August 8, 2000 - Santa Ana Superior Court

Today, Judge Eileen C. Moore issued a ruling after a two day trial in which she found that three council members had violated the Brown Act, California’s Open Government and Meeting law.

Judge Moore decided that Sherri Butterfield, Susan Withrow and Bill Craycraft had threatened and attempted to intimidate the newly elected John Paul Ledesma during a closed session of the City Council. This was a result of John Paul’s proposals to open city government to more public input by having the voters pass on large capital expenditures and other important city actions.

As part of her ruling the judge said, speaking about the three council members, “The public should be able to view events concerning official business, including discord among council members about interviews concerning city business with the press, as the events occur. During the trial, 16 months after the event, one council member was shaking in fury, another assumed a curt and defiant demeanor and yet another cried. Residents of Mission Viejo should not be expected to rely upon a sterile later-reconstructed version of events by council members accused of violating the Brown Act, in order to gauge the efficiency of their local government.”

A copy of the ruling is available by clicking here. We have photocopied the original court documents for your examination.

UPDATE - a text verision which is more readable of the preliminary decision is now available here.

The final decision will also be posted as soon as it is available.