First off, let me not insult or bore the reader or myself by spending more than one sentence distancing myself from William Denis Fitzgerald’s more obnoxious rhetoric. There, done.
What you’re NOT going to read anywhere but here, even though the local press and blogs went wild last December when he allegedly assaulted a stranger at an Anaheim Council meeting, is that he has now been cleared of all charges of battery and assault. Rather, the jury seemed to unanimously accept (as seven of them privately confirmed) that the whole tawdry episode was a setup – a conspiracy! – by five of Councilwoman Gail Eastman‘s closest friends.
Now sit right back and you’ll hear a tale of some real political slapstick, some real burlesque.
Gail Eastman in the classic shot by the Liberal OC’s Chris Prevatt.
The Council meeting of December 9 was to be Gail’s tearful, sentimental farewell meeting, after being rejected by Anaheim voters who preferred honest conservative James Vanderbilt. Fitzgerald had laid into her at the previous meeting in a speech laced with nasty language but nailing her (accurately) for her career-long subservience to her funders at Disney and SOAR (Save Our Anaheim Resorts.) At the end of the meeting he was startled by being accosted and berated by an angry wheelchair-bound gentleman who turned out to be Gail’s MS-afflicted husband.
This episode freed Fitzgerald to deliver a speech on Dec. 9 referencing Mr. Eastman that he had written two years earlier, but had avoided delivering because Eastman was not yet a “public figure.” For years Fitzgerald had been decrying the health effects of Disneyland’s nightly fireworks; multiple sclerosis can be caused by the heavy metals found in fireworks; MS is found in unusual concentrations near Disneyland; Mr. Eastman had worked as a clerk at Disneyland for two decades; Mrs. Eastman had been in a position (on council) where she could have done something about reducing Disney’s fireworks; so Fitzgerald gave a speech built around the refrain “Those who believe in karma…”
But he also felt compelled to give a baroque account of his last encounter with Mr. Eastman, complete with ridiculing his supposed incontinence, creating a speech that was over-the-top offensive to just about everybody.
All this is neither here nor there though, as the Eastman Cabal already had their plans laid to frame Fitzgerald for assault and try to keep him out of council chambers for good.
BILL O’CONNELL (right) was the burly gent who took the seat directly behind Fitzgerald, in a back aisle where every other seat was empty. Yes, Bill O’Connell, the hotelier beneficiary of the notorious $158 million “GardenWalk Giveaway,” a close friend of Councilwoman Eastman against whom Fitzgerald had also frequently railed, although he didn’t know what he looked like.
JAY EASTMAN, another large man, is the Councilwoman’s son, and an “Elder” at Zion Lutheran Church. When Fitzgerald finished his tirade and returned to his seat, Jay edged up next to him, stepping on his foot (he admitted in court to doing that accidentally though Fitzgerald says he put all his weight into it) and tried to take the seat right next to him, over Fitzgerald’s protestations. The reason Jay gave to police and the court for approaching Fitzgerald so closely was that he “wanted to pray over him.”
Excuse me for five minutes now while I go outside and laugh really loudly.
Jay was quickly joined by his fellow Zion Elder LARRY TORGERSON who also tried to get up close and personal with Fitzgerald. At this point Fitzgerald was feeling endangered, and as he stood up to leave several things happened simultaneously: O’Connell stood up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders (which can be seen on film) and Fitzgerald felt at the same time a hard blow to the back of his neck, as though O’Connell had three hands: he later postulated O’Connell had given him a quick karate chop right before grabbing him. Meanwhile Torgerson flew into the aisle in a classic theatrical pratfall, as audience and council alike gasped in horror!
Lewis, accomplished new pitbull for the kleptocracy.
And all along, LISA LEWIS was sitting a few seats to the right, filming the whole spectacle. Lisa Lewis, name ring a bell? That’s RIGHT, this is the woman, a campaign operative of both Kris Murray and Gail Eastman, who mysteriously ended up with, and trumpeted, long-ago expunged records of Council candidate Douglas Pettibone’s 1998 domestic dispute, successfully driving him out of the Council race. How she acquired these sealed records has still not been explained or properly investigated, but between that and this, she has really put in yeoman work as an attack dog for the council majority.
Chmielewski Lends a Helping Hand.
See, it just keeps getting better.
Fitzgerald had no idea that there was a video of the whole dustup. He probably never would have known, because the video wasn’t too useful to the plaintiffs as it pretty much showed three men ganging up on one man, and the fact the video even existed helped Fitzgerald’s case that it was all a planned setup.
But malevolent faux-liberal blogger Dan Chmielewski (right), who had evidently developed a relationship with Lisa Lewis when he helped her with the Pettibone hatchet job, knew about the video, and blabbed about it to Fitzgerald. Here’s a bit of one of Dan’s taunting e-mails:
“When I asked you for comment, it was for the record. You never specified that the documents were off the record … I’m told there is a video shot of you that refutes your claims. I am trying to secure it…”
Those last two sentences are circled in Fitzgerald’s printout of the e-mail, with the notation “GET THIS.” He attempted to acquire the video (which he knew would exonerate him) from an Officer Martinez, who denied its existence. This was a lie; as discovered later, the police had had it all along, but someone had apparently decided it was unhelpful to the City’s purposes. Kudos to straight-arrow Anaheim Deputy City Attorney John Anderson who finally did track down and produce the video.
And Dan Chmielewski, even though it wasn’t your intention, Fitzgerald thanks you for letting him know about the Lisa Lewis video, and all of us who value the valuable portions of his tirades, we also salute you!
The Reason For This Whole Charade…
… became clear enough when the City of Anaheim’s first move after charging Fitzgerald with battery was to ask for a restraining order keeping him out of Council Chambers, as a dangerously violent man. His attorney at the time successfully argued that the City was only trying to silence his political speech. If he was so dangerous, why not ban him from churches, restaurants, and other public places?
We might sympathize with people not wanting to hear councilwomen referred to as “whores” and the whole rest of Fitzgerald’s abusive vocabulary. But we might also suspect that what the Council majority REALLY wanted to silence was his critique of them, regularly consisting of:
- The control of Disney, SOAR, and allied big-moneyed interests over the Council majority, commensurate with those forces’ funding of said politicians.
- The deleterious effects of nightly Disneyland fireworks on the health of children in nearby neighborhoods, one of Fitz’ causes celebres.
- His smart identification of each of the council’s new ways to rip off the citizenry, as in his defeat of Lucille Kring’s “Measure N” utility tax last year.
- And the stubborn hegemony of Anaheim’s white minority over its growing and underserved Latino majority.
Fitzgerald As Liberal.
In fact, though you wouldn’t know it from people’s caterwauling, this father of two delightful Asian-American law enforcement officers throws out charges of “racism” and “white supremacy” far more frequently than words like “whore.” The very first Anaheim council meeting I went to, shortly before the July 2012 police murders and riots, he thundered about the council’s “racism” as shown in both their resistance to district elections (which HE had been fighting for for two decades) and their indifference to the Martin Hernandez police killing a few months earlier.
Last council meeting, right on the heels of his court victory, Fitzgerald was back there at the podium, railing against the all-white council, all-white public safety board, and now all-white districting commission, supposedly busy making things fairer for the Latino majority… and also calling the Zion Lutheran Church a “white supremacist” organization (something I won’t go out on a limb vouching for.)
But here is MORE greatness…
Again, credit where due: Lorri Galloway, back when she was a foe of the kleptocracy, a friend and confidante of your humble blogger, and leading the charge against the GardenWalk Giveaway, very consciously created the iconic character of “$158 MILLION DOLLARS,” instructing her (now-fired) assistant Joanne Sosa to “grind that figure into people’s heads.” Just the other day an Anaheim friend told me, “Well, $158 million is hard to forget.” No. It isn’t. Lorri and Joanne did that.
That’s why it’s so perfect that Fitzgerald is now suing his attackers for that precise amount. Especially since the recipient of that amount of taxpayer largesse was the very guy who punched and grabbed him from behind. In short, Fitzy is suing O’Connell, Lewis, Torgerson, Jay Eastman, and one James Kennedy (another Eastman crony who allegedly testified falsely against Fitgerald) for:
- Conspiracy
- Mayhem
- False Arrest
- False Imprisonment
- Elder Abuse
- Defamation of Character, and
- Aggravated Battery Against an Elderly Person.
Gail Eastman is Not Done With Us.
This all acquires a little more political significance when you remember that Gail Eastman – Gail “Thank God for the riots” Eastman, who crowed that she and her colleagues were saved from the pain of making a couple of unpopular votes “without a shot fired” while the cause of the riots was two actual police killings; Gail who addresses Anaheim’s Latinos as “you people” – is not done with Anaheim, she is running for Council again in 2016 with the full weight of Disney behind her.
Isn’t this a little premature of her though? I mean, before we know how the new districts will be drawn. What about the high likelihood she ends up in the same Colony district as her close neighbor Golden Boy Jordan Brandman? Will the puppetmasters have to move her or him to new digs? We shall see how things shake out in the musical-districts dance to come. And meanwhile…
Houston, we still have a Problem.
Anaheim continues to be the ONLY city in Orange County that prosecutes misdemeanors such as the above, squandering an estimated 2 to 5 million dollars a year rather than referring them to the DA like every other city does.
So inevitably, under the guidance of the weaselly and obsequious city attorney Michael Houston, these prosecutions are not only wasteful but often political in nature. Recent and current examples include the above attempt to keep Fitzgerald out of Council Chambers; the stubborn, punitive, and still unsuccessful attempts to seize Tony Jalali‘s $1.5 million office building for having dared to rent out space to law-abiding dispensaries; and now the obscene persecution of beloved community activist Yesenia Rojas for “interfering with the police” at her birthday party last year. I’m glad to hear that Yesenia has decided to fight the charges rather than take a deal; she’ll probably win just like Fitzgerald and Jalali did. But WHAT A WASTE.
This has been Volume Three of “Anaheim: The Mishegas and the Desmadre.” Stay tuned to the Orange Juice for the latest scuttlebutt!
Do we have the VIDEO?!
Yes. Denis does.
I think that Cynthia’s question is: do we (as in the ruling consortium behind this blog) have a copy?
I want to publish it for one big reason: assuming that this video checks out, I owe him an apology. If it was a conspiracy to defame him, I bought it hook, line, and sinker when I wrote about this back when it happened and in a follow-up two months later. Fitzgerald’s story just seemed too incredible — but (like him) I didn’t know about the video. I guess that they were counting on people reacting the same way that I did. So yeah — I want to publish it because I want people to see it, me included.
Here it is… Lisa’s video was sideways, so thanks to Marselle Sloane for turning it right-side-up (as well as cutting out most of Fitzgerald’s speech and Mayor Tait’s scolding.)
That was not nearly as complete as I expected in exonerating Fitzgerald, but apparently 12 jurors believed him. When he finishes that horrid speech and heads for his seat, I see a guy in blue and white follow him (I assume this is Eastman’s son?) and as the kerfluffle gets going I can see O’Connell definitely has his hands on Fitzgerald, and is not being gentle about it. Otherwise I am not sure what I see. Can we get the transcript of the trial? Greg? Can I order that? Or did I need to ask for it earlier than this? is there a time limit for that?
I see that Fitzgerald has responded to you by e-mail.
Aside from the video, the jury was convinced by the conflicting testimony of the Eastman people (as I understand it.)
BTW do you know what else heavy metals in the environment are believed to be responsible for? DEMENTIA. Would it not be ironic if the lunatic rants of this offensive man might have been caused by living within the plume of heavy metal raining down on his Disney-close neighborhood night after night?
I feel bad for him he is clearly disturbed, and I detest the words he uses to get his point across, on the other hand I am even MORE horrified at the response that some cooked up and SERIOUSLY PISSED that the City Attorney pursued this into a courtroom. What the Hell is wrong with that man, Fitzgerald and Yesenia, talk about abuse of power.
Thanks for the reminder, I had intended for there to be a final section about Michael Houston and the fact that Anaheim is the only OC city that prosecutes misdemeanors like this, often for political reasons. Look for an update before noon.
Yep, and in order to “prevent” political manipulation of the prosecutions, Houston is given pretty much unlimited power and authority, with ZERO accountability in this area to his employers, the taxpayers, or his handlers, the Council. To ensure he is safe from political retaliation and able to do his job, (the law assuming he is NOT in the bag to the Kleptocracy) he is also immune from personal liability in the execution of his employment EVEN if it is found he deliberately abused the power of his office to go after enemies!!!
Forget the Mayor and Council or City Manager, it is the City Attorney who has more power than all others. He has the power to silence any elected official in town by telling them they are conflicted out, often on the flimsiest of reasons, and offers cover for what appears to be illegal votes by conducting them in Closed Session (and then not reporting out) Houston has the authority to use public resources like the PR office to promote slanderous statements against the political enemies of his Council majority support network, and most of all CAN SEND PEOPLE TO JAIL if they don’t toe the line set by his Council cabal.
This is why it is CRITICAL to have in that seat only someone we are assured without question has the ethical underpinnings and moral backbone to do the job without personal or political bias, and the position is traditionally hired from within so we have a known factor in the new CA from someone we have watched work over years previous to the promotion. Instead our happy band of miscreants canned (rather viciously) the City Attorney whose job reviews reflected NO complaints or need for improvement, and replaced her with an outsider nobody knew about other than Curt trusts him. Well there’s one Helluva recommendation.
Jordan Brandman will move and run in the West Anaheim 1st District.’Curtis Pringle Real Estate’ ..is handling the details.
He’ll be close to Connor then!
BINGO! Go look up where Connor lives and expect them to draw a district Jordan can win that gets him geographically close to where Connor has to live for his Centralia Carpetbagger seat. Jordan has to keep his little buddy (no euphemism there, I swear) and protege’ close so he can benefit from the photo ops standing next to his benefactor, in order to groom the little tyke (and his Daddy’s checkbook) to take Jordan’s place when his DPOC friends decide where he is going next. Assembly? So there is ONE district drawn.
Speaking of photo ops, anyone else notice how often the Kleptocracy still pulls Gail Eastman into photos of official events like ribbon cuttings etc? If you weren’t aware of recent events (and there are PLENTY of residents who can’t name all our Council members) you would think Gail is STILL ON COUNCIL and those pics are certain to end up in her campaign images, indeed she is already campaigning and a declared candidate who filed her notice of intent, so if a single one of those images has been shot at taxpayer expense it is a misuse of public funds to a political campaign….but then we also have a City Attorney who looked the other way while Eastman “borrowed” the APD helicopter to transport her biggest corporate sponsor (Weinerschnitzel CEO I think?) to her Gift of History event, and THOSE images of kids, removed from school for the day and transported at taxpayer expense, ended up in her campaign materials! So what are the odds ANYTHING comes of any of this?
Seriously, the City Attorney not only looks the other way in the T Rack model of law enforcement but appears to use the position to manipulate outcomes inside City Hall and hunt down political enemies for sport. I am beginning to think Michael Houston may be slightly more evil than Tony Rackauckus and THAT is one recognition that is unlikely to appear at the next OCBC awards dinner. Oh no, now CATER needs an awards banquet, don’t we? How do you even begin to design that plaque? The Vlad the Impaler Lifetime Achievement Award? Most Public Funds Stolen in an Administration? (no we don’t want to make THAT a competition)
The new districts will be interesting to watch as we observe the kleptocracy do their little m musical residences dances.
So let’s get this straight.
Anaheim is giving $158,000,000 in tax rebates to an individual who may have criminally conspired to harm an Anaheim resident?
I dunno about you, but if I were an elected official in Anaheim, I’d be really interested in getting to the bottom of this. Yesterday.
No, Anaheim isn’t.
O’Connell couldn’t get financing even with the $158 million from the City Council — largely because (as with Moreno and the PCI deal) it went to him personally rather than to the business enterprise. He could have, and banks were probably concerned that he would have, simply sold the hotel and kept the subsidy. In that case, the hotel would founder. (That’s a really bad way to set up these deals. There’s a good lesson for the June 16 meeting.)
As a result, O’Connell didn’t break ground by the date required by the agreement, which passed the last week in May. The Takeaway is that Giveaway is Gone. (But a new one’s a-comin’!)
Wait, wait, wait. What?
Gardenwalk is dead?
Agreement allows the City Manager to extend the agreement for 30 days at a time, several times, before it comes back to City Council to be renewed. You bet your sweet bippy Paul Emery signed it if O’Connell brought it to him.
Next up: The proposal to give O’Connell ALL of the tax generated by the site, AND the slave labor of first born children from one of Anaheim’s poorer neighborhoods, payable upon their reaching the age of 12 but only one or two blocks worth and we will call it an Internship Program. Because really if a developer is expected to finance his hotel AND pay employees to change the sheets and bus the tables, no reasonable businessman could possibly make it pencil out, and development in Anaheim would come to a standstill, the earth would stop rotating, the ice caps would melt. Oh, wait, what’s that noise? It sounds like CONSTRUCTION. Yes, yes it IS construction, on NUMEROUS sites in Anaheim, market rate hotels are being built WITHOUT SUBSIDY! Oh, no sorry, those don’t count, they are not FOUR STAR, sorry.
Alas, given what Cynthia says here my informant may have had incomplete information, being something like an “informa.” (But I think that that person got the information from the Register … who can one trust these days?)
The Register did an OpEd about how Anaheim can’t even give away $158MM and O’Connell did not have funding. But O’Connell has not had funding all along, and he keeps extending and renewing the contract trying to stal long enough to find that sucker with hundreds of millions to invest in a business plan with zero market rate viability. So your informant and the Register are correct in that there is no deal on the table right now but the statement that the deal is DEAD is not valid since as long as there is life (or an active agreement) there is hope (or potential subsidy)
That would be a change! Currently, the only big target for “getting to the bottom of” is the word “Adjourn” on the Agenda, to the point where in the last meeting, the question “Any comments from the Council? ” was drowned out by the simultaneous “Move the Balance !”, and in the Public Hearing, the Chair called for a vote, before being reminded by the City Clerk that, (being a PUBLIC hearing), Public Comments were first required! Can you say “Going Through the Motions” ???
Do you know what would be great? The hotelier who will be wiped out by the streetcar if it stays on its route, the Scalzo family, plan to tear down their hotel and rebuild bigger and better. THEY should apply for a 4 star subsidy and build the glamour box Council is looking for. THAT should seal them in amber for all eternity in terms of protection from the streetcar.
Sweet !
Is this Jay Eastman the cue ball former Fullerton Planning guy, because if so… Yeah, karma.