Gina Boyd Tried Hard to Cover up the Truth

Why did Chula Vista Educators President Gina Boyd refuse to come forward and testify in the Maura Larkins case when Maura Larkins was a member of Chula Vista Educators?

Some hints can be found in Ms. Boyd's deposition.

Why did Gina Boyd's lawyer Michael Hersh write a letter on Gina Boyd's behalf that Boyd would not testify about any actions taken by herself or Chula Vista Educators regarding Maura Larkins?

Why did Gina Boyd refuse to allow Marilyn Sanderson of CTA to represent Maura Larkins when Gina Boyd was representing Linda Watson, Jo Ellen Hamilton, Robin Donlan and other teachers who made allegations against Maura Larkins?

Why did Gina Boyd try for two years to avoid being deposed?

Answer: Gina Boyd, Michael Hersh and CTA's chief counsel Beverly Tucker were trying to cover up crimes committed by Gina Boyd, SCTU executive director Tim O'Neill, and Beverly Tucker
in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

On March 22, 2004 I finally got the chance to ask Gina Boyd some questions.

Through an examination of Gina Boyd's actions as she "represented" me, I had become convinced of Gina Boyd's guilt. A rational analysis of the evidence seemed to admit no other explanation than that Gina Boyd acted as she did, violating law after law, as a result of her illegal receipt of arrest records that did not lead to any charges.

But I wanted to know if there was anything I was missing. Was there something that I didn't know that would point to Gina Boyd's innocence? Was there some exculpatory evidence that I hadn't come across? Did Gina Boyd have some defense other than refusing to discuss her actions as my representative.

Absolutely not. After an hour and a half, Boyd's lawyer Michael Hersh instructed her not to answer questions about her representation of me, or any actions of CTA or CVE. I explained that my entire case rested on what I knew of Boyd's violations of law, and CTA and CVE's violations of law, when they were my representatives. Still, Hersh insisted that his client would not answer any questions about those actions. In fact, Kelly Angell (Minnehan) of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, who was representing Richard Werlin, also demanded that Maura Larkins not ask questions about what happened at CVESD.

Gina Boyd and SCTU executive director Tim O'Neill refused to allow Maura Larkins, even though the CVE Bylaws required them to do so, to address the Representative Council and/or Board of Directors of CVE to present a complaint against President Gina Boyd. The corruption of Boyd, O'Neill, and Jim Groth was thus covered up.

However, Maura Larkins informed the members of the Board of Directors individually about Boyd's wrongdoing, and those board members then assisted in covering up the wrongdoing of Boyd, O'Neill, Groth, Beverly Tucker, and Richard Werlin of the CVESD school district.

CVESD teacher Robin Donlan has changed completely--or has she?

David Washburn of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote on May 18, 2007, regarding the recent lawsuit against Vencent Donlan and his wife Robin Donlan, "...Robin Donlan, who teaches fourth grade at Hilltop Drive Elementary in Chula Vista, is cooperating with federal investigators to an “unprecedented degree.”

Any cooperation at all from Robin Donlan in the investigation of crime is unprecedented, in my experience.

Robin's lawyer David Hiden said "she has waived attorney-client and spousal privileges and agreed to informal interviews."

In a civil lawsuit filed about four years ago against Robin Donlan for misdemeanors committed against Maura Larkins at Castle Park Elementary School District, Robin's entire defense was based on attorney-client privilege. Her argument was that any subject she had ever discussed with her attorney was something she should not have to answer questions about. Robin answered only ONE written interrogatory in San Diego Superior Court case no. 781970, and she answered it EIGHT MONTHS after it was served on her, when she knew that the plaintiff had already found out the answer to the question. (The answer was found by a private investigator at a cost of several hundred dollars.) Robin Donlan's brother, Michael Carlson, who is a sheriff's deputy in Santa Barbara, never answered a single interrogatory, nor showed up for a deposition. But perhaps he could be helpful in the current case. He could tell his sister that he puts people in jail all the time for being in possession of stolen property.

While Robin Colls Donlan's cooperation in answering questions is clearly a brand new behavior, some of her other behavior hasn't changed at all.

Robin ensnared a lot of her friends in her crimes, but they all stood loyally by her, claiming the same attorney-client privilege, and committing felonies to cover up her misdemeanors. Robin, on the other hand, seems to have turned against her husband. That's probably wise, since the FBI might be a bit tougher than Robin's victim in the previous case.

Donlan turned against Chula Vista Elementary School District after it had paid many $100,000's of taxpayer dollars to defend her. The San Diego Union Tribune wrote frequently about her attacks on the school district in 2004 when she was transferred to a new school. The district had to spend EVEN MORE MONEY TO DEFEND ITSELF FROM Robin Donlan, after it had spent so much TO DEFEND HER.

Here's what I'm wondering. If Robin really believed that she had HONESTLY AND GENUINELY come into millions of dollars in wealth, why didn't she pay back the taxpayers for all the money they spent on her? Robin's former lawyer Daniel Shinoff is still living high off taxpayer dollars, but the students of Chula Vista Elementary schools could sure use the money.

Interestingly, today's paper says 30 former officials at Mira Costa College are outraged by the college president, Victoria Richart. It seems she funnelled around a million dollars to Daniel Shinoff and a private investigator and school staff to investigate "the errant, but well-intentioned, actions of a teacher struggling to make her program the best in the state." This quote is from a letter from the 30 former officials.

My own personal opinion is, if a public entity is doing business with Daniel Shinoff or Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz, that public entity is probably involved in dirty business. Chula Vista Elementary trustees Cheryl Cox, Bertha Lopez, Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham and Pat Judd wanted lawyers who would be willing to commit crimes to cover up crimes, so they chose Daniel Shinoff of Stutz and Mark Bresee of Parham & Rajcic.

This is certainly true of Grossmont Cuyamaca Community College, where chancellor Omero Suarez changed his own contract without permission, but the lawless board kept him on. He and Dan Shinoff are apparently doing exactly what the board wants. The board clearly does not value honesty. If it did, how could it get away with violating the law so often?

Bonnie Dumanis, why don't you investigate me?

May 18, 2007

Richard Monroy
Jesus Rodriguez
Bonnie Dumanis
San Diego County District Attorney Office

Dear Sirs and Madam:

Yesterday I received a letter from Richard Monroy, dated May 10, 2007. I am deeply concerned by a sentence in the last paragraph: “Our office cannot be used in civil disputes to leverage one side against another.”

Mr. Monroy seems to imply that my complaint constituted an attempt at extortion. If you believe that, Mr. Monroy, you have an obligation to investigate ME.

Of course, after Bonnie Dumanis so pointedly ignored my complaint about Richard Werlin in February 2005, Mr. Monroy’s ugly implication seems pretty silly. My report of a very serious crime resulted in absolutely no action from the San Diego District Attorney. I couldn’t extort a corroded cent out of Cheryl Cox and her powerful associates even if I wanted to. They, not I, are able to dictate who gets investigated. They, not I, are capable of committing extortion.

In fact, Cheryl Cox and her associates committed extortion when they had me threatened by law enforcement when I filed a PERB charge, and again when I filed a San Diego Superior Court lawsuit. Every time I tried to exercise my rights under the law, Cheryl Cox and her associates intimidated me in every way they could.

Finally, Cheryl Cox and every member of the Chula Vista Elementary School District Board violated Labor Code 1102.5 by firing me for reporting wrongdoing. Their dismissal decision clearly states that I was fired for filing a lawsuit and grievances. They wanted my silence and my livelihood. All they got was my livelihood.

Mr. Monroy’s discussion of extortion is particularly bogus because it would be impossible for a person like me who is not politically-connected to cause the prosecution of defendants are very politically connected. Cheryl Cox’s campaign can get a prosecution started against a low-level employee like Jason Moore for taking two hours off work, but I can’t get a prosecution started against Cheryl Cox. I knew long before I made my first complaint about Richard Werlin that the San Diego District Attorney would never investigate, much less prosecute, Cheryl Cox and her criminal co-conspirators.

Mr. Monroy’s letter says, “Experience has shown that there are always two sides to each story.” And the Cheryl Cox side is the only one you are interested in, isn’t it? My side gets short shrift from the D.A.’s office. It’s obvious that the investigation of crimes committed by Cheryl Cox and her associates was completely ruled out by your office before you ever received any communication from me.

Please don’t hesitate to call me in the unlikely event that you have any questions about this matter.

Yours truly,
Maura Larkins

Bless you, Linda Lozito and Cathy Travalos

For years I've intended to put Richard Werlin's deposition on the Internet, along with the contradictory testimony of others, but I never got around to it.

Now that Linda Lozito and Cathy Travalos are trying to make Werlin's false allegations stick to me, I am motivated to get my scanner out and do the job.

This morning I hobbled out to my storage room on my broken ankle, and got Werlin's deposition. I fell on Cowles Mountain in San Diego on April 7, and got lifted off in a helicopter. It was almost worth having 17 screws and three plates in my ankle to experience such a terrific ride. It was just like on TV, except that I hadn't expected to whirl around and around as I was winched up to the helicopter. But that was great, too.

Now I'm installing the scanner software on my little PC laptop. It's going to be a slow precedure, since I'm enlarging the condensed version of the transcript. I'll skip the first 39 pages where Werlin talks about his many different places of employment around the country, and a lot of background information. I'll try to pick out the most interesting pages. Then I'll put the sworn testimony of teachers who contradicted Werlin under oath.

Of course, the biggest contradictions are within Werlin's own words.

Like when he describes me as a maniac practically foaming at the mouth, then has trouble explaining why he asked me to return to work eight days later without a fitness for duty evaluation! Werlin's description of me is actually a pretty good fit for what Werlin looks like when he's going off--he must have looked like that the day he was screaming at principal Bill Hall, who fell to the floor of his office with a heart attack. Werlin told him to quit being dramatic. But then, Werlin got himself out of testifying in my court case by claiming heart problems.

Jenny Mo, if you sue Werlin, be sure to file a Motion to Compel his testimony. I didn't, but a judge in another case compelled Werlin to testify, saying his heart problems weren't that serious.

Maura

Steve Castaneda is right about Cheryl Cox

Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castañeda agrees that Bonnie Dumanis has a suspicious habit of going after Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox's political opponents. I would go further. Dumanis also lets Cheryl Cox get away with felonies. Castaneda's story is in today's San Diego Union Tribune. I have previously written about Dumanis' shocking prosecution of Jason Moore for taking two hours off work, and her shameful non-prosecution of Richard Werlin, Cheryl Cox's agent when she was a board member at CVESD.

Response from "disgruntled" teacher

Recently I discovered that Linda Lozito, a parent in West Contra Costa County School District in Richmond, California had written about me on the Internet. Her school district is also known as WCCCUSD, and was called Richmond Schools before it was reorganized in the 1990's after trying to declare bankrupcy. Here is my response.

I am the San Diego teacher whose sanity parent Linda Lozito of wccusdtalk questioned in order to defend Richard Werlin. Werlin was Assistant Superintendent of WCCCUSD in Richmond, California, until he had a teacher arrested in front of her second-graders because she complained about bullying. Werlin then proceeded to fall off the map, as he had done three years earlier in my school district, Chula Vista Elementary School District in the San Diego area.

Werlin held the same position when he was down here at CVESD. When he was subpoenaed in December 2003 to testify in my lawsuit against him, he suddenly claimed to have heart problems. He was seen looking hale and hearty soon afterward, but he stayed out of work and collected a lot of sick pay. Werlin's health problems seemed to have recurred the day after second-grade teacher Jenny Mo was arrested. A judge in San Diego decided that Werlin's heart problems were too mild to justify his request not to testify in court. Maybe the judge should have taken that into consideration that scientists have found that lying is stressful.

Ms. Lozito did not understand the PERB document she quoted in her comments. She seemed to think that a court decision had been reached in the PERB case. In fact, she was looking at a charge I filed against Richard Werlin. PERB did not do any fact-finding. It simply decided not to act on my charge. Since Richard Werlin was working with CTA, PERB's decision is not surprising. PERB's general counsel Robert Thompson has a decidedly odd relationship with CTA. He is very close to CTA's head counsel Beverly Tucker, and has never accepted a CTA member's complaint against CTA.

Linda Lozito looked among the shockingly false allegations of Richard Werlin that were quoted in the PERB refusal, and selected some quotes about me to put on the Internet. She suggested that wccusdtalk members look at my website (mauralarkins.com) and decide for themselves who was telling the truth. She reminded people that some teachers really are crazy.

Of course Linda is right that some teachers are crazy. The same is true of cab drivers, engineers,housewives, and school district administrators. But people in power have a bad habit of destroying anyone who questions their actions with the time-honored trick of calling their opponents crazy. (Remember how the Soviet Union put all those protesters in mental hospitals?)

I believe that Richard Werlin's behavior in the Jenny Mo case was over-the-top in its aggressiveness and vindictiveness. It was the result of poor leadership skills. I have personally seen Richard Werlin behave like someone with a severe anger management problem.

Jenny Mo's fellow employees wanted her to shut up about bullying at the school. They really shouldn't have been so afraid to openly discuss the subject. In fact, why not have a public discussion of the problem?

In my case, my fellow employees had secretly committed crimes against me, and I was asking questions that were likely to lead to the exposure of those crimes. Werlin and the teachers union wanted me to shut up, and worked together to cover up their wrongdoing. (Robin Donlan, the teacher who committed crimes against me, was a personal friend of the teachers union president.)

Linda Lozito apparently believed, without evidence, that Werlin and Robin Donlan and others were telling the truth, and tried to defend Werlin. This blind belief, obviously shared by teacher and wcccusd talk moderator Cathy Travalos, stands in opposition to the school district's decision to transfer Robin Donlan and her friends out of my school in 2004. But neither Lozito nor Travalos bothered to do the basic Googling that would have exposed serious problems in CVESD that were described by the San Diego Union Tribune, La Prensa, and San Diego Education Report. They didn't want to look at Werlin's legacy in Chula Vista. The transfer of five teachers was an unprecedented action to clean up a very serious problem. The school board had spent several $100,000's to cover up Robin Donlan's crimes, but Donlan was still causing trouble. The school board ended up spending even more money to defend itself from Robin. It should never have spent a dime on Castle Park Elementary. It should have transferred Robin Donlan and her co-conspirators in 2001.

Linda Lozito's apparent supposition that my opponents were honest and decent people received another blow this past weekend. Robin Donlan was sued for $7.7 million for stock options fraud. She is being investigated by the FBI, SEC, IRS and the Justice Department.

In my case, the California Teachers Association destroyed documents and committed perjury again and again. I plan to file a lawsuit soon regarding these crimes.

Parents of WCCCUSD, you will have better teachers for your kids if you demand that the law be followed when the union and the district work together to get rid of teachers. The targets are usually neither incompetent nor crazy. In my experience, the targets are usually the best teachers. The reason for the attack is almost always that the teacher has somehow gotten in the way of the union and/or district bosses' personal power.

CTA should be paying for a lawyer for Jennie Mo--and they shouldn't demand that they choose the lawyer! CTA refused to pay a cent for my representation--after I'd paid dues for twenty-five years!-- because I asked them to pay for a lawyer of my choice when I realized that the lawyer CTA chose for me was sabotaging me.)

You might also ask how much money your district has spent on defense lawyers in order to cover up wrongdoing.

Maura Larkins
San Diego

The above post is a response to
Linda Lozito's post about me.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wccusdtalk/message/8860

If you go to the wccusdtalk site, and do a search for "werlin," you'll find other thoughts about the individual who has wreaked havoc in districts across the country.

Cathy Travalos, teacher at Kensington School and moderator of the group, was reluctant to publish my response on the wcccusd site, so I'm publishing it here.

Should I be surprised that a group that proclaims itself to be "open and honest" publishes misguided defenses of people it doesn't know, and refuses to allow rebuttals by individuals maligned in the process.

No. Anybody can proclaim themselves to be "open and honest" or "fair and balanced." If you want the truth told, you usually have to tell it yourself. So I've started a Yahoo group of my own. I've posted my correspondence with Cathy Travalos here.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/schoolskeepingsecrets/