Lorraine Prinsky candidate for Coast Community College District Trustee held a press conference today on the steps of the Old Orange County Courthouse regarding the misleading mailer sent our by District Chairman Armando Ruiz. Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery.
Santa Ana, CA – My name is Lorraine Prinsky. I am a university professor at CSUF where I have taught for over 35 years. I am a candidate for a seat in the Coast Community College District Area 3 because of my interest in quality higher education and because of my concerns about the ethics of the incumbent in my area, Armando Ruiz.Â
While I have been aware of my opponent’s previous ethical lapses, I am shocked and dismayed by the recent actions of a one-man committee formed in the past few weeks for the purpose of deceiving the voters in our district.Â
As we meet here today, Mr. Ruiz is traveling to a conference in New York at District expense, spending thousands of dollars that should have been used for educational purposes in these tough financial times. Â
Mr. Ruiz‘s use of the Student Trustee’s picture for political gain is appalling.  The Student Trustee is appointed by the Board and the District’s students to represent the interest of students in educational matters, not political campaigns. I am appalled that Armando Ruiz has manipulated and used the student trustee to make it look as if this student was endorsing him. Mr. Ruiz‘s inappropriate and unethical actions have compromised the integrity of the Student Trustee position.
Mr. Ruiz has further abused his position by using this “committee” to solicit large contributions from district vendors to pay for the campaign mailer in question. This is unacceptable.
As an educator and member of the Coast Community College District community, I am deeply disappointed in the example that Mr. Ruiz’s conduct sets for students, and for elected officials within our community.
Mr. Ruiz has continued to abuse his position of public trust and reached a new low. As a taxpayer, I am outraged.
So let me get this straight. The Union has signs on campus for the “Three P’s” urging students to vote for Prinsky and others. But Prinsky objects to students being used for political gain?
If you do a Google search on Prinsky you’ll find that she believes that Greg Haidel, the son of the former deputy sheriff, who with his friends gang raped a girl with a pool cue and video taped the crime, should not have been sent to prison. She believes that he should have been “counseled†in the youth authority.
Don’t you wish we had a three candidate in this race?
Linda,
You should know that Dr. Prinsky never said she believes that Greg Haidel should not be sent to prison. In fact she believes the opposite. Your comment is completely false and makes no sense. She clarified this to “Judy” on another blog.
You can read it for yourself. Dr. Prinsky’s comments are on page 4 of the Daily Titan, December 13-17, 2004.
I quote:
Although Haidl was underage at the time the video of the alleged rape was made, he is being tried as an adult, a decision that Lorraine Prinsky, a CSUF sociology professor, does not agree with. “It’s more common than it ever used to be,†Prinsky said, explaining that cases involving minors can go straight to a municipal or superior court, bypassing the juvenile justice system. “It definitely hurts a young person [because] his punishment could be with hard criminals.â€
Think maybe the girl was hurt too?
http://titanyearbook.com/archives/2004/2004-12-13.pdf
Thanks for catching that, Art. Otherwise I would have just got to it now.
Whether Linda is simply mistaken or working for Ruiz (we’ll assume the former) it’s disturbing that this already-debunked smear could sit here unanswered all day.
Both of you, the spelling is Haidl. Just think of a pool cue poking out the last vowel.
Vern:
This “smear” seens to be pretty well documented. Do you know what Blog she used to state her views?
I personally don’t care about her views on criminals. I care about defeating Ruiz.
Randall
Lorraine herself was on Orange Juice’s comments section a couple of weeks ago denying it (I’m not blogwhoring, Dan, answering a question.) Now I’m confused, maybe it is a matter of semantics. Let me see if I can find it:
http://orangejuiceblog.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=editcomment&c=72007
Responding to a “Judy” who said Prinsky didn’t want Haidl to go to prison, someone claiming to be Prinsky wrote:
Judy,
I do believe that Gregory Haidl should have been sent to prison. Of course I was concerned with the victim in that case. Either I was misquoted or you took that quote out of context. I am happy to set the record straight.
Thanks to my friends for alerting me to Judy’s comment.
Lorraine Prinsky
Well, here’s another “friend” alerting you, Lorraine (via the e-mail she used.) Is this Titan story wrong or out of context?
Please let me set the record straight once again: The Haidl case was an atrocious act of violence. I believe that Gregory should have been sent to prison and I am very concerned with the victim. The student reporter apparently did not understand my views and only reported on my explantation of the court system.
Back to the subject at hand: I think it is outrageous for a sitting trustee to manipulate the Student Trustee as Mr. Ruiz did. In addition, the solitication of donations from District vendors to pay for the objectionable mailer is yet another example of Ruiz corruption. Please see the article in the Daily Pilot: http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2008/10/29/topstory/dpt-mailer103008.txt
You can be sure she’ll say she was mis-quoted. But if so, why didn’t she ask for a correction at the time? I’m sure the student newspaper would have printed any follow-up comments by Prinsky.
By the way, Haidl is now out of prison and attends OCC.
Vern, your link doesn’t work. (It requires a password.) I am interested in reading Prinsky’s comments.
You can be sure she”ll say that she was mis-quoted. But if so, why didn’t she ask for a correction at the time? I”m sure the student newspaper would have printed any follow-up comments by Prinsky.
By the way, Haidl is now out of prison and attends OCC.
Vern, your link doesn\’t work. (It requires a password.) I am interested in reading Prinsky’s comments.
That four-year old article in the Daily Titan came out during finals week and I left to teach in London shortly after that so I could not have responded.
We need to focus on the unethical conduct of Mr. Ruiz, who has repeatedly misled the taxpayers and voters in the Coast District. I assume that you work with Mr. Ruiz, as Vern suggested, and that nothing I could say would get you to look at his behavior objectively.
I have dedicated over 35 years to higher education at CSUF and hope to work for quality education and integrity in the Coast District.
Sorry about that link “Linda”, this will work better, although I did paste in her whole comment.
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2008/10/focus-on-coastal-community-college-district-board-of-education-candidates-lorraine-prinsky/#comment-72007
There, she was responding to a “Judy” who sounds JUST like you. My pajaritos suspect Linda/Judy is really Martha Parham, the Coast District PR person, using District computers on District time to monitor the blogs for her chum Armando. Just what I hear. She should be careful, this is easy to track down.
Funny, too, that this is the worst they can dig up against Dr. Prinsky, a four-year-old out-of-context quote relating to an incendiary tabloid case. I think I’ll look into “Judy’s” IP now, since I can’t see “Linda’s.”
Vern — via the administrative tools available to me when I approve comments, Linda is in fact a “Linda.” Is it me, or does every OJ blogger make huge assumptions without any facts to back them up?
You owe Martha Parham an apology; and monitoing all forms of media is what good PR people do for a living in addition to a number of other things.
Keep your unfounded accusations over at OJ where they belong.
So maybe it’s not Martha, still these anonymous ladies keep popping on to blogs with the same old smear about Lorraine even though she keeps answering it. “Judy” at my blog wrote:
Lorraine Prinsky believes Gregory Haidl, who was convicted a raping a teenage girl with a pool cue, should not have been sent to prison. In the October 13-17, 2004 edition of the Daily Titan. Prinsky was quoted as saying “It definitely hurts a young person (because) his punishment could be with hard criminals.†I wonder if Dr. Prinsky paid any attention to the victim? By the way, Haidl is now out of prison and said to be a student at OCC.
Still sounds orchestrated to me. It’s a shame that during a political season some people think of grotesque years-old crimes like the Haidl one as a “gift that keeps on giving.”
You think there’s only one Vern?
“You think there’s only one Vern?”
No te entiendo, amigo.
“Back to the subject at hand: I think it is outrageous for a sitting trustee to manipulate the Student Trustee as Mr. Ruiz did. In addition, the solitication of donations from District vendors to pay for the objectionable mailer is yet another example of Ruiz corruption. ”
Why is it no one has any comments on the actions of Mary Hornbuckle? You don’t think Ruiz did this on his own do you?
With respect to Dr. Prinsky, I’ll take her on her word and so far as I’m concerned the issue is closed.
Hope you’ve had all your concerns answered, Linda. Sorry about the paranoia, it’s just hearing that same smear over and over, too reminiscent of McCain/Rove tactics.
Vote Patterson, Pirch and Prinsky Nov. 4!
Linda,
I have kept my focus on Ruiz because I am running against him. Despite his denials, it is easy to connect Ruiz to the mailer because his wife took the photo of the two trustees with the student (we know this from the Student Trustee). We don’t know how involved Mary Hornbuckle was beyond being photographed.