David "So Sue Me" Prentice

The Board of Supervisors will be voting this Wednesday on new County Counsel partner of Cole: David Prentice. Why do We the People and their representatives (Board of Supervisors) want this substitute County Counsel who did not even comply with requests from his previous county's Grand Jury request? When asked to provide a $30,000 report paid for by the county on unethical behavior by the County District Attorney, Prentice told the Grand Jury "Sue me for it". That suit ended with $14 million paid out by the county. The question begs to be asked: why are we not hiring a local attor­ney that actually CARES about Trinity? The Cole Cota team has demonstrated an absolute aversion to safeguarding our Constitutional rights. A Madera resident who fought to keep a road open vital for fire fighting access, was charged with five misdemeanors by County Counsel David Prentice, charges that were later dismissed. Prentice had reached a secret agreement with the man's neighbors seemingly making a run around the local home association's authority over the road's use. The attorney representing the association was quoted ""Mr. Prentice, after filing the criminal action, called my office and when I informed him that it was my feeling that he filed this action solely to threaten Mr. Stamas, he said 'So sue me. Bring it on!'" Also stated in the local news was that in 2009, the Madera County Grand Jury scolded Prentice for failing to reveal that his wife and 18-year-old son had been hired by the Cota law firm, which, according to county officials, has been paid $2.7 million in legal fees by the county or its insurance carrier for handling cases during the last three years. The Grand Jury said Prentice's family working at the Cota law firm represented "at best, the appearance of a conflict of interest." Prentice himself left county employment in December 2010 and now is a partner in the Cota firm. When will our Supervisors toss this law firm where they belong? Out of our county! With this knowledge will they vote Prentice in as our County Counsel? Please call your Supervisor and urge them to select a local attorney that will have Trinity's best

interests at heart.Call the BOS Office: (530) 623-1217

Road Warrior by Lloyd G. Carter

(Editor's note: In Part 1 of this two-part series, which ran last month in the Community Alliance and was titled "Perdition Road," the battle over Cascadel Road in mountainous eastern Madera County was explained, leading to the civil settlement of a court suit by Madera County. County Supervi­sor Tom Wheeler called the settlement agreement flatly illegal and in viola­tion of the county's own codes. Part 2, entitled "Road Warrior," addresses how Mark Stamas, who fought to keep the road open, was charged with five misdemeanors by County Counsel David Prentice, charges that were later dismissed. Stamas fought back with a civil rights suit in federal court but ultimately settled because of the costs involved.) North Fork (eastern Madera County)—In mid-October 2007, Mark Stamas, then president of the 106-home Cascadel Woods Property Owners Association, received a no­tice in the mail informing him he had been charged with five misdemeanors, which could have resulted in 2.5 years in jail and $5,000 in fines. He was or-

dered to appear in court November 27. Two road graders working on the Cascadel Road in early October 2007. Events on the day the picture was taken led to Mark Stamas being charged with five misdemeanors. His crime? On the first or second day of October, he had been standing on a portion of the dirt and gravel fire safety road that runs by his house, and has been in continuous public use for de­cades and maintained by his homeown­ers association. Stamas was observing a road grading crew that was repairing the road for the homeowners associa­tion under a correction notice from the County Engineering Department. The road skirts the southern boundary of the 106-home Cascadel subdivision, which has been declared the most fire-vulnerable subdivision in the county. County Counsel David Prentice had reached a secret agreement in De­cember 2006 with Stamas' neighbors, Gerald Houston and his wife Linda Barlow, to reduce the right-of-way of Cascadel Road across their prop­erty from 60 feet to 12 feet. Hous­ton/Barlow had sued the county and had personally sued Stamas, who was

later dismissed from the suit when the settlement was reached. Houston and Barlow had also been out on the road that early October day and took photographs of Stamas and the road graders smoothing the dirt road to fill potholes and repair the drainage trenches along the road. Houston told Stamas he would have him arrested because the agreement with Prentice stated that only the Houstons could maintain the portion of Cascadel Road that crosses their property. Sheldon Feigel, legal counsel for the Cascadel homeowners, contended the Prentice/Houston agreement applied only to those parties and not to others who had been dismissed as defendants, including Stamas. Therefore, the hom­eowners could continue to maintain the road as they had done since the 1960s. Following the road incident, Stamas said Houston made good on his threat to have him charged with criminal acts. After the road encounter, Houston had called his attorney, Greg Chappel of Oakhurst, who then called Prentice and claimed Stamas was "directing" the road graders. Houston was then instructed by Chappel to call Deputy