Todd Spitzer Archives - Friends For Fullerton's Future

December 22, 2020Ahmad Zahra

Ahmad Zahra Avoids Transparency, Calls Cops Liars

Zahra-Busted

Jesse La Tour over at the Fullerton Observer saw our post and went and asked Ahmad Zahra for a response to the pending charges against him for battery and vandalism. Check out his response:

When asked for a statement from the Observer, Zahra wrote via e-mail, “I deny each and every allegation and am innocent of the charges. I am confident that the truth will come out and expect to be fully exonerated.”

Notice how he doesn’t bother to actually explain anything or offer any defense. This is a typical strategy for politicians who expect you to forget about something while they wheel and deal to make the charges against them disappear down the memoryhole.

The problem here is that this isn’t a he-said/she-said problem – this is an actual arrest by a Fullerton Police Officer and charges filed by the District Attorney.

For Zahra to be innocent of the charges it means that the arresting officer, one Officer Brayley, falsified a police report and the District Attorney filed false charges.

Zahra’s implied allegations are very serious from a sitting Fullerton City Council member and deserve to be investigated. Do we have rogue officers arresting innocent people in Fullerton? Is our District Attorney filing charges which contradict the truth?

We deserve to know.

In the words of Fullerton City Council member Ahmad Zahra himself, as captured by The Fullerton Rag:

“I want you to know that YOUR City, YOUR Chief and YOUR Police Department are committed to accountability, and transparency, and the highest safety standards.”

Let’s see some accountability. Let’s see some transparency. Let’s make sure our officers aren’t arresting innocent people and smearing members of our city. We call on Fullerton PD to release the body camera footage immediately.

July 8, 2019September 9, 2020Bad Cops

Is Fullerton PD Illegally Destroying Records?

by Lonnie Machin32 Comments

destroy-evidence

Last September it was revealed that the Long Beach Police Department was using a phone app, known as TigerText, to send encrypted and self-deleting messages. From the article:

Two of the officers claimed that they were also instructed by their superiors to use the app to “have conversations with other officers that wouldn’t be discoverable”.

The City of Long Beach paid for an independent review which found no wrongdoing, owing that the city and investigator claimed that the messages were “transitory” and thus exempt from disclosure.

This transitory argument should sound familiar as it’s the same argument which was made by the Orange County Supervisors, including now District Attorney Todd Spitzer, when they voted to destroy “transitory” records including texts and emails.

So what does this have to do with Fullerton PD?

TigerText was being used in Long Beach when our now former Chief David Hendricks was Deputy Chief in that department. The idea that he wasn’t using or didn’t know that TigerText was being utilized for years under his command is laughable.

Knowing the above, one of our friends put in a records request asking if the city of Fullerton was using Tigertext or a similar app known as Signal and what the policies and procedures were around such software.

From Chief Dunn himself:

TigetText

“Hi ma’am…this question was floating around here last week…I am not familiar with any use of either of those messaging apps…I am aware that we use other apps that may do the same thing however…”

According to our Current Police Chief the city does in fact use similar software, in what capacity it is unknown, and they have no policies or procedures in place over how to use such software or to help mitigate abuses.

Now let us skip ahead to this last week when a Superior Court Judge ruled against the OC Supervisors in the ongoing case over their transitory records policy. The County’s argument fell apart because the word “transitory” exists nowhere in disclosure laws.

With that ruling it certainly looks like the OC Supervisors broke the law to hide as much as possible which is pretty much par for the course from that legislative body.

Let’s circle back to Fullerton with that ruling established thus far.

Is Fullerton PD is still using a similar app to TigerText, as Chief Dunn admitted, and are they also using it to destroy “transitory” records illegally?

Will the City Manager or City Council even bother to investigate this issue and further will they follow the law if PD is found to be in violation? Don’t count on it.

March 6, 2019September 9, 2020Chronic Failure

Flory’s Indecent Exposure

by Lonnie Machin35 Comments

When Jan Flory came back to council she extolled her virtue of no scandals – and then her son Mike clearly decided – Challenge Accepted.

Mike Flory Photo

We really don’t want to write about this issue but it’s one which points to a pattern of problematic behavior that needs to be addressed. A pattern of behavior by a man who works around minors for the OC DA’s office and was recently convicted of PC 415(2) – Disturbing the Peace – in a case that originally involved a battery charge, PC M242, allegedly against a minor.

This new story is pretty simple. Somebody wanted a photo of Tickle from the show Moonshiners and that somebody asked the question of the wrong Mike. Instead of sending the message to Mike [Redacted] they sent it to Mike Flory. And instead of getting a photo of Tickle they got a photo of Flory’s junk.

To make this news it needs to be stated that that somebody – was Mike Flory’s niece.

Our victim’s own 8yo daughter was sitting with her when the offending message came in and she quickly deleted it so no, we will not be showing the photo here on FFFF but to satiate your dirty bird desires here is a stunt cock:

A Better Cock

When his niece, who we should clarify was a flower girl in his wedding, got upset he doubled down claiming to want to “get up in those guts”. To his niece.

Now we’re no prudes and we normally don’t care who sends what to whom consensually – but this was an unsolicited genital pick sent to a family member. All from a man works for the DA’s office in the Juvenile justice department.

How do we know this happened absent the photo? We had to verify a few things.

First we have the messages that came after the offending photo:

Flory Call Log 01

Flory Call Log 02

You’ll notice on that first screenshot that the phone # is 714-305-5648. How do we know that’s Mike Flory?

Well, that was a small problem. As many of us have to remain anonymous here on FFFF due to retaliation and threats we didn’t exactly want to call a Deputy DA so we punched the number into the internet and up camethe State Bar of California website with:

Mike Flory State Bar

The allegation then is that Mr. Flory is sending unsolicited dick pics from the phone # he has registered with the State Bar of California. Before people start complaining that this is Doxxing, no it isn’t as Mr. Flory has provided this to the State Bar as public information and it is easily searchable as just demonstrated.

But there’s no photo so how do we know one was sent? That’s what call logs are for:

Flory Call-Log

We wanted to make sure there was a “there” there before running this piece and after some due diligence have every reason to believe that this happened as described to us based on the phone calls and texts we have had with Mr. Flory’s niece as well as the supplied evidence and a few character witnesses we have spoken to in the last few weeks.

This is an issue of integrity and ethics but also one of propriety in a District Attorney’s office which has been plagued with years of scandals, cover-ups and bad actors. This is a chance for our new District Attorney, Todd Spitzer, to show us that he doesn’t tolerate such behavior in his ranks and that he expects his staff to be better examples to the public they serve. To be humble and apologetic instead of sickos with no sense of shame.

We offer this as a challenge. The ball is in your court Mr. Spitzer. Are you going to continue the sordid legacy of Tony Rackauckas and stand behind such behavior or are you going to try to finally bring some dignity to the OC DA’s office? We and many others will be watching.

October 10, 2018October 10, 2018A Step in the Right Direction

Paulette Chaffee Under DA Investigation

by Deadeye5 Comments

Good luck getting any followup before the election as Tony Rackauckas is more worried about Todd Spitzer than doing his job.

(more…)

October 8, 2018October 8, 2018Carpetbaggery

Oops, Did She Do It Again?!

by Joshua51 Comments

In case you missed it, Paulette Marshall Chaffee looks to have been caught on video stealing signs from private property in her pretend district while illegally parked in a red zone because if one rule doesn’t apply to her – why should any amiright?

But Oops. It looks like she did it again.

Is it kleptomania? A spontaneous sign stealing spree?

(more…)

August 9, 2017August 10, 2017Behind Closed Doors

Paying for Todd Spitzer’s Lunatic Behavior

by Mr. Peabody13 Comments

Everyday the people who run the County of Orange blow through so much dough that the amount of waste is incomprehensible to the layman. It’s incomprehensible to the County Board of Supervisors too, because of course, it’s not their money.

Funny plastic handcuffs graphic borrowed from Voice of OC

But then there are the examples, though relatively small, that truly give us cause to doubt the reason and the integrity of our County government. Thus the Todd Spitzer Wahoo’s Fish Taco incident that brought about a lawsuit that the County lost, putting us taxpayers on the hook for the legal fees of the other side. Fees of $121,396 to be precise. Here’s the payout as reported by Voice of OC, who just happens to be the other party in the lawsuit.

Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Todd Spitzer gets emotional while reflecting on an incident more than 5 months ago at Wahoo’s Fish Tacos in Lake Forest. He handcuffed Jeobay Castellano and called police when the man would not stop trying to proselytize even when Spitzer told him he was a Christian.
///ADDITIONAL INFO: – Photo by MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER –

Here’s the backstory: In April, 2015, 3rd District Supervisor (and now DA candidate) Todd Spitzer, took a loaded gun into the aforementioned restaurant and slapped handcuffs on a harmless proselytizer who was annoying him. A few moths later, word leaked out about this bizarre behavior and Spitzer, trying to put a positive spin on his weird behavior engaged the services of the County’s PR person, Jean Pasco to help craft a press release that would make Spitzer look good and (ironically) cast the offending evangelist as mentally unstable. The memos and the PR draft never saw the light of day.

Nelson wears his game face, but the game was already over…

The Voice of OC got wind of the e-mails between Spitzer and Pasco and made a public records act request to get them. Request denied. Then The Voice sued to get the documents and the Supervisors, including our own Shawn Nelson, endorsed the ludicrous idea that these documents could somehow be legitimately withheld from public scrutiny. Voice won in court, got their documents and ran their story. And then this week the taxpayers of Orange County got stuck with Voice’s legal tab – over $120,000. Again the Supervisors, including Nelson, voted to make us pay for their idiotic decision to protect one of their own club from…us.

The politicians are always telling us about their dedication to public service. But if anybody ever needed a perfect example of how they will use our money to protect themselves and their employees, he need look no farther than the Todd Spitzer Wahoo’s Fish Taco Tale.

March 28, 2017March 29, 2017Behind Closed Doors

Todd Spitzer’s Mental Melt Down

by The Fullerton Harpoon15 Comments

Sometimes you get to see someone become unglued right before your very eyes. It’s never a pretty sight.

Today, in response to what must have appeared to the OC 3rd District Supervisor as bad publicity, Todd Spitzer unleashed a press release attacking his former employee, Christine Richters, who is suing the County for wrongful termination by Spitzer.

FFFF posted about the subject, here.

The press release was sent with a personal message directly to FFFF, which means that Spitzer, or somebody on his 3rd District staff is spending public resources monitoring and communicating with a 4th District blog.

This is weird. Bizarre.

Issuing a press release attacking the plaintiff the very day after the official County spokesperson declined comment because of pending litigation, shows that the wheels have fallen off Spitzer’s clown car.

And now, take a moment to review the actual press release:

Are you smelling the same stink I am? If the job of executive assistant to Spitzer was so demanding, and if it required “basic computer skills” that Ms. Richters lacked, then why was she ever hired by Spitzer in the first place, and why was she kept around for over three years? And if the job were so rigorous in its professional demands, then why did it pay 16 bucks an hour?

I love the accusation that Richters is “smearing” the County, as if the megalomaniacal Spitzer is equivalent to the County. The “County” is fighting only because Spitzer and his four fellow Supervisors get to make a decision based on their own instincts for self-protection – from their own, hand-picked employees.

I also love the part about Spitzer’s “best efforts” trying to get Richters a job in the bureaucracy somewhere. Who ever heard of an OC Supervisor being unable to get a former worker embedded in some footling job or other? That’s an obvious lie.

The crown jewel of this turd-bedecked tiara is the defensive, almost weepy assertion about Spitzer working late nights and week-ends for 25 years on behalf of the taxpayer. Spitzer has been working tirelessly, all right: working at self-promotion to gratify an insatiable lust for self-aggrandizement. Over those 25 years Spitzer has left a disastrous trail of self-interested decisions that have cost the taxpayers of Orange County and California billions of dollars.

The disasters are starting to mount for Spitzer, our would-be District Attorney, and at each turn of the screw we see somebody who is increasingly becoming psychologically unhinged.

March 26, 2017March 27, 2017Orange County Government

The Saga of Christine Richters

by English Major22 Comments

A very considerate friend just passed along this tidbit. Sort of an iffy news source. Still…

An ex-Orange County employee (and Fullerton native), Christine Richters is suing the County because she says her boss, 3rd District Supervisor and District Attorney hopeful Todd Spitzer wrongfully terminated her. Nothing unusual there. Apparently Spitzer goes through staff like normal people go through those disposable dental floss gizmos.

The hook here is that Ms. Richters, who disappeared from Spitzer’s staff last October, happens to be a former Playboy Playmate of the Month.

Um…okay.

What qualifications Ms. Richters had to be hired as a County Supervisor’s aide first place remains to be seen, as do the merits of her lawsuit.

Of course all of this is bound to reflect badly on the megalomaniacal, hair dyed Dorian Gray of OC politics. Spitzer already has problems stemming from his gun-totin’ handcuffing of a Christian evangelist in a Wahoo’s restaurant a few years ago.

One thing is certain, though. There are very few people who can claim as their employer both Todd Spitzer and Hugh Hefner.

UPDATE: FFFF has received a copy of Ms. Richters’ legal complaint.

March 15, 2017March 15, 2017Behind Closed Doors

The Deal

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy7 Comments

We don’t deal with County stuff much but when we get wind of something noxious down County way, we share it with the friends, especially if it involves Supervisor Shawn Nelson who comes from Fullerton.

The latest story wafting on the wind claims that Nelson has made a deal with DA Tony Rackaukas to support the appointment of Rack’s mouthpiece Susan Kang Schroder to replace him so she can run for DA next year as the incumbent. What Nelson gets is Rackauckas and Schroeder leaning on their stable of Deputy DAs not to run for the next judgeship, clearing the field for Nelson. And if anybody knows how to lean on people, it’s the completely vile Kang Schoeder. This deal is critically important for Nelson, who, as a defense lawyer, made a lot of money defending sex offenders and the like, stuff that would look really bad on a campaign hit piece from an active prosecutor.

If this tale is true (and it sure has the ring of truth) it reflects rather badly on Nelson. Susan Kang Schroeder has been connected at the hip to Tony Rackaukas’s incompetent and corrupt misrule for years, and the only case she ever tried, she lost. Real legal talent there, right? But of course expecting ethical behavior from a politician looking for self-promotion is like drilling a dry well.

April 7, 2011Orange County Government

Yes, Todd, We Almost Forgot

by Grover Cleveland26 Comments

I got an e-mail today from an old Friend who wanted to remind me about something.

A way back in the earliest days of the sordid regime of former OC Sheriff, now disgraced and incarcerated felon Mike Carona, something happened that should never be forgotten.

At the behest of Carona, on December 15, 1998 the OC Board of Supervisors removed the professional requirements for the job of Assistant Sheriff so that he could appoint two of his closest cronies and bag men, Don Haidl and George Jaramillo.

donhaidl — I always wanted a badge and a gun.

Jaramillo — Oh no, it's that Your Honor guy, again.

These miscreants proceeded to leave a slime trail in their wake that will always be a disgrace to the OCSD and the County of Orange. They were the henchmen who helped the Crooked Sheriff run his sleazy empire. And who do you suppose made Haidl and Jaramillo’s appointment possible along with the subsequent money laundering, bribing, selling of badges, CCWs, illegal deals with crooked lawyers and bail bondsmen, and interfering in criminal investigations?

ToddSlaughs — Yes. I did that. Didn't think you would remember.

That’s right: then Supervisor Todd Spitzer, himself a reserve officer in LA County, and surely somebody who should have known the problem he was creating: because the police are always telling us the importance of their professionalism. And there was Haidl, a shady businessman without a high school diploma and no police experience thrust into the second tier of leadership in one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the nation. Jaramillo was a cop from Garden Grove with none of the requisite command experience previously required.

Carona, Haidl and Jaramillo have now been convicted of crimes and their debauchery has been exposed in one embarrassing media reveation after another. That the scurvy Haidl and Jaramillo toppled over themselves in a rush to rat out Carona is the only redeeming part of the lurid story.

And who helped make all this possible? That’s right, the same guy who approved a retroactive pension spike for public safety employees, and who assures us he has the experience we need in a County Supervisor. Guess Spitzer figures nobody’s been paying attention. He is wrong.