Remember That "MJ" Dispensary Raid ?

in Santa Ana , the one that was front page here .www.abovetopsecret.com...
Whelp .

The mayor of Santa Ana is named in a lawsuit which alleges the city was clawing in money from bribes in return for guaranteeing a licence to distribute marijuana.

Santa Ana mayor Miguel Pulido was named in the suit along with city employee Yvette Aguilar and the city itself. It alleges the city solicited $25,000 payments and gifts from marijuana dispensaries which would guarantee businesses would be granted a license in a lottery system. It also claims police were used to shut down operations that did not pay up.
"It's deplorable that city officials and people seeking financial gain would use the police to accomplish their self-serving goals, " attorney Matthew Pappas, who is representing the raided shop, said.

And of course the mayor fired back

catagorically and unequivocally... false."
"There is no money, there is no influencing any process in any manner I think (Pappas) is trying to protect his client and trying to just keep operating illegally. Sometimes the best defense is offense," Pulido added.

So what do you think ATS ? a little bit of moving and shaking going on ? or is this just an attempt by the representing Attorney ?
Link

your thoughts ?

a reply to: Kapusta

Lmao of course he is going to deny it.. But with that video the whole city should be fired and start over..

Couldn't the mayor and police be charged with some RICOH statutes? I would record the secret bribe meetings and reveal the bastards dirty work, even if it is illegal. That's what U.S. investigating agencies do anyway, Then they wait and wait until they get something on film or tape. Because it's them doing it it's ok? I hate dirty cops and politicians, sorry, that's a lot of people.

This is how business is done. It's shady, corrupt and backhanded. If the public knew the full extent of how things get done in the political and business world...

What's to think about. From the evidence on the lawsuit thus far it is no more than a 'he said she said'. Could the mayor be lying? Sure. Could the lawyer be lying? Sure. So what's to think about?
We can speculate about the corruption in government to our hearts content. And we can speculate about the villainy of lawyers til the cows come home. But all of that speculation can be based on nothing more than our own biases at this point.

However. If the mayor is guilty, I would bet that this town will not see any more raids on dispensaries in the near future.

Yeah, business as usual!

Ooooo.

I smell a RICO investigation coming from DoJ if there's some merit to the claims.

I don't know if it's true but I can believe it..city council here has made the licence fee on a dispensary 30,000 but that is an out in the open deal.

a reply to: Kapusta

From what I've been reading about the Santa Anna PD, I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. Though at the moment, it looks like mere speculation.

Whenever someone says "categorically and unequivocally false" you can bet your sweet ass it's true.

Seeing as how dispensaries deal in large amounts of cash it's possible they were paid off using the same. That makes proving any allegation against them nearly impossible unless warrants were issued to examine their deposits. Even then who knows what they did with the cash.

Sadly, I don't think the real culprits can be busted but the police certainly don't shine per this incident.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

It's actually harder than people think to launder money these days.

a reply to: Kapusta

If you google the guys name and scroll down some you will see he has been in trouble for multiple things it seems, and it seems all occurred this year even.

All the other politicians must be so mad at this guy for being so non discrete in his political behavior.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
Seeing as how dispensaries deal in large amounts of cash it's possible they were paid off using the same. That makes proving any allegation against them nearly impossible unless warrants were issued to examine their deposits. Even then who knows what they did with the cash.

Because MJ is still illegal on a federal level, banks are not allowed to accept cash deposits from the sale of said illegal MJ.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

I disagree with the "he said, she said" analogy.

Look at the video evidence of the idiots with badges. If they operate with such disregard for the citizens and break the law with such impunity, it is assured that they have no fear of their superiors. I think they are all cut from the same cloth.

Lawyers lie, politicians lie, people lie, but that is no excuse to brush this off. The evidence is point freaking blank. These idiots broke the law on camera and should be squeezed to get the bigger fish. Isn't that how they operate?

Threaten them with a choice of long hard time or roll on the kingpin for a a lesser sentence..

People should be demanding it.

Reminds me of the City of Bell scandal no too far away:en.wikipedia.org...

I would like to know why are police destroying the video security system. Only reason to destroy security camera's is to cover up something you do not wish to caught doing.

originally posted by: Echo007
I would like to know why are police destroying the video security system. Only reason to destroy security camera's is to cover up something you do not wish to caught doing.

It's standard practice. Small businesses that are in the know install two sets of cameras these days. The first is a dummy system, it still works of course but it's designed to be spotted and disabled. The second set is more minimalistic and hidden and records off site to prove your business was taken out just so the cops could party.

Remember the convenience store incident a few years ago where the cops raided, shut the place down, disabled the cameras, and then threw a giant party? Incidents like that are why you install two camera systems.

Not too suprising Santa Ana always has been the hell hole of the OC,and to think I almost became a police officer there in 73,good thing I took another job