Joe Felz’s Wild Ride Ends in Plea Deal
The wheels of justice in the Joe Felz case have finally ground to a halt with Mr. Felz finally taking the plea deal we all knew was coming.
After 405 days of waiting Joe Felz has finally admitted guilt to reckless driving. Of course he has been given a pass on his alleged drunk driving and his proven destruction of property by our oh-so-competent District Attorney’s office.
I wonder how many nobodies get the same treatment? I’d reckon not too many if the constant MADD awards presented to FPD at City Hall are any indication.
Mr. Felz will have to pay restitution, $390 in fines, serve 40 hours of community service, attend “victim impact counseling”, serve 3 months in the “first offender alcohol program” and spend 3 years on “informal” probation with no mandatory supervision if reading this correctly.
This is a curious case where the county and courts have agreed that Felz has a big enough of an alcohol problem to warrant going into a 3-month program. His problem, which resulted in him crashing his car and ensuing property damage somehow was not bad enough to justify taking his license away as happens with so many poor saps caught up in Fullerton’s outdoor saloon who hit nothing. Curious the way power protects power.
With the “ongoing investigation” over maybe now we can get to the truth of what really transpired the fateful night of 08/09 November 2016.
Felz imbibed
Danny lied
Sappy died
Sappy died for nothing. Only the good die young.
At least he gets restitution.
But he’s dead and sent to the chipper. A lot of good “restitution” does for poor sappy.
Better than being turned into Jan Flory’s broomstick.
Unfortunate mental image.
Did he plead guilty to the reckless driving charge or the fleeing the scene of an accident charge?
23103.
(a) A person who drives a vehicle upon a highway in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.
Just Reckless Driving. Driving under the Influence and Hit & Run w/ Property Damage were both dismissed.
The California Supreme Court has ruled that police video recordings are not privileged docs. That doesn’t mean FFFF won’t have to fight to get them, bu the law is on our side.
Haha! First Offender Alcohol Program, but no drunk driving charge! Well, we all knew the fix was in since the FPD collected no evidence on orders of Chief Danny “Gallahad” Hughes.
And yes, now that the charade is over some intrepid citizen can make a PRA request of the cops’ video from that night. Let’s see Sgt. Corbet in action!
Already requested. I’ll update with the asinine, and yet eventual, half-baked denial.
I’m curious about the “victim impact counseling.” What in the world does that mean. Besides Sappy mcTree who was victimized here?
Oh, right Lady Justice.
Whatever happened to getting the unpolluted phone records of SparkyFitz? That was pure BS.
Drunk or sober, Joe Felz is the heart of Fullerton.
Perhaps he can do “community service” in one of the homeless encampments?
I hate the psuedo-word “pled.” It is illiterate. Joe Felz pleaded guilty of reckless driving and is taking a course in alky awareness because he was sober as a judge when he ran over that tree and tried to make a quick getaway.
Another FFFF scoop!
Thank the Lord he was not guilty of drunk driving or hit and run. Now we can hire him back as City Manager. Save us, Joe! Some irresponsible fools spent all of the city’s money while you were gone and now we are insolvent!
This is not unusual at all and is the norm. Had there been a “victim”, I.e, a second vehicle with occupants then the penalty would be worse. Plus for someone that’s probably lived a “crime free” life this is pretty big. It will ALWAYS pop up for any employment application background. AND the three years informal probation is huge and I’m sure the “good o’l boys at FPD” will “be gunning for him” bcuz any violation, any violation(even under the limit) is almost certainly a 30 day probation violation……… What’s HUGE is the case is adjudicated, so now there’s no reason why the public records request for reports, recordings, videos etc. should be denied…(spoiler alert) D.A.R. Recording from Corbet won’t be available! Who’s going to file the citizen complaint to start an investigation? Maybe the DA who paid a visit to the PD can look in to that like he asked to look in to the cover up by Danny Boy(cats out that bag-you can thank the new Chief).
Here’s the thing: He wasn’t just guilty of drunk driving.
If Feltz, after hitting Sappy, took his lumps and didn’t try to flee the scene of the accident, I would have no problem at all with this sentence because, yes, it is common to plea bargain DUIs to a wet reckless on the first offense.
But once Felz hit Sappy, he immediately tried to pull his SUV out of the curb, despite the fact that his tire was flat and the grinding on the concrete curb was waking up the neighbors. Then he pulled the car out and tried to get away before he was forced over by FPD.
Oh and lets talk about that. Thanks to a FFFF FOI request, we know that around the time of the DUI arrest, an officer reportedly told dispatch “he’s trying to get away! Ram him!” We don’t know if that dispatch referred to Felz for certain because FPD won’t turn anything over but it sure sounds suspicous.
And while a slap on the wrist is par for the course for a first offense DUI with minimal property damage, it definitely is not for evasion and fleeing the scene of an accident. That’s where the outrage over this sentence comes from.
It’s worse than that, Sean.
Felz used his authority in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. Now we’re not talking gray area stuff. Hughes and the cops (MADD Heroes, all) intentionally and willingly covered up a crime and in doing so committed another one.
I don’t care what Ryan Cantor says about his good buddy. Felz showed his true colors on that night.
Former Fullerton city manager gets community service, probation for reckless driving involving alcohol
https://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/19/former-fullerton-city-manager-gets-community-service-probation-for-reckless-driving-involving-alcohol/
Bull crapola
“Rubber stamp” city manager Felz just bounced off of a tree and now bounces into AA meetings and early retirement. The real problem is Fullerton PD attempting to hide Felz’s crime from public scrutiny and the legal system.
I always had big doubts about Joe Felz’s integrity as a city manager. Where most city managers have advanced degrees in public administration or finance and years of experience serving as assistant city manager, Felz only had a masters degree in sociology and spent time coordinating Fullerton’s parks and recreation department.
Unscrupulous Fullerton city council members must have been delighted to have Felz as their city manager as he was ignorant and thus obeyed his city council masters and their cronies to approve every financial fiasco that today leaves The city of Fullerton in dire financial straits.
What a douche bag. that pic should be a permanent poster for all the drunks in Fullerton!