The Arcata Eye has published a follow-up article on the Paul Hagen firing – focusing on the local environmentalist movement from which came mostly praise for the terminated environmental prosecutor. I don’t know much about him, but this article leaves me with a strong impression of the man as a class act, particularly his willingness to complete a prosecution after his release – without compensation.

The praise isn’t universal in the article, but the small amount of criticism seems kind of vague and ambiguous. I certainly hope these environmental groups are pressuring CDAA for an explanation – something Hagen can’t provide due to a gag order that Hagen probably agreed to for a severance package. If Paul Gallegos is in any way responsible, he should also provide some explanation. Hagen wasn’t his employee, so the ethics around personnel issues shouldn’t apply. There is also the possibility that Hagen himself doesn’t really want to talk about it, but in previous interviews he seemed to imply that it was he who was made to agree on the gagging, and not CDAA.

But as I’ve been saying, to convince me that Gallegos is responsible somebody is going to have to show me how Gallegos has that kind of influence with CDAA, a conservative organization for the most part – at least historically.

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