An open letter to Jon Y. Vanderpool, Esq. regarding Patrick Judd and CVESD

Patrick Judd

Patrick Judd is a board member of Chula Vista Elementary School District, which recently lost the Coziahr case; Judd is currently being sued as superintendent of Mountain Empire School District. I asked Sue Sherbondy's attorney Jon Y. Vanderpool to let me know when the trial starts. He didn't answer, and now I know at least part of the reason. Here is my follow-up letter.


Dear Mr. Vanderpool:
I've learned about what is going on in CVESD regarding Pamela Dempsey. Those mulish board members blamed her for losing the Coziahr case, and fired her. They should have fired Lowell Billings, Tom Cruz, and Alex Cortes.

Since Patrick Judd is the most powerful member of the CVESD board, I assume he also fired Dempsey as his lawyer in the Sherbondy case, in which he is being sued as superintendent of Mountain Empire School District. If I'm right about this, I imagine the court will give the new lawyer a good deal of time to get ready.

Judd and the rest of the board apparently expected Dempsey to behave like Mark Bresee, the former Chula Vista Elementary School District lawyer who helped employees as they committed perjury, prepared "notes" about events that had occurred long before, and altered documents.

The fact that these things were not done in the Danielle Coziahr case is a testament to the growing decency of Tom Cruz and Pamela Dempsey. At least, I'd like to think so.

Apparently CVESD is asking for a new trial. Perhaps Patrick Judd, Larry Cunningham, Pamela Smith, Bertha Lopez and David Bejarano are hoping that a new lawyer will be as helpful as Mark Bresee, and lots of "new" evidence will appear. And perhaps the new lawyer will intimidate witnesses, and there will no longer be any to support Danielle.

Ah, such thoughts must give much pleasure to a daydreaming CVESD board member. But reality interferes, doesn't it? What judge in his right mind would give them a new trial?

As a longtime lawyer for California Teachers Association, you're in a bit of a pickle in the Sherbondy case. The more you attack Mr. Judd, the more you weaken a longtime co-conspirator of CTA. (CTA and CVESD relied on each other not to tell the truth in my case.) But I would be SHOCKED, SHOCKED if you undermined a client to keep on the good side of CTA. You're no Elizabeth Schulman, after all. Or are you?

Say hello to your associate Ann Smith for me. She also helped out Pat Judd in the Larkins case.

Best,
Maura Larkins

MEA* needs better leaders and lawyers

The San Diego Union Tribune says this morning that "an anonymous letter... told [MEA President Judie] Italiano to resign or face public exposure" of spending allegations.

The SDUT and its anonymous source characterized the letter to Judie Italiano as "extortion."

The lesson here seems to be that if you have reason to believe that your union leaders have committed violations of law, you should IMMEDIATELY REPORT IT to the authorities and the public. If you ask your leaders to step down before you have done this, they'll accuse you of extortion.

After you have advised the authorities and the press, THEN ask your leaders to step down. But be warned that most union leaders have no inclination to apologize for wrongs they have committed against members, and will stubbornly hold on to power as long as they can.

I believe that union members SHOULD publicly expose union leaders who will not clean up their acts.

Shamefully, union leaders and their lawyers use intimidation to keep the rank and file quiet about wrongdoing. In fact, lawyers love to threaten people with extortion allegations. And isn't it extortion to threaten somebody with an accusation of extortion? It sure is.

The person who wrote the above-mentioned anonymous letter to Judie Italiano gave her good advice, and Judie shouldn't have waited so long to follow it. But perhaps Judy's retirement wasn't entirely voluntary. Perhaps her friends made it clear to her that she had no other option.

* Metropolitan Employees Association (San Diego)


UPDATE:
This story made me think about my union, Chula Vista Educators, an affiliate of CTA (California Teachers Association). The lawyers for my union include Ann Smith, who is also the lawyer for the MEA, and who is quite likely the source of the anonymous quotes above.

I did a bit of research today, and came to the conclusion that Ann Smith and my union committed extortion by making threats to withhold testimony necessary to my case in an administrative proceeding and a lawsuit. The union made good on its threats by instructing leaders and members not to answer questions during depositions, and by creating false documents which leaders signed. Ironically, it never occurred to me that Ann Smith had committed extortion until I read this SDUT story containing extortion allegations which very likely originated with the very same Ann Smith.

Looking for information from the San Diego Union Tribune archives?
Don't bother. The SDUT's online archives have been censored. Some of the SDUT's own reports have been disconnected from its internal search engine. But there is a way around this problem: THE COMPLETE ARCHIVES SEEM TO BE AVAILABLE TO EXTERNAL SEARCH ENGINES! All you have to do is go to a mainstream search engine, and type in San Diego Union Tribune plus your search words.

Did Jerry Sanders describe Beverly Tucker?

Diane Crosier and Daniel Shinoff, who work on behalf of the San Diego County Office of Education, and Beverly Tucker and Michael D. Hersh of the California Teachers Association, who work closely with them, practice the same "delay, deny and deceive" tactics that the corrupt San Diego City government practiced under the influence of Dick Murphy and Ann Smith. The pension practices supported by Murphy and Smith are now being investigated by the FBI and SEC as well as local prosecutors.

Update 07-18-07
I'm filing this under irony, because Jerry Sanders turned out to be one of the most secretive mayors San Diego has ever had.