Disgraced Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member Xavier Alvarez, Pomona Mayor Norma Torres' gift to local politics, is back in the news.
Just when you thought Alvarez couldn't stoop any lower, down he goes. Alvarez, who is facing a federal criminal charges of falsely claiming to be a Medal of Honor recipient, had tried to get the charges tossed by the court on the grounds that he had a constitutional right to lie.
Alvarez's First Amendment argument failed, and he's scheduled to face trial in May. In the meantime, Alvarez's forked tongue hasn't been idle. At a Three Valley's board meeting last Friday, Alvarez tried to get the board to rescind Alvarez's censure for lying about still being married to his ex-wife so that she could qualify for water board medical benefits. Alvarez's reason for lying about his ex-wife was that his religion - Alvarez is Catholic - mandates that he provide for the ex-wife. Yet another First Amendment defense, this time using the religion clauses!
Now for the latest episode: Will Bigham writes in the Daily Bulletin that Alvarez is accusing the Pomona Police Officers' Association of splicing together an audio tape in which Alvarez is heard bragging about his non-existent Medal of Honor. Back in 2005, Alvarez was trying to get the association to endorse him for the Three Valleys board. After the initial charge of lying about the medal came out, the police association contacted the federal prosecutor's office and turned over their tape of the interview, Bigham explained:
One of the charges is based on his taped medal claim in an interview seeking the endorsement of the association in November 2005, when Alvarez was running for mayor.
Officer Phil Bozoich, the police association's president, said Tuesday that Alvarez's statements are outright lies.
Bozoich said he read Alvarez's statements in the Daily Bulletin and "didn't want the citizens of the city to feel an officer fabricated a tape and was wrongfully trying to discredit him."
Bozoich said he and one other association member interviewed Alvarez and taped the session with his permission.
When he introduced himself at the start of the interview, Alvarez said he won the Medal of Honor, Bozoich said. It was the only mention of the award in the 40-minute interview, Bozoich said.
You really have to hand it to Alvarez. He must not watch any of those CSI shows. Doesn't he know that there are audio experts who could testify as to whether or not there had been any tampering with the tape and that if anyone would be aware of that it would be a police association?
This guy just doesn't want to take responsibility for anything that comes out of his mouth. The fruit sure doesn't fall far from the political tree. Norma Torres has yet to apologize for her endorsing Alvarez back in 2005 in what was not much more than Torres' attempt at expanding her network of Pomona politicians loyal her. It's highly doubtful that Alvarez would have won his election without the Torres endorsement.
Torres, having done her damage in Pomona, is moving on up the chain and is currently running for state assembly.
Thanks again, Norma!
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