The news that District Attorney John Sarsfield does not have a
conflict of interest and can prosecute Supervisor-elect Jaime De La
Cruz
– and the fact he has yet to do anything despite being cleared
by the Attorney General for weeks – shines a spotlight on the fact
that this simmering scandal has not been resolved for four
months.
The news that District Attorney John Sarsfield does not have a conflict of interest and can prosecute Supervisor-elect Jaime De La Cruz – and the fact he has yet to do anything despite being cleared by the Attorney General for weeks – shines a spotlight on the fact that this simmering scandal has not been resolved for four months.
Enough is enough.
San Benito County residents need to know who the District 5 supervisor will be. And the San Benito County Board of Supervisors needs to do something to clean up the mess it created.
In March, De La Cruz beat incumbent Bob Cruz by 10 votes. Cries of foul play soon followed, with people claiming De La Cruz and his campaign adviser Ignacio Velazquez returned absentee ballots illegally and stole the election.
With the immediate hue and cry, supervisors requested an investigation of possible elections fraud in the tight race.
Because of a perception that the board had a political agenda in the matter, it would have been prudent to completely turn over the investigation of voter fraud allegations to the state.
But given his marching orders, Sarsfield did his duty and called in an investigator who works for the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s office. The investigator returned with a recommendation for 11 felony counts against De La Cruz and Velazquez.
That’s when the issue boiled over.
De La Cruz and Velazquez admit they returned absentee ballots, but they say they did it with the blessing of the Elections Office. Head elections official John Hodges says he has been allowing people to return ballots for voters who couldn’t make it to the polls for years. Even Sheriff Curtis Hill signed the office’s log book when he returned a ballot for a co-worker in 2000.
When Sarsfield convened a criminal grand jury to decide whether felony charges should be pressed against De La Cruz and Velazquez, the messy election controversy turned into a meltdown. If Sarsfield is guilty of anything, it is elevating what should have been misdemeanor charges – at most – to the level where De La Cruz could be tossed into jail and banned from politics for life.
The mud really started flying as a result of that decision.
Sarsfield was dragged into the dirt when De La Cruz’s camp fought back by alleging the prosecutor was having an affair – an allegation the DA has denied – that compromised his objectivity in prosecuting the case. What should have been an illegitimate issue, the alleged affair, became a legitimate one when Sarsfield called off the grand jury probe as a result of the accusation. Soon, Sarsfield leveled accusations of extortion against the two men’s lawyer and threatened to get the FBI involved.
In short, everyone was overreacting. The issue has become emotional and the facts have become submerged in a vitriolic debate.
This newspaper may have contributed to the poisonous atmosphere and overreaction that has enveloped local politics by publishing anonymous comments on its opinion page in the past. The Citizens Voice column – which was implemented under the paper’s previous management and has not appeared in the Free Lance since April – quickly turned into a vehicle to attack local politicians and others without accountability. Accountability is the cornerstone of a newspaper’s credibility, and the column transformed the paper from a watchdog into a junkyard dog.
The overreaction has clouded legitimate issues. Was there voter fraud? Should the Elections Office be held accountable for the mistakes made by De La Cruz? How will the county reform the system so it doesn’t happen again? Will De La Cruz be the District 5 supervisor?
The bottom line is this mess has spun out of control. No one is in charge of the process and that needs to change. It’s clear whose responsibility it is.
The Board of Supervisors opened Pandora’s Box by greenlighting the investigation. Then it stood back while the roof caved in. Now, it is time for the supervisors to regain control. They need to rein in the mess they created and ensure the election controversy is resolved immediately.
Supervisors need to put political pressure on Sarsfield to make a decision: prosecute the two men for election fraud now or let De La Cruz take his seat on the board in January.
To respond to this editorial or comment on this issue, please send or bring letters to Editor, Hollister Free Lance, 350 Sixth St., Hollister, Calif. 95023 or fax to 637-4104 or e-mail to [email protected]
