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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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Someone needs to file a complaint with the Grand Jury…

http://slocourts.net/grand_jury/citizen_complaint_forms


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The Grand Juy is linked to the court and the county coucil so the likelyhood of a productive investigation is ZERO.


It would be nice to see some type of federal investigation for violation of the biological parents civil rights as well as the childrens civil rights.


I truly hope the young lady can get some legal representation to advocate for her because I fear that the county will go into the self protection mode and she could be left standing alone.


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100% correct the members of the local Civil Grand Jury are hand picked by the Judges and the elite of the community most members of the GJ have NO investigative nor any background in conducting a proper and informative investigations they are in my word a puppet of the BOS and Court.


WE HAVE NO CRIMINAL GRAND JURY IN OUR COUNTY why ? that way the corruption, lies, bribes etc.. go on with out any oversight. If you send anything to the GJ here it is first reviewed and then tipped off the what ever agency or person is being complained about. Having given testimony before Criminal Grand Juries, Federal Grand Juries, and US Congressional and US Senate hearings.


I have complained about some local Police misconduct against the sheriffs dept and two local PD’s SLO and Paso Robles only to learn the Civil GJ tipped off the agencies i complained about so don’t tip them off, send anything to the State AG and US DOJ


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Federation investigation, really, former Attorney General has returned to his prior employer, the Covington & Burling Law firm whose client list has included four of the largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo and of course current Attorney General Lorette Lynchis a very good personal friend of Holder and his wife, Obama and his wife, and who got her big break in 1999 by President Bill Clinton is really going to undertake and investigate these demorats or any other unless of course they don’t toe the party line like Bob Menendez from New Jersey. Wait until there is a Republican President appointee pulling this stuff. I can hear it already…


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I recommend you NOT waste your time with our Civil Grand Jury, what ever you send them, they turn it over to the Presiding Judge who may or may not conceal it.


You do not want the locals to know what you may know about local wrong doings from bribes, police cover ups, false reports etc. You would be better to send it to Attorney General with CC; to both the US DOJ Civil Rights and to the FBI, SAC in both DC and LA.


Since working recently for the local dirty and lying task forces i soon learned how corrupt and dishonest they are to the Judges, DA’s office and others.


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It’s so predictable that each time public employees are discovered doing or having done something we SHOULD question, and or demand answers to, someone jumps in to stop us from knowing more about what actually is taking place.

Reminds me much of the City Council meeting when Tony Ferrara jumped out of his seat and shouted, “Shut it down! Shut it down!”

He didn’t want the cameras rolling–best not to let anyone who watches on TV see just how angry he was when the citizens got a better look into the goings on he’d worked so hard to keep on the DL.

We’ve either elected, or are paying these people’s salaries. It is our responsibility to see that they represent us fairly and honestly. But boy when you catch them doing something they sure make it difficult to get some straight answers, let alone get the truth.

Who works for who here?


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County Counsel is scamming the taxpayer like you wouldn’t believe. CC is trying to justify a large salary increase by comparing themselves to a position in the CSU system that isn’t even close to comparable. The CAO and HR are part of the scam and guess which members of the BOS are in THEIR hip pocket?


Disclaimer: Before CC gets all bent out of shape and tries to hire outside legal firms to sue me, the above statement is my opinion only and I did not obtain any documents or information illegally. The info was obtained from watching archived BOS video and viewing publically available documents. I then looked at past behavior of aforementioned individuals and connected the dots.


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“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.”- Thank you Karen, Bill and the rest of ccn for giving our county the upfront, quality reporting it deserves.


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WOW, This story has been updated by the CCN Editor, Bill Loving,


He knocked it out of the park and put the County Council in her place.


THE REPORTING WILL CONTINUE.


Thanks Bill, I love CCN. I would love to say : “Hey county council, Lee Collins and CWS, Up Yours, but I won’t say it, because you did it so much better.


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Cindy, am I reading his comments correctly? Did he just say that they have NOT broken any laws since they were given access to the documents and that they have dealt with this in the past with no issue? I am thrilled that they will keep reporting. THANK YOU CCN. You guys are amazing


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Well sort of : “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.”


My interpretation is that there are gray areas. If you read his entire comment, he is stating that several laws were broken by the very cadre’ that now attempts to silence the media. To that end, the reporting will continue and there have been exceptions in the past where JV records have been disclosed so if they want to bring it on, then go ahead.


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I really do hate to nitpick but it is Counsel, not Council, lest people be confused that it is SLO City Council, etc.


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Arrest a journalist for exposing a flawed system that resulted in over 100 counts of child molestation?


Go ahead… I dare you.


And the county of SLO will see the wrath of the media on a national and possibly an international level.


I double dog dare you!


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LOL, I Triple dare.


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BRING IT!


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This stinks to high heaven. Possibly CAO Buckshi, Adam Hill and Rita Neal, in an effort to protect Adam and the county, ordered this intimidation of CCN. Love that they’re squirming, CCN hit more than a nerve with this story. Thank you Karen and staff for standing up for what is right, and for the young lady who is the victim of Mrs. Adam Hill and a broken social services agency. Time to show support for this news outlet because we all know the Trib has lost all credibility. Now, DA Dan Dow might want to open an investigation of this mess. And wouldn’t it be great if some of the staff inside the agencies involved, that know the real story, would step up and be whistleblowers!


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We dont even need to read the stories anymore.Anytime we see Dee Torres photo we know its not going to be good news.


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Great post.


Speaking of her photo, what are those on her face? Can’t really call them dimples. I have never seen more layers of whatever that is on one person in my life.


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Ms. Barriger is correct in citing the confidentiality of documents related to a juvenile’s court file, however, it becomes less certain that an actionable violation occurs when the documents are released by the parents of the juvenile. Add to that the assertion that the story is regarding a matter of public concern, foster children placed with a child molester, and I am not sure the county would prevail in a court with no ties or biases toward the local political structure.


I wonder how the county would handle this if it was the Los Angeles Times publishing the contents of the documents, instead of a small internet news provider.


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Well, Nixon took the NY Times to court to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers, so I don’t get your point. If an official wants secrecy, the size of the news operation is not at issue. But what’s not likely to happen is what happened after Nixon did that. The story metastasized through the media as one outlet after another joined in with disgust over his high-handed legal tactics. How likely is it the Trib, Nude Times, or Tolosa Press will pick up this story’s additional chapters if CCN is stopped? How likely they’ll defy the county counsel’s slapdown? Hah! What news media?


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