No Smoke Detectors – No Fire Sprinklers – No 24 Hour Security Patrol to Detect Fires Early – No Technology – No Security Cameras – Not Even a Webcam – there's More Security at a 7-Eleven – No Nothin' – No One Will Buy Your House Now Either – "Remember there's Another Hangar Too"!
Married ex-Tustin police officers charged with workers’ compensation fraud
Two married former Tustin police officers have been accused of workers’ compensation fraud after they allegedly took part in mountain biking, boating, international scuba diving trips and home repair projects despite claiming to be disabled.
Kendal Hurd, 40, and her husband Kyle Hurd, 38, have both been charged with multiple felony counts of insurance fraud, as well as perjury and attempted perjury, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Citing video surveillance — as well as the couple’s own photos and videos — prosecutors allege that they led an active lifestyle despite claiming to suffer from constant back pain they attributed to wearing police duty belts and gear and getting in and out of their patrol cars. At one point, prosecutors allege, Kyle Hurd sent a text to a friend that “bragged about receiving unnecessary medical treatment because he was a good actor.”
The couple collected more than $188,000 while on disability, according to the DA Office.
Prosecutors said the two told their workers’ compensation doctors that “their pain increased with activity and improved with rest.” But when months of medical care didn’t lead to any reported improvement, the city of Tustin initiated surveillance of the couple.
While under that surveillance, prosecutors said, the couple was spotted sliding down a water slide, lifting children, riding bikes, paddle boarding, going to Pilates classes and playing in the water at Lake Mission Viejo.
Kendal Hurd worked as an officer in Santa Barbara before joining the Tustin Police Department in 2015, prosecutors said, while Kyle Hurd worked as an officer in Montclair before transferring to Tustin in 2014. Both were reportedly terminated from the Tustin Police Department in July 2021.
“Workers’ compensation fraud results in honest, hardworking business and government entities losing more than $30 billion a year,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “This is such an egregious breach of the public’s trust by two people who were sworn to uphold our laws, not break them. We will not allow those who commit workers’ compensation fraud to go unpunished, and we will do everything we can to return the fraudulently paid money back to the taxpayers of Tustin.”
If convicted of the charges they currently face, Kendal Hurd faces up to 11 years in state prison, while Kyle Hurd faces up to nine years and six months behind bars.
In a deal announced Wednesday, Aug. 16, Sidhu will plead guilty to obstruction of justice, wire fraud, false statement to the Federal Aviation Administration and false statement to the FBI.
“Mr. Sidhu was elected by and pledged to work for the residents of Anaheim, but he violated that pledge and their trust on numerous occasions to look out for special interests,” Donald Alway, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said in a statement. “Mr. Sidhu deceived his colleagues and weakened the city’s official strategy by divulging intellectual property, then lied to the government when his corruption was discovered.”
In a statement Wednesday, Sidhu’s attorney Paul S. Meyer said, “Former Mayor Sidhu appreciates the thorough and fair investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office leading to a resolution in this matter.”
The total maximum sentence for all the offenses for which Sidhu has agreed to plea to is up to 50 years in prison, according to the agreement. He will next need to enter his plea in court and his actual sentencing is up to a judge at a later date and could be significantly shorter.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed that if the court imposes a prison term of no less than 30 months, it would waive its right to appeal the sentence.
During the city’s negotiations to sell Angel Stadium to team owner Arte Moreno’s business partnership, Sidhu sought to become a member of the city’s negotiating team and then provided “confidential inside information belonging to the city” to former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament and to a consultant working for the Angels, “so that the Angels could buy Angel Stadium on terms beneficial to the Angels,” according to the plea agreement.
In 2019, Sidhu had also provided a confidential appraisal range related to Angel Stadium to Ament to give to the Angels before that figure was public, according to the plea agreement.
Sidhu was secretly recorded several months later saying he expected to ask for a $1 million campaign contribution toward his reelection from the Angels if they succeeded in buying the stadium, the plea agreement says. In an interview with FBI agents on May 12, 2022, days before the FBI’s investigation became public, Sidhu lied to the agents about expecting “nothing” from the Angels after the stadium deal closed, according to the plea agreement. Prosecutors also said Sidhu “falsely” told investigators that he did not recall providing stadium sale information during the negotiations.
Angels Organization spokesperson Marie Garvey said, “It is important to note both the plea agreement along with the city’s investigation showed no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Angels Organization.”
Ament’s attorneys, Joshua Robbins and Andrew Selesnick of Buchalter law firm, declined to comment through a spokesperson.
The FBI’s investigation was underway since at least 2019, according to an affidavit filed last year in support of a request for search warrants that included information investigators said was gleaned from wiretaps and intercepted emails.
The plea agreement gives details about how Sidhu attempted to not pay California sales tax for a used helicopter he purchased for $205,000. He had registered the helicopter using a mailing address in Scottsdale, Arizona, to avoid paying $15,887 in taxes. The helicopter was stored in Chino.
Sidhu has already paid back the taxes, according to the plea agreement.
He also provided false information to the FAA when he submitted the Arizona mailing address as his own, the agreement says. The mailing address belonged to an unnamed Anaheim businessperson.
Sidhu and his attorneys signed the plea agreement on Monday, Aug. 14.
For the obstruction of justice charge, Sidhu would admit that he destroyed multiple email messages and documents “with the intent to impede the FBI’s investigation of public corruption surrounding the city’s potential sale of Angel Stadium,” according to the plea agreement.
One of the emails deleted was related to the Angel Stadium deal, which had “confidential negotiation information,” including issues around the price and terms, the plea agreement says.
The document, drafted by attorneys for the city, included a section about parking and how it affected the value of land, the agreement says, and gave the example of how the team could “eliminate the requirement that they maintain at least 12,500 parking spaces so upon closing they could immediately amend the lease to limit their parking obligation and then flip the land for millions more than they paid for it.”
“Reducing their parking obligation by 4,000 spaces would translate to $64 million in increased land value,” according to the document referenced in the plea agreement.
Prosecutors said Sidhu told investigators he did not conduct city business using his personal email.
Also in the plea agreement are details about planning for mock council meeting sessions in advance of the council’s vote on the Angel Stadium sale.
Sidhu had deleted an email about the sessions that used personal addresses for him, two other unnamed council members and other city staff, the agreement says. Sidhu would purposely conduct city business using his personal email and communicate with some city staff’s personal email addresses as well, prosecutors said.
The deleted email, according to the agreement, said the prep sessions would include the then-mayor pro tem, another council member, the city’s chief communications officer, another city staffer, the unnamed Angels consultant, Ament, the president of the Angels and an attorney for the Angels.
The practice meeting would be held in three sessions, according to the agreement’s description, during which participants would debate the strengths, pitfalls and vulnerabilities of the stadium deal. The Angels team would develop what the agreement called “zingers,” responses and other points to improve the participants’ performance.
It appeared the mock meetings were intended be a dress rehearsal for the real one.
In strongly worded comments Wednesday, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said she was appalled by the alleged collusion between Sidhu, former council members and the Angels organization.
“If the allegations surrounding the Angels organization setting up a shadow council meeting are true, I don’t think the negotiations were in good faith and I would like to look into that,” Aitken said.
The Angels were supposed to be at arm’s length during the negotiations, Aitken said, and any future talks would have to be more transparent and with more community participation.
Overall, Aitken said Sidhu’s plea agreement unveiled just the “tip of the iceberg” of the problems with the city and further confirmed the need for reform.
She said the city also needs stronger restrictions and better enforcement to harness campaign financing and lobbyists who have run unfettered at City Hall.
“We need to make sure our policies are in line with other cities our size,” said Aitken.
In a city statement late Wednesday, a city spokesman said, “We are aware of and are reviewing the plea agreement, which reflects what was a challenging time for Anaheim. We look forward to our City Council’s ongoing consideration of reforms to protect our city and keep moving forward.”
According to the plea agreement, the two unnamed council members were assigned specifically to attack then-Councilman Jose Moreno, a strong critic of the stadium deal.
Moreno, who served from 2016 to 2022, said the new details in the plea agreement affirm what he felt at the time was a scripted strategy surrounding the Angel Stadium discussions.
“This is really tragic and unfortunate but not surprising,” Moreno said, “that high levels of our city staff were involved in these meetings and played with the trust of the people of Anaheim.”
Yesterday, Monday, May 16, 2022, was, to honest Anaheim residents, like Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Whitsuntide all rolled into one.
We are still pinching ourselves to ensure we’re not dreaming: the FBI has got Mayor Harry Sidhu by the short hairs! It’s hard to see how he comes out of this; in fact, he doesn’t.
Haven’t we been screaming, for years now, at the top of our lungs and tirelessly, like a voice crying out in the wilderness, of the corruption of this Mayor and “HIS” Council Majority? And don’t your average complacent Joes and your complicit shills both look at us like we’re crazy, like we’re GADFLIES? Well, now color us VINDICATED. AGAIN!
I don’t believe our friends at the Register and the Voice quite get across the flavor and gist of the 55-page FBI affidavit, which reads like an Abbot & Costello cameo on Law & Order. Yes, the Stadium Heist is on hold once again, but the big news here for Anaheimers is the undeniable, stunning evidence of our Mayor’s shameless criminality.
I shall try my hand at summarizing the FBI document, although of course you could put the time into reading it yourself. But then again, you don’t have the time. Just read my “vignettes.”
Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu is under federal investigation in connection with the city’s sale of Angel Stadium, according to information released Monday, May 16.
An affidavit filed in federal court May 12 says authorities are investigating whether Sidhu “shared privileged and confidential information with the Angels during stadium sale negotiations, actively concealed same from a Grand Jury inquiry, and expects to receive campaign contributions as a result.”
Documents including the affidavit in support of several search warrants were made public by the city Monday, and confirmed by a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
The warrants and affidavit came to light Monday, when state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office requested that an Orange County Superior Court judge put on hold an agreement between the city and the state that was intended to settle a dispute over whether Anaheim broke an affordable housing law with the stadium sale deal.
Bonta’s office became aware on Friday of the federal warrant that “sets forth serious allegations of unlawful conduct” related to the stadium sale, according to the court filing seeking to stay the agreement with the city.
“These allegations call into question not only the validity of the land sale, but of the Stipulation for Entry of Judgment that is currently pending before this court,” Bonta’s filing said.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said Monday that multiple warrants were granted and executed on Thursday that allowed searches of Sidhu’s email and cellphone, as well as a hangar at the Chino Airport and a helicopter Sidhu owns that was kept there.
Sidhu could not be immediately reached for comment and attorney Paul Meyer, who is representing Sidhu, said late Monday that it would be “premature” to comment on the allegations.
The deal to sell the city-owned stadium to SRB Management, Angels owner Arte Moreno’s business partnership, for $320 million has been under scrutiny since it was proposed.
Some critics have argued the sale price was lowballed. A residents’ group filed an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit that argued the city broke state open meetings law in crafting and approving the deal – the affidavit said Sidhu’s alleged withholding of information may have influenced the outcome of the residents’ lawsuit. And, state housing officials in December told the city it violated an affordable housing law.
City leaders have repeatedly denied these allegations and have said the city’s actions were lawful and in the best interest of Anaheim residents. To settle the dispute whether Anaheim broke an affordable housing law, the two sides agreed in April to the stipulated judgment that requires the city to spend $96 million of the proceeds from the stadium sale to build up to 1,000 affordable units offsite within five years.
“We are troubled by this,” Anaheim City Manager Jim Vanderpool said Monday in a statement. “Throughout this process, Anaheim staff and the City Council have worked in good faith on a proposal that offered benefits for our community.
“What has been shared with us was unknown to the city administration before today, and what is being described falls outside of the city’s process on the stadium,” he said. “We will continue to evaluate what this means and how to move forward in the best interest of our city.”
City spokesman Mike Lyster said Anaheim leaders will be watching as “this process plays out. We will determine what this means for the stadium plan in the days ahead.”
The investigation has been underway since at least 2019, according to the affidavit. The FBI’s affidavit seeking the warrants alleges Sidhu engaged in a variety of potentially criminal conduct, including:
Sharing confidential information with Angels Baseball while the city was negotiating the stadium deal, “with the expectation of receiving a sizable contribution to his reelection campaign from a prominent Angels representative.”
Concealing information from the Orange County Grand Jury and possibly destroying evidence, including deleting text messages and emails.
Instructing a witness who was cooperating with the FBI investigation to lie to the OC Grand Jury.
Fraudulently registering a HELICOPTER he was purchasing to an Arizona address to avoid paying nearly $16,000 in California sales taxes.
Two cooperating witnesses, one of whom is described as an employee of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, provided information to the FBI, and the chamber employee wore a wire during several conversations with Sidhu, the affidavit said.
In those conversations, Sidhu allegedly expressed an expectation of campaign contributions of at least $1 million from an unnamed Angels representative, the affidavit said.
Marie Garvey, spokeswoman for Angels Baseball and SRB Management, said it would not be appropriate to comment at this time. Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Laura Cunningham said in an email responding to a request for comment:
“The chamber as an organization has no involvement in the allegations being reported.”
Anaheim Councilman Stephen Faessel said Monday night that he was surprised and disappointed by the allegations against Sidhu.
“My family goes back 81 years in Anaheim, and I’m hurt by this” because it casts a dark cloud over the city, Faessel said.
There’s much more to be learned to determine what actually happened, he said, and until there’s more information, he won’t second-guess his vote to approve the stadium deal.
“I’m not going to make a judgment this early into this unfortunate issue.”
Councilman Jose Moreno said even though he’s been critical of the deal since the beginning, he’s not happy about the allegations of improper information sharing that may have advantaged the stadium buyer at the city’s expense.
“It doesn’t feel good, if it is being vindicated,” he said, “because ultimately this is taxpayers’ money, this is trust in government, and we swear an oath to do what’s best for our city in an open, transparent way.”
Former CEO of Anaheim Chamber of Commerce facing criminal charges
Former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament appeared in court Tuesday facing federal charges of lying about his assets when purchasing a home in Big Bear City, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ament was charged Monday with making false statements to a financial institution in late 2020 when seeking a loan to buy the second home, according to a press release issued Tuesday.
The announcement comes the day after news broke that Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu is under investigation for alleged fraud, bribery, obstruction of justice and witness tampering in connection with the city’s deal to sell Angel Stadium to Angels owner Arte Moreno’s business partnership.
Since his election in 2018, Sidhu worked closely with Ament and the chamber, including teaming up on the “Anaheim First” initiative that was intended to create a 10-year city improvement program based on residents’ input. The program was stalled by the pandemic, but Sidhu recently sought to revive it.
At the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, where Ament arrived in handcuffs for a first appearance hearing Tuesday afternoon, the attorney representing him, Sal Ciulla, declined to comment on the case or say what, if any, connection it may have to the federal investigation into Sidhu.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Lim, who is among the lawyers prosecuting the case against Ament, also said after Tuesday’s hearing he couldn’t comment on whether the Anaheim probes were related because of the ongoing investigation. He added that, “I think the affidavits for complaint and the search warrants speak for themselves.”
The events described in the affidavits took place in similar time frames and the Ament affidavit mentions multiple unnamed Anaheim elected officials.
An affidavit filed in federal court May 12, in support of search warrants requested in the Sidhu probe, includes references to an FBI investigation that led to a cooperating witness who was an employee of the Anaheim chamber. Names throughout the affidavit were redacted, except in one section transcribing a taped conversation between Sidhu and the cooperating witness, when Sidhu addresses the person as Todd.
Current chamber CEO Laura Cunningham said in an emailed statement late Tuesday, “We at the chamber are shocked by the public allegations about former President and CEO Todd Ament, who separated from the chamber last year. We feel saddened and angered by these disturbing allegations and will cooperate with any law enforcement inquiries.”
To help with financing the Big Bear home, the affidavit supporting the charge alleges that Ament, with the help of an unnamed political consultant at a prominent public relations firm, “devised a scheme to launder proceeds intended for the chamber through the PR firm into Ament’s bank account,” the press release said.
The affidavit in support of the charges against Ament also alleges he was:
Working with the political consultant to defraud a cannabis business client by claiming they could offer influence over a potential cannabis ordinance, and diverting the client’s money to Ament’s personal bank account.
Acting as a “ring leader,” along with the consultant, of “a specific, covert group of individuals that wielded significant influence over the inner workings of Anaheim’s government.”
Working with the political consultant to prepare scripted comments for an unnamed Anaheim city official to deliver at council meetings.
The FBI obtained the information described in the affidavit from sources including intercepted and recorded phone calls, interviews with several witnesses, and bank and other financial records, according to the document.
The affidavit also describes how Ament and the consultant allegedly led “a small group of Anaheim public officials, consultants and business leaders” that Ament and the consultant referred to as a “family” and a “cabal” that held regular meetings to “exert influence over government operations in Anaheim,” the Department of Justice’s press release said.
To illustrate that allegation, the affidavit details a November 2020 phone conversation the FBI listened in on, in which Ament and the political consultant discussed which Anaheim City Council members could be trusted, who should be invited to a retreat to strategize on city issues, and who might need to be reminded to “be a loyal member of the team” because they’d gotten help with their reelection.
The document also gives a lengthy description of the alleged cannabis scheme, which entailed receiving payment from an unnamed cannabis industry client to lobby the city to approve retail sales of cannabis and have influence over creation of the regulations for pot shops. However, the affidavit alleges, Ament and the political consultant actually appear to have worked against the client’s interest by secretly working with an industry competitor and then slowing progress of the issue at City Hall.
Although several Anaheim elected officials and at least one city employee are mentioned, the names of those people are all redacted from the affidavit.
At the hearing Tuesday, prosecutors and Ciulla agreed to Ament’s release from custody on the condition that Ament would be on the hook for a $30,000 bond if he fails to show up for future hearings in his case. Ament spoke little, only to confirm when asked by Magistrate Judge Autumn Spaeth that he understood the details of the allegations against him and his pretrial release. He did not enter a plea.
An arraignment is scheduled for June 21 at 10 a.m. at the Santa Ana courthouse.
Hangar Fire - "Without Litigation" - City of Tustin Already On the Hook for $90 Million in Clean-Up Costs - "Not Including the Actual Hangar Property" - and Heading for a Billion Dollars - Developers Likely Not Off the Hook Either - Property Value Assessments Undergoing Official Review - Ask Yourself - Would You Buy or Rent at the Tustin Legacy - Remember there's "Another" Hangar Too Addicted? 1-800-662-HELP
