{"id":4132,"date":"2013-06-09T21:26:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T04:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=4132"},"modified":"2014-07-03T01:33:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T08:33:35","slug":"foxnews-com-breaks-story-of-fbi-doj-investigation-first-reported-on-www-peterlance-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4132","title":{"rendered":"FoxNews.com breaks story of FBI-DOJ investigation first reported on peterlance.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"FoxNews.com%20breaks%20story%20of%20FBI-DOJ%20investigation%20first%20reported%20on%20peterlance.com\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong>FoxNews.com June 9th 2014.<\/strong> The FBI and the Justice Department are reportedly probing allegations that the office of California Rep. Lois Capps tried to help one of her staffers who killed a young woman in a drunk-driving accident &#8212; before abruptly cutting him off when the victim was taken off life support.<\/p>\n<p>Raymond Victor Morua III, an Iraq war veteran, was employed as a district representative for the Democratic congresswoman when he struck 27-year-old Mallory Rae Dies in a Santa Barbara crosswalk on Dec. 6. Dies was taken off of life support and died on Dec. 11. Morua pleaded guilty on April 15 to hitting Dies with his Dodge Caliber and fleeing the scene after attending a holiday party put on by local newspaper the Santa Barbara Independent.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/News-Press_RVM-sentenced_4_29_14.pdf\">Santa Barbara News-Press<\/a> reported that on May 29 he was sentenced to fifteen years to life for manslaughter, plus another five years for fleeing the crime scene. <a title=\"FoxNews.com\" href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2014\/06\/09\/fbi-doj-reportedly-probing-california-rep-ties-to-driver-in-dui-death\/\">CLICK\u00a0IMAGE<\/a> for full online story.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2014\/06\/09\/fbi-doj-reportedly-probing-california-rep-ties-to-driver-in-dui-death\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4135\" title=\"Screen Shot 2014-06-09 at 9.25.12 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Screen-Shot-2014-06-09-at-9.25.12-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Freelance journalist Peter Lance <a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4092\">reported Saturday<\/a> that the FBI has begun an investigation into claims against one of Capps&#8217; staffers, Mollie Culver, that he made in a five-part series about the case in the <a title=\"5 part series\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=3153\">News-Press<\/a> in April. He reported that the FBI is investigating on behalf of the DOJ\u2019s Public Integrity Section, which investigates possible wrongdoing of public officials.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=3153\">In the series, Lance<\/a> detailed numerous actions Capps&#8217; staff allegedly took in the wake of Morua&#8217;s arrest in an apparent attempt to get him off the hook for jail time. In one instance, he reported Culver, the district director for Capps, forged Morua&#8217;s signature on paperwork from the Department of Veterans Affairs in the hopes of getting him sent to a treatment facility in Los Angeles for veterans.<\/p>\n<p>The report also revealed Morua was on the congresswoman&#8217;s payroll until Dec. 10, and that Culver was sending text messages of support to Morua&#8217;s fianc\u00e9e Teresa Montoya. However, after Dies was taken off life support, Capps completely cut off Morua, claiming he had been fired on Dec. 8.<\/p>\n<p>Dies\u2019 family has since sued Capps, claiming that Morua was working in an official capacity for her the night of the accident, which the congresswoman\u2019s office has denied. Capps&#8217; office claims Morua was not at the party as a representative for Capps and suggested Morua may have picked the invitation to the party off Capps&#8217; desk.<\/p>\n<p>Lance reported that over the past several weeks, investigators from both agencies have interviewed key players in the case, including Morua himself, to determine if Culver committed fraud by forging Morua\u2019s name on the VA documents. According to Lance, Culver could face five years in prison if found guilty of misstating facts on the VA form, and other charges if found guilty of the unauthorized use of federal records. A spokeswoman for the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles field office told FoxNews.com she could neither \u201cconfirm nor deny\u201d the existence of a probe.<\/p>\n<p>Capps\u2019 spokesman Chris Meagher told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2014\/04\/24\/california-rep-sued-over-dui-death-questions-raised-about-ties-to-driver\/\">FoxNews.com<\/a> in April that Lance\u2019s report was \u201cfull of inaccuracies,\u201d but that the congresswoman\u2019s office could not comment further because of the pending lawsuit. Meanwhile, Dies\u2019 father Matt told Lance that he is hoping the investigation will expose the truth. \u201cThe fact that the FBI and Justice Department are taking these matters seriously is a great comfort to my wife and me,\u201d he said. \u201cI only hope they go all the way and leave no stone unturned in trying to get at the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"FoxNews.com%20breaks%20story%20of%20FBI-DOJ%20investigation%20first%20reported%20on%20peterlance.com\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>FoxNews.com June 9th 2014. The FBI and the Justice Department are reportedly probing allegations that the office of California Rep. Lois Capps tried to help one of her staffers who killed a young woman in a drunk-driving accident &#8212; before abruptly cutting him off when the victim was taken off life support. Raymond Victor Morua [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[526,1211,531,193,527,577,529,579,189,540,511,109,581,518,513,519,533,517,541,201,542,508,522,580,578,534,523,510,532,538,539,535,126,528,576,509,536,520,512,525,1221,516,524,515,521,530,537,514],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4132"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4139,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions\/4139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}