Overview:
On Tuesday morning, Nov. 14, about 10 deputies raided the home and office of AngelAnn Flores, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Stockton’s largest school district and a reformer known for standing against the corruption plaguing the district.
On Tuesday morning, Nov. 14, about 10 deputies raided the home and office of AngelAnn Flores, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Stockton’s largest school district and a reformer known for standing against the corruption plaguing the district.
The warrant has not been unsealed nor charges yet filed. Both the Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s Office are saying little. Consequently, much remains unknown. But the optics raise troubling questions.
“I can’t believe this is happening. This is crazy,” Flores said she told deputies who seized her two laptops and phones. “You guys are really going to come after me when there are others out there who have stolen millions of dollars? When I’m the one who called you guys?”
After all, Flores was the lone dissenter on the board of Stockton Unified School District when the 6-1 supermajority disregarded long standing ethics policies and okayed all manner of fishy smelling contracts and personnel changes and millions of dollars disappeared. Flores blew the whistle to the FBI.
For that, she earned the ire of the 209 Times, a Stockton-based online organization that pretends to be a news outlet but is really an arm of Tecuani, the political consultancy of 209 Times founder Motecuzoma Sanchez. The website played a role in getting both Sheriff Pat Withrow and District Attorney Ron Freitas elected, if only by relentlessly running negative stories about their incumbent opponents. It has long called for Flores to be criminally charged.
Flores is also hated by the remaining members of the school board’s former majority. Three sued her for defamation. When they lost this stupid suit, the judge ruled they must pay Flores’ court costs. That was in 2022. They have not paid.
Given all this, could the raid on Flores be political? To believe it may be cynical, to dismiss it naïve.
After all, two withering Grand Jury reports, an audit by a special state agency, and numerous news stories exposed the likelihood of massive fraud in Stockton Unified, not by Flores, but more likely by then-Superintendent John Ramirez, his lieutenants, and the board majority.
The most notorious case — seemingly the beau ideal of school board corruption — involved a multimillion-dollar contract for bogus air filters championed by then-trustee Scot McBrian against all the rules.
But the sheriff went after Flores. Even if he’s got the goods, the action raises questions about selective law enforcement.
The Sheriff’s Office, denying any political motive, released a statement. “As far as any business affiliation with Motecuzoma/Tecuani is false. The Sheriff ran his campaign solely and is not currently using any political consulting.”
The statement also says how the investigation was generated. “This allegation was brought to us by several whistleblowers within SUSD. We are fact-based and merely follow the investigative leads as they develop. We will not be swayed based on internet chatter, media reports, or political affiliations. … we presented our fact pattern to an independent judge who authorized the search warrant.”
Presumably a judge would not okay a warrant unless convinced Flores’ home contained key evidence.
Now with possession of her laptops and phones the SO has her contacts, correspondence, campaign donors, possibly the names of anonymous whistleblowers and opposition bloggers, even her private thoughts. Flores’ attorney needs to get the warrant unsealed to better understand the raid’s justification.
Another issue involves the DA’s public information officer, Lee Neves. Neves is not a career PIO; he is a political consultant. He runs campaigns. For Freitas he served both as a media consultant and department spokesman.
Presumably that means he works to keep Freitas in good standing with voters even as he channels information to the public. I wrote a column months ago asking if that was kosher.
Since then, the picture has changed in two ways.
Neves is running the campaign of Stockton firefighters’ union President Mario Gardea, who is running for the county Board of Supervisors. Meanwhile DA Freitas has charged Gardea’s opponent in that race, Chris Rouppet, with misdemeanor hit and run.
Neves says he took pains to separate his two jobs. “I think it’s time we stopped judging people by looks and (instead) by what actually is,” Neves said. “I have been nothing but scrupulous.”
Appearances do matter, even if Neves wishes they didn’t. And his assertion of scrupulousness amounts to “Trust me.” In Stockton, In God We Trust, but nobody else.
Rouppet released a statement: “There will always be a clear conflict of interest when active political consultants serve in government. … This not only hurts his integrity and the integrity of the District Attorney’s Office, it destroys the public’s trust in the institutions they rely on to protect them.”
The Record newspaper, which exposed Neves’s potential conflict of interest, contacted a government ethicist, John Pelissero at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
“It’s the appearance of having a divided loyalty that is the problem for this individual and the DA,” Pelissero said of Neves. “It’s not unreasonable for members of the public to look at this situation and wonder whether the PIO is looking out for the public’s interest, or the private interest of clients that he happens to do work for.”
There’s more. Two deputy DAs are running for a judge’s seat. Neves is managing one’s campaign. Neves maintains he does no political work on the DA’s—which is to say, the public’s–time.
The other development since I wrote the column is that Neves was replaced as the DA’s PIO. That happened this week. A candidate search process that began in August, Neves said, resulted in the hire of new PIO Erin Haight.
“And nobody’s happier about it than me,” said Neves.
The bad optics of the Flores raid do not automatically mean Flores is innocent, or that the Sheriff has done anything wrong. Neither does Neves’ wearing of two hats make him automatically guilty. But a political machine is under construction in Stockton and people are unsure who is part of it. Under the circumstances, even the mere appearance of wrongdoing excites public distrust.
Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com
Flores has been under attack for years from Sanchez’s propaganda machine and former trustees who once held a majority over SUSD school board. If there was something to be found it would found by now. That this search warrant was issued as a result of complaints made by several “unnamed, insider whistleblowers” REAKS OF 209 TIMES!
I hope this kind of journalism takes hold in stockton.
There is definitely something ‘behind the scenes’ being constructed. (To that end, mr k lincoln had a large group of trade union and fire and police department donations) But i would say the scene behind the scene has been here for years because the social makeup of stockton is: apathy first. This city’s population is very uneducated which simply has always allowed the charlatans to rise to the top so very easily.
This is the “ugly american” virus. It’s deadly .
And now it’s invaded our home soil.
Neves needs to be either in the DA’s Office or a political operative! That needs to happen as result of action by the D. A. Lack of action by the D.A. Constitutes failure of the office. Get it done.
So, what about the million dollar air filter contract? Flores case is more urgent ? It will be very concerning if the DA does nothing regarding the air filter contract.