San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe says" Must pay consequences."

same ol' three or four bloggers on the attack -- hasn't our DA been reelected multiple times? After thirty years at the DA's office, I guess he's made a lot of enemies.

(here it comes!)

It's not just three or four people who have raised serious issues about the actions of Steven Wagstaffe and the San Mateo D.A.'s office. For example, actions by his office have been referred to as "the poster child for prosecutorial misconduct," and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed specific acts of prosecutorial misconduct on his part including refusing to allow back people to serve on the jury of a black defendant. These are facts.

It's not just he's made some enemies during 30 years of prosecuting people. The simple fact is if you look the D.A. of Santa Clara County, Jeff Rosen, there is nothing like the volume or nature of accusations against him as there is against Wagstaffe. (If you disagree, point to them). Same is true of George Gascon, D.A. of San Francisco. Both are much larger counties with more opportunities for controversy.

The fact is, Wagstaffe always finds an excuse not to prosecute buddies in government, cops, other members of law enforcement. In the case of Kowalczyk, the perjury "wasn't material."

What's material about the $400 he's alleging was misappropriated by Juan Lopez and his girlfriend? Why was the girlfriend arrested at gunpoint? Of course, the "materiality" is that Lopez chose to run against Sheriff Greg Munks, Wagstaffe's friend.

There's an obvious double standard at work. Another recent example is the prosecution of Jerry Jenkins, the senior citizen who "tried to run over a cop" by backing into her with his pickup truck at his home. The jury returned a not guilty verdict in record time. They obviously figured out that unless someone is seriously hurt by a truck backing into them at great speed (she wasn't hurt at all),, they chose to stick around in the vicinity of a truck backing up, probably because they didn't want the senior citizen to leave the scene of the confrontation (although there was no basis for the cop to physically detain him).

I also know the Almanac thinks Wagstaffe needs a lot of protection from opinions expressed on these blog pages by concerned citizens. They're routinely deleted, locked, or otherwise censored. I would respectfully suggest that it's not Wagstaffe who needs the protection. Evelyn Sanchez, Juan Lopez, Jerry Jenkins…they certainly may well need some protection. Their lives have been turned upside down by Wagstaffe. In the case of Jenkins, he was found not guilty in record time in a case that never should have been brought. That doesn't mean he wasn't hurt by the process. Let's see what happens with Lopez and Sanchez.

Clay Lampert the Editor of the Half Moon Bay Review closed the thread dce started and he made a false statement regarding the poster's conclusion. That is very different.

Web Link

note to Kool aid Evelyn Chavez not Sanchez

Herbert David Todd case 4 years in our court system. All charges dropped recently.
Lack of Evidence.
Prosecutors said he, was an employee of the San Mateo County Transit District SamTrans for more than 25 years, stole money on 12 separate dates in 2010 from broken ticket machines they brought in to repair.

Does that sound fair, level playing field, He was fired because or these charges, He lost his medical coverage for his wife, His neighbors and friends thought he was a thief because Steve Wagstaffe said so.

No I'm sorry we got it wrong and took 4 years to find out…….my bad…oh well

Note: David Todd is one of our darker brothers. Don't forget what the 9th circuit Judges told us about Wagstaffe.

A woman named Beata Cogan, a physical therapist for the Daughters of Charity Health System, filed a lawsuit in February against Steve Wagstaffe, Karen Guidotti, prosecutor Morley Pitt and Al Serrato.

What's this about Almanac? Has this been reported anywhere?


Case CIV532439 - BEATA COGAN VS COUNTY OF SAN MATEO, ET AL


Complaint Number: 0001 — COM COMPLAINT of BEATA COGAN
Original Filing Date: 02/06/2015
Complaint Status: ACTIVE
1 to 5 of 6 total records Next >

Party Number Party Type Party Name Attorney Party Status

1 PLAINTIFF BEATA COGAN ADAMS, MICHAEL E. First Paper Fee Paid
2 DEFENDANT COUNTY OF SAN MATEO Unrepresented Serve Required (WaitS)
3 DEFENDANT STEVE WAGSTAFFE Unrepresented Serve Required (WaitS)
4 DEFENDANT KAREN GUIDOTTI Unrepresented Serve Required (WaitS)
5 DEFENDANT AL SERRATO Unrepresented Serve Required (WaitS)
1 to 5 of 6 total records Next >

Looks like the Beata Cogan lawsuit against Wagstaffe and crew could be related to this:

Web Link

Logan's husband was facing felony domestic abuse charges for attacking her. She initially wanted to press charges, but as the court case dragged on, she decided not to testify against her husband.

But why is she suing the DA now? Some years ago Leland Yee got Bill 1356 passed, which shielded battered women from the threat of incarceration if they didn't testify against their abusers. As I recall, Wagstaffe and Guidotti told the press that they were opposed to this bill.

Question: is Cogan suing because Wagstaffe and Guidotti and Pitt tried to pressure Cogan into testifying?

What gives, Almanac? This has the potential to be a very interesting story. Let's hope a reporter gets to the bottom of this.

Beata Cogan's husband Tim accepted a plea deal two weeks ago for the 2013 incident. But Beata's lawsuit against Wagstaffe, filed in February is still ongoing.

Story about Tim Cogan's plea deal

Web Link

Excerpt:

The case was delayed as it moved through the court system over the last two years. After reviewing the case, prosecutors upgraded his charge to felony domestic violence. That was reversed on Monday, and the district attorney’s office agreed to lower Cogan’s crime back to a misdemeanor as part of the plea deal.
Cogan was placed on two years of probation and must attend anger management counseling.

We have no way of knowing why Beata Cogan has decided to sue DA Steve Wagstaffe; Chief Deputy DA Karen Guidotti and prosecutors Morley Pitt and Al Serrato until someone gets a look at the court records.

However, the Half Moon Bay reporter Mark Noack has stated that Beata decided not to testify against her husband.

Did this anger Wagstaffe and crew?

We know that in the case of Katrina Britt in 2005, where Britt did not want to testify against her abuser, she was threatened with incarceration. We also know that the San Mateo DA's office was dead set against Leland Yee's Bill 1356, which protected victims from the threat of incarceration if they didn't testify. We also know that Fox and Wagstaffe permitted prosecutor Morris Maya to write a scathing op ed for the San Mateo Daily Journal, blasting Yee's bill, which resulted in Yee comparing the San Mateo prosecutors to "Guantanamo Bay interrogators"

Web Link

Excerpt

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, gathered domestic violence victim advocates yesterday to cull support for a law protecting those who do not want to testify against their accused abuser from contempt charges and jail time — a bill sparked by a 2005 San Mateo County case in which a woman beaten unconscious by her boyfriend refused to take the stand.

Yee’s trumpeting of his bill’s passage in the senate Public Safety Committee, however, was nearly overshadowed by harsh words lodged at San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Morris Maya who authored a personal guest perspective piece for the Daily Journal criticizing the bill and the senator’s comparison of prosecutors to Guantanamo Bay interrogators.

And prosecutor Morris Maya's curious op-ed "Bill Will Crowd Cemeteries"

Web Link

Of course, the lawsuit could be about something else. I don't understand why this hasn't been reported on.

Question asks "Of course, the lawsuit could be about something else. I don't understand why this hasn't been reported on."

That answer is simple, there is NO Investigative reporter in San Mateo County.

Steve Wagstaffe did not feed this story to Scott Morris of Bay City News Service.

Is the Almanac looking into the lawsuit brought against the District Attorney and Chief Deputy DA and prosecutors Pitt and Serrano? Jon Mays, editor of the San Mateo Daily Journal says his paper is.

As there hasn't been a response from the Almanac staff about the lawsuit brought by Beata Cogan against DA Steve Wagstaffe, Chief Deputy DA Karen Guidotti and prosecutors Morley Pitt and Al Serrato, a citizen went to the court files and pulled up the case himself. The above mentioned employees of the San Mateo DA's office are being sued for:

-Invasion of Privacy

-Property Damage

- Personal Injury.

It has to do with the press releases that Wagstaffe, Guidotti and crew released to the press that contained highly private and intimate information about the plaintiff.

As Wagstaffe has already been sent a warning by the California Bar in 2010 after he lied to the San Mateo Daily News reporter and in a press release about the facts of a rape case, isn't the Beata Cogan lawsuit newsworthy,as it shows a pattern?