DA alleges former supervisor and supervisor were members
A current county supervisor, a former supervisor and a fired
planning commissioner are among the public figures named as being
among the notorious Los Valientes, the San Benito district attorney
announced in an amended legal brief filed Thursday.
Supervisor candidate Richard Place, Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz
and his campaign advisor, Vault restaurant owner and candidate for
State Assembly Ignacio Velazquez, are named as members of Los
Valientes, which until now has been an anonymous group that started
suing the county in 2003 under claims of
”
mass corruption.
”
The others, now named in court documents in the state’s civil
case against them alleging extortion and civil rights violations,
are former county Planning Commissioner Dennis Madigan (appointed
by District 4 Supervisor Reb Monaco and fired by the rest of the
board in 2004), the group’s attorney, Michael Pekin of Salinas,
rock-trucking businessman David Grimsley and contractor Vince Pryor
(business associate of Pekin’s and stepson to Hollister Councilman
Robbie Scattini).
DA alleges former supervisor and supervisor were members
A current county supervisor, a former supervisor and a fired planning commissioner are among the public figures named as being among the notorious Los Valientes, the San Benito district attorney announced in an amended legal brief filed Thursday.
Supervisor candidate Richard Place, Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz and his campaign advisor, Vault restaurant owner and candidate for State Assembly Ignacio Velazquez, are named as members of Los Valientes, which until now has been an anonymous group that started suing the county in 2003 under claims of “mass corruption.” The others, now named in court documents in the state’s civil case against them alleging extortion and civil rights violations, are former county Planning Commissioner Dennis Madigan (appointed by District 4 Supervisor Reb Monaco and fired by the rest of the board in 2004), the group’s attorney, Michael Pekin of Salinas, rock-trucking businessman David Grimsley and contractor Vince Pryor (business associate of Pekin’s and stepson to Hollister Councilman Robbie Scattini).
All of those contacted for this article either denied or refused to comment on any affiliation with Los Valientes.
“Richard Place was the main instigator of the group,” said District Attorney John Sarsfield. “We think Place came up with the whole crazy thing. It was all revenge against (former Supervisor) Richard Scagliotti, because Scagliotti endorsed his opponent (former Supervisor Ruth Kesler in the 2000 election). And clearly, they were trying to take out supporters of growth control.”
Sarsfield and the San Jose attorney representing the county on the civil lawsuit, Nancy Batelle, determined the identities of the public figures after conducting an extensive investigation, which included interviews with people close to Los Valientes. More importantly, a recent deposition taken from former private investigator Dave Henderson, who worked as Pekin’s operative and investigator in the Los Valientes case against the county, confirmed several whom the attorneys suspected as being Los Valientes members.
Batelle said during Henderson’s deposition, conducted in Yosemite where Henderson now works as a federal park ranger, he confirmed under oath to attorneys that Place, Madigan and Grimsely were part of the group that hired him.
Place was the county supervisor representing District 2 (which includes San Juan Bautista) from 1997 to 2000. He was unseated in the 2000 election by Kesler, who had held the office previously for two terms. He is running for supervisor again now, this time for downtown District 3 against incumbent Pat Loe.
He adamantly denies being a Valiente.
“I am not a Valiente,” Place said. “Dave Henderson never named any Los Valientes. The attorney who told you this is lying, and she should be brought before the (state) bar on ethics charges. I, myself, will bring charges against her before the bar.”
“All they know how to do is threaten people,” Sarsfield said, when learning of Place’s reaction to the amended court document.
Place did say he met with Henderson while the private investigator was gathering material for the massive case against Scagliotti and the county, in 2003.
“I met with him twice,” Place said. “I told him what I knew of the corruption in this county at the time. I am not a Valiente but they certainly have done this county a service.”
When asked about his involvement with Los Valientes, Assembly candidate Velazquez went on a rant against D.A. Sarsfield, but he would not confirm or deny being a member.
“This is nonsense,” Velazquez said. “Sarsfield is going on another witch hunt. Sarsfield is so desperate and I’m tired of these allegations. One of the reasons I said he needs to be removed is because he’s violating our Constitutional rights, (in this case) freedom of speech.”
Supervisor De La Cruz became enraged when asked to confirm or deny the claim that he is a Valiente.
“I am not! I am not! I am not!” De La Cruz exclaimed to a reporter. “I don’t even know who Los Valientes are. Maybe he is one! It pisses me off that Sarsfield doesn’t use his money to go after drug dealers!”
Madigan, a mining equipment salesman, was out of town when The Pinnacle tried to reach him and was unavailable for comment. Grimsely did not return phone messages, nor did Vince Pryor, of Vince Pryor Construction in Hollister.
The identity of the members came as no surprise to the group’s main target, former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti, who ended his 16-year career in county politics in 2004 after tiring of defending against the group’s accusations – which included claims that he allegedly threw a county contract to a business partner and profited from county zoning policies.
“No, it all figures,” Scagliotti said, when told the actual names of those Sarsfield and Batelle identified.
The contract, it turned out, was awarded to the lowest bidder — Bob Cain of San Benito Tire, who at one time had considered leasing property from Scagliotti, but didn’t. The zoning flap turned out to be a real estate transaction when Scagliotti and his partners bought The Churchill Nut facility in a bankruptcy auction and sold it to Beaver Lumber. Scagliotti did profit from the deal, but it was subsequently ruled to be entirely legal.
Another alleged incidence of corruption, Los Valientes claimed, was that Scagliotti profited when the county reimbursed him for enlarging a culvert near a storm drain at his Dunneville Estates development. It was later revealed that Scagliotti and the rest of the board received a written opinion sanctioning the action from the state Attorney General’s office prior to the board taking action on the needed drainage improvements.
Similar such claims and affidavits were discovered to be false by a criminal Grand Jury. The jury of 19 residents indicted Pekin a year ago on felony counts of manufacturing court evidence, misleading the court and perjury, but a visiting judge dismissed the charges.
Batelle also said that during his deposition, Henderson told attorneys that had he been aware of certain facts and disclosures – such as the Attorney General’s opinion on the culvert action – the conclusions he had made in his two-volume investigative report that Los Valientes submitted to the court with their lawsuit against Scagliotti and the other supervisors “would have been entirely different.”
Sarsfield and Batelle are asking the court to make the Los Valientes members pay $75,000 to each of the eight victims named in the civil suit, which include former fired Planning Director Rob Mendiola, former Pinnacle publisher Tracie Cone, Kesler, Supervisor Loe, Cain, former Supervisor Bob Cruz and Scagliotti.
Scagliotti said he is not interested in exacting any money for himself, but feels the once anonymous group of ambitious politicos should pay back the taxpayers for the nearly $1 million they’ve sucked out of the county’s General Fund, money the county has had to spend to defend against their lawsuits, including the one they intervened with during the Measure G slow growth initiative controversy and another filed against Kesler that was abandoned after the allegations of racism against her were found to be false. The group later found a strawman, bail bondsman Juan Monteon of Hollister, to carry on with their lawsuit as a named plaintiff, and to this day the lawsuit has yet to be resolved. Pekin recently filed yet another lawsuit against the county, a civil action in the federal courts in San Jose, claiming the county has violated his civil rights.
“I’ve asked for no monetary damage,” Scagliotti said. “Anything they’ve done should be held accountable to the taxpayers. What’s done is done as far as reputations, but it’s the amount of money they’ve cost the taxpayers that’s important. I just hope the community and the courts will hold these people accountable and prevent others from doing this to other political entities just because they can’t get their way.”
Like Scagliotti, former Supervisor Cruz said the list of those named in the legal brief certainly are no shock to him, but that he’s glad their names are officially known. Cruz lost his bid for re-election in 2004 by 10 votes cast for opponent De La Cruz. Charges of fraud against De La Cruz were later dropped to misdemeanors.
“Think about it,” Cruz said ruefully. “One is running for Supervisor [Place], another for the 28th Assembly District [Velazquez], one is a Supervisor [De La Cruz] – just what San Benito County needs! A Los Valiente representing us.”
Former Pinnacle publisher Tracie Cone, who is also running for Supervisor in rural District 4 against incumbent Monaco, also said the list of revealed names does not shock her. Like Scagliotti, she expects to give any money awarded to her from the civil judgment against Los Valientes back to charities, as she did after winning a judgment against former Hollister Councilman Joe Felice in an unrelated matter.
“Under the guise of fighting corruption, these people apparently perpetrated the most corrupt act I’ve ever witnessed in politics,” Cone said. “If they’re guilty, they should be ashamed of what they did to this community. These are all people who should have known better.”
In the following weeks, Batelle and Sarsfield are planning to add another amended brief to their civil suit against the group, which they say will detail specifically the acts of extortion, coercion and threats Los Valientes members have exerted upon their targets, who are also named in the state civil suit.
The next Los Valientes court hearing will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 1:30 p.m. at the San Benito County Court House in Hollister, on Fifth and Monterey streets.
Staff Writer Patrick O’Donnell contributed to this report.
