Jim Erwin says prior settlement will trump county's lawsuit

]A former top county official says a settlement he reached with the county in November 2007 when he resigned from the Assessor's Office is his escape clause from a lawsuit filed against him on Tuesday by the county.

The lawsuit, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, improper expenditure of public funds, unjust enrichment and civil conspiracy, was the culmination of a nearly four-month investigation by former federal prosecutor John C. Hueston into alleged malfeasance at the Assessor's Office.

The county is trying to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars it suspects it lost to widespread timecard fraud and political activity that occurred in the Assessor's Office during the reign of Bill Postmus.

"They did this just to further damage me in the newspapers," said Jim Erwin, 46, of Highland, the former assistant assessor of operations at the Assessor's Office. "This is the punishment you get for being a whistle blower."

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are former Assessor Bill Postmus, Adam Aleman, Michael Richman, Gregory Eyler and Rancho City Councilman Rex Gutierrez.

Erwin resigned his position in November 2007 after a falling out with Postmus. He said he was also unsettled by what he saw occurring in the office on a daily basis.

The settlement agreement included a clause in which both parties (Erwin and the county) "deny liability therefor and intend merely to avoid litigation and further controversy respecting all claims that have asserted or that might hereafter be asserted."

In other words, both parties agreed not to sue one another for any allegations of misconduct at the Assessor's Office or any future allegations that may surface.

"They didn't want any of this stuff to be out in the first place," Erwin said. "(County Counsel) Ruth Stringer asked me, after I signed the agreement, that the Board of Supervisors wanted to know if it was going to end there."

Stringer didn't respond to a request for an interview Thursday. Her office referred calls to county spokesman David Wert.

"The county's reaction is that the county disagrees, and this is something that would be decided during the litigation process," Wert said. "Additionally, the (settlement agreement) does not cover fraud."

Erwin disagreed with that interpretation, and said a clause in the settlement waives any right the county may have to pursue legal action against him for any allegations of misconduct that may have arisen before the settlement agreement was signed.

"Mr. Erwin, the county and the Assessor hereby expressly agree that this agreement shall extend and apply to all unknown, unsuspected and unanticipated inujuries and damages that have arisen prior to the signing of this agreement, as well as those that are arising from all acts occurring prior to the date of the existence of this agreement," according to the settlement.

The lawsuit states that Erwin devoted at least an hour a day to political activities while on county time and, along with Postmus and former assistant assessor of support Adam Aleman, acted as a "rubber stamp" for fraudulent time cards.

Erwin, who is also the former chief of staff for Supervisor Neil Derry, denies the allegations, and maintains he reported those very activities to the grand jury and to the District Attorney's Office within a week of signing the settlement agreement.

Erwin's claims of whistle blower retaliation bleed through to the District Attorney's Office, whose investigators arrested him in March and charged him with 10 felonies for allegedly failing to report about $15,000 in gifts he received from Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum in January 2007, which included a Rolex Daytona watch and a luxurious trip to New York City.

Erwin said the infraction warrants, at best, a fine from the Fair Political Practices Commission, and that other county officials have done far worse and skated.

He believes the criminal charges he's facing are a retaliatory act by the District Attorney and county judges because his former boss, Neil Derry, pushed for the elimination of judicial benefits and take home vehicles for District Attorney investigators to help balance the county budget.

Those allegations have been denied.

Erwin is scheduled for arraignment on the criminal charges next week in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Once he's been served with the civil action filed this week, Erwin said he plans to have his Rancho Cucamonga attorney, David Goldstein, file a demurrer with the court to have it tossed.

joe.nelson@inlandnewspapers.com