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City backs away from settlement in Jackson case

It looks like the city of Tallahassee may be going to court after all in the small-claims lawsuit brought by Erwin Jackson.

The City Attorney’s Office has rejected Jackson’s latest demands to settle the case — namely that the city pay $6,600 in expenses, write a letter of apology and adopt an ordinance or policy requiring the city to advise or get permission from the City Commission before hiring an outside private investigator.

Jackson, a well-known City Hall critic, sued the city last year after it locked him out of a power-line easement he uses to access an equipment building in the backyard of one of his rental properties in Airport Drive. In a move that sparked controversy of its own, the City Attorney’s Office later hired a private investigator to gather evidence that Jackson was illegally using the equipment building for a commercial purpose in a residential zone.

Deputy City Attorney Lew Shelley said the City Attorney’s Office decided against settling because Jackson’s demands, both monetary and otherwise, have increased.

“If we’re not able to reach a settlement that we think is advantageous to our citizens and our taxpayers, we have an obligation to go forward and let the court decide the matter,” Shelley said.

City Commissioners Gil Ziffer and Mark Mustian, during a meeting March 14, urged the City Attorney’s Office to settle the case. Assistant City Attorney Lou Norvell sent Jackson a letter the next day expressing a willingness to settle, but he sent another letter April 11 saying the city couldn’t meet Jackson’s demands.

Ziffer said that while he initially wanted to settle the case, Jackson since has increased the amount of damages and asked for the “anti-spying” policy, something Ziffer said shouldn’t be tied to a legal settlement.

“It’s not the city attorney’s place to decide what the commission will do” on the policy, Ziffer said, adding he supports a policy that outlines when the city can hire an outside investigator.

Mustian, however, still wants to settle.

“We’d spend more money litigating this than we would if we reached a settlement,” Mustian said, adding he also supports a policy on when and how private investigators can be used.

Jackson, in a news release, said he expects his legal fees and expenses to increase another $10,000 before the small-claims case concludes. He called the city’s decision not to settle “an about face” that “has nothing to do with seeking justice or protecting city assets.”

A bench trial has been set for May 17 before Judge Augustus Aikens.

(Follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.  Send news tips to jburlew@tallahassee.com.)

April 23, 2012 – 11:13 am by Jeff Burlew Of The Tallahassee Democrat

About the Author

• 
• Jeff Burlew
• Senior government editor for the Tallahassee Democrat, covering the city, county & state. Follow me on Twitter @JeffBurlew. Send news tips to jburlew@tallahassee.com.

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City defends hiring PI

Attorney’s office calls off private investigator in Erwin Jackson case

11:56 PM, Mar. 2, 2012  |  By Jeff Burlew Senior government editor Of The Tallahassee Democrat

The Tallahassee City Attorney’s Office is standing by its decision to hire a private investigator as part of its defense of a small-claims lawsuit brought by City Hall critic Erwin Jackson.

Deputy City Attorney Lewis Shelley said the hiring of the private eye was “totally legitimate” and necessary for the city to fully defend the lawsuit.

However, Shelley acknowledged the city may have made a different call given reaction to the hiring of Donna Brown, a private investigator and former Tallahassee Police Department officer.

“You can always second-guess yourself after the fact,” Shelley said. “If we’d known we would have created this controversy, we may not have hired the investigator.”

Jackson, a local businessman and landlord best known lately for his relentless criticism of Mayor John Marks, says City Hall is retaliating against him by hiring the investigator to snoop around his properties.

“I am getting special treatment — I knew I would,” Jackson wrote in an email to the Democrat and city commissioners and staff.

Assistant City Attorney Louis Norvell hired the investigator earlier this week not for political payback, he said, but to gather evidence for the lawsuit, which Jackson filed last year over a utility easement. He said the hiring had nothing to do with the mayor.

Shelley and Norvell said the city routinely hires private investigators in litigation involving personal-injury lawsuits, employment claims and other matters. The Democrat has asked the city for details on how much it has spent on private investigators. The city is gathering the information but did not immediately provide it.

The lawsuit involves a swath of land off Mayhew Drive located behind Airport Drive properties Jackson owns. Jackson said that for years, he’s used the easement, where utility lines are located, to access a shed in the backyard of one his properties, where he stores lawn-maintenance equipment. In January of last year, the city locked a gate at the entrance to the utility easement, blocking Jackson and others from using it.

Norvell said the city locked the gate after getting a complaint from a nearby property owner that people were using the easement without authorization. At the time, the city believed it actually owned the easement property. But after doing a title search, the city realized it was privately owned. Around May or June of 2011, the city removed its lock, opening the easement back up for Jackson’s use.

Jackson, who owns a number of rental apartments and homes, said losing access to the easement cost him thousands of dollars because he had to rent a lot from one of his businesses to store the lawn equipment and hire an attorney to handle the dispute.

Jackson billed the city $2,512.50 but later got a check for only $75. Outraged, he filed the lawsuit seeking $4,720.

On Thursday morning, Jackson said he got a call from one of his employees that a woman was hiding in the bushes of one of his properties, Green Briar Garden Homes off Jackson Bluff Road, and taking photographs. The woman left after employees confronted her but not before they were able to snap a photo of her.

Jackson called police, and one of the officers recognized Brown in the photograph. Jackson later got a call from Norvell, who told him the city hired Brown to see whether he was using the lawn-maintenance shed for a commercial purpose, which city officials say is illegal because it’s located in a residential zone.

He has since filed a trespass warning against Brown along with a suspicious-incident report with TPD.

Norvell said he hired the investigator only to see whether Jackson was violating zoning laws by using the shed for the use of his other properties. Norvell says if the city can show Jackson is using the shed for an illegal use, it can prevail in the small-claims lawsuit.

“We needed to gather evidence of the zoning violation in this case,” Norvell said. “And I hired the investigator to observe the property and determine whether or not there were zoning violations.”

Norvell said Brown observed workers remove equipment from the shed on Airport Drive and take it to the nearby apartments. He said he has since told the investigator to stop surveilling Jackson’s properties. Norvell said he expects the bill from the investigator to come in under $1,000.

Jackson says the city is harassing him because he’s been “running his mouth” at City Commission meetings and complaining about alleged misdeeds involving the mayor.

“That’s what’s going on,” Jackson said. “That’s the only way they can try to hurt me and keep me quiet. And you know that isn’t going to work.”

When deputy city attorney Thomas Griego asked Trutanich to endorse his candidacy to become a superior court judge, it seems that Trutanich was willing to ‘go the extra mile’ to help Griego.

Griego had little, if no criminal experience. He had been the chief of staff for disgraced former city councilmember Mike Hernandez, who was arrested in 1997 on narcotics charges. Perhaps as a political favor, Griego was allowed to join the City Attorney’s office and  spent the bulk of his time in obscure civil assignments associated with councilmember needs.

It was hardly a winning resume for Griego who was pitched in the judicial election against a career hardcore gang prosecutor from the District Attorney’s Office – Alan Schneider.

Trutanich nevertheless transferred Griego to the criminal division for the sole reason that Griego could use the misleading ballot designation ‘criminal prosecutor’ to improve his chances of winning. At the time, Trutanich was busy transferring deputy city attorneys out of the criminal division, so the Griego transfer had no other palpable explanation. Even a skilled liar like Trutanich would be hard put to come up with a plausible lie to cover his role in a conspiracy to mislead voters.

That Trutanich would be a party to such a deception surprised even his closest supporters as the Los Angeles County Bar Association had rated Griego as ‘Not Qualified’ to be a judge. Trutanich must have been counting on using his political capital to overcome Griego’s shortcomings, hoping that the  ‘halo’ effect of the early days of the Trutanich administration would overcome any negatives.

Insiders speculated that Trutanich had previously promised to support Griego as a payback for getting Griego to use his political connections in the Latino community to support Trutanich’s city attorney campaign, and Trutanich was simply ‘honoring’ a backroom political deal.

Whatever the reasoning behind Trutanich’s deal with the devil, he was wrong. The Metropolitan News-Enterprise published a stinging review of Griego’s candidacy during which Griego was forced to admit that he had not actually prosecuted a single criminal case since launching his faux candidacy.

Griego ultimately lost his bid to become a judge and Trutanich is believed to have then quietly transferred him back to his old job.

Backroom Deal or Self-Promotion?
Whether Trutanich was indeed honoring an illegal backroom deal he made to garner the support of Griego for his city attorney campaign, or whether Trutanich was simply trying to enhance his own status by marking himself as a ‘judge maker,’ remains a dark secret known only to Trutanich. In all likelihood the truth probably lies somewhere between the two possibilities.

Mafia-style power plays
In the world of organized crime, crime bosses are believed to enhance their power and reputation by ‘holding their hands up’ for crime associates, thereby helping to ‘make’ a new member of the crime syndicate’s inner circle. Trutanich could have been engaging in similar conduct to boost his power and influence if had he been able to ‘make’ Griego a judge.

Political payback
The payback for Trutanich would be not only that he would have a judge who owes him a favor, but also that Trutanich could parlay his new role as a ‘judge maker’ to exact favors from others who want his endorsement. It is sleazy politics at best, illegal at worst, but it’s a practice that Trutanich seemed perfectly comfortable with having never offered the public any explanation for his conduct.

Make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse
Trutanich’s failure to ‘make’ Griego has not, apparently, deterred the City Attorney from using the promise of future favors in return for political support. Trutanich faces overwhelming opposition from the 1,000 deputy district attorneys who do not want Trutanich to be their next boss. They have seen the way that in the two years since becoming City Attorney, Trutanich’s crass policies have decimated the City Attorney’s office with layoffs, pay cuts and work furloughs. Trutanich has not taken a pay cut and has used a variety of ruses to similarly protect a few key staff. But for the vast majority of deputy city attorneys, Trutanich has been a disaster both financially and professionally.

Deputy district attorney promised promotion
Faced with such an miserable record as a leader, Trutanich has nevertheless been reaching out to deputy district attorneys to garner their support for his bid to become their boss. It is understood that at least one supervisor has been promised ‘a Grade 5 spot’ if she will support Trutanich for DA.

The promotion of supervisor to a Grade V position is understood to be almost exclusively the prerogative of the elected District Attorney, and subject to few civil service rules. This lends credibility Trutanich’s promises, but when viewed in the light of the way he failed to follow through with similar promotion promises as City Attorney, it is more than likely that the supervisor will not be promoted and, of course, be unable to complain about it.

Bureau of Investigations courted with promises
Trutanich is also believed to have been making similar promotion promises to District Attorney Investigators in the Bureau of Investigation. Trutanich is desperate to obtain the support of the law enforcement branch of the DA’s Office both through individual investigators who have been tapped for promotion and by courting the endorsement of their union. It is an endeavor that stretches and tests loyalties.

The former Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Investigation, Gary Schram, now works for Trutanich’s DA campaign as well as supervising Trutanich’s cash-strapped investigators. Schram was promised his own Bureau with full law enforcement status when he joined the City Attorney’s Office as one of Trutanich’s ‘at will’ employees. However, that also proved to be another of Trutanich’s failed promises with Schram now seemingly fully occupied with using his contacts to promote Trutanich’s ambition to be DA.

Nevertheless, Schram has apparently remained convinced that Trutanich will eventually deliver on his promise and instead appoint him as Chief of the DA’s Office Bureau of Investigation if Trutanich becomes DA. Unfortunately for Schram, Trutanich is believed to have made the same promise to several others in the Bureau as well as to senior officers at both the LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department.

All in all, Trutanich’s concentration on making false promises and engaging in cheap grandstanding rather than doing the job he said ‘I am here to do,‘ will likely result in his overwhelming defeat in the June 2012 primary election.

For Trutanich, the political defeat will be humbling, but will likely be followed with his rapid return to private practice as an ambulance chaser plaintiff’s attorney and lobbyist with strong connections to City Hall. For those foolish enough to believe his promises, perhaps they should put a higher store on their credibility and reputation that Trutanich seemingly puts on his.

The Trutanich scandals series will continue next week.

&tc.