State Attorney General launches investigation into Deputy Sheriff's Association.

The Fraud Unit of the state Attorney General’s Office is actively investigating allegations that Salinas City Councilman and Monterey County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Davis and others on the board of the deputy sheriff’s union committed fraud by laundering union dues into Davis’ campaign for sheriff.

Two sources with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak on the record, report Davis was seen being interviewed by a state AG investigator Tuesday afternoon prior to his arrival at work. A third source also reports the AG’s office contacted Deputy Dan Mitchell, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the union that represents deputies and District Attorney’s Office investigators.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Joe Moses confirmed the Attorney General’s Office would be investigating the case and that interviews were conducted today, including the one with Davis.

It is unclear if the interviews today were considered “non-adversarial,” meaning it was an informal, initial conversation, or if Davis and others interviewed were read their rights before any interviews took place. It’s also unclear if the AG investigator served any warrants.

By policy of the Sheriff’s Office, deputies who have contact with outside law enforcement agencies as part of a criminal investigation are supposed to report that contact to their supervisor within 24 hours of any interview. It was unclear if Davis or others interviewed today had done so by early Tuesday evening.

“The Sheriff’s Office cannot comment on investigations done by an outside agency,” says Sheriff’s Cmdr. John Thornburg, who heads the department’s professional standards unit and also is the department’s media contact. “We will fully cooperate, as we would with any other investigation going on, but we’re not in the position to comment on another agency’s investigation.”

Davis was on duty and was not available for a phone call Tuesday evening requesting comment. His campaign manager, Bree Vasquez, describes the situation as a coordinated smear campaign.

“We look forward to the DOJ investigator putting a stop to this coordinated smear campaign that has been conducted,” Vasquez writes in an emailed statement. “We are providing the investigator with additional information so they can investigate the unlawful collusion and coordinated efforts and possible abuse of public office with the intent to harm a political candidate and mislead the voters of Monterey County in this election.”

Mitchell, who had a stroke last month and is on paid leave as he recuperates, could not be reached for comment. Acting DSA President William Hija says he is unaware of the investigation. ”If they are conducting an investigation they haven't contacted us,“ he writes by email.

Members of the DSA’s former C-Unit, which comprises sheriff’s commanders and a single DA supervising investigator, asked the state Department of Justice to take a look at the fraud and money laundering allegations after Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo declared his office had a conflict because its investigators are DSA members. The Salinas Police Department also referred a request to investigate the matter to the state Attorney General.

In addition to the AG’s investigation, the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state watchdog agency when it comes to campaign finance, has opened an investigation as well.

The situation has unfolded quickly since March, when the C-Unit was ousted from the union. That event occurred after Moses, who won a seat on the union board late last year, began questioning how union dues were being spent. As he and others in the C-Unit began asking more questions about the finances, the DSA membership voted them out.

Among the expenditures they questioned were $31,000 in checks written to Pivotal Campaign Services, which is headed by a Davis campaign consultant, Christian Schneider, whom the union says was hired by them to do long-range planning and consulting.

Of the nine checks written to Pivotal, five bore a signature the commanders contend belonged to Davis, who was no longer on the union board and didn’t have check signing authority. Davis, though, when shown copies of at least one check, told KSBW reporter Bianca Beltran: “I’ve never seen those before in my life.” When Beltran asked if it looked like a forged signature, Davis told her, “It’s not mine…it’s total nonsense, total nonsense.”

Davis addressed the matter on May 7 during a press conference in front of the DSA office. He spoke about his campaign platform, focusing on his plans to adjust staffing in order to shrink overtime costs for the Sheriff’s Office and reign in the department’s budget. He made remarks about his position on immigration—an area on which he departs from Sheriff Steve Bernal, and advocated against ICE officials in the jail—and described himself as “a Bernie Democrat,” positioning himself as the Democrat in a county with 50-percent Democratic registration (compared to 22-percent Republican).

He also commented on the matter of the checks, attempting to distance himself from the swirling concerns, repeating that the signatures are not his.

“The allegation is stemming from the DSA,” Davis said. “I’m not on the DSA board.”

He said the command staff has unfairly maligned him, and shown only checks with signatures that appear to match, and not shown other paperwork that would reflect that his signature looks different, including a check from the DSA made out to Davis to reimburse him for microwaves and a refrigerator he bought at Costco for the jail staff. “The media was played,” Davis said.

The Weekly viewed forms signed by Davis and filed at Salinas City Hall, where he is a city councilmember. It is not clear to an untrained observer whether the signatures are authentic or not.

In response to questions about whether he was concerned that if, as he says, the signature is not his, that someone appears to have defrauded him, Davis told members of the media on Monday that he has not been victimized: “To have a crime, you have to have a victim.”

He added, “I have full confidence that there is no type of embezzlement in the DSA,” noting that the union has ordered a forensic audit. “Deputies are deputies, they’re not accountants.”

That audit, though, is not expected to occur until after the June 5 election.

“I look forward to the Attorney General’s Office’s investigation,” Davis said Monday afternoon.

Schneider, of Pivotal Campaign Services, says the investigation instead should and will focus on the media. “There is nothing questionable about the payments from DSA to [Pivotal Campaign Services],” he writes in an email. “What is questionable is where these stories started…dating back to an article by [Mary] Duan [in the Weekly] on March 15.

“These clowns ([former C-Unit members] Moses Caldwell Warren) didn't contact law enforcement or even the FPPC, instead they gave partial financial documents to a reporter with an intent to deceive. Only a month later did they file a complaint and held a press conference. Their action were purely politically motivated and they have misused their position in the Sheriff's Office and I believe in collusion with the Bernal campaign to intimidate Scott Davis, his opponent.”