Posted on 02/21/2003 12:32:02 PM PST by Saundra Duffy
Edited on 04/12/2004 2:10:07 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
A little bit of background. Duly-elected State Assemblyman Steve Samuelian is one of the most fierce conservative Republicans in the State of California. He's also a human being. About three weeks ago on a Saturday night at 9:45 he drove into a gas station to ask for directions. The female police officer gave him directions and then sent him on his way.
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
Except this is the same street he got "lost" on in 1998.
"Meantime, Action News has learned that some of those who protested the Fresno Bee's reporting on Samuelian's conduct actually have ties to the assemblyman.
Scott Hawkins has a daughter who works as a secretary for Samuelian. Saundra Duffy, the most vocal of the protesters, is married to Hawkins.
Duffy says her family's connection to Samuelian has no bearing on the legitimacy of their protest. They say he's been judged prematurely."
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/news/021303_nw_samuelian.html
About 9:45 p.m., police saw a vehicle going north on Parkway Drive that had a personalized license plate -- A29. The state-issued plate refers to Assembly District 29, which Samuelian represents.
Police saw the vehicle five minutes later, and again two to three minutes later when it pulled into the Villager Lodge Motel, 933 N. Parkway Drive, and made a U-turn. The police said the driver appeared to "be following a female."
Officers stopped the vehicle.
Two officers approached Samuelian's Blazer and asked him whether he was lost.
"Yes, I am looking for the Farm Bureau but I have not been able to find it," he replied.
Samuelian was asked whether he was aware Parkway Drive was a known area of drug use and prostitution. He said no, that he was from Clovis and was looking for the Farm Bureau to drop off a flier.
He asked for directions and said he was tired and wanted to go home. The officers gave him directions to the Farm Bureau, which is about a half-mile away at the corner of West and Hedges avenues.
Police let Samuelian go. Later that evening, they checked the Farm Bureau building. It was locked and deserted, and they found no fliers.
On Sunday, one of the officers who stopped Samuelian was advised by other officers that Samuelian "was possibly on probation and had prior arrests in regard to prostitution-related offenses." A subsequent search turned up the earlier citation.
That incident took place Sept. 21, 1998 -- about four months after Samuelian was married. As he prepared to run for the Assembly in October 2001, Samuelian set up a meeting with The Bee and admitted to the incident.
Samuelian, a Clovis Republican, was elected to the Assembly in November. It was his first run for an elected office. Before that, he served more than seven years as district director for Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa.
According to a police report from the first incident, Samuelian asked an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute for oral sex. She replied that the price was $20. He then said: "How do I know you're not a cop? Prove it to me."
After Samuelian refused to go into a motel room, the undercover officer walked away from the car.
Samuelian drove off and was pulled over.
When the undercover officer asked Samuelian whether he had sought out prostitutes before, he said that he had "lots of times," the police report said. In later discussions with police, he said he had never done such a thing before.
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/6118246p-7070892c.html
Wow, only four months after he got married?
He was pulled over.
You keep saying he stopped and asked for directions. The fact is, the police said they saw him driving down the same street three times, a street frequented by prostitutes, and they pulled him over.
Now, either you are saying the police are lying or you are spinning so hard that the truth no longer matters. Please tell us which it is.
The Simon candidacy was an air ball.
"Removed the citation from his record"... yet the police, refering to that "non-existant record", recommended prosecution. Did the English Language get changed last week and I was not notified? Or is it that the police, contrary to law and court orders, can keep records that have been expunged?
Or is it just the records of Republicans that are kept?
So in the end, they either don't get excited, or make a crossover.
I would never criticize you for defending a friend. However, his defense if full of holes and this is the most telling statement in the whole article. You are probably correct on the Republicans eating their own in this state. You are closer to the situation than I. I'm just not sure this falls into that category. Perhaps they know something or suspect something they are not saying. Even good men have been known to think with the wrong anatomy.
Those of you who do this are just as irresponsible and selfish as the fools in the Rat Party who support Shapton, McKinney and Nancy Leposi.
By the way, you wouldn't happen to be Johnny Shear in a previous incarnation, would ya?
You missed my point, big time. Let's look at what happened: Samuelian WAS caught soliciting in 1998. Now, he's caught hanging around a street that HE KNOWS is a hangout for prostitutes. I will say that this proves nothing about whether he solicited (and the fact that the charges were dropped shows that the Fresno cops know that nothing proveable occurred). On this point, I agree with you, but it ends there.
OK, so he's innocent - this time. However, this really calls his judgment into question. I don't know about you, but if I had been convicted of soliciting a few years ago, I'd steer as far away as I could from the locations where I knew prostitutes hang out, just to be certain that I couldn't be accused of the same crime again. I'd do this for the sake of my marriage - which ought to be far more important to anyone than their political career. Given his history, the fact that he was on that street raises questions about what he was doing, even if he was (as it appears) innocent of any crime on this particular occasion. Face it, he's shown himself to be pretty stupid. Maybe the Kali Republicans want him gone because they view him as a liability. Maybe he short-circuits their ability to claim the moral high ground. Maybe they are worried that he'll be their version of X-42 (albeit on a much lower level).
Yes, facts are facts. But appearances are also very important, particularly for a politician, and most especially for a politician who has been involved in a nearly identical scandal in the fairly recent past. His failure to understand that doesn't speak too highly of him, regardless of his stand on the issues. His poor judgment has the effect of smearing all of those who share similar views - despite the fact that he did nothing (that can be proven) this time and despite the fact that his ideological compatriots are themselves innocent.
Try to look at the forest, and not just a few trees.
By the way, if Samuelian gets by this scandal and keeps himself clean in both fact and appearance, I hope that the man has a long and successful political career and keeps his marriage together. Let's see if he survives, and if his judgment improves by several orders of magnitude.
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