UNDER THE MEDIA RADAR

                                     Lake County Supervisor Gets A Pass?

Combing through the old court records can bring to light some interesting incidents which over the years have passed under the radar of Lake Counties local media and the public as a whole. Some of these cases have simply fallen by the way side, some show the degree of malfeasance that has existed for many years in this county. Many times a public official is found to be a provocative party to these activities and in this case Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown is in the spotlight. Although this story stretches back to 2004 it was being looked at again as it appears the true story may have never been fully vetted and now has a couple of more acts to add to the play.

On January 6^th, 2009 Sandra Dee Resh-Jarvis filed a request for an Order to Stop Harassment, Case Number CV406159. This request was denied by Judge Martin, Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown was the listed defendant on this request. The reason for this request and the allegations associated with it are the foundation of this article.

The declarations indicate that through a mutual acknowledgement Rob Brown and Tony Jarvis entered into, Tony was to “work off” his bail Rob Brown had provided. This was to be done by Tony installing a septic tank on Rob Brown's property. This project included Tony needing to use several of his workers to install the septic tank. After completion of the install, Tony went to supervisor Brown and asked for a final payment so that the workers could be paid. Brown may have thought that whatever the bail payment amount was it equaled the install of the septic tank. It is obvious Tony must have felt different.

The amount of final payment being requested by Mr. Jarvis was roughly a little less then 10,000 dollars. Supervisor Brown refused to make any payment and Tony left the property. Several hours later Mr. Jarvis returned to the Brown property with his backhoe. Tony was angry and prepared to start the process of removing the septic tank. As the incident unfolded, Three Lake County sheriffs arrived on the scene and one Hwy. Patrol officer. Those officers were Matthew Wristen, Chris Macedo, and Dennis Ostini. Chris Macedo was listed as the witness on the report.

Reports are varied in regards to the exact set of events that unfolded when Mr. Jarvis started to dig out the septic tank, and all police reports indicate that no officers were on the scene when an altercation happened between Mr. Jarvis and Supervisor Brown. But there is one side of the story then there is the police report. One side says Rob Brown, with officers present, approached Jarvis and tried to take the key out of the back hoe the altercation got physical at that point. It is claimed that supervisor Brown bit and left teeth marks on Mr. Jarvis, pulled him off the tractor, and struck him. Some reports indicate supervisor Brown struck Jarvis while he was seated on the Backhoe. All this happening with some officers present. Police reports from the various deputies tell a different story. Supervisor Brown has said he did not Bite Mr. Jarvis. However it is true that Tetnus shots were given to Mr. Jarvis at the hospital of which the Jarvis family says were to combat the potential infection from the bite.

According to the police report which was obtained through an FOIA request. Deputies transported Tony Jarvis to the hospital before transporting him to the county jail. At the hospital Sandra Jarvis signed a “Consent for Administration of Tetanus and Diphtheria Vaccine. Dated September 14, 2004 the day the physical confrontation took place. Further information on the police report indicates Mr. jarvis was charged with 23152 0.8 (B) VC DUI, 602 (I) PC Tres, occupy prop w/o consent, and 837 PC, citizen arrest. Police records show no charges filed against Supervisor Brown despite the overwhelming evidence that he was a party to inflicted injury upon another person and in fact was the individual who struck the first blow. Supervisor Brown requested the citizens arrest of Mr. Jarvis and Lake County deputies complied with that request.

In the police report accounts, one of which was written by Macedo and one by Wristen the incident is described by the following. “ Brown said he reached over to turn off the key to the backhoe, Jarvis turned toward Brown from the drivers seat, and Brown states he then punched Jarvis in the face in what he describes as self defense.” Wristen writes in his report that he took Jarvis to the hospital as he was developing swelling above his left eye. Macedo recounts that “Jarvis drove his Case 580 backhoe onto Brown's property and began to use the backhoe to dig up the tank. It should be noted that supervisor Brown had no injuries nor was any physical contact reported to have occurred by Jarvis upon supervisor Brown. It appears Mr. Brown may have gotten a pass by local LE.

During the course of several months following this incident the Jarvis family and supervisor Brown battled back and forth with restraining orders and threats resulting in different court actions and a ramping up of the rhetoric between the two Parties.

In a recent development on this case,  a local reporter wrote a rough draft article on this story they had intended to have published. The article was in rough form, but they did send a copy of it to Rob Brown as a courtesy to Mr. Brown and to get his input on the incident before doing a final draft and submission of the story. Below is Mr. Browns e-mail reply to the reporter and we post it here in its entirety. As of this reporting we have no accounting for why Supervisor Brown included both Lake Co. news and Mandy Feder of the Record Bee in his e-mail. That speculation is better left up to the public to judge.

From: Rob.Brown@lakecountyca.gov
To: do.it.n@hotmail.com
CC: Kelly.Cox@lakecountyca.gov; elarson@lakeconews.com; mandyfeder@yahoo.com; Anita.Grant@lakecountyca.gov
Subject: RE: Meeting
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:47:53 +0000

Joan,

I just read your “story” and all that I can say is that it is everything that I would have expected from you. I must admit that I did not read it in it’s entirety given the painful nature of your lack of command of the English language. Perhaps you and Sandy Resh can get a group rate on the help that is so badly needed by the two of you.

If you ever manage to find anyone that would even consider publishing your trash, please have them call me for the truth to this. As far as communicating with you on this….just in case Hell does freeze over, I have your number.

Also, if you ever need someone to edit your work and make some badly needed corrections, my 3 year old grandson might be available to give it a more intelligent review.

Rob Brown

Lake County Supervisor

District 5

Following the attempt to get Supervisor Browns comment on the possible article, Mr. Brown was quoted as saying to Sandra Resh Jarvis if anything gets published on this incident I will “come after you”. Jarvis says this is the usual strong arm tactics that Brown has been displaying since the first incident happened. As of this writing there are no proceedings or further court actions concerning this incident. Although the questions to this day still remain. this may be another one to  be chalked up to the “way things use to be”....Or “ Are things still the same.” it is left up to the public to decide.


Sent anonymously to the Manifest