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.