SAN BERNARDINO, CA -- Assistant District Attorney Dan Lough has filed a
$1.6-million lawsuit against the county, alleging the Sheriff's
Department unlawfully made him a target of political spying. The suit
filed Monday claims the department "has for many years engaged in
political espionage." At the request of a corruption task force, former
Rialto Councilman Ed Scott secretly recorded dozens of conversations
with Lough, District Attorney Dennis Stout and a county investigator.
The taping occurred during Scott's campaign last year to unseat
Supervisor Jerry Eaves. Prosecutors were investigating Eaves at the time
and court transcripts indicate Stout and Lough discussed the Eaves probe
and advised Scott in his campaign. Scott narrowly lost the election.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/calreport/data/
San Bernardino County hosts the military's most cherished clubhouse, Ft. Irwin, and several other bases, active and closed. The county population is rich in military denizens, their derelicts, offspring, misfits and buffs. With the consequent prevalence of the classic sociopathy found in these people, predation, exploitation, corruption and virtual tyranny have spread throughout our courts, law enforcement and government. Discuss the disgraceful prison and military industrial complexes here.
2001-10-28
2001-10-04
San Bernardino Co. Rejects Claims by Former D.A. Aides
By Douglas Haberman
October 04, 2001 in print edition B-6
San Bernardino County on Wednesday rejected multimillion-dollar claims of two former officials in the district attorney’s office who say they were made scapegoats in an ongoing investigation of political corruption.
Dan Lough, the county’s former assistant district attorney, and Barry Bruins, former chief of the district attorney’s bureau of investigations, say Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout made them the fall guys when his office came under fire for some of its tactics during the corruption inquiry.
Their portion of the investigation focused on Supervisor Jerry Eaves, who has since been indicted on federal bribery charges and has pleaded no contest to seven state misdemeanor charges of violating conflict-of-interest laws and failing to report gifts.
During the months that preceded the election that returned Eaves to office in November, Lough, Bruins and Stout participated in the investigation of the supervisor.
Court documents show that during the same period, Lough and Bruins discussed the Eaves investigation several times with Rialto City Councilman Ed Scott, Eaves’ opponent in the supervisorial race. Unknown to Lough and Bruins, Scott taped these discussions on behalf of a joint FBI-San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department task force investigating corruption in the county.
Transcripts of the tapes show that Lough and Bruins gave Scott campaign advice, suggesting that he find a “marginally honest” private investigator to look into Eaves’ credit card records.
A subsequent internal district attorney’s office review found the relationship between Scott and Stout, Lough and Bruins ethically questionable.
In their claims filed earlier this week, Lough and Bruins contend that to save himself, Stout put all the blame on them, forcing them to accept demotions “voluntarily” or face dismissal.
Lough was demoted from the No. 2 spot in the office to a position as a deputy district attorney. His salary dropped from $127,000 a year to $94,000 a year.
Bruins was made an investigator in Fontana, with a pay cut from $95,500 a year to $75,200.
These demotions effectively ruined their careers, the two men say.
Lough said the secret tapes violated his rights of free speech and privacy. He said that although he violated no laws, and was never charged with criminal wrongdoing, “they managed to do a job on my reputation.”
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