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.