Prospective sheriff has to handle hot seat
Recently, the Pat Turturici for County Sheriff campaign
distributed a flier designed to counter accusations that Turturici
asked members of the Sherriff’s Office to perform inappropriate
political actions. The Free Lance story also indicated that there
was an ongoing investigation of those charges.
Prospective sheriff has to handle hot seat
Recently, the Pat Turturici for County Sheriff campaign distributed a flier designed to counter accusations that Turturici asked members of the Sherriff’s Office to perform inappropriate political actions. The Free Lance story also indicated that there was an ongoing investigation of those charges.
The flier claimed that Turturici was the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by his opponent; they offered no evidence to support this claim. Actually, the accusation against Turturici came from a member of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association that originally supported the undersheriff. These charges reportedly forced the sheriff to engage an independent investigator. The sheriff would not confirm or deny that an investigation was in progress.
Using public employees, especially subordinates, to do political dirty work is a very serious charge.
While it is merely an accusation at this time, it did not come from an anonymous post on a website or a worthless campaign flier; it came in detail from both an identifiable and credible source, Deputy Sheriff Association President Mike Mull. I use the term credible to mean that Mull claims to have direct knowledge of these violations and he could be in a position to know. He would certainly be aware of the consequences of lying about so serious an issue.
The story broke when The San Benito County Deputy Sheriff’s Association withdrew its prior endorsement of Turturici citing what the organization’s president called “integrity” and “ethical” issues. According to the story, a majority of the deputy sheriff’s association – the union representing many of the office’s non-supervisorial positions – voted to withdraw the endorsement given to Turturici earlier this year. Mull said that the union met to consider withdrawal of the endorsement after “circumstances came to light within the past few months.” He said he had approached Turturici before the vote about what he called “some integrity issues, some ethical issues” involving the acceptance of a $750 donation accepted by the undersheriff’s campaign from Kenneth Perez, a felon on probation who was convicted of drug possession while possessing a firearm.
Mull contended that during the primary, after Perez had supported Scattini in the race – donating to his campaign – Turturici told office deputies to make negative, anonymous posts on the Free Lance website about the marshal’s connection to Perez.
Mull claimed that when he learned about the donation to Turturici’s campaign, the undersheriff denied telling office employees to help his campaign.
Mull said not all deputies supported pulling the endorsement. Since that time, several other Deputy Sheriff’s Associations have withdrawn their endorsement of the Turturici campaign. Eventually, the situation became grist for the local blogosphere, but once again, in spite of Turturici’s claims, there was no information to indicate that his opponent’s organized campaign had anything to do with it. No one can control individual bloggers.
No matter who wins the election, the county’s new sheriff will be in the hot seat many times during their term; it comes with the job. Their ability to handle these difficult situations with maturity and good judgment will be critical both legally and in retaining the public’s trust. Turturici’s actions while in this hot seat are not reassuring.
