Law and Disorder 10-15

David Abraham, a licensed life insurance agent and former employee of Brown & Brown Insurance, will start serving a 90-day jail sentence on 10/16, after having pled guilty to a felony count of grand theft with a special allegation that he took more than $1 million. He will serve 90 days in Santa Barbara County Jail and be put on probation for three years, and he was ordered to pay restitution to the 60 victims who lost more than $2 million in the insurance scam.

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A 26-year-old Santa Barbara resident jumped to his death from Cold Spring Bridge on 10/13. He was the sixth person this year to commit suicide from the bridge. As of press time, authorities had not yet released his name or any further information.

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After battling the state bureaucracy for 17 years, William “The Hot Dog Man” Connell helped successfully usher in a new law giving tax relief to veteran vendors. Connell, who owns the Surf Dog hot dog cart in Carpinteria, contended that the state’s Board of Equalization had acted in violation of state laws by collecting sales taxes from veterans who earned their living by peddling food and other goods. Connell’s bill was among the 696 recently approved by Governor Schwarzenegger.

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A Santa Barbara Superior Court judge upheld the layoff of former county manager Shawn Terris, who claimed the county has long discriminated against her and that it didn’t follow proper procedure in laying her off. Terris said she now intends to sue the county for wrongful termination. Before her layoff, Terris appealed a five-day suspension by the Sheriff for attempting to organize a potential union of managers. Terris won that appeal to the Civil Service Commission and said she intends to pursue perjury charges against Sheriff Bill Brown, who she said lied in the county’s case against her during the commission hearing. The Sheriff didn’t comment, citing personnel issues.