About 13,000 registered voters in San Benito County opened their
mailboxes this week to find a bold flyer sent by proponents of a
recall against District Attorney John Sarsfield stating women in
the county should
”
beware
”
of the prosecutor and that governmental officials are covering
up for wrongdoing in his office.
Hollister – About 13,000 registered voters in San Benito County opened their mailboxes this week to find a bold flyer sent by proponents of a recall against District Attorney John Sarsfield stating women in the county should “beware” of the prosecutor and that governmental officials are covering up for wrongdoing in his office.
The flyer, sent by the Committee to Recall John Sarsfield and headed by one of the district attorney’s most vocal opponents, Ignacio Velazquez, states that ” only you can stop corruption” within county government by helping to recall Sarsfield.
While he called the flyer and its message “horrible,” Sarsfield said unfortunately he has gotten used to his opponents ballyhooing about his performance as district attorney. He said the mailer, which he dubbed, “10 things I hate about John,” is nothing more than Velazquez’s way of retaliating against him for prosecuting Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz for election violations. Velazquez was De La Cruz’s campaign adviser during last year’s supervisor race.
“It’s obvious these people have nothing constructive to say at all. I don’t think this kind of tactic works,” Sarsfield said. “When I was campaigning they said really mean-spirited, nasty things – that’s been going on for three years. I didn’t get down in the gutter then, and I’m not going to get down into the gutter now.”
Under a bright orange declaration that women in the county should “beware” of Sarsfield, the flyer states that an independent investigation into Sarsfield’s office revealed he behaved in a rude and contemptuous manner toward female employees and demoted a female employee while promoting a male employee with less experience, according to the flyer. It also stated that Sarsfield took the office and telephone line away from two women in the Victim Witness Department because it was a program supervised by female employees he viewed as a threat. However, the pre-mediation brief into Sarsfield’s office, which stemmed from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the two women in the Victim Witness Department, sustained that Sarsfield retaliated against four employees – three women and one man – because he perceived them as a threat to his administration, according to the brief.
“The way he’s discriminated against women – it’s a pattern,” Velazquez said. “I think all citizens need to be aware, but he is especially aggressive toward women.”
The flyer also claimed that county supervisors tried to cover up the investigative report by not allowing it to be made public in the first place. The Free Lance was given a copy of the report, which it published last month.
Supervisor Don Marcus, who helped negotiate a settlement between Sarsfield and the women who sued him and the county for sexual harassment, said he couldn’t have tried to cover up for the district attorney because he didn’t know the investigative report existed.
Before the investigative summary went public, Velazquez claimed in his notice of intent to recall Sarsfield that the district attorney continually lied to the public, violated residents’ civil rights by launching investigations into people because he personally dislikes them and mistreated crime victims. Sarsfield has continually denied Velazquez’s allegations.
Velazquez initiated a recall attempt – the second one against Sarsfield in the past year – in January and has until June 10 to collect signatures from 5,150 registered voters. However, he will probably need to gather nearly 6,000 because of the stringent rules attached to recall petitions. Velazquez said he’s collected about 1,000 signatures so far and plans to send out more mailers as part of his “awareness campaign.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
