And keep in mind, folks, that Ed Jagels is endorsing HOLLY MITCHELL for Superior Court Judge.  She's a deputy district attorney with very little experience outside of child support and truancy cases.  Will she uphold the law similarly?

In contrast, CHARLES 'CHIP' BREHMER has plenty of experience serving as a judge pro-tem, an arbitrator and mediator, has his own law practice with a background in both civil and criminal trials, and is endorsed by law enforcement, public safety professionals, and a broad swath of the general public.

Tell Mr. Jagels, "NO!" at the polls in November.

Ask Jagels about how wasted he gets at local Country Clubs & about his friends the Gay Lords.

Jagels is one of the most evil & corrupt creatures in Kern County.

I think Chad Vegas has found an unlikely friend in you.  Who'da thunk it? 

The perception from here in the gallery is that most people of modest means would have been prosecuted for this offense. I know this is a tough call, but D.A. Jagels made the wrong call, again.

I know your caller really wants to steal McCain signs, but cannot find any in this town outside of a gated community.

People have pretty much gone nuts... I am sure there is nothing  that Jagels would love more than that person "borrowing" Obama's signs...

Craziness. Given Scott "Free's" outright hatred of Vegas, there was no indication he would give the signs back. And Vegas lost advertising time. Now no one will ever be prosecuted with this precedent.

Jagel's just a lost a supporter in me.

Watch for flying pigs. I agree with Lois.

You know, back in the good ol' days, Jagels and Cox would have been the guests of honor at a neck-stretchin' party, swinging side by side from a good strong tree.

I simply cannot understand the outrage over Jagels refusal to prosecute Scot Cox. Cox was only helping developed interests in Mr. Vegas campaign that has been subverted by liberals to divert attention to Mr. Vegas good work with lord.

Both Mr. Vegas and Mr., Cox are supporters of all we hold dear in Bakersfield and law and order heroes, Mr. Cox thorough his work and Mr. Vegas through parentage.

Most of you do not understand that these men all represent all that is good about Bakersfield.  They are the fiber of Bakersfield heritage and to interfere with these god chosen men’s’ mission is blasphemy.

blognroll, et.al.:

Hey, now! I just thought the voicemail was funny.

I'm not saying Jagels was right or wrong, I'm no legal expert.

But Horatio brings up an interesting point: If Holly Mitchell's signs were stolen as a "joke", would Jagels prosecute? Hmmmmmm...

As for being a friend to Vegas? Well, just wait till my next KHSD column before you cast such wild accusations  my direction!

If the facts of the case indicate that Cox did not intend to permanently deprive Vegas of those silly signs, then Jagel's decision was legally sound - as theft is a specific intent crime. Look it up Lois.

So, RHF, your argument would follow that if Cox had intended only to keep those signs until after the election, and had then borrowed any and all of Vegas' signs, returning them on November 5, no crime would have been committed?  Are You KIDDING me? 

RedHead:

I understand the issue of intent.

But as we all know, the law can be a bit  "squishy" sometimes. There's a lot of interpretation involved.

Jagels exercised his interpretation of the statute...Horatio and others, obviously, have a different interpretation.

That's what makes life so interesting!

You guys need to go to court and see all the people lining the hallways.  Prosecuting Cox would have been a waste of taxpayer dollars even if Cox is an arse.

Cox should at least be charged with a misdemeanor for tampering with the signs. How much money does Cox make on his radio show? I could host that show and make smarter decisions. How old is his kid whom he involved with the sign tampering? 

Roysan

Very , Very true. Its amazing the amount of people daily that do not have cases filed for even more serious Misdemeanor cases.

Correction to a previous comment .  I don't live in a gated community or a wealthy area and I have a McCain/Palin sign in my front yard.  Pretty good sized one too.

A story goes that a bus took a wrong turn headed to the Bulldogs game at the Rose Bowl and ended up in a very posh and exclusive area.  Seems every house had an Obama sign in it's yard and not a McCain sign to be seen.  But I'll let motopoet tell it, he was on the bus.  Story backed up by his father and his sister that is.  Oh, and a bus load of people.

Sometimes we agree on things around here and this is one of them.  I'd have been slapped with a huge fine and community service if I'd stolen those signs.  Not to mention probably spending the night in jail.   I didn't like Scott's personality or show before and quit listening to him when he became a wannabee.  He is definitely off my playlist now.  Jagels never was so not much I can do about him except comment on how worthless he is.

"A story goes that a bus took a wrong turn headed to the Bulldogs game at the Rose Bowl and ended up in a very posh and exclusive area.  Seems every house had an Obama sign in it's yard and not a McCain sign to be seen."

That would be Los Angeles, Nancy, where highly paid union workers still have a social conscience, and work to repeal tax cuts that only favor the wealthiest in our nation.

Are you talking about highly paid union "workers" or highly paid union officials?  I didn't realize that "workers" could afford to live in very posh neighborhoods.

A well, it seems the subtle point was lost anyway.

Having lived near Malibu for many years, union workers, especially retired union workers, do live in very posh neighborhoods.  Some of those Malibu mansions are owned by retired cops and firefighters.

What the unions did for them was enable them to buy homes at a young age, when Southland real estate was relatively affordable.  Then the property values soared, and they ended up with enormous equity to trade.

I bow to knowledge of posh neighborhoods in the southland and the coast since I'm just a worker bee here in town.  Even when in a union I certainly never made enough to buy "posh" even in Bakersfield.  In fact, none of the union workers I know live in "posh" neighborhoods.  Some nicer than others, but still not posh.  And they all live in Bakersfield where posh isn't nearly as expensive as in LA/Mallibu.

You can't borrow someone's car. See PC 10851(a).

gr8scott, California Vehicle Code section 10851(a) is a much more applicable section to refer to, NOT the Penal Code.

 Mean Justice: A Town's Terror, The Prosecutor's Power of Ed Jagels, A Betrayal of Innocence is a stunning portrait of a California community so obsessed with making itself safe from crime that it has created one of the toughest justice systems in the country – and, in the process, sent a shocking number of innocent men and women to prison for crimes they did not commit.

Prosecutors today such as Ed Jagels – from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington D.C. – are the most powerful yet least accountable figures in public life. And that power has grown exponentially since September 11, 2001, making the story of Mean Justice all the more powerful and instructive.

http://www.edwardhumes.com/...

Cheshire, have you even read that book?  It's so filled with inaccuracies it isn't even believable.  That's not to say corruption wasn't rampant but that's a really sorry excuse of a book to show it.

Someone needs to write an accurate account of the whole mess.  I thought the series The Lords Of Bakersfield was good.

Yes Nancy I have read the book and even have a copy should you want to read it.  The author is a Pulitizer prize winner and as a "Bako" born and raised, I can also say that Bako has the most corrupt DA in the United States.  Mean Justice was written by 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Edward Humes. Humes exposes the cases of more than 100 innocent people who were prosecuted for major felonies in Kern County, California since 1982. The book focuses on the conviction of successful Bakersfield businessman and one-time school teacher Patrick O'Dell Dunn for the 1992 murder of his wife, Alexandra, Humes also shows how many other wrongful prosecutions occurred.

In July 1999, five months after the initial publication of Mean Justice and more than two years after Jagels was first asked to respond to questions raised during the course of research for the book, the Kern County District Attorney issued a 154-page report entitled "Junk Journalism".  The report purported to correct “factual errors and distortions” in Mean Justice, but it consisted primarily of a rehash of the prosecution’s original case in People vs. Dunn, and failed to respond directly to most key issues raised in the book.

Were you aware that "Mean Justice" has actually been used in law schools all over the country as a text?  No?  I didn't think so...  Hmmm... do you work for Jagels?

Cheshire, the book was also widely used around here as toilet paper to wipe your a** with....

Cheshire, the book is lying on my nightstand as we type but thank you for your offer.  I keep all fairy tales nearby in case I can't sleep.

As I said, the corruption is there, that's not in question.  The author had a lot of misinformation right off the bat so it was hard for me to buy into a lot of what was said in it.

As for Jagels, the closest I've ever been to him was standing in the same line at Longs Drugstore.  The way he treated his wife for politcal expediency was shameful so please don't imagine that I'm defending him.

Cheshire;

I see your conspiracy theory about every Law Enforcement professional being corrupt is still ongoing.

Bottom line is that all this issue about the signs only accounts to a Misdemeanor which ONLY is punishable by a small amount of time and/or fines. The District Attorney must have a Misdemeanor Complaint package submitted to him by the Victim after the report has been filed with Law Enforcement.

The complaint must detail in writing by the Victim as to why he believes the complaint must go forward. The complaint package is also supported by any and all Police reports that must accompany the complaint package. If the Victim does not come forward the Law Enforcement agency is not going to pursue it after the original report for Misdemeanors by Policy.

The ONLY way to get around this is to have the Victim place a citizens arrest on the subject in a timely manner from the crime being commited; Or by the Misdemeanor being committed in the presence of a Law Enforcement Officer.

So there are a lot of variables to account for that not everyone is privy to as to seeing the total picture as to why the complaint was denied if the Victim wanted the matter pursued at all. Many times the Victims request No Further Action be taken if property has been recovered and returned to the owner and it all boils down to inconvience time for the Victim to be in court and away from work, Family etc.

Do not bag on the System because it is what it is. If you do not like it then contact your state Politician to change things. Better yet, try getting involved instead of reading someones opinion and believing it is Gospel. The system is quite the eye opener as to why things are done the way they are and how they actually get done.

It looks like the old Bako crowd still has problems honoring the data about their corrupt District Attorney and his office.  The evidence is widespread and as usual, the Bako people are busy trying to defend what is a moribund and defective local justice system. 

As for prosecutor misconduct, it's important for the average Californian to know, the state Attorney General is the boss of all law enforcement under the California Constitution, but no Attorney General has ever really reeled in bad prosecutors like Jagels. It's a major problem with the system. Most Attorney General's have other political ambitions, and they want the support of law enforcement, so they do nothing which might offend any law enforcement, including the bad ones like Jagels, for fear they will lose the endorsements of other prosecutors.

The thesis in Humes' book is that, in the effort to fight crime, we have given prosecutors far too much power, and some of them have abused it badly.  I think he made a good case.  Once again, "Mean Justice" by Ed Humes

That book was written for all the conspiracy theory kooks like you cheshire. I'd rather live in Kern County and have a proactive law enforcement community and DA's office than some liberal, crime ridden town where law enforcement's hands are tied.