Published in slightly edited form April 9, 2014 in the Foothills Sun-Gazette
In the midst of Orange Blossom Festival Week, as our Queen and her Court are being escorted around town, one Lindsay family is celebrating the end of an ordeal caused by the Lindsay Department of Public Safety.
It's not a pretty story for a pretty time of year. But we can join the forces of Spring in welcoming Councilman Steven Mecum, his wife Delma and their family back to the land of the living.
This ordeal started almost two months ago. On Monday, Feb. 17th, around 9 pm at the end of a three-day weekend, I got a call from Delma, who was on her way to bail Steven out of Visalia Main jail. "I just want you to know what's happening," she started, her voice firmly collected if not calm.
Two days earlier, on the Saturday of the three-day weekend, her brother had come to their house accompanied by Officer Eddie Alcantar hoping to "repossess" their car. Driven by other grievances that arose during their mother's recent death, Delma's brother still had the pink slip from the loan he and his mother co-signed in 2001 for the purchase of the Mecum's car, which Steven and Delma had paid off in 2006. The car's pink slip never got signed over to the Mecums, giving the brother a hammer, he thought, for revenge.
Having the pink slip on a car gives the holder something called "bare legal title" to the vehicle. Long-term possession and making payments on a car also confer ownership, called "equitable" and "possessory" rights. Steven told Officer Alcantar that they paid for the car in full and had documentation to prove it, declining to turn over the keys. Alcantar made a phone call, then spoke briefly with both the brother and Steven, then left.
But Monday night around dinner time three squad cars and half a dozen officers returned with search and arrest warrants signed by Judge Val Saucedo. They commandeered the keys and the car, and took Steven away in handcuffs.
Delma's story was frightening enough, but it got worse. While Steven was being held in a cell at the Lindsay police station, he overheard Chief Wilkinson talking about a press release announcing his arrest for felony embezzlement. The media had that "news" first thing Tuesday morning.
The impact on the public was immediate. Put the three words "Councilman" "arrested" and "embezzlement" in a headline's bold black letters, and many people jumped to the conclusion that the Lindsay City Council is "as corrupt as ever," not wanting to read more of the same old story. "I only read the headlines," confessed several people when I asked what they thought. One friend assumed that Mecum was automatically removed from the city council because of the arrest. Fortunately, Steven's supervisor at the prison where he works as a correctional officer did not jump to the same "guilty" conclusion, or he might have been put on leave or into a lower-grade job. Fortunately he was allowed to continue working in his current position.
But Mecum was not charged with felony embezzlement or anything else. The Mecums had to raise money for the bail of $35,000, which cost them $2,800, plus more money to retain an attorney. He had to borrow a car to drive to work and his family had to suffer this public humiliation, all for a case with no charges. Six weeks later, on March 31, the DA's office informed his attorney that the case would not be pursued.
The arrest was a total fraud. As a friend with family in law enforcement told me, "any policeman worth his salt would have told the disgruntled brother-in-law to take the matter to small claims court" and let a judge settle the question of ownership. Yet the Lindsay PD, with full approval of Chief Wilkinson and the assistance of Judge Saucedo, decided they would be the judge of that question.
But ownership of the car was never really the point of this episode. Using an erroneous definition of "embezzlement," Wilkinson's press release proved he could inflict damage with the flick of a wrist, no matter what the truth actually was or turned out to be in the courts of justice. It was a shot over the bow not only of Councilman Mecum, but any person who might want to serve in that position. When he pushed the "send" button on that fax machine, he was letting it be known who is king of this dung heap.
The Mecums are not the only victims in this fraud. We are, too. Loud and clear the message is being sent to anyone serving on the city council that if you vote "no" enough times, you'll have the PD down your neck. This is not a good message for democracy in our town.
The fact that Wilkinson thinks he can pull this off and get away with it is a strong sign that we were right, those of us who thought his wearing two hats was never a good idea. It is long past time for him to retire at least one of them, if not both.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who still believes, despite all the evidence, that it is possible to have democracy and tell the truth in a small town. You can send her your evidence c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
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