Steve Collins was still defiant in the courtroom at his sentencing last month, and he still isn’t going away quietly. He filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against basically everyone who ever touched the old desalination project.
He’s seeking $5 million in a complaint that names Monterey County, former county Water Resources Agency GM Curtis Weeks, County Counsel Charles McKee, Deputy County Counsel Irv Grant, County Supervisors Lou Calcagno and Dave Potter, California American Water, and Cal Am President Rob MacLean as defendants.
The complaint lays out a familiar narrative that Collins has made before: County officials dragged him into the conflict-of-interest mess, signed off on the double-dipping (he served simultaneously as a board member of the Water Resources Agency and got paid by contractor RMC Water and Environment). Then, he says, he forced into a plea deal when he wasn’t allowed to call forth witnesses—most of whom are named here as defendants.
It’s not an argument that got him out of criminal charges on conflict of interest and grand theft from his former employer, Ocean Mist Farms, nor a sentence to three years of probation.
Collins claims defendants were engaged in fraudulent conduct, denying him of his constitutional rights
“Collins has suffered irreparable injury to his honor, integrity and reputation,” according to the complaint.
Collins is represented by San Francisco-based attorney H. Nelson Meeks.
Collins unsuccessfully sued the county in Monterey County Superior Court, and was ordered to pay $37,000 in attorney fees in 2013.
County Counsel Charles McKee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cal Am spokesperson Catherine Stedman declined to comment on specifics. "There are no real allegations made against us," she writes. "It contains no substantive charges against Cal Am or Rob MacLean."