{"id":4815,"date":"2013-11-18T11:18:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T18:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=4815"},"modified":"2015-06-26T20:42:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T03:42:28","slug":"op-ed-the-ethics-and-public-life-of-lois-capps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4815","title":{"rendered":"The Ethics &#038; Public Life of Congresswoman Lois Capps"},"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=\"The%20Ethics%20%26%20Public%20Life%20of%20Congresswoman%20Lois%20Capps\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong>By Peter Lance. News-Press\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Nov. 2nd.<\/strong> On July 12,<strong> Rep. Lois Capps <\/strong>stood on the podium of the Pacific Pride Festival looming over two images that continue to haunt her. The first was a poster from the memorial service for<strong> Mallory Rae Dies<\/strong>, the 27-year-old UCSB graduate who was killed Dec. 6 in a horrific hit-and-run DUI manslaughter crash by Mrs. Capps&#8217; then district representative, <strong>Raymond Victor Morua III.<\/strong> The second was a banner from\u00a0<a title=\"Vow4Mal Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Vow4mal\">Vow4Mal.org,\u00a0<\/a>the nonprofit set up in Mallory&#8217;s honor to stop drunk driving.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Lois-Pride-Fest-photo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4816\" title=\"Lois-Pride-Fest-photo\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Lois-Pride-Fest-photo-218x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Lois-Pride-Fest-photo-218x300.png 218w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Lois-Pride-Fest-photo.png 717w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That was six weeks into an FBI-Department of Justice investigation of <a title=\"Death on\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=3153\">my five-part investigative series<\/a> that ran on this website and in the News-Press (April 13-17). Among my findings: that Mrs. Capps&#8217; district director,<strong> Mollie Culver,<\/strong> may have broken federal law in a scheme to get Mr. Morua out of jail and into a VA-funded alcohol treatment facility in the days immediately after the crash while Mallory clung to life.<\/p>\n<p>Then, as soon as she was taken off life support Ms. Culver did a 180-degree turn, falsely claiming that Mr. Morua wasn&#8217;t working for Mrs. Capps the night of the accident when he drank six vodkas at a party sponsored by <strong>The Santa Barbara Independent,<\/strong> then got into his Dodge Caliber with a blood-alcohol content more than twice the legal limit and ran Mallory down outside EOS Lounge in Santa Barbara. Police estimated that he was traveling at 60 mph at the time.<\/p>\n<p>There aren&#8217;t many incumbents who could sustain a scandal of that magnitude, with the feds investigating her principal handler on the Central Coast, but so far, the widow of<strong> Walter Capps,<\/strong> namesake of UCSB&#8217;s Center For The Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life, has escaped any serious scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Other than releasing a statement to The Independent that my series was &#8220;full of inaccuracies,&#8221; then retreating behind &#8220;no comment,&#8221; Mrs. Capps has spent most of this campaign leading in polls. That is, until Oct. 8, when the local Tea Party chapter <a title=\"KEYT Tea party\" href=\"http:\/\/www.keyt.com\/news\/protesters-call-for-capps-staffer-resignation\/29022130\">staged a rally<\/a> outside her local office demanding Ms. Culver&#8217;s ouster. As to the accuracy of my series,<strong> <a title=\"News Press series page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newspress.com\/morua-capps\/\">&#8220;Death On the American Riviera&#8221;<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was heavily vetted by outside counsel for the News-Press and so far no one has effectively disputed a single fact I reported.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-01-21-at-9.07.52-PM1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5898\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-01-21 at 9.07.52 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-01-21-at-9.07.52-PM1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"338\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-01-21-at-9.07.52-PM1.png 338w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-01-21-at-9.07.52-PM1-300x237.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><\/a>While the FBI investigation appears to have stalled, Mrs. Capps is now being defended by Assistant U.S. Attorney <strong>Julie Zatz<\/strong> from the very Central District prosecutor&#8217;s office in Los Angeles that initially referred my findings to the DOJ&#8217;s Public Integrity Section in Washington. After breaking the story of the FBI probe on my website, it was picked up by <a title=\"AP FBI story\" href=\"http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2014\/Jun\/12\/feds-probe-aftermath-of-crash-involving-house-aide\/\"><strong>The Associated Press<\/strong><\/a> and <strong><a title=\"LAT\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-la-probe-capps-aide-20140612-story.html\">The Los Angeles Times<\/a><a title=\"LAT\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-la-probe-capps-aide-20140612-story.html\">.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So far the only person to take responsibility for Mallory&#8217;s death is Mr. Morua himself, who pled guilty and is now serving 20 years to life at Wasco State Prison.<\/p>\n<p>But after denouncing him following Mallory&#8217;s death, the last official position from Mrs. Capps is that her district representative, Mr. Morua, attended the Indy&#8217;s Holiday Bash &#8220;in his personal capacity,&#8221; thus thwarting any hope by Mallory&#8217;s parents, <strong>Matt and Raeona Dies<\/strong>, of recovering for hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and their daughter&#8217;s loss.<\/p>\n<p>In August, I reported on my website that Ms. Culver was one of 55 California delegates to <a title=\"electoral\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4412\">The Electoral College<\/a> who voted for <strong>President Obama<\/strong> in 2012. She&#8217;s the former political director of the California Democratic Party and was instrumental in helping <a title=\"Garcetti\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ericgarcetti.com\/vote\"><strong>Eric Garcetti<\/strong><\/a> get elected mayor of Los Angeles last year. In short, she&#8217;s a seasoned political operative.<\/p>\n<p>Yet according to Mr. Morua&#8217;s wife, <strong>Teresa Montoya,<\/strong> Ms. Culver forged Mr. Morua&#8217;s name on <strong><a title=\"RVM VA forms\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/VA_Forms_Raymond_Morua_12_9_13.pdf\">two VA forms<\/a> <\/strong>designed to release his medical records and get him into a Los Angeles treatment facility. One of the forms warns of potential &#8220;fines and\/or imprisonment for up to 5 years, for concealing a material fact or making a material misstatement of fact.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite my repeated attempts to get comments from Ms. Culver, Mrs. Capps or her press secretary, Chris Meagher (a former reporter for The Independent), they all refused to respond. The only hint of a reaction came on Oct. 24, when<a title=\"KEYT Tracy Lehr Capps profile\" href=\"http:\/\/www.keyt.com\/news\/rep-lois-capps-sets-her-sights-on-9th-term\/29293224\"> KEYT reporter Tracy Lehr<\/a> cited the Morua\/Dies scandal in a profile of Mrs. Capps.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Elections come around for my job every two years,&#8221; said the 76-year-old, eight-term incumbent, &#8220;and people can register their concern at the ballot box.&#8221; Indeed. As a lifelong Democrat who voted for Mrs. Capps multiple times, this story has never been about politics for me. It&#8217;s been about a search for truth. If you&#8217;re still undecided on who to vote for in the 24th District race, I urge you to read my series linked to this News-Press online page:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newspress.com\/morua-capps\" target=\"_blank\">www.newspress.com\/morua-capps<\/a>\u00a0or via <a title=\"Death On\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=3153\">my website:\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>At a time when integrity in our public officials is at a premium, you can decide whether Lois Capps deserves a ninth term.<\/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=\"The%20Ethics%20%26%20Public%20Life%20of%20Congresswoman%20Lois%20Capps\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By Peter Lance. News-Press\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Nov. 2nd. On July 12, Rep. Lois Capps stood on the podium of the Pacific Pride Festival looming over two images that continue to haunt her. The first was a poster from the memorial service for Mallory Rae Dies, the 27-year-old UCSB graduate who was killed Dec. 6 in a horrific hit-and-run [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[499,555,554,563,584,549,526,609,1211,531,546,193,548,527,529,579,189,540,511,556,518,513,519,553,551,533,517,550,541,201,192,542,582,583,508,547,522,561,580,578,534,523,585,610,510,532,538,539,535,560,126,558,559,528,509,536,520,512,525,1221,516,524,552,515,521,530,537,557,514],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815"}],"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=4815"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4820,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions\/4820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}