to start this letter.
Dear Editor:
I’ve been sitting here for the past hour and a half trying to decide how to start this letter. The main topic was easy enough: District Attorney John Sarsfield and the plethora of articles printed on the front-page of your newspaper over the past two weeks – most of which were above the fold in banner headlines.
I was finally able to break it down, in no particular order of importance, into four sub topics: 1) the alleged affair with his married office manager, 2) Sara M. Jones aka Matthew J. Sarsfield, 36 year-old police sergeant and brother of DA John Sarsfield 3) The secret criminal grand jury 4) The reorganization of the DA’s office, placing his alleged girlfriend in charge.
As far as I’m concerned, the alleged affair with his (secretary/office manager/personal assistant) in and of itself is unimportant. Both are married adults who may or may not have put their own marriages in jeopardy. However, I do have a comment about Sarsfield’s response when your reporter asked him if he would deny the affair under oath. His answer? “Obviously, I would testify truthfully….” He then refused to answer any further questions saying that he had turned the matter over to the Federal government to investigate.
This was the wrong answer. The correct answer is “yes I would deny it. It never happened.” That is unless that’s not the truth.
But who really cares? Remember President Clinton’s testimony under oath when he said “it would depend on what the definition of ‘is,’ is.” The real problem here is that Sarsfield has put himself and our legal system in a position to be “blackmailed.” The grand jury was on again and off again at least three times that we know of, apparently directly due to the alleged “blackmail” by Salinas Attorney Mike Pekin. We, the public, will never know the truth about the alleged affair because, as I understand it, it’s been agreed upon by both the county and Pekin to seal the file and turn the case over to the Feds for prosecution – which by the way we now know has not been done, apparently the Feds know nothing about it.
At some point in the past two weeks, Sarsfield’s Attorney John Picone wrote a letter threatening to sue Peking. In my opinion, if Sarsfield were not telling the truth about the affair, suing would be a really dumb idea, and not even Attorney Picone would do that – I don’t think. Of course I could be wrong as you may recall Picone did write the letter on behalf of the County and the Board of Supervisors when in fact he was not representing the county.
“Sara Jones unmasked,” now that’s funny. We finally have something to laugh about. The T’s in Art and Cantu must stand for “Tenacious.” Did you happen to notice the initials (SMJ & MJS)? Matthew J. Sarsfield must have thought he was being clever leaving clues to his identity. He must have learned that trick in the Livermore Police Departments Sergeant School.
All joking aside, what Sergeant Sarsfield did here may be a crime, possibly a misdemeanor. As you may recall in January someone had wondered out loud why the DA had gotten so angry about Cantu’s lawsuit against Sara M. Jones and also asked why he had not stepped forward to help find the lying Ms. Jones. I’m no longer willing to give John Sarsfield the benefit of the doubt on this. As for his brother, I encourage Mr. Cantu to file a citizens complaint with the Livermore Police Department and then, if appropriate, request misdemeanor criminal charges be filed against Sergeant Matthew J. Sarsfield.
As for the reorganization of the District Attorney’s office and placing his alleged mistress in charge, that needs to be put on hold. Based on what has transpired so far, there is a good chance there are hostile work environment issues to be settled before any reorganization takes place. The Board needs to keep the reorganization request on hold until the damage to the District Attorney’s Office has been investigated and evaluated.
Finally, my predictions on the secret criminal grand jury have come to fruition. I warned everybody that this was going to happen if that much power was placed in the hands of a vindictive John Sarsfield. Believe me, if this continues and we don’t stop him, it will get worse before it ever gets better.
Kangaroo courts like this are all about power, and where there is power sooner or later there will be corruption. Apparently, in this particular case, it is sooner than later. Remember, anyone of us could be dragged behind closed doors into the DAs Secret Star Chamber and victimized by a run amok, politically vindictive District Attorney.
I was going to end this letter by once again saying “Recall John Sarsfield,” but with the latest news about turning the alleged extortion case over to the Feds, I believe we’ve gone well beyond a recall. It’s time for Sarsfield to do the right thing for his family and us taxpayers and step down, resign his position and save us the time, effort and money necessary for a much-needed recall.
Our quandary? Doing the right thing is not in John Sarsfield’s bag of tricks. If he doesn’t step down by the end of June, it’s time to recall both him and his alleged mistress… no matter what the cost.
Bruce Kiefert,
Hollister
