San Mateo County: Come Have Sex With Our Children!

San Mateo County: Come Have Sex With Our Children!  
- The Stuart Forrest Edition

Well, well, well. Here we find ourselves again, looking at the notable interest San Mateo County has in ridding itself of child molesters and pedophiles. (By "notable" I mean non-existent.)

I'll cut to the chase: This dude worked for San Mateo County in the juvenile justice system for decades (same place william hamilton ayres contracted to "evaluate" boys for many of those same decades.)

Today, according to the Mercury News (pdf), we found out that it is likely that the accused will likely serve NO prison time at all: "the case is being handled by the state Attorney General's Office and retired Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Robert Atack. "I think I would be hard-pressed to send him to state prison, unless there is more," Atack said during the hearing." 

The article goes on to tell us that Forrest has no previous criminal record, and that State Prosecutors have been "tight-lipped" and that the "evidence against him remains largely unknown to the public."

Not to worry though -- even though the Merc didn't seem capable of (...or willing to, he mumbled under his breath...) digging up the "evidence against him," the San Mateo Daily Journal (pdf) figured it out for us last month: according to their report, his house was searched: "the search turned up 400 images of child pornography on a USB drive and a laptop computer, according to a federal search warrant."

If you're not up to speed on this case, Forrest is being tried by the State rather than the local DA, and heard in front of retired Judge Atack in order to "avoid the appearance of a conflict."

DA Steve Wagstaffe told the San Mateo Daily Journal that "We asked to avoid the appearance of a conflict. We do not have one but I have served on so many different commissions and committees with him that we want to ensure the appearance of impartiality. That is why we asked an outside agency, the attorney general, to handle it" - Interesting that he didn't do this in the ayres case, for which many similar conflicts exist. In Fact: Wagstaffe and his Spokes-Hole Karen Guidotti told people interested in the ayres case that the only thing that could result in a change in venue/prosecution would be if there were jury pool issues.

According to an earlier Mercury News story (pdf): "The county further removed itself from the process when Robert Foiles, presiding judge for the Superior Court, asked for an outside judge to be brought in to hear the case, since the court appointed Forrest to his position in 2009." - (Note: in 2009, he was appointed to his most recent position of Chief Probation Officer.)

Although Judge Foiles was not working the Forrest case this afternoon, he WAS busy today:

This morning, Judge Foiles delayed one of the civil lawsuits that are filed against william hamilton ayres relating to ayres' molestation of young boys, pending outcome of the (delayed) criminal re-trial of the child molester. He will preside over further hearings in the ayres civil case later in the month:

04/09/2013 9:00 AM DEPT. PJLM	HEARING: MOTION RE: TO CONTINUE TRIAL FILED BY JOHN DOE 1	GRANTED
Minutes     HONORABLE ROBERT D. FOILES, JUDGE PRESIDING. CLERK: JENNIFER ARNOTT COURT REPORTER: CINDY DEL ROSARIO      ATTORNEY(S): AARON MARKOWITZ APPEARED ON BEHALF OF THE PLAINTIFF, CLARK DOE      ATTORNEY(S): LOUIS P. FEUCHTBAUM APPEARED ON BEHALF OF THE DEFENDANT, JOHN DOE 1      THE DEFENDANTS PENDING CRIMINAL CASE IS SET FOR TRIAL ON 05/13/13.      MATTER ARGUED BY COUNSEL AND SUBMITTED TO THE COURT.     DEFENDANTS MOTION TO CONTINUE TRIAL IS GRANTED.       THE COURT STATES THAT THERE IS NO STAY OF DISCOVERY OTHER THAN DISCOVERY PERTAINING TO THE       DEFENDANTS 5TH AMENDMENT PRIVILEGES, I.E., TESTIMONY, DEPOSITION OF DEFENDANT AND       INTERROGATORIES.      THE JURY TRIAL IS CONTINUED TO 07/22/13 AT 9:00 A.M. IN DEPARTMENT PJ.      TIME ESTIMATE = 10 DAYS.      DISCOVERY TO REMAIN OPEN 30 DAYS PRIOR TO TRIAL.      THE MANDATORY SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE IS CONTINUED TO 06/28/13 AT 9:30 A.M. IN DEPARTMENT 7.      COUNSEL WAIVE NOTICE.      FORMAL ORDER SUBMITTED AND SIGNED BY THE COURT.     ENTERED BY JENNIFER ARNOTT ON 04/09/13.