Payout for Dog Food Prank?

Rumors swirl that Delgadillo’s office will settle with firefighter Tennie Pierce

A A A Comments (3) By Christine Pelisek Monday, Sep 10 2007

...continued from page 2

In the new statements, Arevalo denies he pulled the dog-food prank because Pierce is black. But Pierce’s lawyer Harrison argues that Arevalo has a history of racist statements, including asking African American Captain Gary Alexander: “Why do so many Black people have heart attacks and high blood pressure? Is it because they eat so much fried chicken?” Court papers indicate that the city plans to argue that Alexander did not view Arevalo’s question as racist.

On the night of the dog-food debacle, firefighter Kelly Niles in a previous interview told the Weekly that Pierce spoke to black paramedic Mark Flot about the incident. In new court filings, Pierce admits that he “may have” told Flot that he did not think Arevelo’s prank was racially motivated.

With settlement talks looming, the bizarre tale of what really happened at Station 5 might remain a mystery.

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Ex LAFD 09/28/2007 6:57:00 PM

What a scam. I bet a bunch of disgruntled LAFD employees are lining up to cash in from the City. Tennie you should be ashamed of yourself!! How can you look yourself in the mirror?

Patricia J. Barry, Attorney 09/18/2007 2:18:00 AM

Dear Christine, I read your article re: dogfood settlement with great interest. I have eight cases against DWP, seven of which are for whistleblower retaliation. The problem is that the retaliation was primarily for protesting the corrupt Empire contract which I understand provides janitorial supplies to LA Weekly, which may cause some conflict for you and your editor to run the story. If interested, give me a call at 213.247.4902 (cell) or 213.995.0734 (off ph) or to my email above. Thanks Pat Barry

Sick of the Race Card 09/11/2007 4:45:00 AM

This sort of race card lawsuit sets the black community back decades, since it's clear that Pierce and his attorney Genie Harrison are taking advantage of a City where there are: many poor and black people in the jury pool, making a large favorable financial settlement much more likely than is merited by the facts (and sorry, but these people tend to be much less educated and able to separate their emotions from the facts); Parks, Perry and Wesson, being black, are under more pressure from their black constituents to sympathize with Pierce; and worst of all, Harrison is taking advantage of the fact that we have a total moron in Rocky Delgadillo for City Attorney. Rockyu's office never wins a case, and Zine and Smith are correct: the evidence against Pierce is so compelling, that this would be the time for the City to take a stand and say "Enough, we're not going to be blackmailed to the tune of many millions by every crook who comes along." The City Council needs to sue Rocky for negligence and sheer incompetence, and somehow obtain representation as tough as Pierce and the six-million-dollar lesbian had. But the only thing Rocky can do is obstruct justice, as with his mucking with historic preservation in Hollywood presumably to curry favor with developers stupid enough to still think he could win for dogcatcher (he and Boks would have a tough time persuading voters as to who is the most stupid -- at least the dogcatcher is just appointed). The way Rocky openly defied the City Council in their demand that he reduce the influence of Clear Channel and CBS Billboard companies, and instead negotiated a settlement letting them put up any number of billboards including huge, digital ones (See the L A Times Business Section, August 20th, for a full report on his betrayal and the misery he is causing residents who can't blot the lighted monstrosiies out of their homes). He did that because these billboard companies gave him almost $500,000 to defeat Feuer for City Attorney -- because Feuer was actually representing the will of the people who's begged him to "Ban Billboard Blight," (An actual organization formed because of Rocky's actions -- check website and help out.) The relationship being, that if Rocky doesn't get something out of enforcing the law for himself, he won't do his best or even make a good faith effort. HOW can the city and we get rid of him NOW? Waiting for next election time exposes us as taxpayers to way too much liability. (And by the way, he doesn't show promise in winning or even keeping down to size, lawsuits filed against the city for the May 1st marches that went awry -- Carol Sobel already has hundreds and is looking for thousands of people to come forward, which would include the agitators who started it; of course, she denies there WERE any, and accuses the cops of lying.) How can Rocky defend the City against anything?