PG&E; Nancy McFadden; Jerry Brown; Ex-CPUC Geoffrey Brown; PG & E’ s Legal Team of Keker & Van Nest’s Robert Van Nest, John Keker, Proxy Jon Streeter and Arnold & Porter/Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop and Jerome Falk Hereby Asked to  Comment on PG & E Search Results on TLR.

PG & E  breached various agreement it had entered into with a small Texas-based energy company known as El Paso Energy.  PG & E managed to gain the support of the CPUC in reneging on those agreements.  A very upset owner of El Paso managed to “outfox” PG & E by slowly gaining control of various pipelines which carry natural gas to California.

Once in control, El Paso raised the prices.   PG & E — per restriction imposed by the CPUC — couldn’t ask for a rate increase and begun losing money.  At times, PG & E’s generators came to a complete holt — forcing “rolling blackouts.”  

The outcome of El Paso’s vendetta:

A) California “Energy Crisis.” 

B) Allegation El Paso had conspired with Sempra in Phoenix.

B) PG & E sought protection in  bankruptcy court — represented by Howard Rice’s Jerome Falk — the one and same Jerome Falk of Copple vs. Astrella / In Re Girardi.

C) PG & E and CPUC filed suit against El Paso before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — Keker & Van Nest’s Robert Van Nest and Jon Streeter represented PG & E.

D)  California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed suit against PG & E alleging money was misappropriated by PG & E’s parent company during the bankruptcy proceedings.  Once Jerry Brown assumed the position of Attorney General, said suit was dismissed.

Separately,  events surrounding PG & E, CaliforniaALL, El Paso, Sempra, Joe Dunn,  Martha Escutia, Voice of OC and CPUC  are also suspect.  To wit, hush-hush sub-rosa transfer of $ 780,000 from the California Bar Foundation (while CPUC’s Geoffrey Brown and Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop served as California Bar Foundation BOD member) to  CaliforniaALL.

Moreover, the fact that PG & E directly funneled sums to CaliforniaALL, as well as the fact that PG & E’s Ophelia Basgal served as CaliforniaALL BOD member.

The above events were extensively covered  by The Leslie Brodie Report.

Unfortunately, various news media platforms maintained by The Leslie Brodie Report were recently sabotaged to exclude search results dealing with PG&E.

Effected sites:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/

Support and research platform @ lesliebrodie.wordpress.com

Please see below:

BREAKING NEWS: News Media Platforms Maintained by The Leslie Brodie Report Sabotaged to Exclude Search Results Dealing with Energy Giant PG&E — A Client of Keker & Van Nest and Howard Rice — PG & E Involved in Shady Bankruptcy Proceedings, Sham Entity CaliforniaALL, El Paso / CPUC Litigation

Effected sites:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/

Support and research platform @ lesliebrodie.wordpress.com

Please see below:

Howard Dickstein, a widely-known but controversial figure within California’s Tribal Gambling industry, has been named a defendant in a suit seeking unspecified monetary damages. Also named as defendant is Dickstein’s wife, Sacramento-based lobbyist Jeannine English.

The lawsuit alleges that Dickstein and English executed a scheme that caused injury to the Plaintiff, a Southern California resident who claims his privacy and constitutional rights were “egregiously violated.”

Specifically, the suit alleges that in order to camouflage a scheme and make it appear as though it is purely a mundane action by a governmental agency and was not designed to conceal Dickstein’s and English’s own acts of malfeasance, greed, and betrayal, defendants resorted to abusing their considerable “political and legal clout.”

This clout was presumably obtained as a result of the funneling of hundreds of millions of dollars from myriad Tribal Casinos to various state and local governmental agencies/officials, as well as from English’s position as a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors, and the fact that the president of the State Bar of California, Jon Streeter, and his firm of Keker & Van Nest, represent Howard Dickstein. This , the plaintiff alleges, shows “malice and oppression” on the part of defendants sufficient to justify an award of punitive damages.

Dickstein , who is no stranger to litigation, has been previously named a defendant in a suit advanced by his client, members of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nations (formerly known as the Ramsey Band of Wintun Indians), which owns and operates the Cache Creek Casino in Brooks, California, an unincorporated community in Yolo County.

In that action, the plaintiffs — who were represented by Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy and legal ethics expert Michael Boli — alleged that Dickstein engaged in myriad fraudulent conduct, concealment, conversion (i.e. a non-criminal term referring to the act of theft), breaches of fiduciary duties, misrepresentations, and unjustly enriching himself with tribal money by defrauding the tribe of millions of dollars over more than a decade.

While the suit was pending, further allegations of grave misconduct were leveled against Dickstein and his attorneys of San Francisco-based Keker & Van Nest including claims that evidence was “manufactured.” Later, Dickstein and his lawyers of Keker & Van Nest (presumably, John Keker, Elliot Peters, and Jon Streeter) falsely advertised and misled the public into believing that the Yocha Dehe tribe had only sued Dickstein for conduct which was “negligent” in nature. Dickstein and his legal team neglected to reference the allegations of defrauding the tribe of millions of dollars over more than a decade through fraudulent conduct, concealment, conversion, breaches of fiduciary duties, and misrepresentations which the tribe had leveled against their own attorney.

In nearby Placer County, situated between the cities of Roseville and Lincoln, 50 miles east of Yolo County, where the United Auburn Indian Community operates the Thunder Valley Casino, allegations of greed and betrayal were also leveled against Howard Dickstein by the former chairwoman of the United Auburn Indian Community, the Honorable Jessica Tavares and long-time tribal council member Dolly Suehead.

According to media reports, Tribal Administrator Greg Baker — a Dickstein confederate — disallowed a tribe-funded mailing of a campaign mailer that claims the United Auburn Indian Community has been “bamboozled by an attorney [Howard Dickstein] more interested in filling his garage with Ferraris than serving the interest of our tribe, and the greed of a tribal council that rubber stamps his decision and no longer looks after our best interests.”

Baker, who as it turned out was involved in a separate and unrelated financial scheme, was recently suspended following on the heels of an IRS investigation into allegations of fraud and money-laundering. In affidavits filed by an IRS investigator, it was alleged that Baker was part of a scheme to over-bill the casino/tribe by more than $18 million, which would later be “kicked-back.”

Roman Porter — a long time ally and confederate of California Democratic Party operative Joseph Dunn of embattled online publication Voice of OC who now serves as the executive director of the State Bar of California — was recently hired as Thunder Valley Casino’s new tribal administrator.

The fundamental problem is that there is this misguided belief that the judicial council and the AOC are honest, ethical and beyond reproach. There is this misguided belief that people who meet only about six times a year can manage a multi-billion dollar budget or oversee an office like the AOC that is spending most of that multi-bilion dollar budget.

One only needs to look at the pages here and the history of previous votes to see that the judicial council and the AOC are partners engaged in unprecedented self-dealing and that keeping trial court doors open isn’t even on their radar nor does it hold any importance. The Judicial Council as presently formed consists of a large majority of yes men and women and insiders who have something to gain or lose by pulling the party line and speaking with one voice. God forbid that we have any democratic dissension as representative government gets messy and sends out confusing messages. Instead, the Judicial Branch is governed by appointees that are all appointed based on their ability to go along and get along.

Please continue @:

http://judicialcouncilwatcher.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/youre-suggesting-that-…

Please see references to search warrant executed on YR at end of article which was originally published on June of 2003, below:

*Photos and links by TLR, and not part of original letter.

RE: NINTH CIRCUIT MATTER OF IN RE THOMAS GIRARDI ; U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE MORRISON C. ENGLAND; EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA, JOE DUNN OF VOICE OF OC; JAMES BROSNAHAN OF MORRISON & FOERSTER; LAW OFFICES OF SKADDEN ARPS; HOLLY FUJIE

Dear Honorable Chief Judge Kozinski and Honorable Judges Berzon, Smith, Tashima, and Fletcher:

This is written to advise you of circumstances relating to the California State Bar’s handling of the matter of In re Girardi pursuant to an order issued by this Court.

By way of background, at the conclusion of the appeal in a civil case prosecuted by the firms of Girardi & Keese and Engstrom Lipscomb & Lack against Dole Food Company, Judge Kozinski issued an order to show cause why Thomas Girardi and Walter Lack should not be disbarred, suspended, or sanctioned for the attempt to defraud this Court for the purpose of unjustly collecting a $500 million judgment.

Representing Thomas Girardi in those disciplinary proceedings before this Court were the law firm of Skadden Arps and ethics expert Diane Karpman. Ms. Karpman asked this Court to appoint a special prosecutor, and the Court appointed Hastings Law School professor Rory Little.

Oral arguments ensued, during which one of the judges on the panel stated that the “elephant” in the room is the manner in which the matter would be developed by the State Bar of California.

Subsequently, this Court found both Girardi and Lack culpable, and imposed monetary sanctions, reprimanded Girardi, and suspended Lack. This Court also ordered Girardi and Lack to report its findings to the State Bar of California.

Judge William Fletcher, a member of the Ninth Circuit panel that adjudicated the matter of In re Girardi, 08-80090, rejected the lenient recommendations of Rory Little. He stated: “with any competent lawyer if you’re omitting part of a document, that is not accidental. That is intentional.” The court adjudicated that the grave misconduct by Walter Lack and Thomas Girardi included “the persistent use of known falsehoods,” and that the “false representations” were made “knowingly, intentionally, and recklessly” during years of litigation.

The day after this Court issued its ruling, respondents’ counsel moved to redact their names from the published decision, a motion this Court denied. (This issue will surface again, below.)

The State Bar of California assigned the matter to an outside special prosecutor (Jerome Falk of Howard Rice) since Howard Miller of Girardi & Keese served as President of the State Bar, and had hired the Chief Trial counsel of the State Bar at the time, Mr. James Towery.

After conducting an interview with Walter Lack, Jerome Falk chose to not file any charges against Lack or Girardi based on his position that any false statements submitted were not “intentional.” This determination was contrary to findings made by this Court.

Within days of the issuance of Mr. Falk’s decision, I advanced an ethics complaint against James Towery, Jerome Falk, Howard Miller, and Douglas Winthrop, contending that it had been improper for Mr. Towery to select Jerome Falk (of Howard Rice) to serve as special prosecutor because, among other reasons, Howard Miller (of Girardi & Keese) had appointed Howard Rice’s managing partner (Douglas Winthrop) as president of the California Bar Foundation, a foundation owned, controlled, and maintained by the State Bar of California.

(Incidentally, while examining materials in connection with California Bar Foundation board members, including Howard Miller of Girardi & Keese, Douglas Winthrop of Howard Rice, Holly Fujie of Buchalter Nemer, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster, and ex-CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown (cousin of governor Jerry Brown, I also unearthed disturbing events relating to a Section 501 entity known as CaliforniaALL involving many of the same individuals and related entities.)

The peculiar nature of the motion to redact the names of respondents’ counsel from the published decision of this Court prompted me to look into the matter further. I then discovered that, beginning in 2003, Girardi & Keese and Engstrom Lipscomb & Lack were prosecuting a class action case against Farmers Insurance Company, which was represented by Skadden Arps. This was a nationwide class action with estimated damages of close to $15 billion that had originally been filed by Texas Governor Rick Perry.

I thereafter informed the Los Angeles County Superior Court (Judge William Highberger) of this information, and filed a State Bar ethics complaint against attorneys Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and Thomas Nolan and Raoul Kennedy of Skadden Arps because neither the class of plaintiffs (consisting of 14 million Americans), nor the courts (the Ninth Circuit in the matter of In Re Girardi and the Los Angeles County Superior Court in the matter of Fogel vs. Farmers) had been informed of the concurrent representation by which Skadden Arps represented Girardi & Keese (in the Ninth Circuit matter), while at the same time defending Farmers against Girardi and Keese’s clients (in the Fogel v. Farmers matter). (This background may help explain why Skadden Arps rushed to defend Thomas Girardi before the Ninth Circuit.)

Shortly after I filed this ethics complaint, Skadden Arps moved ex parte (which, not surprisingly, was unopposed) to amend the settlement agreement in the Fogel matter and the notice to the class of 14 million Americans throughout the country to include a proviso by which members of the class would be prohibited from suing anyone due to the concurrent representation described above. Nevertheless, the State Bar of California decided not to take any action on this ethics complaint.

In the meantime, I also discovered that during the period that Howard Miller, Douglas Winthrop, Holly Fujie of Buchalter Nemer, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster, and ex-CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown were serving as board members for the California Bar Foundation, a highly unusual financial transaction took place in which approximately $780,000 was quietly transferred, causing the California Bar Foundation to end the year in the red.

Upon further examination, I discovered that the money had been transferred to a newly-created Section 501(c)(3) non-profit entity (headed by a friend of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakayue — Ruthe Catolico Ashley) known as CaliforniaALL. In turn, CaliforniaALL funneled a large portion of the money to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive Director Joe Dunn served as trustee.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, the California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Various factors and evidence caused me to suspect that a significant portion of the funds transferred from the California Bar Foundation ended up financing a newly-created online publication which Joe Dunn had launched with the help of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster; this online publication is known as “Voice of OC.”

Those factors include, but are not limited to, the fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – Morrison & Foerster’s Susan MacCormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation; and BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. Morrison & Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi also assisted Joe Dunn in establishing Voice of OC.

While James Brosnahan and Thomas Girardi served as members of the Voice of OC board of directors, for unknown reasons they subsequently chose to quit.

Based on my concerns, I requested that Voice of OC provide me with copies of its IRS 990 forms. Voice of OC did not comply with applicable IRS regulation in that it failed to reply to my request for copies of its 990 forms submitted to the IRS, whereupon I filed a complaint against Voice of OC and Joe Dunn with the IRS.

Also in connection with CaliforniaALL, I have advanced a judicial misconduct complaint against Judge Morrison England since State Bar of California Executive Director Judy Johnson, Judge England, his wife (Torie Flournoy-England), and State Bar of California employee Patricia Lee were all members of CaliforniaALL’s board of directors and/or advisory council. The basis for that complaint was these individuals’ failure to inform plaintiff Sara Granda — who had filed an action in federal court naming the State Bar of California as a sole defendant that was heard by Judge Morrison England — of these facts.

On January 27, 2009 DLA Piper’s Gilles Attia and the Office of Assembly-member Mike Davis co-hosted a reception honoring California ALL at the Tsakopoulos Galleria in Sacramento. Bottom (left to right): Ruthe Ashley; Judge Morrison England and Mrs. Torie Flournoy-England; Ruthe Ashley, Gilles Attia, News 10 Presenter Sharon Ito, and Assembly-member Mike Davis. Top right is Karina Hamilton. Mike Davis, an ally of former assembly-member Gwen Moore and Karen Bass, is the vice-chair of the Legislative Black Caucus.

Specifically, without informing plaintiff Granda of his relationship with Judy Johnson (the State Bar’s Executive Director) vis-a-vis CaliforniaALL and either obtaining a waiver from this plaintiff or independently recusing himself, Judge England summarily dismissed Ms. Granda’s complaint against the California State Bar. Fortunately for Ms. Granda, several days later then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger championed her cause and pressured the California Bar to accommodate her needs.

Unfortunately, the Clerk of the Ninth Circuit rejected my complaint against Judge England claiming, incorrectly, that I did not comply with a requirement to insert wording to the effect that I understand that irrespective of the complaint, the outcome of the underlying case will not be affected. At that point, I chose not to resubmit the complaint against Judge England.

My discovery concerning Jerome Falk (specifically, that Thomas Girardi and Walter Lack were clients of his firm) occurred only a few months ago, and my plan was to approach the Ninth Circuit to request either that the Court reopen the matter of In Re Girardi or that it appoint a special prosecutor to determine what, if any, ethical violations transpired.

However, in a shocking turn of events, I was recently served with a search warrant while at home. Six investigators from the Yolo County District Attorney’s office (some of them armed) arrived at my home on February 23, 2012, searched the premises, and confiscated two computers and documents relating to, among others, Joe Dunn, Thomas Girardi, Judy Johnson, Holly Fujie, Alec Chang of Skadden Arps, James Towery, and State Bar attorneys Mark Torres Gil, Lawrence Yee, and Rachel Grunberg, as well as material belonging to online publication The Leslie Brodie Report, and communications from the Internal Revenue Service relating to the complaint I had filed against Joe Dunn and Voice of OC.

My understanding is that members of the State Bar of California Board of Governors (presumably, State Bar of California Executive Director Joe Dunn of Voice of OC, Alec Chang of Skadden Arps, and others with their own financial and liberty interest at stake due to my whistleblowing activities) have presented claims to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Jeff Reisig and Michael Cabral to file criminal charges against me, for among other things, alleged violations of Business and Professions Code section 6043.5, on the purported basis that the ethics complaints I filed were unfounded and constituted criminal conduct.  (See ethics complaint concerning Rachel Grunberg, Mark Torres-Gil, Lawrence Yee in matter of Sara Granda HERE, ethics complaint against Thomas Girardi in the Fogel v. Farmers Group HERE., ethics complaint against James Towery HERE)

Incidentally, I was informed by friendly sources many months ago that if choose to expose corruption concerning Joe Dunn and Thomas Girardi via these complaints, they will try to frame me by various means similar to the ones used against Erin Baldwin. At that time, my reaction was complete skepticism of Erin Baldwin and her story because I could not imagine that such conduct could occur in our country. It appears that I may have been naive.

Consequently, please note the motion to re-open the In Re Girardi matter will be delayed.

Thank you for your time.

Addendum to Howard Dickstein / Dave Rosenberg  Ties In Re Seeking to Crucify Rabbi of Yolo County Who Exposed Corruption Re: Fogel vs. Farmers, Ninth Circuit’s In Re Girardi, Jeannine English, CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, Voice of OC, CCPF, UC Davis’s Sarah Granda)

Articles Re Yoloan Rabbi (“YR”)  exposing corruption:

Jeannine English,spouse of Howard Dickstein, who serves as “public member” of State Bar of California Board of Governors primarily to ensure that Howard Dickstein will not be disciplined by the agency, please see @

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/07/12/state-bar-of-california-board-of-go…

AND

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/06/14/state-bar-of-california-board-of-go…

——————————————————————————————————————————-

State Bar of California mishandling of Ninth Circuit disciplinary matter of In Re Girardi, please see@:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2012/03/29/arnold-porter-s-douglas-winthrop-in…

———————————————————————————————————————————-

Fogel vs. Farmers Group, Inc, please see @

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/04/05/ethics-complaint-filed-with-califor…

AND @

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/11/08/fogel-vs-farmers-group-settlement-i…

AND @

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/10/25/austin-texas-based-joe-longley-info…

AND @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/08/17/objection-to-class-action-settlemen…

————————————————————————————————————————————

State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn of  Voice of OC, CaliforniaALL, Geoffrey Brown,  in the myusterious trtansfer of 780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation, please see @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/11/23/voice-of-oc-orange-county-s-nonprof…

——————————————————————————————————————————-

CCPF, Judy Johnson and Geoffrey Brown, please see @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2012/01/02/california-consumer-protection-foun…

——————————————————————————————————————————-

UC davis law student Sarah Granda, please see @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/06/01/californiaall-part-13-c-ethics-comp…

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Summary, please see @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2012/03/06/in-letter-to-ninth-circuit-judges-c…

The San Diego Union – Tribune – Jul 26, 2003

“She will step into the role that David Rosenberg has played as the governor’s point … at least one Rosenberg ally, prominent tribal attorney Howard Dickstein. “

Morrison & Foerster is advising Boyd on the transaction with a team that includes corporate partner Brandon Parris, financial transactions partner Kathryn Johnstone, tax partners Stephen Feldman and Remmelt Reigersman, executive compensation partner Michael Frank, employment partner Eric Akira Tate, real estate partner Peter Aitelli, technology transactions partner Paul Jahn and antitrust partner Jeff Jaeckel. The firm previously represented the company on its unsuccessful bid for assets owned by the bankrupt Las Vegas–based Station Casinos.

Brian Larson serves as general counsel for Boyd, which also owns half of the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. The company’s executive chairman, William Boyd, is a lawyer who cofounded the company in 1974 with his father. Thomas Girardi, a founding partner of Los Angeles–based Girardi & Keese, serves on the Boyd board.

Please continue @:

http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202554367344

Originally published on January 6, 2012

The State Bar of California denied it has received a formal ethics complaint against its own executive director Joe Dunn — creator of online publication “Voice of OC.”

The complaint alleged that a request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests.  As such, the failure of Senator Dunn to comply with the law, as well as his utter and complete indifference to the law of the land, mandates that discipline be imposed.

Moreover, and according to the complaint, the fact that Senator Dunn is the Executive Director of the State Bar of California should only serve as a factor for enhanced discipline, as his conduct should be beyond reproach and he should fully comply with all laws and regulations. This is particularly true because those documents were sought as part of an inquiry into circumstances involving a charity known as CaliforniaALL, in the context of events surrounding Voice of OC.

The State Bar of California, which controls and operates the California Bar Foundation, quietly transferred $780,000 to CaliforniaALL, a charitable entity created by former BOG member Ruthe Catolico Ashley. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns.

Likewise, the Foundation never acknowledged this transfer to CaliforniaALL — the largest grant it ever bestowed — via publications issued by its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Senator Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That month, Senator Dunn publicly launched his online publication, ” Voice of OC.” Public sources have stated that the Voice of OC was financed by various foundations, unions, and the like.

Events surrounding the State Bar of California, California Bar Foundation, CaliforniaALL, Voice of OC, and UCI Foundation, as well as the fact that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL (i.e. Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac and Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL) were also involved with the creation of Voice of OC (Morrison & Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi ) created the appearance of suspicious activities that funds were misappropriated by Voice of OC, vis-a-vis CaliforniaALL.

Additionally, the belief is heightened given various events’ proximity in time — as noted above, Ruthe Ashley left CaliforniaALL in the same month Mr. Dunn launched “Voice of OC” (as though her mission had been completed).

Moreover, the recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” ( as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences), the refusal of SAL-UCI to disclose the amount it receive from CaliforniaALL, the simulated RFP, and CaliforniaALL’s pre-selection of the UCI Foundation as a recipient of funds only reinforce the suspicion. This is heightened by Mr. Thomas Girardi’s lack of credibility (pursuant to findings made by a panel of federal judges), and the friendship Mr. Dunn shares with Mr. Girardi.

The above is an image of the complaint which was electronically mailed  to the Intake Office of  the State Bar of California, Ms. Jayne Kim as well as to Mr. Robert Hawley.  Below are images of various prior communications between the complainanat and the State Bar of California confirming a new policy by which ethics complaints may be submiited via electronic mail.  For more about the complaint against Voice of OC and  Joe Dunn, please see Here and Here

TLR is closely monitoring the situation and will keep readers apprised of any new developments.

Originally published on January 6, 2012

The State Bar of California denied it has received a formal ethics complaint against its own executive director Joe Dunn — creator of online publication “Voice of OC.”

The complaint alleged that a request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests.  As such, the failure of Senator Dunn to comply with the law, as well as his utter and complete indifference to the law of the land, mandates that discipline be imposed.

Moreover, and according to the complaint, the fact that Senator Dunn is the Executive Director of the State Bar of California should only serve as a factor for enhanced discipline, as his conduct should be beyond reproach and he should fully comply with all laws and regulations. This is particularly true because those documents were sought as part of an inquiry into circumstances involving a charity known as CaliforniaALL, in the context of events surrounding Voice of OC.

The State Bar of California, which controls and operates the California Bar Foundation, quietly transferred $780,000 to CaliforniaALL, a charitable entity created by former BOG member Ruthe Catolico Ashley. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns.

Likewise, the Foundation never acknowledged this transfer to CaliforniaALL — the largest grant it ever bestowed — via publications issued by its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Senator Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That month, Senator Dunn publicly launched his online publication, ” Voice of OC.” Public sources have stated that the Voice of OC was financed by various foundations, unions, and the like.

Events surrounding the State Bar of California, California Bar Foundation, CaliforniaALL, Voice of OC, and UCI Foundation, as well as the fact that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL (i.e. Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac and Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL) were also involved with the creation of Voice of OC (Morrison & Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi ) created the appearance of suspicious activities that funds were misappropriated by Voice of OC, vis-a-vis CaliforniaALL.

Additionally, the belief is heightened given various events’ proximity in time — as noted above, Ruthe Ashley left CaliforniaALL in the same month Mr. Dunn launched “Voice of OC” (as though her mission had been completed).

Moreover, the recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” ( as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences), the refusal of SAL-UCI to disclose the amount it receive from CaliforniaALL, the simulated RFP, and CaliforniaALL’s pre-selection of the UCI Foundation as a recipient of funds only reinforce the suspicion. This is heightened by Mr. Thomas Girardi’s lack of credibility (pursuant to findings made by a panel of federal judges), and the friendship Mr. Dunn shares with Mr. Girardi.

The above is an image of the complaint which was electronically mailed  to the Intake Office of  the State Bar of California, Ms. Jayne Kim as well as to Mr. Robert Hawley.  Below are images of various prior communications between the complainanat and the State Bar of California confirming a new policy by which ethics complaints may be submiited via electronic mail.  For more about the complaint against Voice of OC and  Joe Dunn, please see Here and Here

TLR is closely monitoring the situation and will keep readers apprised of any new developments.

Originally published in November of 2011:

Internal Revenue Service
Exempt Organizations Unit
1100 Commerce St.
Dallas, TX 75242-1198

Re: A referral for noncompliance with tax laws against exempt organization “Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency” (dba “Voice of OC”):

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT:

In lieu of using IRS Form 13909 (Tax-Exempt Organization Referral Form), please consider this communication a formal complaint (referral) against an Orange County, California not-for-profit entity known as “Orange County Nonprofit Investigative News Agency,” which operates an online publication under the name “Voice of OC” (located at www.voiceofoc.org).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1.) To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned makes this referral.

INTRODUCTION OF ACTORS:

1. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as the creator of online publication “Voice of OC” – Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency.

2. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Trustee of the UCI Foundation (an entity which obtained funds from a separate charitable entity known as CaliforniaALL (FEIN Number 51-0656213).

3. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Executive Director of the State Bar of California – an entity which also controls and maintains a foundation known as the California Bar Foundation. The California Bar Foundation very quietly transferred close to $780,000 to CaliforniaALL.

4. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as a politician and business partner of Martha Escutia, who was involved in matters relating to utility companies operating in California.

5. Ms. Gwen Moore – a former Assembly member in the California legislature. Ms. Moore has “clout” over the CPUC and utility companies. Ms. Moore presently serves as a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors; she has previously been the subject of an FBI sting operation.

6. Mr. Geoffrey Brown – a former commissioner with the CPUC and former board member of the California Bar Foundation. During his tenure as a board member of the California Bar Foundation, a hush-hush transfer of $780,000 was made to CaliforniaALL. Subsequent to this transfer, Mr. Brown abruptly quit his position as board member.

7. Mr. Thomas Girardi of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Girardi helped Joe Dunn to establish the Voice of OC, and was a member of its board of directors. Recently, he abruptly quit that position. Mr. Girardi is a well-known donor to the Democratic Party and, in particular, to California Senator Barbara Boxer.

8. Mr. Howard Miller of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Miller was a member of both the State Bar of California Board of Governors and the California Bar Foundation board of directors when the “hush-hush” transfer of $780,000 from California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL took place.

9. Mr. James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster – Mr. Brosnahan represents utility companies. He – along with Thomas Girardi – helped Mr. Joe Dunn create the Voice of OC, the subject of this complaint. Like Mr. Girardi, Mr. Brosnahan also served as member of Voice of OC’s board of directors, and recently also abruptly quit his position.

10. Ms. Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster – Ms. Mac Cormac was part of the legal team that created the legal entity known as CaliforniaALL.

11. Mr. Victor Miramontes – a resident of San Antonio, TX and business partner of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Miramontes was the chairman of CaliforniaALL.

12. Ms. Ruthe Catolico Ashley – a former employee of McGeorge School of Law who later served as a “Diversity Officer” at CalPERS. Ms. Ashley also served as member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors, and came up with the idea to create CaliforniaALL during a meeting with Sarah Redfield and Peter Arth, Jr. (the assistant to CPUC President Michael Peevey). After CaliforniaALL came into existence, Ms. Ashley, after a simulated search, was selected to serve as CaliforniaALL’s executive director.

13. Ms. Sarah Redfield – a visiting professor at McGeorge School of Law and a member of the State Bar of California Committee. Ms. Redfield was chosen to serve as the “interim executive director” for CaliforniaALL, and later also allegedly served as a consultant to CaliforniaALL. For her services, Ms. Redfield was paid for the year of 2008 close to $160,000 as an “independent contractor.” Even though CaliforniaALL was housed pro bono at the law offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento, there is an entry on CaliforniaALL’s tax return for close to $16,000 for “occupancy.”

14. Ms. Judy Johnson – the former Executive Director of the State Bar of California. For the past 8 years, she has been secretly serving as the president of an entity with a misleading name (“California Consumer Protection Foundation”). This entity absorbed close to $30 million in class action cy pres awards, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the CPUC on utility companies. This entity forwarded those funds to mostly questionable ACORN-like entities. On its website, CCPF claims that it has available information on all grantees going back 10 years. Not so. The information is scattered and extremely difficult to ascertain. In fact, a whole year is missing (2002). During that year, incidentally, CCPF awarded funds to the real ACORN as well as to Eric Moore of Educate LA, who is presumably related to Gwen Moore. Ms. Johnson used her position as executive director of the State Bar of California (which is supposed to supervise and discipline lawyers) as “clout” to obtain cy pres awards from the settlement of class actions prosecuted and defended by countless law firms.

15. Mr. Jeffrey Bleich of Munger Tolles & Olson – presently the U.S. ambassador to Australia and a close friend of President Barack Obama. Mr. Bleich served as member of the BOG when CaliforniaALL was conceived. He is mentioned only in reference because Verizon Communications (which heavily contributed to CaliforniaALL) is a client of Munger Tules & Olson.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND:

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive director for a period of 6 months. Serving as CaliforniaALL’s legal counsel was Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster.

California Attorney General RCT reflects that CaliforniaALL obtained its “Charity” status on March 14, 2008 (FEIN Number 510656213). The address for CaliforniaALL is listed as 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400, Sacramento, California. This is actually the address of DLA Piper, where CaliforniaALL resided pro bono.
In June 2008, after a “nationwide search” and aided by a pro bono head-hunting firm in its search for a permanent CEO, CaliforniaALL, not surprisingly, hired Ruthe Catolico Ashley as its chief executive officer.

Also not surprisingly, Ruthe Catolico Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL in September 2009 – the same month Joe Dunn launched his non-profit online publication “Voice of OC.”

CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in June 2010.

CaliforniaALL’s 990 returns for 2008 list Sarah Redfield of Orono, Maine as an “independent contractor.” Her job description is listed as “Program Director.” and she was paid $157,763. It is unknown to the undersigned whether Redfield paid self-employment taxes or any other applicable state income taxes, either in California or Maine. (Incidentally, Redfield falsely states on her resume that she was part of a “curriculum committee” with SAL-UCI, an entity associated with UCI and the UCI Foundation where CaliforniaALL forwarded funds. In addition, Redfield falsely stated that she “launched” SAL-UCI, an entity that was already in existence from 2005.)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub rosa “hush-hush” contribution of $769,247 from the State Bar of California Foundation.

To date, data collected by the undersigned shows that CaliforniaALL (which was supposed to forward most of those funds) transferred between $300,000 to $400,000 to the UCI Foundation (where Joe Dunn serves as trustee), spent an unknown amount to honor Gwen Moore at a lavish dinner held at a luxury hotel in Sacramento, paid for other incidental expenses such as salaries, and subsequent to moving out from the offices of DLA Piper to a more modest location , paid for a UPS Store mail box slot in Citrus Heights. (Later, CaliforniaALL relocated its base to the loft of one Larrisa Parecki in Sacramento.)

Between 2001 and 2007, Geoffrey Brown served as a Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009, Brown served as a director of the State Bar of California Foundation. In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to CaliforniaALL. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Several months ago, the undersigned asked the State Bar of California Board of Governors to examine the suspicious circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL (i.e. the hush hush transfer, etc.). While simply presenting facts similar to the above, Geoffrey Brown immediately, as though bitten by a snake, threatened to file legal action against the undersigned even though the communication with the BOG was absolutely privileged and justified, and only made mention of Brown in passing.

The undersigned has met Brown casually once or twice, and was highly impressed with his modest and genteel nature. A group conversation transpired and Brown immediately, without even being asked, volunteered to help and assist. This however, can and will not serve to bar the mentioning of his name as part of the overall description of events (such as in this communication). Such tactics would be unfair to the other individuals and the proper administration of justice. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the undersigned possesses not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Brown somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, other than the convenient circumstances described above.

Due to unsettling circumstances involving the State Bar of California (such as the highly secretive control of CCPF by Judy Johnson, the refusal of the State Bar of California to disclose amounts it transfers to Bet Tzedek, a Los Angeles-based entity, the amounts it obtains from “voluntary contributions,” and, in particular, circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the undersigned asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

As such, several months ago, on September 1, 2011, the Voice of OC was duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1 attached) Additionally, said request was delivered to Joe Dunn.

To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned filed this complaint.

As such, I urge you to investigate this matter to determine whether Voice of OC who ignored the request to produce said tax returns violated IRS rules and regulations. I ask that you impose appropriate sanctions against any and all involved, if supported by the results of your investigation.

 Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish , running for Yolo Superior Court judge against incumbent Judge Dan Maguire, called Prieto’s reversal “unfortunate” and suggested the sheriff withdrew his endorsement under pressure from the Yolo bench.

The Parish mailer also prompted strong reaction from Dave Rosenberg, Yolo County’s presiding Superior Court judge.

“This sort of phlegm tends to backfire. It flies back in the face of the expectorant,” Rosenberg said. “It’s beneath the dignity of a candidate for judge.”

Prieto’s defection is a potentially damaging blow for Parish, a criminal prosecutor in the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.

Parish has portrayed himself as the law-and-order candidate in the race for the bench, receiving endorsements from victims groups, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig and the police officer associations of West Sacramento, Woodland and Winters.

Please see entire story @:

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/16/4492885/candidates-mailer-in-yolo-judges.htm…

Erwin Chemerinsky – Dean, UCI Law / Voice of OC BOD – Hereby Asked to Disclose if Library Assistant Diane Dunn Is One and the Same as UC Irvine Communications Projects Manager Diane Dunn — Spouse of Voice of OC Joe Dunn of UCI Foundation which Absorbed Funds From CaliforniaALL which Absorbed Hush-Hush Funds from California Bar Foundation ?

Please see @:

http://tinyurl.com/d5ceosm

AND @

http://tinyurl.com/cznxcnu

AND @

http://tinyurl.com/c6taoaf

Organizational Summary

This Organizational Summary is for the former Network & Academic Computing Services. The document will be updated to reflect the new Office of Information Technology consolidated IT department.

Summary: This document lists the organizational groups within UCI’s Network & Academic Computing Services (NACS). The function of each group is summarized along with a list of assigned staff and reporting relationships. Please feel free to send comments and questions about NACS to NACS@UCI.EDU or to any NACS manager; management e-mail addresses are provided below.

Effective: July 8, 2009
DIRECTORS
Related Information

    OIT Organizational Chart

Assistant Vice Chancellor and CIO
    Dana Roode, droode@uci.edu
Directors
     
Director of Academic Outreach, NACS     Stephen Franklin, franklin@uci.edu
Director of Business Services, NACS     Marie Perezcastaneda, mariepc@uci.edu
Director of Client Services, NACS     Allen Schiano, schiano@uci.edu
Director of Network Operations, NACS     Brian Buckler, bbuckler@uci.edu
Director of Academic & Network Applications, NACS     Shohreh Bozorgmehri, shohreh@uci.edu

 
Network & Infrastructure Services (reports to Director: Brian Buckler)

    Central Computing Systems (CCS): Develops and operates NACS central services, including: NACS Mailbox Services, UCI Webmail, NACS Calendar Services (using Oracle Calendar), and UCI WebFiles.

        Manager: John Mangrich, mangrich@uci.edu

            Joe Brancaleone, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Sean Hennessee, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Andrew Laurence, Application Specialist
            David Severance, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Tri Tran, Exchange Systems Administrator
            John Ward, Enterprise Services Architect

    Communications Projects: Plans and manages all campus-wide network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. Designs, estimates costs, manages, schedules, and coordinates all project resources and activities to ensure that projects are planned proactively, managed effectively, completed on-time and within budget, implemented in a quality manner, and that they meet or exceed client expectations. Planning: Plans projects proactively. Stays informed about short and long-range plans that could require communications infrastructure. Provides designs, plans, specifications, and detailed cost estimates during the planning stages of a project.

        Manager: Diane Dunn, ddunn@uci.edu

            Daniel Galvan, Communications Administrative Specialist
            Randall Morgan, Cabling Specialist
            Stacey Rose, Assistant Project Manager
            Michael Simon, Project Technician

    IT Security: Responsible for the security of UCInet and NACS services.   Works closely with campus units to ensure the security of their environments.  Provides timely updates to the campus regarding important security developments. Maintains useful information for campus units and end users about securing their systems, networks, and applications. Monitors UCInet for potentially illegal or threatening traffic patterns, within the scope of the Electronic Communications Policy.  Acts as the main point of contact for law enforcement authorities.

        Manager: Isaac Straley, straley@uci.edu

            Garrett Hildebrand, Sr. Security Analyst
            Mike Iglesias, Principal Security Engineer
            Lee Knutson, IT Security Analyst
            John Lenning, Security Engineer

    Network Engineering: Plans, implements, maintains, and supports campus data and voice electronic communications network infrastructure. This includes the fiber optic data backbone, copper telephone cable, Ericsson telephone system, building routers, and repeaters/hubs. Maintains UCI’s off-campus network connection to the Internet, and phone connection via Pacific Bell and long distance service providers. Provides remote access to UCInet via UCI’s modem pool. Coordinates campus radio services, and manages UCI’s 800 MHz radio system.

        Interim Manager: Michael Scott, mscott@uci.edu

            Brian Chrisman, Radio System Specialist
            Clyde Higashida, Network Engineer
            Bjorn Juslin, Jr. Telecom Systems Engineer
            John Schaefer, Telephone System Network Administrator
            Rich VanBuskirk, Jr. Network Engineer
            Jessica Yu, Network Architect

    Telecommunications Field Operations: Handles phone instrument and UCInet network connection installation and maintenance.

        Interim Manager: Tyler Turley, tturley@uci.edu

            John Allerton, Communications Electronics Technician
            Robert Castillo, Communications Electronics Technician
            Doug Lawrence, Communications Electronics Technician
            Rudy Mendoza, Communications Electronics Technician

Client Services (reports to Director: Allen Schiano)

    Engineering & Academic Data Center Support: Provides engineering support to NACS facilities and services.  At present, major responsibilities include EG Academic Data Center (UPS, HVAC, generator-based power, power distribution, and vendor and Facilities relations), HVAC systems, video surveillance security and access control.   Special projects in support of campus groups and entities in related areas under contract.

        Manager: Allen Schiano, schiano@uci.edu

            Alex Odyniec, Academic Data Center Engineer

    Instructional Labs & Desktop Support (ILDS): Develops and maintains NACS instructional labs including labs in Engineering Gateway (EG), Humanities Instructional Building (HIB), and Multipurpose Science and Technology Building (MST), the Student Center, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building in Fall 2009.  Manages labs for other campus departments including labs in Gateway Commons (GSC), Instructional Technology Center (ITC), and School of the Arts (SOTA.)    Provides internal NACS desktop support and DUE-IT desktop support.

        Manager: Son Nguyen, snguyen@uci.edu

            Lawrence Bolante, Payprint Manager/Systems Administrator
            Wilson Crasta, Computer Lab Support Specialist
            Larry Davis, Computer Support Specialist
            Norman Gargantiel, PC Labs Manager
            Christopher Jones, Mac Lab Manager
            Ba Nguyen, Computer Support Specialist

    Research Computing Support (RCS): Provides direct support to campus researchers in areas that rely on, or might benefit from: assistance with, training in, and evaluation of new and existing software applications; coordination of software and hardware computing resources; synergies resulting from interdisciplinary collaborations; assistance in writing grant-applications that involve research computing.

        Manager: Allen Schiano, schiano@uci.edu

            Joseph Farran, Cluster Architect
            Harry Mangalam, Research Computing Asst./Programmer
            Tony Soeller, Research Computing Specialist
            Frank Wessel, Research Computing Specialist
            Students

    Response Center (RC): The NACS Help Desk acts as central NACS computer and network trouble reporting and coordination center, 24 hours/day, 365 days/year, and provides a variety of auxiliary support for NACS services.  Staffs and operates NACS central facilities, including the NACS Help Desk.

        Manager: Carol Jackson, cjackson@uci.edu
        Assistant Manager:  Lyle Wiedeman, Indirect Support Team Lead and Communications & Publicity

            Daniel Alavi, Computer Lab Consultant (Graveyard Shift)
            Sylvia Bass, Lead Consultant and NACS Webmaster
            Sarkis Daglian, Help Desk Analyst
            Bob Hudack, CSC Liaison and Software Licensing Coordinator
            Preston Orwig, Lead Help Desk Analyst
            Hector SeGui, Swing Shift Consultant
            Student Consultants and Limited Term Staff

Academic & Network Applications (reports to Director: Shohreh Bozorgmehri)

Academic & Network Applications: Researches, plans, designs, builds, and deploys enterprise level web applications to meet UCI’s academic technology needs.  Web Technologies also provides support, consultation, and training through workshops to UCI communities on a wide range of technology topics.  They foster a communication approach and build close partnerships with academic units.  The team supports and facilitates cross-group information, sharing and identifying key collaborative opportunities, and campus-wide IT solutions.  Services include: project management, system administration, programming development, user support, and consulting and training workshops.

    Academic Web Technologies (AWT): Collaborates with and supports the UCI campus academic community via web application design and development, technology training and consulting, and participation in campus wide collaborative efforts in support of the NACS mission. AWT provides application development, system administration and support for the UCI’s Course Management System, Electronic Educational Environment (EEE – eee.uci.edu), the Distance Learning Center course management system (DLC – learn.uci.edu), and the Academic Personnel Systems (AP – recruit.ap.uci.edu).

        Manager: Briandy Walden, bwalden@uci.edu

            Jeffrey Chu, Web Developer
            Kim Gerrard, Training & Support Coordinator
            Kelsey Layos, Operations Manager
            David Pritikin, Software Development Support
            Aldo Sarmiento, Web Developer
            Ray Vadnais, User Experience Architect
            Students

    Distributed Computing Support (DCS):Provides professional, tiered support for departmental computing environments.  Offers systems administration (Unix, Linux, Windows); web development; data backups; and other services customized to the individual researcher, ORU, group, department, or school.

        Manager: Francisco Lopez, lopez@uci.edu

            Quentin Clark, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Cesar Covarrubias, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Evans Curtis, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Ba Nguyen, Computer Support Specialist
            Duncan Phillips, UNIX Systems Administrator
            John Saska, UNIX Systems Administrator
            Students and Limited-Term Staff

    DUE Information Technology: Manages DUE’s central application development, desktop and server support efforts. DUE-IT also works with DUE units and programs to provide backup and coordination of local IT staff to ensure an effective, integrated approach to Information Technology. DUE-IT is a partnership betwen DUE and Network and Academic Computing Services (NACS). DUE-IT will increase the depth and breadth of IT expertise and experience available to DUE, and will further enhance the collaboration between the two units. Their focus is on user support and enhancing communication and user-centric service during the first year of our new partnership.

    DUE Application Development & Support: Plans and manages DUE’s central application development and database administration projects. Services include: operational support to all DUE units, Web application development, database management, IT project management, and Web design content management and consulting.

        Manager: Francisco Lopez, lopez@uci.edu

            Luminita Andricioaei, Application Support & Database Specialist
            Kenny Lai, Application Developer
            John Remy, DUE Project Manager & Database Administrator
            Lu Yang, Application Developer
            Students

    Enterprise Systems Architects: Responsible for providing “always on” high capacity system architecture for the Web Technologies unit.  Regularly refine programming, system, security, and testing standards.  Design and deliver enterprise web applications to campus community.  Facilitate cross-group information sharing and foster collaborative opportunities.

        Manager: Shohreh Bozorgmehri, shohreh@uci.edu

            Max Garrick, Systems Architect
            Phil Orwig, Systems Architect

    Network and Support Programming: Develops and maintains middleware and other software systems supporting UCInet services.  Examples include: the campus directory; directory services (LDAP and QI) for applications; identity management (UCInetIDs); domain name service (DNS); Mailman mail lists; UCInet metrics; and incoming mail service, including our anti-spam efforts.

        Manager: Brian Roode, bgroode@uci.edu

            Derek Chee, Network Services Administrator
            Keith Chong, Network Services Administrator/Programmer
            Cliff Chuang, Network Programmer
            Anthony Nguyen, Jr. Network Unix System Administrator
            Chris Peters, Network Programmer
            Dana Watanabe, Network Programmer/Analyst
            Con Wieland, UCI E-Mail Postmaster
            Students

 
Business Services (reports to Director: Marie Perezcastaneda)

    Business Services: Provides administrative support to NACS management and staff for purchasing, travel, billing, accounting, budgeting, payroll and personnel activities, equipment and key distribution and inventory, and marketing. Provides guidance and advice in areas of finance, short-and long-range planning, policy and procedure development, human resource concerns, space and facilities, environmental health and safety, capital equipment purchasing and financing, building projects, and software licensing.

        Manager: Marie Perezcastaneda, mariepc@uci.edu

            Stephanie Ybarra, Human Resource Specialist-Computing and Networking

        Supervisor: David McCafferty, Business Coordinator-Networking, d.mccafferty@uci.edu

            Deborah Ahlheim, Customer Service Business Assistant-Networking
            Kristen Mazza, Business Assistant: Purchasing, Bookkeeping and Billing-Networking

        Supervisor: Nancy Morallo, Business Coordinator-Computing, mmorallo@uci.edu

            Linda Ellyson, Billing & Revenue Coordinator and Payroll Processor-Computing
            Jing Wang, Bookkeeper-Computing
            Student

    Telecommunications Customer Service: Provides customer support for telephone and data installation, repair, and change requests. Advises on phone configuration options and the Infomail system. Provides assistance with billing and offers telephone and Infomail training classes. Provides campus telephone directory, general information, operator services and cellular telephone services.

        Manager: Theresa Barnes, tabarnes@uci.edu

            Gayle Bonham, Telephone Operator
            Carol Sison, Telecommunications Specialist
            Student Operators

The United Auburn Indian Community  has selected Roman Porter, former executive director of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, to be its new tribal administrator.

Previously, Roman also  worked for the California Medical Association   and as a legislative aide for California Sen. Joseph Dunn.

See complete story @:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2012/04/27/united-auburn-indian-tr…

Four of the top officials at the Department of Justice were all big money fundraisers for President Obama’s 2008 campaign with strong ties to Wall Street—the very entity the Obama Administration has said must be criminally prosecuted for bringing about the biggest financial crisis in U.S. history.

• Attorney General Eric Holder: formerly of Covington & Burling law firm, in 2008 Holder himself represented big banks such as UBS and MBNA Bank. Holder was Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign co-chairman and raised $50,000 for the president’s campaign.

• Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli: a managing partner at Jenner and Block law firm, whose clients include Merrill Lynch, Perrelli stepped down from his number-three position at DOJ in March. A former member of Obama’s National Campaign Finance Committee, Perrelli bundled $500,000 in campaign contributions.

• Deputy Associate Attorney General Karol Mason: Karol Mason of Alston & Bird previously chaired the firm’s public finance group. She also bundled $500,000 for Obama. Holder awarded her a “Distinguished Service Award” for her work at the Department of Justice. Now, after almost three years at the Department of Justice, she has returned to Alston & Bird to work on their real estate finance and capital markets group.

• Associate Attorney General Tony West: West was a partner at Morrison and Foerster law firm, whose clients include MF Global, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. West was also co-chairman of Obama’s campaign and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “was instrumental in helping the candidate raise an estimated $65 million in California.” Formerly the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, West is now number three at the DOJ and bundled $500,000 for the president’s campaign.  

Despite Holder and Obama’s “get tough” rhetoric against Wall Street, to date, there has not been a single criminal charge filed by the federal government against any top executive of the elite financial institutions. 

Please continue @:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/08/top-doj-officials-obama-bu…

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Originally published in November of 2011

As public service to the community, The Leslie Brodie Report publishes* a complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) against Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency DBA Voice of OC, below:

Internal Revenue Service
Exempt Organizations Unit
1100 Commerce St.
Dallas, TX 75242-1198

Re: A referral for noncompliance with tax laws against exempt organization “Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency” (dba “Voice of OC”):

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT:

In lieu of using IRS Form 13909 (Tax-Exempt Organization Referral Form), please consider this communication a formal complaint (referral) against an Orange County, California not-for-profit entity known as “Orange County Nonprofit Investigative News Agency,” which operates an online publication under the name “Voice of OC” (located at www.voiceofoc.org).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1.) To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned makes this referral.

INTRODUCTION OF ACTORS:

1. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as the creator of online publication “Voice of OC” – Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency.

2. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Trustee of the UCI Foundation (an entity which obtained funds from a separate charitable entity known as CaliforniaALL (FEIN Number 51-0656213).

3. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Executive Director of the State Bar of California – an entity which also controls and maintains a foundation known as the California Bar Foundation. The California Bar Foundation very quietly transferred close to $780,000 to CaliforniaALL.

4. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as a politician and business partner of Martha Escutia, who was involved in matters relating to utility companies operating in California.

5. Ms. Gwen Moore – a former Assembly member in the California legislature. Ms. Moore has “clout” over the CPUC and utility companies. Ms. Moore presently serves as a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors; she has previously been the subject of an FBI sting operation.

6. Mr. Geoffrey Brown – a former commissioner with the CPUC and former board member of the California Bar Foundation. During his tenure as a board member of the California Bar Foundation, a hush-hush transfer of $780,000 was made to CaliforniaALL. Subsequent to this transfer, Mr. Brown abruptly quit his position as board member.

7. Mr. Thomas Girardi of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Girardi helped Joe Dunn to establish the Voice of OC, and was a member of its board of directors. Recently, he abruptly quit that position. Mr. Girardi is a well-known donor to the Democratic Party and, in particular, to California Senator Barbara Boxer.

8. Mr. Howard Miller of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Miller was a member of both the State Bar of California Board of Governors and the California Bar Foundation board of directors when the “hush-hush” transfer of $780,000 from California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL took place.

9. Mr. James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster – Mr. Brosnahan represents utility companies. He – along with Thomas Girardi – helped Mr. Joe Dunn create the Voice of OC, the subject of this complaint. Like Mr. Girardi, Mr. Brosnahan also served as member of Voice of OC’s board of directors, and recently also abruptly quit his position.

10. Ms. Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster – Ms. Mac Cormac was part of the legal team that created the legal entity known as CaliforniaALL.

11. Mr. Victor Miramontes – a resident of San Antonio, TX and business partner of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Miramontes was the chairman of CaliforniaALL.

12. Ms. Ruthe Catolico Ashley – a former employee of McGeorge School of Law who later served as a “Diversity Officer” at CalPERS. Ms. Ashley also served as member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors, and came up with the idea to create CaliforniaALL during a meeting with Sarah Redfield and Peter Arth, Jr. (the assistant to CPUC President Michael Peevey). After CaliforniaALL came into existence, Ms. Ashley, after a simulated search, was selected to serve as CaliforniaALL’s executive director.

13. Ms. Sarah Redfield – a visiting professor at McGeorge School of Law and a member of the State Bar of California Committee. Ms. Redfield was chosen to serve as the “interim executive director” for CaliforniaALL, and later also allegedly served as a consultant to CaliforniaALL. For her services, Ms. Redfield was paid for the year of 2008 close to $160,000 as an “independent contractor.” Even though CaliforniaALL was housed pro bono at the law offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento, there is an entry on CaliforniaALL’s tax return for close to $16,000 for “occupancy.”

14. Ms. Judy Johnson – the former Executive Director of the State Bar of California. For the past 8 years, she has been secretly serving as the president of an entity with a misleading name (“California Consumer Protection Foundation”). This entity absorbed close to $30 million in class action cy pres awards, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the CPUC on utility companies. This entity forwarded those funds to mostly questionable ACORN-like entities. On its website, CCPF claims that it has available information on all grantees going back 10 years. Not so. The information is scattered and extremely difficult to ascertain. In fact, a whole year is missing (2002). During that year, incidentally, CCPF awarded funds to the real ACORN as well as to Eric Moore of Educate LA, who is presumably related to Gwen Moore. Ms. Johnson used her position as executive director of the State Bar of California (which is supposed to supervise and discipline lawyers) as “clout” to obtain cy pres awards from the settlement of class actions prosecuted and defended by countless law firms.

15. Mr. Jeffrey Bleich of Munger Tolles & Olson – presently the U.S. ambassador to Australia and a close friend of President Barack Obama. Mr. Bleich served as member of the BOG when CaliforniaALL was conceived. He is mentioned only in reference because Verizon Communications (which heavily contributed to CaliforniaALL) is a client of Munger Tules & Olson.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND:

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive director for a period of 6 months. Serving as CaliforniaALL’s legal counsel was Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster.

California Attorney General RCT reflects that CaliforniaALL obtained its “Charity” status on March 14, 2008 (FEIN Number 510656213). The address for CaliforniaALL is listed as 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400, Sacramento, California. This is actually the address of DLA Piper, where CaliforniaALL resided pro bono.
In June 2008, after a “nationwide search” and aided by a pro bono head-hunting firm in its search for a permanent CEO, CaliforniaALL, not surprisingly, hired Ruthe Catolico Ashley as its chief executive officer.

Also not surprisingly, Ruthe Catolico Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL in September 2009 – the same month Joe Dunn launched his non-profit online publication “Voice of OC.”

CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in June 2010.

CaliforniaALL’s 990 returns for 2008 list Sarah Redfield of Orono, Maine as an “independent contractor.” Her job description is listed as “Program Director.” and she was paid $157,763. It is unknown to the undersigned whether Redfield paid self-employment taxes or any other applicable state income taxes, either in California or Maine. (Incidentally, Redfield falsely states on her resume that she was part of a “curriculum committee” with SAL-UCI, an entity associated with UCI and the UCI Foundation where CaliforniaALL forwarded funds. In addition, Redfield falsely stated that she “launched” SAL-UCI, an entity that was already in existence from 2005.)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub rosa “hush-hush” contribution of $769,247 from the State Bar of California Foundation.

To date, data collected by the undersigned shows that CaliforniaALL (which was supposed to forward most of those funds) transferred between $300,000 to $400,000 to the UCI Foundation (where Joe Dunn serves as trustee), spent an unknown amount to honor Gwen Moore at a lavish dinner held at a luxury hotel in Sacramento, paid for other incidental expenses such as salaries, and subsequent to moving out from the offices of DLA Piper to a more modest location , paid for a UPS Store mail box slot in Citrus Heights. (Later, CaliforniaALL relocated its base to the loft of one Larrisa Parecki in Sacramento.)

Between 2001 and 2007, Geoffrey Brown served as a Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009, Brown served as a director of the State Bar of California Foundation. In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to CaliforniaALL. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Several months ago, the undersigned asked the State Bar of California Board of Governors to examine the suspicious circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL (i.e. the hush hush transfer, etc.). While simply presenting facts similar to the above, Geoffrey Brown immediately, as though bitten by a snake, threatened to file legal action against the undersigned even though the communication with the BOG was absolutely privileged and justified, and only made mention of Brown in passing.

The undersigned has met Brown casually once or twice, and was highly impressed with his modest and genteel nature. A group conversation transpired and Brown immediately, without even being asked, volunteered to help and assist. This however, can and will not serve to bar the mentioning of his name as part of the overall description of events (such as in this communication). Such tactics would be unfair to the other individuals and the proper administration of justice. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the undersigned possesses not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Brown somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, other than the convenient circumstances described above.

Due to unsettling circumstances involving the State Bar of California (such as the highly secretive control of CCPF by Judy Johnson, the refusal of the State Bar of California to disclose amounts it transfers to Bet Tzedek, a Los Angeles-based entity, the amounts it obtains from “voluntary contributions,” and, in particular, circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the undersigned asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

As such, several months ago, on September 1, 2011, the Voice of OC was duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1 attached) Additionally, said request was delivered to Joe Dunn.

To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned filed this complaint.

As such, I urge you to investigate this matter to determine whether Voice of OC who ignored the request to produce said tax returns violated IRS rules and regulations. I ask that you impose appropriate sanctions against any and all involved, if supported by the results of your investigation.

I look forward to your response. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information.

*Links and photos inserted by The Leslie Brodie Report.

In Washington, Justice Department officials were aware beforehand Andre Birotte was planning to decline to prosecute Lance Armstrong (TLR Note: If one of DOJ Official is Tony West = BINGO = Prima Facie Evidence/ Probable Cause to Beleive Blackmail of Tony West by Keker & Van Nest)

Source @:

In Washington, Justice Department officials were aware beforehand Mr. Birotte was planning to decline to prosecute, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Birotte’s decision doesn’t preclude another jurisdiction from pursuing the case, though that now seems unlikely.

Mr. Birotte couldn’t be reached for comment.

“We cannot and will not discuss the internal deliberations and the basis on which the U.S. attorney, after consulting with his management team, made the decision not to proceed in the case,” said Mr. Mrozek, who added that “the decision was made [with] a full and fair consideration of all the relevant evidence and law.”

In the past, Mr. Armstrong has strongly denied using performing-enhancing drugs and has questioned the integrity and motives of his accusers.

“Character assassination is wrong. The rule of law has won out, and will win out again,” said Elliot Peters, a lawyer at Keker & Van Nest LLP who represents Mr. Armstrong.

Andre Birotte Re Lance Armstrong:  “No Discussion” (TLR Note: Alternative theory to collision between Jon Streeter – Angela Davis May Be Keker & Van Nest Pressure/Blackmail of DOJ ‘s Tony West Re Sham Entity CaliforniaALL) 

Source @:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/did-u-s-attorneys-disagree-on-whether-to-clos…

The report then goes on to suggest that Birotte was unwilling to consult with his team further on the matter, saying “that his decision was final and that there would be no discussion” according to a source “close to the investigation”.

The two assistant U.S. attorneys in Los Angeles on the case, Douglas M. Miller and Mark Williams, declined to comment while Birotte could not be reached.

Cyclingnews spoke to a source who co-operated with the federal investigation. The source indicated that the NPR reports held weight.

“I talked to someone within the investigation but the reason why the case was shut down was due to a one-man decision. The evidence against those involved was absolutely overwhelming. They were going to be charged with a slew of crimes but for reasons unexplained he closed the case saying it wasn’t open for discussion,” the source said.

Pat Fong Kushida has changed her mind and decided she won’t become president and chief executive of the Sacramento Metro Chamber, according to the Sacramento Business Journals.

Ms. Pat Fong Kushida CEO of Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce (Image:courtesy photo)

Kushida, a longtime acquaintance of Ruthe Catolico Ashley and California Supreme Court Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye,  was one of two noted board members (alongside James Hsu) who were with sham entity CaliforniaALL from its inception, until it was abruptly dissolved.  Both Kushida and the Sacramento Metro Chamber delivered the shocking announcement recently.

As was previously reported on The Leslie Brodie Report, Kushida, along with State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore, are both members of the California Utilities Diversity Council.

State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of GEM Communications. Both Moore and her mentor — Kamala Harris former paramour Willie Brown — were the target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Bribery and Special Interest (BRISPEC) sting operation known as Shrimpscam. On the right is Willie Brown’s “Mentee” Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Previously of Morrison & Foerster. Presently Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. West’s sister-in-law — Willie Brown’s former paramour — is California attorney general who was also part of CaliforniaALL. As previously reported, Morrison & Foerster partners Voice of OC’s James Brosnahan (who represented El Paso Corp during California Energy Crisis), Susan Mac Cormac, Raj Chatterjee, as well as former partners Tony West, Annette Carnegie, Lori Schechter and Dian Grueneich are all under extreme scrutiny in connection with the unsettling events surrounding CaliforniaALL in connection with former CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown of California Bar Foundation, State Bar of California Executive Director – Voice of OC’s Joe Dunn – who investigated the California Energy Crisis, Voice of OC’s Martha Escutia who also investigated the California Energy Crisis, and Voice of OC’s Thomas Girardi / Pierce O’Donnell who litigated matters relating to the California Energy Crisis opposing James Brosnahan  (Image: courtesy photos)

CaliforniaALL, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable entity, came about as a result of a San Francisco restaurant meeting between Ruthe Ashley (a Diversity Officer at CalPERS and Vice President of the State Bar of California) and Peter Arth, Jr., Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey. Also present at that meeting was Professor Sarah E. Redfield.

Redfield was appointed interim CEO of CalifrnoaALL, and after a simulated “nationwide search”, Ashley was appointed as CaliforniaALL permanent CEO. She abruptly quit in the same month and year when State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn launched his online publication Voice of OC with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese, and James Broshanahn of Morrison & Foerster.

Donations to CaliforniaALL came primarily from utility companies (including AT&T, Sempra Energy, and PG&E). In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million, including an unlawful and unusually large sub rosa contribution of $780,000 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) in 2008.

CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in July 2010.

Documents recently obtained from the Santa Ana Unified School District provide fresh circumstantial evidence that while University of New Hampshire School of Law professor Sarah E. Redfield was employed at  McGeorge School of Law, she had conspired with Ruthe Ashley and others to create a charitable entity (CaliforniaALL) that would later serve as a vehicle to misappropriate and/or launder close to $800,000 from the Foundation of the State Bar of California.

Mr. Geoffrey Brown, professor of law at JFK School of Law. Between 2001 to 2007 served as Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009 Brown serve as director with the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA “California Bar Foundation”). In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to sham entity CaliforniaALL — which also obtained additional 1.5 Million from utility companies.  In reaction to complainant’s request for an inquiry to the State Bar of California Board of Governors, Brown immediately, as though bitten by a snake, threatened to file legal action even though the communication with the BOG was absolutely privileged and justified, and only made mention of Brown in passing.  Brown is still under extreme scrutiny in matters relating Judy Johnson’s CCPF and the saga known as “Bribing Pat.” (image:courtesy photo)

According to Redfield, between 2008 and 2009 she had  “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception as even documents obtained from  the Santa Ana Unified School District make no mention of  Sarah Redfield in connection with the Saturday Academy of Law at UC Irvine.

Between 2004 and 2008, Professor Redfield served as a “visiting” professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. From 2008-2009, she served as interim Executive Director of CaliforniaALL, as well as program director.

Professor Redfield was paid $157,763 for her services, while she was misclassified as an “independent contractor.” See http://tinyurl.com/Portia-Balthazar

Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

Additionally, claims by Sarah E. Redfield to the effect that she was part of both the CURRICULUM COMMITTEE and OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE are also false, fraudulent, and were otherwise spun from whole cloth.

While Professor Redfield was part of the Oversight Committee, she was not part of the Curriculum Committee. In fact, the sources maintain that close examination of SAL Curriculum shows that it was similar to the curriculum in the years before CaliforniaALL was even established, with emphasis on exceptions to the First Amendment such as time, place, and manner.

See below, misleading claims by Professor Sarah E. Redfield, which falsely mention Curriculum Committee :

The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” has caused complainant (YR) to postulate that “Voice of OC” may have been a recipient, at least in part, of the  $780,000 obtained unlawfully from the Foundation of the State Bar of California — to wit:  on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL and Morrison & Foertser Annette Carnegie and Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in their capacity as BOD members of California Bar Foundation; on the other hand are Morrison & Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress — Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

YR’s belief that this is the case is heightened given the proximity in time of various events:  Ruthe Ashley left CaliforniaALL in the same month Joe Dunn launched “Voice of OC” (as though her mission had been completed). Moreover, the recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” ( as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences),  the refusal of Voice of OC to disclose IRS Forms 990,  the refusal of SAL-UCI to disclose the amount it received from CaliforniaALL, the simulated RFP, and CaliforniaALL’s pre-selection of the UCI Foundation as a recipient of funds (where Joe Dunn serves as Trustee) only reinforce this belief.  This is heightened by Mr. Thomas Girardi’s lack of credibility (pursuant to findings made by a panel of federal judges in the matter of In Re Girardi), and the well-documented friendship he shares with Joe Dunn.

CaliforniaALL Part 5

According to confidential sources, the Board of Governors of the State
Bar of California has been asked to formally investigate improprieties
surrounding CaliforniaALL.

The letter is dated February 28, 2011. As a service to the public, it
is published in its entirety below:

Dear President Hebert, Senator Dunn, Members BOG, Foundation BOD, and
to whom it may concern :

This will serve to inform the Board of Governors (“BOG”) and to
officially request an investigation into alleged fraudulent
transactions, financial irregularities, and unlawful conduct by
staff, executives and officers of both the State Bar of California and
California Bar Foundation (past and present) in connection with
circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL.

CaliforniaALL was a charitable entity established in 2008 for the
purpose of raising funds to be used to support reductions in the
achievement gap in California. It represented to the public that it
is a “partner” of the State Bar of California.

Ruthe Catolico Ashley , a Diversity Officer at CalPERS who also served
as the Vice-President of the State Bar of California was the driving
force behind the creation of “CaAAL” , a name later changed to
CaliforniaALL.

Donations to CaliforniaALL came primarily from utility companies
(including AT&T, Sempra Energy, and PG&E). In its brief existence
from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million,
including an unusually large sub-rosa contribution of $780,000 from
the State Bar of California Foundation in 2008.

Other than in Foundation tax records and a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its
2008 annual report, the sub-rosa contribution was never mentioned
again — not by the State Bar of California, not in the Cal Bar
Journal, not in theFoundation’s “newsroom,” and not by anyone or any
publication of CaliforniaALL.

CaliforniaALL awarded only one grant in the amount of $100,000 to UCI
Foundation, where Senator Dunn served as trustee. CaliforniaALL was
abruptly dissolved in July 2010.

I am absolutely convinced that unlawful transactions and ethical
breaches, which are too numerous to describe, were at play in this
situation. An objective outsider could reasonably believe that
CaliforniaALL was created for the sole purpose of allowing utility
companies and the State Bar Foundation to pour money into it, which
would later be improperly utilized.

Over the past few weeks, my inquiries have led me to notify the
appropriate entities of my suspicions. In that I believe that, to a
certain extent, the BOG itself was misled and or was not given
complete information, I am setting out a brief summary of the facts
below:

Geoffrey F. Brown was appointed Commissioner of the California CPUC in
2001. He served in the position until January 2007.

In 2006, Mr. Brown assumed a director position with the State Bar of
California Foundation, which he relinquished in 2009.

Starting in 2004, and probably prior, the honorable BOG member Gwen
Moore appeared before and otherwise communicated to the CPUC her
desire that the CPUC pressure utility companies to show improvement in
achieving diversity, such as in hiring, contracting, procurement
opportunities and the like consistent with CPUC General Order 156 (GO
156) whom Ms. Moore had authored.

At times, Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on
Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in
meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member
of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Senator Dunn.

In mid-2007, Peter Arth Jr., Chief of Staff to CPUC’s President
Peevey, invited Ruthe Ashley, Vice-President of the State Bar, to meet
him for dinner. A plan was executed on a paper napkin. Within weeks of
this dinner meeting, the BOG and CalPERS were presented with the
request to enter into a partnership with what was than known as CaAAL
which was later changed to CaliforniaALL.

Ruthe Ashley and Patricia Lee represented to the BOG that there would
be no impact on the State Bar Budget as a result of the partnership
with CaliforniaALL.

In November 2007, CaliforniaALL’s Board of Directors held its first
meeting. Ashley was later hired as the founding president and CEO of
CaliforniaALL. Subsequently, CaliforniaALL’s grant of $100,000 to UCI
Foundation was accompanied by many press releases and media events.
In September of 2009, Ashley abruptly quit her CEO position. The
entity was dissolved in June of 2010.

Based on my calculations, a sum estimated to be between $700,000 to
$900,000 is still unaccounted for. Hence, my request for an
investigation.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter. Please contact me if
you have any questions or require further information.

CaliforniaALL Part 17

* The Leslie Brodie Report (TLR) urges the readers to exercise caution and not jump to conclusions regarding misconduct by anyone. We are carefully following a major developing story out of California, and will provide around-the-clock coverage and post updates as they become available.

CaliforniaALL, a 501(c)(3) charitable entity, was the brainchild of Ruthe Ashley (a Diversity Officer at CalPERS and Vice-President of the State Bar of California) and Peter Arth Jr., Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey.

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation.)

CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in June of 2010.

“THE VOICE OF OC” TEAM — Girardi & Keese‘s Thomas Girardi , Morrison & Foerster‘s James Brosnahan, and Joe Dunn.  In Septermber of 2009, Dunn (with the help of Girardi and Brosnahan) launched “The Voice of Orange County” — an online publication.  Additionaly, Dunn is a trustee with the UCI Foundation — an entity which absorbed most of the grants CaliforniaALL had bestowed.

Sources with knowledge of the inquiry into CaliforniaALL, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain the ongoing multi-prong inquiry is continuing and expanding, and that a red flag has been raised over Joe Dunn, “The Voice of OC”, Thomas Girardi, and James Brosnahan due to convenient circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, UCI Foundation, Voice of OC, and Cal Bar Foundation.

Recently, Mr. Dunn was informed about the existence of convenient circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL and his publication –  “Voice of OC.”  We shall publish the letter, below:

Dear Senator Dunn:

This is to inform you that, in connection with my inquiry into the charitable entity known as CaliforniaALL, circumstantial evidence points to potential wrongdoing on your part as well as on the part of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrsion & Foerster.

Please note that in referring to “you,” I also refer to The Voice of Orange County (“Voice of OC”), the online newspaper you established in September 2009 with the assistance of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

As you may recall, CaliforniaALL was established after a meeting between Ruthe Ashley, Sarah Redfield, and CPUC’s Peter Arth.

Ashley, a Diversity Officer at CalPERS and a member of the California Board of Governors, bamboozled the State Bar, CalPERS, the CPUC, and the Department of Insurance into endorsing the proposition. My suspicion — thus far unconfirmed — is that Howard Rice was involved in asking its client Steve Poizner to issue a letter supporting the measure.

Morrison & Foerster, specifically Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate, assisted with the legal aspects of creating the entity. (Presently, I am unsure of the extent of the involvement, if any, of Lori Schechter, wife of current State Bar President William Hebert. If there was any involvement, I please ask that such information be disclosed to me.)

Later, Sarah Redfield assumed the position of CaliforniaALL’s Interim CEO; after a simulated search for a CEO, Ruthe Ashley was hired as the entity’s president and CEO.

CAL BAR FOUNDATION TEAM –  Howard Rice‘s Doug Winthrop, Buchalter Nemer’s Holly Fujie,Girardi & Keese‘s Howard Miller, and former CPUC Commisioner Goeffrey Brown. Arranged for the unlawful “hush-hush” transfer of $780,000 from  Cal Bar Foundation to sham charity CaliforniaALL.

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the BOG) made a quiet and unlawful transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL. At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Geoffrey Brown, and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

During its brief existence, CaliforniaALL obtained additional funding of close to $1.5 million from utility companies such as Verizon Wireless, Sempra, PG&E, and others.

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where you serve as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. (Please note that this figure may change once I obtain CaliforniaALL’s final tax return.)

Note that from my perspective, the award of this grant is suspect as it appears that CaliforniaALL pre-selected UCI Foundation, making the simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant a sham process. (Note also that Sarah Redfield later falsely claimed she “launched” SAL-UCI, and falsely stated on her resume that she was part of the “Curriculum Committee”; in reality, you and I know that SAL-UCI was established by Santana Ruiz and Rob Vicario, several years earlier.)

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, you publicly launched your online publication, “The Voice of OC.” Public sources have stated that the Voice of OC was financed by various foundations, unions, and the like.

The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent unlawful transfer of $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL were also involved in assisting you with the creation of “Voice of OC” has caused me to entertain the thought that “Voice of OC” may have been a recipient, at least in part, of the $780,000 misappropriated from the State Bar of California.

This belief is heightened given various events’ proximity in time — as noted above, Ruthe Ashley left CaliforniaALL in the same month you launched “Voice of OC” (as though her mission had been completed). Moreover, the recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” ( as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences), the refusal of SAL-UCI to disclose the amount it receive from CaliforniaALL, the simulated RFP, and CaliforniaALL’s pre-selection of the UCI Foundation as a recipient of funds only reinforce this belief. This is heightened by Mr. Thomas Girardi’s lack of credibility (pursuant to findings made by a panel of federal judges), and the friendship you share with him (as you will recall, you participated in a special event held at the Beverly Hills Hotel to honor Mr. Girardi several years ago).

Consequently, and in addition to the above, I also must ask you to relinquish your position with the UCI Foundation. Since you assumed the position of executive director, any contributions made to the UCI foundation could be perceived as an attempt to gain favors with the State Bar of California.

Thank you for your time.

For an important update, please see @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/11/23/voice-of-oc-orange-county-s-nonprofit-investigative-news-agency-subject-of-formal-complaint-referral-to-irs-for-alleged-noncompliance-with-tax-la-12207865/

The pace of drama from Morrison & Foerster surrounding events at the CPUC, State Bar of California, and sham entity CaliforniaALL is quickening.

The Leslie Brodie Report has learned that partners Lori Schechter and Dian Grueneich are no longer with the firm.

Please continue @:

http://tinyurl.com/car5htm

Karen Mercier’s Overview

Current

• Assistant to Susan H. Mac Cormac at Morrison & Foerster LLP
• Assistant to partners and associates at Morrison & Foerster LLP

Past

• Assistant to Tony West at Morrison & Foerster
• Assistant to John Kofron and Barny Holtzman at Fennemore Craig

Connections

77 connections

Karen Mercier’s Overview

Current

• Assistant to Susan H. Mac Cormac at Morrison & Foerster LLP
• Assistant to partners and associates at Morrison & Foerster LLP

Past

• Assistant to Tony West at Morrison & Foerster
• Assistant to John Kofron and Barny Holtzman at Fennemore Craig

Connections

77 connections

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

2008 – Los Angeles Times: Public Utilities Commissioner Timothy A. Simon donation request raises questions (TLR Note: 1- Simon “mentee” of Willie Brown, as is Tony West, Kamala Harris and Gwen Moore 2- CPUC-California Bar – Utilities-African American Money Connection i.e. CaliforniaALL, CCPF) — Below:

Public Utilities Commissioner Timothy A. Simon solicited donations from companies he regulates to help pay for a nonprofit conference on green energy hosted last month by one of his political patrons, documents and interviews show.

Two weeks after the conference, the three most generous corporate donors to the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service — each of which gave at least $50,000 — won PUC agreement to change a new energy-efficiency program as the companies had requested.

About the same time Simon was raising money from the utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. were petitioning the PUC to increase bonuses in an energy-efficiency program the commission had established a few months earlier.

Simon’s appointment to the commission is largely due to Willie Brown, the former Assembly speaker and San Francisco mayor. Brown recommended him to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and is said to be rallying support for his confirmation, which the state Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to consider today.

In an e-mail sent to prospective donors, Simon described the event as “a summit like no other” and encouraged donors to contact him directly at his office or call the conference organizer, a PUC employee. “I look forward to hearing from you soon,” Simon wrote.

Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric agreed to be “platinum sponsors,” those donating $50,000 or more, according to conference materials.

Please continue @:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-puc20feb20,0,5269194.story

AND @:

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/20/local/me-puc20

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Please see relevant stories @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2012/01/27/pierce-o-donnell-and-dawn-o-donnell…

AND @

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2012/04/07/ex-mofo-partner-tony-west-head-of-t…

AND @

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2012/04/11/cpuc-vs-el-paso-corp-federal-energy…

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Voice of OC

Due to unsettling circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the complainant asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.

Source:

http://www.calbarjournal.com/February2012/TopHeadlines/TH3.aspx

Bringing with her a deep understanding of disparities within the American justice system, Sonia Gonzales’ self-imposed goal as the new executive director of the California Bar Foundation is to listen.

Sonia Gonzales

Listening, explained the former acting head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, is key to expanding the universe of those who support the foundation’s mission to increase access to justice. Gonzales’ official first day with the foundation was January 17.

“The legal community as a whole has a responsibility to help improve access to appropriate legal services for all Californians, especially those from low-income or ethnic minority communities,” said Gonzales, a product of Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law. “We will be judged on how we treat the least among us.”

After joining the Lawyers’ Committee in January 2010 as managing director, Gonzales led an organization-wide rebuild, including the development and implementation of the first new strategic plan in a decade. She was named interim executive director in August 2011.

She currently serves on the board of Centro Legal de la Raza, and was a member of the Civil Rights Task Force for Attorney General Kamala Harris’ transition team.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area dates back to 1968 and is affiliated with the national Lawyers’ Committee in advancing, protecting and promoting the rights of communities of color, immigrants and refugees. Recent projects include advocacy on behalf of the minority-owned businesses and formerly incarcerated, plus work to help implement the protections of the California Voting Rights Act.

Before joining the Lawyers’ Committee, Gonzales served as assistant director of the ACLU of Northern California, where she helped manage the largest ACLU affiliate in the United States, with a staff of 60, a board of directors of 50 and more than 53,000 members.

Previously, she worked at the Morrison & Foerster firm in San Francisco and, as a law student, at the National ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman firm.

Prior to law school, Gonzales served as a political director for a major presidential campaign in 2004 and for the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., and as a legislative assistant and press secretary in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The success of the Bar Foundation’s mission depends on the collective effort of our board and staff, donors and grantees, plus the State Bar and other community partners that recognize the importance of helping California’s most disadvantaged residents,” Gonzales added. “This has everything to do with equality under the law.”

In a scary development, a major Obama fundraiser who defended a convicted al Qaeda terrorist will become the third highest ranking official at the Department of Justice (DOJ), which, ironically, is charged with defending the interests of the United States.

Northern California lawyer Tony West has been named Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, making him the No. 3 guy at the agency. In 2009 West, who helped Obama raise tens of millions of dollars as finance co-chairman of his first presidential campaign, was appointed to help run the DOJ’s civil division which represents the government, Congress and presidential cabinet officers and handles cases dealing with significant policy issues.

In a statement announcing the promotion this week, Attorney General Eric Holder says West has served the department with “professionalism, integrity and dedication.” Holder also mentions West’s work before coming to the DOJ a few years ago, including a stint as a Special Assistant Attorney General in California and a lengthier career at a large San Francisco law firm.

Conveniently omitted in the press release is that West represented convicted al Qaeda terrorist John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Lindh was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 while fighting against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance as a member of the Taliban army. He actually pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives while fighting U.S. troops in the region.

Please see story @:

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2012/03/al-qaeda-defense-atty-no-3-at-obama…

As was previously reported on The Leslie Brodie Report Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) — Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice — is under scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; CaliforniaALL’s Kamala Harris ; Willie Brown and protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam, as well as CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon also of CaliforniaALL.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general who was part of sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CalALL_Dec2008Newsletter

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

 Eight years ago, the former federal and state prosecutor was running for a San Jose-area state Assembly seat. It was a nasty campaign, with partisans on both sides hitting hard. Days before the primary, voters received a mailer alluding to false claims that West was living in Oakland. His face was darkened and placed inside an Oakland Raiders logo, to make him appear “as if a gangsta were running,” as the San Jose Metro newspaper put it. West lost to Manny Diaz, a Democrat, who eventually was elected to the Assembly.

“I think he came out of that race a little less idealistic,” said his sister-in-law, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who has endorsed Obama. West married Harris’ sister Maya, his best friend from law school, and they have an adult daughter, Meena. “He is so smart, and he always sees the positive in everything, but that was below the belt.”

“I certainly hope that he would run for office again,” said former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who called West “one of my mentees.”

Please see story @:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/29/MNIDV9158.DTL

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

CaliforniaALL

Ms. Ruth Ashley, a former member of the State bar of California Board of Governors, arranged with others the subrosa transfer of $769,247.00 from the State Bar to a chritable entity — CaliforniaALL — which was under her control. (Photo: courtesy)

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth (Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael Peevey) at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. According to Ashley, all three arrived for the “brainstorming session” without any notepads; they quickly improvised and resorted to recording notes on a paper napkin which were the cornerstones of CaliforniaALL. See an excerpt from CaliforniaALL’s now defunct website below:

Urban legend notwithstanding, Ashley’s version of events is slightly inaccurate, as Sarah Redfield (a visiting professor from New Hampshire who Ashley met at McGeorge School of Law) is not a member of the California Bar, and was not representing any governmental agency. In actuality, Ruthe Ashley acted on behalf of both the State Bar California and CalPERS — where she was at the time employed as a Diversity Officer. Pete Arth, an attorney with the CPUC, spoke on behalf of the CPUC.

On June 26, 2007, Ruth Ashley presented to the BOG the concept of California ALL, and recommnended that the State Bar support the organization.

Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Serving as CaliforniaALL legal counsel were two partners from Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate. See below:

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo. (image: courtesy photo)

In the meantime, with a green light to proceed with the plan and with the credibility of state agencies behind her, Ruthe Ashley marched on. Ashley, however, wanted to maintain a low profile AND make it appear that her subsequent hiring was purely coincidental. As such, she delegated the task of forming the entity to be known as CaliforniaALL to Sarah Redfield and Victor Miramontes.

Miramontes, a resident of San Antonio, Texas is associated with CityView, a Los Angeles-based entity controlled by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive-director for a period of 6 months. See below:

Sarah Redfield, one of the three lawyers who met at the San Francisco restaurant and who acted as CaliforniaALL’s Interim Executive Director was paid $157,763 while misclassified as an “independent contractor” in tax-returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

See excerpt below from 2008 CaliforniaALL’s tax return.

Thus, it was now time for Ruthe Ashley to make her appearance. She did so in June of 2008. CaliforniaALL issued multiple press releases announcing that Ruthe Ashley would serve as CaliforniaALL’s CEO.

Incidentally, Ashley and her attorneys represented to the IRS in returns bearing her signature that she was hired after a “nationwide search”, see below:

CaliforniaALL’s was housed at: 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400 Sacramento, California 95814. This adress is actually the adress of the law-offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento. In its publication, CaliforniaALL thanked DLA Piper for offering pro-bono space in the Sacramento office. Yet, in CaliforniaALL’s tax-return signed by Ruthe Ashley, an expense in the amount of $16,457 for “occupancy” is listed. (See two images below)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub-rosa Hush-Hush contribution of $769,247.00 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation).

Once Ashley assumed the position, the Foundation of the State Bar of California (which is under the complete control of the State Bar of California Board of Governors) made a quiet transfer of approximately $780,000 from Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL.

At the time of the transfer, the individuals controlling the Foundation were Holly Fujie, Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller, Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster (the one and the same Morrison & Foerster which served as legal counsel to CaliforniaALL through Eric Tate Susan Mac Cormac) , and a few others.

CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Below is an image which reflects State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) IRS Tax-Return showing a transfer of $774,247 to CaliforniaALL.

Below, California Bar Foundation’s Newsroom, which made no mention of the “hush-hush” sub-rosa transfer to CaliforniaALL.

In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:

Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:

As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn (future owner of Voice of OC) serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.

Voice of OC original members of the Board of Directors(L-R) UCI Law Professor Henry Winestein, James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese State Bar of California executive director Joe Dunn, and UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley , as though her mission had been completed, abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. In the same month and year, State Bar of California Executive Director , Mr. Joe Dunn, publicly launched the online publication “The Voice of OC” with the help of Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster.

Also on September of 2009, CaliforniaALL saw fit to honor State Bar of California Board of Governors member Shrimpscam Gwen Moore — an appointee of Karen Bass and a confederate of fellow BOG member Jeannine English from the Little Hoover Commission:

Shockingly, and to add insult to injury, Jill Sperber of the State Bar of California would later claim

“No Bar or Foundation funds were used for CAAL creation (AKA CaliforniaALL – by TLR)

See original source HERE

THE MAKE BELIEF LAUNCHING OF SAL

UCI Foundation allegedly used the money it obtained from CaliforniaALL to launch a “Saturday Law Academy. ” According to Professor Sarah Redfield’s CV, between 2008 and 2009 she “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.

Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception.

Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.

For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.

In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.

Please double-click on the photo for full view.

In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)

Sources with knowledge, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain a red flag has been raised over West due to the overall circumstances surrounding sham non-profit entity CaliforniaALL; Voice of OC; Morrison & Foerster (“MoFo”); MoFo’s James Brosnahan of Voice of OC ; MoFo’s Susan Mac Cormac ; California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) ; State Bar of California executive-director Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia of Voice of OC ; Kamala Harris and mentor — John Keker of Keker & Van Nest; Willie Brown’s protégés — State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam and CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon.

According to the sources, while there is not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, his prior work with Brosnahan as well as the eerie coincidence that those who were involved with CaliforniaALL and Voice of OC were also in support of his conformation in 2009, requires further understanding of event, if only to examine potential conflict of interests should the DOJ ever investigate Voice of OC and/or CaliforniaALL — both entities with very close ties to Morrison & Foerster, and especially partner James Brosnahan.

Mr. Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. West attended Harvard University where he served as Publisher of the Harvard Political Review, graduating with honors in 1987. He received his J.D. degree in 1992 from Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2001. While at MoFo, West represented clients ranging from large corporations to “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh alongside partners James Brosnahan and Raj Chatterjee. His sister-in-law, Kamala Harris, is the California attorney general.

Morrison & Foerster Team (L-R) Ms. Dian Grueneich — Former Commissioner with California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”); Mr. Raj Chatterjee — current board member of the Foundation of State Bar of California (DBA California Bar Foundation, entity headed by Arnold & Porter’s Douglas Winthrop formerly of Howard Rice) ; Ms. Susan Mac Cormac — part of legal team which created entity CaliforniaALL, Mac Cormac was recently awarded “Rainmaker of the Year” by James Brosnahan’s alleged former mistress Marty Africa of Major Lindsey & Africa; Mr. Tony West; Mr. James J. Brosnahan of “Voice of OC” who represented El Paso Corp during California energy crisis opposing Pierce O’Donnell, Joe Cotchett, and Thomas Girardi of Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC; Ms. Annette Carnegie, formerly member of the board of California Bar Foundation during the Hush-Hush subrosa transfer of $780,000 to CaliforniaALL; Ms. Diane Pritchard who practiced extensively before the CPUC while at MoFo.

Mr. West shares a laugh with sister-in-law Kamala Harris former paramour who is like an albatross hanging around her neck — Willie Brown ( an otherwise a confederate of CPUC insider and State Bar of California Board of Governor member Gwen Moore.)

From left, Ms. Lateefah Simon (spouse of CPUC Commissioner and Golden Gate University Professor Timothy Alan Simon); Mr Tony West; Mr. John Burris, a well-known and well-respected civil rights attorney whom TLR previously introduce to its readers in connection with former crack-addict Mike Nisperos during a trip to CNMI HERE.

*THE LESLIE BRODIE REPORT STRONGLY URGES THE READERS TO EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION AND NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSION REGARDING MISCONDUCT BY ANYONE — it should be noted that TLR possesses not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Mr. Tony West somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, other than the convenient circumstances described below involving Morrison & Foerster, James Brosnahan, Susan Mac Cormac, State Bar of California Executive Director — Joe Dunn of Voice of OC, Howard Miller and Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese, and the California Bar Foundation which made a hush-hush sub-rosa transfer of $780,000.00 to sham entity CaliforniaALL.

As mentioned previously,  YR suspects money was misappropriated and/or laundered  through the California Bar Foundation by James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster (who represented El Paso Energy) and others to assist State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn to launch his publication — Voice of OC .   See more HERE and HERE and HERE .

A complete list of letters received in support of  the nomination of Mr. Tony West of Morrison & Foerster to the position of Assistant Attorney General of the United States of America

*Commentary by TLR in parenthesis

• March 17, 2009 – South Asian Bar Association (Entity headed by MoFo’s Raj Chatterjee — who along with Brosnahan and West represented the American Taliban. See HERE)
  
  
• March 10, 2009 – Anne Eshoo, U.S. Congresswoman, California
• 
  
• March 9, 2009 – Timothy Alan Simon, Commissioner, Public Utilities Commission, State of California (Part of CaliforniaALL’s Advisory Council along with Tony West’s sister-in-law, Kamala Harris. See HERE )
• 
  
• March 9, 2009 – Zoe Lofgren, U.S. Congresswoman, California
• March 9, 2009 – Bill Lann Lee, Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C., former Assistant Attorney General
• March 9, 2009 – Jamie S. Gorelick, WilmerHale, former Deputy Attorney General

From left, Gwen Moore of GeM Communication (who, according to confidential sources, was known in Sacramento as a “Shakedown Artist”), Howard Rice’s Douglas Winthrop, and CCPF’s Judy Johnson.

• March 9, 2009 – Karen Bass, Speaker of the Assembly, State of California (Nominated Shrimpscam/ Little Hoover Commission Gwen Moore as member of State Bar of California Board of Governors)

   

• March 9, 2009 – Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Northern California Chapter
• March 9, 2009 – Phil Angelides, former State Treasurer, California
• March 8, 2009 – Drew S. Days III, Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law, Yale Law School; former Assistant Attorney General,
  Civil Rights Division; former U.S. Solicitor General
• March 7, 2009 - Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor, City of Los Angeles, California
• March 7, 2009 – George M. Sundheim
• March 7, 2009 – Crime Victims United of California Chapter
• March 6, 2009 – National Black Police Association, Inc.

   

• March 6, 2009 – Norman Mineta, Vice Chairman, Hill & Knowlton; former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
• March 6, 2009 – Philip B. Heymann, James Barr Ames Professor of Law, Director of Center for International Criminal Justice, Harvard Law School; former Deputy Attorney General
• March 6, 2009 – Equal Justice Society
• March 6, 2009 – Michael Dukakis, UCLA Department of Public Policy, former Governor, State of Massachusetts
• March 6, 2009 – Charles Houston Bar Association
• March 6, 2009 – Sandre R. Swanson, Assemblymember, State of California
• March 5, 2009 – Nell Jessup Newton, Chancellor and Dean, University of California Hastings College of Law
• March 5, 2009 – National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives
• March 5, 2009 – National Bar Association
• March 5, 2009 – Tom McEnery, former Mayor, San Jose, California
• 
  
• March 5, 2009 – Bill Lockyer, Treasurer, State of California; former Attorney General, State of California (A confederate of Thomas Girardi who may be involved in Indian Gambling via Howard Dickstein — spouse of State Bar Board of Governor member Jeannine English — Gwen Moore’s confederate at Little Hoover Commission)
• 
  
• March 5, 2009 – John Keker, Keker & Van Nest LLP ( Mr. Jon Streeter of Keker & Van Nest presently serves as the President of the  State Bar of California)

   

• March 5, 2009 – California Police Chiefs Association
• 
  
• 
  
• March 5, 2009 – Willie L. Brown, Jr., former Mayor, San Francisco, California (Mentor to both Gwen Moore and Timothy Alan Simon, and former paramour of Tony West’s sister-in-law — Ms. Kamala Harris)

• March 5, 2009 – Edmund G. Brown Jr., Attorney General, State of California  (Cousin of Ex CPUC Commissioner Geoofrey Brown who served as California Bar Foundation BOD member during the HUSH-HUSH Sub-Rosa transfer of 780,000 to CaliforniaALL) 

   

• March 5, 2009 – Barbara Allen Babcock, Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita, Stanford Law School; former Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division (Sister of State Bar of California Chief General Counsel Starr Babcock who has some explaining to do. See HERE)

• March 5, 2009 – Christopher Arriola
• March 4, 2009 – Louise Renne, Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP
• March 4, 2009 – Chuck Reed, Mayor, City of San Jose, California
• March 4, 2009 – Major Cities Chiefs Association
• March 3, 2009 – Seth P. Waxman, WilmerHale, former Solicitor General
• March 3, 2009 – John Russo, City Attorney, City of Oakland
• March 3, 2009 – Janet Reno, former Attorney General
• March 3, 2009 – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• March 3, 2009 – Shirley Hufstedler, Morrison & Foerster LLP; former Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; former U.S. Secretary of Education
• March 3, 2009 – James Brosnahan, Morrison Foerster  (Presumed mastermind behind CaliforniaALL)

   

• March 1, 2009 – David N. Kelley, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP; former U.S. Attorney
• February 26, 2009 – Raymond C. Marshall, Bingham McCutchen
• February 26, 2009 – Congressional Black Caucus
• February 25, 2009 – Beth Brinkman, Morrison Foerster, former Assistant to the Solicitor General
• February 24, 2009 – David Bayless, Convington & Burling LLP, former Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Chief
• February 23, 2009 – The Honorable Edward A. Infante, United States Magistrate, Ret.
• February 19, 2009 – Randy I. Bellows, Circuit Court Judge, Fairfax County, Virginia; former Assistant U.S. Attorney
• 
  
• February 18, 2009 – Keith Wetmore, Chair, Morrison & Foerster LLP
• February 18, 2009 – Bar Association of San Francisco

Source:

http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/111thCongressExecutiveNominations/AssistantAttorneyGeneralCivil-TonyWest.cfm

“All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

I am a God-loving, Conservative American Patriot that is extremely concerned about the direction this country is moving in. Since Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the America we all once knew has slowly fallen apart.

I am tired of Obama, his administration and the liberal Democrats in Washington not listening to US.  I refuse to sit by and watch our God-given American rights being stripped away from it’s citizens.

I am tired of the media, members of Congress and Vice President Joe Biden calling the TEA Party “terrorists”, “racists” or “violent extremists”.  They are the farthest thing from what the TEA Party is and what WE stand for.  Last time I checked the legal term used for these type of false accusations is called LIBEL.  According to LegalDefinition libel is:

An untruthful statement about a person, published in writing or through broadcast media, that injures the person’s reputation or standing in the community.

Because libel is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement.

Libel is a form of defamation , as is slander (an untruthful statement that is spoken, but not published in writing or broadcast through the media).

I am tired of Obama and many other people in the U.S. government trying to appease Muslims.  The United States of America was founded upon the principles of Christianity… nothing else.

I am tired of our military veterans not getting the recognition they deserve.  They never hesitated putting their lives on the line when WE needed them… so why would WE ever hesitate helping them when they need US.

I am tired of so many people in America belonging to the “entitlement” class.  The only thing that each U.S. citizen is “entitled” to is the right to be FREE.  What you do with that freedom is up to you and no one else.  Just because you did not work as hard as I did to try and make something of yourself… does not mean that I should have to pay for you to live the easy life.

“]

My grandfather was a retired Lt. Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.  He served in Vietnam and was a helicopter pilot.  Sadly, he passed away on January 11, 2000 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  There is a book written by Marion F. Sturkey called “Bonnie Sue:  A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam”.  The book includes a couple of stories about my grandfather during his time in Vietnam.  It is definitely a must read book.  (In my humble opinion)

My grandmother, a military wife, has always been the rock that kept our family together.  Of all the people I have known in my life she is the one that inspires me the most.  She has shown me that the strength of a woman can carry the world.

To all of my fellow patriots…  Keep fighting the good fight, keep the faith, ‘We the People’ will prevail.

Finally, I would like to say something to all military men & women both past & present… THANK YOU FOR MY FREEDOM!!!  Words will never be enough to express my undying gratitude to each and every one of you! America is the land of the free BECAUSE of the brave!

GOD bless our troops and may GOD bless America!

Patriotically yours,

Sarah Roman

 Please visit @:

http://usamericanfreedom.com/

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Presently, Brosnahan is under extreme scrutiny in connection with non-profit entity CaliforniaALL for the alleged suspicious activities of laundering money to State Bar of California Executive-Director Joe Dunn’s Voice of OC vis-a vis the California Bar Foundation, see HERE and HERE

Below ( L-R) Mr. David Werdegar of IOA; State Bar of California BOG Member Jeannine English; Mr. Thomas Girardi of embattled Voice of OC; Executive Director of State Bar of California Joe Dunn of embattled Voice of OC;  California Supreme Court Associate Justice Hon. Kathryn Werdegar; really special prosecutor in matter of In Re Girardi and controversial judicial aspirant Prof. Rory Little; controversial gambling attorney Howard Dickstein (spouse of Jeannine English and a client of Keker & Van Nest), MoFo’s James Brosnahan of embattled Voice of OC; Keker & Van Nest partner Matthew Werdegar – son of David and Kathryn Werdegar; Keker & Van Nest partner Jan Little (spouse of Rory Little); Keker & Van Nest partner Elliot Peters — attorney for  Howard Dickstein; California Democratic Party operative and mentor to Willie Brown’s former paramour — Mr. John Keker; Keker & Van Nest partner, attorney for Howard Dickstein, controversial judicial aspirant, and President of the State Bar of California — Mr. Jon Streeter.

Please see relevant story @:

http://lesliebrodie.posterous.com/state-bar-of-california-executive-director-…

TLR’s previously published article “The Chosen Dunn” which reads:

“Judicial Council

Friday August 26, 2006 8:45 a.m., San Francisco, California.

The Judicial Council of the State of California held a meeting at the Administration Office of the Courts(AOC).

A partial list of members present include Chief Justice Ronald George, Justice Marvin Baxter, Rex Heinke, and Thomas Girardi. Absent was member Joseph Dunn.

During a similar meeting held on Friday April 27, 2007; Judicial Council members Thomas Girardi and Joseph Dunn were both absent.

The Voice of OC

In September of 2009, Mr. Joseph Dunn (AKA Joe Dunn) launched “The Voice of OC” — an online publication design to investigate and report about corruption in Orange County.

Thomas Girardi as well as Joe Dunn serve as members of The Voice of OC’s Board of Directors

Executive Director, State Bar of California

According to the LegalPad, on Septermber 20, 2010 State Bar President Howard Miller of Girardi & Keese announced that the board of governors of the State Bar of California chose Joe Dunn “after a nationwide search,” and that he’ll start sometime after the State Bar annual convention in Monterey.”

We were remiss in failing to mention that in addition to Mr. Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese, Mr. James J. Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster also was a member of Voice of OC’s Board of Directors.

Please see original entry @:

http://tinyurl.com/THECHOSENDUNN

As previously reported, both Mr. Girardi and Mr. Brosnahan abruptly quit their position at Voice of OC.  Please see @:

http://tinyurl.com/voiceofoc

In TLR’s previously published article “”All Roads Lead to Loyola – - Just Don’t Drive a Ford Explorer” in the paragraph which reads:

“As such, to pay much deserve tribute to Mr. Girardi, in 2005 Loyola Law School honored Mr. Girardi at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Present were Senator Jospeh Dunn, Justice Carlos Moreno, and many other dignitaries from legal community”

We were remiss in failing to mention that in addition to Mr. Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese, Mr. James J. Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster was also a recipient of the much coveted  “Champion of Justice” award from the Civil Justice Program at the Loyola Law School.

Similarly, we were also remiss in failing to mention that Mr. Joseph Cotchett of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy was present to honor Mr. Brosnahan.

See Original entry @:

http://lesliebrodie.blog.co.uk/2011/01/25/all-roads-lead-to-loyola-just-don-t…

(L-R) Honoring Jeffrey Bleich 2007 Dinner Chairman James Brosnahan, Mark Bostick, Honoree Jeffrey Bleich (AKA Renaissance Superman), Ninth Circuit Judge William A. Fletcher 

Below, California Bar Foundation IRS Form 990 :

Below, originally published on November of 2011:

As public service to the community, The Leslie Brodie Report publishes* a complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) against Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency DBA Voice of OC, below:

Internal Revenue Service
Exempt Organizations Unit
1100 Commerce St.
Dallas, TX 75242-1198

Re: A referral for noncompliance with tax laws against exempt organization “Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency” (dba “Voice of OC”):

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT:

In lieu of using IRS Form 13909 (Tax-Exempt Organization Referral Form), please consider this communication a formal complaint (referral) against an Orange County, California not-for-profit entity known as “Orange County Nonprofit Investigative News Agency,” which operates an online publication under the name “Voice of OC” (located at www.voiceofoc.org).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1.) To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned makes this referral.

INTRODUCTION OF ACTORS:

1. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as the creator of online publication “Voice of OC” – Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency.

2. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Trustee of the UCI Foundation (an entity which obtained funds from a separate charitable entity known as CaliforniaALL (FEIN Number 51-0656213).

3. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Executive Director of the State Bar of California – an entity which also controls and maintains a foundation known as the California Bar Foundation. The California Bar Foundation very quietly transferred close to $780,000 to CaliforniaALL.

4. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as a politician and business partner of Martha Escutia, who was involved in matters relating to utility companies operating in California.

5. Ms. Gwen Moore – a former Assembly member in the California legislature. Ms. Moore has “clout” over the CPUC and utility companies. Ms. Moore presently serves as a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors; she has previously been the subject of an FBI sting operation.

6. Mr. Geoffrey Brown – a former commissioner with the CPUC and former board member of the California Bar Foundation. During his tenure as a board member of the California Bar Foundation, a hush-hush transfer of $780,000 was made to CaliforniaALL. Subsequent to this transfer, Mr. Brown abruptly quit his position as board member.

7. Mr. Thomas Girardi of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Girardi helped Joe Dunn to establish the Voice of OC, and was a member of its board of directors. Recently, he abruptly quit that position. Mr. Girardi is a well-known donor to the Democratic Party and, in particular, to California Senator Barbara Boxer.

8. Mr. Howard Miller of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Miller was a member of both the State Bar of California Board of Governors and the California Bar Foundation board of directors when the “hush-hush” transfer of $780,000 from California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL took place.

9. Mr. James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster – Mr. Brosnahan represents utility companies. He – along with Thomas Girardi – helped Mr. Joe Dunn create the Voice of OC, the subject of this complaint. Like Mr. Girardi, Mr. Brosnahan also served as member of Voice of OC’s board of directors, and recently also abruptly quit his position.

10. Ms. Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster – Ms. Mac Cormac was part of the legal team that created the legal entity known as CaliforniaALL.

11. Mr. Victor Miramontes – a resident of San Antonio, TX and business partner of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Miramontes was the chairman of CaliforniaALL.

12. Ms. Ruthe Catolico Ashley – a former employee of McGeorge School of Law who later served as a “Diversity Officer” at CalPERS. Ms. Ashley also served as member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors, and came up with the idea to create CaliforniaALL during a meeting with Sarah Redfield and Peter Arth, Jr. (the assistant to CPUC President Michael Peevey). After CaliforniaALL came into existence, Ms. Ashley, after a simulated search, was selected to serve as CaliforniaALL’s executive director.

13. Ms. Sarah Redfield – a visiting professor at McGeorge School of Law and a member of the State Bar of California Committee. Ms. Redfield was chosen to serve as the “interim executive director” for CaliforniaALL, and later also allegedly served as a consultant to CaliforniaALL. For her services, Ms. Redfield was paid for the year of 2008 close to $160,000 as an “independent contractor.” Even though CaliforniaALL was housed pro bono at the law offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento, there is an entry on CaliforniaALL’s tax return for close to $16,000 for “occupancy.”

14. Ms. Judy Johnson – the former Executive Director of the State Bar of California. For the past 8 years, she has been secretly serving as the president of an entity with a misleading name (“California Consumer Protection Foundation”). This entity absorbed close to $30 million in class action cy pres awards, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the CPUC on utility companies. This entity forwarded those funds to mostly questionable ACORN-like entities. On its website, CCPF claims that it has available information on all grantees going back 10 years. Not so. The information is scattered and extremely difficult to ascertain. In fact, a whole year is missing (2002). During that year, incidentally, CCPF awarded funds to the real ACORN as well as to Eric Moore of Educate LA, who is presumably related to Gwen Moore. Ms. Johnson used her position as executive director of the State Bar of California (which is supposed to supervise and discipline lawyers) as “clout” to obtain cy pres awards from the settlement of class actions prosecuted and defended by countless law firms.

15. Mr. Jeffrey Bleich of Munger Tolles & Olson – presently the U.S. ambassador to Australia and a close friend of President Barack Obama. Mr. Bleich served as member of the BOG when CaliforniaALL was conceived. He is mentioned only in reference because Verizon Communications (which heavily contributed to CaliforniaALL) is a client of Munger Tules & Olson.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND:

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive director for a period of 6 months. Serving as CaliforniaALL’s legal counsel was Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster.

California Attorney General RCT reflects that CaliforniaALL obtained its “Charity” status on March 14, 2008 (FEIN Number 510656213). The address for CaliforniaALL is listed as 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400, Sacramento, California. This is actually the address of DLA Piper, where CaliforniaALL resided pro bono.
In June 2008, after a “nationwide search” and aided by a pro bono head-hunting firm in its search for a permanent CEO, CaliforniaALL, not surprisingly, hired Ruthe Catolico Ashley as its chief executive officer.

Also not surprisingly, Ruthe Catolico Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL in September 2009 – the same month Joe Dunn launched his non-profit online publication “Voice of OC.”

CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in June 2010.

CaliforniaALL’s 990 returns for 2008 list Sarah Redfield of Orono, Maine as an “independent contractor.” Her job description is listed as “Program Director.” and she was paid $157,763. It is unknown to the undersigned whether Redfield paid self-employment taxes or any other applicable state income taxes, either in California or Maine. (Incidentally, Redfield falsely states on her resume that she was part of a “curriculum committee” with SAL-UCI, an entity associated with UCI and the UCI Foundation where CaliforniaALL forwarded funds. In addition, Redfield falsely stated that she “launched” SAL-UCI, an entity that was already in existence from 2005.)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub rosa “hush-hush” contribution of $769,247 from the State Bar of California Foundation.

To date, data collected by the undersigned shows that CaliforniaALL (which was supposed to forward most of those funds) transferred between $300,000 to $400,000 to the UCI Foundation (where Joe Dunn serves as trustee), spent an unknown amount to honor Gwen Moore at a lavish dinner held at a luxury hotel in Sacramento, paid for other incidental expenses such as salaries, and subsequent to moving out from the offices of DLA Piper to a more modest location , paid for a UPS Store mail box slot in Citrus Heights. (Later, CaliforniaALL relocated its base to the loft of one Larrisa Parecki in Sacramento.)

Between 2001 and 2007, Geoffrey Brown served as a Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009, Brown served as a director of the State Bar of California Foundation. In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to CaliforniaALL. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Several months ago, the undersigned asked the State Bar of California Board of Governors to examine the suspicious circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL (i.e. the hush hush transfer, etc.). While simply presenting facts similar to the above, Geoffrey Brown immediately, as though bitten by a snake, threatened to file legal action against the undersigned even though the communication with the BOG was absolutely privileged and justified, and only made mention of Brown in passing.

The undersigned has met Brown casually once or twice, and was highly impressed with his modest and genteel nature. A group conversation transpired and Brown immediately, without even being asked, volunteered to help and assist. This however, can and will not serve to bar the mentioning of his name as part of the overall description of events (such as in this communication). Such tactics would be unfair to the other individuals and the proper administration of justice. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the undersigned possesses not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Brown somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, other than the convenient circumstances described above.

Due to unsettling circumstances involving the State Bar of California (such as the highly secretive control of CCPF by Judy Johnson, the refusal of the State Bar of California to disclose amounts it transfers to Bet Tzedek, a Los Angeles-based entity, the amounts it obtains from “voluntary contributions,” and, in particular, circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the undersigned asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

As such, several months ago, on September 1, 2011, the Voice of OC was duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1 attached) Additionally, said request was delivered to Joe Dunn.

To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned filed this complaint.

As such, I urge you to investigate this matter to determine whether Voice of OC who ignored the request to produce said tax returns violated IRS rules and regulations. I ask that you impose appropriate sanctions against any and all involved, if supported by the results of your investigation.

I look forward to your response. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information.

*Links and photos inserted by The Leslie Brodie Report.

(L-R) Honoring Jeffrey Bleich 2007 Dinner Chairman James Brosnahan, Mark Bostick, Honoree Jeffrey Bleich (AKA Renaissance Superman), Ninth Circuit Judge William A. Fletcher 

Below, California Bar Foundation IRS Form 990 :

Below, originally published on November of 2011:

As public service to the community, The Leslie Brodie Report publishes* a complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) against Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency DBA Voice of OC, below:

Internal Revenue Service
Exempt Organizations Unit
1100 Commerce St.
Dallas, TX 75242-1198

Re: A referral for noncompliance with tax laws against exempt organization “Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency” (dba “Voice of OC”):

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT:

In lieu of using IRS Form 13909 (Tax-Exempt Organization Referral Form), please consider this communication a formal complaint (referral) against an Orange County, California not-for-profit entity known as “Orange County Nonprofit Investigative News Agency,” which operates an online publication under the name “Voice of OC” (located at www.voiceofoc.org).

On September 1, 2011, Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency and Voice of OC (collectively, “Voice of OC”) were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1.) To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned makes this referral.

INTRODUCTION OF ACTORS:

1. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as the creator of online publication “Voice of OC” – Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency.

2. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Trustee of the UCI Foundation (an entity which obtained funds from a separate charitable entity known as CaliforniaALL (FEIN Number 51-0656213).

3. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as Executive Director of the State Bar of California – an entity which also controls and maintains a foundation known as the California Bar Foundation. The California Bar Foundation very quietly transferred close to $780,000 to CaliforniaALL.

4. Mr. Joe Dunn in his role as a politician and business partner of Martha Escutia, who was involved in matters relating to utility companies operating in California.

5. Ms. Gwen Moore – a former Assembly member in the California legislature. Ms. Moore has “clout” over the CPUC and utility companies. Ms. Moore presently serves as a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors; she has previously been the subject of an FBI sting operation.

6. Mr. Geoffrey Brown – a former commissioner with the CPUC and former board member of the California Bar Foundation. During his tenure as a board member of the California Bar Foundation, a hush-hush transfer of $780,000 was made to CaliforniaALL. Subsequent to this transfer, Mr. Brown abruptly quit his position as board member.

7. Mr. Thomas Girardi of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Girardi helped Joe Dunn to establish the Voice of OC, and was a member of its board of directors. Recently, he abruptly quit that position. Mr. Girardi is a well-known donor to the Democratic Party and, in particular, to California Senator Barbara Boxer.

8. Mr. Howard Miller of Los Angeles-based law firm Girardi & Keese. Mr. Miller was a member of both the State Bar of California Board of Governors and the California Bar Foundation board of directors when the “hush-hush” transfer of $780,000 from California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL took place.

9. Mr. James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster – Mr. Brosnahan represents utility companies. He – along with Thomas Girardi – helped Mr. Joe Dunn create the Voice of OC, the subject of this complaint. Like Mr. Girardi, Mr. Brosnahan also served as member of Voice of OC’s board of directors, and recently also abruptly quit his position.

10. Ms. Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster – Ms. Mac Cormac was part of the legal team that created the legal entity known as CaliforniaALL.

11. Mr. Victor Miramontes – a resident of San Antonio, TX and business partner of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Miramontes was the chairman of CaliforniaALL.

12. Ms. Ruthe Catolico Ashley – a former employee of McGeorge School of Law who later served as a “Diversity Officer” at CalPERS. Ms. Ashley also served as member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors, and came up with the idea to create CaliforniaALL during a meeting with Sarah Redfield and Peter Arth, Jr. (the assistant to CPUC President Michael Peevey). After CaliforniaALL came into existence, Ms. Ashley, after a simulated search, was selected to serve as CaliforniaALL’s executive director.

13. Ms. Sarah Redfield – a visiting professor at McGeorge School of Law and a member of the State Bar of California Committee. Ms. Redfield was chosen to serve as the “interim executive director” for CaliforniaALL, and later also allegedly served as a consultant to CaliforniaALL. For her services, Ms. Redfield was paid for the year of 2008 close to $160,000 as an “independent contractor.” Even though CaliforniaALL was housed pro bono at the law offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento, there is an entry on CaliforniaALL’s tax return for close to $16,000 for “occupancy.”

14. Ms. Judy Johnson – the former Executive Director of the State Bar of California. For the past 8 years, she has been secretly serving as the president of an entity with a misleading name (“California Consumer Protection Foundation”). This entity absorbed close to $30 million in class action cy pres awards, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the CPUC on utility companies. This entity forwarded those funds to mostly questionable ACORN-like entities. On its website, CCPF claims that it has available information on all grantees going back 10 years. Not so. The information is scattered and extremely difficult to ascertain. In fact, a whole year is missing (2002). During that year, incidentally, CCPF awarded funds to the real ACORN as well as to Eric Moore of Educate LA, who is presumably related to Gwen Moore. Ms. Johnson used her position as executive director of the State Bar of California (which is supposed to supervise and discipline lawyers) as “clout” to obtain cy pres awards from the settlement of class actions prosecuted and defended by countless law firms.

15. Mr. Jeffrey Bleich of Munger Tolles & Olson – presently the U.S. ambassador to Australia and a close friend of President Barack Obama. Mr. Bleich served as member of the BOG when CaliforniaALL was conceived. He is mentioned only in reference because Verizon Communications (which heavily contributed to CaliforniaALL) is a client of Munger Tules & Olson.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND:

In approximately 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley — an attorney from Sacramento and a member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors — was employed by CalPERS as a “Diversity Officer.” Prior to her employment with CalPERS, Ms. Ashley was employed as a diversity officer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. While at McGeorge, Ms. Ashley met diversity expert Sarah Redfield.

In April 2007, Ashley, along with Sarah Redfield, met Peter Arth at a restaurant in San Francisco. During that meeting the idea to create CaliforniaALL was conceived. Eventually, CalPERS, CPUC, and the State Bar of California endorsed in principle the creation of CaliforniaALL – a Section 501(c)(3) entity that would raise funds to be used to support a more diverse workforce in California.

Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board, and Sarah E. Redfield served as CaliforniaAll’s interim-executive director for a period of 6 months. Serving as CaliforniaALL’s legal counsel was Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster.

California Attorney General RCT reflects that CaliforniaALL obtained its “Charity” status on March 14, 2008 (FEIN Number 510656213). The address for CaliforniaALL is listed as 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2400, Sacramento, California. This is actually the address of DLA Piper, where CaliforniaALL resided pro bono.
In June 2008, after a “nationwide search” and aided by a pro bono head-hunting firm in its search for a permanent CEO, CaliforniaALL, not surprisingly, hired Ruthe Catolico Ashley as its chief executive officer.

Also not surprisingly, Ruthe Catolico Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL in September 2009 – the same month Joe Dunn launched his non-profit online publication “Voice of OC.”

CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in June 2010.

CaliforniaALL’s 990 returns for 2008 list Sarah Redfield of Orono, Maine as an “independent contractor.” Her job description is listed as “Program Director.” and she was paid $157,763. It is unknown to the undersigned whether Redfield paid self-employment taxes or any other applicable state income taxes, either in California or Maine. (Incidentally, Redfield falsely states on her resume that she was part of a “curriculum committee” with SAL-UCI, an entity associated with UCI and the UCI Foundation where CaliforniaALL forwarded funds. In addition, Redfield falsely stated that she “launched” SAL-UCI, an entity that was already in existence from 2005.)

In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million from utility companies (AT&T, PG&E, Verizon, Sempra), including a sub rosa “hush-hush” contribution of $769,247 from the State Bar of California Foundation.

To date, data collected by the undersigned shows that CaliforniaALL (which was supposed to forward most of those funds) transferred between $300,000 to $400,000 to the UCI Foundation (where Joe Dunn serves as trustee), spent an unknown amount to honor Gwen Moore at a lavish dinner held at a luxury hotel in Sacramento, paid for other incidental expenses such as salaries, and subsequent to moving out from the offices of DLA Piper to a more modest location , paid for a UPS Store mail box slot in Citrus Heights. (Later, CaliforniaALL relocated its base to the loft of one Larrisa Parecki in Sacramento.)

Between 2001 and 2007, Geoffrey Brown served as a Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009, Brown served as a director of the State Bar of California Foundation. In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to CaliforniaALL. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.

Several months ago, the undersigned asked the State Bar of California Board of Governors to examine the suspicious circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL (i.e. the hush hush transfer, etc.). While simply presenting facts similar to the above, Geoffrey Brown immediately, as though bitten by a snake, threatened to file legal action against the undersigned even though the communication with the BOG was absolutely privileged and justified, and only made mention of Brown in passing.

The undersigned has met Brown casually once or twice, and was highly impressed with his modest and genteel nature. A group conversation transpired and Brown immediately, without even being asked, volunteered to help and assist. This however, can and will not serve to bar the mentioning of his name as part of the overall description of events (such as in this communication). Such tactics would be unfair to the other individuals and the proper administration of justice. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the undersigned possesses not even a scintilla of evidence that demonstrating that Brown somehow pocketed any money unlawfully or engaged in any other unlawful activities, other than the convenient circumstances described above.

Due to unsettling circumstances involving the State Bar of California (such as the highly secretive control of CCPF by Judy Johnson, the refusal of the State Bar of California to disclose amounts it transfers to Bet Tzedek, a Los Angeles-based entity, the amounts it obtains from “voluntary contributions,” and, in particular, circumstances surrounding CaliforniaALL, Joe Dunn, and the Voice of OC), the undersigned asked Voice of OC to produce its tax returns for the past 3 years.

Specifically, the following circumstances surrounding Voice of OC have caused concerns:

1. Senator Martha Escutia, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications (EU&C) also participated in meetings with the CPUC concerning diversity. She is a founding member of The Senators (Ret.) firm, LLP, as is Joe Dunn.

2. The fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – on one hand Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. On the other hand Morrison &Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi as part of helping Joe Dunn with the establishment of Voice of OC.

3. CaliforniaALL was to transfer funds forward. It did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Joe Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee. It appears that CaliforniaALL preselected UCI Foundation, making a prior simulated request for proposal (RFP) by Sarah Redfield that led to the grant – a sham process.

4. In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That same month, Joe Dunn publicly launched his online publication, “Voice of OC.” (as though Ashley’s mission had been completed).

5. The recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from ‘Voice of OC” (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences).

As such, several months ago, on September 1, 2011, the Voice of OC was duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023. (See Exhibit 1 attached) Additionally, said request was delivered to Joe Dunn.

To date, this request to produce Voice of OC’s tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests. As such, reluctantly, the undersigned filed this complaint.

As such, I urge you to investigate this matter to determine whether Voice of OC who ignored the request to produce said tax returns violated IRS rules and regulations. I ask that you impose appropriate sanctions against any and all involved, if supported by the results of your investigation.

I look forward to your response. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information.

*Links and photos inserted by The Leslie Brodie Report.