Sex crimes--especially if children are involved--tend to make the defendant guilty until proven innocent. The accusation can by itself ruin careers and lives of innocent people. "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth..." doesn't seem to be something taken seriously by the DA and staff.

That's the way things were done decades ago,amigo....If you really want to trip--read " The Lords of Bakersfield "......

Years ago...I was doing some paperwork at the ' Timeout ' and Mrs. Jagels walked in--P.O.'d---she vented BIGTIME about her husband and his 'friends'....but do some reading first....

It's hard to shake that image and I don't think local leaders have made any attempt to ameliorate it.  I saw BPD do some shady things when I was a kid.  My only solace is now I have friends on the force and know they are good people.  There are still some A-holes, though.  If I still lived in Bakersfield, I would be able to fully trust local law enforcement.

Back in my day--it was KCSO that you didn't want to cross...

Back in the late 60's or 1970 (forgot which and too lazy to look it up) when the Watts riots took place the LE word went out that none had better try to cross the mountain to Bakersfield..it would be deadly for them.  Not only that but that the locals had better not get any ideas about joining the riot madness here.

I've never minded that Kern County has a rep for tough, no nonsense, shoot 'em up handling of criminals.  Of course there are bad apples in LE, there are every where so why expect them all to be pure as the driven snow?  WE expect them to be, we want them to be but they're human and some fail.

Corruption in in KC?  Nooo, say it isn't so Joe.   When you have corruption at the highest levels in our country, what would make you think there wouldn't be in the rest of the country?  Some of you people say KC corruption like it's unique to cities our size as well as the rest of the world.

That said, it doesn't mean I approve of corruption or condone it.  I'm just more realistic than some.  "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."     Even here.

 Not only that but that the locals had better not get any ideas about joining the riot madness here.

Who do you think that was directed to?  The good folks in Westchester?  As a Black person you're already on edge because your typecasted.  The law is the law and there is no need for the law to be tougher or more lax when it's enforced evenhandedly.

You hit the nail right on the head ~NancyII~.....I remember that....

People are getting needlessly hurt/killed in the name of tough justice.  I'd hate to be one of those people who just get caught up in the image of it all.

But back then...that's the way it was...it was no joke,amigo.....

First thing my uncles told us as kids---never--NEVER RUN FROM KCSO...they will not chase you--they will shoot you...good advise back then...

I've heard that, too.  I guess I can be thankful that things are changing.

   " When you have corruption at the highest levels in our country, what would make you think there wouldn't be in the rest of the country?  Some of you people say KC corruption like it's unique to cities our size as well as the rest of the world."

Right ...

Most counties I know of  in California  don't elect an aide and abettor of pederasty over and over again.

I think Chris Hillis is  Scheduled to be released within the next couple of years.

--virgil

Jagels is a freak and Btown likes him ... a lot.

--virgil

Jf, of course it was directed at the Blacks in our own "Watts" area.  The people in Westchester weren't causing the rumbling here.  And yes, ithe rumbling WAS here in support of the folks in Watts.  Did anyone ever figure out why the people in Watts rioted and burned their OWN neighborhoods?

The mood then was so inflammatory that LE here put a lid on that pot before it could bubble over into that kind of violence here.  Once again I don't make up the facts....I just discuss them.  Where ARE the riots?  What neighborhoods get burned and looted during a riot?  In what other direction would the message be sent?  To a peaceful area?

I realize sometimes innocent people do get caught up in the tough LE policy but how often does that happen as opposed to the innocent people gunned down by neighborhood criminals?

I've always believed that we get the kind of government we deserve, especially at the local level. We have faithfully returned Jagels year after year, along with the likes of Sparks, Klier, et al. We get supervisors like Mary Kay Schell, Trice Harvey; legislators like Don Rogers, Phil Wyman, Roy Ashburn, school board members like Chad Vegas, Ken Mettler. 

Well, these people didn't elect themselves.

virgil, virgil, virgil.  No one has run against Jagels.  There really wasn't much choice.  And I've never heard ANYone who said they liked jagels..you're having delusions.

By the way, since he's stepping down you won't be abe to use him as your excuse for corruption anymore.  Will you start on Lisa Green?

OK Nancy, no one likes Jagels, that is why he has been in office for over 25 years. Who's delusional?

Pogo, if he's running unopposed like he has for quite a while, what do you suggest?

edit..in addition, I didn't say NO one liked him, I said I've never heard anyone say they liked him.  I'm sure his mother did and a few of his "buddies."

If the good people of Bako had wanted someone else, then someone else would have been encouraged to run. Or are you suggesting that no one else wanted to be DA for a quarter century?

 Nancy,

Ms. Green watched Jagels and Tauzer.

Like the rest of Btown did.

--virgil

~Virgil~...wish you could have been there when Mrs.Jagel's vented.....and she was looking FINE too..dressed up in her 'school girl' outfit....I'll leave it at that--but 'others' heard and saw the what I did....

Take a timeout to READ Mary Stanley's Letter to the Editor from Saturday or Sunday's paper folks. It repulses me to think that even after tons of evidence proving that these convictions were a complete sham, some in our community still believe that they are 'monsters that got what they deserved' and 'got off on a technicallity'. Cohersion and prosecutorial misconduct are BARELY technicalities. If Ms Stanley WAS a juror, she certainly, as many of them did, get the wool pulled over their eyes by a DA's office that still practices 'win at all cost-regardless of the rules'. and judges that were naive at best and in cohoots with at worse.

No, this is not just a Kern County problem, Nancy. I agree. It is happening and has been happening EVERYWHERE.Some great reading for whoever may be inclined (and open minded) is Mean Justice by Edward Humes. A point that often gets missed in that book is that, while Kern County is used as an example, there was and continues to be a national trend: convictions at all cost. Or in other words justice absense truth.

This is not a conservative vs liberal issue. It is a good vs evil issue. Cheating  to get convictions is evil. Ms Stanley, the DA should play by the RULES or not play at all. Its fact, not opinion, that lives were ruined by these cases. Yet you insist on demonizing the REAL victims-people like John Stoll.

I thought Mary Stanley's lette was hilarious. She was a juror, so she had to justify her decision. Typical of any of us who don't want to admit a mistake, especially one that destroys a man's life.

Just because someone gets arrested it does not mean they are guilty.  Does anyone else get mad when they consider how much tax money the Kern DA's office wastes by their unjustified and overturned convictions?  Every time I see Ed Jagels' face on the news I just want to puke.   Check out this Rolling Stone article  By Kimberley Sevcik.    Mean Justice - Dirty Secrets   here is a quote from it   "An investigation by the California attorney general revealed that Jagels and his team were guilty of multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct."

I'm not disputing that Mean Justice brought corruption to light but that is one of the worst written books I've ever read.  It's full of local inaccuracies to the point that I doubted half what was written about the main topic.  It was also written as if the author was in the house with the couple instead of making it up. 

I mentoned that here once before and was chastised due to the author being a pulitzer yadda yadda but that didn't make Mean Justice a good or accurate book.  Only people who lived HERE during that time would know...the rest of the country only reveled in the corruption and the dirt.  Just like we do when a story comes out about another county or city. 

For my money, the series The Lords Of Bakersfield was better.  Mean Justice got thumbs down in my review.  Maybe someone will someday write a book about my great uncle who was a corrupt police chief in TX and we can all be appalled at him.  

Pogo, I don't know why no one ran against Jagels.  Maybe no one else wanted such a thankless job.  Who would?  It wouldn't matter if you were as honest as the Pope, SOMEONE would hate you at all times.

For what it's worth, I have no use for or faith in our justice system...no matter where it is.  Power corrupts.

i know i wouldnt want to be the DA, or even an ADA...you would have criminals after you all the time

I think the system is corrupt throughout the country.  It's all about numbers, wins vs. loses, padded charges to  force a plea etc. it's not about justice.  Scary to think that it's supposed to be one of the best in the world or so I keep getting told.  

  Does anyone know which small paper the series [ The lords of Bakersfield ] was in.  I find many links but haven't found one that is the actual series.

Nobody runs against him, because they are afraid of him. Who would DARE run against him? Nobody likes trumped up charges and harrasment  law enforcement. Ask Patrick O'Dale Dunn (another victim of Jagel's corruption) what happens when the powers that be are CROSSED in this town. Those that have the standing to run against him side with the corruption.  Besides, nobody should HAVE to run against him. He should have been DISBARRED and tried for obstruction of justice years ago. Yet, he continues to get off with a slap on the wrist by those 'liberal' judges that DARE to demand that a suspect be tried FAIRLY. It seems quite humorous to me that in the past few elections, DA Jagels has ran unopposed, yet only garnered in the 80 percent range. So what phantom candidate is grabbing the other 15 to 20 percent? Kermit the Frog?

Good point Learnem-if you were to ask Jagels if he has critics, he would tell you that most are either ex-felons or their family members. That's how delusional this guy is.

I have heard rumors that, at one time, it was physically dangerous to run against Jagels.

  The Lords Of Bakersfield ran in The Bakersfield Californian and the staff could tell you when.

If I remember right, the paper won an award for it.

Here's a link.

http://ww2.bakersfield.com/...

Thanks Nancy, I found that link about the same time you posted.  I thought it originally ran in a small private rag, maybe out of the Rosedale area.  The people I hang around with over here know as much about it as I do, Kern does have quite a reputation.

I think one of the reasons it got so much press was because of the prominent figures involved.  I thought it was balanced and fair of TBS since one of it's own was very involved in the scandal

I doubt this particular story would make a ripple in a place like Chicao or St Louis where they have their own shady criminal past.