Until recently, Irvine-based Republican fundraiser Desiree Mouzoon prominently listed a testimonial on her business website from Mike Duvall. Why not? Until recently, Duvall had been an Orange County state assemblyman who served as vice chairman of a powerful legislative utilities committee and worked in the California GOP's leadership.
embarrassment may have been more than professional. According to Lopez,
unidentified sources allege that the fundraiser (a onetime Duvall staffer on the public payroll) was
caught in a “compromising position” with Duvall in the front seat of
the assemblyman's vehicle.
]
On Tuesday night, Lopez and a camera crew confronted Mouzoon
at a Fullerton fundraiser for Linda Ackerman, her new client and a candidate
who is attempting to win the 72nd state assembly district special election contest to
replace Duvall.
“No, no . . . I'm not answering your questions . . . no, no,”
she told Lopez, before, as the veteran broadcast journalist recalled to me,
“running away almost as quickly as Duvall did when we confronted him in
the capitol.”
Ironically, Dick Ackerman–Linda's husband and the former OC
state senator–is the man generally credited with grooming Duvall for state
politics. Ackerman critics say it's also ironic that he and his wife are
claiming county Supervisor Chris Norby, a Republican rival for the seat, is
unfit for the office because of past allegations of sexual harassment.
A Corona beer-toting, visibly displeased Dick Ackerman confronted Lopez
at the fundraiser and refused to let him speak to his candidate/wife, saying,
“I speak on behalf of my wife.”
My attempts to interview Mouzoon–a former high school
teacher and three-time marathon finisher known to perform notable charitable
work for a variety of good causes–were unsuccessful.
*Others who are quoted touting Mouzoon's services at Dez
N Associates include Republicans OC Fair Board member Dale Dykema,
Supervisor Pat Bates, FlashReport publisher Jon Fleischman and consultant Tim
Clark. On her website, she also ties herself to pollster Adam Probolsky, lobbyist
Christopher Townsend of Townsend Public Affairs, Costa Mesa City Councilman
Eric Bever and the Orange County Young Republicans.
CLICK HERE to see the original Weekly Duvall-Sempra lobbyist
story.
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
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.