In a 9 am press conference this morning Crime Survivors, Inc. and Orange County crime victims to called upon California Attorney General Jerry Brown to formally investigate Orange County Public Guardian John S. Williams for his effort to raise revenue to solve his office’s budget deficit problems by pressuring victims to give up control over their personal assets.
Under heat from the Orange County Grand Jury, who recently issued two scathing reports accusing him of incompetence and questionable personnel practices, and Orange County CEO Tom Mauk, who has recommended changing his elected position to an appointed one, Orange County Public Guardian John S. Williams is now under pressure from County Supervisors to fix his office’s serious budget shortfall problem. The Crime Victims believe he is pressuring victims to give up control over their personal assets to help raise revenue to solve his problem.  Yesterday, the 80,000 member California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations (CCLEA) also asked the AG to get involved.
The Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) has joined CCLEA in calling for an AG investigation.
“This is an office charged with protection of our most vulnerable
citizens,” said OCEA Communications Manager Jennifer Muir. “Before something tragic happens, somebody needs to step in and
pay attention to the serious concerns raised by the Grand Jury, the CEO,
OCEA and now the public.”
The Orange County Register reported today that Willams has broken his puzzling silence over the firing of Deputy DA Todd Spitzer:
Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams broke his silence Wednesday, accusing then-assistant district attorney Todd Spitzer of forcing himself into one of his office’s cases by fabricating a district attorney investigation and acting “in an irresponsible and reckless manner to further his own political/personal agenda.â€
And, Williams told Total Buzz, he has the telephone conversation transcript between the one-time high ranking assistant district attorney and a supervising deputy public administrator to prove it.
“It’s just condescending for a high level manager to speak to my supervisor like this,†Williams said. “I just thought it was totally inappropriate.â€
Spitzer, thought to be the heir apparent to the district attorney, was fired last month a day after he began looking into allegations by a friend of the woman that the case was being mishandled by the Public Administrator/Public Guardian Office.
Spitzer called Williams’ allegations “absolutely preposterous.†To prove his point, Spitzer sent over a voice mail from the county’s bad check program he says proves he was telling the truth when he said he was looking into a possible bad check investigation by the District Attorney’s Office involving a possible domestic violence victim.
This sweater seems to be unraveling more and more as the loose threads get pulled.
Ruth Hull-Richter! John Williams and Tony Rack got all bent out of shape over Ruth Hull-Richter?! I understand Spitzer was just doing his job, but this just begs the question. What were Williams, Rack and Schroeder afraid of Spitzer or somebody finding.
Under normal circumstances, Spitzer would have realized Ruth and Teddi Alves were crazy and put the case in the round file. This is the traditional overreaction to thinking they were about to get their hand caught in the cookie jar. Nail them to the wall Spitzer! And, I can’t believe I am saying this, thanks to Teddi Alves and Ruth Hull-Ricther for if they had not contacted Spitzer about their latest conspiracy theory, Tony Rack’s latest corruption allegation would never have come to light.
Teddi and Ruth are, shall we say, a little zany. But as you know, Claudio, they are also extremely determined and energetic and I doubt they will let this go. Like Chris, I expect to see this sweater continue to unravel.
If only it had all happened before June.
Particularly in emerging and evolving FACTS, the deliberately insulting insinuation posted above by “a friend of the blog,”
annonymously, attacks two dedicated and involved women, one of them an Attorney at Law, and both long committed to the public welfare, health and safety.
It would go without saying, esecially as would apply to “victims” of Domestic Abuse, much less further battery of that victim by the overwhelming arrogance and brutality directed to a senior citizen who happens to be the mother of a victim of domestic violence by “The Public Guardian(?)” who has staff on steroids attemting to confiscate life estates of those they incorrectly presumed were vulnerable.
As more details emerge, SOCIAL SERVICES of Orange County will be unfolded as totally uncoordinated and dysfunctional in structure requiring a complete reconfiguration. “Adult Protective Services” failed to respond to NINE (9) requests for assistance and then triggered an investigation of the daughter who appealed for assistance by the “Public Guardian.” Is this an “inter-agency” scheme to identify vulnerable targets? Hopefully a further and indepth investigation will thwart such presumption of outrageous autonomy in the future.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: How many of the “women” behind push carts and homeless are “victims” thusly created? And as to Claudio, his credentials?
Gee, one of the above attacks on the domestic violence victim came from a guy who tried to punch out a kid at a central committee meeting. Fortunately, Steve Ballinger was there to stop the guy trying to punch out the kid. Attacks by someone like that against a domestic violence victim is no surprise to those who don’t like violent people.
I have known Ruth Hull-Richter for years and can testify that she is a very wonderful, caring and kind lady who has always had a very close, loving relationship with her mother. Recently her husband became profoundly more abusive (possibly due to excessive use of prescription drugs) and he kept Ruth’s mother hostage and would not let them see each other! It was Ruth’s soon-to-be ex-husband who abused her mother’s credit cards, racking up thousands on them without her permission. So what exactly is the justification for John Williams and crew wanting to charge this already harrassed family a fee of $10,000 to provide guardianship? Sounds like a scam to me.