Journalists Resources - more emails ignored by elected officials

Today I'm emailing several people, expecting them not to respond. 

However, since their elected job requires them to respond - or at least read all the mail voters send them - their repeated nonresponses will come back to them some day. In fact, that is the whole point of sending them all those emails - creating a "paper trail" of their complicity in corruption.

This "paper trail" I have created over the years involves Embezzlement of Evidence, and an unsolved hit-and-run in a school zone crosswalk. While I have video evidence of both events, a veritable "smoking gun", former DA Jill Ravitch repeatedly turned a blind eye to the problem. Coincidentally, Ravitch's legal assistant Dava Kohlman is married to the police officer covering up the hit-and-run he eye-witnessed, suggesting a possible reason for not prosecuting the driver or the officers covering up.

Now, a reasonable person would assume that Santa Rosa's City Council would want to speak out against vehicular violence aimed against their citizens. However, Santa Rosa's City Council has seemingly approved of legalizing Vehicular Assault against peaceful protestors.

A year ago, just before the 20th Anniversary of the unsolved hit-and-run, I emailed everybody on the City Council, individually and collectively at citycouncil@srcity.org, asking for a quote for my article. Predictably there was no reply, not even one, not even from Mayor Natalie Rogers [(707)494-8378 and nrogers@srcity.org]. One would assume that the Mayor, at least, would want to be seen speaking out against Vehicular Assault - no matter the class of person who got run over.

I am encouraging Journalists to follow up with FOIA Requests (Freedom of Information Act) to obtain record of my emails to these elected officials, which is public record.

Today I sent emails with the header: "Santa Rosa journalist seeking quote on unsolved hit-and-run" to:

• the City Council as a whole at citycouncil@srcity.org
• Mayor Natalie Rogers at nrogers@srcity.org (707)494-8378
• Vice Mayor Mark Stapp at MStapp@srcity.org (707)328-7024
• Eddie Alvarez (District 1) at ealvarez@srcity.org (707)791-5282
• Dianna MacDonald (District 3) at dmacdonald@srcity.org (707)495-7599
• Victoria Fleming (District 4) at vfleming@srcity.org
• Chris Rogers (District 5) at crogers@srcity.org (707)543-3017
• Jeff Okrepkie (District 6) at JOkrepkie@srcity.org (707)531-0056
• City Attorney Teresa Sticker at caoffice@srcity.org (707)543-3040

To [name],

I'm a Santa Rosa journalist writing about an unsolved hit-and-run in front of Santa Rosa High School:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OzOtoBxrw

My questions:

1) After viewing this hit-and-run video, do you believe SRPD responded properly to a car driving on the wrong side of the road through a crowd of people?

2) Santa Rosa City Council appears to have legalized Vehicular Assault against protesters, by repeatedly refusing to speak out against this hit-and-run in a school zone crosswalk. Can you think of any other way to describe the situation? OR, do you admit that's an accurate way for me to describe this Willful Blindness?

I will continue asking until I get a response for my article.

Thank you for your time,

Erik Jorgensen

Award-Winning Crime Reporter

In short: polite, professional, to the point, and no reason to brush off.

Furthermore, by continuing to ignore my requests for comment, they appear to engage in Willful Blindness - which is not a valid defense against Obstruction of Justice.

Maybe some day, somebody besides me will be bothered by cars running over citizens, and will follow up on my paper trail. And I only established this paper trail because I knew it would get ignored, would end up highlighting a pattern of corruption - with Embezzlement at the core. One would assume elected official would be motivated to expose corruption, not help cover it up or profit from it. Right?

Journalist's Resource - summary of Dava Kohlman

 Dava Kohlman was not on my radar until her boss, former DA Jill Ravitch, sent me an odd email. The strange part wasn't what was said, but what wasn't said; nothing more than "Thank you for the nice letter". So when DA Ravitch  took the time to write me a "go screw yourself" letter, it made me dig deeper.

Within five minutes I learned that fly-fishing guide Brian Kohlman (central to my corruption investigation) was married to DA Ravitch's legal assistant, Dava Kohlman. This seemed to explain why no criminal charges were filed - since the DA's assistant was married to one of the people I was trying to press charges against. Maybe there's some other explanation, but when I emailed Dava Kohlman at her new job she refused to comment and request I make no further contact. 

That's how somebody acts when they have something to hide.

Now, my investigation this criminal Racketeering enterprise involves intellectual property Embezzled from me, and I have have reason to believe that both Brian and Dave Kohlman were benefitted as recipient-Embezzlees of my converted property. 

Since Dava Kohlman's new job is as Purchasing Agent for Tehama County, somebody with a hazy perception of the line between public and private property is absolutely unsuited for the job. And the taxpayers of Tehama County should be aware of this.

Last month, after I notified Tehama Sheriff's Department of her Obstruction, I also emailed several of the County Commission asking for there comment on her criminal charges. So far, none have responded. However, I will keep emailing them and I will post here each time I do, while expecting no response. Eventually, when I finish writing this book, I will name all the public officials I contacted and their lack of response.

Dava Kohlman was only the second to respond to me in almost ten years, and her semi-threatening letter Obstructed Justice.

I sent her a YouTube link of an unsolved hit-and-run, and asked her if she could identify anybody in it. Instead, she said she couldn't possibly remember details from twenty years ago; that she was requesting no further contact from me; and that she would be "contacting" my newspaper.

Why would she need to "contact" my newspaper? To tell them I did a great job catching a corrupt public official?

Or was that a threat?

I'll keep this blog updated with details about Dava Kohlman, the first crack in this Nexus of Corruption.

Journalist's Resources

This is the beginning of a new series, providing my research and resources to other journalists exposing corruption among public officials. 

My own attempts to shine light into this Nexus of Corruption have been not only gone unassisted, but in many cases the "willful blindness" I keep encountering seems like deliberate effort to obstruct justice.

So I have decided to create a public log of the people I've tried contacting, but who have ignored me. Now, I understand people are busy and sometimes get lots of email, so I can be difficult to respond in a timely manner. On the other hand, at a certain point it becomes clear you're getting the brush-off.

While private citizens have a right to privacy, there's a different standard of conduct for elected and public officials working for the government, getting paid by citizen's tax dollars. Elected officials who do not read their mail are not performing their duty to the public, but emails getting read but ignored could actually rise to the level of criminal conduct.

In short, I am naming names to assist other journalists investigating this Nexus of Corruption.

Last month I began another round of emails to various Sonoma County employees, and members of the Santa Rosa City Council, asking for their comments on this unsolved hit-and-run in front of a high school. Just like last year, I've gotten no response from Santa Rosa City Council (individually and collectively). This year I began emailing more people.

Around 2016 I was sending postcards each week to City Councilors, the Mayor, the City Attorney, and the District Attorney's office. These postcards were custom printed, with various details of the crimes and their cover-ups. At one point I was asking them for a Letter of Commendation for my work. However, after months of weekly emails and postcards, the only response I got was from DA Jill Ravitch, who retired last fall after term-limiting out of office. Ravitch said her office does not give out Letters of Commendation, but she thanked me for "reporting wrongdoing" while also stating she had no plans of following up.

I struck me as odd that Ravitch would take the time to write me a "go screw yourself" letter. She didn't call my investigation "allegations", but actually acknowledged the wrongdoing I'd been presenting everybody for months. Her dismissiveness stuck out because hers was the one and only response I got after months of trying.

So I decided to dig a little deeper.

In less than five minutes, my Google searching revealed that Ravitch's assistant Dava Kohlman was married to Brian Kohlman, the SRPD officer who grabbed my camera out of my hands. While I'm not a lawyer, my Media Law textbook describes that as "Assault". Also, the driver falsely claimed that she had stopped the car (False Information During an Investigation) and officer Kohlman said her saw her hit a second person with her car, but there is no Police Report of this hit-and-run in a school zone. Furthermore, when the driver was finally stopped, several eyewitnesses went over but were sent away and prevented from filing their witness reports. There is no police report of this, at all. 

That video is what a Memory Hole looks like.

Last month I learned that Dava Kohlman is working as Administrative Services Director and Purchasing Agent for Tehama County in northern California. So I emailed her, as DA Ravitch's former assistant, and asked her if she could identify anybody in this unsolved hit-and run. I was hoping she would be able to identify her husband at the end of that video, verify that's who it is, and how they are related. Because that's pretty good confirmation of my investigative reporting.

Instead of responding to the video, Dava Ravitch sent me the only email response I've gotten this year, just like her bosses email was the only one I got the last time I tried. And just like Ravitch's non-response inspired me to keep searching, Dava Kohlman's own non-response is even more noteworthy.

While Dava Kohlman's email was only borderline "threatening", her overall non-response was not only unethical for a public official but possible also Obstruction of Justice.

When I asked Dava Kohlman if she could identify anybody in this unsoved hit-and-run, she said:

• She couldn't possibly remember anything that happened twenty years ago;
• She was requesting no further contact from me;
• She said she would be "contacting" my newspaper.

First, I was asking her to watch the video and tell me if she recognized anybody. Her non-response indicates that either she refused to watch the video, or that she had watched it but insists she cannot remember anything from twenty years ago. Since that is her own husband in that video, her non-response is suspiciously willfully blind.

Second, as a public official she has no expectation of privacy from the press investigating public corruption. While private citizens can request non-contact from further electronic communications, county employees are not privileged with privacy from the press, and such a request is unethical. Furthermore, since I was contacted the former DA's legal assistant asking for her comment on an unsolved crime while she worked there, her "no further contact" demand could be Obstruction of Justice.

Naturally, I immediately reported this crime to Tehama County Sheriffs Department. Then I asked her boss Gabriel Hydrick for comment (530)527-4655. However, he hasn't responded to any my emails yet. I'll keep trying, and keep track of my efforts with new posts here.

 

My first sci-fi story got published - FREE with Kindle Unlimited

My first sci-fi short story got published in an anthology benefitting St Jude's Children's Hospital. It is available on Amazon in Paperback or E-Book (FREE with Kindle Unlimited) 

Mine is called "Diogenes the Talking Dog Meets the Necromancer From the Fifth Dimension."

Sci-Fi From Sonoma: Jack London, Frank Herbert, & Philip K Dick, my previous sci-fi history collection is still available as a FREE E-Book from Smashwords

So check it out. It doesn't cost much to try!

My first sci-fi story is getting published

 So, I just found out my story was accepted for an anthology, my first published fiction. I'll wait a bit before posting any details, since 2020 has been so unpredictable. 

But it is always hearing good news.

Adventures in Social Media, part 1

As a struggling writer with a day job, for years I viewed "social media" as a time vortex. Many, many people over the years have told me I needed to start a blog, and get a Twitter account. When I tried telling them I simply didn't have time for that, they would explain what blogs, Instagram, and Twitter were.

These non-writers couldn't understand the difference between, "I know what social media is, but don't have the time for it," and "Golly - I've never heard of that. Why don't you explain it to me again?" In fact, the more non-writers argued with me about this, the more of my time they wasted, the more resistant I became.

And then I discovered the weekly Writer's Forum on Fark.com.

Some of the writers there described their own successes and struggles with self-publishing, the hardships of breaking into "traditional" publishing, and shared various tips and pitfalls.

I started asking for advice, and several folks were very helpful. I emailed the Writer's Forum's moderator and suggested a topic for the weekly discussion: tips and pitfalls in self-publishing. The moderator agreed that many people would be interested in that discussion.

Getting advice from somebody who actually knows what they are talking about is very different from somebody spouting the first thing that pops into their head.

Many Writer's Forum commenters shared similar responses: A good cover helps a lot in generating interest. Writing a series creates a built-in audience for future books, and releasing new books often results in a spike in downloads for older books in the series. Know your genre, and write for that audience.

But the most helpful advice came from several writer's explaining the importance of social media, and how to use it effectively. That was a major turning point for me. For years non-writers had been telling me, "You should do it anyway," but now people were telling me, "Here's is how to increase your audience and downloads." One tidbit I learned was that some authors will promote their ebook's publication six months in advance.

So I started this blog a couple months ago, and reactivated my old Twitter account @FHerbertLostarc which I made when I tried crowd-funding my book about Frank Herbert's lost archive of newspaper articles from his early career.

Just within the last couple weeks my "social media experiment" has started showing results. Among other things, I came into contact with an amazing artist who has agreed to create book cover art for me. While I originally asked him to create a cover for my Frank Herbert book, after seeing the rest of his online portfolio I definitely want him making a cover for my upcoming "Cthulhu Mythos" book.

But that is another story for another time.

The Dreamer becomes the Dream

For an aspiring writer, Social Media is a mixed blessing. While blogs and tweets can help a writer attract new fans, and update loyal fans about upcoming publication dates, there is also a significant time drain updating Social Media accounts regularly. One writes about writing projects, instead of finishing up that writing.

But sometimes the Miraculous happens, and some minor Social Media victory is achieved which shows all that time invested was well-spent, and not merely squandered.

Here is a short story to illustrate my point:

A couple yeas ago, when I got my first paid article published, some people were happy for me. At least, they were politely enough to say so. I had spent months researching microfilm at the public library's Historical Annex finding every article and photograph Frank Herbert created for Santa Rosa Press Democrat before his sci-fi novel Dune made him a best-seller.

But one angry little fella spitefully informed me, “Well, you can't live off what you made from that article!” His hostility shocked me, and I patiently explained that getting my first paid article published was part of my long-term plan to get my second, then third, article published, and then…

“Oh yeah? Well, you're stupid for writing that article when you want to write screenplays!” Again, his hostile shouting shocked me so much I couldn't get offended by his grade-school name-calling. I patiently explained that my Frank Herbert article, which the magazine editor asked me to write, only took a couple hours to write, whereas a screenplay could take more than a year to complete and polish.

I also tried explaining how publishing my article positioned me as a “Frank Herbert expert,” and this would increase my chances to get hired to adapt one of his books into a screenplay, and all part of my long-term plan. “Oh yeah? Well, how are you going to that?” the angry contrarian demanded triumphantly. “See? You're stupid!”

Then I remembered this miserable DreamKiller had no accomplishments of his own, except for angrily contradicting people, which explained why my own accomplishments insulted him so personally. Eventually, I moved away from Northern California to work on my writing where rent was less expensive.

About a month ago, I published my first Free ebook which included three of my articles about scif-fi writers, including my Frank Herbert article that angry contrarian told me I was stupid for writing. For my article about Jack London's near-forgotten sci-fi works, I reached out to several established writers for quotes, and got back responses from Norman Spinrad and Michael Moorcock, which I included in my published article.

About two weeks later, when my ebook had about thirty total downloads, I got a Facebook “Friends Request” from Michael Moorcock. As I figure it, one of those thirty people who downloaded my book was friends with Mr. Moorcock and informed him about his quotes in my article. I'm guessing that Mr. Moorcock then read my article, and liked it enough to look me up on Facebook. I can't imagine that he took the time to find me on Facebook just because he heard that I quoted him.

I have been an admirer of Michael Moorcock's sword-and-sorcery writing, and his anti-hero Elric the wizard-emperor, since sixth grade. In fact, I have long been interested in adapting his Elric novels into a screenplay. So having one of my childhood idols view me as a peer, and reach out to befriend me through Social Media, is a dream-come-true that I never dreamed of.

More importantly, this showed me that establishing myself as a sci-fi historian, as part of my long-term strategy writing screenplays and book adaptations, wasn't a waste of time no matter what angry little DreamKillers might scream at me.

Then another thing happened today. While checking my Twitter account for the first time in a long while, one of the Frank Herbert-related accounts I follow, @DuneJacurutu, reposted an article fromSombreroBooks.com about the origins of Dune. Naturally, this was relevant to my interests and I checked out the article. I was very surprised to find myself as a primary source for this article. Even more surprising, they cited the earliest version of my article from SRJC Oak Leaf News, my college newspaper.

Cited as a primary source on Sombrerobooks.com

As a historian doing independent research, but standing on the shoulders other historians to learn where to start looking, it is an amazing, magical feeling of accomplishment, of arrival, to discover other researchers standing on my own shoulders.

It is a strange, encouraging turning point realizing the Dreamer has become the Dream