Captain Buhne recently noted that Paul Gallegos has managed to stay out of the headlines for quite some time now. Seemed like he graced the front page on a daily basis last summer and fall. Obviously most of the Gallegos hate brigade which used to fill the local blogs, this one included, with comments you’d expect about a convicted child molester, finally became resigned to the fact that they’re stuck with him another four years absent yet another recall attempt. Even Rose’s blog has been quiet.
I noted in Buhne’s comments section that some decision about the Moore case was long overdue. The Times Standard seems to have taken my cue. Paul does owe the public an explanation for the length of this process. What is he waiting for? Are there more leads to follow up?
As for the hate brigade, coffee break’s over! Pickins may be slim, but you’ve got work to do!
Anybody who needs a refresher on the issue click here.
Update: There! Maybe that title will wake some of them up. Man! No wonder they’ve lost three elections in a row.
32 comments
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March 28, 2007 at 9:07 pm
ED Denson
cue. A queue is a line in England.
March 28, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Anonymous
Hank Sims takes Mr. Gallegos to task for just this issue in tomorrow’s Journal. Pretty solid thumping, and well deserved—just make a decision dude, one way or the other.
-What’s with the word verification, you getting a bunch of spam?
-JMan
March 28, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Anonymous
paul – Quit being a gutless coward and make a decision, any decision. By the point I really don’t care what it is, just make one.
March 28, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Jman – no, just hit it thinking it was something else. It’s off now.
Anon 4:37 – How about vanilla?
March 29, 2007 at 12:08 am
Anonymous
Do you guys really think PG is single handedly holding up the decision? As though there are no other possible factors? If Hank does what I think he will he is jumping the gun big time.
March 29, 2007 at 12:11 am
Eric V. Kirk
Well, how about an explanation as to the hold up?
March 29, 2007 at 12:49 am
Anonymous
Well, we all know about the turmoil in terms of staffing. Its not like PG actually does the investigation himself. We have also had multiple other police involved shootings and his decisions are already availiable on those. Having 4 other shootings I’m sure has delayed the Moore case. The difference is that I think we all can agree this particular shooting was rare and very complex. There are tons of witnesses (No witnesses for burgess). Many of the actors in this have moved to other departments outside California. And yes, there has been tremendous upheavel and anger in the community towards the police. It makes sense to me to wait to make any decision because of the divisions in the community, particularly if he knows what kind of turmoil this will bring. In this case, I think we all know how divided the community is on this. No matter what decision is made, people will be pissed.
But I think this has more to do with limited manpower and the complexity of the case.Remember, there were at least 2 or 3 other major shootings after Moore in an unprecedented year, during a time of staff upheavel.
March 29, 2007 at 3:58 am
Hank Sims
Every person involved with the shooting has been interviewed by the Critical Incident Response Team, the inter-agency investigative squad lead by the District Attorney’s Office. The CIRT report has been complete for over six months — it was complete before the inquest and before the election, contrary to what you might have been led to believe.
Every single officer involved that day with the exception of one testified under oath during the coroner’s inquest. All the information and the testimony from that proceeding has been on Gallegos’ desk since September.
March 29, 2007 at 4:09 am
Hank Sims
Whoops, correction — I fergot the DA election was in June, not November.
March 29, 2007 at 4:33 am
Rose
Oh, please! Anyone who watches Paul knows exactly what is going on – he always hesitates when he is being pushed to do something he knows is wrong and indefensible – and he doesn’t have Stoen here to help him make this one fly. He can’t come up withe the equivalent of “the right to lie” rhetoric. So he drags his feet until he is pushed into a corner, and then he’ll do as he was told.
If he had all the courage all his devotees gave him credit for, he would buck Ken Miller and say, “Look, Ken, I’m sorry, but there’s just nothing there. It’s tragic. It is sad. And there’s nothing there for you to gnash your teeth on anymore.”
It’ll be interesting to see what he chooses. Most likely, as others have said, he will take the Grand Jury “out.”
March 29, 2007 at 4:51 am
Anonymous
Sorry, but if he has a grand jury out, why hasn’t he already taken it? Something tells me that theres more to the story.
March 29, 2007 at 5:01 am
Carson Park Ranger
“…he doesn’t have Stoen here to help him make this one fly.”
Stoen couldn’t make anything fly. Not even time.
March 29, 2007 at 6:30 am
Heraldo Riviera
If he had all the courage all his devotees gave him credit for
I thought he did what his “handlers” tell him to do.
March 29, 2007 at 6:41 am
Anonymous
Typical of Hank Sims to run a tabloid hit piece when the guy is down. Not surprising, first they build them up then they knock them down. Sims is just using the old Salzman play once more. Anything to pick up circulation during this bad news cycle…
March 29, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Hank Sims
Typical of Hank Sims to run a tabloid hit piece when the guy is down.
He’s down? How so?
In any case, people seem to forget that “the guy” is an elected official. Bush is down in the polls. Do you want newspapers to stop running “tabloid hit pieces” on Bush? Do you want them to offer him a friendly helping hand?
March 29, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Anonymous
If Paul relies on the grand jury
that will be rather piquant, since a grand jury made a number of recommendations regarding his office awhile ago, and he blew them off utterly. Guess GJ only has value when it gets spoon fed by Tim or, say, Arnie.
March 29, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Eric V. Kirk
That’s better! Just had to prime the ole pump.
March 29, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Anonymous
In the 20 years I’ve been up here, I can’t remember if a DA has ever enpaneled a Grand Jury to seek a criminal charge. I don’t think the existing Grand Jury is set up to do this sort of thing. Maybe you know of a case, Eric, but I sure can’t think of one.
March 29, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Well, I would hope that it’s set up for it seeing as how it’s anticipated by the 5th amendment.
March 29, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Okay, sorry about the brief posting. There was an article about the role of the grand jury in the North Coast Journal last summer which can explain much more completely than I have time for. Let me see if I can find it.
March 29, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Anonymous
I hope a good progressive from the pd’s office decides to run, 5 years of Paul is enough already.
March 29, 2007 at 5:43 pm
oracle
The word “queue” comes from the French language. The French used to say that something should be cooked from “barbe” (beard) to “queue” (tail). From which comes the English word barbeque.
Perhaps Paul has not acted because no crime was committed. The handling of the situation may have offended left- wing values, but left-wing values are not necessarily the law of the land.
March 29, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Well, either way he has to announce a closing of the investigation, as he did with the Burgess death.
March 29, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Anonymous
Eric: you are so naive.
March 29, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Anonymous
To 08:53:00 AM:
The current GJ is a civil grand jury. It is impaneled differently than that of a criminal GJ. Gags would have to specially impanel a criminal GJ – if not the whole thing would go down in flames as the jury members have to be chosen from the list of voters like a petit jury is.
Unless of course he is using the civil grand jury to come after Douglas and Zannotti – that would be stupid as Douglas is no longer the chief and Zannotti would not come under the “public official” definition for an accusation.
And there was only one other criminal GJ in the last 20 years that I can remember – that was in late 93 or early 94 and it concerned criminal gang activity in Eureka. I believe three gang bangers were charged, convicted and sent to prison.
March 29, 2007 at 9:59 pm
ED Denson, The English Major
What word in the English language has 4 consecutive vowels in it? Are there more than 1 such word? Any with 5?
March 30, 2007 at 2:10 am
Anonymous
Ed, your blog is boring, and your comments are boring. Do you have to work at this?
March 30, 2007 at 2:50 am
Hank Sims
Queueing!
March 30, 2007 at 3:22 am
Anonymous
Great job Hank. We can always count on you to capitalize on a womans death. I wonder how many papers you’ve sold because of it. Who is next to be puffed up and deflated at your will? Hank soon you will be the only one left.
March 30, 2007 at 3:54 am
Hank Sims
You are very bizarre, sir.
March 30, 2007 at 6:02 am
Anonymous
1:50 – Thanks. Do they announce when a criminal GJ is empaneled?
March 30, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Anonymous
Well it would certainly leak out and if not one could check because potential jurors are called the same way regular jurors are – the get a love not from the jury commissioner saying that they have to show up for jury duty.
Why doesn’t someone call Betty Finley (the jury commissioner) and ask her?