The Sabatino Report

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Former Mayor Carmen Sabatino has moved from your car radio to your computer.

Go to www.voiceofmodesto.org  at 10 this morning and click on Blog Talk Radio. The program is interactive and you can either call or text into the program.  The program is on demand anytime of the day or night.

I am passing this along for everyone’s info.

Hi Carmen, this was posted on the Mod Bee Hive blogs today. Very interesting reading. Just for your info...

Sheriff Christianson and Title 18 USC §1346 … Yet another perspective …

Submitted by Shamott on Mon, 2009-05-11 16:51.

• Law Enforcement

To commit a violation of Title 18 USC §1346 is to commit a felony. Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Corona can attest to that as he is going to go to prison for several years. Here is a beginning example of what may be construed as violations of Title 18 USC §1346, and if not that then just another example of extremely poor judgment.

Let's set the stage. Take contributions from a local business, Prime Shine, Inc.    Prime Shine, Inc. donated money to the Sherifff's campaign coffer, which is fine. On May 15, 2007, well after the election, Prime Shine, Inc. donated $2,500 to Adam. This information can be found on Adam Christianson’s campaign receipt and expenditure forms. There is nothing wrong with a local business wanting to support a candidate of their choice by making monetary contributions. There is nothing wrong for a candidate accepting a campaign contribution from a business either. This is the American way and such conduct is perfectly legal and honest.

But what happens afterwards? 

I would ask you to visit our Sheriff’s current website at www.stanislaussheriff.com, a site that is paid for by the County of Stanislaus taxpayers. Scroll down until you find the Stanislaus County K9 Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, click on it and you are directed to www.SSK9.com, which seems innocuous enough. Click on the button on the menu on the left, defined as “Sponsors”.

• You will find the logo for Best Buy where if you click on it you are directed to www.bestbuy.com.
• You will find the logo for Lo-Jack where if you click on it you are directed to www.lojack.com.
• You will find the logo for K9Armor where if you click on it you are directed to www.k9armor.com.
• You will find the logo for Crescent Work and Outdoor, also referred to as Crescent Supply, where if you click on it you are directed to www.crescentmodesto.com.
• You will find “Empire Sportsmen's Association, 5801 McHenry Avenue
  Modesto, California 95356-8828”, without any hyperlink.
• You will find the logo for Prime Shine Express Car Wash where if you click on it you are directed to www.primeshine.com.

If you right-click on the white part of the screen of www.ssk9.com, you will see the properties at the bottom of the list in the window. Click on the “properties” and you will see where this site for the Stanislaus Sheriff K9 Association has a URL address for its web hosting located ON the taxpayer funded website of www.stanislaussheriff.com.   Yep, it looks like our tax dollars are paying for this 501(c)(3) non-profit sponsor advertiser page.   But wait, there's more...

In the present case under discussion in regard to the Prime Shine campaign donation, the Sheriff has permitted or provided the benefit of advertising on a government website he controls to a firm from which he received campaign contributions. For our Sheriff to accept political contributions and then provide or permit a benefit such as this, the question then becomes, is this deprivation of honest service by our Sheriff to those businesses who did not make political contributions?

If one wants to be a sponsor of the Stanislaus County K9 Association you can do so by emailing This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it  .   How does a business get to advertise on the Sheriff’s website?  Who makes the decisions whether one can or cannot advertise?  What are the criteria?  Why is the county government providing private business a venue to advertise?  Are these businesses paying for this type of advertising and getting it courtesy of a taxpayer paid website?

The www.ssk9.com website (from information provided on Internet WHOIS information) has listed the administrator of the website as Gordon Brussow, who works for Adam Christianson and is a county employee. The www.stanislaussheriff.com website also lists the administrator as Gordon Brussow. Both websites list Mr. Brussow’s county email address, physical address and phone number, all at the Sheriff's office location. Why is a county employee the administrator/technical contact for a non-profit organization’s website? How much county taxpayer money has been spent on this type of “gift” of public resources?

In my opinion this type of situation should never occur and these questions should never have to be asked. The line is being crossed where it should not be. I would urge all of you to see it for yourself before these links disappear with the posting of this blog. I suggest you all make screen capture shots of all of these links that show the hyperlinks back to the Sheriff’s county funded website as proof.

There are more questions of the Sheriff’s conduct when put up to Title 18 USC §1346 and the associated case law surrounding it. However if you think the FBI would open an investigation of our Sheriff specifically to see if Title 18 USC §1346 has been adhered and no deprivation of honest services has occurred, I would think twice. I doubt it after the FBI and the Assistant US Attorney’s who prosecuted Raul DeLeon’s case got their “rear ends” kicked.

What other “boo-boo’s” are out there? There will be more examples brought out in the following weeks. Is  this Sheriff doing things because he can, and not questioning the moral side of his actions?  Remember, he said he was the "1000 pound Gorilla".

As always, you be the judge.

Thanks for reading.

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