Albert Sr. at right; Miaad Jr., cookie-maker, at center with cookies.

Did you see this, do you remember it, it came out in The Register a few weeks ago on Jan. 7 for some damn reason. Wealthy Fullerton nightclub tycoon Albert Bushala got pulled over a few days before Christmas for doing a rolling stop, also known as a “California stop.” And Fullerton police officer Matthew Levin, instead of giving Albert a ticket, handed him a $10 gift certificate to a local coffee shop.

Yeah, that’s kind of strange. Apparently it’s part of a “community engagement” program the FPD puts on during the holiday season – this particular holiday season they chose 200 people to give gift cards to instead of citations! Levin himself gave out five of them. Not every offender gets lucky that way – it happens on “some traffic stops,” and it’s not clear what convinced Levin of Albert’s worthiness for that special treatment. We also don’t know whether Albert was driving his Rolls Royce, his Bentley, or his Mercedes at the time, but the lucky club owner was saved the cost of a $200 ticket!

Rest assured though, Albert did get a talking to, from Officer Levin. The kind Yuletide cop “took time to educate him about traffic safety and how to be a more mindful* driver,” explaining to the 65-year-old motorist that a stop sign means you come to a complete stop before proceeding. Albert tells the Register that “his encounter with Levin has already made him a more cautious driver, and he isn’t sure a fine would have had the same effect.”

And then, guess what? This is the kicker – Albert surprised the Fullerton police with a Christmas eve donation of TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, and his daughter Miaad even baked some cookies for the cops. (Albert is married to a Miaad, and they have a son and daughter with the same names.)

A stunned police chief Jon Radus responded, “My police department already gets $67 million a year, half of Fullerton’s budget – why are you giving this 10 grand to us instead of any number of causes that really need it?”

No, wait, FAKE NEWS the Chief did NOT say that, that was everybody else. What the Chief actually said was he was “incredibly moved by Albert’s generosity,” and he’s looking at various ways the police could spend it, including possibly making that gift-card program not just for holidays but year-round! Brilliant! Go to Fullerton, pull a rolling California stop, and the chances are good that you too could get a gift card to a coffee shop instead of a ticket!

This article is metastasizing as I write.

Close readers of Fullerton news experienced a sense of deja vu when they saw the Jan. 7 Register article… and it wasn’t deja vu, because it was TRUE – they had seen NEARLY the exact same article online in the Fullerton Observer a few days earlier, but now that was gone! I looked into it, and it turned out that the Observer piece was written by Miaad herself, Miaad the daughter and cookie-maker, about her dad. [*LOL, “mindful” is a young lady word. I wonder if her dad’s driving has also become more “demure.”] Miaad had asked the Observer to print it and so they did, but then at her request they took it down because she thought it was a little embarrassing and boastful for that story about her family’s wondrous generosity to be printed under her name. And she was right!

So SOMEHOW they got nearly the identical story printed in the Register, under the byline of “Claire Wang,” with first person changed to third. And law enforcement liked the Register piece so much that the OC Sheriffs immediately posted it on their website! After which it was picked up by scavenger sites Newsbreak and Hot Air. And NOW (today, just 3 hours ago!) it’s back on the Observer, under the byline of one David Spargur, who retold it all in his own words and got some new quotes from Chief Radus.

Is this really that newsworthy, some multi-millionaire donating 10k to the cops? Is there something just that warm and fuzzy about it that I’m missing? I agree with Jodi Balma who reposted it on Facebook on the 9th, that it is a “strange puff piece.” But Jodi’s readers, mainly north-county liberal ladies, saw the name Bushala and saw red, not knowing the difference between Albert and Tony. Some felt cognitive dissonance, having grown up knowing Tony to be a tireless critic of Fullerton police ever since the Kelly Thomas murder. Ladies, if you’d missed it, Albert has been suing Tony and the rest of his family, including their parents, for years, because no matter how many millions Albert has it is never enough.

But… WHY??

Most people, I mean most people who ask questions at all, are wondering: WHY was this wealthy businessman so appreciative about not having to pay a $200 ticket that he went and gave the police department FIFTY TIMES THAT MUCH? Well, we sure can’t look into Albert Bushala’s head, and maybe like he says he is just THAT grateful for Officer Levin’s “compassion and understanding.”

On the other hand it should be mentioned that it’s always good for a guy who owns 4 or 5 Fullerton nightclubs, frequently needing law enforcement attention, and regularly having new projects coming before the Fullerton Planning Commission, to have a grateful police department on his side. Now THAT is worth ten thousand dollars!

Albert Bushala made his fortune, I’m told, as a nightclub tycoon and then strategically expanded into real estate. He would lease properties to tenants who would officially register as restaurants, with CUP’s as restaurants, but operate as nightclubs open till 2am, with loud music and most of their income from alcohol – a scheme that allowed him to charge exorbitant rents. But that doesn’t really fit into a holiday puff piece.