Note to Bill Burton following his “Soapbox” piece in the SacBee on the rights of women

By Peter Lance July 1st, 2015. Bill Burton, the political power broker and husband of Rep. Lois Capps’ daughter Laura, published a heart warming piece in the “Soapbox” column of The Sacramento Bee Saturday, entitled “Legoland, Hillary and teachable moments.” It was illustrated with a picture of Bill and his son Oscar. 

In the piece Bill made some important points about the inequality with which women are continually treated in the workplace and he endorses Hillary Clinton’s election — not a surprise given Laura’s close connections to the former First Family following her days as an intern and White House Aide.

Personally I’m a lifelong Democrat and Liberal who voted six times for Lois Capps and though I favor Bernie Sanders, I happen to think Hillary would make a much better President than any of the fourteen (count them) declared GOP candidates with John Kasich and Scott Walker waiting in the wings.

But in embracing a crucial issue like equal opportunity for women, Burton, like his wife and mother-in-law, continues to ignore “the donkey in the room.”

The fact, as documented in my series “Death on The American Riviera,” that Raymond Victor Morua III, Mrs. Capps District Representative and go-to guy on veterans rights, ended the life of a promising young woman, Mallory Rae Dies when he struck and killed her in a hit-and-run accident on December 6th, 2013 after spending the day working multiple events for Mrs. Capps and then getting into his Dodge Caliber with a BAC of .17, more than twice the legal limit.

Bill Burton’s mother-in-law and his wife, who recently decided not to continue the Capps dynasty by seeking her mother’s 24th District seat, have refused to come clean about the Capps office’s role in a scheme to get Raymond out of jail and into a VA treatment facility in the days immediately following the crash while Mallory, a double major and UCSB graduate, clung to life in the ICU at Cottage Hospital.

They continually refuse to address the Unanswered Questions that remain unresolved in this scandal, including why Mrs. Capps District Director Mollie Culver, a former member of the 2012 Electoral College and Political Director of the California Democratic Party, forged Raymond’s name three times on two separate VA forms — punishable by up to five years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines.

Despite the fact that Matt Dies, Mallory’s father got more than 1,000 Santa Barbarans in person and on-line to sign a petition calling for a federal investigation and asking Mrs. Capps to tell the truth, the Capps/Burton family continually refuses to address the potential criminal charges involved in the case, even though the Feds quietly settled the Dies’ wrongful death case for $2.5 million and then, apparently closed the FBI investigation of my findings  that had been opened by the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department.

Politicians have always used their children as political assets and who can deny just how cute little Oscar is in that shot accompanying Bill’s SacBee piece? But to me, the most important feminist issue that festers from that awful night in December 2013 is the way Mallory Dies’ right to live was terminated. And it happened as a direct result of the callous indifference of a troubled young man who was “on the job” for his boss Mrs. Capps when he consumed no less than six cocktails and raced through the streets of Santa Barbara at speeds of up to 80 mph, before crashing his vehicle and getting captured.

What about Mallory’s rights Bill? When are you and Laura and Lois going to finally give a full accounting of the cover-up behind that death on The American Riviera?