Former Humboldt County Building and Planner Patrick McTigue had a hearing this morning for entry of restitution order and review of restitution to victims.
Judge Kelly Neel ordered restitution in the following amounts to the following victims: $50k for Lacey and Richard Amaral. $25k to Jessie Genaro. $25k to Timothy Roscoe. $1,100 to Jeremy Kurtz.
The victims, especially Kurtz, who has been vocal at every hearing are free to file a civil case against McTigue and the County. The criminal case status is closed in e-court.
On 3/8/22, there was the same hearing scheduled and continued to 4/21.
I broke the story, reported on it for months with exclusives, before other media decided to cover it.
This plea avoided any investigation, a trial which was very convenient for the Board of Supervisors, Building and Planning and HCSO. Rex, Billy, Maggie, and John Ford, all fighting the Humboldt Auditor Controller and demanding evidence yet failed to give the public a chance to find out the depth of who else may have been involved and who knew what about McTigue's actions.
Plea deals, especially in a high profile case are not approved by a Deputy District Attorney so don't take it out on the prosecutor in this case.
As I wrote in my October 18 post, "Was the deal because Deputy Public Defender Casey Russo worked harder for a resolution? Was it pandemic court fatigue? Or is it because a plea is beneficial to more than just McTigue? The plea ends any investigation. No trial means no one from the Planning Department or County has to testify."
"I knew when I broke the story, McTigue would be the scapegoat and no one or nothing else else would be investigated. The county made it difficult to get answers when I initially broke the story. It was my persistence or this would have remained a news tip."
Deputy District Attorney Steve Steward is the prosecutor. Deputy Public Defender Casey Russo is McTigue's attorney.
McTigue had several charges dismissed, got probation, got to do SWAP instead of serving time jail. His victims deserve restitution.
Previous posts:
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2021/11/as-i-predicted-no-time-in-jail-instead.html?m=1
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2021/10/guarantee-of-probation-and-half-charges.html?m=1
(I am not going to link the numerous posts I did, acess them via the search feature on the blog or Google)
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