A judge ruled Tuesday the plaintiff suing Supervisor Richard
Scagliotti for alleged corruption can take limited testimony of a
sheriff’s officer and officials to determine if there was
wrongdoing when the county awarded its vehicle maintenance contract
to San Benito Tire.
Hollister – A judge ruled Tuesday the plaintiff suing Supervisor Richard Scagliotti for alleged corruption can take limited testimony of a sheriff’s officer and officials to determine if there was wrongdoing when the county awarded its vehicle maintenance contract to San Benito Tire.
Superior Court Judge Alan Hedegard also ruled against the county’s motion to force attorney Mike Pekin to reveal who’s financing the lawsuit – though he did order the lawyer to answer a host of other previously unanswered questions at a future deposition.
County attorney William Owen had argued that plaintiff Juan Monteon knows little about the allegations in his own suit, and that another person or group has been funding the effort.
Monteon sued San Benito County and Scagliotti in December with several allegations of officials using political influence for personal gain. The suit cited a private investigative report commissioned in 2003 by an anonymous group calling itself Los Valientes, whom Pekin also represented.
One of three remaining charges – out of the original six – alleges Scagliotti illegally pushed for supervisors to award the county’s vehicle maintenance contract in 2002 to San Benito Tire owner Bob Cain, a prospective business partner of the supervisor at the time.
Pekin has argued the testimony of sheriff’s officer Genene Proffitt, who oversaw the department’s vehicles, will show work done by another shop, Autoworks, was far superior to that of San Benito Tire.
During a July deposition Proffitt said “the consensus” on the sheriff’s staff was that Autoworks performed better work on the cars than San Benito Tire. Afterward, the county tried to suppress her testimony, claiming it’s irrelevant to the allegation Scagliotti acted illegally.
Pekin viewed Tuesday’s rulings as “big wins” for Monteon. But Pekin can only ask questions relating to discussions between Proffitt and her superiors – namely Sheriff Curtis Hill, Scagliotti and head administrator Gil Solorio. He can’t ask her about the quality of work done by Autoworks.
Pekin said he plans to depose all three county officials.
“It’s about 1,000 percent better,” Pekin said. “It’s a tremendous boost. I get to fully explore what kind of conversations were had about the quality of maintenance and what was said by the principle players, up to the time contract ordered to San Benito Tire.”
County attorney Owen, however, doesn’t think the ruling will matter. Pekin must prove that sheriff’s officers advised superiors of the alleged deficiencies at San Benito Tire before the contract’s approval.
“And it’s just a question of whether (officers) told any superiors anything of importance regarding the vehicle maintenance,” Owen said. “But none of that’s going to be relevant unless it was communicated all the way up to the board.”
Cain’s attorney Harry Damkar emphasized that Proffitt’s opinion on the quality of work done to the cars will remain undisclosed.
“Because whatever their opinion was is not relevant to the issue that’s before the court,” Damkar said.
Kollin Kosmicki covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach him at 637-5566, ext. 331 or
kk*******@fr***********.com
.
