Three days before the November 2012 election, Corky Booze and several others conspired to mail an illegal hit piece intended to defame me. See:
The mailer was full of lies, which is not necessarily illegal, but it violated the law because the source of the funders was not reported before the election, and the information ultimately reported was inaccurate. Elections are supposed to be transparent as far as the source of campaign materials and contributions.
Those conspiring to prepare and fund the hit piece include:
- Corky Booze
- Alten Construction, Inc.
- D.B. Murray
- Ghilotti Brothers
- Richard Lompa
- Chimes Printers
- Committee One
- Dwight Adams
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but some progress is made in the prosecution of those responsible. Here is a summary status report from the City Attorney’s Office as reported by Randy Riddle of Renne Sloan Holtzman, LLP, who was contracted to conduct the investigation:
From Randy Riddle:
Here is a summary of recent developments in the state court lawsuit City of Richmond v. Richmond One Committee Opposing Tom Butt for City Council and Dwight Adams. As you know, in response to a formal complaint filed by Tom Butt with the City Attorney’s Office, and following an initial investigation by our firm, this lawsuit was filed against the Committee and Mr. Adams to enforce Richmond Municipal Code section 2.42.075, which requires certain campaign mass mailings supporting or opposing candidates for Richmond elective office to identify those providing major funding for the mailing. The lawsuit also identifies a number of other violations of state and City campaign finance laws.
The City’s civil complaint was filed in Contra Costa Superior Court on April 29, 2013. After the complaint was filed, we entered into discussions with Defendant Dwight Adams, the treasurer for the Committee, for the purpose of obtaining additional information, and resolving the matter as to him. Based on these efforts, Mr. Adams, on behalf of the Committee, has filed with the City Clerk amendments to the Committee’s previously filed campaign finance reports. Those amendments make corrections to those earlier reports, and provide additional information about those contributing to the Committee, as required by state and City law. Those amendments are public records available from the City Clerk. Mr. Adams also provided us additional helpful information regarding this matter.
In exchange for these actions by Mr. Adams -- and his agreement to pay a monetary penalty and complete training before serving again a campaign committee treasure -- he has been dismissed from the lawsuit. A copy of the settlement agreement with Mr. Adams, and the Notice of Entry of Dismissal, are attached. It is important to note that the dismissal was “without prejudice” to the City re-filing the lawsuit against him if, as expressly explained in the settlement agreement, the City discovers that any of the amended campaign filings contains material misstatements. This settlement is not binding on other enforcement agencies, such as the Fair Political Practices Commission.
The lawsuit against the Committee itself is still pending. The Committee was formally served with the complaint on June 28. The Committee has until July 29 to respond formally to the complaint. In the meantime, our efforts to gather additional relevant information continue.
Please feel free to contact me if you any questions about this matter.
Randy Riddle
As you can see, the City Attorney’s Office is continuing to track down those responsible and take appropriate action.
In response to the summary report. One council member wrote to the city attorney:
Thanks for taking this seriously. It deserves to be taken seriously. if anyone can send a low level flunky up to the plate, have him/her take the fall after the election, and hide the real people making it all happen, it makes a mockery of our supposed restrictions.
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