Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The View Of One Reader -- The Christmas Hayride

Followers of the Trojan Heron will remember that we have let readers, notably Kit Rawson, post here before. Now, since new information has come out about the Christmas hayride incident, one of our faithful Trojan Heron readers has asked for an opportunity to express his thoughts on the matter.  The following is from David Hume.

A few thoughts on the Xmas eve hayride incident (maybe it should be referred to as the Menjivar Snowjob). At this date, it’s important to remember that there is still much information that isn’t currently (and may never be) publicly available. That said, let’s consider the information that the Sheriff’s Department has chosen to spread, thickly, over the hayfield.

First, aside from Menjivar sa femme’s extremely ill-considered Facebook post [really, Facebook should come with an instruction book for dummies], Deputy Menjivar has made two public written statements regarding the Snowjob. More about the wife’s statement further below. Menjivar’s first, undated letter, published in the San Juan Islander, consists simply of an appeal to authority – he’s an expert, you have no business questioning what he does to guarantee your safety or how he provides it. If you liked Col. Nathan Jessup, you’ll love Felix Menjivar.
“Son, we live in a world with streets, and those streets have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Island Guardian? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for McCutcheon, and you curse the Sheriff’s Deputies. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That McCutcheon’s traffic stop, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on those streets, you need me on those streets. We use words like “Drug Recognition Expert”, “DUI Emphasis Patrol” and “Collision Reconstructionist”. We use these words as an appeal to authority and a deliberate red herring to avoid the consequences of bad choices we make daily. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of fear our department creates, and then questions why creating that fear is necessary. I would rather you just bowed, scraped, and then backed out of the downtown area. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think your are entitled to.”
Ignore the headline in the Islander (“Deputy Explains Christmas Eve Traffic Stop”), because the letter does nothing of the sort. You’re just supposed to know that Deputy Felix knows more than you. About everything, but mostly about public safety. And, oh Lordy, public safety was definitely in danger on Christmas Eve in Friday Harbor. What kind of danger? Grave danger. As if there was any other kind.

Not being satisfied with one red herring, Menjivar tosses out another: supposed cowardly attacks on his family. Presumably this references to the numerous responses to Menjivar sa femme’s now-deleted Facebook post. Since she chose to insert opinions into the public debate about her husband’s action, it’s really only fair that she should expect responses. Menjivar doesn’t mention whether there were physical threats or anything beyond the Facebook replies, if there were those are indefensible, but Menjivar specifically references if “anyone has a problem with my duties then address them with my supervisors and not my family. My family and I did not surrender our civil rights when I became a deputy,” making it sound as though he’s only referring to the Facebook responses. As to surrendering their civil rights, I don’t recall seeing anyone advocating that they should, however the attorney Felix hires for the civil suit(s) against him that may be filed may want to weigh in on the judiciousness of freely exercising those rights without first consulting an attorney. I imagine the deposition of Menjivar sa femme would be interesting. Wives with big mouths who’ve already inserted themselves into the story are often a goldmine. Hell, I imagine the depositions of Felix, Nou and Randy Gaylord would be interesting as well. [San Juan county taxpayers – BOHICA, this Snowjob could get expensive. Think “outside attorneys”.]

Couple of important things to note in Menjivar’s letter:
  1. He’s “spoken with Sheriff Nou [presumably about the incident] and will continue to arrest the impaired driver.” Interesting - Felix is, I think, implying that McCutcheon was driving impaired. Or maybe he just wants the reader to infer that from the wording. In any case, Menjivar clearly didn’t have any legal help when he wrote this particular letter. 
  2. Menjivar loves the appeal to authority logic argument that he drags it out again with the irrelevant argument that those who do not agree with what he did should “contact your legislators, they make the law. I took an oath to uphold all of the laws – I don’t have the luxury to agree or disagree with them”. Perhaps Menjivar could provide a cite to the relevant RCW requiring him to put his hand on his gun, as asserted by more than one witness – it’s a question I’m sure will be asked in any civil suit.
  3. Not being satisfied solely with the appeal to authority argument, Menjivar trots out an ad hominem argument, referencing the “small but loud” group of people in the county who don’t believe they should be subject to state law. Presumably he’s not talking about himself (although maybe he should include himself in that group), but he’s apparently implying (again) that McCutcheon is in that group.
  4. Felix appeals to us all to stop the “downright viciousness” – wonder if that includes tasering innocents? 
Next up in the hit parade is Sheriff Nou’s letter printed January 1st, containing few more details and another appeal to authority. I wonder if specious appeals to authority are a minimum job skill required to work in the Sheriff’s Department? Nou’s letter only contains a single paragraph that’s truly relevant to explaining the incident:
“Unfortunately, the stop turned into a confrontation. The deputy called for back-up, and they were able to de-escalate the situation. No one was hurt, and no enforcement action was taken on the infractions. A deputy followed the vehicle home making sure everyone got back safely. The contact lasted under 15 minutes, start to finish.” 
What’s been left out is more interesting than what’s in the verbiage. Thank God the deputies (“they”) were able to de-escalate the situation. The explanation as to who’d caused the escalation is so passive that it doesn’t even appear. Apparently it’s just one of those things that happen, like a virgin birth. Nou really could have made the Christmas tie-in of his explanation a little clearer for us non-Christians. But, things were fine until they were, you know, escalated. Then, praise God, the Deputies were on the scene. With their mad de-escalate skillz.

[Skipping ahead briefly to Nou’s latest statement, I’ll tip my hat to his use of the passive voice. “There was no violence or use of force, however, voices were raised and some of the children present understandably became upset.” “…the situation calmed down.” “The primary area of concern is how and why the situation became so volatile so quickly….” Masterful. Apparently the Sheriff’s Department can’t afford to buy any personal pronouns. Maybe they should take up a collection to get some. [Or maybe they could sell the video cameras they claim they’re not using.]

Nou reminds us how the employees in the Sheriff’s Office work long hours. Actually Sheriff, I see that twice a year when I write the check for my property taxes – reminding us during the Christmas season is just a tad painful. And not in the Christmas spirit. Nou also relates to us that he’s “reviewing the incident”.  I’m sure. Based on his (non)interest in addressing community comments last March related to traffic stops, I’m sure he was expecting just a whole gaggle of comments this time.

In a county of fewer than 16,000 residents, it’s not like aggrieved citizens are going to want to go on the record as filing a complaint against a Felix Menjivar for fear of what will happen in retaliation. Seriously, ask yourself if you want to file a complaint against an ARMED man who says “[t]here is a small but loud group of people in this county that [sic] believe they should not be subjected to the laws of the State of Washington because they live here or were born here, I hear it on a regular basis at my traffic stops.” If Felix hears it all the time, I’d be curious to know how that conversation got started and drifted there. Another question I’m sure would be asked during a deposition.

Actually, if Nou (and the council) had any interest in what the citizenry thought of the Sheriff’s Department, they’d create an ombudsmen’s office where people could make anonymous complaints. Most major companies use third party whistleblower’s hotlines for vendors and customers wanting to file anonymous complaints. It’s a service that costs relatively little and the yields are substantial – one study estimated that more than half of the employee fraud and abuses discovered over a period of years in one major corporation were uncovered by tips left with the whistleblower’s reporting line. That said, if the plan is to take the limited hangout route and not really do anything about citizen complaints, then I think the Sheriff’s Office has got that pretty much nailed already.

Really, Nou’s grade on dealing with the community is currently an F and heading lower daily. Note to the County Council and voters – when you’re considering electing or hiring someone who’s already retired from one career and got a great pension, please keep in mind that they often don’t really give a rat’s ass about what you think about them after you’ve hired/elected them. Might be exactly what you want if you’re electing a reformer who has no interest in getting re-elected, but keep it in mind. As an example, I give you Nou. And remember that when he runs for re-election.

Now we’ve got some version of the incident reports, all nine pages of them. I’ll leave you to read them on your own: click here. Interesting reading. I’m sure they’ll be filed eventually in the fiction stacks in the library. Some general observations. As noted in the Island Guardian, they’re too perfect to be the original entries for the incident reports. Not just the typing (even if it’s true that they’ve got some new fancy schmancy report generating system). Of all the incident reports I’ve ever seen, these are the most perfect – mostly whole sentences, mostly correct grammar, almost perfect use of appropriate punctuation (note the comma in the third paragraph, sixth line on page five of nine before the quote “I think it is …..”). I’ll submit to you that I doubt very very much that Felix Menjivar and Brad Korth wrote that. Not because of either of their ethnicities, but because I’ve never met a deputy whose grammar skills are that good. We are asked to believe that Felix wrote his incident report about sixty minutes after the stop. Not buying it. Which leads to the next question, if Felix and Brad didn’t write that, who did? And when? Let’s come back to that. But the question will surely be asked if they’re deposed.

Another thing of note is the thread running through both Menjivar’s and Korth’s reports is the supposed overt racism on the part of McCutcheon. I’ll be the first to say I’ve never met McCutcheon and for all I know he may be as racist as Bull Connor. However, in Menjivar’s original letter, Menjivar sa femme’s Facebook post, no mention of ethnic hostility was mentioned. Within a day or two of the incident, that McCutcheon was so upset that “a Hispanic Deputy has stopped him” that he was (presumably) shouting “I can’t believe my civil rights are being violated by someone who is not even from this country”, and incited the crowd to yell “racial slurs”, escalating until McCutcheon was “so angry he was shaking” apparently all disappeared in Felix’s memory (the Christmas season has that effect on my memory sometimes, but I usually chalk it up to eggnog and rum-soaked fruitcake). And we know that both of those statements by Felix and wife were relatively contemporaneous to the Snowjob. Now, lo and behold, we have something supposedly written less than sixty minutes after the original incident, a few days later for Korth’s statement – apparently he’s not as fast a typist as Felix – that ties the racial angle all up with a nice neat bow. The timing doesn’t make sense here – two relatively contemporaneous documents don’t mention the racial angle and then a supposedly real-time incident report not appearing for several weeks plays it up dramatically? Not buying it. Anyway, the kinds of questions I’d expect to come up at a deposition are: “What happened to the original incident reports?”, “Did you, Felix, consult with Brad before he wrote his report on December 30th?” “Felix, when did you re-write your incident report?” “Where are the drafts for the versions between the original version and the ‘official’ version?” “Did Randy Gaylord or anyone from the San Juan County Prosecutor’s Office consult with you or assist you in any way in writing this final version?” “Are there e-mails between you, Korth or Sheriff Nou and the Prosecutor’s Office regarding this incident?” “Did you consult with any other attorney regarding the preparation of your incident report?” “Do you understand what signing a statement under penalty of perjury means?” I’m totally guessing here, but I’d guess that someone helped Felix and that someone else helped Korth, but that everyone consulted before coming up with the final “Felix is the real victim here” story. Just to make sure that the story was good and tight. Having been handed this mess, I’d guess that there was a scramble to come with a story to try and contain the potential civil liability, particularly in light of Felix’s past history.

Which leads to my next question: At what point will the county decide it’s simply too expensive to have Felix on the payroll and throw him under the bus? The trend line of his “incidents” isn’t good and at some point he could end up killing someone. The civil suits stacking up over the last couple of years are a pain, but it’ll get real expensive if the bodies start stacking up. Most people knew that Felix had, how should we say this, “issues” with his own anger management a while ago. How long can the county afford to have an ARMED hot head driving around with a badge? From a civil liability standpoint, having multiple known prior incidents involving Felix where the incident just went and done escalated itself (to borrow Nou’s passive voice for a minute) means that if there’s ever a real SHTF episode involving Felix, the county is going to have to essentially just hand someone a blank check and ask them to fill it in themselves.

Basically, Felix and Nou want us to feel guilty that Felix supposedly had his feelings hurt. Horrors: someone who got pulled over on Christmas Eve was ticked. Remarkable. And Unexpected. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that there are a few jobs where you’re going to have to expect that a fair number of the interactions with your constituents are going to mostly suck: IRS agent, bouncer, traffic enforcement officer. People as sensitive as Felix might choose other professions guaranteeing a higher proportion of positive interactions: birthday clown, male prostitute, shoe repairman come to mind, I’m sure there are others. Probably a good idea not to combine any of those three into a single career though.

So, Menjivar sa femme posted the following on Facebook: “Felix wears a camera every night. Exactly for this purpose. Because people claim things happened a certain way and only a camera from HIS perspective shows how the other person is behaving.” [Emphasis added.]

Felix wears a camera. EVERY NIGHT. Interesting. More interesting is the report in the Island Guardian that Sheriff Nou:
  1. Didn’t know the Sheriff’s Department had been recording traffic stops,
  2. Didn’t know that the Sheriff’s Department even had cameras,
  3. Didn’t know who had the cameras that he wasn’t sure they owned,
  4. Didn’t know how to “download” any video that might be on the camera.
If some or all of this is true, probably Sheriff Nou should just resign. It’s not like the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department is the same size as New York City’s. That he’s been on the job as long as he has and doesn’t know any of this is sort of unbelievable. This whole video thing could generate some interesting questions in the depositions. Things like: “How many other traffic stops/incidents involving Felix were recorded?” “Were copies of those videos made available to defendants during discovery in their trials?” “If not, why not and at whose direction?” “Did Randy Gaylord know that traffic stops/incidents were routinely recorded?” [This is where it might get really interesting.] “What happened to recordings of this and other incidents?” There are probably some interesting issues as to any convictions obtained where evidence as important as a video of the incident was withheld from the defense. There are probably some interesting issues as to civil liability if there is no written policy as to the recordings. Felix might want to retain his own counsel. He might want to anyway, because if you kind of go through the game theory here, he’s the most expendable person in the chain. If anyone’s going under the bus, Felix is going to be first. If the cameras belong to the Sheriff’s Department, then the video files created almost certainly are public property. More interesting questions arise. Whoever is representing the plaintiffs in a civil suit, if any, probably should let the Sheriff’s Department know to set the camera and whatever medium it uses to record the files on aside – given how incompetent the Sheriff’s Department appears now, it’s unlikely that they could figure out how to truly delete something from an SD card, assuming the incident really WAS recorded, as Menjivar sa femme indicated was absolutely what happened.

Just another incident in small town rural America. This could get really interesting. The real losers here? San Juan county taxpayers – we get to pay for all of this mess.

81 comments:

  1. It is okay, apparently, for Menjivar to be openly, proudly, and defiantly prejudiced against uppity townies, per his letter in the papers and other statements. It's fascinating to me how his apparent prejudice against islanders has been reconfigured into racism against him.

    Just who is the racist? Menjivar is the one who has gone on the record deriding people who come from here and stereotyping them based on their origins. For that, he receives the institutional support of the sheriff and the department, and tacitly the whole county government.

    I cannot believe that Menjivar and others have been so open about the way they profile and stereotype islanders. No one gives up their civil rights just because they were born here.

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  2. I was thinking the same thing. If you buy what is being said by the sheriff's department and some of the commentary on the TH, we are drunk-driving, racist bumpkins wanting special treatment all the time because we were born and raised here. The actual incident doesn't matter because we've already been pre-convicted of being locals. Even Felix's report is full of speculation about the intent of McCutcheon. Felix was clearly profiling him.

    There is bias and discrimination for sure, but it's coming from the officers.

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  3. How long until Randy acknowledges this incident?
    Is he waiting to get a feel for it? Maybe it will just go away? Not his job?
    Do you only prosecute the people of these islands and not county employees? Which group do you think has broken more laws and caused more damage?

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  4. Acknowledge? For all we know, someone in the PA's office helped write the backdated police fiction reports. Randy's job is to protect the county no matter what. He ain't gonna acknowledge anything. That's part of why the government gets away with so much here. Randy is there to make it all go away. He is no friend of the people. Neither is the sheriff. Neither is the council. It's a machine that protects and reinforces itself.

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  5. Hey! Lay off Randy. Everybody knows Kyle's in charge.
    Kyle for P.A. !!

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  6. This is serious stuff.

    No Sheriff outfit is perfect, and these guys are human. And twenty some odd years with Bill Cumming had problems with more recent hires enthusiastically tasering citizens, but my God, that was on the whole a good, solid group of working officers who understood nuance and understood the community and worked tirelessly with youth and knew how to keep a lid on things. Bill earned community trust.

    The Sheriff Dept under Cumming overall got good marks and he was elected repeatedly for good reason. How do you destroy that reputation for general common sense and decency in just a few years? Easy.

    That is what this boils down to: Nou has a tin ear and does not know how to keep a lid on things in the proper way. There is no way in hell Cumming would have ever allowed things to "escalate" like this.

    One other thing. The relationship between the Sheriff Department and Homeland Security is unfortunately something we might want to ponder given recent law and justice SNAFUs around here. I know. This is taboo, a real third rail subject at the moment but we got to move on from our artificial positions and take a real cold eyed look.

    You think its hard to deal with a rogue cop in the Sheriff Department where we elect the Sheriff and our elected officials control his budget? What do you do when a Border Patrol officer goes a bit rogue? Think about it. What do you do when the Department of Homeland Security deputizes the Sheriff Department and puts our officers to work for them? That happens occasionally over the years, but the times have changed if you haven't noticed. Did you know the Customs and Border Patrol has some ability to protect federal conservation lands along the borders? Think about it.

    I had a long conversation with Sheriff Cumming some years ago at his County Fair campaign booth during an election as he recounted stories of having the Department deputized by the Federals on occasion. One incident I recall had to do with a Jamaican posse gang of smugglers in fast boats coming across the border with drugs hiding out on small remote islands. That was all about hot pursuit. Why do you think we got that fancy new Sheriff boat with a boost from a federal DHS grant?

    Times are changing and I have no problem with law enforcement either local or Federal but the officers do not make the policy. Felix gets away with his hijincks because Department policy (or lack of it, which is the same thing) permits him. Same thing with the Border Patrol. You get the Second in Command "Face of the Patrol" Joseph W. Giuliano caught diddling little girls and winding up in the slammer. Hell, who knew? Policy from above allowed the behavior to go unchecked by looking the other way.

    And now we have this footprint in our town to harbor the expansion of the largest federal police force in the United States, which is NOT your grandfather's Customs Service anymore. That changed forever in 2003. Forget the property rights issues or the personalities. That's small beer. Look beyond that. Look to an expanded and emboldened federal police force in the community capable of deputizing the Sheriff Department on any given incident they deem fit.

    Meanwhile rogue officers with anger management or other issues go unchecked, feel emboldened and before you know it, we have all become suspected terrorists. Do you believe it cannot happen here?

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  7. If the Sheriff couldn't figure out how to download the video. All he would have needed to do is, some how, contact Stan Matthews. Our county I.T. guy.
    Maybe the Sheriff did and somebody pushed the wrong button?
    What they need to do is take the units, that we paid for, over to the school house and have some kid retrieve the "lost" information. Unless the units and memory cards somehow got misplaced.
    When will this stone walling come down? So that we may move on. If you err, and admit it, the odds of being forgiven go way up.

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  8. Something for Sheriff Nou to consider when he's pondering why no one wants to talk to him:

    http://www.popehat.com/2014/01/15/the-privilege-to-shut-up/

    Ken White (a former federal prosecutor) says it better than I can, but consider this quote when thinking about someone living on San Juan island dropping a dime on Felix re: Xmas Eve:

    "When you talk to a cop, you are talking to someone who is often privileged to kill you with complete impunity, someone whose claims about what you said during your interaction — however fantastical — will likely be accepted uncritically by the system even if the particular cop is a proven serial liar. Even the most mundane interaction carries the potential for life-altering disaster."

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  9. @ 8:50 said: "Unless the units and memory cards somehow got misplaced."

    Exactly. If that happened and that story ever sees the light of day, things start getting really interesting.

    Felix, Korth, Nou and Gaylord don't have completely overlapping mutuality of interests here. Felix should keep that in mind. Taxpayers should keep in mind that the taxpayers' interests have very little in common with Felix, Korth, Nou and Gaylord's interests. Very little. Fortunately we have reminders of that nearly daily.

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  10. Regarding Nous' comments about his inability to download from whatever camera, why didn't he just ask the wearer of said camera (Felix) how to download content onto a viewing medium? It is inconceivable a deputy might wear a camera without knowing how to use it.
    And I would be interested to know what kind of camera we are talking about here. A Go Pro is about the size of two packs of cigarettes. How could Nou with all his interactions with Felix not notice something like that on his person?
    If the camera was smaller, again we are talking about someone trained to observe, not noticing Felix was wearing or using a camera on nearly a daily basis?

    Far more credible is that Felix went home to his wife with said camera in hand, downloaded what was, for him, a damming piece of video and put the recording medium (SD Card ?)or video in a safe place and then just loaded up, say, a new, blank SD Card.

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  11. So I have a question. Were any Heron readers at this hayride? BIG opinions going on here. Any of you have first hand knowledge of this whole thing?

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  12. Does the Sheriff's department OWN body cameras? Does Nou know that he owns cameras? If so, what is Sheriff Nou's POLICY on body cameras? When an officer comes back from an incident, isn't the body camera chip taken into evidence? Sheriff Nou KNEW this incident was happening. Nou was listening to the radio! Felix did come to the station directly after the incident - his time-stamped report shows this. What happened to the video chip when Felix returned to the station? Felix KNOWS how to use the camera - he's used it before to document busts and the PA has used his "videos" for evidence. It’s public knowledge. Sheriff Nou knew Felix records his stops and busts. We'll likely never know where the video went...but there NOW needs to be a CLEAR POLICY on body camera recording from the Sheriff. BTW, Stan Matthews is also the PR person for the county -- little conflict of interest for Stan to be the one downloading damning SJ County evidence, if you ask me.

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  13. @9:47

    Because of the behavior of the sheriff's department, "this whole thing" has ballooned to include the behavior of the officers and sheriff beyond the actual incident. Like so many headlines, the cover up is worse than the crime. I'm not sure there has been a cover up, but if it looks like a cover up, quacks like a cover up, and talks like a cover up.

    "This whole thing" is a lot bigger than a tail light stop now.

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  14. @9:47

    The BIG opinion thing cuts two ways. If the sheriff's department is going to have the BIG opinion about us being all losers, they're going to get BIG opinions right back.

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  15. For big opinions, read Menjivar's published letter. I'll be shaking my head about that one for a long time.

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  16. 9:47 - "So I have a question. Were any Heron readers at this hayride? BIG opinions going on here. Any of you have first hand knowledge of this whole thing?"

    Are you saying that it's not appropriate to have an opinion about something unless you have first-hand knowledge of it? Really?

    Who'd you vote for in the last presidential election? Did you meet him personally before casting that vote?

    Ever go to the doctor and ask for an antibiotic? Why - did you actually see the bacteria with your own eyes?

    If you limit your thinking and your opinions only to things you have first-hand knowledge of, you must slide through life without thinking about very much.

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  17. @9:47

    I have never been to Baghdad, Kabul or Benghazi ...

    Therefore in your way of thinking, because I haven't been there, I should not have opinions on foreign policy?

    Folks do you see this deceit for what it is? You are being told that if you live on Orcas Island you should not have an opinion about improper police behavior in Friday Harbor.

    This is about as insane as the San Juan Islander's outage over anyone who dares write their member of Congress over issues emerging in the district.

    What we are seeing is a well orchestrated campaign to drive what is left of independent locals (AKA 'bumpkins') out of the islands to make way for the gleaming utopia of Oligarchical Collectivism.

    WTF??!!

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  18. By implication, it's a corollary to an appeal to authoritay. Only certain people in the know are even QUALIFIED to have an opinion. That's why they have to make our decisions for us.

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  19. @all of you with a rage on at me (9:47)
    Oh good lord! Of COURSE I don't think you need to have been there to HAVE an opinion! I asked if anyone commenting here was THERE! Its all anonymous right? no Fear of Retaliation here? And wtf does being on Orcas have to do with it? I'm looking for more eyewitness reporting! THATS ALL. We've got Felix and Korth saying racial slurs were all over the place... 4 guys coming up on him... so with all the hayriders and observers... did it happen? Is it really just a happy little hayride? Seems there were plenty of people around that aren't comfortable saying what they saw, when they were there. There's got to be a reason for that as well.

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  20. @9:47

    Apologies. Thanks for the clarification.

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  21. @ 11:12 said: "I have never been to Baghdad, Kabul or Benghazi ..."

    Yeah, but Felix is trying to provide local opportunities for the look and feel of living in a state of fear where you can't tell the difference between the police and bands of armed zealots/thugs. Handy phrases to remember when on San Juan include "Don't tase me bro!"

    Remember, according to Felix, he's just enforcing the laws created by those benevolent souls in Olympia. And he's enforcing them good and hard. Dissent will not be tolerated.

    Anyone who witnessed the hayride is welcome to go and talk to Nou about it. As long as you don't mind getting pulled over by an armed man with self-control issues every time you drive through town, getting a parking ticket for things like not curbing your wheels to the downhill side. Heaven help you if you leave your engine running while you dash into the Post Office (RCW 46.61.600) or leave your handicap placard hanging from your rear view mirror while the car is moving (RCW 46.19.030), have a muddy front license plate (RCW 46.16A.200(7)(B), have a license plate frame that obscures any portion of your annual tag (RCW 46.16A.200(7)(C), stick your renewal tag anywhere but within the confines of the box printed on the plate (RCW 46.16A.200(13),etc., etc., etc. Felix can be a damn busy man if you make trouble. Nota bene.

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  22. @ 11:33 AM

    Ever used Facebook?

    Just askin' ...

    When the time for depositions come you can rest assured that many witnesses from that night will tell their story. There's plenty of them. Right now most of them are still shell-shocked, still comforting their children who are still waking up from nightmares.

    Any soccer mom in the past year or so who got pulled over with her kids by Felix the Cop for going 27 in a 25 zone who might recently have been on the hay ride that night is bloody well keeping her mouth shut, and boiling with anger at the same time. And she is talking quietly to her friends. And her husband is making plans with some buddies of his. It'll all come out.

    By the way, this excellent Trojan Heron article by Mr. Hume has been re-posted on local Facebook groups that have been following the Hayride to Hell incident from the beginning. Hundreds of subscribers to those FB groups are now clicking over to the TH to see what's what. This is all going viral.

    Want proof? Someone just posted on the FB group the following: "I must be living in the dark...glad to find this alternative blog, thanks to whomever is the perpetrator of that!"

    But wait there's more! Trojan Heron has a Facebook page too, check it out: https://www.facebook.com/TrojanHeron

    Mr. Hume has obviously been following those FB discussions, he makes reference to them (a la sa femme) and he has used them as source material. Those FB groups are not anonymous. And they don't look like some small vocal minority to me. In fact there is a new logo making the rounds, suitable for T-Shirts and coffee mugs: "The Loud Few." I want one of those along with my Heronisto/Heronista T-Shirts. Felix the Cop. Ah hahahahahaha!

    If any good comes out of all this is going to be an opportunity for a small local business to churn out some kewl stuff and gear!

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  23. While officers may be trained to deal with abusive citizens, it is not required that they cheerfully tolerate being abused.

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  24. @12:45

    Being cheerful ain't got nuthin' to do with it. No one is complaining that Felix is grumpy.

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  25. "While officers may be trained to deal with abusive citizens, it is not required that they cheerfully tolerate being abused."

    Dear 12:45

    Actually, it kinda sort is required that they cheerfully tolerate it. At least in public. No one much cares if Felix goes home and kicks the wall in the garage. He's expected to be civil during working hours, something he apparently failed at miserably in this and other instances. And he's expected not to lie about what happened. It seems from the timeline in this post that Felix's story doesn't hang together too well: day after the exchange = "I'm in charge and I'll enforce the laws". 10 days later but backdated to the night of Christmas Eve = "I'm a victim! Poor me! Those mean people - they suck!" Something ain't write in Felix-ville. We should expect more "updates" to the story as Nou and Gaylord caucus over this.

    But you're really missing the larger point that I think is made in the post - we're all collectively Felix's employers. Would you choose to keep an employee with clear anger issues in a front line, meet the public all day, position? I sure as hell wouldn't. As an employer, I'd have a private conversation with my employment attorney about how fast I could get rid of that employee and what documentation I needed to keep so that I minimized the legal blowback for getting rid of that bad seed. If we as Felix's employer don't collectively make the decision to terminate his employment, we're responsible in every sense of the word for what he does in the future. I'm uncomfortable with that from the employer standpoint as well as the potential victim standpoint. When you have bad employees, the right thing to do is get rid of them.

    ReplyDelete
  26. It seems like the kids on the hayride may have been quite sad on christmas! Was felix and others in the department the grinch that stole christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  27. @ 1:57 PM

    Thanks for your insight, I've heard rumors about this too. Could you please expand a bit more? I wasn't there so I don't know. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  28. "..ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!

    Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!

    But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense!

    Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a small town renegade cop, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense!

    And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense!

    If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests."

    ReplyDelete
  29. @2:37

    It does seem like the sheriff's department is bringing out the Chewbacca defense, or trying to.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Yep, nothing but the non-facts:

    Red Herring
    Argument from authority
    Reductio ad absurdum
    Vocal minority trope
    Argumentum ad hominem
    Ignoratio elenchi
    Thought-terminating cliché

    Someone thinks we're all a bunch of country bumpkins out here or some such, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  31. I believe we are actually Yokel's.

    The Bumpkins live in the south sound.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Dear TH: It does seem there needs to be a reference that could be used or encouraged to be used other than the time slot.

    Almost all the posts are "anonymous" and it is sometimes difficult to keep it coherent. I'm not saying the posts are not coherent, of course some are not, but it is the relationship of the posts to each other that is often hard to discern using only the time cited, or more often not cited.

    It might be fun and productive for posters to give themselves names like: Jet, Merriam-Webster, Jan-uary is lonely, you're too close mister, at the curb the water is fine, (I know these are shity examples) and then we could have a better way to connect who is speaking.

    Certainly, a person could change their nom de plume with every post, but at least a better connection could be made than this time posted thing.

    Lame, I know, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Many thanks to Merri Ann Simonson for her consistently revealing and very well constructed information of value to all islanders.

    It ain't just real estate data, it is real World stuff about our situation here on these bumps in the water.

    ReplyDelete
  34. @6:21

    Good suggestion. Working on an easier way for that to happen on the new site too. Thanks. Not lame at all.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Dear Mr. Nou
    As a citizen & tax payer of San Juan County I respectfully request you fire Felix Menjivar and then resign as Sheriff. Awaiting your letter of resignation. Don't worry about writing it, then rewriting it, changing your mind, then having somebody else rewrite it, we'll take anything at this point as long as you leave.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Page One
    Camera's on his house
    Neighbors Complain
    Camera's Taken Down
    Contest to see how Many Citations Can be Issued during Christmas Eve.
    Employees at Fargo expresses concern at the number of pull overs viewable from their desks, employees make note.
    Hispanic Community rousted by him at every turn.
    Pattern of arrests and citations of those that are the "worker Bees" in this Community.
    Continued harassment and additional pull overs to these "targets" keeping them down.
    Apparently gets off by rousting people and holding them at bay, example, pull over in downtown Friday Harbor, in owner’s home driveway, seatbelt violation, takes 30 minutes to “educate her” on how and where to place all of her insurance cards and registration.
    Was he filming her and watching those photos with his beer drinking friends at night? Are you on there also, on the internet on some posting of his?
    Needless to say many lives have been ruined by this officer for overzealous enforcement of laws.
    A single mom taking her kid to school and getting a $300 dollar ticket for 2 miles over the limit at Christmas and now cannot have the Christmas they may have had.
    Following the Hay ride for over 20 minutes on their tail trying to find “probable cause”
    Illegal Search and Seizure using unapproved cameras and audio surveillance.
    Now.......Fans’ it gets better;
    Illegal police reports, coercion of testimony by two officers.
    Defamation of character of the accused and his family and his business.
    Please Google the definition.
    http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Libel+and+Slander
    The accused is a successful and competent Excavator holding lots of certifications and equipment leases.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Page Two
    The accused has been tried and convicted by the release of the slanderous, police report of which is not true, as I was there.
    “There were no slurs of any kind, I was there to witness the accused step out of the car with his hands to his side and slowly approach the women and children saying something to the effect of “we can handle this ourselves Felix” that was the point where Felix put his hand on his houlstered weapon and lunged at the accused saying “what are you going to do about it Marky?”, at which point the other officer held him at bay with two hands, the flashlight was laying sideways across Felix’s chest not pointing to his chest as lied about in his report.”
    I can tell you with confidence that the accused was told by the restraining officer “Don’t do anything Marky, he has a camera.”
    My last view of the situation after being told to leave the scene was that of several mothers and children up against the wall of the Restaurant next to the mercantile.
    It was a Christmas Card from hell fellow citizens, those kids and their moms up against the wall of Friday Harbor on Christmas Eve with the green and red lights of the police cars adding to the Christmas theme, with their high powered spotlights on them adding to the festivities.
    Please take a moment to render that picture in your mind and think what these kids have gone through and what they are going to think of Law Enforcement, they won’t know who the good guys are.
    Here is what happened; Felix pulled over a truckload of innocent “worker bees and their offspring” the offspring were referred to in the report as a “Mohawk haircut McCutcheon children?”
    This is cut and pasted from the report of the second officer:
    “Most of the people were back on the trailer and some were yelling about how the traffic stop had scared some of the kids and they were crying. I noticed a small child with a Mohawk haircut sitting directly over where the right tail light was located and he was crying. I went to the child and was told it was a McCutcheon child. I leaned down and asked if he was okay. Through tears he told me he was. I asked what his favorite Christmas song was and he told me it was "Frosty the Snowman". I
    stood back up and had to talk loudly to get the crowds attention. I told them the child who was crying really liked that song and asked if they would all like to sing the song while they were waiting. They agreed to do so and began loudly
    singing Frosty the Snowman. They also invited me to sing along, which I thanked them for, but politely declined.”

    ReplyDelete
  38. Page 3
    Can you believe that his is part of a professional Police Report? Do you see the humanity in the officer, how nice he was while his parents are being harassed and manhandled by the police that are supposed to protect them?
    That whole thing lasted 45 min, there was no citation issued. What did they do to those people for 45 minutes?
    What would you do if these were your children and your business at stake?
    Do you think the County will hire MEM Enterprises to do any work for them?
    Do you think that maybe this paints a bad picture of his fatherhood, being accused of using the word fu#ck and Hispanic racial slurs in front of his children?
    If this is not Defamation of Character, I know of no other stronger example.
    Please be aware also that Felix is a City Councilman!
    Does Carrie the Mayor know that her councilman is accusing in writing, in the press, on the internet, a major business owner with child endangerment, racial slurs, criminal activities, all stemming from an annual family Christmas Hayride?
    Has anyone asked to see all of the e-mails written to and from Mr. Nou via the Counties open office SanJuanCo.com public e mail system?
    Everything written on that thread is public knowledge?
    The Sherif is in a “Turtle” Defense but does not know that there is a tunnel under his fort and it’s wide open to the public if you go after it.
    Does anyone know that Felix has been brought in for questioning by the County and made part of his personnel file? What questions were asked two weeks before this all broke? Go get it.
    Does anyone know that part of the Council’s last meeting was to hold a private meeting to discuss this potential litigation?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Page 4
    From the County Web Site
    1:00 PM
     EXECUTIVE SESSION: To discuss potential litigation pursuant to RCW 42.30.110 (1)(i) - Randall Gaylord, Prosecuting Attorney
    If you don’t know what RCW 42.30.110 (1)(i) is, it is this: (1) Nothing contained in this chapter may be construed to prevent a governing body from holding an executive session during a regular or special meeting:
    (i) To discuss with legal counsel representing the agency matters relating to agency enforcement actions, or to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency, the governing body, or a member acting in an official capacity is, or is likely to become, a party, when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency.
    Where did that go?
    Why are we doing this based on what law?
    Why I found this posted on the Friday Harbor Town Website
    The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. RCW 42.30.010
    And by what rules may we dismiss the sheriff?
    Why I found this posted on http://www.sheriffs.org/sites/default/files/tb/resolutions/2010-1.pdf


    These are the National Sheriffs Association By-Laws

    1. The Office of Sheriff is "directly responsible" to the local citizenry (the Public). The Public is the ultimate source of any Office of Sheriff's legal authority, duties and responsibilities.

    2. The Office of Sheriff is not a “Department” subject to the direct authority/control on a day-to-day basis by a county, board of supervisors, county executives, mayors, etc.

    3. The Office of Sheriff protects the Public from undue political influence from county board/supervisors, county executives, mayors, etc. on various local law enforcement and public safety issues (i.e., local politicians and not the voters may "remove" appointed department/agency officials)
    4. Our representative democracy provide for a built in system of checks and balances on the ultimate authority/power/duties by the Office of Sheriff. The Public may directly remove an individual Sheriff for misfeasance or nonfeasance of duty/authority while serving in Office.

    5. Under our republican form of government, America’s voters enjoy various U.S. and State Constitutional protected rights to vote in determining who will serve as their own local, state and federal elected officials, including the Office of Sheriff.

    6. The election of the Office of Sheriff by local jurisdictions (cities, counties, parishes, etc.) in the 21st Century is consistent with our nation's democratic traditions and historical political practices. In local jurisdictions in which a Sheriff is "appointed," a Sheriff's Department’s activities/operations are subject to day-by-day management, control and operation by non-law enforcement, political officials
    Now it’s up to you to make it so.
    If we can’t fix what’s wrong with The United States, The State of Washington, The City of Friday Harbor, the County of San Juan, we are surely doomed as a democracy.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Maybe Felix should be REQUIRED to wear a camera at all times while on duty and the video files of every contact be made available to the public at the end of each day.

    http://reason.com/archives/2013/11/26/watched-cops-are-polite-cops

    ReplyDelete
  41. @posted:

    "If we can’t fix what’s wrong with The United States, The State of Washington, The City of Friday Harbor, the County of San Juan, we are surely doomed as a democracy."

    Excellent point except for one thing. The United States of America is not a democracy, we are a republic.
    There is a big difference.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Perhaps Chewbacca is not on Endor after all ... thank you

    ReplyDelete
  43. Oh man, it wouldn't surprise me if one of these days some idiot for a prank places a Buzz Lightyear lunch box on the hood of a certain deputy's squad car which locks down the town under martial law while huge bomb trucks are once again summoned from the mainland.

    The Sheriff Department is becoming their own provocation for asymmetrical practical jokes.

    "There you see?? You wanted proof? The yokels are out of control! They must be crushed!"

    ReplyDelete
  44. @1:07 and 1:10 PM
    No, I'm pretty certain that we citizens have a responsibility to not be abusive toward officers even if we think we're special and he/she not so.

    ReplyDelete
  45. On the Released Report that was posted, has anyone noticed that there is not a signature?

    ReplyDelete
  46. @ 10:03 AM

    You continue to imply that the deputy was a victim of civic abuse which in turn somehow justified his actions.

    Are wee missing something? Can you give us a little more information? Is there a bias in the evidence posted here this morning you feel we should be aware of?

    I think we all know not to give an officer any guff when we get pulled over. Be polite and of few words and don't give them attitude even if they are (as clearly in the case of this deputy) throwing attitude and provocation at you hoping you take the bait and give them "probable cause" to hassle you.

    I was pulled over once on an empty rural road for not being mindful of the posted speed. As I had not been significantly endangering anyone or myself, had no warrants, hadn't had a drop, the conversation with the officer at some point eventually turned to something like "How about those Hawks? Well slow down guy and have a nice day and don't let me pull you over again."

    I guarantee you that by "giving me a pass" I was not emboldened to go faster. Nope. I began to pay a lot more attention to the speedometer.

    I am beginning to imagine our deputy in question must just love doing paperwork ...

    ReplyDelete
  47. @ 10:03 am said: "No, I'm pretty certain that we citizens have a responsibility to not be abusive toward officers even if we think we're special and he/she not so."

    Absolutely. However - there isn't any way to legislate the kind, civil and benevolent behavior of the unwashed masses. Felix took the job KNOWING that with alarming regularity he'd be dealing with people on the worst days of their lives. That often they'd be angry, confused or in the middle of one of life's meltdowns that may not even have anything to do with Felix (although he's at the center of life's storms seemingly all too often). In short, not catching people on their best day. If his usual MO is to reach for his gun, yell, toss people against the wall, handcuff them, get in fist fights, we, as his employer, have got problems.

    Citizens have a right to expect fair, reasonable and even-handed treatment from our paid employees, even if they've angered Felix. Felix, as recently as in his incident report, shows a pattern of profiling people based on his opinion of them. His "official" incident report is appalling - if Felix were white and McCutcheon were black and Felix had written the same report, MSNBC would be holding daily demonstrations in front of the Sheriff's office.

    As the people who pay the bills for the county, we can't AFFORD to have Felix working for the county any longer.

    Interesting: At the Jan 7 2014 county council meeting, there was an executive session "[t]o discuss potential litigation - Randall Gaylord, Prosecuting Attorney". If it wasn't about Felix and Sheriff Nou, it should have been.

    ReplyDelete
  48. To the Facebook commenters complaining about anonymous comments here and elsewhere: you're focusing on the irrelevant - it's the ideas that are important, not who wrote them.

    You're living in a country with a long history of the discussion of ideas published anonymously when people feared the government. The pamphlet that inspired the Revolutionary War was published anonymously. The Federalist Papers were originally published under a pen name to inspire debate about ideas and not the authors.

    Anonymity inspires a lot of keyboard warriors as well, but if you won't at least consider, on their merits, the ideas posted by the others, irrespective of whether there's a name attached, you're missing out on some good ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  49. @10:59

    You can call it an island or a small town, but I worry when a citizenry feels too empowered to run the public service employee out for not treating the vested local as they deem themselves entitled. You raise Menjivar's history, fine. But the citizenry may have a history as well. A deputy today or a ranger, a principle or superintendent, it gets tricky when the locals are judging their own level of civility. Next thing you know we start attacking the Sheriff for not firing at attention.

    ReplyDelete
  50. It's Principal yes. For those who care.

    ReplyDelete
  51. @10:59

    "it gets tricky when the locals are judging their own level of civility"

    Sure does. Welcome to the United State, the citizenry tends to do stuff like this all the time

    "Next thing you know we start attacking the Sheriff for not firing at attention."

    I am doing my best to understand this sentence but I am sorry, I don't. Can someone help me figure this out?

    ReplyDelete
  52. Sooo ...

    Next think you know the citizenry will attack the Sheriff for poetic puns.

    Thank you. I think I am beginning to understand now.

    ReplyDelete
  53. From 6:38, Jan 14th "Just how Much Law is There?" column:

    Sheriff Nou is up for re-election
    Judge Andrews is up for re-election
    Judge Eaton is up for re-election
    Randy is one part of the problem.

    No one will run against Andrew or Randy - because people will vote for more of the same rather than change.

    And no one wants to be the County Prosecutor - when is the last time anyone EVER said anything nice about ANY of our County Prosecutors? And a constant stream of people through the office, always complaining. It appears it's a thankless job for any attorney.

    Sheriff Nou is hoping this things blows over by the next election. He's depending on the "How soon people forget" and the fact that people won't vote for the established island deputies to be Sheriff - the people sure didn't vote for island deputies in the last election. They voted for Nou.

    So, we are stuck with more of the same... no one really wants ANY of these jobs, and the guys that are in them know that, so Randy keep building his already HUGE retirement and the Sheriff keeps smiling & staying MUM, knowing that this too shall pass. And the County Coucil, incharge o fthe Sheriff's budget, makes sure Felix's ticket-writing pen never runs out of ink!

    ReplyDelete
  54. If we were having this debate for the first time in April I'd tend to agree. But Mr. Felix is just a political gift that keeps on giving. And we've seen that our judges will through you in the cooler for an unpermitted ag building.

    Lots of qualified folks would have no problem stepping up to these well salaried responsible and powerful positions. Don't kid your self.

    And, don't play the "you can't make a difference card" on us. No more logical fallacies. No more divide and conquer. No more nonsense about loud minorities.

    It's time for change.

    ReplyDelete
  55. If you believe the letters by either Felix or Nou then I will have no problem selling you the newest Turbo-Encabulator

    Preview here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDgQg6bq7o

    ReplyDelete
  56. Read carefully, there is an embedded clue. Can you find it?

    Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit​​, morbo vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.

    Cum horribilem walking dead resurgere de crazed sepulcris creaturis, zombie sicut de grave feeding iride et serpens. Pestilentia, shaun ofthe dead scythe animated corpses ipsa screams. Pestilentia est plague haec decaying ambulabat mortuos. Sicut zeder apathetic malus voodoo. Aenean a dolor plan et terror soulless vulnerum contagium accedunt, mortui iam vivam unlife. Qui tardius moveri, brid eof reanimator sed in magna copia sint terribiles undeath legionis. Alii missing oculis aliorum sicut serpere crabs nostram. Putridi braindead odores kill and infect, aere implent left four dead.

    ReplyDelete
  57. If Felix was required to wear a camera we might find that he is getting blow jobs from other officers(nicki) on duty,or maybe his wife makes him wear one because he has been busted for this and everyone knows that guy is crooked and not a straight arrow himself. Show up to your town meetings you don't go to and stop wasting tax dollars getting blow jobs mr no it all, your shit stinks just like everybody else!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  58. I truly loved the post and informative video on keeping your mouth shut. (The professor was a bit hard to take but the cop was great.)

    As I learned a long time ago, with authority the best way to deal with em is to say nothing or very little. I once took care of the children of a huge cocaine dealer. We never talked about anything but the weather and the 49ers. (I know no one will believe I did not know those cars and rugs he imported were loaded with coke, but point made. Keeping your mouth shut is usually a good idea.)

    Onward! On Saturday, August 17th, 2013 some rats took their last bites of some electric cables with the result that a large building owned by the Port Of Friday Harbor decided to catch on fire and burn down.

    Talk about "Island Time" we now read in the IG the Port Directors "voted unanimously" what else, to have a LOCAL contractor clean up the huge pile of ruble left by the fire. (LOCAL contractors sometimes get overlooked by our wealthy Port.)

    IF, as scheduled, this clean up actually takes place on this year of our Lord January 21st, it will rank as some all time record of government ineptitude, incompetence, and general stupidity.

    YES, 157 DAYS (or close to it) to clear the ruble of the burn down.

    And then, what is next? The promise as if it was some gift, that the Port will complete construction of a new building in a year or two.

    Golly, I'm so impressed.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Here is the interpretation looking for the hidden clue:



    Zombie is returning from viral hell for Rick Grimes evil brain. From the flesh of lumbering , animated bodies, are looking for. High- brainer , it is a disease or witchcraft ? Gorges Omer undead survivor of the apocalypse 've . These mindless dead, soulless creatures , even the Evil stalking monsters coming undone dentevil looks eat the brains of the living. The animated que , cricket bat max Brucker terrible gait zomby . American voodoo priest Flesher test , raising the dead to eat the flesh of the virus. Zonbi tattered only for their eyes only go brain dead . I do not know whether the Undead Zombie Brain . As the apple rotten voodoo horror . Night tofth eliv ingdead .

    With a formidable Walking Dead rise from their graves crazed creatures STARSRAINBOW as heavy feeding the rainbow serpent . Plague, Shaun ofthe goddess of the Scythians animated que she screams . An epidemic of plague these decaying walking dead. As zeder apathetic bad voodoo. Family business plan and terror soulless approach contamination of wounds , died now live unlife . The faster , bird of them says, reanimate , but in large quantities are terrible undeath province. Some of the missing eyes of others as our own crabs creep . Rotten braindead odors and kill infected air fill left Four disavowed .

    ReplyDelete
  60. Bingo! You got it! It's right there, do you see it? Just turn your head a bit there, in peripheral vision ...

    Yes, they're back by popular demand, no time to spread the word, the National Monument and Border Patrol Federali Road Show has come to town, today only, seats are limited, 1PM at Mullis Street Fire Station in Friday Harbor. Yes, you hear right, 1PM when all you working stiffs have crawled back to your daily grind, relieved to avoid Felix the Cop for one more day.

    Why are they here today on such short, unannounced notice with no published agenda?

    That's what Swerin' Heron Friday is for! What are your burning questions? Are jack boots really a fashion trend or will 2014 be all about stiletto heels? How small will that little hole in the bullet proof glass really be? How will the Border Patrol protect National Monument lands from the local yokels? If not them then who? If not now, than when?

    ReplyDelete
  61. As the dawn rose the Sun from its sleepy mode in Lexington, Mass, the people stood up against Tyranny.

    It was that “tipping Point” that lit the candle to remedy the wrong to the people that were our Father's and Mother's.

    Today that candle will be lit that will bring the Sheriff’s office, the County, the public, and the injured party to seek a remedy to this ridiculous fiasco of law enforcement.

    One 45 minute traffic stop over a tail light that has revealed utter chaos in our Counties Law Enforcement and our inability to manage it.

    As one small e-mail came out about the traffic problems in a New Jersey toll booth, that took the next potential President and resulting policies from hero to Loser, along with corruption, bullying, hidden agendas, campaign funds, and it keeps coming.

    So did one e-mail to the three electronic media papers.

    The people have spoken.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Can't make it to Mullis Street today, but have been mulling this street thing over now for a couple of weeks. I have a theory based on what I have read, from all sources.

    For some reason yet to be revealed, the Sheriff Department had decided, internally, perhaps informally to have a little fun on Christmas. A little contest among deputies to how many pull overs and citations could be done on Christmas Day. Target: Local Yokels.

    They were doing real good. Witnesses such as tellers in local banks with view windows to the streets have begun to speak out on what they saw during the day, police lights everywhere, pull overs everywhere, throughout the day.

    So the Hayride to Hell was not a random incident but rather just one more local yokel pull-over in that same Christmas Day contest of the San Juan County Sheriff Department.

    Why did that second deputy scream through the streets in followup? To pull his buddy back before things "escalated" too far? To get in on the action so his buddy couldn't take all the credit?

    I would not be surprised if we learn that Sheriff Nou was on the radio all day, keeping score, cheering them on.

    Who was profiled? Working families on Christmas Day.

    What hypothesis can be put forward to prove or disprove this theory? Because we do seem to have some empirical evidence.

    ReplyDelete
  63. To the Citizens that care about this issue:

    if At the end of the day, you could have the parties involved offer you a rememdy.

    What would it be to resolve this case?

    ReplyDelete
  64. Public apology to the injured and citizens by the current Sherriff.

    A statement by the Sherriff as to corrections to his policy of law enforcement

    A citizen’s review board to monitor the Sheriff’s office with a positive campaign to insure that the “good” being done by the Sheriff’s office is made public and to assure the proper message to the young persons of the County is being made in public schools and other venues.

    Allow outside examination from State Officials of the correctness of the procedures followed in this and all other arrests or citations issued by these two officers.
    To suspend these two officers until the findings of outside investigative resources are confirmed.
    Substantiate the San Juan County Sheriff’s office policy on body cameras used during any traffic citations, or public interventions by armed or unarmed officers, on duty or off duty.

    A payment of “Damages” to the falsely accused and his family for the negative spotlight brought upon them in the event that the reports by both officers are determined fraudulent, misleading, and demeaning with a release of liability to the County of San Juan

    ReplyDelete
  65. Where have the stories about the slanderouse police report gone in our local media?

    Is there teeth in defamation of character laws and they smell it?

    What is the extent caused by Rob Nou releasing the defamating report to the media?

    Did he take them into the same law suit he could be seeing by publishing this slanderous police report?

    Here is the law on Slander and who it affects:

    To prove that the material was defamatory, the plaintiff must show that at least one other person who saw or heard it understood it as having defamatory meaning. It is necessary to show not that all who heard or read the statement understood it to be defamatory, but only that one person other than the plaintiff did so. Therefore, even if the defendant contends that the communication was a joke, if one person other than the plaintiff took it seriously, the communication is considered defamatory.

    Defamatory matter is published when it is communicated to someone other than the plaintiff. This can be done in several different ways. The defendant might loudly accuse the plaintiff of something in a public place where others are present, or make defamatory statements about the plaintiff in a newsletter or an on-line bulletin board. The defamation need not be printed or distributed. However, if the defendant does not intend it to be conveyed to anyone other than the plaintiff, and conveys it in a manner that ordinarily would prevent others from seeing or hearing it, the requirement of publication has not been satisfied even if a third party inadvertently overhears or witnesses the communication.Liability for republication of a defamatory statement is the same as for original publication, provided that the defendant had knowledge of the contents of the statement. Thus, newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters are liable for republication of libel or slander because they have editorial control over their communications.

    Notice....someone has some real power right now

    ReplyDelete
  66. Re "Ouch" said (January 17, 2014 at 10:08 PM), I can only speak for The Island Guardian, but we have not removed anything from any story, including the link to the police reports, which one can sill locate within the story posted here:

    http://www.islandguardian.com/archives/00005182.html

    Jack Cory

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  67. Anyone have a link to where the audio files of the dispatch calls might be located? Sheriff Dogberry claimed they've been "released" but they don't seem to be available anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  68. http://orcasissues.com/sheriff-releases-report-on-controversial-christmas-eve-traffic-stop

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  69. It is time for us to unite and make this a favorable outcome for all involved.

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  70. I think the Venn diagram of favorable outcomes for Felix and favorable outcomes for taxpayers shows two circles that don't intersect. From a risk management standpoint, taxpayers in San Juan county can no longer afford to employ armed hotheads. Felix. Must. Go.

    Anyone who hasn't should go give a listen to the audio files of the dispatcher calls linked above. Felix is a whack job. And not the good kind.

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  71. It doesn't seem to work with explorer, you need to use Chrome on this application.

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  72. Do we need a transcript posted?

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  73. Exert from soon to be released Statement:

    The fact that this report has shown that the Deputies have traumatized the children, and singled out one “McCutcheon child” in a public document posted on the International Internet, logged onto millions of Google, Yahoo, and Bing Search Criteria that will be stored until the billions of hard drives connected to the Internet become full, is just a travesty. What have you done when you released this report to the world without any council representing your office Sheriff Nou? Have you put our County and Town that have done everything they can to make Friday Harbor the number one tourism spot in the country in a bad light? How will you fix this in a positive manner?

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  74. We demand and deserve to hear from you.

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  75. The guardian has let it go!

    More to come.

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  76. Unsworn Statement Certification

    One of the Deputies is facing a Class B misdemeanor 20 years or 20K max,if there is proof of misrepresenting on the report.

    Deputy Felix signed on Korth’s report and misrepresentations of the bust.….Korth did not sign and it’s a misrepresentation, just the racial slur statement is enough.

    Felix got jumped by his partner.

    His partner lied and slanted the report and Felix attested to it as truth.

    Wow

    Felix signed twice:

    Page 1
    I hereby certify (declare) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State
    of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct. (RCW 9A.72.085.)
    Date: 12-24-2013, Time: 1758, Deputy F. Menjivar #109

    Page 3

    I hereby certify (declare) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State
    of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct. (RCW 9A.72.085.)
    Date: 12-24-2013, Time: 1849, Deputy F. Menjivar #109

    No unsworn Statements Certification by Deputy Korth

    Prove me wrong

    ReplyDelete
  77. Unsworn Statement Certification

    One of the Deputies is facing a Class B misdemeanor 20 years or 20K max,if there is proof of misrepresenting on the report.

    Deputy Felix signed on Korth’s report and misrepresentations of the bust.….Korth did not sign and it’s a misrepresentation, just the racial slur statement is enough.

    Felix got jumped by his partner.

    His partner lied and slanted the report and Felix attested to it as truth.

    Wow

    Felix signed twice:

    Page 1
    I hereby certify (declare) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State
    of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct. (RCW 9A.72.085.)
    Date: 12-24-2013, Time: 1758, Deputy F. Menjivar #109

    Page 3

    I hereby certify (declare) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State
    of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct. (RCW 9A.72.085.)
    Date: 12-24-2013, Time: 1849, Deputy F. Menjivar #109

    No unsworn Statements Certification by Deputy Korth

    Prove me wrong

    ReplyDelete