Yesterday someone anonymously contacted the members of the executive board of a safety organization that I serve as President. The goal of this email was to get them to remove me from what is a voluntary position.
However, the folks on this board have known me for years and are friends of mine. They were not mad at me, but rather at the anon weenie who launched this lame attack.
I think the culprit is Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham, although I cannot prove it. He references attacks on his wife, Mrs. Jerbal, and his pal Jon Dumitru.
Jerbal is thin-skinned, humorless and very Old Testament. In this email he calls out a satirical post I wrote about his pal Mark Leyes, proving once more that Jerbal has no sense of humor. This attack is VERY Jerbalesque indeed. What a dork!
Here is the email so you can read it try to figure out who did it:
The purpose of this e-mail is to bring to your attention a side of OCASSE President Art Pedroza you are probably not aware of. You probably know him as a nice, soft-spoken man who seems polite and thoughtful.
That is what I, and quite a few others involved in Orange County government and politics, used to think, too.
Unfortunately, we discovered there is another, darker side to Art. You may or may not know that Art runs an Orange County political blog called “Orange Juice“:
He uses his blog to publicly smear individuals he doesn’t like, publishing personal attacks based on lies, half-truths and distortions. He allows readers to post anonymous comments personally attacking people he dislikes in the most vicious and atrocious manner.
Don’t take my word for it. Read his blog for yourself:
Here’s an example where he publicly ridicules a man for being overweight:
“I imagine that he has been lounging around the stately Leyes Manor in his boxers, surrounded by empty pizza boxes, Doritos bags and sticky, squished cans of Mountain Dew, researching on google.com feverishly in an endless attempt to discredit Janet. What a sad waste of time.”
Here’s another where he is using a photo to ridicule another person for being overweight:
You can see on this link how Art Pedroza allows his commenters to anonymously slander someone — accusing her, for example, of serial infidelity without a shred of proof — just because that person is running against Art’s favored candidate in a county campaign next year:
When reading these vicious, degrading personal attacks, keep in mind that Art approves these comments before they appear on his blog, and he allows them to stay there. How would you feel if you were posting grotesque lies about you, and blog owner refused to lift a finger?
On the contrary, Art Pedroza is proud of using his blog to publicly destroy people’s reputations.
In this post, Art dismisses the behavior of a candidate who was charged with sexual harassment, found to be misusing campaign funds to live in a motel room, among other things, saying he is “a bit of a free spirit.”
Here are some more examples of the kind of public, online behavior your president Art Pedroza thinks is good and proper:
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/09/did-janet-nguyen-ask-claudio-gallegos-to-rip-quang-pham/
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/09/claudio-gallegos-caught-shilling-for-daly-and-ripping-galloway/
As president of your chapter, Art Pedroza is the public face of your organization. As officers, you should be aware that Orange Juice blog, and all the negativity surrounding it, is the public face of Art Pedroza.
Ask yourself if this is the type of behavior you want associated with your organization? Ask yourself if this is the type of behavior you would be proud to engage in yourself?
Art Pedroza is a destructive, hurtful and dishonest person. At your next meeting, remember there is an entirely different side, a very dark and destructive side, to Art Pedroza that you don’t see.
Sincerely,
Concerned
He should have signed it “Concerned Jerbal!”
Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham uses far worse tactics on his blog to smear and destroy anyone who gets in his way. This attack on Art is a hit-and-run from Cunningham, who is too cowardly to sign his name. Anyone who has seen the crap written by Jerbal knows of his attacks.
Now that Jerbal’s attack on Art has been uncovered, I will support and fund Art’s candidate and ask others to do the same. Otherwise, I would have paid no attention, as I don’t know the candidates.
Naw, I think you’re off on this one, Art. It’s true that “vicious” is one of his favorite words, but I think this is more likely the work of your pals over at the Liberal OC.
Dave,
I considered that, but why would the blue hacks care about attacks on Leyes, Mrs. Jerbal and Dumitru?
If anything Jerbal may have colluded with the blue boys on this email.
We must be doing something right if both the red and blue partisans are sore at us!
I’d like to point out that two of the last three linked references had your old chum, Claudio, in the stories. I think it’s claudio or someone close to HIM. I think that was the real irritant to the writer, who happened to bury it under all those other lame complaints. Someone who is lacking an income, trying to tamper with other’s employment/connections.
Either that, or Jerb cleverly left out his time-tested “tempest in a teapot” reference to throw you off his trail! 😉
Red,
Poor Claudio. He is like the poor sap who quit the Beatles before they made it big.
Claudio’s blue pals convinced him to quit the Orange Juice. Then he tried to take us out with his stillborn Sunny D blog. Now he is part of the boring Liberal OC – a blog with one third our readership.
You just have to feel sorry for the poor guy.
Using that logic, perhaps Jerbal should volunteer to be EXILED from his Church, for his position defending Child predators and publically naming and shaming CHILD victims of sex crimes.
In the scheme of things, I think raping a girl, lying about it to cover it up and then publically humiliating the victims is a notch above calling Dimitru a fat slob or Laura a bigot.
Thats just my sense of logic, Maybe when people start standing up at St. Norberts and calling his family out during communion will it hit home.
On the other hand, this could be a brilliant stealth attack, by others, in which case it’s pretty funny.
Does Jerbal have a job? If so, what is it?
Why do you guys always bring up that very small matter of outting sex abuse victims of the clergy by Jerbal?
Clearly, that is a tempest in a teapot! Or at least it is a storm in a cream bowl. Please don’t create a storm in a wash-hand basin, either!
If Jerbal’s own kids were molested, I am sure he’d do the exact same thing as he did to those other victims. After all, sexual abuse is never really complete without total humiliation and rendering of the victim by self-serving political consultants trying to curry favor with local religious authority. That’s Cunningham leadership for you.
“outting sex abuse victims of the clergy by Jerbal?”
Could someone fill me in on story?
Lam,
Jerbal started a website to defend Monsignor John Urell, who covered up for pederast priests. On that website Jerbal outed the names of molestation victims, when he posted a legal document he should not have had in the first place.
Jerbal got in big trouble, to say the least.
Here are a few links to posts about this scandal:
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2007/09/arellano-breaks-open-coverup-of-molestations-by-oc-catholic-priests/
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2007/10/hanna-and-cunningham-defend-urell/
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2007/10/the-urell-amigos-stumble-again/
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/01/priest-who-covered-up-for-molesters-to-do-invocation-for-board-of-supervisors/
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/03/jubals-buddy-john-urell-was-an-even-bigger-pig-than-we-thought/
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/03/john-and-ken-rip-the-red-county-blog-calling-them-political-hacks/
Gustavo has been like a pitbull on a bone with this evolving story of pedophile priests and those who deliberately enable them. The third link sums things up well, I think:
Yesterday, Newport Beach attorney John Manly–who has sued Catholic dioceses across the world for their pedo-protecting ways–fired another letter to the Friends and its most prominent members, Rancho Santiago Community College District board president John Hanna and OC Blog boss Matt “Jubal” Cunningham. In a previous letter, Manly demanded that the group take down Urell’s unredacted deposition because it revealed the names of six sex-abuse survivors without their permission. This time around, Manly was angrier.
Manly was upset because the Friends had posted an unredacted copy of the Memorandum of Understanding that solidified Bishop Tod D. Brown’s $6.685 million settlement between his diocese and four molestation victims of Orange diocese teachers. “You had no right to discover the identity of or client, and you had no right to see an un-redacted version of the Memorandum of Understanding,” Manly wrote to Hanna and and Cunningham. “So, where did you get it?”
More embarrassing for the Friends, though, Manly discovered that the Memorandum they posted wasn’t redacted, as they had claimed to Manly in a previous e-mail. “My office printed a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding posted on your website,” Manly wrote. “Contrary to your assertions, while the victim’s name is redacted as displayed on the site, when printed, her name is un-redacted and there for all the world to see and know.” D’oh! Manly’s threatening to take the Friends to court so he can discover who’s leaking unredacted legal papers to them.
The Urell amigos include Red County/OC Blog editor Matt “Jubal” Cunningham and Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee John Hanna. Both men are now in a world of hurt due to their support for Urell, who is purported to have covered up for molester priests, allowing them to hurt even more children. Urell has since fled to Canada to avoid completing a deposition.
I just took a look at the Urell Amigos website. Arellano is right. There is barely anything there! In fact they even took down their link to the Red County/OC Blog website. That is too bad – I am sure Matt was getting seriously flamed over this. The arrogant “Jubal” had it coming, IMHO.
Red,
Yep. Nothing I ever do will top what Jerbal did. He fronted for a guy who covered up for molesters – and he revealed the names of molestation victims.
Jerbal is despicable. I will be the first to admit that I am a pain for political hacks. But what Jerbal did was wrong in so many ways…it had the taint of evil actually.
Thanks Art for not being afraid to stand up to Mr. Jerbal. He has ruined so many lives and most people are afraid to blog against him.
Matt Cunningham outed sex-abuse victims.
Art,
I agree with Red. This email has Claudios style all over it. As far as it being done in conjnction with someone else, I think he had halo in gathering the information about your involvment with the organization in your trade.
In reading this I can see Phil Becerras hand in it. The information appears to be gathered by a third party, goven to Phil and then conveyed to Claudio. I am quite certain that neither Claudio nor Phil becerra would be smart enough to dig up your position of any organization let alone get the emails of the board members.
However, Jubal would be able to. But I dont see him doing this in an anonymous fashion. But I can see him giving the info to Phil who then gave it to Cladio.
well, Lam, I hope that finally answered your question!
I don’t remember ever seeing an apology for outting those poor victims. I remember excuses and dismissive comments, but never any real remorse.
That’s just how they roll at the Cunningham Villa. Power trumps compassion.
Oh damn, Cunningham is a despicable bastard. I had no idea.
What a F..ker!! And to think, I defended this Ahole. I’m embarrassed now.