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Torres sues private investigator over questions about abuse of homeless

March 27, 2013
Dee Torres asks the San Luis Obispo City Council to approve more aggressive treatment of the homeless who do not enter case management.

Dee Torres asks the San Luis Obispo City Council to approve more aggressive treatment of the homeless who do not enter case management.

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

Dee Torres, homeless services coordinator for Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO), has filed a slander lawsuit against private investigator Mike Brennler.

The suit, filed by attorney Roy Ogden, alleges that Brennler slandered Torres in a telephone conversation with her former husband, Charles Barber. Brennler has been investigating Torres and others providing services to the homeless in San Luis Obispo County. Brennler said the suit was an attempt to shut down inquiries into practices by homeless services providers.

Torres has been one of the subjects of a multiple-part CalCoastNews series of articles entitled “Keeping Them Homeless.” The suit has the potential to force Torres, fellow homeless services officials, workers and even the board of supervisors to testify about what they know about the practices laid out in the CalCoastNews series, CCN Editor Bill Loving said.

Torres’ three-page suit claims that Brennler told Barber that, “(Torres) has been stealing money from homeless clients at the homeless shelter and that (Torres) has stolen money from a homeless man named Cliff Anderson.”

Brennler, a former mayor of Atascadero and retired SLO police officer, told CalCoastNews Tuesday that the lawsuit is an apparent effort to “chill” an investigation into questionable fiscal practices by CAPSLO officials and a related nonprofit, Family Ties.

Brennler said his conversation with Barber was not as described in Torres’ filing.

Torres’ suit includes unnamed defendants, referred to as John and Jane Doe, who can be included in the suit at a later date. The 100 John and Jane Does include “radio broadcasting stations and individuals associated with those stations” as well as “an online news agency and associated individuals.”

The timing of the suit was suspect, Brennler said.

Mike Brennler

Mike Brennler

“As far as I’m concerned, it becomes apparent that some of the players are trying to keep potential wrongdoing as far under the radar as possible,” he said. “What I find extremely disturbing is that the lawsuit was filed the day after I had made a public records request to an administrative aide assigned to the Board of Supervisors for federal grant information.”

The suit is an attempt to keep the public from finding out what has been taking place in the system that is supposed to aid the homeless, Brennler said.

“As the legal process winds it way through court, I believe the evidence will speak for itself and expose this action for what it is, an act of desperation aimed at intimidating certain members of the media, as well as anyone who is inclined to cooperate with the investigation,” Brennler said.

The lawsuit could accomplish the opposite, Bill Loving said. Loving is the co-author of a media law textbook and has taught communications law since the early 1990s.

“Lawsuits open the door to the discovery process,” Loving said. “Discovery is that portion of civil suits in which the parties get to discover the information that the other side has. It is a way of avoiding trial by surprise.”

Under discovery, Brennler and any of the defendants later named in the suit, can require Torres to produce documents that show how the homeless have been treated, Loving said.

More importantly, discovery allows Brennler and other defendants to depose persons who have knowledge of the facts in the case, Loving said.

“This means that everyone who works with CAPSLO, the employees and members of the boards of homeless services, and even members of the board of supervisors and city councils, may have to testify under oath and answer questions put to them by Mr. Brennler’s attorney,” Loving said.

 

Torres vs Brennler by CalCoastNews


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Galaxy Traveler , TruthFairy, et al, obviously equals the minions of Adam Hill and/or Dee Torees, or, these posters just may be Adam or Dee themselves. What a surprise! Does it really matter who pays for anyone to investigate another since the eventful outcome of any investigation is what it is? Duh.


This is the problem with the Adam Hill and Dee Torres crowd, along with their unscrupulous business practices, they use irrational and illogical thinking to try in vain to hide the over abundance of detrimental facts that are mounting against them. Also known as, digging their graves deeper.


As it has been shown ad infinitum, Adam Hill let’s his continuos “male anatomy contest” take precedence over any rational thinking that he has left. In doing so, he may seemingly win the short term battles, but eventually, he will lose the overall war, which will lead to his demise. Along with Dee Torees’ insidious actions at CAPSLO, that are piling up like firewood did at Dan Duvals Sunny Acres, will lead to her demise as well.


Roy Ogden will be cashing in on the Titanic before it hits the infamous ice berg, aka, “irrefutable facts”, and before it starts going down, Roy will take his money and run. Subsequently, the star players in this fiasco will be fighting for the last life boats that are available, but those boats are already riddled with holes and they will carry their passengers to the deep waters. No amount of smoke screens, aka, “frivolous lawsuits”, “threats,” “comical investigations” at CAPSLO, where the fox was guarding the chicken coop, etc., will prevent the obvious outcome.


It’s over, the only question now is how long it takes for some of these ungodly players to be eating their meals behind prison bars.


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So how did Brennler get pulled into this? I can’t recall seeing his name in any of these stories.

I said it in the beginning of all this, the truth would take a court action to finally come out. Maybe now that will happen.

To me it looks like Torres has really gone off the deep end here. If she’s been slandered, I can’t see how it could be through an ex-husband, who has probably done his share of slandering his ex over the years.

I would think her beef is with CCN and Congalton, not a private investigator, unless there is some obscure law that somehow takes away a private investigator’s First Amendment Rights to Free Speech.

Investigators ask questions. And a private conversation between two people I wouldn’t think rises to the level of slander, which has to be public and widespread to actually harm someone’s reputation.

And frankly, her reputation was harmed long ago through these articles, whether deserving or not.

If she hadn’t filed this lawsuit, no one here would have known anything that Brennler said or didn’t say. Very strange. Almost like she’s falling on her sword. No good can come of this lawsuit for Dee Torres.

And despite what’s been speculated here, I don’t think it’s necessarily true that anyone is paying Brennler. He’s always struck me as the kind of guy who would take up an invesstigation like this entirely on his own, being an ex-cop and all. Some people just like to dig for the truth for no other reason than to satisfy their own curiosity and sense of justice.

He’s getting a policce pension, so I doubt he’s doing this for money, but I could be wrong.

I agree with Homer that the question of who he is working for should have been asked.but if he does have a client, he’d be under no obligation to reveal it anyway.


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QUOTING NILES Q: “So how did Brennler get pulled into this? I can’t recall seeing his name in any of these stories.”


If you remember from a previous article, Brennler postulated that there was a link between him doing a records request, through a county supervisor aide, for information about the grants CAPSLO has received, then, BAM! Brennler within a day receives notification of a lawsuit naming him as a defendant and Torres as the palintiff.


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Read the complaint. She is suing CCN and Congalton:

“3.Plaintiff is informed and believes, and thereon alleges, that Defendants Does z6 through g5, are and, at all material times herein mentioned, were radio broadcasting stations and individuals associated with those stations broadcasting in the County of San Luis Obispo, State of California.”

Paragraph 4 pretty much the same, except, “…were online news agencies and individuals associated with those agencies…”


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It seems to me that Ms. Torres is trying to bait a trap. However to coat your own fingers with bait and try to trap something is self-destructive. I wonder what ulterior motives are underlying.


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I think it is highly possible Ms. Torres is taking the Adam Hill approach…attack and try to intimidate those who have information that can bring political and/or legal/criminal harm.


Unfortunately for Torres, if this is her tactic, Adam Hill is a doofus, and he has a pi$$-poor track record for handling his own public-relations and ethics problems when they are outed.


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Sounds like that wii come out too, so scarlet, give us a peek into what you know.


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Won’t be surprised if the one who hired Brennler is Rizzo, the attorney who made $100,000.00 plus suing the city in behalf of the homeless and refused to donate any of money back to the homeless, be it CAPSLO (who didn’t ask for it), or ANY other HOMELESS organization. He could have given it to ECHO, or to Dan DeVaul, to upgrade his facility, even a trust fund for the homeless, but NOOOO. He got a few tickets dropped, and kept the profit. Oh and I hear his wife works at CCN. So does that mean that Rizzo or CCN is paying Brennler?

FYI: Mr. Loving, discovery goes both ways.


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You mean they refused to be shame blackmailed by the SLO city officials. You have no idea where Rizzo donates his money as you can’t see his returns, you have no idea.


Going on about what someone could have done is a form of forum trolling, casting aspersions.


After all Fairy, you could have stopped a robbery, healed someone, washed a homeless persons feet. Why didn’t you? Why does truthfairy hate the truth?


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So, how much of your income have you donated to the homeless? Rizzo and Jenkins stood up to the city’s mistreatment of the homeless. Those who sincerely care about the homeless applaud their actions.


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Somebody needs to learn some boundaries.


Mr. Jenkins’s and Mr. Rizzo’s court ordered compensation for their attorney services belong to them. It is not a pot of money generated to be awarded as a community action grant by the City of San Luis Obispo. Quite frankly, the City’s response of offering to pay or appeal based on a condition that they donate it to a charitable cause sounded to me like it might have been contempt of court.


Mr. Anderson’s SSI and SS money belongs to him alone and not to a comingled fund for Family Ties purposes or CAPSLO purposes.


Donations made to CAPSLO in the form of cash, gift cards, goods or services are held in trust for the sole and direct benefit of the homeless or CAPSLO’s other needy clients. The money cannot be used for staff parties, luncheons, operational costs like painting or building and grounds maintenance or for the benefit of any employees or their families.


Payments to a homeless client should have been properly recorded as employee or contractor payments with the appropriate employment and IRS documentation. Further, a homeless client who performed work should have been able to expect a job reference for a job well done. The absence of these things too hurt the prospects of obtaining future, steady employment and could have contributed to continuation of the homelessness.


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Here’s another point. What if a homeless client did a lot of painting and earned $1,000 in gift cards in a month. What if this happened month after month? What if that person was on Social Security Disability and earning more than $800 a month makes them ineligible for continued disability payments? The laborer was earning money whether or not it was paid in gift cards or cash.


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Excellent post, JQ.


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The lawsuit will flush out who is paying Brennler. I hope CCN tries some real reporting.


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Posters here usually LOVE newbies like you. We have listened to your type prattle on before about CCN. Here is the funny part. CCN is running about 95% correct on these things over the last five years and your type……..well they usually run away with their tales between their legs and we never hear from them again as they don’t have the GUTS to say they were wrong. So I say let’s let this play out for the next six months and see where it goes. If wrong I will state it. How about you? Will you come back or be like ALL the rest and run away??


My guess is you are a friend, family or other relationship to either Torres or Hill. I know how you don’t want to believe. That is what brought me here five years ago. I thought CCN had to be wrong. But they were right. I stuck around and watched them uncover more B.S. around here. So again I will give them MORE than the benifit of the doubt to see how this plays out.


1

there seems to be some new commenters here that are supportive of a certain plaintiff in a certain lawsuit and anti-CCN. do we call them PL – post lawsuit or PT pro-Torres?


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Just call them Geraldine and Doofus.


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My assumption is that CCN is paying Mike Brennler for his investigation and they are using his results as a basis for the series of articles; what is your point? A well respected investigator doing some leg work for an investigative journalist shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, especially if the reporter wants to back up their own investigation process. In the end, the truth is still the truth, no matter who has paid to have it uncovered. I for one could care less about who is or has paid Mr. Brennler for his work on this whole sordid affair; it doesn’t change the results one iota.


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Readers shouldn’t have to assume. If they’re paying him, report it. If he’s doing it pro bono for CCN, say that. If not, ask him. If he doesn’t answer, report that. Reporters are supposed to ask questions and report what they know so readers can judge all sides for themselves.


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I really get tired of the whole “there are two sides of every story” routine; in reporting a story like the dealings of CAPSLO and Dee Torres and the dealings of Family Ties, there isn’t “two sides” of the story- there is the truth of what has happened, period. If the reporting is “off” by a fact or two, those inaccuracies should be reported on as a “correction”, or if a reported story is so far off the mark that it should be retracted, then there may be “two sides” of a story. But to keep harping on a published article or series of articles claiming that they need to report on “both sides” of the story is, IMO, a diversionary attempt at diminishing the veracity of the facts of the reporting. IF CCN is ever sued by Dee Torres for defamation or slander and that case actually makes it to court, I’ll wager that Ms. Torres will not only lose that suit but will also have to pay for CCN’s legal costs.

Stop trying to deflect from the facts of the reporting; it is either accurate or it is not. If you have evidence to show that the reporting is wrong, speak up and make yourself heard. Otherwise, just go away.


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Right! The truth has its own dignity.


The fact either happened or it didn’t happen.


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Actually CCN did report on both sides of the story. CAPSLO says they have found no wrong doing. Now if CAPSLO would care to elucidate as to exactly what they investigated or explain that Geradine provided them with a full accounting relating to all gift cards and cash donations that she took control of and receipts or names of where/how those funds were distributed, I’m certain that CCN would be happy to report those findings.


CCN cant report the other side if they fail to answer.


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They are asking questions and printing answers. But you want to hear all the questions and all the answers? pages of notes? transcripts of calls? You want a list of everything?


So you are a reporter? your website? no you are a anonymous commenter trying to back seat troll.

1/10


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LOL. Why are you attempting to hold CCN to standards that no other news organization with which I am familiar has ever been held?


Your demands are ridiculous and out of line. If you want to find out who paid who for what, get your own investigator. Put your own money where your own mouth is.


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The lawsuit and the anti slap countersuit will flush Dee’s money (and Adam’s next election) down the drain.


When the other shoes drop they will be size 15’s.


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Having trouble replying but…to those of you curios about Dee!s cryptic Orange County past, how about we start calling her by her given name – Geraldine.


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Daughter (Son)Of Orange County


And in your dreams

You can see yourself

As a prophet

Saving the world

The words from your lips

(“I am not a crook!”)

I just can’t believe you are such

A fool


I just can’t believe

You are such a fool


I-I-I just can’t believe

You are such a fool


FZ


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Geraldine? You mean like comic Flip Wilson’s fabulous character, Geraldine?


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The bigger question should be why not against CCN? If all that has been printed and stated is false/untrue, the lawsuit should really be against Karen and CalCoastNews. Obviously, Torres cannot defend herself against all the statements, facts, allegations, etc. The truth apparently cannot be disputed by her, so let’s see what she does best – distract everyone from the big picture.


I think the best she can hope in filing the lawsuit is to redirect/refocus the attention to Mike Brennler and move everything away from her, CAPSLO, Family Ties, Lisa Niesen, and the real issue, Homelessness Abuse! DO NOT BE DISTRACTED WITH THIS SUIT…


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MIke Brennler is not doing this for fun. He is a hired man. Why doesn’t someone find out who he is working for? That will blow open this witchhunt once and for all.


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Who ever he’s working for, he’s not being paid with taxpayer monies :)


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Doesn’t matter who he is working for, if CAPSLO had allowed for a real investigation there wouldn’t be a need to hire a private investigator, careful what you ask for, it might just bite you!


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GalaxyTraveler, I have a better and bigger question: Who is paying for Dee (Geraldine) Torres’ lawsuit, or is Roy Ogden doing this pro bono for the good of he Community? His specialty appears to be in Real Estate and Development issues so I am curious as to why he would take on a case of this nature. Interesting!


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You seem to be the one asking the question. Why don’t you get off your kiester and do your own leg work?


Torres made a big bone-head move by launching a lawsuit against Brennler. He has more respectability in his small toenail than Torres will ever have in her entire body.


So live with it. She screwed up, and she, Adam Hill, the other supervisors, her family, her friends, her ex-s of all varieties, and her friends have a big chance of paying for it.


When placed in the position where they can either lie under oath in a deposition and face jail time, or tell the truth and make Torres angry, which do you think they will do?


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