Unbelievable events about the Mason “hoarder” bust case.
Mason called Deputy City Attorney Cocek’s office to get information about his case re charges against him and timeline. Remember, Mason showed up in court on November 6, 2007 for arraignment on felony animal neglect charges, but the City Attorney did not. As a matter of fact, there is no information anywhere you call in the City about Mason’s case.
Don Cocek was not there—he was “away for the holidays.” Mason talked to his secretary, Sharon.
Sharon told Mason that his name was nowhere to be found. It did not come up on the computer. There were, in other words, no charges filed. They had disappeared after Boks so publicly announced Mason had been so charged!
From the Animal Services website, under Truth vs. Rumor, today, November 19, 2007. Boks says: The investigation provided ample evidence of animal neglect and hoarding and a search and arrest warrant was served on October 11, 2007, on Mr. Mason, charging him with California Penal Code Section 597 (B) Felony Animal Neglect.
Mason then asked for his sister’s $20,000 bail money back. Sharon told him that they can keep the $20,000 for up to a year while the case is under investigation. Mason asked, “what case if there are no charges”? Sharon told him the City Attorney’s Office has up to a year to investigate and file charges. He told her he thought they had 10 days to file charges and she said no—they had a year. She also told him there was no information the charges would be downgraded to a misdemeanor.
Now Boks is hiding the evidence animals, by denying both Mason and the public access to the animals, if any are alive, under the cloak of an investigation that can last a year. He will not divulge any information about the animals to Mason or the public.
Mason asked for information about his animals so that he could adopt them out as he had been doing before the bust. He was afraid the City was going to be adding up a bill for housing the animals for a year, then file criminal charges, and make a forgiveness of the vast sum of money he would owe the City as part of a plea bargain to a misdemeanor.
He went to both the East Valley and West Valley shelters and they would give him NO information about the evidence animals. They have not returned his traps or cages. Shelter manager Boswell promised to return them last Thursday, yet now can’t remember this pledge to Mason.
This is unbelievable!!!
Who owns the City??? How can anyone trust anything the City does under the cloak of law?
11 comments:
If there are no charges, then what is the bail for? They are lying to Mason. You don't ask for bail if there are no charges.
More information here
http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org
and here
http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/Criminal/
The city is breaking the law. They must tell him what he is charged with. They must give him a public defender. They must give him a court appearance so he can plead. They must give him a speedy trial.
I just talked to a bail guy. He says Mason needs to ask a judge to release the bail. Then, if in the future he needs bail, he needs to go through a bail bondsman, because then he only needs to come up with 10% -- $2,000 for those of us who are bad at math.
I told him what was going on with the "no court date, no clear charges" thing and he said, and I think you'll agree, that it didn't sound right.
The other thing that occurs to me is that if they don't formally charge him they can keep him from getting an attorney for all this time. It seems like it might be an idea to go to the Public Defender's office and explain what's going on.
If they're deliberately trying him in the press, and trying him on offical city websites, while using legal maneuvering and abuse of the system to keep him from having court-appointed counsel, which is his right, then they should be stopped.
I don't think it was a coincidence that they "failed" to show up at his arraignment, which is the day he should have been assigned counsel. By then they realized he had friends, and vet records, and they knew this wasn't going to be the slam-dunk PR move they were looking for. So, to give themselves time to re-group, they avoid showing up to the arraignment. Boom - he gets no counsel and they can take their sweet time, harass him in retribution for fighting back, and he just has to sit there and take it. But I doubt a judge is going to think they need or deserve a YEAR to get their case together -- if they have one at all. He's constitutionally entitled to a speedy trial. If he was a mob figure with extensive criminal connections they could make the case that they needed a year. But he's a guy with cats. He's a guy who apparently doesn't have NEARLY as dirty a house as they said he did. You think a judge is going to let them take a year? On top of which, if Ron was such a big criminal don't you think he'd have known to go through a bondsman?
If you weren't helping Mason, they would have railroaded him. He probably would have lost his house and all his cats in the battle. Thanks for helping him.
This does not seem legal. Use common sense. Either they think they have the facts on their side, in which case they should have no reason for denying him counsel. Or they know they have no case, and they're deliberately hosing him to avoid a lawsuit, to avoid admitting how massively they screwed up, and to avoid admitting that once again Ed Boks has used his position to advance his personal agenda at the expense of the city, and at the expense [now] of the City Attorney's credibility. You don't have to be a lawyer to ask these questions. I'm not one and I'm asking them. I'm better than an attorney, I'm a voter. You think I'm ever going to vote for Rocky Delgadillo for anything after this?
I mean for Christ's sake, who lets a guy who clearly has no money post $18,000 more than he has to? What kind of greasy evil thugs are these guys? And they're the ones who are protecting us? How much more evil can admitted criminals be?
Ron Mason called the Public Defender’s Office. He was told he cannot even talk to one of their attorneys until has been charged.
He has asked everyone involved in this case, from the Court Commissioner, to the City Attorney’s Office, to Animal Services. No one knows about his case AND they are not letting anyone even see any cat left alive, or release Mason’s bail money.
As one commenter put it:
Either they think they have the facts on their side, in which case they should have no reason for denying him counsel. Or they know they have no case, and they're deliberately hosing him to avoid a lawsuit, to avoid admitting how massively they screwed up, and to avoid admitting that once again Ed Boks has used his position to advance his personal agenda at the expense of the city, and at the expense [now] of the City Attorney's credibility. You don't have to be a lawyer to ask these questions. I'm not one and I'm asking them. I'm better than an attorney, I'm a voter. You think I'm ever going to vote for Rocky Delgadillo for anything after this?
I mean for Christ's sake, who lets a guy who clearly has no money post $18,000 more than he has to? What kind of greasy evil thugs are these guys? And they're the ones who are protecting us? How much more evil can admitted criminals be?
The city is acting like a criminal in their treatment of Mason. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I hope he gets a lawyer and sues the shit out of the city.
Commenter number one is right. If they have his money, it's got to be attached to a specific charge, i.e. THIS bail is for THIS NUMBER charge. If that charge still exists, why can't anyone find it? If it doesn't exist, why do they still have his money?
They can't have it both ways. How can they can retain $20,000 of someone's money -- for a year -- with no charges? If the charge still exists, arraign Ron and the judge will give him a Public Defender. If the charges don't exist, and so far no one has proved that they do, then give him back his money.
Doesn't anyone who reads this blog know a lawyer who can donate an hour or two to clear this up? This isn't Roe v. Wade, it's some loser city attorney putting it to a guy he thinks can't unravel it.
Muzika, any way we can get a copy of the documents in the blog so we can figure out how to help Mason?
All legal documents such as the bond receipt, certificate of appearing in court, a list of confiscqted items, etc., can be found with Ron Mason. His phone is 818 993 6816.
Bartholomew's story is archived on the www.dailynews.com archive. It will cost you $2.00. I never saved a copy for myself. The Boks rant about Mason is a PDF file on the www.animalservices.org website on the page called, "Truth vs. Rumor. I have cited all document URLs that I have numerous times on this blog for the past five weeks.
Animal Cruelty Task Force raids Northridge home for cats
BY DANA BARTHOLOMEW, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/12/2007 06:53:01 AM PDT
Click photo to enlarge
Los Angeles Police officer Jenny Potts hands Los Angeles... (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)
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SLIDESHOW:
Animal Cruelty Taskforce raid
NORTHRIDGE - Los Angeles police Officer Jenny Potts crawled under a house Thursday through the refuse of 70 sick cats.
During a pre-dawn raid, her Animal Cruelty Task Force had arrested an ex-Marine cat collector suspected of felony animal neglect.
Now came the filthy task of catching dozens of potentially diseased felines. Cats under the house. Kittens cowering in mounds of debris. Felines skittering through the yard.
"Here's one. Here's two right here. One's going over the fence," said Potts, one of a dozen task-force cops and animal control officers in hot pursuit. "Heeere kitty."
For several years, neighbors had complained of fetid odors wafting from the small stucco house in the 18700 block of Napa Street.
The Department of Animal Services had worked with the homeowner to winnow his number of cats, to no avail.
This week, several cats from his fenced-in yard tested positive for panieukopenia - feline distemper - a contagious cat virus that could spread through the entire neighborhood.
Armed with a search warrant, the task force arrested Ron Mason before 6 a.m. Thursday as he walked out to feed the cats.
If convicted of felony animal neglect, he could serve up to three years in state prison. As part of his probation, he could be banned from owning pets.
Mason, an affable tile setter with a silver goatee and mohawk, expressed indignation and relief.
After his two Doberman pinschers
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died, he said he started feeding a neighborhood cat. Before long, it had multiplied to 70 - and a fortune in veterinary bills.
They'd destroyed his antique Model A Ford, he said, and filled his cluttered yard with kittens.
"Ron, you can't save the world," Mason, 59, who has lived at his home since 1977, said his vet told him. "This is what happens when you rescue one kitten and they start breeding and no one else takes any responsibility. They come to my house and I'm taken away to jail."
Animal hoarders who it once took years to either help or prosecute are now being addressed by the task force as health threats to themselves and neighbors.
This year, the task force treated four animal hoarders, including a woman in her 80s overwhelmed by 100 pet rats, a Canoga Park woman with 60 cats and a Reseda woman with more than 104 exotic animals and one very large goose.
"This, unfortunately, is extremely common, good intentions gone awry," said Animal Services Lt. Troy Boswell. "Cats, they just can't stop feeding them. It just balloons overnight.
"It just gets out of control."
Armed with gloves, nooses and nets, police and animal control officers scrambled in and outside the house to rescue Mason's cats.
Before the day was done, officers reported rounding up 50 cats for medical care and quarantine at the East and West Valley animal shelters, where they will be released for future foster care adoption.
Police Detective Linda Ortega helped free an angry orange tabby caught in some debris.
"Poor thing: It's just a real sick-sounding kitty. If you don't laugh, you're gonna cry."
dana.bartholomew@dailynews.com
(818) 713-3730
Certainly there is an attorney in LA who would take this case pro bono or maybe the ACLU? This sounds like one of those horrible catch 22 nightmares that city bureaucrats think up. Poor Ron.
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