The most celebrated portrait of Paul Lucas, taken by Rebecca “Commie Girl” Schoenkopf in 2006. Not photoshopped, he was ruining his nice suit under the Huntington Pier.
We all know Paul Lucas here – those of us who read blogs, and anyone who’s been involved in local politics over the last decade, especially in the Democratic Party. You know – that former Loretta Sanchez aide and now-ubiquitous commenter who unleashes his righteous fury particularly against Democrat electeds who perpetuate the Drug War and the Prison-Industrial Complex *cough*Correa*cough*Solorio.
Some of us love Paul, some of you-all hate him. And the ones who hate him (besides the Liberal OC crowd and some straitlaced DPOC insiders) are generally the cowardly sort who like to comment anonymously, throwing stones at him from the shadows. And for the last couple of years what these anonymous cowards have been saying is “Hey Paul, why don’t you tell everyone about how you got busted selling pot and meth, with $9500 cash on you and four guns?” And then of course they proceed into the usual chickenshit fantasy about the object of their hatred suffering frequent anal rape in prison.
Well, was there any truth to this yarn? Now Paul wants YOU to know, and he wants ME to tell you the story. And it’s a damn good story, and it has a happy ending, and it does contain a lot of elements making it relevant to OC life today: dirty killer cops, the draconian war on medical marijuana, the outrageous charges our DA’s people can stack up against folks they don’t like, and our two-tiered system of justice for haves and havenots.
But first…
Let’s Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane!
Van Tran, feared boss of the “Trannies”
In 2006 Paul Lucas was the Democratic sacrificial lamb running against mediocre Republican and Little Saigon political boss, Assemblyman Van Tran. The 68th Assembly District at the time stretched from Paul’s Costa Mesa up through Fountain Valley, Westminster, and Garden Grove, capturing most of our county’s Vietnamese voters. I lived in a neighboring district but volunteered to help Paul because… I can’t even REMEMBER who was running in mine, that’s how exciting THEY were. I wasn’t a blogger yet, but I wanted to do everything I could to help any Democrats at the time, because Bush and because Cheney.
So. The most fun part I remember of helping Paul that year was meeting him one night in some dank Costa Mesa bar (even though neither of us were drinking) and following him outside into the alley where he pulled out a manila envelope. “This is real damaging info here about Van Tran, Vern.” It was cloak-and-daggerish. “I can’t tell you who gave this to me yet but I will some day.” We know now that it was from Tran’s ambitious Republican rival, Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen.
Black April Queen of Cronyism and Governmental Failure.
Fast forward a couple years to 2008, Janet had become First District Supervisor the year before in a hard-fought special election against a Tran acolyte, and now she was running to keep that powerful seat – running against another Tran acolyte, Dina Nguyen (now Garden Grove pro-tem and homophobe heartthrob) as well as lackluster Democrat Hoa Van Tran (whom we’ll just call “Hoa” to avoid confusion.)
In the meantime, while socializing with Commie Girl, Paul had gotten to know some local Republicans and discovered that they weren’t such horrible people aside from their political ideas; Van Tran in particular he found to be a regular guy and not the scary vengeful gang boss Democrats used to paint him as. Conversely, having seen Janet in action for a couple years he’d noticed her to be “scheming,” a “backstabber” with no discernable principles or ideology, somebody who’d throw anyone under the bus to get ahead.
So Paul apologized to Van Tran’s wife for using some hinky events of her past in his attacks on her husband – material he’d gotten from Janet. And in April 2008, he agreed to sign a letter admitting that it was Janet who gave him the oppo research on Tran. When the OC GOP met that month to decide whether to endorse Janet or Dina, Tran’s people (to Paul’s surprise) papered the room with copies of that letter.
Hilarious Liberal OC photoshop depicting Paul as Luke Skywalker and OCGOP bigwig Mike Schroeder as Darth Vader. (These juvenile bloggers see everything thru the lens of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.)
Then all hell broke loose in the world of anyone-who-gave-a-shit. First of all, the letter backfired against Tran and his powerful patron Mike Schroeder at the OC GOP itself; the letter was seen as dirty politics, and Janet walked away with the GOP endorsement (and the election.) But the reaction from many Democrats and “liberal” bloggers against Paul was ferocious. Rather than what he saw as a well-deserved shot at taking Janet down a notch or two, he was accused viciously and relentlessly, for months, of being secretly in league with Van Tran. This even though he was one of the few Democrats speaking out for, and working for, the Democrat Hoa. No matter, some goofy theory was cooked up that Hoa was really a fake Dem, a stealth candidate designed to help the feared Tran by bleeding votes from Janet!
The witch-burning frenzy over this letter, in the DPOC and the blogosphere, grew to such heights and lasted so long that I had to parody it twice. Nearly-successful attempts were made to censure Paul, and to deny him the party endorsement for his Garden Grove council run – all for a small attempt to embarrass a Republican candidate!? THIS blog’s then-proud Janet backer Art Pedroza, and the Liberal OC’s then-prolific “Democrat” Chris Prevatt, were joined by countless anonymous voices practically chanting “Death to Paul Lucas!”
Looking back at that stuff now, there’s no denying that the “Liberal” OC and many insider Democrats were in the bag for Janet as much as they denied it – they were JANNIES. And I believe that can be traced to Janet’s friendliness with the OCEA (Orange County Employees Association) which had decided that JANET was the Republican from whom they could expect the best treatment (and which has a symbiotic relationship with the “Liberal” OC.) Even two years later when I wrote my Black April story (“Janet Has Really Stepped In It“) there was an immediate and expected pissy defense from the “Liberal” OC. (By the way, as that story mentioned, Janet had planned to bestow an award on OCEA chief Nick Berardino at her ill-fated Black April hijack attempt.)
So what we had was Democrat-on-Democrat fratricide, conducted for the benefit of sleazy Republican Janet Nguyen, with Paul Lucas as the unexpectant victim. And Paul says, “It took a toll on me,” as we’ll see later.
But NOW… After these six years of Janet’s spectacular misrule at the County (much of it still left to be documented); now after her single-handed ruination of the vital CalOptima; now with the FBI corruption investigators swarming around her; now that she’s running for state Senator on a platform of “What unions? I hate unions!”; now that the OCEA has finally woken up and has trained its guns on her; now that the OC GOP has shamelessly declared her Local Elected of the Year in the drooling hope that she’ll be the one to destroy the Democrats’ supermajority in the Senate…. NOW WHO LOOKS LIKE THEY WERE RIGHT?
Answer: Paul Lucas. You-all wanna say thanks, and sorry?
DC, 2001, as a Loretta aide – with the late Paul Wellstone and the late Ted Kennedy – two of our greatest Senators ever.
***
The Intervening Years, 2009-11
So all of THAT desmadre may seem completely unrelated to the main story you’re waiting to hear, the one with the drugs, guns and cash in it, but sadly it’s not. The downward spiral in Paul’s health, although rooted in a lifelong auto-immune disorder and childhood Type 1 diabetes, really got started bigtime with the stress and depression of being a political punching bag for the better part of a year.
What Paul must wear these days: a 24-hour cardiac Holter monitor.
The guy who had been one of the hardest-working Democratic canvassers for years, having built up enough loyalty in the Party to resist the Jannies’ attempts to censure and oust him, went through with his GG council race coming in 6th out of 9, and then retreated into simply ranting on blogs and voting.
In 2009 he dropped a ton of weight and started getting extremely sick. All the latent chronic illnesses he had due to his auto-immune situation – ulcerated colitis, Meniere’s disease, severe atrial fibrillation – flared up due to the stress. His diabetes spiraled out of control; he couldn’t keep his sugar levels stable. The vertigo from the Meniere’s caused frequent falls and broken bones leading to multiple surgeries and the need for huge amounts of pain medication.
Give us this day our Daily Meds: a day’s worth of ’em. The cops tried to use his multitude of empty med bottles to prove that Paul was some sort of Gustavo Fring!
He’d been sober since 1994 – no alcohol or drugs during all that time. But on his July birthday in 2009 he tried using medical cannabis, and felt a relief from his symptoms that nothing else had ever given him. Medical marijuana, he says, “allowed me to stop taking so many prescription medications by reducing both the incidence and intensity of my symptoms.”
Eventually, the guy who’d once been a proud water engineer until the Bush recession decimated the construction industry; and who after that worked for minimum wage helping place disabled people in jobs (a state of events that his anonymous political enemies found richly comic); began, with his ill (now deceased) sister and two North California “grower” friends, a patients’ medical marijuana collective licensed in Garden Grove. Which was perfectly legal at the time, and which explains why he had that pot and cash at his Orange home when he had his door broken down by dirty Buena Park cops on 10/26/2011.
Well, that’s enough for the first half of this article…
NOW READ PART TWO!!!
Still ahead:
- Drugs, guns, cash, and sex!
- Nadia Davis Lockyer!
- A dirty murdering cop coming to a humiliating end!
- Learn the secret hazing ritual of OC’s drug unit! (Not kidding – this is a scoop!)
Vern,
In my house there was 10.7 ounces of cannabis in 2 mason jars. One sativa and one indica. In 2003 the statutory limits of 8 ounces and 6 mature budding plants and 12 juvenile plants was found unconstitutional as it is not scientifically based. The MMPA of 2003 changed that limit to “An amount reasonable related to ones medical needs” 10.7 ounces does not even com e close to that limit.
Additionally, With regards to Mike Schroeder, I do not recall him getting any flack from the GOP. It may have happened but I simply do not recall any of that.
Yeah, I haven’t got to the part yet about the drugs, that’s in part two.
So, the opprobrium went to the Trannies and you, not to their alleged protector, the Dark Lord – I guess he’s too big for the OC GOP to even rebuke. I was just trying to make sense out of Prevatt’s obsession with him in the equation (eg. the photoshop)
I think he was just making assumptions based on hysteria like the whole thing. Everyone thought that Van Tran was a serious threat to Loretta Sanchez. While I was running for office in the little Saigon area, I learned that Loretta Sanchez was so dearly loved by the Vietnamese Community. She also had high support in all the other communities in the area and outside of Little Saigon that Van Tran did not have. I knew he was not a serious threat as he was portrayed to be.
Case in point, Margie Rice and Fran Fry. Two Caucasian city council members who are absolute sacred cows and much loved by the community. This is because when the first wave of Vietnamese refugees came to orange County, Margie Rice and Fran Fry were instrumental in helping those new community members get established.
This is further exemplified by the fact that when Andy Quach challenged Margie Rice for the Mayor seat, it was the Vietnamese Community, mostly registered Republicans, soundly trounced Andy Quach and handed him his walking papers for challenging Margie Rice at all.
The DPOC was extremely wrong in thinking that Van Tran would have backed him in superior numbers than they would Loretta. And that mistaken idea was probably the most damaging to the DPOC second only after they had ignored the Vietnamese Commu8nity until the Janet Nguyen controversy.
And now that Frank Fry is dead, they love them some Diana Lee Carey!
That’s good for Diana Lee Carey.
PL – The trouble with this statement is most people are ignorant to the concept of Medicinal Marijuana. 10.7 oz. is a reasonable amount to brew tea, melt butter or any of the HUNDREDS of common uses to help the sick. Too many people believe: “He had a half pound of dope”.
Education my friends. Education. I recently learned of a popular OC personality whose Mother is a customer of one of Santa Ana’s recently shuttered dispensaries. This should be interesting.
In the aftermath, every negative and nefarious attribute the DPOC was attaching to Van Tran, was in fact, an accurate description of Janet Nguyen instead. The links below to OC weekly articles about the subject reinforce this conclusion.
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/05/frank_barbaro_democratic_party_orange_county.php
http://www.ocweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/democratic-candidate-paul-lucas-says-he-39-s-still-in-trouble-for-playing-footsie-with-republicans/
Interesting stuff – kind of ……… And here I was under the impression that people didn’t like Paul just because he is a jerk, doesn’t spell well and loads of his comments don’t make any sense. I can darkly wait for the next segment of this tragedy.
The background of this story is like a mini-machiavellian plot! The once liberal LOC posts show a very aggressive Prevatt and a Dan C kind of sympathetic to Paul . People change.
Are you Paul still in the DPOC central committee? Is the “pro-business” faction of Dan C/ Brandman types the most influential one?
Diamond’s the guy to ask that.
And just because Dan C is the blithering idiot when it comes to Anaheim, doesn’t mean that we should be surprised that Chris was a blitherer in regards to something else (Janet Nguyen.) I’m pretty sure Dan was lockstep with him on that too.
Dan’s whole existence can be summed up by Joe Wilson’s quote:
“The spin overwhelms the substance “
” the guy who still did respectably in his 2008 council race, coming in 4th out of 9 despite all of this, retreated into simply ranting on blogs and voting.”
In fact, Paul Lucas came in sixth, with 8.2% of the vote, in the Garden Grove City Council race in 2008.
Steve Jones and Andrew Do prevailed. Robin Marcario was 3rd, with 14.1% and Linh Ho 4th, with 12.3%.
fixed
this is a great story ive never met paul but i like him and if its true he had dope, cash, and guns on him is true i like him even more.
Jose, S. Thank you for your kind comments. I can assure you, it sounds much ore sinister than the reality of it. The cannabis was mine, very legal. The guns were mine. All registered in my name, no ammunition, locked away downstairs in the garage, disassembled, and or safety locked in their case that was locked in the storage container in the garage. The controlled substance did not belong to me. However, legally, I had whats called constructive possession of it. All gun charges were dropped, all cannabis charges were dropped, and the controlled substance charge was reduced. Stay tuned for details in part 2. The true travesty is the system and the disparity on how it is applied. For example, in regards to Nadia Lockyer, she had meth in her room with her son in the same room. All her charges were dismissed in totality. In part 2 you will see the real travesty on how this case, which is analogous to countless others in the unjust application, and the costs to society in the drug war.
“Lawyers, Guns and Money” by Warren Zevon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPlMmwOq7U8
Good luck with your health and legal problems.
“Let’s Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane!”….
I was cringing this might be a reference to: Carlos Bustamante, B___ C_____, Miguel Pulido, A____ E_____ and ________ to the Right then _________, A_____ A_____, D_____ S_____, and the ever secretive _________ to the left at that popular T in the road.
There is a great tie in to Paul’s story, I am certain you’ll hit on it in P2.
If not, you can!
Now “Adam Elmerhark” — nameless isn’t so stupid as to think that that’s how it’s spelled, and I’ll bet he can spell “Citron” too — is “on the right”? I’m getting tired of this prankster. Do you think that he’d write half this stuff under his own name?
Sorry, Chairman Vern, but I feel like spoiling his game a little today. It may be more important for his enjoyment of life to be able to throw bricks at people from behind a wall than it is for me to stop him — but occasionally I’m going to stop him anyway. I’m editing a bit.
He IS starting to sound like an angry version of the Winships.
The Winships use their name, own their stated positions, and are willing to take whatever grief may come for expressing them. While opinionated, they also tend not to use their commentary as a vehicle for settling scores.
I’m talking about the bizarre free-associating name-dropping.
Adam wasn’t even around back in the time we were talking about.
The point, I presume, was simply to misspell his name as baroquely as possible as a gesture of disrespect. That is because actually going out and peeing on Adam’s leg would be inconsistent with maintaining anonymity.
“The point, I presume, was simply to misspell his name as baroquely as possible as a gesture of disrespect.”
Once again, you presume incorrectly.
If I wanted to insult somebody, I would do so in better fashion than misspelling the guys, hard to spell name. Trust me.
Right, because you’ve never heard of “copy and paste.”
I think that we should drop discussion of your maniacal attachment to anonymity while bashing people. This cannot end well. Just don’t slip the shiv into people without letting them know who was holding the handle. There’s too much of that in OC political discussion — though I would never challenge your right to do so elsewhere, in venues that will tolerate it.
“This can not end well” – NO SHIT?
One guys dead (after spending a year in jail), another is facing rape and kidnapping charges, Pulido is being investigating by EVERYONE except the Vatican police (according to the VOC), another mentioned narrowly escaped (in my opinion) fucking up his wife’s political career. I guess it could get worse???? WTF?
As for Adam, whom you feel some weird need to protect, he is just like You, Vern, Dan, Art, the Anaheim lady, Chris and countless others: A blogger. Just like the aforementioned a politically motivated editorialists. That’s all.
Paul Lucas political troubles (separate from his legal troubles) are VERY VERY similar to what I thought Vern would describe.
Note to self: If my girlfriend leaves a rock of speed behind, FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET.
I am near certain, in a contest of tiredness, YOU WOULD WIN!
Gottcha, I’ll just change my name to Demaguage (did I get that right?).
A) I don’t post elsewhere.I don’t think I am permitted.
B) I believe (presume, suppose, suggest) that you take this shit WAY too seriously.
C) Mine is not the naked bashing you suggest, just observations.
D) My inclusion of Adam E. is more to the bigger point of the LONG Standing fight Nelson exposes.
E) “Shiv” Really? You are more of a tool than I thought.
Copy and Paste is a weak man’s game. – Hey that should be a quote. Relax.
I’m thinking about taking out all of the vowels. People would still have a chance at understanding it.
Greatest muckraking ever Vern. I’ve wondered where the impassioned Paul Lucas was. I see he has had the hounds from hell nipping at his heels. That’s no way to live.
I know the story is not yet unfolded, but I am appalled that a junkies’ fevered babbling can effect changes in the rights of others so gravely. Surely police must vet their information more carefully! Did Paul have any legal representation?
And more importantly, if he must actually serve time in jail, are there sufficient services available to care for his serious medical conditions? I don’t wish to alarm , but I know these conditions require careful management throughout the day and night, and should not be taken lightly. Whatever happened to punishment fitting the “crime”?
The transcripts from the probable cause hearing are posted in part 2. As you can see on page 53 and pages 46-51 and 56-58, the answer to your questions on YOUR 4th amendment rights is no. with regards to your questions about my health yes you are right its serious and expensive.
Thank the OC DA for paying for my medical care on your dime as one is not allowed to bring in ones own medication or see ones own dr outside of the facility. (Cha-Ching)
Oh you mean the OC DA who looks to be running for an umpteenth term with NO OPPOSITION? (see last night’s other story – http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/02/ocda-when-i-read-this-sentence-just-now-a-chill-went-down-my-spine/)