State investigates Monterey County Sheriff candidate

UPDATE: 4/26/2018 3:10 p.m. The California Fair Political Practices Commission said its opened an investigation into a Monterey County Sheriff candidate.

Deputy Scott Davis is running against current Sheriff Steve Bernal in the June election.

Former members of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Association accused Davis of embezzling money.

Davis, the former DSA president and a current Salinas City Council member denied all allegations and told KION it is a political stunt.

In a letter responding to the complaint the FPPC enforcement division said it has not made any determination about the validity of the allegations at this time.

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The race for Monterey County Sheriff just keeps getting uglier. As more ousted members of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association speak out, union board members slapped the county and current sheriff with a lawsuit

You’ll remember last week, ousted members of the Monterey County Deputy Sheriff Association came out and accused candidate Scott Davis of embezzling money for his campaign.

“We were able to find $31,000 that has been contributed to either Christian Schneider or Pivotal Campaign Services which is owned by Christian Schneider and Christian Schneider is Scott Davis’ campaign manager for sheriff,” Cmdr. Joe Moses told KION last week.

A copy of the general ledger was sent to KION anonymously. In it, you see multiple checks written to that organization for “outside services.”

On Wednesday, photo copies of the checks were released, all dated in 2017.

“At the time these checks were written, Scott Davis was not on the board of directors for the DSA,” Cmdr. Mark Caldwell said. “And it’s my understanding that being a DSA member does not entitle you to signature privileges on the checking account. I know I can’t go or I couldn’t go and sign checks under the DSA.”

Davis was at the event and watched from a distance. He said the accusations were nonsense and we showed him the checks.

“Did you sign them? Is that your signature,” we asked.
“I’ve never seen them before in my life,” Davis responded.
“So then do you believe that they’re doctored?”
“You know, Steve Bernal and his supporters are going to say and do anything.”

Commander Archie Warren filed a complaint to the California Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate the issue further. They have not yet responded.

Warren and other commanders also want the Department of Justice to take a closer look.

“Do you welcome them looking at your campaign finances as well as the DSA finances?” we asked.
“Well, the DOJ is going to do what the DOJ does,” Davis said. “The FPCC has the rights to look at anything they’d like to look at. There’s nothing there.”

Davis believes it’s a smear tactic, calling current Sheriff Steve Bernal a “Trump Republican,” while he is a democrat.

We asked why he uses those terms to describe a race that is supposed to be non-partisan. He said this is a partisan issue.

Meantime, members of the DSA’s board of directors have filed suit against Bernal and Monterey County, claiming last week’s press conference violated Mitchell and Davis’ rights, especially if they are under investigation by the Sheriff’s Office. The suit also alleges the DSA treasure, Ted Avery, felt threatened by a jail official.

“This was never about a political campaign,” Caldwell said. “This was about the discovery of questionable and gross mismanagement of DSA membership dues. There just happened to be a political campaign going on at the same time.”

The county has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit.

Sheriff Bernal, who is not a member of the union, cannot comment on the suit over legal reasons, but last week told us this was infighting within the union.

Monterey County Counsel Charles McKee echoed that, adding “he is not aware of any actions by the Sheriff in his official capacity that would be implicated in this matter.”