A dispute over comments by Tulare County Grand Jury foreman Chuck White has led to accusations that he disclosed grand jury information illegally.
The issue was first raised in connection with the grand jury’s investigation of the Tulare Regional Medical Center’s stalled tower expansion and the hospital’s response. After White issued an unusual statement June 13, TRMC replied that state law makes it a misdemeanor for a juror to discuss “proceedings and evidence.”
A spokesman for the California Grand Jury Association, an organization which supports grand juries across the state, said that though reports are a matter of public record and can be discussed, “any material developed in the investigation that is not in the final report remains confidential.”
In an interview with the Times-Delta and Advance-Register regarding the grand jury’s March report, called “Tower of Shame,” White said there is $50 million the Tulare Local Healthcare District can’t find and the grand jury is “hoping the audits show” where the money went.
“They had $50 million set aside for the project, besides the $85 million bond. When the $85 million was spent, there was no $50 million there. Nobody knows where it went,” he said. “ … maybe it wasn’t there like they said it was. Either it wasn’t there or they spent it someplace else or it went someplace else, we don’t know.
Two or three witnesses who testified told the grand jury about the missing $50 million, White added. The Tower of Shame report has no mention of $50 million being missing at Tulare Regional Medical Center, which is run by the TLHCD.
Penal Code section 924.1(a) states, “Every grand juror who, except when required by a court, willfully discloses any evidence adduced before the grand jury, or anything which he himself or any other member of the grand jury has said, or in what manner he or she or any other grand juror has voted on a matter before them, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
The Tulare County Counsel’s Office, which is the grand jury’s legal adviser, declined to comment on the Tulare County Grand Jury and White, Tulare County Board of Supervisors representative Carrie Crane said.
White has been foreman for two years. He said he’s been doing more than was done before he arrived, like issuing press releases and responding to grand jury report responses.
“During some time we’ve lost our bite,” he said. “I’ve kind of changed that. I kept myself involved with everything.”
White also recently said in a letter sent to the Times-Delta and Advance-Register that the hospital’s board of directors can’t “somehow absolve itself of responsibility for whatever mismanagement of public funds occurred prior to their respective terms of service.”
In their formal response to the report, TRMC and HealthCare Conglomerate Associates, which has run TRMC since 2014, accused White of committing a crime.
“California law makes it a misdemeanor for grand jury members to publically discuss proceedings and evidence. Chuck White and John Hobbs, another member of the Grand Jury, have both repeatedly violated this law,” the TRMC statement said. “Every crime has a motive. Mr. White’s motive is very clear: he wants to promote himself and develop a reputation in the community.”
TRMC and HCCA attorney Bruce Greene said it was never the intent of TRMC to have to make any response, other than their formal response to the Tower of Shame grand jury report.
Greene cited comments by White and Hobbs in the Valley Voice newspaper in which Hobbs said the jury had interviewed TRMC board members and members of the district’s bond oversight committee.
“I felt like they were not forthcoming, like they were above everybody,” White is quoted in the newspaper regarding TRMC’s representatives during grand jury proceedings.
Greene also cited White’s appearance on an online talk show.
In December, White was a guest on Central Valley Talk’s “Business with Mike Scott” show, where he talked about his work with the Tulare County Grand Jury.
A topic discussed during the 10-minute interview was a complaint the grand jury received from an officer fired from a local law enforcement agency “last year or the year before.”
“When I got digging into the case I found out this [police] chief was doing all kinds of stuff. If he didn’t like it, and you bucked him, you were out of there. No questions asked, you’re gone,” White said to Scott. “ … this guy had a ranch and had a bunch of cattle, about 300 head of cattle. When it came time to brand them, the new calves and stuff, he would tell his whole police department, that morning shift, hey, bring Levi’s on. He would take them out and work the cattle for two to three days while they’re supposed to be working for the city. The city is paying them for the day and this guy is getting all that work for nothing. If you didn’t like it you were fired.”
White said the police chief was a “shrewd operator” who “quit before we got to him.”
“He turned in his resignation, got a big pay day and split back east. Now to get him back out here we would have to get another subpoena for him to bring him back and it wouldn’t be worth it. The most he would get would be six months in jail. The costs and everything else wouldn’t be worth it. He got away with it,” he said. “ … the council hated this guy. They were trying to find ways to get rid of him. I said, if you knew about the cows, you could have gotten rid of him years ago.”
There was never a grand jury report completed on the investigation.
White has been on Central Valley Talk shows to discuss the Tulare County Grand Jury at least eight times since March 2015.
When asked by the Times-Delta and Advance-Register for another interview, White said in a text message, “I would like to tell you what is going on for big things are happening, but my judge told me not to talk to anybody ... ”
”June 27, 2016
Visalia Times-Delta
By Juan Villa
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