Anaheim Insider here.
According to the Voice of OC, Jose Solorio is very concerned there are too many white people on Anaheim’s Charter Review Committee. The Orange County Register reports that Mayor Tom Tait is alarmed at former Mayor Curt Pringle’s appointment. Tait even wants Pringle to filed a disclosure form so he can see who Pringle’s clients are.
What about Mayor Tait’s appointee, Tom Dunn? No information on him in either article. But a few minutes with Google reveals that Tom Dunn is E. Thomas Dunn, a criminal defense attorney who served on the 1999 Charter Review Committee.
Dunn is white, which will worry Solorio.
He’s also the E. Thomas Dunn who was [art of the defense team for Greg Haidl during the gang-rape trial of the son of the late OC Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, one of former Sheriff Mike Carona’s cronies.
The younger Haidl and two friends were tried for gang-raping an unconscious 16-year old girl. Haidl and his friends even videotaped themselves doing this. Dunn claimed the girl was a willing participant:
During a Jan. 22 hearing, E. Thomas Dunn Jr.—a former deputy DA hired by the Haidl defense team—asserted not only that the alleged victim was conscious during the sex, but also that the initial part of the tape shows her giving a blowjob. “It’s pretty hard to commit fellatio when you’re unconscious,” Dunn told Briseño. He also portrayed Haidl as nothing more than a bystander. “It wasn’t Mr. Haidl having intercourse [on the DVD],” Dunn said.
For months, prosecutor Brian Gurwitz has watched defense lawyers attack the motives and techniques of his office and police detectives. His responses have largely been legalistic until now. Dunn’s assertions about the alleged victim’s consciousness coupled with Cavallo’s description of his client as “this little boy” who is “innocent” and “did not rape anyone” left him outraged.
On Jan. 27, Gurwitz—who is adamant the girl was unconscious when she was assaulted—won Briseño’s permission to address his concerns in open court. The 10-year deputy DA acknowledged that the video did not catch Haidl having intercourse, but he argued what it does show is worse. “Mr. Cavallo says his client is not guilty, and Mr. Dunn all but indicated the victim deserved [to be raped],” Gurwitz said. “The defense has also suggested that this ‘little boy’ Gregory Haidl somehow is deserving of juvenile-court treatment because he’s merely an aider and an abettor in this case.
In this February 3, 2004 Los Angeles Times article, Dunn claims that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas was out to get his client. Haidl was sentenced to six years in state prison.
In his published resume, Dunn states he “served as lead motion attorney in highly publicized cases such as People v. Greg Haidl, Orange County Superior Court case number 02HF0889 (rape), and People v. George Jaramillo, Orange County Superior Court case number 05ZF0102 (public corruption).”
Last year, Dunn defended Michael Kevin Lallana from battery charges for secretly [WARNING: this is gross] putting his semen in a co-worker’s water bottle (on two occasions!). Dunn argued the act didn’t wasn’t, legally speaking, actual battery.
What can be politely said about Tait’s appointment, other than it will provide the Charter Review Committee with a unique perspective?
Holy…! Out of all the applicants, this is who Tait picks? Sheesh.
Let’s recap. To the Citizens Advisory Committee, Tait appoints a liberal Democrat who had lived in Anaheim for less than two years (Vivian Pham) and a liberal Democrat who helped organize a “Rally Against U.S.-Israeli Terror in Palestine & Lebanon.”
Now he appoints to the Charter Review Committee a guy who defends rapists, corrupt government officials and sexual deviants.
Has Tait vetted any of his appointees before hand?
Would love to know how Tait went about selecting this applicant. Could he sink any lower?
At what point do we seriously start worrying about Mayor Tait’s mental health?
Tom Tait has crossed every line as an elected officials. Its time for him to step down. My God, he appoints a man who protects rapists!
A-insider:
Thanks for this post. None of the other blogs will ever report this. Adam from Voice of OC would never bite the hand that feeds him his news tips, and Orange Juice blog is in the tank for Tait, so they’d censor this story (or try to explain it away).
What makes Adam and those Orange Juice guys such hypocrites is that if Kris Murray had appointed this Dunn guy, it would have been front-page news from them. Adam Elmahrek would have squeezed tow or three stories out if it!
No kidding. The Voice and Orange Juice and SaveAnaheim.com are the Great Wall of Silence when it comes to anything stupid or wrong done by Tom Tait. I’d have more respect for those blogs if they also called Tait when he’s in the wrong or does something they disagree with. All they do is make excuses for him.
Maybe Jason Young is happy about this appointment of a criminal defense attorney, in light of Jason’s legal transgressions.
What sort of mockery of Anaheim is this? From the People v. Haidl case to the details I just read in the “Michael Kevin Lallana Semen-in-Lady-Co-Worker’s Bottle Case” linked above, E. Thomas Dunn takes his pride and paycheck by attempting to absolve gang-rapist and sexual predators from their crimes so that they can live freely among us. This man is a sicko and Tait is even worse for betraying our city with this sleaze of an appointee.
Over and over again, Tom Tait has shown a lack of character and judgment which is evident by his outrageous appointments and by those he chooses to associate with: Union hacks (John Leos, Adam Elmahrek), Internet stalking thugs (Jason Sumague Young, Cynthia Ward), ACLU-Liberal activists (Vivian Pham, Lorri Galloway), Left-wing latino supremacists (Jose Moreno, Amin David et. al), an endless parade of gang thugs (too many to list), and now an immoral and perverse attorney (E. Thomas Dunn) – this city has gone to pot and it is to no wonder.
Yeah, what does that loudmouth Cynthia Ward have to say about this?
Tait’s lackeys will not be commenting on this one as nobody can defend this moronic decision.
First time reader and frankly very shocked to learn about all of this. Now it makes sense to me why our city has been having so many problems. Mayor Tait should beware of the company he keeps. He is bringing this city down.
I am no fan of Joe Dunn – but this is an idiotic blog article and the accompanying comments are amazingly stupid. I am surprised that Matt would allow this.
Junior:
It’s not Joe Dunn. It’s E. Thomas Dunn. Furthermore, there’s nothing untrue in the post. Why should I have spiked it?
And I think a point made by one of the commenters is absolutely on target: if this appointment had been made by Kris Murray, the Voice of OC (along with Orange Juice, OC Weekly, etc.) would be all over it.
Matt,
regardless, the article is in poor taste. I don’t think that it is a good idea to bring your blog down to the level of other blogs. And I think you are wrong about the OJB running a despicable hit piece like this.
The article is informative and I disagree that it’s in poor taste.
Then you need a new blog handle – mr. “I love dirty politics.”
Junior, you really need to chill out.
Junior: how is it in poor taste? As you can see from Anaheim Insider’s link in the post, Dunn included his role in the Haidl and Jaramillo cases in his own resume. He’s not exactly embarrassed by it.
The only thing that would bring this blog down to the level of the other blogs you refer to is if we started running posts that weren’t true, or filled with half-cocked speculation passed off as fact, or generally devoted ourselves to character assassination. And that’s not what Anaheim Blog does, and that isn’t what this post does.
I think you know the record of the OJB crew well enough to be candid and admit Vern or Greg Diamond would have posted this in a heartbeat if it were the appointee of any other member of the City Council. have you forgotten Diamond’s post about Chris Norby allegedly striking his then wife — a charge they both denied?
A.I. didn’t even make a judgment on Dunn, but simply provided facts about clients he has represented.
What’s dirty about it? It’s entirely factual.
very pedroza-esque — all of it. If you don’t know what that is, ask Matt.
Junior, you have really lost it if you are comparing a truthful post with one of Art Pedroza’s online hallucinations.
Art, I’m guessing?
Precisely — Art Pedroza, a truly loathsome, dishonest, mentally-not-squared-away individual.
And Junior does know better than to make a comparison like that.