FRESNO, CA –The average California resident may be compelled to think that local government is fair and just; peoples’ busy everyday-lives filled with nine-to-five hours, little leagues games, and 3+ children all under 18 years-old or other distracting circumstances prevents them from seeking out clear facts and detailed research. People decide to read and soak in the latest headlines from chain newspapers, and scripted video sound bites during their corporate-owned nightly local news broadcast.
Little do they know that the politically corrupt state of California earned a “C-” grade according to the 2012 Corruption Risk Report Card which also gave California low marks in punishing corruption, including a C- in judicial accountability. The cause is the lack of adequate enforcement of state ethics and conflict of interest laws, according to the report.
70 historical California corruption cases expose the driving factors behind corruption: money and power, injustice within the justice system, and the lengthiness of time during which public officials commit crimes, according to 2014 article, “An in-depth look at public corruption in California By Emily DePangher. Elected officials involved in such misconduct of three years or more of abusing taxpayers’ dollars were trying to clear old campaign debt or got stuck in the greed of having plenty …
The article then surmised that such behavior by elected officials and public employees limits local, state, federal governments’ effectiveness—the public’s trust in California’s legislature had declined according to a March 2014 PPIC Statewide Survey, where only 36% of Californians approved of the legislature’s performance, compared to 42% in January. It also said that California is one of only a few states in which the majority of the public does not trust its state or local governments: The 2014 suspensions of California State Senators Leland Yee, Ron Calderon, and Roderick Wright who each had separate corruption charges led to a surge in media and public concern over public corruption and campaign finance laws, according to 2014 article, “An in-depth look at public corruption in California By Emily DePangher.
The article continued that the Cornell University Law School offers that with regard to public corruption, “a government official, whether elected, appointed or hired, may violate federal law when he/she asks, demands, solicits, accepts, or agrees to receive anything of value in return for being influenced in the performance of their official duties.” Instances of public corruption include bribery, fraud, perjury, and theft.
It included the facts that in 2012, 1,060 public officials were convicted of corruption nationwide, and there were an average 1,013 convictions annually over the preceding 20 years.
Locally, governments, law enforcement and district attorneys’ decided to take the corrupted matters into their own hands: The Fresno Bee reported on Fresno County District Attorney Lisa A. Smittcamp’s announcement, Wednesday, May 6, 2015, about a Public Integrity Unit to pursue public corruption or election-related crime—former district attorney, Elizabeth Egan, set up a similar office, but no prosecutions were made, reported ABC30.
The Public Integrity Unit investigates and where appropriate, prosecute, those public officials or public employees who commit crimes relating to their official duties, including but not limited to violations of the Brown Act, Elections Code or Political Reform Act according to their website. The special unit is considered an adjunct to the work of the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and allows complainants to submit alleged crimes against public officials or employees in writing anonymously. However the three-member special unit depends on written submissions from the public.
The unit also investigates allegations of voter fraud.
They list general types of cases they investigate and potentially prosecute on their website:
Brown Act violations;
Conflicts of interest;
Election violations;
Improper use of public funds (Penal Code Section 424);
Residency issues for:
false candidacy papers;
Perjury
However, the general public often consumed with life issues, would probably only take on such a duty and obligation when directly affected or involved. And who is to say that a person would ever know to act on possible allegations, especially if there is a lack of trust in the system itself?
ONME News is slowly discovering a ring of local political corruption that has had direct influence on the personal lives of the owners, Julia Dudley Najieb and Lennice Najieb. The offenders so consumed with the grandiose ideas of money and power, have committed federal and civil crimes to sway a city council seat worth billions of dollars—although the California High Speed Rail continues to be California’s spectacle, specific individuals in power attempt to be in control using bullying tactics to ingratiate vulnerable money-hungry cliques. Councilman Baines and Fresno city council district three candidate, Jim Tate Hill, have directives from those they must answer to or could possibly be operating on their own commands of corruption.
ONME News predicted and posted above each relative article it published that a criminal retaliation from candidate, Hill and his supporters was in the works; the most recent dynamics of Julia DN. and Lennice N.’s hard credit inquiry awkwardly pulled from the location of senior manager, Hill’s office at Access Plus Capital (formerly Fresno CDFI) in 2017 brings up red flags. Each report was pulled a week a part on a Friday; one at 3:58 PM and the other at 4:25 PM. The Fresno CDFI representative who pulled the credit listed the pull under “personal services other than medical.” Neither ONME News owner applied for a business loan from the lending institution who recently received $5 million in funding according to a Sept. 26, 2018 Fresno EOC meeting, (Fresno EOC.)
What’s worse is that Hill is supported by ex-police officer and current district 3 Fresno city councilman, Oliver Baines, whose tentacles of double dipping into taxpayer funded programs has gone unnoticed for the past several years, according to the research presented in the Part 1: ONME News Investigative Report: Weeding out political greed, nepotism and conflicts of interest concerning local politicians is key in today’s political climate. (Our initial report that Baines received $60,000 for the EOC consultant contract actually appears to be $120,000.00 per year along with his city of Fresno councilman salary of $65,000.00, not including his board incomes or VAC income, or Mandela Center contract.)
ONME News has recently found the cover-up to be so deep, that the text messages displayed from a former long-time friend and former subcontractor of the owners, Donpreyel Martin, to owner Lennice N.’s phone on the evening of Sept. 5, 2018, was beyond shocking with the surmise that he had been paid to assist in creating the false narrative of the ONME News owners. Earlier the same day, the video interview with Alex Grimaldi came out in ONME News, concerning Hill’s indiscretions in receiving funds from anti-gay supporter Brooke Ashjian—Grimaldi was not aware that Hill had not come out of the closet. The Fresno Bee first broke the story in regards to the disgruntle sentiments from members of the gay community toward Hill.
Martin claimed that there would be accusations and claims of a woman who said she was stalked by owner Lennice N., along with another false claim that there was porn in his classroom. Martin even went further to call Lennice N. on the phone the morning of Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, attempting to frame both owners of taking money from a local non-profit. And of course, none of these false claims and rumors have merit or authentic paperwork to back up such allegations.
ONME News also reported on the demands of Adrian Harris, who bragged in a Sept. 1, 2018 Saturday-morning phone call to owner Lennice’s phone that they would make ONME News incredulous, using allegations, accusations and rumors of embezzlement from a local nonprofit to scare away any news reporting that could damage Hill’s disguised image.
It has been researched that entrepreneur Martin is also a part of Hill’s campaign, possibly using a different alias on the filed FPPC paperwork, other than his usual print and web graphic company name, Insight Design to disguise any wrongdoing; his business resides in the 93706 zip code off of Fresno St., in Fresno, CA. Martin is also very good friends with Councilman Baine’s wife, LaShawn, and has also served as a subcontractor for Councilman Baines on various occasions; this could be a suggested motive for his role in the corrupted political ring. It is questionable who he was forwarding such text messages from; was it from Councilman Baines? Or his wife, LaShawn Baines?
Adrian Harris is now retaliating through an unfounded smear campaign on both owners, distributing an emotionally, defamatory written piece throughout Facebook and mass text messaging campaigns—he even made serious, desperate allegations that ONME News was paid by opponent’s campaign, Miguel Arias, who is running against district 3 candidate, Hill. Luckily such claims can be thoroughly checked publicly through form 460, which candidates are required to file with the FPPC—ONME News has not received any funds from Arias or his campaign.
Out of an emotional rant, Harris, a food-fest promoter, posted Arias and both Najieb’s downtown living address information online, through a cut-and-pasted makeshift document distributed throughout social media and text campaigns. He even made false accusations about unfounded felonies and bankrupcies toward the ONME News owners.
Harris is currently being investigated for his role in the corrupt political crime ring, as he attempts to create erroneous distractions for the ONME News owners through the service organizations Julia DN volunteers. It is suggested and still being researched that payment were made to Harris for his mass distribution through social media manger McFadden, who began the first solicitation for personal, private information attacks toward Lennice N. and Julia DN in August through a public Facebook post.
Although the ONME News owners have distributed online news and covered news stories throughout the Central Valley for the last several years to the public, and they are not running for office, often times people confuse the lawful dynamics of a person’s work life to their personal life privacy rights—nor is Lennice N. or Julia DN. running for public office; therefore, they are not under the same scrutiny as candidate Hill, whose integrity is on the line. Such matters are under investigation by authorities—ONME News' work computers have been hacked and personal business accounts have been compromised since the credit breach by formerly Fresno CDFI. Members of the HIll's team have passed their credit report to members of the community --- these are serious crimes.
Hill’s sexual allegations with minors, specifically young men under 18, is a sore spot for victims who originally agreed to come forward, but were somehow frightened due to the corrupt and bullying political climate of the district 3 race from HIll's side; ONME News will keep the public posted on the outcome of any matter related thereof if interested parties change their minds and wish to come forward.
ONME News was not surprised to hear that Hill’s co-work, Joi Eubanks, would be the potential chief of staff if Hill were to win; Lennice N. and Julia DN. filed a lawsuit in regards to Eubanks after her firing from the previous private lending institution she represented falsely as her own business; the ONME News owners had given her their loan paperwork in 2013 when she was at that previous institution. Due to the dishonest circumstances, the ONME News owners legally called out her negligence in the matter through a several-year lawsuit before her hiring at formerly Fresno CDFI. This was one of the major reasons the ONME News owners did not move forward with loan documents they were attempting to apply for through Fresno CDFI during 2013-2016-- Councilman Baines was a board member during that time-span who also became chair of the organization. He was aware of the complaint of Eubanks but took no action in the matter, (His wife was also serving on the Fresno EOC board during that time too, before her resigning a the end of the 2016.)
In evaluating Councilman Baines’ role in the corrupt political ring, ONME News is finding that his tentacles stretch in many different directions—All addresses of Baines activities lead back to the same location address for his VAC program, solar energy company, and Fresno EOC consulting contract at least back to the year 2014.
ONME News looks forward to presenting Part 2 article on the conflict of interest surrounding Councilman Baines with VAC and the false reporting of results of the program to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.
Stay tuned for more!