L.A. Times writer Jeff Gottlieb is reporting today that Cal Fire has been ordered to pay over $32M in legal bills. Legal bills! WOW! From the article:
The judge scolds agency officials for lying and covering up evidence in a lawsuit in which it sought damages for a 65,000-acre fire in Plumas County.
Already under fire for siphoning money into a secret fund, the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has been ordered to pay more than $32 million in legal bills for those it blamed for starting a 65,000-acre forest fire.
In a scathing order, Superior Court Judge Leslie C. Nichols, sitting on assignment in Plumas County, accused the agency of covering up, lying and engaging in “egregious and reprehensible conduct.”
“The court finds that Cal Fire’s actions initiating, maintaining and prosecuting this action, to the present time, is corrupt and tainted,” the judge wrote.
The sanctions appear to be the largest ever awarded for discovery abuse, according to the forest products company Sierra Pacific Industries, one of the defendants and the largest private property owner in California.
The judge, in an order filed Tuesday, also blasted the attorney general’s office, which represented Cal Fire.
You can read the rest of the story HERE.