Friday, October 10, 2008

Innuendo-filled YouTube piece questions DeMartini's character

By TIM MORAN
tmoran@modbee.com

last updated: December 25, 2007 01:45:52 AM

A sophisticated political hit piece on Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini has shown up on YouTube, the popular Internet video site.

Full of innuendo and short on facts, the video is nearly six minutes long and is done in documentary style, interspersing photographs, film clips of farm scenes and interviews with DeMartini on local talk shows.

Titled "A Scandal in Stanislaus?" the video declares that Stanislaus County is known for "spotty political leadership" and cites former Rep. Gary Condit, comparing him to DeMartini.

Condit lost his congressional seat after the disappearance of former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, who was later found murdered. Condit was not considered a suspect in Levy's murder, but according to undisputed news accounts, Condit eventually acknowledged to investigators that he'd had an affair with Levy.

The YouTube video questions DeMartini's relationship with Serena Essapour, a young woman who is accused of stealing his identity after he loaned her money and co-signed a loan for a car. A preliminary hearing on criminal charges against Essapour will resume Jan. 29.

The video also suggests DeMartini has conflicts of interest as a supervisor because of stock investments and clients in his farming operation.

"Gary Condit types pledge to do good, but wind up doing very well for themselves," the video voice-over says.

DeMartini said Monday that he had seen the video but had no idea who created it.

"I don't see any name, or any way to respond to it," he said. DeMartini has forwarded the video link to the county counsel's office.

"It's a professionally done piece," DeMartini said. "They even take my sources of income, people I sell grapes, peaches and alfalfa to. There's a difference between taking money and selling a product."

DeMartini is up for re-election in June. The video says he is serving his second term, but that's incorrect; he is finishing his first term as supervisor. DeMartini's only announced opponent is Newman Mayor John Fantazia, but the filing period for the election hasn't even begun.

Fantazia said Monday that he had not seen the video.

"I didn't know anything about it. Things like that aren't good. I would never do anything like that," he said after hearing a description of the video.

"I'm sure he's not behind it," DeMartini said of Fantazia. "I think more of him than that."

'Sets a new low in politics'

DeMartini also said he got a phone call from PCCP West Park LLC developer Gerry Kamilos on Monday morning, saying he didn't have anything to do with the video.

DeMartini is the most vocal critic of the West Park proposal, which would link the Crows Landing air facility with the Port of Oakland via a short-haul rail system and build a 4,800-acre industrial park on and around the air facility.

Kamilos couldn't be reached Monday afternoon for comment.

The video "just sets a new low in politics in this area," De- Martini said. "That's what you have to put up with when you run for office. Anybody can put stuff up there, and you never know who did it."

To comment, click on the link with this story at www.modbee.com. Bee staff writer Tim Moran can be reached at tmoran@modbee.com or 578-2349.

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