District Attorney David Eyster tops the list of top county officials who are scheduled to be deposed in the pending civil lawsuit Auditor Chamise Cubbison has against the Mendocino Board of Supervisors.
Cubbison’s team of attorneys said the depositions of Eyster, county CEO Darcie Antle, and former County Counsel Christian Curtis among others will be noticed soon. Also on the list are Deputy CEO Sarah Pierce, who functioned as county Auditor for the 17 months that Cubbison faced a felony criminal charge, Human Resource Director Cheri Johnson, and “potentially other county employees.”
“I expect these to be set in late April, or early May,” said Therese Cannata, a noted San Francisco labor lawyer who is representing Cubbison in her civil case against the county.
Hopes of an early settlement were dashed in late March, based on a joint status report that Cannata and outside county attorney Morin Jacobs made this week to Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman.
“The parties met and conferred on March 20 and again on March 27 but were not able to reach resolution on any of the outstanding issues,” according to a joint filing signed by Jacob and Cannata.
Moorman on Friday agreed to the attorneys’ mutual request that she delay until June 9 scheduling oral arguments on Cubbison’s formal bid for reinstatement and at least $250,000 in back pay and benefits. (Cubbison immediately returned to work after Moorman cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing.)
Attorneys Cannata and Jacob agreed the delay will allow their law firms to “continue to work to address any outstanding issues before oral arguments on the writ petition is scheduled.”
County Supervisors have huddled behind closed doors multiple times with attorneys of the law firm of Libert Cassidy Whitmore of San Francisco to discuss the pending litigation. The clearing of criminal charges against Cubbison has increased her chances of winning substantial damages to her professional and personal reputation for the board’s quick decision in October 2023 to suspend her without pay or benefits before granting her a public hearing.
The litigation delays are costly for the county, which already has spent close to $200,000 on legal fees for the civil and criminal cases, and Cubbison, who has racked up debts to defend herself of more than $200,000. In addition, Cubbison co-defendant Paula June Kennedy, who also was freed of criminal charges by the court, was provided a public defender at county expense because she could not afford private counsel.
The costs are significant compared to the $68,000 in extra pay DA Eyster accused Kennedy and Cubbison of misappropriating over a three-year period during the Covid pandemic. Eyster, who had battled with Cubbison over his own office spending, accused the two veteran county employees of felony misappropriation of public funds. The controversial case never made it to trial.
Besides Eyster, Cubbison lawyers plan to depose CEO Antle about her knowledge of a years long pay struggle Kennedy had been engaged in with county administrators, and when she learned of the alleged illegal payments.
Antle’s testimony during the Cubbison preliminary hearing is being questioned considering a sworn deposition given in March by former county CEO Carmel Angelo.
In what Cubbison attorneys described as a “stunning revelation” that suggests a cover up, Angelo said Antle, Eyster, and other top county administrators learned months earlier about the disputed extra pay than what was claimed in court testimony and in public statements.
Angelo also linked then County Counsel Christian Curtis to the circle of officials who were aware of what led to a criminal case laced with backroom politics.
County Supervisors in 2021 sought a forced merger of the county’s two independent financial offices – Auditor/Controller and Treasurer/Tax Collector – in hopes of creating a new Department of Finance, eliminating two voter elected department heads, and eventually putting control over county finances more closely aligned with the Board of Supervisors and the CEO.
Eyster, who had publicly condemned Cubbison and blocked her appointment in 2021 as interim Auditor until she was elected, became engaged behind the scenes with board members and Antle. Eyster on a private email account wrote a three-page plan outlining the steps board members could take and sent it to former county Supervisor Glenn McGourty. Angelo, then still CEO, distributed it to other administrators.
After the revelations from the Angelo depositions, Antle was accused of Cubbison attorneys of being “knee-deep in the cover up of an unlawful scheme to oust Ms. Cubbison from public office.”
Eyster on Friday continued his practice of not responding to requests for comments on his attempt to felony prosecute Cubbison, or his planned deposition.
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