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.