A month ago, Inyo District Attorney Art Maillet fired his assistant, Will Richmond. Now, he has appointed his own deputy as his new assistant.
Joel Samuels has taken the job as Assistant District Attorney. This move marks the third assistant for DA Art Maillet in roughly two years. Mark Johnson retired on the heels of a controversial release of confidential court documents. After that, former Alpine County District Attorney Will Richmond took the job as Maillet’s assistant.
One year later, Richmond said, he came to work one morning and Maillet handed him a notice of termination. Richmond said Maillet told him he didn’t have time to discuss it and walked out.
Asked why he thought Maillet terminated him, Richmond had said, “There was an obvious opinion on how to manage the office and how to be an effective prosecutor. I cut it a little thin for his tolerance.”
Sources from within the legal community have said that the new Assistant DA Joel Samuels has a history of “unprofessional dealings” with defense attorneys. Now, he is second in command.
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Who’s going to replace Art? The Joker?
“Sources from within the legal community have said that the new Assistant DA Joel Samuels has a history of “unprofessional dealings” with defense attorneys.”
Benett, I don’t know Samuels and could care less about the man, but I know yellow journalism when I read it. The invocation of unnamed “sources” to support an opinion in a supposedly objective news “report” shorn of any reported facts is it. You fail to name a single identifiable source. You fail to identify a single specific instance of “unprofessional dealings”. This so-called “news” report, which in reality is a hit piece that cloaks its “sources” and “facts”, really is a new low for you. It is inveterate gossip, nothing more, since you have chosen to withhold any facts that might support your bile. I don’t like the Inyo DA any more than you do but this really is beyond (beneath?) the pale.
Tourbillon,
This is a form of journalism frequently used by the most professional reporters. My duty is to tell the best truth I can find. That’s what I do. Information from unnamed sources does not support any “opinion”.
Attorneys are reluctant to attach their names to truths they know because of feared retribution in the courtroom. Mr. Tourbillon, you can read my news reports or not, but I stand solidly behind the information
provided and the techniques used – techniques used every day in professional news pages. If responsible reporters could not use unnamed sources, important truths may never be known, and it is the
unknowns that we as reporters must tell.
Benett Kessler
“If responsible reporters could not use unnamed sources, important truths may never be known, and it is the unknowns that we as reporters must tell.”
I’d put it a bit differently: “Responsible reporters ought not characterize unverified gossip as “news” to attack someone they dislike.”
I guess it depends on what your definition of “reponsible” is. We know you dislike Maillet. We get that. You’ve hammered your personal animus home to everyone in the eastern Sierra. Please report something we don’t know.
Tourbillon,
You are mistaken in your judgment. I do not personally dislike Mr. Maillet. It is my job to report officials’ behaviors that fly in the face of good government.
Refusal to speak to media for the disclosure of public issues is not good government. Neither is dispersal of confidential documents on political opponents. You are further mistaken in your
assumption that I have characterized unverified gossip as news to attack someone I don’t like. Research, not assumption, leads to conclusions that are
supported by unnamed sources.
Benett Kessler
It looks like Uncle Art has found someone to be his assistant that has the same ethical standards that he has.
@Cowboy Up – My thoughts exactly
I assume there was no press release.
No press release.
Mr. Maillet has continually refused to communicate with the media.
BK
My comment was sarcasm knowing he probably has no “Press Release Forms” left in his possession.