https://www.antievictionmap.com/danny-haber-and-alon-gutman/
In 2015, Housing activists awarded Danny Haber and Alon Gutman as Eviction Profiteers Of The Year
The Negev follows failed sublettors such as Campus.com in their sharing/scalping approach to "communal" living. First using AirBnb, and later developing their own website, they take living spaces from some of the poorest residents of SRO hotels, as well as artists in Live/Work spaces, and plant tech workers in bunk beds in their place. Willing to break the law until stopped, they have been sued repeatedly by displaced tenants. The winds of the Negev are hot, and fires have been involved in displacing tenants at two of their managed properties. They have moved into Oakland as owners of the Travellers Hotel, and manager/sublettors of other properties.
The Graywood, 3308 Mission Street After Dipak Patel turned over management to the Negev Boys, the hotel burnt in a fire, along with the other buildings around it.
Mission Local
http://archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/residents-moving-out-of-violation-plagued-sf-tech-communes/Content?oid=2915078
http://mashable.com/2014/11/19/negev-co-op-lawsuit-san-francisco/#w0pcNo8KsOq2
1919 Market, Oakland - Live/work tenants were displaced in two days with help from Oakland City Building Department just after Haber’s 1919 Bayside LLC took over as property manager. Haber demolished the building without a demolition permit.
The Travellers Hotel, 392 11th St, Oakland - Tenants were offered buy-outs and some moved out when hotel was turned into a construction zone as rooms were remade into apartments. Elevator was taken out of commission in 6 story hotel that houses disabled residents.
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
162 Oakland Building Department allows 1919 Market Street to be demolished. 100+ residents homeless. Danny Haber and Rich Fielding (Oakland Bldg Dept)
City Told Developers to Fix Infamous West Oakland Artist Warehouse. Instead, They Demolished It.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/city-told-developers-to-fix-infamous-west-oakland-artist-warehouse-instead-they-demolished-it/Content
For years, the warehouse at 1919 Market Street in West Oakland was home to a bohemian cast of artists, musicians, and hackers. They paid cheap rent for basketball court-sized lofts, and filled these vast spaces with sculptures, recording studios, and the occasional indoor pot grow.
This Oakland address was also infamous because of its numerous festering code violations. Yet for more than a decade, city officials looked the other way. Long time residents even claim that Jean Quan held a party in one of its lofts while she was mayor. And that, when Jerry Brown ran Oakland, one of his staffers resided in the warehouse. In other words, it was tacitly sanctioned as an art colony by the city's highest officials.
This era came to an end last year: City inspectors demanded that the landlord and property manager immediately repair hazards that plagued the building. One resident's YouTube video campaign, and an Express article (see "The Hazards of Unsafe Housing in Oakland," April 15, 2015), put even more pressure on the city and landlord to fix things.
But instead of repairing the building for the existing residents, the property manager quit, and the landlord sold the warehouse this past June. And, several weeks ago, the new owner demolished the warehouse.
Today, all that's left are piles of concrete rubble and dirt hidden from street view by the only remaining pieces of the building, the facades facing Market and Myrtle streets.
"Their promise was to get everyone back in their same units at the same price," said Ted Terbolizard, one of the building's former residents. "Looks like it's not going to happen."
Terbolizard moved from San Francisco to Oakland in 2000, to escape rising rents during the dot-com bubble. Displaced again from Oakland, he now lives in Sacramento. He says he has no intention of moving back.
"It's clear Oakland is hostile to tenants now," said Terbolizard, who has filed a lawsuit against the former landlord, former property manager, and the new landlord who demolished the building. He and other tenants say city officials shoulder much of the blame, too, for not enforcing tenant-protection laws, and for letting their previous landlord ignore numerous code violations for years.
Rich Fielding, a building inspector with the city, said that the current landlord, Danny Haber, had permits to tear down part of the building, but that city officials think "they've gone beyond the scope of what they were allowed to do." The city halted the demolition and other work last week pending a meeting with Haber, according to Fielding.
Many of the former tenants believe that the code violations were allowed to pile up in order to create an excuse to red tag the building and evict them, so that it could be turned into housing for more affluent renters.
One of the six lawsuits filed by the tenants against former landlord Seth Jacobson, Haber, and the building's former property manager, John Protopappas, alleges that the three men and their companies "intentionally sent incomplete, confusing, or false notices to [the tenants] in an attempt to gain advantage over them, and prevent them from fully understanding their rights." The lawsuits also claim that the landlords "would benefit from the building being deemed unfit for habitation and intentionally refused to make any repairs ... that would abate the code violations."
Last November, the city cited Jacobson for the building's "substandard" condition and demanded that he obtain permits to "rehabilitate the building" and complete this work within 135 days. Some residents hoped they would be able to stay during the renovations, but the city declared the building a nuisance and red tagged it on January 28 (see "Dozens of Renters Lose Homes as City Closes 1919 Market Street Warehouse in Oakland," January 28).
As they moved out, the tenants were offered relocation assistance from Jacobson and Haber, but some of the tenants allege these payments came late.
Had Jacobson followed the city's original instructions, including the 135-day timeline to fix code violations, the rehabilitation work would have been completed in April or May. Instead, the building sat empty and became a magnet for graffiti and illegal dumping, according to photos that neighbors shared with the Express. Jacobson then sold the building to a company controlled by Haber in June. That same month, Haber obtained building permits to demolish part of the warehouse and start construction of a new, 63-unit live-work project.
The Express attempted to reach Jacobson via his attorney, William Wasko, but neither returned an email and phone call.
Joy Newhart used to run a dance company out of her studio at 1919 Market. Her windows offered a view across the bay to Mount Tamalpais. Speaking by phone from Philadelphia, she told the Express that she is now homeless. "I've been living in hotels for two months and am burning through my cash," she said.
Newhart questions why the city never held Jacobson and Haber accountable for rehabilitating the building so that residents could move back in.
"I notified [Haber] that I wanted my same unit back," said Newhart, referring to city renter-protection laws that allow displaced tenants to return to their old unit, or an equivalent one, when building repairs are completed. But Newhart isn't sure she can afford to wait.
Fielding with the city said he understands tenants concerns. "They weren't expecting this major of a project."
Last week, Haber told the Express he expects construction to be completed in the summer of 2017. He also said his goal all along was to try to bring the building into compliance without displacing the tenants, but that he inherited a warehouse with fifteen years of deferred maintenance.
"We offered lots of plans to the compliance department where people wouldn't have to leave," Haber said. "We would have shifted people around in sections in the building and worked on other parts."
But Haber said the city eventually deemed the building a fire trap. "I'd be really upset, too," he said in response to tenant complaints.
The current landlord declined to identify his company's investors, who bought the building from Jacobson. But plans on file with the city show that Haber's group will spend $8 million to build an almost entirely new apartment complex inside 1919 Market's old shell.
Many former residents have already given up hope that their previous landlord, Jacobson, will be held accountable by the city, or that their new landlord, Haber, will offer them units in the rebuilt building. "They promised us on paper that we would be allowed to move back in once they renovated," said Pascal Pincosy, another former tenant. "But it became obvious to me they had no intention of doing this."
Pincosy said he blames the city more than anyone: It looked the other way for years, he argued, and allowed a wealthy landlord to operate a dangerous, unpermitted residential building.
And when the city did finally step in, it resulted in the forced displacement of over one-hundred renters.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/city-told-developers-to-fix-infamous-west-oakland-artist-warehouse-instead-they-demolished-it/Content
For years, the warehouse at 1919 Market Street in West Oakland was home to a bohemian cast of artists, musicians, and hackers. They paid cheap rent for basketball court-sized lofts, and filled these vast spaces with sculptures, recording studios, and the occasional indoor pot grow.
This Oakland address was also infamous because of its numerous festering code violations. Yet for more than a decade, city officials looked the other way. Long time residents even claim that Jean Quan held a party in one of its lofts while she was mayor. And that, when Jerry Brown ran Oakland, one of his staffers resided in the warehouse. In other words, it was tacitly sanctioned as an art colony by the city's highest officials.
This era came to an end last year: City inspectors demanded that the landlord and property manager immediately repair hazards that plagued the building. One resident's YouTube video campaign, and an Express article (see "The Hazards of Unsafe Housing in Oakland," April 15, 2015), put even more pressure on the city and landlord to fix things.
But instead of repairing the building for the existing residents, the property manager quit, and the landlord sold the warehouse this past June. And, several weeks ago, the new owner demolished the warehouse.
Today, all that's left are piles of concrete rubble and dirt hidden from street view by the only remaining pieces of the building, the facades facing Market and Myrtle streets.
"Their promise was to get everyone back in their same units at the same price," said Ted Terbolizard, one of the building's former residents. "Looks like it's not going to happen."
Terbolizard moved from San Francisco to Oakland in 2000, to escape rising rents during the dot-com bubble. Displaced again from Oakland, he now lives in Sacramento. He says he has no intention of moving back.
"It's clear Oakland is hostile to tenants now," said Terbolizard, who has filed a lawsuit against the former landlord, former property manager, and the new landlord who demolished the building. He and other tenants say city officials shoulder much of the blame, too, for not enforcing tenant-protection laws, and for letting their previous landlord ignore numerous code violations for years.
Rich Fielding, a building inspector with the city, said that the current landlord, Danny Haber, had permits to tear down part of the building, but that city officials think "they've gone beyond the scope of what they were allowed to do." The city halted the demolition and other work last week pending a meeting with Haber, according to Fielding.
Many of the former tenants believe that the code violations were allowed to pile up in order to create an excuse to red tag the building and evict them, so that it could be turned into housing for more affluent renters.
One of the six lawsuits filed by the tenants against former landlord Seth Jacobson, Haber, and the building's former property manager, John Protopappas, alleges that the three men and their companies "intentionally sent incomplete, confusing, or false notices to [the tenants] in an attempt to gain advantage over them, and prevent them from fully understanding their rights." The lawsuits also claim that the landlords "would benefit from the building being deemed unfit for habitation and intentionally refused to make any repairs ... that would abate the code violations."
Last November, the city cited Jacobson for the building's "substandard" condition and demanded that he obtain permits to "rehabilitate the building" and complete this work within 135 days. Some residents hoped they would be able to stay during the renovations, but the city declared the building a nuisance and red tagged it on January 28 (see "Dozens of Renters Lose Homes as City Closes 1919 Market Street Warehouse in Oakland," January 28).
As they moved out, the tenants were offered relocation assistance from Jacobson and Haber, but some of the tenants allege these payments came late.
Had Jacobson followed the city's original instructions, including the 135-day timeline to fix code violations, the rehabilitation work would have been completed in April or May. Instead, the building sat empty and became a magnet for graffiti and illegal dumping, according to photos that neighbors shared with the Express. Jacobson then sold the building to a company controlled by Haber in June. That same month, Haber obtained building permits to demolish part of the warehouse and start construction of a new, 63-unit live-work project.
The Express attempted to reach Jacobson via his attorney, William Wasko, but neither returned an email and phone call.
Joy Newhart used to run a dance company out of her studio at 1919 Market. Her windows offered a view across the bay to Mount Tamalpais. Speaking by phone from Philadelphia, she told the Express that she is now homeless. "I've been living in hotels for two months and am burning through my cash," she said.
Newhart questions why the city never held Jacobson and Haber accountable for rehabilitating the building so that residents could move back in.
"I notified [Haber] that I wanted my same unit back," said Newhart, referring to city renter-protection laws that allow displaced tenants to return to their old unit, or an equivalent one, when building repairs are completed. But Newhart isn't sure she can afford to wait.
Fielding with the city said he understands tenants concerns. "They weren't expecting this major of a project."
Last week, Haber told the Express he expects construction to be completed in the summer of 2017. He also said his goal all along was to try to bring the building into compliance without displacing the tenants, but that he inherited a warehouse with fifteen years of deferred maintenance.
"We offered lots of plans to the compliance department where people wouldn't have to leave," Haber said. "We would have shifted people around in sections in the building and worked on other parts."
But Haber said the city eventually deemed the building a fire trap. "I'd be really upset, too," he said in response to tenant complaints.
The current landlord declined to identify his company's investors, who bought the building from Jacobson. But plans on file with the city show that Haber's group will spend $8 million to build an almost entirely new apartment complex inside 1919 Market's old shell.
Many former residents have already given up hope that their previous landlord, Jacobson, will be held accountable by the city, or that their new landlord, Haber, will offer them units in the rebuilt building. "They promised us on paper that we would be allowed to move back in once they renovated," said Pascal Pincosy, another former tenant. "But it became obvious to me they had no intention of doing this."
Pincosy said he blames the city more than anyone: It looked the other way for years, he argued, and allowed a wealthy landlord to operate a dangerous, unpermitted residential building.
And when the city did finally step in, it resulted in the forced displacement of over one-hundred renters.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
161 Oakland finds likely collusion between Oakland Building Inspector, property owner in eviction
Oakland Building Inspectors have been colluding with property owners in tenant evictions
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-finds-likely-collusion-between-inspector-13040708.php
An Oakland building inspector likely colluded with a property owner in 2016 to evict tenants from a building by improperly declaring it unsafe, according to internal documents released by the city, which described its employee’s behavior as “a violation of the public trust.”
The six tenants moved out of the West Oakland building in April that year and have been out since. The city rescinded the red tags two weeks after they were posted and told the property owner he should let the tenants return — even though the building, a commercial property that had been used as a live-work space, did not have city permits for residency.
The episode occurred months before the deadly Ghost Ship fire at an artists’ collective drew attention to the dangers of unpermitted residences and the city’s lax oversight of such properties.
The inspector, Thomas Espinosa, who worked in the city’s Planning and Building Department for 11 years, resigned in November 2016 after Oakland officials moved to fire him. His bosses said he abused his authority that spring when he red-tagged the building at 661 27th St. and ordered the tenants to leave, according to a copy of the city’s “notice of intent to terminate” letter.
Attorneys for Espinosa and property owner Patrick MacIntyre said the men did not collude to evict tenants. Espinosa’s attorney, Quynh Chen, said her client was simply doing his job and did nothing wrong — with one exception, which she called an honest mistake. She said city officials “dramatized” the facts in the case.
“There was no bad intent,” she said. “Basically there was a misunderstanding between Mr. Espinosa and his supervisors, and he took the bullet for it.”
MacIntyre’s attorney, David Sternfeld, said the tenants should not have been living in the building in the first place.
The Chronicle obtained the ex-inspector’s personnel file under a public records request. A federal grand jury and the FBI subpoenaed the city last fall to get Espinosa’s files, too. Spokesmen for the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco said they had no public information to disclose, and declined to comment.
The records include the intent-to-terminate letter written by Darin Ranelletti, the department head at the time who now works as Mayor Libby Schaaf’s policy director for housing security. Ranelletti said in the letter that Espinosa jeopardized public trust with a series of inconsistent statements and questionable behavior.
His letter said the ex-inspector displayed a “documented pattern of abusing city resources and authority,” but that one incident in particular — the suspected collusion that culminated in an April 7, 2016, eviction — amounted to “serious misconduct.” The letter describes the incident in detail.
For years, court records show, MacIntyre, the owner of the building on 27th Street, had been trying to evict the tenants. A group of mostly artists, they had been living at the two-story building under a live-work lease initially signed by a previous owner before the property went into foreclosure and was bought by MacIntyre.
His building was once home to a French bakery, and wasn’t authorized to be used as a residence.
Espinosa said that as he drove to the office on April 6, 2016, he happened upon trash and graffiti outside the building, according to statements he gave to his supervisors and in court. Even though it was outside the district he was assigned to inspect, Espinosa stopped to take pictures. He said he saw construction going on through the open door.
Espinosa said he went back to the office and found that there were no permits for construction, so he posted a number of stop-work notices and scheduled an inspection for the next day. After the inspection, Espinosa said in the statement, he found safety hazards, including a lack of fire escapes, and red-tagged the building.
Espinosa should not have done that without first getting approval from a supervisor, Ranelletti said. When his bosses questioned him about his actions, Espinosa told them he had no prior contact with MacIntyre, according to Ranelletti’s termination letter.
But city officials reviewed his work phone records and found Espinosa had called MacIntyre’s cell phone three times two days before his purportedly impromptu inspection. And on that morning, April 6, between 5 and 7 a.m., Espinosa called MacIntyre twice, and MacIntyre called him once, according to Ranelletti’s letter and a phone log included in the personnel file reviewed by The Chronicle.
Chen said Espinosa was likely “drowning in paperwork” and forgot about the calls.
Two days later, Espinosa helped MacIntyre fill out a form that would have given him a permit to do work on the building, according to Ranelletti.
Later that year, Espinosa provided a declaration for MacIntyre to use in his litigation against the tenants in which he stated that he came across “voluminous amounts of marijuana” during his walk-through of the building. Yet city officials said that observation did not comport with his inspection records.
“If it was true that there was cannabis on site, then you should have reported that to your superiors and/or zoning investigator ... immediately after your inspection,” Ranelletti wrote. “You did not do either. You also provided no photographs to substantiate your claim.
“These facts strongly suggest collusion with the owner and that your inspection of the 27th Street building was outside the scope of your job as a city employee and quite possibly for personal gain,” he continued. “Had your actions gone undiscovered, you would have caused the indefinite displacement of multiple families.”
The six tenants were indefinitely displaced.
One of them — Christine Shepherd, 43, an artist who specializes in 19th century photographic processing — couch-surfed for a few months and ultimately moved to Oregon because she couldn’t afford Bay Area rents. She had lived at the West Oakland building for seven years and her boyfriend for more than a decade. She said it was safe.
“We had no idea that that was coming,” she said of the inspection and eviction. “It was like absolute panic. Your stomach just goes into a knot and you can’t think straight and you don’t know what your next step is going to be.”
Another tenant, Michael Taylor, 46, has been staying with friends and sleeping in his camper van ever since.
Despite Espinosa’s bosses ordering the red tags to be removed and the tenants to be allowed to move back in two weeks later, Kevin Greenquist, the tenants’ attorney, said MacIntyre did not do so and changed the locks.
Chen said the one mistake Espinosa made was delegating the removal of the red tag notices to MacIntyre, rather than doing it himself. Other than that, she said, he was doing what his position required. Chen said the city exaggerated its claims against her client so it wouldn’t be sued for wrongful termination.
Had there been collusion, the city would have provided documentation in the termination letter, Chen said.
“He should’ve just not done his job and stayed silent and not returned phone calls out of fear of favoritism,” she said. “If I worked for the city of Oakland and I wanted to show evidence of collusion I would attach financial records, actual evidence.”
She said Espinosa was not responsible for the evictions.
It’s unclear whether the 2016 case was an isolated event. The city Public Ethics Commission has an open investigation to determine whether Espinosa violated policies covering conflicts of interest, misuse of city resources, misuse of city position and more.
Oakland officials did not answer The Chronicle’s repeated questions about whether they investigated other cases to see if there was a pattern of improper interactions with other property owners and tenants.
City records show that officials became aware of the employee’s misconduct only after tenants and their attorney complained to Espinosa’s supervisors about his actions, prompting the internal review that led to the termination letter.
“I called the city of Oakland because I wanted to know, can they just make me homeless?” Shepherd said. “I guess I sort of trusted in city officials and democracy working for us.”
Greenquist said he was “outraged” that the city didn’t tell him that it found Espinosa likely colluded with the property owner. Greenquist said he was concerned there could be other similar cases.
“The city knew all this and didn’t say a word about it,” he said. “If you have a rogue inspector and find out all this stuff, why do you bury it when it could just be the tip of the iceberg?”
Greenquist continues to represent the tenants in their court fight with MacIntyre over whether the tenants were wrongfully evicted and what, if anything, they are owed.
The lawyer, who was with the tenants when the building was red-tagged, remembered Espinosa telling them they could be arrested if they returned to the premises. He said they had three hours to collect their belongings.
MacIntyre’s attorney, Sternfeld, said the tenants left on their own accord and should never have been living there in the first place. Sternfeld said the city’s finding of coordination between his client and the inspector was wrong.
“I can guarantee to you that my client did not collude with Mr. Espinosa,” he said.
Despite city officials concluding that Espinosa made false statements, the written declaration in which he testified about coming across hazards such as the cannabis grow continue to be used in the civil litigation.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Scott Patton relied on that statement — which the city implied might contain falsehoods — in deciding a recent motion filed by the tenants.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-finds-likely-collusion-between-inspector-13040708.php
An Oakland building inspector likely colluded with a property owner in 2016 to evict tenants from a building by improperly declaring it unsafe, according to internal documents released by the city, which described its employee’s behavior as “a violation of the public trust.”
The six tenants moved out of the West Oakland building in April that year and have been out since. The city rescinded the red tags two weeks after they were posted and told the property owner he should let the tenants return — even though the building, a commercial property that had been used as a live-work space, did not have city permits for residency.
The episode occurred months before the deadly Ghost Ship fire at an artists’ collective drew attention to the dangers of unpermitted residences and the city’s lax oversight of such properties.
The inspector, Thomas Espinosa, who worked in the city’s Planning and Building Department for 11 years, resigned in November 2016 after Oakland officials moved to fire him. His bosses said he abused his authority that spring when he red-tagged the building at 661 27th St. and ordered the tenants to leave, according to a copy of the city’s “notice of intent to terminate” letter.
Attorneys for Espinosa and property owner Patrick MacIntyre said the men did not collude to evict tenants. Espinosa’s attorney, Quynh Chen, said her client was simply doing his job and did nothing wrong — with one exception, which she called an honest mistake. She said city officials “dramatized” the facts in the case.
“There was no bad intent,” she said. “Basically there was a misunderstanding between Mr. Espinosa and his supervisors, and he took the bullet for it.”
MacIntyre’s attorney, David Sternfeld, said the tenants should not have been living in the building in the first place.
The Chronicle obtained the ex-inspector’s personnel file under a public records request. A federal grand jury and the FBI subpoenaed the city last fall to get Espinosa’s files, too. Spokesmen for the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco said they had no public information to disclose, and declined to comment.
The records include the intent-to-terminate letter written by Darin Ranelletti, the department head at the time who now works as Mayor Libby Schaaf’s policy director for housing security. Ranelletti said in the letter that Espinosa jeopardized public trust with a series of inconsistent statements and questionable behavior.
His letter said the ex-inspector displayed a “documented pattern of abusing city resources and authority,” but that one incident in particular — the suspected collusion that culminated in an April 7, 2016, eviction — amounted to “serious misconduct.” The letter describes the incident in detail.
For years, court records show, MacIntyre, the owner of the building on 27th Street, had been trying to evict the tenants. A group of mostly artists, they had been living at the two-story building under a live-work lease initially signed by a previous owner before the property went into foreclosure and was bought by MacIntyre.
His building was once home to a French bakery, and wasn’t authorized to be used as a residence.
Espinosa said that as he drove to the office on April 6, 2016, he happened upon trash and graffiti outside the building, according to statements he gave to his supervisors and in court. Even though it was outside the district he was assigned to inspect, Espinosa stopped to take pictures. He said he saw construction going on through the open door.
Espinosa said he went back to the office and found that there were no permits for construction, so he posted a number of stop-work notices and scheduled an inspection for the next day. After the inspection, Espinosa said in the statement, he found safety hazards, including a lack of fire escapes, and red-tagged the building.
Espinosa should not have done that without first getting approval from a supervisor, Ranelletti said. When his bosses questioned him about his actions, Espinosa told them he had no prior contact with MacIntyre, according to Ranelletti’s termination letter.
But city officials reviewed his work phone records and found Espinosa had called MacIntyre’s cell phone three times two days before his purportedly impromptu inspection. And on that morning, April 6, between 5 and 7 a.m., Espinosa called MacIntyre twice, and MacIntyre called him once, according to Ranelletti’s letter and a phone log included in the personnel file reviewed by The Chronicle.
Chen said Espinosa was likely “drowning in paperwork” and forgot about the calls.
Two days later, Espinosa helped MacIntyre fill out a form that would have given him a permit to do work on the building, according to Ranelletti.
Later that year, Espinosa provided a declaration for MacIntyre to use in his litigation against the tenants in which he stated that he came across “voluminous amounts of marijuana” during his walk-through of the building. Yet city officials said that observation did not comport with his inspection records.
“If it was true that there was cannabis on site, then you should have reported that to your superiors and/or zoning investigator ... immediately after your inspection,” Ranelletti wrote. “You did not do either. You also provided no photographs to substantiate your claim.
“These facts strongly suggest collusion with the owner and that your inspection of the 27th Street building was outside the scope of your job as a city employee and quite possibly for personal gain,” he continued. “Had your actions gone undiscovered, you would have caused the indefinite displacement of multiple families.”
The six tenants were indefinitely displaced.
One of them — Christine Shepherd, 43, an artist who specializes in 19th century photographic processing — couch-surfed for a few months and ultimately moved to Oregon because she couldn’t afford Bay Area rents. She had lived at the West Oakland building for seven years and her boyfriend for more than a decade. She said it was safe.
“We had no idea that that was coming,” she said of the inspection and eviction. “It was like absolute panic. Your stomach just goes into a knot and you can’t think straight and you don’t know what your next step is going to be.”
Another tenant, Michael Taylor, 46, has been staying with friends and sleeping in his camper van ever since.
Despite Espinosa’s bosses ordering the red tags to be removed and the tenants to be allowed to move back in two weeks later, Kevin Greenquist, the tenants’ attorney, said MacIntyre did not do so and changed the locks.
Chen said the one mistake Espinosa made was delegating the removal of the red tag notices to MacIntyre, rather than doing it himself. Other than that, she said, he was doing what his position required. Chen said the city exaggerated its claims against her client so it wouldn’t be sued for wrongful termination.
Had there been collusion, the city would have provided documentation in the termination letter, Chen said.
“He should’ve just not done his job and stayed silent and not returned phone calls out of fear of favoritism,” she said. “If I worked for the city of Oakland and I wanted to show evidence of collusion I would attach financial records, actual evidence.”
She said Espinosa was not responsible for the evictions.
It’s unclear whether the 2016 case was an isolated event. The city Public Ethics Commission has an open investigation to determine whether Espinosa violated policies covering conflicts of interest, misuse of city resources, misuse of city position and more.
Oakland officials did not answer The Chronicle’s repeated questions about whether they investigated other cases to see if there was a pattern of improper interactions with other property owners and tenants.
City records show that officials became aware of the employee’s misconduct only after tenants and their attorney complained to Espinosa’s supervisors about his actions, prompting the internal review that led to the termination letter.
“I called the city of Oakland because I wanted to know, can they just make me homeless?” Shepherd said. “I guess I sort of trusted in city officials and democracy working for us.”
Greenquist said he was “outraged” that the city didn’t tell him that it found Espinosa likely colluded with the property owner. Greenquist said he was concerned there could be other similar cases.
“The city knew all this and didn’t say a word about it,” he said. “If you have a rogue inspector and find out all this stuff, why do you bury it when it could just be the tip of the iceberg?”
Greenquist continues to represent the tenants in their court fight with MacIntyre over whether the tenants were wrongfully evicted and what, if anything, they are owed.
The lawyer, who was with the tenants when the building was red-tagged, remembered Espinosa telling them they could be arrested if they returned to the premises. He said they had three hours to collect their belongings.
MacIntyre’s attorney, Sternfeld, said the tenants left on their own accord and should never have been living there in the first place. Sternfeld said the city’s finding of coordination between his client and the inspector was wrong.
“I can guarantee to you that my client did not collude with Mr. Espinosa,” he said.
Despite city officials concluding that Espinosa made false statements, the written declaration in which he testified about coming across hazards such as the cannabis grow continue to be used in the civil litigation.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Scott Patton relied on that statement — which the city implied might contain falsehoods — in deciding a recent motion filed by the tenants.
160 Top Oakland Schools Financial Officer Who Resigned During Budget Crisis Still Collecting Monthly $19,100 Paycheck
Top Oakland Schools Financial Officer Who Resigned During Budget Crisis Still Collecting Monthly $19,100 Paycheck
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2018/06/27/top-oakland-schools-financial-officer-who-resigned-during-budget-crisis-still-collecting-monthly-19100-paycheck
Oakland Unified School District senior business officer Vernon Hal stepped down from his post last February amid a multimillion-dollar budget crisis that forced mid-year cuts and layoffs across the school system. While the district’s superintendent and board of directors didn’t blame Hal for these financial problems, many parents and teachers did. And a recent state report and Alameda County Grand Jury investigation also both identified “highly questionable” fiscal practices at the district that were undertaken while Hal was in charge.
But despite having left the district in a condition of fiscal distress five months ago, Hal is still being paid, according to public records obtained by the Express.
Since January, the district has been paying Hal $19,100 per month, plus all of the health and welfare benefits he was receiving while he was an employee. Furthermore, in July, the district is obligated to pay Hal a lump sum of $152,000. And through the end of this month, he’s also accruing vacation days, which the district will have to buy back from him by January 2019 at the latest.
In total, the district stands to pay Hal at least $267,400 for not working for six months, or about six times more than a starting teacher makes in an entire year. After the end of this month, the district is no longer obligated to pay Hal his salary.
This substantial severance package is the result of OUSD’s original employment contract with Hal. That deal required that, unless he was terminated for cause, the district would have to pay him a minimum of six months of his normal salary. The employment agreement was originally signed in August 2014, and in 2016 the school board extended these terms until June 30, 2019 while also raising Hal’s salary to $209,000 per year.
Had the district terminated Hal’s employment for cause, he would receive none of this extra pay.
According to his employment contract, Hal’s responsibilities included “ensuring fiscal solvency and establishing robust prioritization process to ensure adequate and sustainable funding for District priorities.” But the separation agreement that Hal signed in February didn’t assign him any responsibility for the district’s poor financial condition or otherwise find that he violated the requirements of his employment contract.
Two independently conducted investigations have found evidence of purposeful manipulation of OUSD’s financial systems, however.
In May, the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) examined OUSD’s budget practices and found that under Hal’s leadership the district’s finances were trending in a “not sustainable” direction, and specifically that OUSD is in “fiscal distress” due to “intentional manipulation” of the general fund balance in order to make it appear that the system had more cash on hand than it really did. FCMAT’s team called these practices “highly unusual” and “suspicious,” and called for further investigation.
The Alameda County Grand Jury conducted its own investigation of OUSD’s finances and released its findings yesterday. The Grand Jury concluded that under Hal’s oversight, OUSD departments were able to hire for positions that weren’t budgeted, major errors in projecting enrollment led to deficits of several million dollars, and the district also improperly underfunded its self-insurance by as much as $30 million.
The Express was unable to reach Hal for comment. But his separation agreement provides one possible hint as to why OUSD’s board didn’t fire him. The agreement notes that Hal “asserted potential claims against the district relating to his employment, which if litigated, include damage claims for emotional distress.”
OUSD’s general counsel Marion McWilliams didn’t respond to an email from the Express seeking more information about Hal’s potential legal claims against the district.
But the agreement states plainly that Hal threatened possible legal action against OUSD if he were to be fired, and the district determined it was in its best interest to sign the $267,400 separation agreement.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2018/06/27/top-oakland-schools-financial-officer-who-resigned-during-budget-crisis-still-collecting-monthly-19100-paycheck
Oakland Unified School District senior business officer Vernon Hal stepped down from his post last February amid a multimillion-dollar budget crisis that forced mid-year cuts and layoffs across the school system. While the district’s superintendent and board of directors didn’t blame Hal for these financial problems, many parents and teachers did. And a recent state report and Alameda County Grand Jury investigation also both identified “highly questionable” fiscal practices at the district that were undertaken while Hal was in charge.
But despite having left the district in a condition of fiscal distress five months ago, Hal is still being paid, according to public records obtained by the Express.
Since January, the district has been paying Hal $19,100 per month, plus all of the health and welfare benefits he was receiving while he was an employee. Furthermore, in July, the district is obligated to pay Hal a lump sum of $152,000. And through the end of this month, he’s also accruing vacation days, which the district will have to buy back from him by January 2019 at the latest.
In total, the district stands to pay Hal at least $267,400 for not working for six months, or about six times more than a starting teacher makes in an entire year. After the end of this month, the district is no longer obligated to pay Hal his salary.
This substantial severance package is the result of OUSD’s original employment contract with Hal. That deal required that, unless he was terminated for cause, the district would have to pay him a minimum of six months of his normal salary. The employment agreement was originally signed in August 2014, and in 2016 the school board extended these terms until June 30, 2019 while also raising Hal’s salary to $209,000 per year.
Had the district terminated Hal’s employment for cause, he would receive none of this extra pay.
According to his employment contract, Hal’s responsibilities included “ensuring fiscal solvency and establishing robust prioritization process to ensure adequate and sustainable funding for District priorities.” But the separation agreement that Hal signed in February didn’t assign him any responsibility for the district’s poor financial condition or otherwise find that he violated the requirements of his employment contract.
Two independently conducted investigations have found evidence of purposeful manipulation of OUSD’s financial systems, however.
In May, the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) examined OUSD’s budget practices and found that under Hal’s leadership the district’s finances were trending in a “not sustainable” direction, and specifically that OUSD is in “fiscal distress” due to “intentional manipulation” of the general fund balance in order to make it appear that the system had more cash on hand than it really did. FCMAT’s team called these practices “highly unusual” and “suspicious,” and called for further investigation.
The Alameda County Grand Jury conducted its own investigation of OUSD’s finances and released its findings yesterday. The Grand Jury concluded that under Hal’s oversight, OUSD departments were able to hire for positions that weren’t budgeted, major errors in projecting enrollment led to deficits of several million dollars, and the district also improperly underfunded its self-insurance by as much as $30 million.
The Express was unable to reach Hal for comment. But his separation agreement provides one possible hint as to why OUSD’s board didn’t fire him. The agreement notes that Hal “asserted potential claims against the district relating to his employment, which if litigated, include damage claims for emotional distress.”
OUSD’s general counsel Marion McWilliams didn’t respond to an email from the Express seeking more information about Hal’s potential legal claims against the district.
But the agreement states plainly that Hal threatened possible legal action against OUSD if he were to be fired, and the district determined it was in its best interest to sign the $267,400 separation agreement.
159 Oakland may not be done paying for that shove delivered by City Councilwoman Desley Brooks to former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Think-Oakland-is-done-paying-for-Desley-Brooks-12751145.php
Oakland may not be done paying for that shove delivered by City Councilwoman Desley Brooks to former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown at a Jack London Square restaurant.
An Alameda County jury hit Oakland with a $3.77 million verdict last year — then, for good measure, tacked on $550,000 in punitive damages against Brooks herself.
Now, Brown’s legal team is seeking $1.1 million in attorneys’ fees for the elder-abuse lawsuit they filed over the October 2015 push and fall that Brown suffered when she and Brooks got into an argument at Everett and Jones Barbeque.
The jury found that the councilwoman had pushed the then-72-year-old Brown over a row of chairs.
In a sworn declaration filed in Alameda County Superior Court, the former Panther leader said she had been turned down by several prominent Bay Area civil rights attorneys after they concluded her claim was good for no more than $20,000 to $25,000.
And that she was told it was going to be an uphill battle because Brooks is “a powerful Oakland politician.”
The Sausalito law firm Bonner & Bonner, however, decided her case had merit and “a high jury, trial value,” Brown said.
And it appears they were right. Attorney Charles Bonner is now asking the city for fees of up to $700 an hour — plus expenses — for himself, his son and another lawyer, as well as for a half-dozen legal assistants. Total tab: $1.1 million.
Bonner did not return our call seeking comment, but he did tell the court that his fees are “consistent with the San Francisco Bay Area market rates for attorneys of comparable skill and experience and with court awards of attorneys’ fees in other cases.”
A spokesman for Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, whose office defended Brooks, also declined to comment.
A hearing on the fees has been set for March 23.
Oakland may not be done paying for that shove delivered by City Councilwoman Desley Brooks to former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown at a Jack London Square restaurant.
An Alameda County jury hit Oakland with a $3.77 million verdict last year — then, for good measure, tacked on $550,000 in punitive damages against Brooks herself.
Now, Brown’s legal team is seeking $1.1 million in attorneys’ fees for the elder-abuse lawsuit they filed over the October 2015 push and fall that Brown suffered when she and Brooks got into an argument at Everett and Jones Barbeque.
The jury found that the councilwoman had pushed the then-72-year-old Brown over a row of chairs.
In a sworn declaration filed in Alameda County Superior Court, the former Panther leader said she had been turned down by several prominent Bay Area civil rights attorneys after they concluded her claim was good for no more than $20,000 to $25,000.
And that she was told it was going to be an uphill battle because Brooks is “a powerful Oakland politician.”
The Sausalito law firm Bonner & Bonner, however, decided her case had merit and “a high jury, trial value,” Brown said.
And it appears they were right. Attorney Charles Bonner is now asking the city for fees of up to $700 an hour — plus expenses — for himself, his son and another lawyer, as well as for a half-dozen legal assistants. Total tab: $1.1 million.
Bonner did not return our call seeking comment, but he did tell the court that his fees are “consistent with the San Francisco Bay Area market rates for attorneys of comparable skill and experience and with court awards of attorneys’ fees in other cases.”
A spokesman for Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, whose office defended Brooks, also declined to comment.
A hearing on the fees has been set for March 23.
158 Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks lied under oath ‘many times’
Judge says Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks lied under oath ‘many times’
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Judge-says-Oakland-Councilwoman-Desley-Brooks-12870252.php
Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks repeatedly lied under oath and “exhibited no true remorse for her callous behavior” during a trial over whether she assaulted former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown in a restaurant in 2015, an Alameda County Superior Court judge said.
But Judge Paul Herbert, in his ruling Thursday, said the jury that had ordered the city to pay Brown some $3.75 million “allowed their feelings of anger and disbelief towards Ms. Brooks to unduly influence their determination of the damage amounts.” He called the figure “excessive.”
Herbert’s order was in response to a motion from Brooks and the city requesting a new trial. He denied that motion on the condition that Brown accept a substantially smaller award: $1.2 million.
The punitive damages that Brooks herself had been ordered to pay — $550,000 — would also be lowered to $75,000 if Brown accepts the revised judgment rather than take her chances at a second trial.
“I’m happy that he’s reduced the damages,” said Brooks’ attorney, Dan Siegel. “I feel that it’s a step in the right direction. The ball is in Ms. Brown’s court at this point.”
Attorneys for Brown did not immediately comment on whether they would agree to the lower award or seek a new trial. The judge gave them until May 8 to decide.
“Having witnessed Ms. Brooks’ testimony, the court agrees with the jury’s conclusion that Ms. Brooks testified falsely many times under oath about the key events pertinent to determining whether Ms. Brooks had any reasonable basis whatsoever to claim lawful self-defense,” Herbert wrote. “The jury could properly conclude that by testifying falsely about the events under oath, Ms. Brooks was not truly remorseful for her disgraceful conduct.”
Herbert said Brooks’ statements from the witness stand were “fundamentally in conflict” with the testimony of all other witnesses to the altercation — including friends of Brooks, the judge noted — who never saw Brown “poke” or touch Brooks leading up to the attack, as Brooks had claimed.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Judge-says-Oakland-Councilwoman-Desley-Brooks-12870252.php
Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks repeatedly lied under oath and “exhibited no true remorse for her callous behavior” during a trial over whether she assaulted former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown in a restaurant in 2015, an Alameda County Superior Court judge said.
But Judge Paul Herbert, in his ruling Thursday, said the jury that had ordered the city to pay Brown some $3.75 million “allowed their feelings of anger and disbelief towards Ms. Brooks to unduly influence their determination of the damage amounts.” He called the figure “excessive.”
Herbert’s order was in response to a motion from Brooks and the city requesting a new trial. He denied that motion on the condition that Brown accept a substantially smaller award: $1.2 million.
The punitive damages that Brooks herself had been ordered to pay — $550,000 — would also be lowered to $75,000 if Brown accepts the revised judgment rather than take her chances at a second trial.
“I’m happy that he’s reduced the damages,” said Brooks’ attorney, Dan Siegel. “I feel that it’s a step in the right direction. The ball is in Ms. Brown’s court at this point.”
Attorneys for Brown did not immediately comment on whether they would agree to the lower award or seek a new trial. The judge gave them until May 8 to decide.
“Having witnessed Ms. Brooks’ testimony, the court agrees with the jury’s conclusion that Ms. Brooks testified falsely many times under oath about the key events pertinent to determining whether Ms. Brooks had any reasonable basis whatsoever to claim lawful self-defense,” Herbert wrote. “The jury could properly conclude that by testifying falsely about the events under oath, Ms. Brooks was not truly remorseful for her disgraceful conduct.”
Herbert said Brooks’ statements from the witness stand were “fundamentally in conflict” with the testimony of all other witnesses to the altercation — including friends of Brooks, the judge noted — who never saw Brown “poke” or touch Brooks leading up to the attack, as Brooks had claimed.
157 Oakland City Council President Larry Reid's found guilty of rigging State Construction Contracts and Accepting Bribes
The son of Oakland Council President Larry Reid faces up to 20 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
Taj Reid Found Guilty of Rigging State Construction Contracts and Accepting Bribes
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2018/05/25/taj-reid-son-of-oakland-council-president-larry-reid-found-guilty-of-rigging-state-construction-contracts-and-accepting-bribes
A federal jury found Taj Armon Reid guilty yesterday of conspiring to rig state construction contracts and accepting bribes.
Reid, who is the 47-year-old son of Oakland City Council President Larry Reid, was convicted on three counts, which could carry a sentence of 20 years imprisonment and $750,000 in fines.
The case began over six years ago when a mysterious out-of-state businessman calling himself William Joseph came to the Bay Area looking for opportunities. Joseph sought out meetings with public officials in San Francisco and the East Bay. One of his first get-togethers was with former San Francisco School Board member Keith Jackson.
Jackson already had an undercover FBI agent building a case against him (as well as state Senator Leland Yee), and Jackson would later be taken down as part of the FBI's sprawling "Shrimp Boy" undercover sting. But before all of that, the undercover FBI agent who called himself "Michael King" introduced Joseph to Jackson. Joseph said he was interested in getting into Oakland's medical marijuana industry. Could Jackson make any useful introductions?
Jackson ended up introducing Joseph to Taj Reid, the son of Oakland City Council President Larry Reid.
Joseph, who said he specialized in construction and real estate, met several times with Reid and his business partner Eric Worthen in San Francisco in early 2013 to discuss government contracting opportunities — not cannabis.
Joseph talked himself up as a big player in the real estate realm. He said he'd done projects at Disney World and Universal Studios and built part of the Dallas Airport. He was looking to buy a giant franchise of TGI restaurants in Texas. He claimed to have owned an auto dealership through Toyota's minority business program: Joseph is Black, and many of his meetings in the Bay Area were with other Black political and business leaders.
He would tell people that he "got a whole lot of shady friends with cash" who help him out when he's in a pinch, according to court records.
And Joseph said that Michael King, the undercover FBI agent who had already been making rounds in the Bay Area and posing as a super-wealthy ex-Wall Street type, was one of his sources of financing for really big deals.
Unbeknownst to Worthen and Reid, William Joseph was actually William Myles, a confidential source whom the FBI has paid for years to root out public corruption across the country. Myles has helped the FBI build cases against politicians and police officials in Connecticut and Louisiana.
At the time they met with the FBI's Myles, Reid's business partner Worthen was a high-level employee within the state Department of Veterans Affairs, or CalVet, working in the division that builds housing for veterans. On the side, Reid and Worthen ran a consulting business.
Prosecutors alleged that Worthen and Reid devised a plan to use Worthen's position inside the state agency to obtain non-public information about a Southern California CalVet housing project that was being put out to competitive bid. Worthen and Reid promised Myles that they could ensure he would win the contract. In exchange, they accepted about $12,000 in bribes.
"We want you to have the job, we want to make sure you get the job," Reid told Myles, according to FBI records introduced at trial. "Let’s keep this on the hush."
Worthen and Reid also requested a 15 percent share of the profits that Myles stood to make off the construction project.
According to the FBI, Reid went to San Francisco in April of 2013 to meet with Myles in his hotel room and accept a $10,000 bribe.
Not long after, Worthen and Reid devised a similar scheme to help Myles pursue a kitchen construction project in Los Angeles that was also being built by CalVet. Again, they provided him with non-public information about the project and took $2,000 in compensation each.
Then Myles did what the FBI pays him to do. He asked Reid and Worthen to introduce him to more people who could provide even bigger opportunities.
Reid — who according to federal prosecutors told Myles, "If you want to play, you have to pay" — ended up introducing the FBI informant to his father, Larry Reid.
But although the FBI was rumored to be investigating Larry Reid, the councilmember was never accused of any wrongdoing by the feds.
Instead, it was another introduction that led to still more criminal charges and the fall of several influential Oakland businessmen.
Following up on the request from Myles, Reid and Worthen reached out to their friend Ken "Kenny" Houston to see if Len and Lance Turner, two brothers who own the Turner Group Construction company, might have any interest in meeting the wealthy out-of-town businessman. Houston, who is currently running for mayor of Oakland, is a close friend of Larry Reid and also a project manager with Turner Group. The Turner brothers have done major business with the city of Oakland.
According to court records, Houston told Reid and Worthen that they should all arrange a meeting.
To entice the undercover FBI asset Myles to meet with the Turners, Reid told him that "they got juice through Dad. They got a lot of work. More out there for them to get," according to FBI records.
Federal prosecutors alleged that this was a reference to the $2 million in construction contracts that the Turner Group company was seeking from the city of Oakland at the old Oakland Army Base. Oakland's city auditor found in 2013 that Larry Reid improperly interfered with the process of awarding these contracts by putting pressure on staff to give the work to the Turners.
Myles showed up one afternoon in May 2013 at the Turners' East Oakland offices and sat down with Len Turner, Taj Reid, and Worthen. This was the day after Reid accepted a $2,000 bribe from Myles for the CalVet scam. The meeting was brief, and according to the FBI, no one proposed any illegal schemes during the 30-minute conference. In fact, some of the discussion centered on how to create more job opportunities for minorities.
Months passed after the meeting with no further business discussed. Even so, the FBI decided to set up an elaborate sting targeting Len Turner and his brother Lance.
The sting started when Myles contacted Taj Reid in September 2013 and told him that he had an inside track to get a multimillion-dollar construction project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, but he needed other contractors to submit fake bids at higher prices in order to win it and help his inside connection cover their tracks. Federal prosecutors allege that the Turners agreed to submit a false bid. In fact, the Department of Energy was in on the FBI's fake bidding opportunity, and prepared a fake construction contract for the operation as bait.
Records produced at trial showed that Turner Group Construction did, in fact, submit a bid to the Department of Energy on September 13 for the work in question.
Myles promised to compensate the Turners for the allegedly false bid by hiring them to subcontract on the project.
And for his part in making the introductions and serving as a go-between, Taj Reid demanded a $100,000 cut from the Turners, according to court records.
"I brokered the deal. I gave you the deal," Reid allegedly told Len Turner after Turner expressed outrage at the councilmember's son's high price. "I spoon-fed you the deal. You didn’t have to do nothing [...] All I want to do is get paid," said Reid.
Alongside Reid, both Len and Lance Turner were charged with conspiracy to defraud the federal government. They have both pleaded innocent and are both facing five years in prison and $250,000 fines if convicted.
Throughout the case, defense attorneys for Reid, the Turners, and other defendants swept up in the FBI's sting have stated that the operation has all the hallmarks of entrapment, and that most of the FBI's targets were prominent Black business leaders and politicians. They've alleged that the FBI came to the Bay Area and racially profiled people in its public corruption probe.
Attorneys for the Turners wrote in a recent court briefing that they believe the FBI informant Myles specifically targeted their clients because they were Black.
Furthermore, they wrote that the FBI has a history of using Myles "targeting of blacks for sting operations" because he poses as a successful Black entrepreneur who wants to help uplift Black communities.
The Turners were lured into doing business with Myles by "false appeals to racial solidarity," wrote the defense.
Taj Reid Found Guilty of Rigging State Construction Contracts and Accepting Bribes
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2018/05/25/taj-reid-son-of-oakland-council-president-larry-reid-found-guilty-of-rigging-state-construction-contracts-and-accepting-bribes
A federal jury found Taj Armon Reid guilty yesterday of conspiring to rig state construction contracts and accepting bribes.
Reid, who is the 47-year-old son of Oakland City Council President Larry Reid, was convicted on three counts, which could carry a sentence of 20 years imprisonment and $750,000 in fines.
The case began over six years ago when a mysterious out-of-state businessman calling himself William Joseph came to the Bay Area looking for opportunities. Joseph sought out meetings with public officials in San Francisco and the East Bay. One of his first get-togethers was with former San Francisco School Board member Keith Jackson.
Jackson already had an undercover FBI agent building a case against him (as well as state Senator Leland Yee), and Jackson would later be taken down as part of the FBI's sprawling "Shrimp Boy" undercover sting. But before all of that, the undercover FBI agent who called himself "Michael King" introduced Joseph to Jackson. Joseph said he was interested in getting into Oakland's medical marijuana industry. Could Jackson make any useful introductions?
Jackson ended up introducing Joseph to Taj Reid, the son of Oakland City Council President Larry Reid.
Joseph, who said he specialized in construction and real estate, met several times with Reid and his business partner Eric Worthen in San Francisco in early 2013 to discuss government contracting opportunities — not cannabis.
Joseph talked himself up as a big player in the real estate realm. He said he'd done projects at Disney World and Universal Studios and built part of the Dallas Airport. He was looking to buy a giant franchise of TGI restaurants in Texas. He claimed to have owned an auto dealership through Toyota's minority business program: Joseph is Black, and many of his meetings in the Bay Area were with other Black political and business leaders.
He would tell people that he "got a whole lot of shady friends with cash" who help him out when he's in a pinch, according to court records.
And Joseph said that Michael King, the undercover FBI agent who had already been making rounds in the Bay Area and posing as a super-wealthy ex-Wall Street type, was one of his sources of financing for really big deals.
Unbeknownst to Worthen and Reid, William Joseph was actually William Myles, a confidential source whom the FBI has paid for years to root out public corruption across the country. Myles has helped the FBI build cases against politicians and police officials in Connecticut and Louisiana.
At the time they met with the FBI's Myles, Reid's business partner Worthen was a high-level employee within the state Department of Veterans Affairs, or CalVet, working in the division that builds housing for veterans. On the side, Reid and Worthen ran a consulting business.
Prosecutors alleged that Worthen and Reid devised a plan to use Worthen's position inside the state agency to obtain non-public information about a Southern California CalVet housing project that was being put out to competitive bid. Worthen and Reid promised Myles that they could ensure he would win the contract. In exchange, they accepted about $12,000 in bribes.
"We want you to have the job, we want to make sure you get the job," Reid told Myles, according to FBI records introduced at trial. "Let’s keep this on the hush."
Worthen and Reid also requested a 15 percent share of the profits that Myles stood to make off the construction project.
According to the FBI, Reid went to San Francisco in April of 2013 to meet with Myles in his hotel room and accept a $10,000 bribe.
Not long after, Worthen and Reid devised a similar scheme to help Myles pursue a kitchen construction project in Los Angeles that was also being built by CalVet. Again, they provided him with non-public information about the project and took $2,000 in compensation each.
Then Myles did what the FBI pays him to do. He asked Reid and Worthen to introduce him to more people who could provide even bigger opportunities.
Reid — who according to federal prosecutors told Myles, "If you want to play, you have to pay" — ended up introducing the FBI informant to his father, Larry Reid.
But although the FBI was rumored to be investigating Larry Reid, the councilmember was never accused of any wrongdoing by the feds.
Instead, it was another introduction that led to still more criminal charges and the fall of several influential Oakland businessmen.
Following up on the request from Myles, Reid and Worthen reached out to their friend Ken "Kenny" Houston to see if Len and Lance Turner, two brothers who own the Turner Group Construction company, might have any interest in meeting the wealthy out-of-town businessman. Houston, who is currently running for mayor of Oakland, is a close friend of Larry Reid and also a project manager with Turner Group. The Turner brothers have done major business with the city of Oakland.
According to court records, Houston told Reid and Worthen that they should all arrange a meeting.
To entice the undercover FBI asset Myles to meet with the Turners, Reid told him that "they got juice through Dad. They got a lot of work. More out there for them to get," according to FBI records.
Federal prosecutors alleged that this was a reference to the $2 million in construction contracts that the Turner Group company was seeking from the city of Oakland at the old Oakland Army Base. Oakland's city auditor found in 2013 that Larry Reid improperly interfered with the process of awarding these contracts by putting pressure on staff to give the work to the Turners.
Myles showed up one afternoon in May 2013 at the Turners' East Oakland offices and sat down with Len Turner, Taj Reid, and Worthen. This was the day after Reid accepted a $2,000 bribe from Myles for the CalVet scam. The meeting was brief, and according to the FBI, no one proposed any illegal schemes during the 30-minute conference. In fact, some of the discussion centered on how to create more job opportunities for minorities.
Months passed after the meeting with no further business discussed. Even so, the FBI decided to set up an elaborate sting targeting Len Turner and his brother Lance.
The sting started when Myles contacted Taj Reid in September 2013 and told him that he had an inside track to get a multimillion-dollar construction project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, but he needed other contractors to submit fake bids at higher prices in order to win it and help his inside connection cover their tracks. Federal prosecutors allege that the Turners agreed to submit a false bid. In fact, the Department of Energy was in on the FBI's fake bidding opportunity, and prepared a fake construction contract for the operation as bait.
Records produced at trial showed that Turner Group Construction did, in fact, submit a bid to the Department of Energy on September 13 for the work in question.
Myles promised to compensate the Turners for the allegedly false bid by hiring them to subcontract on the project.
And for his part in making the introductions and serving as a go-between, Taj Reid demanded a $100,000 cut from the Turners, according to court records.
"I brokered the deal. I gave you the deal," Reid allegedly told Len Turner after Turner expressed outrage at the councilmember's son's high price. "I spoon-fed you the deal. You didn’t have to do nothing [...] All I want to do is get paid," said Reid.
Alongside Reid, both Len and Lance Turner were charged with conspiracy to defraud the federal government. They have both pleaded innocent and are both facing five years in prison and $250,000 fines if convicted.
Throughout the case, defense attorneys for Reid, the Turners, and other defendants swept up in the FBI's sting have stated that the operation has all the hallmarks of entrapment, and that most of the FBI's targets were prominent Black business leaders and politicians. They've alleged that the FBI came to the Bay Area and racially profiled people in its public corruption probe.
Attorneys for the Turners wrote in a recent court briefing that they believe the FBI informant Myles specifically targeted their clients because they were Black.
Furthermore, they wrote that the FBI has a history of using Myles "targeting of blacks for sting operations" because he poses as a successful Black entrepreneur who wants to help uplift Black communities.
The Turners were lured into doing business with Myles by "false appeals to racial solidarity," wrote the defense.
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