Commentary on Press Articles

There have been a couple of stories on the ayres case in the press in the last few days, and some interesting commentary is found in the comments sections of the articles.

The first item relates to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (pdf) In their article about the outcome of the 7/25/2012 hearing, commenter "nevermindme" (some of us think that "nevermindme" is a San Mateo County insider) has this to say about the situation:

The San Mateo county prosecutor's office has a vested interest in losing this case. They and the Judicial branch in SM County sent thousands of his victims to him as he was the county contracted provider for juvenile psyche evals.

He used abuse of this power to intimidate many of his victims into silence as he had the power to decide if they got to go home or to a group home or jail.

If the man is convicted it will increase the financial penalty the County must pay in the civil cases. There is some evidence the County was well aware of his behavior for years before he retired. There are many cases, reports of his abuse that are outside the criminal statute prior to 1990.

These comments are similar in nature to what I've been saying for a number of years now. In addition to the financial consequences to the county, there are several local politicians who have been supporters/friends of ayres in the past (Like Jim Fox and Rich Gordon for example) and who stand to face significant embarrassment were there to be a conviction.

The second article of interest is in the Pacifica Patch online paper (pdf). It is a poll titled "POLL: Should the County Continue to Prosecute William Ayres?" 


The poll itself is not going strongly in favor of continuing prosecution as of this writing. It should be noted that ayres' family and friends found the poll early in the game and began voting and posting comments with information designed to mislead and mis-direct. 

There is some lively discussion there, and commenter "Jeremy Jack" claims to be an ayres friend, and is definitely a supporter, and is posting half-truths in order to mislead the public into having a positive and sympathetic perception of ayres. There are more than 50 comments on the poll as of this writing.

If you get a chance, go over there and vote in the poll. You'll have to register for a free account on the Patch news site, if you don't already have one.