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SLO County Counsel threatens CalCoastNews

July 31, 2015
Dee Torres-Hill

Dee Torres-Hill

UPDATE: Statements by CalCoastNews editor Bill Loving have been added to this story.

By CalCoastNews staff

A deputy county attorney has sent a threatening email and registered letter to CalCoastNews following publication of an article which included allegations of false testimony given by social worker Dee Torres-Hill. Court records show that Torres-Hill, the wife of county supervisor Adam Hill, provided information to child welfare officials in 2001 that later contributed to a family losing custody of their three children to the household of an alleged child rapist.

Deputy County Counsel Debra K. Barriger sent the communications to CalCoastNews asserting that disclosure of information contained in a recent article on this site is “protected by law” and expressing the hope that “court intervention” will not be necessary. She advised reporters to cease referencing and to destroy court documents, or risk misdemeanor charges. Barriger wrote in the July 30 letter that “information contained in such reports may also be privileged and confidential under state and federal regulations.”

Barriger wrote that “regardless of the manner in which you or your organization acquired the documents, continued use and possession is a violation of law.”

CalCoastNews editor Bill Loving questioned the county attorney’s priorities.

“I cannot understand why the county attorney is threatening CalCoastNews rather than looking into the process that put three children into the home of a man accused of being a child rapist,” Loving said. “It is clear from the first two parts of the series that there are serious questions about the process that was used to take the children from their parents.”

The 15-year-old documents were provided to CalCoastNews by the birth parents of three children who, after being removed from their custody, were placed in the Nipomo home of a man now charged with 126 counts of child sexual abuse, including rape and sodomy.

Barriger also referred to a recent exchange of emails between CalCoastNews Publisher Karen Velie and Lee Collins, head of the county’s Social Services Department. Barriger said an email from Velie seeking information about adoption and foster home policies “references summaries or reports to the court.”

In the email, Velie asked Collins why his agency provided to the court allegations proven unfounded by a police investigation.

“CalCoastNews will continue to report this story,” Loving said. “It needs to be reported, especially as it appears that there was no system of checks and balances to protect the child who was victimized repeatedly for six years.”

It is true that juvenile court records are confidential, but that confidentiality is not absolute, Loving said. Such court records have been made public in the past and CalCoastNews broke no laws when it was given access to the records, he said.

“Were any laws broken when the reports about the parents were made to police,the child protective system and the courts?” Loving asked. “Because the system is supposed to put the best interests of the children first, shouldn’t the process used in this case, be looked at first?”

408plhltr by CalCoastNews


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SLO County has has lots of corruption to hide.


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No shortage of stories for the CCN crew to uncover.

Keep up the good work Karen, Dan, Josh and the rest.

This won’t be in the Trib tomorrow, or the day after, or ever.


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Here’s W&I code Section 827, relevant part:


An intentional violation of the confidentiality provisions of this

paragraph is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed five

hundred dollars ($500).

——————-

Ah Debra,


next time you threaten someone with a stick, you might want to bring one bigger than $500. You know, something they don’t laugh at at least.


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There is a whole stack of Supreme Court decisions that make it clear that Cal Coast News has the right to publish the information in the documents. I am certain that Ms. Barriger is well aware of that. Her letter is a blatant attempt to intimidate and silence any critic of the County or her political allies.


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Did it say who has to Authorize usage of the paperwork? Just asking cause we know that the parents gave the OK to use them. And your right $500 isn’t much of a threat.


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Oh my gosh Adam and Dee are mad at CCN again, what else is new.


I think you have legal counsel of your own you probably talked to first because of the nasty Duo that you knew would strike back.


Keep up the good work, the trib sure as hell does not give us any information like CCN does.


Is there anything that makes the nasty Duo happy? Other than making all of us miserable with their actions.


Poor Dee got caught being the &itch she is and the games she plays, and this time it came at the cost of children being molested. I want to know the rest of the story, it makes me sick but without it being told it will happen again.


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Hmm sounds like Ms. Barrier.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx32b5igLwA


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Notice the “cc” at the bottom left–also sent to Rita Neal…the “bcc” was undoubtedly sent to Adam and Dee.


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This is a tricky one for CCN. If the legal citations of the law by county counsel are in fact true, then CCN is breaking the law. But to know what they know and not blow the whistle is immoral. So that’s the choice, violate the law and do what’s right, or obey the law and do what’s wrong. It’s brave of CCN to choose to do the right thing even knowing it may lead to yet another day in court. Sounds like it’s time for a really sharp first amendment attorney to ride onto the stage. No American should be subjected to this sort of choice between good and evil.


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I am sure there are few just lining up to take on SLO and the Torres-hills


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When the Law is itself immoral, you must do what is right and break the “law”.


These Bast@#$d hide behind these laws to duck accountability and oversight.


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And remember, everybody, that juries have the right to do what Rich in MB says: if the outcome of following the law and convicting is deemed by the jury to be unjust, the jury can acquit. This is as American as apple pie, the precedent going back to the Zenger case in colonial times we (hopefully) all learned about in high school American history. Zenger, a publisher, libeled the king’s representatives, which was a crime, which he admitted to in court. The judge “instructed” the jury they had to convict him because he admitted his guilt and there was no question of the crime’s having been committed. The jury looked at what he had said about the royal governor, and thought it quite true, and that a conviction was unjust when he had published generally accepted truth, so they acquitted. Jury denial of the law and judge’s instructions! Oops, just polluted the entire SLO Co jury pool with this comment — courts don’t want jurors to know this American right of juries to ignore the law. In fact, if you admit during voir dire that you know this, they’ll throw you off a jury.


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I will say they hit a nerve. And why is the county so upset… CAUSE they know what they did is WRONG. If she hadn’t had been married to Adam and him up for election- they would have turned a blind eye like they have for the past 15 years.


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The first sign of the guilty…attack the messenger…

Can you just imagine where we would be without CCN holding these public officials accountable? The Tribune has become the establishment and without CCN we would have no watchdog.


It’s time for me to make another $100 donation to CCN in appreciation for taking the arrows to hold those in power accountable!!


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Karen, you and Dan must’ve hit a exposed nerve. Good job. It has to be heart felt to realize that CCN is the only investigative source in the county!!! We all have a equal opportunity on this site, and you keep it real…. Thank you all……


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