The Oregon Department of Justice, in a letter from its Chief Counsel, Sean J. Riddell, has concluded, in its investigation into potential "Official Misconduct and other possible criminal violations by staff or directors of The Port of Astoria" that, after interviewing 31 people, issuing 11 Oregon Attorney General Subpoenas, reviewing hundreds of pages of documents and a three hour interview with former Port Director Gearin himself, that they believe that they could prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Peter Gearin, acting as Executive Director of The Port of Astoria committed the predicated acts of Offical Misconduct in the first degree, a class A misdemeanor under ORS 162.415.
Specifically Oregon D.O.J. believes that the evidence shows that Mr. Gearin used his position as Port of Astoria Executive Director to secure employment with Calpine Energy Group for his then girlfriend and current wife, Susan Trabucco.
Calpine Energy Group paid Ms. Trabucco $41,030.28 during her employment from October 2004 to February 2005(The Port/Calpine Lease was announced to the public on or about November 4, 2004)
Because of The Statute of Limitations on Official Misconduct, which is two years, Oregon D.O.J. is barred from prosecuting Mr. Gearin and D.O.J. has also found no additional evidence to justify any additional criminal investigation
Specifically Oregon D.O.J. believes that the evidence shows that Mr. Gearin used his position as Port of Astoria Executive Director to secure employment with Calpine Energy Group for his then girlfriend and current wife, Susan Trabucco.
Calpine Energy Group paid Ms. Trabucco $41,030.28 during her employment from October 2004 to February 2005(The Port/Calpine Lease was announced to the public on or about November 4, 2004)
Because of The Statute of Limitations on Official Misconduct, which is two years, Oregon D.O.J. is barred from prosecuting Mr. Gearin and D.O.J. has also found no additional evidence to justify any additional criminal investigation
22 comments:
And now?
Where are we on "The Lease"?
Is it now a piece of worthless paper with Peter Hanson's only option to sue Peter Gearin?
How many people are really sweating right now?
This ought to be an interesting piece of legal wrangling, should it not?
peter gearin and his wife didn't seperate until february 2005
The Port may not have the guts for this fight. But there is the question of who could have described the Official Misconduct. Who was close enough? Peter Hansen for one. Would he have turned on his friend? Is there anyone else who could have provided information 'beyond a reasonable doubt"? Well, it will be interesting to see if anything more is released...
4:45 into the DOJ interview, Calpine/Oregon LNG's Peter Hansen said he was not sure but he thinks the person that guided him to Warrenton/Skipanon/The Port could have been Astoria's Mayor and it takes off from there with Hansen conveniently going "Fuzzy" on many critical events, it would seem.
Now, "The mayor" did nothing wrong here to my knowledge but, it just shows who really knew what was going on way before November 5, 2004, the day the announcement of the deal between "The Port" and Calpine was made to the citizens of Clatsop County.
This could be fodder for a movie and it is not going to end with a simple news report I'm afraid.
Posted: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Article comment by: Bill Griesar
So wait a minute. This is journalism?
You're claiming that Susan Trabucco and Peter Gearin are solely responsible for LNG???
So Susan and Peter can take the fall and thus offer the basis for Port rejection of the lease...
And let the DOJ look as if it is helping to stop LNG?
*** And all of this without any proof? Without any evidence?
Just investigator "beliefs," expressed in a letter - to Josh Marquis?!
I repeat - this is journalism?
This isn't a newspaper, Steve and Cassandra - it's a blog.
Welcome to Frickintardistan
I really don’t know where to start this rant. I guess I’ll just keep typing my thoughts and hopefully you readers can sort through it.
I was born and raised in what once was a great place to live known as Astoria Oregon. Yeah, it was a place of greatness. I was involved in the local politics trying to make a difference. Trying to bring industry and wealth to a town that was withering away due to its past ties to the fishing and logging industries. Unfortunately the same nut cases who are trying to sell us global warming had tried to make Astoria a ghost town by making salmon endangered and placing an owl with spots on the “not seen very often” page.
I’m not sure what global warming will send us. Listed salmon sent fishermen elsewhere and the owls with spots drove a nail into millions of acres of perfectly cuttable timber. And Astoria almost ceased to exist.
In about 2005, we decided to welcome liquefied natural gas (LNG) into our county.
4 years later our local paper, editorial staff, and his not quite ready for primetime reporter have taken yet another opportunity to further demonize and denegrate that wonderful town (Astoria) that I was talking about earlier.
Quite honestly, I no longer have any use for Astoria or many of it’s people. In the near future I see Astoria politics being taken over by the global warming prophets. They believe fossil fuels are evil, big box is evil, and wiping your ass with toilet paper will net you 30 days. It’s coming. It’s just a matter of time.
My rant really starts now. I feel compelled to defend my friend Peter Gearin. If your sole source of news is in fact “the paper”, I can see your raised eyebrows. For those of you who don’t know Peter, he’s a good guy. His wife Susan is as honest as the day is long. So you can imagine my reaction when I read the article in “the paper” with quotes from our notable crime fighting D.A. Josh Marquis insinuating the Gearin’s could have been bribed by an LNG company. My reaction exactly was “WTF???”
For those of you who aren’t familiar with “the paper”, I am now convinced it is aimed at the lowest common denominator. Those who are incapable or unwilling to believe anything else.
Why is bribery so unbelievable with the Gearin’s? Well, #1, they are not exactly what I would call people in need of money. The purported bribe was $40k and change. Here’s the story. It’s a short story, I promise. The LNG company only wants to pay $38k per year lease so they bribe the Gearin’s with $40k so Peter (who was port director at the time) will take this deal to the port commission (I was one of 5 on the commission at the time). Keep in mind the ultimate project will cost about a billion. So let me ask you. Is it believable the LNG company would risk a bribe on a project of this size?
Well, our Oregon attorney general thinks so. So does our notable crime fighting D.A. Our “the paper” wants to believe it. And worse, they WANT YOU TO BELIEVE IT. I think this is the kookiest newspaper article I’ve read in quite some time. It blows my mind as to why the Oregon AG and our notable crime fighting D.A. are involving themselves to the extent they are. Rumor has it Kroger wants to run for Gov and our notable crime fighting D.A. wants a spot next to him.
Now the really super unbelievable part – This whole “investigation” was done knowing full well the statute of limitations have run out. WTF??? Our Oregon AG and notable crime fighting D.A. are investigating WHY??? Are you people professional money wasters or do you believe everything Floyd Holcom says?
It is unfortunate what wasn’t reported in “the paper”, the Oregon AG, and our notable crime fighting D.A. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Gearins. What is unfortunate is “the paper”, the Oregon AG, and our notable crime fighting D.A. can invent news and cast suspicion without recourse. Shame on all of you, burn in hell, etc.
For those of you who lust for “the paper’s” words – Welcome to Frickintardistan.
The entire DOJ Port Of Astoria Investigation is available to you and you can just click on this to take you right there to download it all, including the audio files
I, for one, oppose LNG. However, unlike the seemingly vast majority of LNG opponents, I have not ceased to be a rational person in an effort to fulfill my desire of expelling the prospect of LNG from this county. The Daily Astorian, like so many citizens of this county, has thrown rationale to the wind, proving it will stop at nothing to get what it wants, while showing blatant disregard for the good people paved over along the way.
The Daily Astorian has been reduced to nothing more than a tabloid designed to negatively sway public opinion about LNG. I will reiterate what the previous blogger wrote: anybody who believes the propaganda put forth by the Daily Astorian is either too dumb to believe otherwise or simply unwilling to believe anything else. With the issuance of this slanderous print posing as “news,” the Daily A has victimized decent people who have devoted their time and energy towards restoring this once prospering community, that is, Peter Gearin and Susan Trabucco. The Daily A’s insinuation that Trabucco was incapable of finding work for herself is beyond offensive to all that know her: she is a professional in the utmost sense of the word.
Moral integrity and honesty are qualities intrinsic to all news sources. Wait, a vital component was omitted: moral integrity and honesty are qualities intrinsic to all legitimate news sources. Daily Astorian copy should be available only at the checkout counter, right next to the National Enquirer.
In case you missed it earlier, I do not support LNG. If, however, destroying the lives of members of this community who should be held in high esteem is the price that must be paid, I am not willing to pay that price by forking over my conscience; I guess this is what differentiates me from diehard LNG opponents, like Mr.Mcgee.
And, again, all the information on the Oregon Department of Justice investigation of The Port of Astoria and related is available in total to the public and can be accessed above.
Read and listen...... or not.
Well, Blame Holcom? Hell, i don't think that guy was anywhere near this mess but I'm sure the guy above can pick a fight with anyone. I asked Holcom myself today and he told me he just repeated to Marquis what Phund told him, he was worried about some security clearence he once had by not telling someone when he was told crimes were committed by a public offical. Now he feels like he's stuck cleaning the bathroom floor. As for Marquis, it looks like to me that it was Phund who blew the whistle and now he is trying to back peddle now that he set the bomb off. His comment in the Oregonian was 180 degrees from what he told Marquis.
The real question is what the hell do these people do with this mess and why the hell would anyone want to try to clean this up.
Gearin is slime as well as those who hung around him. LNG will happen with or without these nuckleheads, and for the rest of you, you better start trying to find some jobs because you won't have any money to shop at Walmart.
Why, I'll bet Ann Samuelson, Jeff Hazen and Patricia Roberts are somehow involved in this scandal. Everybody knows they are the most evil corrupt people in the world and probably made a pact with the devil to destroy Astoria!! We have to save Astoria from them and their evil plot. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to lock up everyone who is not against LNG or else make them leave Astoria and go live somewhere else. The only people who should be allowed to live there should be artists, musicians, motel maids waiters and bartenders so the good people moving here can be safe.
Wasn't it Helen Westbrook, then on Clatsop County Commission, said every sitting Commissioner, contrary to what they said, at the time went to and sat in on those early pre-Lease announcement meetings but just not in a quorum?
Let's see now, 2004.
Who was it sitting on CCBofC then?
Anybody remember?
This was the line-up at a December 8, 2004 CCBofC meeting.
Was Westbrook off the Commission then?
Commissioners Patricia Roberts, Lylla Gaebel, Richard Lee and Sam Patrick, as well as County Administrator Scott Derickson and County Counsels Heather Reynolds and Blair Henningsgaard.
Why, yes she was.
She was Chairperson of Commission then and maybe it was Lylla Gaebel that outed them at those Calpine Pre-Port Lease meetings being pitched to all the Local Nabobs back then.
I agree with Willow. It is likely all pro-LNGrs were put on this earth by Satan himself. If we can prey hard enough as a collective group, they will probably all spontaneously combust.
Hell!
If you indeed "Prey" hard enough you might just eat them all.
Let's "Pray" that doesn't happen.
Indeed...spell check would be a useful blogging tool for us that are spelling defishant
Like I need to be criticizing soembody's spelling.....with this aixelsyd crap.
And please quit reposting crud from blogs we DON'T read
Anonymous said...
"And please quit reposting crud from blogs we DON'T read"
I suggest you just exercise your right to go right on past anything you don't want to read if it doesn't suit you.
link to DOJ investigation doesn't work
Oregon DOJ Web Site And POA Investigation Files
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