AFFIDAVIT FOR SEARCH WARRANT

On August 8, 2007, a complaint was received at the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, Public Integrity Unit, from San Bernardino County Counsel, who was making the complaint for the County's Board of Supervisors. The "targets:" of the complaint were listed as Mr. Bill Postmus, the elected Assessor for the County of San Bernardino, and Mike Richman, a consultant hired by the Assessor's office. The complaint alleged that Postmus and Richman were "misusing Co. [County] e-mail". Copies of Richman's e-mail were obtained and members of the Public Integrity Unit began reviewing them.

As a part of the investigation, it was learned that the Assessor's office had entered into a contract with Mike Richman, the president and sole representative, of MPR Strategies. County purchase -circler number Z3073 was issued, and authorized payment in the amount of $49,200.00, a year, for services rendered by MPR Strategies.

In mid-November 2007, the San Bernardino County Grand Jury was conducting its own investigation of the San Bernardino County Assessor's Office. After receiving testimony from Mr. James Erwin, who had been employed as the Assistant Assessor - Operations Division, for San Bernardino County Assessor's Office, members of the Grand Jury felt they had received information indicating that criminal activity may have occurred. The Grand Jury referred the investigation to the District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit.

Senior Investigator Hollis "Bud" Randles was assigned to lead the investigation and your affiant was assigned to assist him.

On November 20, 2007, Sr. Inv. Randles and your affiant spoke with Mr. Erwin. Mr. Erwin explained that Mike Richman was a political ally of Bill Postmus, while Postmus was the Chainnan of the Board of Supervisors for San Bernardino County. Erwin said that Postmus still wants to be a "political player" but that he no longer has the political power he had as a member of the Board of Supervisors. Mike Richman, who had been associated with Postmus in the past, retains a reputation in the "political arena," which caused Postmus to want Richman to be "on his team," and enhance Postmus' political standing. Erwin said Richman walked around the Assessor's Office talking about various political campaigns and did very little work for the County. Erwin said other employees, in the Assessor's office, complained because Richman was working mainly on these other political issues, and was not working on business connected to the Assessor's office. Erwin said he brought the complaints to the attention of Postmus and Adam Aleman, Assistant Assessor  Support Division.

Erwin said Postmus and Aleman "didn't care" about the complaints and took no action.

 As our investigation progressed, and pursuant to the referral from the Grand Jury regarding possible criminal activity, DDA Charles Umeda, Grand Jury Advisor, met with members of the District Attomey's Public Integrity Unit, including Sr. Inv. Randles and your affiant, and related the following: the Grand Jury had issued a subpoena for documents maintained at the Assessor's Office. Included in the subpoena was a request for Minutes of Executive Staff Meetings. Adam Aleman partially complied with the subpoena, by delivering Minutes, and partial Minutes, for six of the Executive Staff Meetings, to the Grand Jury.

An Executive Secretary at the Assessor's Office, Wanda Nowicki, subsequently appeared before the Grand Jury and testified that, after receiving the Grand Jury subpoena, Adam Aleman ordered her to alter certain Minutes of the Assessor's Office Executive Staff meetings. Nowicki did as Aleman ordered, and she did not know which set of Minutes Aleman had delivered to the Grand Jury. She told Grand Jurors that she had kept copies of the Unaltered Minutes, and she would provide them to the Grand Jury.

On February 28, 2008, DDA Umeda informed Sr. Inv. Randles that, on February 26, 2008, at the request of the Grand Jury, Adam Aleman submitted additional Executive Staff Meeting Minutes and Agendas to the Grand Jury. Grand Jurors discovered several alterations to those Minutes once they were compared to the Minutes Nowicki had previously submitted.

On March 3, 2008, your affiant and Sr. Inv. Randles met with the secretary to the Grand Jury, Melonee Vartanian. She gave us copies of the additional Executive Staff Meeting Minutes and Agendas that were personally submitted to the Grand Jury on February 26, 2008, by Adam Aleman. Your affiant, and Sr. Inv. Randles, compared these Minutes to the Minutes that Nowicki submitted on February 14, 2008, and discovered alterations to the Minutes that Aleman had submitted. Copies of the unaltered Minutes submitted by Wanda Nowicki are attached to this search warrant as Attachments numbered lA, IB, and 1C. Copies of the altered Minutes turned in by Adam Aleman are attached to this search warrant as Attachments numbered 2A, 2B, and 2C.

On March 4, 2008, your affiant and Sr. Inv. Randles met with Wanda Nowicki. Ms. Nowiciki said she was responsible for keeping the Minutes for the Executive Staff Meetings at the Assessor's office. She said in her absence, while on maternity leave, the responsibility for keeping the Minutes was shifted to Sheila Raines, a Special Assistant in the Assessor's Office. She further stated, on December 18, 2007, she received a Grand Jury subpoena for Assessor's Office documents, including Executive Staff Meeting Minutes for the 2007 calendar year. On January 11, 2008, Nowicki said, Aleman approached her at her workstation and told her, "Most of the Minutes are fine but there's a couple that have some minor changes that they need done to them". Nowicki protested making the changes, stating that any changes made to the Minutes would be reflected electronically, and the Grand Jury could discover the changes through a forensic analysis. Aleman said, "Oh no, we're not really changing them, we're just fixing them because this is what it should have said originally." Aleman ordered Nowicki to alter three of the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes, and he watched as she made the changes.

Aleman selected which Minutes were to be submitted to the Grand Jury pursuant to subpoena. They did not include all of the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes for the 2007 calendar year. On January 14, 2008, Nowicki testified before the Grand Jury. She did not know if the altered Minutes were among those submitted, but she told the Grand Jurors that Aleman had ordered her to alter certain Minutes, and she complied. On February 14, 2008, at the request of the Grand Jury, Nowicki gave Grand Jurors copies of the unaltered Minutes that she had kept.

On March 31, 2008, Sr. Inv. Randles and your affiant spoke with Adam Aleman. Mr. Aleman said, initially, he submitted only the minutes for the Executive Staff Meetings that involved Mike Richman. He said he later submitted copies of all Minutes for all the meetings to the Grand Jury, per their request. Sr. Inv. Randles showed Aleman a copy of the Minutes for the June 19, 2007 Executive Staff Meeting that had been submitted to the Grand Jury by Wanda Nowicki (Attachment #lAj, and a copy of the Minutes for the Executive Staff Meeting on June 18, 2007 that had been submitted by Adam Aleman (Attachment #2A). Sr. Inv Randles explained that the Minutes appeared to have been altered. Aleman admitted the records had been changed. He said even though he had approved the Minutes before, when he finally read over them later, he found some "blatant errors," and he wanted to be "100% accurate for the Grand Jury". Aleman said he had made the changes to the Minutes after he read them "word for word," because he wanted to insure they were accurate. Aleman said he did not tell the Grand Jury he had made any changes to the Minutes when he turned them in. He also said "maybe they wanted it [the Minutes for the meetings] as it was, but I wanted it to be 100% correct".

The original stated: Minutes for the June 18, 2007, Executive Staff Meeting  “III Rex Gutierrez - Has been unable to get a response from Matt Cunningham regarding the progress on the Annual Report. Adam will contact Matt and request an update" (Attachment lA).

The Minutes changed by Aleman stated:

       "III Rex Gutierrez - Has had difficulty with the Annual Report vendor regarding the progress on the Annual Report.  Richman will contact vendor and request an update",

As the conversation continued, Aleman said, "I never contacted Matt [Cunningham]." A short time later Aleman changed his statement and said, "...I talked to Matt too, but it was mostly Richman...that did a lot of the talking.

Aleman again said he changed the Minutes to show that Mike Richman contacted Matt Cunningham rather than him, because he said he ""actually had Mike Richman contact the vendor," Matt Cunningham.

Included with e-mail that was submitted to the Public Integrity Unit, was an e-mail, from Adam Aleman, dated June 18, 2007, one day after the Executive Staff Meeting was held. It had been sent to matt@redCounty.com, and copied to Rex Gutierrez (Attachment #3).

The e-mail stated, "Matt: Hope all is well. Are you having any (sic) with the annual report copy? I think Rex would like to speak with you when you have time to go over some recent data we have obtained. Please call him. Thanks again!" The e-mail indicated it was sent by, Adam Aleman, Assistant Assessor of San Bernardino County.

Your affiant observed that this e-mail substantiates the information in the original Minutes prepared by Wanda Nowicki, showing that Aleman would contact. Matt Cunningham, and not Mike Richman, as was stated in the Minutes that were changed by Adam Aleman.

 Sr. Inv. Randles next showed Aleman the Executive Staff Meeting. Minutes for June 25, 2007, that were submitted to the Grand Jury by Wanda Nowicki (Attachment IE), and the document that was altered Attachment #2B). On the document, submitted "by Nowicki, under the heading entitled Adam Aleman" was written:

"Rex received an update from Matt Cunningham regarding the progress on the Annual Report. He is expected to provide the skeletal portion of the report by Friday for review. Rex will contact Brand Identity to discuss the photographs needed to complete the report".

The document that was altered by Aleman stated:

"Rex received an update from Mike Richman regarding the progress on the Annual Report. He is expected to provide the skeletal portion of the report by Friday for review. Rex will contact Brand Identity to discuss the photographs needed to complete the report".

Aleman said he made this change because Mike Richman was the person who dealt with the Annual Report, and although he did not recall who actually gave the update to Mr. Rex Gutierrez he said, "...it was probably from both, it was probably from Mike, because Mike dealt with a lot of the, Mike was the one who 'was dealing a lot with the vendors". Aleman also said he had made "a lot" of changes to other Minutes adding, "I know I've changed more than just these". He said the other changes had to do with misspellings and names that were incorrect. Aleman admitted the changes he made to the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes were made between the time the Grand Jury subpoena was received at his office.
and the date the documents were to be turned over to the Grand Jury.

They were not created at, or near, the time the Executive Staff Meetings took place, or when Aleman initially approved the Minutes, prior to receiving the Grand Jury subpoena.    .

Sr. Inv. Randles next showed Aleman the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes for the October 15, 2007 meeting that was submitted by Wanda Nowicki Attachment #lC. Under the heading of "Annual Report" was written: .

"Realistic timeline for final review - Brand said they would have the report to us last Friday. We did not receive it and they did not respond to Josh over the weekend. Adam authorized Josh and Ted to send a termination letter to brand. Brand will be sending us a bill along with the completed portion by 11 :00 a.m. today. Josh will give the completed portion to Mike and he will have Beeber complete it".

The altered document submitted by Aleman (Attachment#2C) stated:

"Realistic timeline for final review - Brand said they would have the report to us last Friday. We did not receive it and they did not respond to Josh over the weekend. Adam authorized Mike and Ted to send a termination letter to brand. Brand will be sending us a bill along with the completed portion by 11 :00 a.m. today. Josh will give the completed portion to Mike and he will have Beeber complete it.

Aleman said Ted Lehrer wrote the letter discussed in these Minutes. He said he changed the document from Josh [White] to Mike [Richman] because he "instructed Mike to deal with the contractor and vendor".

Aleman again said he made "other changes," other than those mentioned. above, to the Minutes before submitting them to the Grand Jury. He just did not recall what those changes were at this time. Aleman said these changes were in addition to the changes he directed Wanda Nowicki to make.

Your affiant examined the documents submitted by Wanda Nowicki and those submitted by Adam Aleman. The only other change observed was to the Minutes dated August 27, 2007. On the original Minutes submitted by Nowicki, under the heading, "VII. Ted Lehrer" was written, "With Labor Day coming up this week is not a good week for political press releases". On the Minutes submitted by Aleman, the word "political" had been removed. Aleman said this was because they were discussing governmental press releases, not political ones

On April 2, 2008, your affiant and Sr. Inv. Randles conducted two interviews with Mike Richman. During these conversations, Mr. Richman was shown, and asked about, the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes discussed above.

During the discussion of the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes from June 18,2007, Richman said he had not spoken with Matt Cunningham, who worked for Pacific Strategies. Richman said he did speak with either Jim Beiber, the owner of Beiber Communications, or a member of his staff, because Beiber Communications was completing some of the work on the Annual Report. Mr. Richman said he did not have a conversation with Rex Gutierrez regarding the status of the project, nor did he have a conversation with Matt Cunningham. He said Aleman had discussed, with him, the fact that Matt Cunningham was being non-responsive, and Aleman said he (Aleman) would speak with Cunningham, because of a "pre-existing relationship" Aleman had with Cunningham.

We discussed the June 25, 2007, Executive Staff Meeting Minutes with Richman. Regarding the copy of the Minutes that were altered by Aleman, Richman said the Minutes were incorrect because he would not give any update to Mr. Gutierrez. He said Matt Cunningham would have been a person to give such an update. Richman also said it was not in his contract or "scope of work" to provide a skeletal portion of the report, therefore he would not have done this. He said the Minutes that were altered by Aleman, were not correct.

 When viewing the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes, for October 15, 2007, Richman said he did not author the letter terminating the services of Brand Identity. He said he did receive a copy of the letter from Josh White for review only. He said Josh White sent the letter. and Ted Lehrer had nothing to do with it.

Mr. Richman said he did not understand why Aleman would make the alterations to the Executive Staff Meeting Minutes. When asked why he thought the changes were made he stated, "I have no conception as to why Mr. Aleman would have done that. I believe, from what he said, it was because, from what he said, there was a subpoena which asked about my work product, which again I'm more than happy to show you all my work, a lot of my work product, I have no problem showing people my work product. And, I think he wanted to attempt to bolster in my  involvement in something that wasn't even contractually mine to deal with anyway". Mr. Richman continued by telling us he had a conversation with Aleman on April 2, 2008, and Richman said, "He [Aleman] said he was attempting to change the Minutes to what he thought, more accurately reflected what I did, and he made a mistake, as to what I did and didn't do". Richman said Aleman never talked to him before changes were made to the Minutes.

Based upon your affiant's training and experience, and the statements made to your affiant, and Sr. Inv. Randles, that are contained within this affadavit for search warrant, your affiant believes that altered records, regarding the Executive Staff Meetings at the San Bernardino County" Assessor's Office, will be found at the location to be searched. Further, that the records maintained in the location to be searched, which are stored on paper, or electronically, will show additional changes to documents, and dates and times the changes were made. Further, that Adam Aleman presented the altered documents to the San Bernardino County Grand Jury, for the purpose of misleading the Grand Jury during its investigation into possible inappropriate activities at the San Bernardino County Assessor's Office, in violation of  Penal Code  132 (Offering Forged, Altered Document or Record - a Felony) and, in violation of Penal Code 134 (Preparing False Documentary Evidence - a Felony).