The California State Bar issued a statement this afternoon defending its Nov. 7 firing of former Orange County state Senator Joe Dunn as executive director and claiming Dunn's lawsuit response depicting himself as an abused whistleblower is “bewildering.”
According to the announcement, Dunn was under investigation based on several complaints and the bar board carefully considered the situation before terminating his employment.
“On July 31, 2014, the board received a complaint from a high-level employee raising serious, wide-ranging allegations about Executive Director Joe Dunn and certain state bar employees,” the statement declares. “Another complaint followed in mid-August from another high-level employee.”
Following the investigation by an independent law firm, the board voted on Nov. 7 to fire Dunn.
The state bar has not yet disclosed specific accusations.
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“At no time prior to Nov. 13 was Joe Dunn ever identified as a whistleblower, and he never brought any such claims to the board,” according to the bar's statement that goes on to declare Dunn post-firing lawsuit “baseless.”
Dunn claims he discovered egregious ethical and financial maneuverings at the state bar and was fired for not looking the other way.
“[Dunn] only belated raised claims after he was given notice of termination of his employment agreement and after a settlement discussion with his counsel at the Girardi and Keese firm reached an impasse on Nov. 12,” the statement says.
Celebrity lawyer and cable TV mouthpiece Mark Geragos is representing Dunn in his lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Dunn–arguably Orange County's most popular Democrat during his multiple terms in Sacramento–was not available for comment this afternoon.
Go HERE to see our original news article about the dispute.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.