when I go to the news-press website, I check the headlines..today I read the paper for free online because the News-Press thinks my name is Doris...so I'm expecting the News-Press will investigate me for fraud and hacking into their website....but really, I'm not Doris, I'm Mick... anyway.... here's a story by Scott Steepleton that the are hoping will fry Kasi Beutel..but as usual, we don't get all the facts, we don't get the whole story....so I need to get Scott's interpretation on the record, right here..again thank-you Doris! and thank you, Doris Day!!
SCOTT STEEPLETON, NEWS-PRESS CITY EDITOR
August 4, 2011 12:00 AM
The city of Santa Barbara has temporarily withdrawn a request that a commercial fisherman reimburse workers' compensation payments incurred by taxpayers for injuries police Officer
Kasi Beutel claims she suffered arresting the man two years ago while the fraud division of the state Department of Insurance investigates the claim. At the same time, the News-Press has learned that the city miscalculated the amount Michael Kenny was told he owed by about $7,000, a fact that was not publicly acknowledged until reports of the arrest and subsequent workers' comp fraud investigation were reported in the News-Press by investigative journalist Peter Lance.
Instead of the originally stated amount in the matter of what was claimed to be a shoulder injury, authorities now say Mr. Kenny owes about $834, blaming the error on a snafu by a risk management analyst who'd been on the job only a month.
On Wednesday, Santa Barbara City Attorney Stephen Wiley notified District Attorney Joyce Dudley by letter that, given the circumstances, the city was withdrawing a request for court-ordered restitution until the state investigation is finished.
"It is likely, at that point," Mr. Wiley writes in the letter obtained by the News-Press, "that the city will elect to pursue restitution from Mr. Kenny using appropriate civil remedies."
Mr. Wiley also states that the city and his office would "take full responsibility for explaining all of this to the Department of Insurance and for convincing them there was nothing inappropriate or excessive. . .over a job-related shoulder injury."
An injury, which Mr. Lance has reported in a series on possible wrongdoing by Officer Beutel, was never mentioned in the officer's report of the night in question.
The officer claimed DUI suspect Mr. Kenny kicked her in the right hip, but it was not until almost three months later that she filed a workers' compensation claim over a shoulder injury she suffered "while taking Kenny into custody," according to documents obtained by Mr. Lance, himself facing a DUI charge after being arrested New Year's Day by Officer Beutel.
After initially submitting a workers' compensation claim on the officer's behalf that included injury-related time off following the 2009 arrest, the city discovered the risk analyst had actually pulled timesheets for Officer Beutel from two years earlier when she took time off for an injury she suffered when she "tripped and fell while responding to a traffic collision," according to an Aug. 2 memo from Mark Howard, Santa Barbara's risk manager, to Mr. Wiley.
As for Mr. Kenny, the district attorney dropped DUI and battery charges against him, and he ended up pleading no contest to resisting arrest.
On June 17, two years after the arrest, Darryl Genis, Mr. Kenny's attorney, received a letter from the city stating: "Officer Beutel has now completed treatment for these injuries which included $2,274.02 in paid medical costs to date and $5,488.87 in temporary disability payments."
The letter also stated the city asked the District Attorney's Office to "request that charges against Michael Kenny include restitution for the damages," which total $7,762.89.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Genis, the letter was dated 10 days after the city notified the District Attorney's Office that it had erred in the amount owed.
The restitution hearing is set for 11 a.m. today before Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Jean Dandona. Despite the D.A.'s desire to put it off, Mr. Genis said he will object.
"What they're saying is, 'Yes, she did have a claim related to the arrest of Michael Kenny,' and, 'Yes, it was for $7,762.89,' and, 'No, she didn't have any time off, this was just a huge mistake,' " Mr. Genis said.
"The problem with that is she testified at a DMV hearing in Ventura that she did take some time off. She was equivocal about it," said Mr. Genis. "It seems to me that this is a really elaborate way of throwing smoke and mirrors out and making it all go away."
so that's Scott's story....but will he stick by it??
1 comment:
Sure, he'll stick by it. He's the only one who understands it. WTF?
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