Less than 24 hours after a superior court judge dismissed the criminal charges against Chamise Cubbison, the Auditor-Controller Treasurer-Tax Collector of Mendocino County, she was back in her office on Low Gap Road. Cubbison was elected to the joint office in June 2022.
Cubbison was charged with criminal misappropriation of funds on October 13, 2023. The Office of Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster alleged Cubbison unlawfully paid $68,106 to former county payroll manager Paula June Kennedy, her codefendant between 2019 and 2022. The payments were for overtime hours that Kennedy worked, but may not have been entitled to. The county reclassified Kennedy as an exempt employee in July 2021, but it is unclear if she met all the requirements to be an exempt employee. Organizations cannot legally convert employees to an exempt status to avoid paying them overtime.
“Justice was done,” said her attorney, Chris Andrian, who successfully filed a motion to dismiss the case due to failures in preserving key evidence by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Superior Court Judge Anne Moorman granted the motion, ruling there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case against Cubbison and Kennedy. In verbal statements explaining her ruling, Moorman strongly criticized Lieutenant Andrew Porter’s investigation, particularly his handling of the county's email archive.
"It defies common sense. It defies reason. It defies logic. It defies what any investigator who carries a badge should know," Moorman said, expressing disbelief that Porter only recovered a single relevant email, which had been sent by Cubbison herself.
Andrian pointed out inconsistencies in Porter's testimony, noting that the investigator initially claimed to have spent significant time reviewing county emails but later admitted it could have been as little as 10 minutes. He also failed to uncover exculpatory emails sent to former Auditor Lloyd Weer and CEO Darcie Antle, which detailed overtime payments Kennedy had authorized for herself—payments that were central to the prosecution's case.
"The county was using this willful ignorance thing—‘Oh, we didn’t see it,’" Andrian said. "Well, you know what? That’s why they’re there."
Sheriff Matt Kendall said he understands Judge Moorman’s ruling but he said the investigator was following the established practice of the sheriff’s office. While the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office will submit “preservation requests” to outside entities like a tech firm, it does not do so for county email, he said. “We’ve always understood that county email is safe forever.”
Kendall cited “Hanlon’s razor” a philosophical principle that encourages people to consider alternative explanations for others' actions instead of assuming malice.
"I don’t direct these folks on how to do their investigations, and I certainly did not direct him on this one," Kendall said. "The evidence has to lead it."
Kendall confirmed that Lt. Andrew Porter will continue to serve as head of investigations for the sheriff’s office.
Independent journalist Mike Geniella, who has covered the case extensively, noted the dramatic shift in the case after the prosecution finally turned over the emails and payment records — that had not been included in responses to previous public records acts.
Indeed, the records were turned over by Traci Carillo, the outside prosecutor hired by the county, on Monday morning. Carillo said she was required to do so by law, citing her “Brady obligation.”
According to Wikipedia: “The Brady doctrine is a pretrial discovery rule that was established by the United States Supreme Court in Brady v. Maryland (1963). The rule requires that the prosecution must turn over all exculpatory evidence to the defendant in a criminal case.
Exculpatory evidence is evidence that shows an accused person may not have committed a crime.
“When this case started, the narrative was that [Cubbison and Kennedy] were conspiring in secret to pay Kennedy extra money,” Geniella said. “But as it turns out, the payments were documented biweekly and distributed to top county officials. Judge Moorman put it bluntly—had anyone bothered to look, it was all right in front of them.”
Geniella also highlighted Moorman’s skepticism toward testimony from Weer, suggesting it may have been dishonest.
“It remains a possibility that some of those who testified could be held accountable for perjury,” he said.
With the criminal case dismissed, a civil lawsuit against the county is still pending. Andrian expects that civil discovery will shed further light on the case.
“There will be depositions, and everyone involved—Porter and others—will be questioned under oath again,” he said. “This could be just the tip of the iceberg.”
