BY CRESCENT CITY-DEL NORTE COUNTY TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION
Officers and Directors of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Taxpayers Association have received numerous complaints and allegations from members of the public on a variety of subjects.
The Taxpayers Association is handing in those complaints to the Del Norte County Grand Jury. Anything having to do with abuse, fraud, etc., of our government agencies funded by taxpayer dollars will be the focus of the association in an effort to fix things that are broken.
The first complaint points out the broken claims system which has cost the taxpayers of our town hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil rights lawsuits against the county.
Here’s an example of how that works. Let’s say an officer of the Sheriff’s department obtains a search warrant from a Judge based on false information. Then the officer orchestrates a SWAT type operation and raids the person’s house and in the process violates civil rights put into place to protect individuals from renegade law enforcements types, including: reading one their Miranda rights; proper search and seizure; placing confiscated guns in an evidence locker for safekeeping; returning property from the evidence locker in good condition; giving the individual a phone call in a timely manner after their arrest; getting them medical attention after being beaten by law enforcement.
It’s bad enough to have your home and person violated by an intruder intent on doing you harm. It’s even worse when those paid to protect and defend you are the perpetrators of crimes against you. But now that a crime has been committed against you by these renegades, (usually the same 4 or 5 are named repeatedly) what are your options? What are your next steps? The first step is to file a claim against Del Norte County. What does the County do? Routinely, they deny the claim.
What do you do next? You hire the biggest baddest attorney you can afford, or one that is willing to take your case on contingency, who knows about all the corruption in Del Norte County. One that also knows how the judges are in this county and still isn’t afraid to take your case. But more often, these attorney’s take your case and you’re money and then leave you high and dry, usually after you run out of money to pay them.
What does the County do? They turn the lawsuit over to their legal bulldogs to fight you tooth and nail, adding insult to injury. They will discredit you. They will try to wear you down. It doesn’t seem to matter to them that they are destroying your life. Historically, the County would rather pay huge amounts to their legal beagles than pay the victim a dime.
The Board of Supervisors may or may not be aware of the claim. They become aware of claims via potential lawsuits or actual filed lawsuits usually behind closed doors during closed session. They have received over 25 civil rights lawsuits in the last six years. The amounts paid out to attorneys to fight these lawsuits are well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not the millions of dollars. And, it’s not only legal fees. Also take into account the time spent by the District Attorney’s office and County Council’s office. And then there’s the Public Defender’s paid to represent you once a charge or charges have been leveled against you.
The County must institute a policy of non-tolerance of rogue officers. If any officers are violating the laws by stealing property or abusing drugs, or violating individual’s civil rights then it is the responsibility of the Sheriff, the leader of the department, to investigate these allegations. If the Sheriff is unwilling to do so, then the taxpayers have a legitimate gripe against the system, the Sheriff’s department and the County.
It’s our money. If they’re not spending it wisely, we have every right to demand that things change. And, the CC-DN County Taxpayers Association is intent on leading the charge to help those changes take place.
If you’d like to become a member of the Taxpayers Association, please leave a comment below and you will be contacted.
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