April 6, 2010, Day 12 of the Civil Trial of Sal Rosselli, John Borsos, John Vellardita, Glenn Goldstein, NUHW and others.
Closing agreements start the day off. Each side is allowed 2 hours.
Gary Kohlman addresses the jury in a very soft and pleasant voice. It’s about rules and consequences.
He reminds the jury of what these defendants are on trail for. And what they are accused of, removing property that belonged to UHW, sabotaging the union and the trusteeship, and creating a new union while still on the payroll for UHW.
Kohlman goes through the emails and documents that have been placed in evidence. He shows the jury where the evidence is that the defendants have done wrong.
He goes back to the plan that Barbara Lewis had made up, where she said she wanted to make the union “ungovernable,” and shows the emails to various defendants where many of those items were implemented. He shows charts from 2007 showing the early planning of the conspiracy with tasks to be completed and by who and when.
He reminded the jury that a NUHW staff list had been retrieved from Fred Seavey’s computer and was dated January 21, 2009, six days before the trusteeship.
Kohlman breaks down when each defendant comes in to the conspiracy.
Early conspiracy 2007: John Borsos, Glenn Goldstein, Mary Ruth Gross, Michael Krivosh, Daniel Martin, Sal Rosselli, Fred Seavey, John Vellardita, Paul Kumar, and Laura Kurre.
Spring 2008 Frenzy: Jorge Rodriguez, Phyllis Willett, Joan Emslie, Andrew Reid, and Emily Gordon added to the list.
Fall of 2008: Barbara Lewis, Gabe Kristal and Marti Garza added to the list
Creation of NUHW: Ralph Cornejo, Gail Buhler, Mark Kipfer, Freja Nelson, and Peter Tappeiner added to the list.
Ungovernable memo Implemented: Jason Johnson and Ian Selden added to the list.
Closing for the defense was Dan Siegel. He told the jury that the burden of proof was on the plaintiff for each defendant. He talked about how he wanted Andy Stein to be here. How if we were claiming that the union was left dysfunctional then who better to testify to that than Dave Regan. Why wasn’t he called to testify?
What he didn’t say was that he and the defense could have called those people himself!
Siegel showed E-board minutes from several board meetings and how various resolution were approved by the board.
EXCUSE ME BUT WHO RAN THE E-BOARD MEMBERS??
I DO BELIEVE THE E-BOARD AT THE END WERE JUST THE RUBBER STAMP FOR SAL ROSSELLI……
The rebuttal by Mr. Kohlman was much different than his closing statements. He was much louder and I must say the jury was a little surprised.
I watched the jurors more today. During Mr. Kohlman’s statements, they were taking notes and seemed to ready be in tune with what he was saying. When Mr. Siegel was speaking they only seemed to be writing down the exhibit numbers of various documents.
So the jury received their instructions before being escorted out to start their deliberation at 1:56. They will deliberate from 8 to 3 each day until they have reached a verdict on all the defendants.
So keep you eyes and ears open. We are now in stand-by mode until the jurors come back with their verdict.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Day 11 and the defense rests
April 5, 2010, Day 11 of the civil trial against Sal Rosselli, NUHW and others.
We resumed with cross examination of Barbara Lewis. A document was shown to her that listed the Kinko’s that they could use after the trusteeship. A receipt dated January 28, 2009 showed an amount of $41,871.71 paid to Kinko’s for decertification petitions. While testifying on the stand she stated it a trusteeship is a “sad moment.” Then there was a video clip shown where she is telling the members “it’s a great day for our union.” On an email from Barbara Lewis dated January 22, 2009 she advised everyone they were on 24-hour alert. They were to keep phones on them at all time and wouldn’t be getting any sleep. We are in code “Orange.”
Ok so which one was it – sad or happy? This is so much like all the defense case has been.
Witness John Borsos. As with so many others he couldn’t remember attending key meetings. He said it’s hard to remember because sometimes meetings would be scheduled and they would sometimes be canceled.
I had to cough and had to step out of the court room. But I was watching through the window when Judge Alsup went off on Borsos for something he was doing. Sorry I missed that one!!!!!
The final witness for the defense was Eloise Reese-Burns. She is a worker at North American Long Term care facility. She is a NUHW supporter and stated that she knew about the contract extensions being canceled.
Defense rest….
In our rebuttal, they played a video clip of Elizabeth Ortega’s deposition where she admitted that she told Jennifer Castro to return to Sacramento and leave yellow cards and sign in sheets with Marti Garza.
Tomorrow we will hear closing arguments. Then Judge Alsup will give the jury their instructions. We will then be on stand-by until the jury delivers the verdict for all 26 defendets.
Stay tuned and be sure and give us your comments on the blog.
We resumed with cross examination of Barbara Lewis. A document was shown to her that listed the Kinko’s that they could use after the trusteeship. A receipt dated January 28, 2009 showed an amount of $41,871.71 paid to Kinko’s for decertification petitions. While testifying on the stand she stated it a trusteeship is a “sad moment.” Then there was a video clip shown where she is telling the members “it’s a great day for our union.” On an email from Barbara Lewis dated January 22, 2009 she advised everyone they were on 24-hour alert. They were to keep phones on them at all time and wouldn’t be getting any sleep. We are in code “Orange.”
Ok so which one was it – sad or happy? This is so much like all the defense case has been.
Witness John Borsos. As with so many others he couldn’t remember attending key meetings. He said it’s hard to remember because sometimes meetings would be scheduled and they would sometimes be canceled.
I had to cough and had to step out of the court room. But I was watching through the window when Judge Alsup went off on Borsos for something he was doing. Sorry I missed that one!!!!!
The final witness for the defense was Eloise Reese-Burns. She is a worker at North American Long Term care facility. She is a NUHW supporter and stated that she knew about the contract extensions being canceled.
Defense rest….
In our rebuttal, they played a video clip of Elizabeth Ortega’s deposition where she admitted that she told Jennifer Castro to return to Sacramento and leave yellow cards and sign in sheets with Marti Garza.
Tomorrow we will hear closing arguments. Then Judge Alsup will give the jury their instructions. We will then be on stand-by until the jury delivers the verdict for all 26 defendets.
Stay tuned and be sure and give us your comments on the blog.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Day 10: 11 Defense Witnesses, But Still No Defense
April 2, 2010 Day 10 of Civil Trial against Sal Rosselli, Joan Emslie, John Vellardita, Ralph Cornejo, NUHW and others.
Where’s the defense case? I still haven’t seen much. The defense goes into every defendant who takes the stand about where they worked in the labor movement, where they were working on January 27, 2009 when the trusteeship happened, and where they are working now. We already know that they were all working for SEIU-UHW and they are working for NUHW now.
We started off with Joan Emslie on the stand. Defense attorney Siegel show her several E-board minutes and confirmed that yes they are the minutes of the E-board. She confirmed the resolution by the E-board for the PEF (Patient Education Fund.) She confirmed the notice from the IRS for the tax exempt status of the PEF. She confirmed the resolution for closing down the PEF. Then they showed the schedule of the expenses for the PEF. The total expenses were $121,825.42. On cross examination she testified that she was on the Board of the PEF, UHW secretary and treasurer and was now the NUHW secretary and treasurer. Edward Garvey was the media consultant for the PEF and was paid $28,259.80 for what he understood to be work fighting Andy Stern, not educating patients. There was a dispute between Garvey and the PEF.
The defense put 11 witnesses today. Per an agreement with the defense we were able to put Richard Rubio-Bowley on the stand. Because he is still in the hospital they showed an 8-minute video from his deposition to the jury. In his deposition, done on May 5, 2009, he stated that after dropping his daughter off in front of his house he then went around the corner to the side street to park as there was no parking in front of his home. When he got out of the car, he saw 2 men standing at the corner but didn’t know who they were. Then John Vellardita pulled up from the wrong side of the street next to Richard’s car. The 2 men from the corner, Gabe Kristal and Mario Santos, had also come down to where he was. Richard stated that he felt threatened.
Witness #2 John Vellardita took the stand next. He stated that about 100 long-term care contracts were up in 2008 and they had completed 40 new contracts by the end of the year. He said that in January 2009 there were still 60 open contracts, 30 of which were tied up with other issues. Vellardita testified that he told Mark Kipfer to terminate 30 contracts extensions so that the other homes get the message. But it’s obvious they were terminated to NUHW could come back and decertify them
He said the he had heard that Richard Rubio-Bowley had been to the Winslow bargaining and that they (John Vellardita, Mario Santos, and Gabe Kristal) had just innocently gone by his house to talk with him. John stated that he had been at the break-in at the Alameda SEIU office on January 20, 2009 (as Beverley Griffin has testified yesterday). Vellardita testified that “coincidentally” both he and Gabe Kristal had reported that their laptops were stolen on January 21, 2009.
He agreed that he had sent out an email asking the secret group (Shakers and Makers) to get and use personal emails, the reasoning for this was because SEIU had placed 2 monitors in UHW and that the group didn’t want them to know what they were doing. Exactly.
Witness #3 Gloria Watkins, and witness #4 Jonathan Weitz had nothing much to talk about.
Witness #5 Ralph Cornejo on cross examination had to admit to having an office set up for the PEF inside his home. He stated that there was a set up for two phone lines and a line for a computer, but that equipment was never installed, even though earlier testimony showed that phones were put in. On January 27, 2009 there was an email sent out to Kaiser to activate their phone lists to resist the trusteeship. On January 27, 2009 he obtained a 4,000-pagae list of Kaiser members with their personal information.
Witness #6 Paul Kumar, former UHW director of government affairs. The defense showed activity reports from December 2008 through January 2009 to where he hadn’t listed any of the secret meeting on them. EXCUSE ME BUT WOULD YOU LIST SECRET MEETINGS ON YOUR ACTIVITY REPORT????? He admitted that a draft scrip to Long-Term care workers was written by him for the automated, pre-recorded call to go out after the trusteeship. Nursing home worker Ruby Guzman said in “robo” call to reject SEIU and throw Stern out.
Witness #7 Emily Ryan testified that she was at the Oakland union hall on January 27, 2009 and had spent 3 nights there. When asked why she stayed she stated they had stayed to morn the lose of their union and that they wouldn’t leave unless there was a court order making them.
Witness #8 Marti Garza talked about the yellow cards that were gathered at the January 24, 2009 mega meeting. He stated that he looked at them and that he assumed Jennifer Castro had taken them back to the Oakland office to enter them. He denied that Castro was ordered back to Sacramento to hand off the cards, which were never seen again, according to earlier testimony.
Witness #9 Michael Krivosh, organizer, was asked by Glenn Goldstein to attend a meeting on April 15, 2007 to help figure out a plan to keep long-term care workers in the UHW. Michael testified about a draft of goals in an email attachment with agenda. In the meeting was John Vellardita, Glenn Goldstein, Myriam Escamilla and him. Another email with revised notes, email from Sal Rosselli to meet in the office on Friday at 4 pm. At the all-staff meeting on May 11 & 12, 2007 trusteeship did arise. All these emails about protecting UHW assets and planning a legal defense strategy, strategy for Long Term Care, charts to make decisions by a certain date, what prep to do for possible trusteeship…the list just keeps going. Everything he admits to doing. He said yes that he was at the LA office and handed the members who were staying there the deed to the building, then stood at the gate in the evening there at the LA office.
Witness # 11 Barbara Lewis, talked about a memo that had been retrieved from a flash drive that she had turned back to UHW. She stated it was just her thoughts and she had never done anything with it. But on fliers and emails that she was questioned about everything kept going back to this memo. The memo was the structure and when you look at the emails and events everything in the structure was played out.
Ok can’t wait to hear from you. I will be back in the court room on Monday.
Where’s the defense case? I still haven’t seen much. The defense goes into every defendant who takes the stand about where they worked in the labor movement, where they were working on January 27, 2009 when the trusteeship happened, and where they are working now. We already know that they were all working for SEIU-UHW and they are working for NUHW now.
We started off with Joan Emslie on the stand. Defense attorney Siegel show her several E-board minutes and confirmed that yes they are the minutes of the E-board. She confirmed the resolution by the E-board for the PEF (Patient Education Fund.) She confirmed the notice from the IRS for the tax exempt status of the PEF. She confirmed the resolution for closing down the PEF. Then they showed the schedule of the expenses for the PEF. The total expenses were $121,825.42. On cross examination she testified that she was on the Board of the PEF, UHW secretary and treasurer and was now the NUHW secretary and treasurer. Edward Garvey was the media consultant for the PEF and was paid $28,259.80 for what he understood to be work fighting Andy Stern, not educating patients. There was a dispute between Garvey and the PEF.
The defense put 11 witnesses today. Per an agreement with the defense we were able to put Richard Rubio-Bowley on the stand. Because he is still in the hospital they showed an 8-minute video from his deposition to the jury. In his deposition, done on May 5, 2009, he stated that after dropping his daughter off in front of his house he then went around the corner to the side street to park as there was no parking in front of his home. When he got out of the car, he saw 2 men standing at the corner but didn’t know who they were. Then John Vellardita pulled up from the wrong side of the street next to Richard’s car. The 2 men from the corner, Gabe Kristal and Mario Santos, had also come down to where he was. Richard stated that he felt threatened.
Witness #2 John Vellardita took the stand next. He stated that about 100 long-term care contracts were up in 2008 and they had completed 40 new contracts by the end of the year. He said that in January 2009 there were still 60 open contracts, 30 of which were tied up with other issues. Vellardita testified that he told Mark Kipfer to terminate 30 contracts extensions so that the other homes get the message. But it’s obvious they were terminated to NUHW could come back and decertify them
He said the he had heard that Richard Rubio-Bowley had been to the Winslow bargaining and that they (John Vellardita, Mario Santos, and Gabe Kristal) had just innocently gone by his house to talk with him. John stated that he had been at the break-in at the Alameda SEIU office on January 20, 2009 (as Beverley Griffin has testified yesterday). Vellardita testified that “coincidentally” both he and Gabe Kristal had reported that their laptops were stolen on January 21, 2009.
He agreed that he had sent out an email asking the secret group (Shakers and Makers) to get and use personal emails, the reasoning for this was because SEIU had placed 2 monitors in UHW and that the group didn’t want them to know what they were doing. Exactly.
Witness #3 Gloria Watkins, and witness #4 Jonathan Weitz had nothing much to talk about.
Witness #5 Ralph Cornejo on cross examination had to admit to having an office set up for the PEF inside his home. He stated that there was a set up for two phone lines and a line for a computer, but that equipment was never installed, even though earlier testimony showed that phones were put in. On January 27, 2009 there was an email sent out to Kaiser to activate their phone lists to resist the trusteeship. On January 27, 2009 he obtained a 4,000-pagae list of Kaiser members with their personal information.
Witness #6 Paul Kumar, former UHW director of government affairs. The defense showed activity reports from December 2008 through January 2009 to where he hadn’t listed any of the secret meeting on them. EXCUSE ME BUT WOULD YOU LIST SECRET MEETINGS ON YOUR ACTIVITY REPORT????? He admitted that a draft scrip to Long-Term care workers was written by him for the automated, pre-recorded call to go out after the trusteeship. Nursing home worker Ruby Guzman said in “robo” call to reject SEIU and throw Stern out.
Witness #7 Emily Ryan testified that she was at the Oakland union hall on January 27, 2009 and had spent 3 nights there. When asked why she stayed she stated they had stayed to morn the lose of their union and that they wouldn’t leave unless there was a court order making them.
Witness #8 Marti Garza talked about the yellow cards that were gathered at the January 24, 2009 mega meeting. He stated that he looked at them and that he assumed Jennifer Castro had taken them back to the Oakland office to enter them. He denied that Castro was ordered back to Sacramento to hand off the cards, which were never seen again, according to earlier testimony.
Witness #9 Michael Krivosh, organizer, was asked by Glenn Goldstein to attend a meeting on April 15, 2007 to help figure out a plan to keep long-term care workers in the UHW. Michael testified about a draft of goals in an email attachment with agenda. In the meeting was John Vellardita, Glenn Goldstein, Myriam Escamilla and him. Another email with revised notes, email from Sal Rosselli to meet in the office on Friday at 4 pm. At the all-staff meeting on May 11 & 12, 2007 trusteeship did arise. All these emails about protecting UHW assets and planning a legal defense strategy, strategy for Long Term Care, charts to make decisions by a certain date, what prep to do for possible trusteeship…the list just keeps going. Everything he admits to doing. He said yes that he was at the LA office and handed the members who were staying there the deed to the building, then stood at the gate in the evening there at the LA office.
Witness # 11 Barbara Lewis, talked about a memo that had been retrieved from a flash drive that she had turned back to UHW. She stated it was just her thoughts and she had never done anything with it. But on fliers and emails that she was questioned about everything kept going back to this memo. The memo was the structure and when you look at the emails and events everything in the structure was played out.
Ok can’t wait to hear from you. I will be back in the court room on Monday.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Day 9 of NUHW trial: Where Is the Defense Case?
April 1, 2010, Day 9 of the Civil Trial of NUHW, Sal Rosselli, Joan Emslie, Daniel Martin, Andrew Reid and others.
WHERE IS THE DEFENSE CASE?
Cross examination of Sal Rosselli continued today. They showed the ending of a video that only part of was shown to the jury yesterday. In it, Sal’s comment was now it’s time for the next steps. Then we saw a video of the mega-meeting on January 24, 2009. John Borsos is speaking to members and telling them they can stop paying dues, can stop paying into the union’s COPE political action fund, and possibly form a new union if the trusteeship happened.
As always Sal wants to do his speeches and the judge had to remind him to answer the questions. He is good at saying “I don’t recall, can you repeat the question,” etc. He never seems to be able to answer a direct question with a simple yes or no. I wonder why???
On February 5, 2008, Sal acknowledged that $2 million was transferred from UHW to the PEF (patent education fund). A document was shown to him of the money transfer and Kohlman asked if it was true that he didn’t consult with anyone else before this transfer. Sal at first said he wasn’t sure, then admitted to consulting with Jorge Rodriguez and Joan Emslie. They began looking for office spaces, setting up legal assistance, paying staff and also phones for staff on February 21, 2008. Sal was asked about an email from Dan Martin, called special project update. The memo said three sites had been found in the north and they were working on L.A. sites. They were buying Blackberries. A computer was set up at Dan Martin’s home by an outside consultant and was set up without UHW’s IT department knowing about it.
The office sites that they had obtained prior to the trusteeship became NUHW offices on January 28, 2009. An email from Jorge Rodriguez to Sal dated April 16, 2009 was entered in to evidence. It had an attachment with a list of more than 20,000 Kaiser members. Sal claimed he never opened the email and told Jorge that they couldn’t have that and forwarded it to the international. (???).
When asked his problem remembering emails and documents with his name on them, he said he gets hundreds of email a day, and has meetings scheduled every 15 minutes with staff in the offices so he can’t remember. He said there was lots of email he didn’t personally read and many times on letters an electronic signature was used so he might not see them before they go out. He implied that he didn’t know everything that was going on. I got the impression that he was trying to take the blame off of himself and put the blame on Jorge Rodriguez and Dan Martin on several issues. Can’t wait to hear what they have to say when they take the stand.
Witness #2, Jonathan Siegel, an attorney for NUHW who was hired by Sal and staff while they were still employed by UHW. Yes, he is the brother of the defense attorney Dan Siegel. After the testimony today by Jonathan, he was either lied to about everything or he just played DUMB. He did transfer back to UHW the $200,000 that was left in him trust account. I guess that makes sense since the money didn’t belong to him.
Witness #3 Andrew Reid said he was asked by leaders to see if his co-workers would be willing to stay at night in the offices back in March 2008 so that SEIU couldn’t enter the offices. (Excuse me didn’t Sal say they weren’t concerned back in the early part of 2008)? There was an email telling ABC Security not to let SEIU representatives in the buildings.
Witness #6 Beverly Griffith, said she became an employee of NUHW as of today. But in federal reporting forms she is listed as an NUHW employees and earned $10,000 in 2009. Hmmm. She testified she was a leader of 50-60 people who broke in at the Alameda SEIU office. The security guard told them they could not enter but they pushed their way in and knocked the security guard to the ground. She first said they were there 5-10 minutes then later said 10-15 minutes. She testified that Glenn Goldstein and Gabe Kristal were present, but she doesn’t remember if John Vellardita was there.
Witness #7 Joan Emslie took the stand just before stopping for the day. So we’ll hear more from her tomorrow.
Don’t forget to give me your comments. See you tomorrow.
WHERE IS THE DEFENSE CASE?
Cross examination of Sal Rosselli continued today. They showed the ending of a video that only part of was shown to the jury yesterday. In it, Sal’s comment was now it’s time for the next steps. Then we saw a video of the mega-meeting on January 24, 2009. John Borsos is speaking to members and telling them they can stop paying dues, can stop paying into the union’s COPE political action fund, and possibly form a new union if the trusteeship happened.
As always Sal wants to do his speeches and the judge had to remind him to answer the questions. He is good at saying “I don’t recall, can you repeat the question,” etc. He never seems to be able to answer a direct question with a simple yes or no. I wonder why???
On February 5, 2008, Sal acknowledged that $2 million was transferred from UHW to the PEF (patent education fund). A document was shown to him of the money transfer and Kohlman asked if it was true that he didn’t consult with anyone else before this transfer. Sal at first said he wasn’t sure, then admitted to consulting with Jorge Rodriguez and Joan Emslie. They began looking for office spaces, setting up legal assistance, paying staff and also phones for staff on February 21, 2008. Sal was asked about an email from Dan Martin, called special project update. The memo said three sites had been found in the north and they were working on L.A. sites. They were buying Blackberries. A computer was set up at Dan Martin’s home by an outside consultant and was set up without UHW’s IT department knowing about it.
The office sites that they had obtained prior to the trusteeship became NUHW offices on January 28, 2009. An email from Jorge Rodriguez to Sal dated April 16, 2009 was entered in to evidence. It had an attachment with a list of more than 20,000 Kaiser members. Sal claimed he never opened the email and told Jorge that they couldn’t have that and forwarded it to the international. (???).
When asked his problem remembering emails and documents with his name on them, he said he gets hundreds of email a day, and has meetings scheduled every 15 minutes with staff in the offices so he can’t remember. He said there was lots of email he didn’t personally read and many times on letters an electronic signature was used so he might not see them before they go out. He implied that he didn’t know everything that was going on. I got the impression that he was trying to take the blame off of himself and put the blame on Jorge Rodriguez and Dan Martin on several issues. Can’t wait to hear what they have to say when they take the stand.
Witness #2, Jonathan Siegel, an attorney for NUHW who was hired by Sal and staff while they were still employed by UHW. Yes, he is the brother of the defense attorney Dan Siegel. After the testimony today by Jonathan, he was either lied to about everything or he just played DUMB. He did transfer back to UHW the $200,000 that was left in him trust account. I guess that makes sense since the money didn’t belong to him.
Witness #3 Andrew Reid said he was asked by leaders to see if his co-workers would be willing to stay at night in the offices back in March 2008 so that SEIU couldn’t enter the offices. (Excuse me didn’t Sal say they weren’t concerned back in the early part of 2008)? There was an email telling ABC Security not to let SEIU representatives in the buildings.
Witness #6 Beverly Griffith, said she became an employee of NUHW as of today. But in federal reporting forms she is listed as an NUHW employees and earned $10,000 in 2009. Hmmm. She testified she was a leader of 50-60 people who broke in at the Alameda SEIU office. The security guard told them they could not enter but they pushed their way in and knocked the security guard to the ground. She first said they were there 5-10 minutes then later said 10-15 minutes. She testified that Glenn Goldstein and Gabe Kristal were present, but she doesn’t remember if John Vellardita was there.
Witness #7 Joan Emslie took the stand just before stopping for the day. So we’ll hear more from her tomorrow.
Don’t forget to give me your comments. See you tomorrow.
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