A Newport Beach parolee convicted in 2013 of conning seven victims out of nearly $200,000 while pretending to be a financial wizard for National Basketball Association superstars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James this month sued the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) and The Orange County Register.
Calvin James Calvin, who is supposed to be serving a 13-year prison term, claims OCSD officials violated his constitutional rights by denying him medical care after he suffered an injury while serving as a trustee at the Theo Lacy Jail.
But most of the hand-scribbled federal lawsuit addresses Calvin's anger at a May 31, 2013, Register article written by Eric Hartley, who joined the paper in 2013. He claims without explanation that Hartley's work is “racist” and a violation of his civil rights because the reporter–again, unexplained–acted under the color of state authority. His reasoning for his incarceration: “Cover up of Mr. Tony Rackauckas, the head district attorney” who supposedly ate dinner in his office with a man and discussed “aroma M.D. medical deal.”
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Calvin, who claims he has informed the FBI and Secret Service about his victimization, is demanding $5 million in compensation, a Register retraction printed for 30 consecutive days and an article about Rackauckas' corruption.
“Thank you in advance,” he wrote to U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Carla Woehrle, who will decide if the complaint is technically sound and worthy of a future hearing.
Last year, Calvin sued Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg, Senior Deputy District Attorney Cameron Talley and Rackauckas for their roles in his conviction. He claimed they denied him medical care, access to the jail law library and are racists. He sought $10 million in damages, but U.S. District Court Judge George H. King dismissed that case as maliciously frivolous last June.
Calvin's most ambitious lawsuit happened in 2010. He sued then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for wrecking his marriage and violating numerous constitutional rights by raiding his homes. He unsuccessfully sought $50 million in compensation.
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Email: rs**********@oc******.com. Twitter: @RScottMoxley.
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.