Darryl Choates is on a roll these days. Maybe even literally.
The former Seaside councilman and unwitting member of the American Independent Party (which, if nobody has told him, let me be the first: Darryl, that doesn’t mean you’re registered as an independent, it means you’ve aligned yourself with the party that’s generally regarded as a bunch of right-wing lunatics that championed segregation and nominated George Wallace to be governor of Alabama) visited the Weekly’s offices on Sept. 26 to deliver a pile of documents related to the travails of Seaside Councilmember Kayla Jones.
Jones, 25, beat Choates’ pal Ian Oglesby to win her council seat in 2016 and again is facing off against Oglesby in this year’s mayor’s race. She’s stumbled along the way – failing to file financial disclosure forms on time and racking up fines from the city because of it – and is under fire (and under investigation, one she herself called for) for spending about $20,000 on expenses, including child care, related to travel to multiple conferences.
So Choates comes to our office to deliver documents outlining Jones’ spending of taxpayer dollars, and he hands them to Weekly staff photographer Nic Coury. And as he does so, he asks Nic which one of us at the paper is sleeping with Kayla Jones. In his estimation, our coverage has been too favorable to her. In our estimation, it’s been fair.
I call him. And I call him on it. It’s a nasty implication, straight out of the Donald Trump Guide to Politics, especially for a guy who claims to be dealing in facts as he deals with Kayla Jones’ expense reports.
“I heard some reporter over there is messing with her,” he tells me. “It’s a rumor that’s going around.”
Set that untruth aside and move on to the Seaside City Council meeting of Oct. 4. Choates spoke during public comment and, along with a few other speakers, called on Jones to resign. As he was making his way back to his seat, he crossed paths with Karen Araujo of Salinas, who is vice chair of the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee. She was walking up to speak and as they passed, their feet connected.
According to Choates, who claims he has multiple witnesses, including Seaside Planning Commission chair John Owens, Araujo deliberately tripped him. Choates says he fell to the ground, put his hands out to stop from face planting, and jacked up his shoulder in the process, requiring a trip to urgent care the next morning, pain medicine and anti-inflammatories. Araujo says it was a total accident, and one in which her foot made contact with his and they both kept walking. Owens says while he didn’t see Choates fall, in his opinion, it was deliberate.
None of it was captured on video. The aftermath, though, was. KSBW had a camera in the council chambers and it showed Choates telling Seaside Deputy Police Chief Nick Borges to press charges against her. As Borges walks Araujo out of the chambers to speak to her, she says, “Are you serious?”
And then, maybe without realizing his voice was being picked up on the mic, Choates turns to someone and says, “In my old days I would have did something else.”
“My rudeness, and my rude choice, is that I didn’t say ‘excuse me’ when we bumped,” Araujo tells me. “I heard him say, ‘You tripped me’ and ‘She tripped me,’ and the next thing I know, he called for a cop. I was shocked, and I am rarely shocked.”
Araujo may find herself in another position she’s never been in, and that’s as a defendant in a criminal case. Borges, who didn’t return multiple calls, is sending his report to the District Attorney’s Office. Someone there now gets to decide whether or not to charge Araujo with, who the hell knows what? A run-by tripping, I guess.
Choates says he doesn’t know Araujo, but apparently knew her well enough to tell KSBW she’s Jones’ campaign manager. Not true. Araujo, though, says during the Monterey Downs days, when the Seaside Council was dealing with that trainwreck of a proposal, Choates got in her face at one meeting and asked her, “What are you doing in Seaside? This is my town.”