Money behind DeMartini video may be paying Geragos

last updated: January 02, 2008 02:56:17 AM

Time to ask a few questions and maybe connect a few dots.

First, Mark Geragos, an A-list celebrity lawyer if ever there was one. Two things will bring Geragos to a case: money or media attention. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it raises a glaringly obvious question: Why is this guy defending Serena Essapour? Essapour is the woman accused of identity theft and grand theft, her alleged victim being Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini.

DeMartini's position makes this a story of local interest, but beyond Stanislaus County, it's a penny ante yawner. No headlines for Geragos there.

That leaves money. Since this is a criminal case, meaning no monetary award, what remains is Geragos' fee, which figures to be substantial.

Who paid it? Certainly not Essapour, who needed DeMartini's cash and co-signing of a loan just to buy a car. And Essapour doesn't require a high-profile guy like Geragos; she just needs a competent defense attorney. If local lawyers were to demur because of DeMartini's position, surely one could be found in Stockton or Sacramento. You don't hire Clarence Darrow to fight a traffic ticket.

So far, Geragos has managed to delay proceedings several times. The preliminary hearing is set to resume Jan. 29.

DeMartini is up for re-election in June.

Now factor in the recent YouTube smear piece on DeMartini. Bee reporter Tim Moran accurately described it as "full of innuendo and short on facts" as it implies an improper relationship between DeMartini and Essapour.

The video also insinuates "conflict of interest" by simply listing a number of companies with whom DeMartini does business in the course of his occupation as a farmer. In this regard, remember that Geragos earlier demanded a slew of DeMartini's financial records. He didn't get everything he asked for, but he got some of it.

This hit piece may be scummy, but it has good production values and displays political media savvy. It's as subtle as an axe, but it's a well-made axe and wasn't produced on the cheap.

It's not much of a leap to suspect that the same monied source that hired Geragos also financed the YouTube smear, and to expect more to come.

It may be getting repetitious to point out that DeMartini has a bull's-eye on his back because of his continuing opposition to the current plan to develop the Crows Landing Naval Air Station, but it's becoming painfully obvious that the man is in someone's cross hairs.

The much-ballyhooed "politics of personal destruction" came to Stanislaus County in the form of the coordinated campaign that led to the defeat of former Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino. It seems the beast is back, bigger and meaner, and there isn't anything we can do to stop it.

Somewhere, Karl Rove and the ghost of Lee Atwater are nodding in approval.

Flint is a Modesto resident. E-mail him at columns@modbee.com.

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