High-Stakes Cubbison Criminal Case Delayed Again

For the second time, criminal proceedings have been delayed in a case with significant political implications for District Attorney David Eyster, who filed a felony misuse of public funds charge last fall against Mendocino County Auditor Chamise Cubbison.

In a motion granted Wednesday, Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa sought to reschedule a preliminary hearing for next Tuesday. He cited a last-minute dump of hundreds of pages of subpoenaed documents by county officials.

“I have determined that an additional request for discovery must be made directly to the District Attorney’s Office in order for me to properly prepare for the preliminary hearing,” wrote Andrian in his motion.

The pre-trial discovery process became unexpectedly challenging, leading Andrian to directly subpoena the county of Mendocino for documents in late March. The original compliance date was April 4, which was continued to a week later because then-presiding Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Victoria Shanahan announced her recusal from the high-profile case. Shanahan cited her former professional ties to the special prosecutor Eyster hired earlier this year to take the Cubbison case to trial.

There were more delays, but finally, County officials informed the newly named trial Judge Ann Moorman that the documents would be submitted by April 30.

Andrian said his office had been provided 300 pages of documents by then, but he learned there were 400 more pages still to be delivered. 

Based on his review of the documents produced to date, Andrian said he needs to expand his request for pre-trial discovery directly to the District Attorney’s Office.

Andrian said Special Prosecutor Traci Carrillo, a former Sonoma County prosecutor who Eyster hired at $400 per hour to manage the Cubbison case, agreed that the continuance of next week’s scheduled preliminary hearing was “appropriate.”

Court records show that Judge Moorman agreed Wednesday that Andrian’s request was for “good cause” and that the preliminary hearing will be pushed back to sometime in July.

Cubbison was disappointed about yet another delay in her case, but she said she was satisfied that it was beneficial. “We keep getting new significant information,” she said.

DA Eyster did not respond Wednesday to a written request for comment.

Eyster’s decision to turn to an outside prosecutor in the Cubbison case sharply contrasted with his stance in January when he publicly resisted defense moves to recuse him from an unprecedented case that has rocked County politics.

Eyster was challenged for waging a political vendetta against Cubbison because, as County Auditor, she questioned his office expenses, including repeated annual dinners for employees and their guests at a local steak house. To circumvent a county ban on office parties, Eyster labeled the events “training sessions.” Since taking office in 2011, Eyster has quarreled with three different Auditors over his spending practices and use of asset forfeiture funds.

The DA filed criminal charges against Cubbison a year after he learned privately from some members of the County Board of Supervisors and County executives that the elected Auditor permitted the use of an obscure County payroll code to allow former County Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy to collect about $68,000 in extra pay over three years during the Covid pandemic. Kennedy is a co-defendant in the Cubbison case and faces a single felony charge, too. Cubbison contends that the extra pay was agreed upon by retired Auditor Lloyd Weer and Kennedy before she was officially named interim Auditor and later elected to head an office forced by the Board of Supervisors to consolidate with the Treasure Tax Collector.

The criminal case has zigzagged through the court system since last October. In addition to fighting the criminal charges, Cubbison subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against the Board of Supervisors, contending that her due process right was denied because the Board suspended her without a hearing. Cubbison has been without pay or benefits since.